Dear MAGA: 20220731 Open Topic

This Rejoice & Praise God Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.

It’s also a place to read, post, and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.

In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.

We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.

Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure you’re addressing the issue only, and not trying to confront the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.

In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.

Please also consider the Guidelines for posting and discussion printed here: 
https://www.theqtree.com/2019/01/01/dear-maga-open-topic-20190101/


I AM the Door

The statement “I am the door,” found in John 10:7, is the third of seven “I am” declarations of Jesus recorded only in John’s Gospel. These “I am” proclamations point to His unique, divine identity and purpose. In this “I am” statement, Jesus points out for us the exclusive nature of salvation by saying that He is “the door,” not “a door.” Furthermore, Jesus is not only our Shepherd who leads us into the “sheepfold,” but He is the only door by which we may enter and be saved (John 10:9). Jesus is the only means we have of receiving eternal life (John 3:16). There is no other way.

To get a clear picture of Jesus’ meaning in this statement, it’s helpful to understand a little of that ancient culture, especially of sheep and shepherding. Of all domesticated animals, sheep are the most helpless. Sheep will spend their entire day grazing, wandering from place to place, never looking up. As a result, they often become lost. But sheep have no “homing instinct” as other animals do. They are totally incapable of finding their way to their sheepfold even when it is in plain sight. By nature, sheep are followers. If the lead sheep steps off a cliff, the others will follow.

Additionally, sheep are easily injured and are utterly helpless against predators. If a wolf enters the pen, they won’t defend themselves. They won’t try to run away or spread out. Instead they huddle together and are easily slaughtered. If sheep fall into moving water, they will drown. However, sheep do fear moving water and will not drink from any stream or lake unless the water is perfectly still. This is why David in the 23rd Psalm tells us of the shepherd who “makes [us] to lie down in green pastures, he leads [us] beside the still waters . . . though [we] walk through the valley . . . [we] will fear no evil. For You [the Shepherd] are with [us].”

Sheep are totally dependent on the shepherd who tends them. Shepherds were the providers, guides, protectors and constant companions of sheep. So close was the bond between shepherd and sheep that to this day Middle Eastern shepherds can divide flocks that have mingled at a well or during the night simply by calling their sheep, who know and follow their shepherd’s voice. Shepherds were inseparable from their flocks. The shepherd would lead the sheep to safe places to graze and make them lie down for several hours in a shady place. Then, as night fell, the shepherd would lead the sheep to the protection of a sheepfold.

There were two kinds of sheepfolds or pens. One kind was a public sheepfold found in the cities and villages. It would be large enough to hold several flocks of sheep. This sheep pen would be in the care of a porter or doorkeeper, whose duty it was to guard the door to the sheep pen during the night and to admit the shepherds in the morning. The shepherds would call their sheep, each of which knew its own shepherd’s voice, and would lead them out to pasture.

The second kind of sheep pen was in the countryside, where the shepherds would keep their flocks in good weather. This type of sheep pen was nothing more than a rough circle of rocks piled into a wall with a small open space to enter. Through it the shepherd would drive the sheep at nightfall. Since there was no gate to close—just an opening—the shepherd would keep the sheep in and wild animals out by lying across the opening. He would sleep there, in this case literally becoming the door to the sheep.

In this context, Jesus is telling us that He is not only the shepherd of the sheep, but also the door of the sheep. In doing so, He is vividly contrasting Himself with that of the religious leaders of His time whom He describes as “thieves and robbers” (John 10:8). When Jesus says, “I am the door,” He is reiterating the fact that only through Him is salvation possible. This is far removed from the ecumenical teachings popular in today’s liberal religious circles. Jesus makes it clear that any religious leader who offers salvation other than the teachings of Christ is a “thief” and a “robber.”

One who believes the gospel (Hebrews 11:6) and repents of sin (Luke 13:3) is assured of being in “the fold” and of having entered by “the door.” As followers of Christ, Jesus is both our Shepherd and the Door to the sheepfold who provides for all our needs. Knowing that the world is full of predators whose sole intent is to destroy us (1 Peter 5:8), we are always under His protection. More importantly, we are fully confident that “when the Chief Shepherd appears, [we] will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away” (1 Peter 5:4).


[Jesus], being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He Humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:6-11

2022·07·30 Joe Biden Didn’t Win Daily Thread

The Chinese Should Think Before Wiping Us Out As Sometimes They Need Us To Solve Their Problems For Them

Okay you knuckledragging ChiComs trying to take us down…here’s a history lesson for you.

For millennia, you had to suffer from this:

Yep. Steppe Nomads. They laid waste to your country, burned, raped and pillaged (but not in that order–they’re smarter than you are) for century after century.

You know who figured out how to take them on and win? The Russians.

Not you, the Russians. And it took them less than two centuries. And Oh By The Way they were among the most backward cultures in Europe at the time.

You couldn’t invent an alphabet, you couldn’t take care of barbarians on horseback, and you think you can take this board down?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! We’re laughing at you, you knuckledragging dehumanized communists…worshipers of a mass-murderer who killed sixty million people!

I mean, you still think Communism is a good idea even after having lived through it!

By my reckoning that makes you orders of magnitude more stupid than AOC, and that takes serious effort.

His Fraudulency

Joe Biteme, properly styled His Fraudulency, continues to infest the White House, and hopium is still being dispensed even as our military appears to have joined the political establishment in knuckling under to the fraud.

One can hope that all is not as it seems.

I’d love to feast on that crow.

“No Chemicals”

A detailed analysis of the contents of His Fraudulency’s skull was performed.

Absolutely no chemicals found!

Justice Must Be Done.

The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.

Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is hopeless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud is not part of the plan, you have no plan.

Small Government?

Many times conservatives (real and fake) speak of “small government” being the goal.

This sounds good, and mostly is good, but it misses the essential point. The important thing here isn’t the size, but rather the purpose, of government. We could have a cheap, small tyranny. After all our government spends most of its revenue on payments to individuals and foreign aid, neither of which is part of the tyrannical apparatus trying to keep us locked down and censored. What parts of the government would be necessary for a tyranny? It’d be a lot smaller than what we have now. We could shrink the government and nevertheless find it more tyrannical than it is today.

No, what we want is a limited government, limited not in size, but rather in scope. Limited, that is, in what it’s allowed to do. Under current circumstances, such a government would also be much smaller, but that’s a side effect. If we were in a World War II sort of war, an existential fight against nasty dictatorships on the brink of world conquest, that would be very expensive and would require a gargantuan government, but that would be what the government should be doing. That would be a large, but still limited government, since it’d be working to protect our rights.

World War II would have been the wrong time to squawk about “small government,” but it wasn’t (and never is) a bad time to demand limited government. Today would be a better time to ask for a small government–at least the job it should be doing is small today–but it misses the essential point; we want government to not do certain things. Many of those things we don’t want it doing are expensive but many of them are quite eminently doable by a smaller government than the one we have today. Small, but still exceeding proper limits.

So be careful what you ask for. You might get it and find you asked for the wrong thing.

Political Science In Summation

It’s really just a matter of people who can’t be happy unless they control others…versus those who want to be left alone. The oldest conflict within mankind. Government is necessary, but government attracts the assholes (a highly technical term for the control freaks).

A few Things We Cannot Blame on His Fraudulency

I am pretty sure Joe Biden had nothing whatsoever to do with the 30 Years War that ran from 1618-1648 and probably killed about a third of the people then living in what is now Germany.

Nor did he cause the collapse of either Roman empire (Western, 476 CE, Eastern 1453 CE). Nor the ignominious failure of most of the Crusades. Nor the collapse of Bronze Age civilization around 1200 BCE (including the collapse of the Minoans and the blowup of Santorini).

However, my utter lack of ability to imagine how he could possibly be responsible for these things is not a valid argument against them, so I await correction if appropriate.

James Webb Space Telescope Looks at Jupiter

Jupiter is, by far, the largest of the planets in the Solar System. An alien visitor, in fact, would be justified in stating that this system consists of one G2-class star, a gas giant planet with a big red spot on it, and assorted debris.

Except that any spacefaring alien would likely be very interested in planets like Home, and those would likely be small, rocky planets, so he’d take a closer look at that “debris.”

Jupiter probably prevented the formation of a planet in the asteroid belt, and has intercepted a lot of space junk that might otherwise have smacked into Earth. We know, in fact, that it collides with comets now and again…recall Shoemaker Levy 9 in 1994, which would have been a catastrophic series of hits on Earth. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Shoemaker%E2%80%93Levy_9)

(Unfortunately, we didn’t see the actual impacts. They happened just barely on the far side of Jupiter. Though Hubble did catch one fireball poking up over the limb. And of course we could see the smoking holes bored through Jupiter’s atmosphere by the impact.

Fireball from one of the Shoemaker Levy impacts

Note that this image records red, blue, violet and ultraviolet.

And here is a Hubble ultraviolet picture of Jupiter with holes burned through the atmosphere by the pieces of Shoemaker Levy 9.

Well, with the possible exception of the red frequency above, JWST cannot see any of these frequencies. It can see infrared.

And it took some pictures of Jupiter the other day. No trace remains of the Shoemaker Levy impacts, of course, but you can be assured that if something like this happens again before JWST kicks the bucket due to running out of propellant, JWST will be on it like His Fraudulency on 10 year old girls. (Only in this case, the results will be useful.) We would love to see such a thing happen in infrared! A certain amount of time on JWST is reserved for unexpected events. We had only a few months’ warning on Shoemaker Levy 9. Rest assured if Betelgeuse (or any other star within 200,000 light years) goes supernova, same story.

JWST has already taken pictures of Jupiter. These were done at two wavelengths, as two separate images, so there’s no “false color” going on. Where the picture is white, infrared of that wavelength hit the sensor, if dark, then not. Pretty basic.

Europa is to the left..and it’s brighter than Jupiter at this wavelength; the sensor pixels “blew out” and this is denoted by black. Jupiter itself is quite recognizable; you can even see the Red Spot, but it turns out to be pretty bright at this wavelength (2,120 nanometers [billionths of a meter]…for reference we can see 400-700nm with 700 being the red end.)

This is a pretty detailed image…for having taken from over half a billion miles away!

Here’s this picture in raw unprocessed form…plus another one taken at 3,230 nm.

Well, well well, what do we have here…right under Thebe?

That’s Jupiter’s ring! Not nearly as famous as the rings around Saturn, they’re hard to see; we only discovered them during a flyby during the last century, backlit by the Sun.

That image, processed and enhanced a bit:

Jupiter is blindingly bright at this wavelength; in fact it even appears bulged at the poles. The ring is plainly visible, even a bit to the right of the big bright thing. It may not look particularly spectacular to you, but planetary scientists are learning a LOT from these pictures.

The verdict is in: JWST kicks ass.

Lawyer Appeasement Section

OK now for the fine print.

This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines,  here, with an addendum on 20191110.

We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.

And remember Wheatie’s Rules:

1. No food fights
2. No running with scissors.
3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns.
5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded.
5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty.
6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy.
7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire.
8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.

(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)

(Paper) Spot Prices

Last week:

Gold $1,727.10
Silver $18.67
Platinum $883.00
Palladium $2,106.00
Rhodium $16,700.00

This week, 3PM Mountain Time, markets have closed for the weekend. [Note: If you are reading this…I had no chance between 3-10 PM Friday to put the prices in. My apologies for this, but it’s hectic here.]

[Edit: Prices added 3:10 AM MT.]

Gold $1,767.50
Silver $20.44
Platinum $906.00
Palladium $2,204.00
Rhodium $15,300.00

———-

Obligatory PSAs and Reminders

China is Lower than Whale Shit

Remember Hong Kong!!!

Whoever ends up in the cell next to his, tell him I said “Hi.”

中国是个混蛋 !!!
Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!!
China is asshoe !!!

China is in the White House

Since Wednesday, January 20 at Noon EST, the bought-and-paid for His Fraudulency Joseph Biden has been in the White House. It’s as good as having China in the Oval Office.

Joe Biden is Asshoe

China is in the White House, because Joe Biden is in the White House, and Joe Biden is identically equal to China. China is Asshoe. Therefore, Joe Biden is Asshoe.

But of course the much more important thing to realize:

Joe Biden Didn’t Win

乔*拜登没赢 !!!
Qiáo Bài dēng méi yíng !!!
Joe Biden didn’t win !!!

Back In My Day: House of Haslam, Part 3 – Lose/Win, Win/Win, and (Highly) Suspicious Minds!

My hope is that you have invested time into the HOH series. I believe you will find it worth it starting today if you have questioned the commitment. I wanted to shorten this one. Impossible. It simply has too many nuggets to shorten.

There is a soothing peace one receives in his or her spirit when he or she is no longer chained to the expectations of others and the world. The black hats will still throw their spears at you. Friends and loved ones will still disappoint you on occasion. The bank account and gas tank may run low along with your patience. However, you know what you know and evil can no longer have access to your heart and soul. Your wisdom and discernment regarding what you see and experience grow rapidly.

At this point in life in the mid-90’s my personal rebuilding project had begun. I received confirmation quickly that my career choice was blessed as there was early success. Even back then I was doing what now is in vogue, working from a bedroom office at home, calling on prospects and referral sources at their places of business while taking them to lunch occasionally. Using an old school approach with personal service. My faith journey at church and at home began to evolve quickly.

Almost a year after I left my ill-fated job with the equipment dealer, our lives would change dramatically through a very difficult experience that proved to be priceless in value. We learned the Godly principle that our prayers are always answered, just not always as expected. This will be discussed in a future story with more Goober Gump adventures.

Let’s begin with: Are you aware you can commit a federal white collar crime, whether with intent or not, in such a way that it is difficult to prosecute in criminal court, or, can be sheltered by the alphabets in a legal and judicial way to make it appear difficult to prosecute? A constructed situation on both sides of justice, which they will then allow you to buy your way out of potential prosecution in a federal investigation. Sort of a federal pre-trial or even pre-charge intervention. Maybe you have heard about this or suspected it happened.

You are about to learn MOAR! I’ll try not to bore our attorney/legal expert Qtreepers on here who know far more about the specifics than I do. However, average folks may want to know the method exists and a summary of how it works with an example.

Guess which POTUS exponentially increased the usage of that negotiated settlement in civil court for criminal claims maneuver? There’s that name again – Slick. HW’s good buddy. Cranked it up in the mid-1990’s while causing raised eyebrows in the legal community; definition of “is” being what it “is” and all.

Guess which past AG paved the way for its higher usage going back to PRR and as AG for HW? Yeah, this guy…

Some of us PRR fans will remember B2’s impassioned defense of the use of pardons, which was highlighted in the Iran-Contra mess. He pushed them across the finish line later for HW. As far as the previously referenced negotiated settlement of potential charges or trial issue, in a largely scrubbed TV interview in discussion of the bad cops in the FBI who were exposed during the Mueller Investigation and FISA scandals, he stated that not all criminal actions of government employees should rise to the level of imprisonment (paraphrased from memory). He clearly indicated that bad cops like Comey, McCabe, etc. losing their jobs and possibly their pensions was probably enough unless they were proven to have committed more heinous crimes. What could be more heinous to America than committing treason with foreign nations and conspirators to frame a sitting POTUS? In essence B2 promotes softening the landing of the players with pardons and negotiated settlements for gotcha’s and caughtya’s regardless of intent. He set up a system that gives discretionary authority to DODGE and the judiciary.

At the same time he covers for this discretionary administration of justice principle he pushed across by lamenting and bashing the two scales of justice we see today.

We did, jackwad. They stole the elections and you knew they would before it happened.

Hypocrite. May not have been the mastermind, but he was the promoter and implementer of two scales of justice over a long period of time. B2’s a card carrying member of the inner circle of The Club who has been activated as needed. Sundance has stated rightly, he’s the Bondo.

We can even begin to see why PDT agreed to bring him in as AG to kill the corrupt Mueller farce, which would better protect those he hired and family members.

We can also see serious potential downside of these pre-trial/charge interventions with how they can be used to extort people not in or involved with The Club via false allegations and charges such that bad cops can rip them off for money that goes into the alphabets’ coffers. We can also see where it is used by those in power to achieve nefarious purposes with payback being escape from charges and trial if caught.

Which begs the question – where do the real intervention case settlement funds and the extorted money go after collection? I confess to not knowing the answer, but I am quite sure it does not go for the benefit of We the People.

We have now established the predicate for what happens next.

In addition to media reports and other personal experiences; the legal sources of my information about interventions were senior partners in the law firm of now deceased GOP Senator Howard Baker. He of Watergate, Senate Majority and Minority leader fame. For what it is worth, one of the senior partners was a business associate and a lifelong Democrat. That says something about the Uniparty for those paying attention.

Pilot’s Progress

As previously discussed, Pilot was flying even higher through the period. I will no longer bore you with a lot of operational detail, just will discuss key events in their history that are important for seeing how The Club works a bit better. The official Pilot Flying J corporate history is available for all to see on the web.

My personal involvement with the Haslam’s stopped at this point, however, what I learned from others in the local business and legal community continued. I learned I was not alone in my reformulation of opinions about Big Jim, Jimmy and others in the Haslam family’s circle of influence, which included many attorneys and business associates. At this point Big Jim was less involved with daily operations due to age and other interests, yet, used his profile and influence in other ways. Philanthropy, sports, UT and politics appeared to dominate his and Natalie’s days. As an example The Warrior Queen highly benefited from Big Jim’s and the local Club’s support. With the huge, newly constructed Thompson-Boling Arena opening in 1987, the largest on campus facility in America at that time, the basketball floor was later named The Summitt as the Lady Vols program became the gold standard in women’s collegiate athletics. Pilot sponsored all UT sports programs and athletic events since Big Jim was carrying a big stick at the university along with a handful of other wealthy businessmen, boosters and donors.

However, the following made a lot in my circle wonder about the reality at the time. Pilot sponsored an annual Chamber or Rotary (cannot remember – does it matter?) event at the Hyatt that I attended with this guy as keynote speaker…

NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 22: Ted Turner attends the 2014 Global Leadership Dinner at Cipriani 42nd Street on October 22, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Pont/FilmMagic)

The same guy who said this…

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ted-turner-urges-global-one-child-policy-to-save-planet/article1318451/

Fidel’s comrade. That along with many other horrible things he said, did and promoted.

Then there was this guy who spoke at UT as recently as 2013. The same UT where the Haslam family donated millions to build the Howard H. Baker, Jr. Center for Public Policy. Better known as the Future Uniparty Student Development Center.

H/T to Wolf for the photo reminder today…

Before Brokaw and after Turner, there was Tim Russert as keynote speaker at the Hyatt sponsored by Pilot among others. It finally dawned on me years later that a key groomer and intermediary into it all was Mr DIY himself, GOP RINO Ross Bagwell…

Ross with daughter, Dee Haslam

Ross went to NY to finish school. Afterwards he went to work at NBC – media home to all things globalist. He was introduced and worked with the Uniparty globalists and brought methodology back home to Knoxville and to inject into state GOP politics. He connected the Haslam family tighter to the politics and media in DC and NY, including marrying Dee into the family.

Think about the subtle ramifications. Pilot sponsored an evil globalist business/media mogul commie along with two globalist commie media hacks to speak at globalist events to spread more commie propaganda to whoever would listen in a nationally perceived red flyover hillbilly state.

Maybe Tennessee was not the red flyover hillbilly state the MSM portrayed it to be. Maybe it was being operated undercover, sort of like Arkansas. More on that in later Goober Gump stories.

But I am getting ahead of this story, so back to the Pilot history at the turn of the century. Big Jim really had taught his boys the business. Jimmy had continued to assert himself and company control with his no holds barred management style and borderline ethics, which was not Bill’s style at all. Bill was more thoughtful, analytical and reflective in his approach; with a nature more like his deceased mother. After twenty years in the family business he had learned a great deal, handled his role well, and become wealthy. However, his heart was elsewhere and he no longer seemed to want to play the game with Jimmy anymore. He left and appeared to have employment flings with Saks and Harold’s. In reality he needed something to do while GOP RINO Victor Ashe was finishing his second term as Knoxville’s Mayor. He needed time to prepare out of the spotlights of Knoxville and Pilot. What better way to do it than by spending time in NY with Saks and other globalists while learning the ropes for a few years. Realizing another big opportunity, Big Jim pulled in the GOP support and the campaign began. Bill’s sister, Ann, even campaigned for him door to door. Bill won with 53% of the vote. Politics became another family enterprise.

The key events of Pilot from the 90’s forward were about going nationwide and becoming even more dominant. It led again to partnering up with old friends, Marathon, in 2001. This time they rolled in 223 travel centers into one investment entity that included the centers I had underwritten and our bank participation financing handled a decade before. Marathon had merged with Ashland and grown their supply to handle much more volume. They saw the joint ownership opportunity as an investment for future marketshare and capital if their interest was ever sold.

In 2010 they merged the company with anther industry stalwart, Flying J. The combined company was then over 550 travel centers with Pilot having management and Board control. They had grown to top ten nationally in privately held businesses for market value. In 2017, the ownership sold a 38% ownership stake to Berkshire Hathaway. With the deal Buffett and Berkshire also gained the rights to buy up to an 80% stake in Pilot Flying J in 2023. The company now has over 750 travel centers in the U. S. and Canada while doing over $20 Billion in revenues annually.

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/warren-buffett-berkshire-hathaway-pilot-acquisition-deals-truck-stops-travel-2022-3

After decades of honest intent as well as intentional deception, acceptance into the inner circle of The Club will be complete next year. But it did not happen the way it was planned or anticipated.

NFL & White Collar Crime

As stated in Part One, Jimmy and Dee are controlling owners of the Cleveland Browns. They paid $1 B+ for it from Randy Lerner in 2012. Jimmy had set his sights on NFL team ownership well before then. He was able to purchase an ownership interest in the gold standard org of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2008. With that experience he was accepted into the NFL owners’ inner circle, which made the purchase of the Browns easier to get done. It is interesting that the Times of Israel reported the purchase ended 51 consecutive years of Jewish ownership of the team. Maybe the purchase of the Browns was coincidental. However, the stadium for the team is located just 15 minutes away from the headquarters of Pilot Flying J’s primary competitor, TravelCenters of America.

Soon the highs of realizing that long held dream and love for a sport would be nuked into the low point in their company’s history. Unannounced, FIB walked into the Knoxville headquarters of Pilot Flying J in 2013. They left with everything they needed to make a strong federal criminal case against key personnel in the company with Jimmy himself under the microscope. Seems key senior management, including the Pilot President, Mark Hazelwood, had knowingly participated in a scheme to steal contracted rebates from many commercial trucking company accounts over a period of 5 years. Millions of dollars were involved and the participants received part of the ill-gotten gain as personal income with Pilot Flying J pocketing the rest. There were blatant racist statements and defamation of some of their less sophisticated commercial customers on tapes made by a whistleblower turned informant.

Jimmy pled ignorance. Audio tapes recorded by the whistleblower seemed to indicate otherwise. The statements made about less sophisticated commercial customers by several managers started a firestorm that was uncontrollable.

So he followed the raid with these remarks at a hastily called press conference:

Awkward. Contrast what he just said with this…

https://www.ttnews.com/articles/tape-subordinate-accusing-haslam-hazelwood-played-pilot-flying-j-trial

As a result in a wise move, Pilot Flying J and Jimmy decided they better cut deals. As part of the deals, they agreed to continue to pay for legal representation of the employees that contested federal charges until their cases were adjudicated. The media questioned why would they do that if the employees violated company policies and the law? Jimmy claimed it was company “tradition” to do so. Or, in my opinion it was code for, “It’s payment for them to keep quiet and protect my tail.” You decide.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2014/07/14/jimmy-haslams-pilot-flying-j-cuts-deal-to-avoid-prosecution/?sh=2a4780dc7738

Word is that the mess cost them $190+ million in federal fines and customer restitution along with taking it on the chin with many commercial corporate clients. The tapes were damning. Many lower level staff members and managers pled guilty for plea deals after coming clean with details. A handful of senior mangers, including Hazelwood fought on. Interestingly, he lost in his first trial. That judge is African American with Hazelwood being white. He filed an appeal for a new trial as he felt he was not treated fairly at all through the proceedings. He made charges of reverse discrimination against the judge during his first trial. His request for a new trial was approved by a federal appellate court this year, along with that of two other employees. In essence, Jimmy’s crony that knows the extent of his boss’ involvement is working a path toward freedom or a reduced sentence/fine that is being provided through the judicial system. That is happening combined with the statute of limitations running out for charging Jimmy in April 2018. Shocked face…

That statute of limitations expired about 6 months after the 38.6% interest in the company was purchased by Berkshire. It would appear that DODGE gave the all clear to Buffett to complete the deal as Jimmy remained the Chairman and the family retained 50.1% majority interest with the provision that Berkshire would purchase an additional 41.4% in 2023, leaving them with the remaining 20% interest.

The fines Pilot willingly agreed to pay the feds were related to a negotiated financial settlement to avoid trial expenses and potentially even higher losses. There was no Weissmann, Enron style attacks. I guess Andrew was too busy with other legal schemes at the time. More likely he knew they were Club members. We would never be granted access to see it all, but I can almost guarantee there was a personal check or funds transfer written by Jimmy for a settlement of criminal claims against him through the civil system. No admission of guilt required, no public release of documents, and on with life.

With this behind him, Jimmy has turned his attention to pro sports and trying to make the Browns better while buying franchises in other pro sports. In a typical, tone deaf move he recently made a deal with the Houston Texans for Deshaun Watson as their QB. The same Watson who has been accused of sexual advances and harassment by over 25 masseuses and been suspended by the NFL for one or more seasons, who recently wrote checks to settle over 20 of the lawsuits. Right up Jimmy’s alley. All while they disrespected their existing injured starting QB, Baker Mayfield, who they later unceremoniously traded to Carolina. Use ’em, abuse ’em and toss ’em away when they become less useful.

A sign in the lobby of Pilot Flying J headquarters says, “We do the right thing — Integrity comes first.” Big Jim had it installed there decades ago. See the above referenced scandals.

Big Jim was quoted in an ESPN story not long after the FIB raid. “You ask what I’m proudest of Jimmy for?” Big Jim says. “It’s how he’s handled all this since April 15. It’s just like I would’ve hoped he’d handle it. He realizes he’s in charge and he’s going to stay in charge.

“We’ve learned a lot, and nothing like this will ever happen again.”

Revealing, huh? Apple did not fall far from the tree it appears. Why did it happen at all, Big Jim? I mean, it was five years of it. That’s not a mistake. It appears you are covering for your son and company getting caught, not for having done it. Are we supposed to believe nothing like that had ever occurred under your watch?

Words mean one thing, actions frequently mean another. The Club uses money and media influence to cover the intent and purpose as needed.

Some things never change. But when you are in the inner circle of The Club, what does it matter? Pay some money after mistakes and scandals and they simply go away. There will be even more money to make up for it when you get to play in the bigger leagues. Like what was announced last week.

https://www.newsweek.com/gm-pilot-are-adding-2000-new-electric-vehicle-chargers-gas-stations-1724749

and…

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1136485_gm-pilot-plan-350-kw-coast-to-coast-charging-network

Build back better with green, anybody?

In recap, we have Berkshire controlling Burlington Northern railroad which transports oil, fuel, fertilizer, etc.; while Dem politicians are shutting down oil and gas pipelines; while the RINO’s stand down with their thumbs up their arses; while Berkshire buys 80% control of Pilot to have the largest fuel distribution network for commercial trucking in North America; who has entered into a national EV charging network arrangement that caters to GM’s EV vehicle expansion; while buddy Gates and others globalists and nations who hate us are buying up farmland and into food production of all types. And so it goes on and on.

Depop. Totalitarian control of the masses.

Need more convincing?

Senate swing voter, Coal Country Joe is all in…

Yeah, the RINO’s are as thick as thieves with the Dems. They plan to do the green idiocy anyway. Follow the money. They don’t even need congressional approval and they certainly don’t care about the desires of We the People. Be informed. The moderate (RINO) wing of the GOP has been controlled opposition for over 70 years. The only person on the planet who has been proven able to stop it and reverse course for We the People is named Donald J. Trump, along with the help of his supporters and patriots.

As far as where We the People stand, we either acknowledge we are in a civil war and fight it, or just go quietly into the good night. Fighting well does not necessarily include violence, but it does include the righteous delivery of justice and truth as each situation may demand.

We will conclude the HOH series with some what ifs and other stuff with the next part. It’s time to have some fun, get some R&R, jump into some rabbit holes, make some observations and ask some thought provoking questions. Until next time…

Could not resist…

DEAR MAGA: TGIF Open Thread 20220729

Shall we?

Death in the Afternoon

Death in the Afternoon is a cocktail made with absinthe and champagne invented by the writer, Ernest Hemingway. The name comes from his book, Death in the Afternoon, and was first published in a cocktail book in 1935.

Ingredients

  • 1 ounce (2 tablespoons) absinthe
  • 1 teaspoon simple syrup
  • 4 ounces (½ cup) Champagne or Prosecco

Instructions

  1. Pour the absinthe and simple syrup into a cocktail glass. Top it off with the sparkling wine.

Open Tab Headlines:

Twitter resumes purge of scientists, critics of gender ideology after Musk pullout

Cats classified as ‘invasive alien species’ by scientific institute

Mostly Ignored Regulatory Regime of Joe Biden Is Crippling the USA

They Can’t Let Him Back In

The people who really run the United States of America have made it clear that they can’t, and won’t, if they can help it, allow Donald Trump to be president again. In fact, they made this clear in 2020, in a series of public statements. Simply for quoting their words in an essay for The American Mind, I was mercilessly mocked and attacked. But they were quite clear. Trump won’t be president at noon, Jan. 20, 2021, even if we have to use the military to drag him out of there.

“Anti-Trump hysteria is in the final analysis not about Trump.”

If the regime felt that strongly back then, imagine how they feel now. But you don’t have to imagine. They tell you every day. Liz Cheney, Trump’s personal Javert, has said that the 45th president is literally the greatest threat facing America today—greater than China, than our crashing economy, than our unraveling civil society.

REPORT: 83% Of Americans Concerned About Election Integrity In Midterm Elections, 75% Concerned About CHEATING – Majority Also Believe The 2020 Election Was STOLEN

Rasmussen no less.

Don’t Let Them Reset Society to Make You Into a Bug-Eating Serf

When did it become okay for Americas to live like mere Europeans, to settle, to compromise, to not expect that tomorrow will be better than today? When our country started being run by the pack of establishment weasels that makes up our garbage ruling class. They stopped being loyal to us and started being loyal to a global ideology that demands a “Great Reset” which, when imposed, would leave us impoverished serfs instead of prosperous citizens. But we don’t have to take it, and we’re not going to.

Europeans actually eat rather well.

No, America Isn’t Over

Each of the eras Piereson describes was formed by the creation of a national consensus around a set of policies and cultural imperatives that informed the times, a consensus both major political parties generally wedded themselves to.

Piereson says, in fact, that it’s more accurate to say America has operated on the basis of a one-and-a-half-party system rather than a two-party system through most of its history, because the dominant party will set the agenda for a given era, and the opposition then has no choice but to adapt to the times and take on a “me, too” approach to its search for political power.

Are the Woke Morally Superior?

The Culture War Is a Myth

Cannibal Communists Crave Kids

Public Health ‘Authority’? Please

‘Dirty’ Oil

Southern Exposure

Republicans take another run at Lucy’s football

Tweety Tweets:

https://twitter.com/PaulSperry30/status/1552370283843043330

Tell that to my neighbors who are drying out their garages today, and suddenly we get spring like thunderstorms.

MEME STASH:

And now for the business portion of the post borrowed from Tuesday:

Guidelines for posting and discussion on this site were outlined by our host, WolfM00n. Please, review them from time to time.

The discourse on this site is to be CIVIL – no name calling, baiting, or threatening others here is allowed. Those who are so inclined may visit Wolf’s other sanctuary, the U-Tree, to slog it out. There is also a “rescue” thread there for members of the Tree to rendezvous if the main site goes kablooey. A third site has been added for site outages of longer duration.

This site is a celebration of the natural rights endowed to humans by our Creator as well as those enshrined in the Bill of Rights adopted in the founding documents of the United States of America. Within the limits of law, how we exercise these rights is part of the freedom of our discussion.

Fellow tree dweller the late Wheatie gave us some good reminders on the basics of civility in political discourse:

  1. No food fights.
  2. No running with scissors.
  3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.

And Auntie DePat’s requests:

If you see something has not been posted, do us all a favor, and post it. Please, do not complain that it has not been done yet.

The scroll wheel on your mouse can be your friend. As mature adults, please use it here in the same manner you would in avoiding online porn.

_____________________________________________________

JOHN 11:19-27

19and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary sat in the house. 21Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22And even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world.”

SATIRE!

Have a great weekend.

Implications of the Serotonin and Beta Amyloid Scandals for the Fall of Climate Change

How Two Fallen Theories of Medicine May Herald the Fate of Global Warming / Climate Change

Bad science does not stand forever, but it may stand long enough for people to make a lot of money on it. THAT will be the THEME of the three huge science scandals I’m going to discuss.

In case you’re short on time, the TLDR…..

TL;DR – Two fresh scandals showing how industry money and scientific misconduct kept bad theories “alive” for decades, may explain why the bad science behind politically useful climate alarmism persists.


I. Serotonin Uber Alles

The “serotonin scandal” is very diffuse, which is why it’s in many ways analogous to “climate change”. The bottom line is that what the pharmaceutical industry tells patients about antidepressants, and what scientists know about antidepressants, are not the same thing.

It’s best to start off with the following Tucker Carlson video.

LINK: https://rumble.com/v1dm0nv-tucker-carlson-it-turns-out-the-entire-premise-behind-the-most-commonly-pre.html

An extremely important selling point of antidepressants, used by both doctors and the pharmaceutical industry, is the idea that people who are depressed, and therefore “need” to take them, actually have some kind of chemical imbalance in their brain that needs to be fixed. More often than any other chemical alleged to be “imbalanced” is serotonin – and hence the emergence of SSRIs, meaning serotonin-selective reuptake inhibitors.

Carlson’s centerpiece is a recent metaanalysis of antidepressant research which showed there is little or no evidence for this “chemical imbalance” assertion.

Antidepressants may work in some people, and thank God they do, but IF they do, and WHEN they do, the simple “chemical imbalance theory” is probably not the reason why.

There is a very good explanation of the study HERE:


No evidence that depression is caused by low serotonin levels, finds comprehensive review

20 July 2022

LINK: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2022/jul/no-evidence-depression-caused-low-serotonin-levels-finds-comprehensive-review

After decades of study, there remains no clear evidence that serotonin levels or serotonin activity are responsible for depression, according to a major review of prior research led by UCL scientists.

The new umbrella review – an overview of existing meta-analyses and systematic reviews – published in Molecular Psychiatry, suggests that depression is not likely caused by a chemical imbalance,and calls into question what antidepressants do. Most antidepressants are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which were originally said to work by correcting abnormally low serotonin levels. There is no other accepted pharmacological mechanism by which antidepressants affect the symptoms of depression.

Lead author Professor Joanna Moncrieff, a Professor of Psychiatry at UCL and a consultant psychiatrist at North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT), said: “It is always difficult to prove a negative, but I think we can safely say that after a vast amount of research conducted over several decades, there is no convincing evidence that depression is caused by serotonin abnormalities, particularly by lower levels or reduced activity of serotonin.

“The popularity of the ‘chemical imbalance’ theory of depression has coincided with a huge increase in the use of antidepressants. Prescriptions for antidepressants have risen dramatically since the 1990s, with one in six adults in England and 2% of teenagers now being prescribed an antidepressant in a given year.

“Many people take antidepressants because they have been led to believe their depression has a biochemical cause, but this new research suggests this belief is not grounded in evidence.”

MORE:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2022/jul/no-evidence-depression-caused-low-serotonin-levels-finds-comprehensive-review

For more information, you can also go to the actual paper here:

LINK: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-022-01661-0

Just for the record, I am personally NOT a fan of these sorts of “metaanalysis” papers. In my opinion they tend to be QUASI-OPINIONS with a veneer of science. However, in my own opinion, metaanalyses can be useful when highly conclusive or by reinterpreting data – but should be trusted even less than normal observational science.

Now – it is important to point out that this metaanalysis is not actually telling us anything NEW. Most scientists in the field ALREADY KNEW from all the various studies that were looked at by the metaanalysis, that the simple “chemical imbalance” idea was a load of crap. They’ve known this for YEARS.

REALLY? Yes. Really.

A good description of the state of things is here:


A Popular Theory About Depression Wasn’t “Debunked” by a New Review

Published: July 22, 2022

Ruairi J Mackenzie

LINK: https://www.technologynetworks.com/neuroscience/articles/a-popular-theory-of-depression-wasnt-debunked-by-a-new-review-it-got-debunked-years-ago-363986


The title is a bit deceptive – at least more so than the link which adds “it got debunked years ago”. Ah, the techniques of clickbait!

Anyway, the title could rightfully say:

A Still-Popular But Unproven Old Theory About Depression Wasn’t “Debunked” By A New Review – It Was Simply Confirmed To STILL Be Unsupported By The Data, Despite Being Pushed For Decades By Doctors And Big Pharma Who KNEW It Wasn’t True

Please click the link if you want all the details, but my proposed title says it all. People kept using the theory as a sales and prescription gimmick. Big Pharma “suggested” the theory to doctors, and doctors “suggested” the theory to patients, to get them to take a kind of drug that patients are sometimes very resistant to taking.

Remember – antidepressants do, in fact, work for many patients – particularly for very serious cases of depression. Many people who in the past had to be hospitalized, can now live happy, functional lives in society because of these drugs.

It’s understandable that doctors try to convince patients to take the drugs they think will work to treat their problems.

But should your kids be getting antidepressants because of “school trouble”?

A whole ‘nuther question.

Because THAT is the end result of the little white lie that “people can have an imbalance that needs these drugs.”

We NORMALIZED antidepressents by NORMALIZING an ABNORMALITY that didn’t even exist.

ANYWAY – if the very fact that a WRONG THEORY has been KNOWINGLY spoon-fed to you by “the experts” for DECADES, is not giving you ideas about “climate change” – particularly in the post-COVID world…..

BUT WAIT.

Not quite yet. We have ANOTHER scandal to look at, first.


II. It’s Bush’s Beta Amyloid’s Fault!

This scandal is at the opposite end of the spectrum, from the above one, in which an entire industry and all of medicine KNOWINGLY told a little white lie to the public.

In this case, ONE SCIENTIST tipped the scales inappropriately, sending the entire world, including the rest of science, on a wild goose chase.

The LIE was only caught after years, and almost accidentally.

This is a rather long and interesting story, and I’m not going to recount it all here. But I will give you links and extensive quotes. It’s FASCINATING.

One of the best quick summaries is in, of all places, The Daily Kos.


Two decades of Alzheimer’s research may be based on deliberate fraud that has cost millions of lives

LINK: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/22/2111914/-Two-decades-of-Alzheimer-s-research-may-be-based-on-deliberate-fraud-that-has-cost-millions-of-lives

Last month, drug company Genentech reported on the first clinical trials of the drug crenezumab, a drug targeting amyloid proteins that form sticky plaques in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients. The drug had been particularly effective in animal models, and the trial results were eagerly awaited as one of the most promising treatments in years. It did not work. “Crenezumab did not slow or prevent cognitive decline” in people with a predisposition toward Alzheimer’s.

Last year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) narrowly approved the use of Aduhelm, a new drug from Biogen that the company has priced so highly that it’s expected to drive up the price of Medicare for everyone in America, even those who never need this drug. Aduhelm was the first drug to be approved that fights the accumulation of those “amyloid plaques” in the brain. What makes the approval of the $56,000-a-dose drug so controversial is that while it does decrease plaques, it doesn’t actually slow Alzheimer’s. In fact, clinical trials were suspended in 2019 after the treatment showed “no clinical benefits.” (Which did not keep Biogen from seeking the drug’s approval or pricing it astronomically.)

Over the last two decades, Alzheimer’s drugs have been notable mostly for having a 99% failure rate in human trials. It’s not unusual for drugs that are effective in vitro and in animal models to turn out to be less than successful when used in humans, but Alzheimer’s has a record that makes the batting average in other areas look like Hall of Fame material.

And now we have a good idea of why. Because it looks like the original paper that established the amyloid plaque model as the foundation of Alzheimer’s research over the last 16 years might not just be wrong, but a deliberate fraud.

MUCH MORE:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/22/2111914/-Two-decades-of-Alzheimer-s-research-may-be-based-on-deliberate-fraud-that-has-cost-millions-of-lives

This story is fantastic, and so I recommend starting with the above Daily Kos article.

Before going into more detail, let me begin to give you my perspective on Alzheimer’s drugs.

I’ve watched a lot of drug classes accumulate new and improved drugs over nearly half a century of interest in the topic, but the TWO categories that have stood out to ME as the WORST in terms of success have been antivirals and Alzheimer’s drugs.

Antivirals first.

As you have seen over the last two and a half years, antivirals are not impossible to find, and while they don’t work 100% of the time, they’re still sometimes VERY helpful.

What has been more shocking to me is that it’s clear that the pharmaceutical industry frequently and reliably OPPOSES successful antivirals, when they can’t make money off them. The industry wants NEW antivirals they can patent, and they are willing to DEFAME and DENY old antivirals, even SUPERIOR and SAFER antivirals, just to create a market for new ones.

New antivirals that may be CRAP, and dangerous as hell. And they will even LIE to the Commander In Chief about them.

But set the antivirals aside for now, knowing that the situation is corrupt.

Anti-Alzheimer’s drugs are even worse, because THEY JUST DON’T WORK. They’re notorious for not actually working. They’ve never worked. In desperation, the FDA occasionally approves these worthless drugs, if only for investigation, but they are “mercy punts”. The drugs get approved, as long as they don’t show too many side effects, because they are “better than nothing”. But that’s it.

The drugs out there for dementia, senility and Alzheimer’s are WORTHLESS.

A LOT of people thought this was suspicious. I was one of them. Every once in a while, when researchers would reveal just how BAD the next drug actually was – how terrible and limited the results were – I would “go back to my mental drawing board” and ask the question:

“Why don’t these drugs work? Maybe the theory behind them is wrong. What could the truth possibly be?”

HA! I had no idea! No clue!

NOBODY – and I mean nobody – suspected that it was because of FRAUD.

At least, not until recently.

So let’s move on to the fraud in more detail. SCIENCE MAGAZINE.

I am including a long segment which is just the beginning of the article. Please note an important point – the investigator was actually looking at a DIFFERENT fraud in the same field of Alzheimer’s research, when he found this one.


BLOTS ON A FIELD?

A neuroscience image sleuth finds signs of fabrication in scores of Alzheimer’s articles, threatening a reigning theory of the disease

LINK: https://www.science.org/content/article/potential-fabrication-research-images-threatens-key-theory-alzheimers-disease

In August 2021, Matthew Schrag, a neuroscientist and physician at Vanderbilt University, got a call that would plunge him into a maelstrom of possible scientific misconduct. A colleague wanted to connect him with an attorney investigating an experimental drug for Alzheimer’s disease called Simufilam. The drug’s developer, Cassava Sciences, claimed it improved cognition, partly by repairing a protein that can block sticky brain deposits of the protein amyloid beta (Aβ), a hallmark of Alzheimer’s. The attorney’s clients—two prominent neuroscientists who are also short sellers who profit if the company’s stock falls—believed some research related to Simufilam may have been “fraudulent,” according to a petition later filed on their behalf with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Schrag, 37, a softspoken, nonchalantly rumpled junior professor, had already gained some notoriety by publicly criticizing the controversial FDA approval of the anti-Aβ drug Aduhelm. His own research also contradicted some of Cassava’s claims. He feared volunteers in ongoing Simufilam trials faced risks of side effects with no chance of benefit.

So he applied his technical and medical knowledge to interrogate published images about the drug and its underlying science—for which the attorney paid him $18,000. He identified apparently altered or duplicated images in dozens of journal articles. The attorney reported many of the discoveries in the FDA petition, and Schrag sent all of them to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which had invested tens of millions of dollars in the work. (Cassava denies any misconduct [see sidebar, below].)

But Schrag’s sleuthing drew him into a different episode of possible misconduct, leading to findings that threaten one of the most cited Alzheimer’s studies of this century and numerous related experiments.

The first author of that influential study, published in Nature in 2006, was an ascending neuroscientist: Sylvain Lesné of the University of Minnesota (UMN), Twin Cities. His work underpins a key element of the dominant yet controversial amyloid hypothesis of Alzheimer’s, which holds that Aβ clumps, known as plaques, in brain tissue are a primary cause of the devastating illness, which afflicts tens of millions globally. In what looked like a smoking gun for the theory and a lead to possible therapies, Lesné and his colleagues discovered an Aβ subtype and seemed to prove it caused dementia in rats. If Schrag’s doubts are correct, Lesné’s findings were an elaborate mirage.

Schrag, who had not publicly revealed his role as a whistleblower until this article, avoids the word “fraud” in his critiques of Lesné’s work and the Cassava-related studies and does not claim to have proved misconduct. That would require access to original, complete, unpublished images and in some cases raw numerical data. “I focus on what we can see in the published images, and describe them as red flags, not final conclusions,” he says. “The data should speak for itself.”

A 6-month investigation by Science provided strong support for Schrag’s suspicions and raised questions about Lesné’s research. A leading independent image analyst and several top Alzheimer’s researchers—including George Perry of the University of Texas, San Antonio, and John Forsayeth of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)—reviewed most of Schrag’s findings at Science’s request. They concurred with his overall conclusions, which cast doubt on hundreds of images, including more than 70 in Lesné’s papers. Some look like “shockingly blatant” examples of image tampering, says Donna Wilcock, an Alzheimer’s expert at the University of Kentucky.

The authors “appeared to have composed figures by piecing together parts of photos from different experiments,” says Elisabeth Bik, a molecular biologist and well-known forensic image consultant. “The obtained experimental results might not have been the desired results, and that data might have been changed to … better fit a hypothesis.”

Early this year, Schrag raised his doubts with NIH and journals including Nature; two, including Nature last week, have published expressions of concern about papers by Lesné. Schrag’s work, done independently of Vanderbilt and its medical center, implies millions of federal dollars may have been misspent on the research—and much more on related efforts. Some Alzheimer’s experts now suspect Lesné’s studies have misdirected Alzheimer’s research for 16 years.

“The immediate, obvious damage is wasted NIH funding and wasted thinking in the field because people are using these results as a starting point for their own experiments,” says Stanford University neuroscientist Thomas Südhof, a Nobel laureate and expert on Alzheimer’s and related conditions.

Lesné did not respond to requests for comment. A UMN spokesperson says the university is reviewing complaints about his work.

To Schrag, the two disputed threads of Aβ research raise far-reaching questions about scientific integrity in the struggle to understand and cure Alzheimer’s. Some adherents of the amyloid hypothesis are too uncritical of work that seems to support it, he says. “Even if misconduct is rare, false ideas inserted into key nodes in our body of scientific knowledge can warp our understanding.”

MORE

https://www.science.org/content/article/potential-fabrication-research-images-threatens-key-theory-alzheimers-disease

This article goes deeply into the fraud. It’s a great detective story. It raises a whole bunch of tangential issues.

For starters, the fact that you are even hearing about this is because the investigator (Matthew Schrag) didn’t wait for NIH to do anything – particularly after it AWARDED MORE MONEY TO THE FRAUDSTER.

Yes – you got that right.

He [Lesné] became a leader of UMN’s neuroscience graduate program in 2020, and in May 2022, 4 months after Schrag delivered his concerns to NIH, Lesné received a coveted R01 grant from the agency, with up to 5 years of support. The NIH program officer for the grant, Austin Yang—a co-author on the 2006 Nature paper—declined to comment.

Notice how the “revolving door” nature of the science is on display. “Insiders” who are buddies with and coworkers of “outsiders”, give those outsiders the precious grants.

However, Schrag was not caught with his pants down by NIH “Comeyism” (failure to discipline friends). Schrag had also taken his evidence to Science magazine. SMART MOVE. But then, it appears that Schrag was raised by Mennonites, home-schooled, and in the military. Interesting.

More from the Science article:

IN HIS WHISTLEBLOWER REPORT to NIH about Lesné’s research, Schrag made its scope and stakes clear: “[This] dossier is a fraction of the anomalies easily visible on review of the publicly accessible data,” he wrote. The suspect work “not only represents a substantial investment in [NIH] research support, but has been cited … thousands of times and thus has the potential to mislead an entire field of research.”

The agency’s reply, which Schrag shared with Science, noted that complaints deemed credible will go to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Research Integrity (ORI) for review. That agency could then instruct grantee universities to investigate prior to a final ORI review, a process that can take years and remains confidential absent an official misconduct finding. To Science, NIH said it takes research misconduct seriously, but otherwise declined to comment.

See how that works? Seriously – you CANNOT trust NIH, any more than you can trust Anthony Fauci.

NOW – things are starting to get interesting as all this news is hitting the mainstream media.

Gil00 brought me a link, in which the most famous coworker of the fraudster, Karen Ashe, finally responded to inquiries. Meanwhile, the fraudster has remained silent publicly. NOTE that in Schrag’s investigation (see below), Ashe was found innocent. ONLY in papers working with Lesné, were any of Ashe’s papers ever found to contain fraudulent images. Ditto for other authors. Lesné was the nexus of the fraud.

BUT the problem WAS spotted long ago, and yet this knowledge never bubbled up to a level of effectiveness in mainstream science. An early French coworker of Lesné found his images suspect, and refused to work with him after that.

From the Science article:

Questions about Lesné’s work are not new. Cell biologist Denis Vivien, a senior scientist at Caen, co-authored five Lesné papers flagged by Schrag or Bik. Vivien defends the validity of those articles, but says he had reason to be wary of Lesné.

Toward the end of Lesné’s time in France, Vivien says they worked together on a paper for Nature Neuroscience involving Aβ. During final revisions, he saw immunostaining images—in which antibodies detect proteins in tissue samples—that Lesné had provided. They looked dubious to Vivien, and he asked other students to replicate the findings. Their efforts failed. Vivien says he confronted Lesné, who denied wrongdoing. Although Vivien lacked “irrefutable proof” of misconduct, he withdrew the paper before publication “to preserve my scientific integrity,” and broke off all contact with Lesné, he says. “We are never safe from a student who would like to deceive us and we must remain vigilant.”

Schrag spot checked papers by Vivien or Ashe without Lesné. He found no anomalies—suggesting Vivien and Ashe were innocent of misconduct.

SO – what does Karen Ashe have to say?


University of Minnesota scientist responds to fraud allegations in Alzheimer’s research

While defending results, U researcher said it is “devastating” that a colleague might have doctored images. 

LINK: https://www.startribune.com/senior-university-of-minnesota-scientist-responds-to-fraud-allegations-in-alzheimers-research/600192351/

A senior University of Minnesota scientist said it is “devastating” that a colleague might have doctored images to prop up research, but she defended the authenticity of her groundbreaking work on the origins of Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Karen Ashe declined to comment about a U investigation into the veracity of studies led by Sylvain Lesné, a neuroscientist she hired and a rising star in the field of Alzheimer’s research. However, she criticized an article in Science magazine that raised concerns this week about Lesné, because she said it confused and exaggerated the effect the U’s work had on downstream drug development to treat Alzheimer’s-related dementia.

“Having worked for decades to understand the cause of Alzheimer disease, so that better treatments can be found for patients, it is devastating to discover that a co-worker may have misled me and the scientific community through the doctoring of images,” Ashe said in an e-mail Friday morning. “It is, however, additionally distressing to find that a major scientific journal has flagrantly misrepresented the implications of my work.”

MORE:

https://www.startribune.com/senior-university-of-minnesota-scientist-responds-to-fraud-allegations-in-alzheimers-research/600192351/

If you want to know more about Ashe, look HERE.

LINK 1: https://www.startribune.com/february-2012-karen-ashe-stalking-alzheimer-s/139159894/

LINK 2: https://www.startribune.com/karen-hsiao-ashe-a-q-a/139160259/

I’m undecided about this lady. This is a bit of a tangent, but it may be significant.

I trust her to some extent, based on the fact that Schrag found Ashe’s work CLEAN when it was NOT associated with Lesné. In my opinion she’s innocent.

AND YET, Ashe’s background is PERFECT for a two-stepper ChiCom, potentially brought to America as the child of secret socialist sleepers. [NOTE: “Two-steppers” are basically bi-generational spy families, with extreme cover used on the parents to throw off suspicions on the second generation as plants.] Ashe’s background – similar to that of the notorious Vindman twins, is also almost identical to several classic Chinese two-steppers in American media and politics, including relentless Trump character assassin, Weijia Jiang.

LINK 1: https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-journalists-shred-cbs-reporter-weijia-jiang-for-behavior-during-press-conference

And don’t think this is just aimed at Karen Ashe – that I’m just blaming the innocent victim, which she may very well be. Let’s look at Sylvain Lesné. Let’s do a deep dive on the possibility that he was intentionally sabotaging science for more than just personal advancement.

This is just a theory to add to the pile of theories. But it’s a very intriguing theory, with enormous consequences, like – oh, say – “climate change”.

French communists, both agrarian and urban, are THICK in Normandy – where Sylvain Lesné grew up and went to university. The urban centers of Caen, Le Havre, and Rouen are communist strongholds.

You can see that Caen leans even further to the left than “worker’s paradise” Le Havre, where bleak Stalinist architecture rules. The vote against Le Pen was strong in Le Havre, but even stronger in Caen.

https://elections.letelegramme.fr/resultats-presidentielle-2022/calvados-14/caen/

Lesné is married to an American. Their wedding was in France, in Beavoir-Sur-Mer, on the Atlantic coast.

LINK: https://www.inforum.com/caroline-lesne

There is a reason why communism is persistent in Normandy. Not only is there a regional historical tradition of Jacobin thought – there was aggressive spread of Soviet-style communism to the area by Stalin, both before World War II and afterwards, in the devastation of the Allied liberation.

This was a significant part of the motivation for the Marshall plan – to not let the war feed Stalin’s slow but relentless ambitions, already at work in post-war France.

We already know that French “above-ground” communist Agnès Buzyn, who is weirdly allied with “conservative” Emmanuel Macron, was indicted for a plethora of COVID-19 “mistakes”, in which she seemed to aggressively “do the wrong thing” as COVID-19 began spreading into France.

LINK: https://www.euronews.com/2021/09/10/france-s-ex-health-minister-agnes-buzyn-indicted-in-covid-19-handling-probe

We here in America are more familiar with one of these aggressive scientific mistakes – the “hiding” of hydroxychloroquine from the public by changing it from OTC to prescription only. (Please note that this “error” was at the bottom of the list, and is not even mentioned around the time of the indictment, which focused more on Buzyn’s downplaying of COVID dangers.)

LINK: https://asiatimes.com/2020/03/why-france-is-hiding-a-cheap-and-tested-virus-cure/

Now – it’s very instructive to see how the French media (particularly the left-media, but all of it, really) has aggressively covered up for Buzyn on this point, with “fact-checking” in the Snopes style, where there are both clickbait strawmen and evasion on technicalities.

While the FORMAL reclassification of the drug HCQ from OTC to prescription occurred in January of 2020, which would make it seem more vindictive against Didier Raoult, and reactive against the treatment of the disease, that was merely the date of the effective reclassification.

The connection to Didier Raoult is a bit of a red herring, provided largely by his fan base. That is a typical irony useful to disinformation.

It turns out that the reclassification action itself took place in November of 2019. This point is then alleged by the fact-checkers to prove Buzyn’s “innocence”. As we now know, the deepest players in the COVID scam KNOWINGLY took many actions in September, October, and November of 2019.

Thus, in my opinion, these “fact checks” attempting to exonerate Buzyn’s scientific misconduct are in fact even more indicting, and indicative of her premeditated criminality.

Here is an exemplary fact check:

French: https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2020/03/27/coronavirus-et-hydroxychloroquine-le-couple-buzyn-levy-cible-de-publications-mensongeres_6034663_4355770.html

English: https://www-lemonde-fr.translate.goog/les-decodeurs/article/2020/03/27/coronavirus-et-hydroxychloroquine-le-couple-buzyn-levy-cible-de-publications-mensongeres_6034663_4355770.html?_x_tr_sl=fr&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Thus, if an analogous theory is correct, that Sylvain Lesné was intending to prop up bad science for more than just his own advancement, then there must be some VALUE in doing so.

Gil00 provided a possible answer to this – in thinking that perhaps there was an immunological connection to the scandal. THAT jumped out at me like a red flag. An immunity connection in Alzheimer’s is not only a known competitor of the beta amyloid theory – it fits in with my recent belief that the entire depopulation plot is connected to and being implemented through a very intentional and surreptitious set of actions leading to a decrease of individual human immunity, to make us EACH more vulnerable.

Thus, Lesné’s actions, which sent the majority of Alzheimer’s research down a primrose path to nowhere, may have been a DIVERSION away from the immunological origins of Alzheimer’s disease.

You know – an origin such as VACCINES.

Yes. Timing is everything.

NOW – even if Ashe and Lesné are completely innocent (and that would include brainwashing by communists), I think this is an EXCELLENT time to look at Alzheimer’s AGAIN, as a potential product of things like viruses and vaccines, which we KNOW can have neurological effects.

LINK: https://www.science.org/content/article/why-pandemic-flu-shot-caused-narcolepsy

Yes. Vaccines which “go wrong” can affect the BRAIN through autoimmune actions.

Just sayin’.


III. Could Global Warming Concern in the Face of an Imminent Mini-Ice Age and an Incipient Full Ice Age Actually be Some Kind of Really Bad Science?

It should now be totally apparent that BAD SCIENCE on a global scale is not just possible – it’s EASY. This is without even bringing in the COVID debacle.

PLANET VULCAN, ANYONE?



You’ve seen it here in part I. BILLIONS of dollars have kept LIES alive and well in pharmaceutical science.

If it pays everybody to tell people there is a chemical imbalance that means they need a drug, it will be done, to sell the drug, or to tell the patient that there is hope. The bad information will be forwarded to doctors, and then to patients, to make those patients feel OK taking the drug. Eventually, it just becomes part of Fake Normal.

I mean, just ask PBS.

LINK: https://www.pbsnc.org/blogs/science/sunlight-happiness-link/

But WAIT – there’s MOAR.

Sometimes, not everybody is in on the “secret”.

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature04533

Consider (part II) that even a single author on a single scientific paper, followed by a few more images from that author on maybe a few dozen more papers, carrying subtle but convincing false evidence, can send BILLIONS of dollars, maybe tens or hundreds of billions of dollars, down a blind alley.

Not only that – the system will try to keep that money flowing in the same way, even when it is KNOWN by government bureaucrats to be based on faulty data.

Is it impossible that this kind of ERROR could extend to TRILLIONS of dollars?

I mean, who would actually WANT trillions of dollars?

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) were joined by Democratic lawmakers from both the House and Senate on February 7, 2019, to introduce Green New Deal legislation.

There is NOTHING in “anthropogenic global warming” or “climate change”, explained by the current theories, that cannot be explained equally well by the idea that a carbon dioxide prediction boondoggle (remember COVID models?) has occurred, as the result of BAD SCIENCE.

Indeed, the multiple and long-running FAILURES of the climate field would seem to this “poor” scientist to be rather similar to the FAILURES in anti-Alzheimer’s drugs. This kind of failure SHOULD point to severe theoretical problems in any NORMAL science situation, once freed from TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS of bad economic bets by politicians and financiers.

I remember – PERSONALLY – when we scientists were told by the leadership of the American Chemical Society that “anthropogenic global warming” was “settled science”. I knew MANY scientists in all branches of science – who were all SCIENTIFICALLY AFFECTED by this idea – who were still very actively debating the topic – and who like me were not convinced of AGW being real, true, or important, even if it did exist. The entire enterprise seemed HASTY and WRONG.

It seemed TOP-DOWN. It seemed IMPOSED. It seemed to contradict everything we knew about how science was supposed to operate – with major ideas normally taking YEARS if not DECADES of FIGHTING INSIDE SCIENCE to become crystal clear.

And OH YES – we had TIME.

SO – after reading about these two incidents of WRONG science being perpetuated by industry or academia, both knowingly and unknowingly, I do NOT think that “climate change” should be granted a pass.

I think the whole question of climate needs to “go back to the people”. That includes both SCIENTISTS who tell us WHAT IS FOUND, and THE PEOPLE who tell us WHAT MATTERS, once we find the truth.

Everybody else – the money, the media, the “leaders”, the shills, and the malevolent liars – need to get out of the way.

In particular, the MEDIA that pushes scientists’ opinions around with their “fake normal” and “fake science news” needs to STFU.

Don’t “trust the science”.

LET SCIENCE DISTRUST ITSELF.

And maybe, in fact definitely, YOU THE PEOPLE can help US, THE SCIENTISTS to DISTRUST SCIENCE……

BY NOT TRUSTING THE SCIENCE.

W

DEAR MAGA: Open Thread 20220728

Everything from sublime to ridiculous today, so diving in.

Some thoughts on Grassley’s strongly worded letter re the government agencies not doing their jobs:

Grassley and Durham Hone in on Their Next Target

Now, it would appear everyone has forgotten, but claims of the FBI/DOJ being corrupt and/or working with the DNC/Deep State, used to be considered kooky Q stuff. Now it’s widely considered as a reality. Just a friendly reminder that this is a proof, not red lines and numerology.

What I find most curious, is the timing of all this; as one of the individuals responsible for falsely labeling the Biden laptop as “disinformation”, FBI supervisory intelligence agent Brian Auten, also happens to be one of the 30 subpoenas issued by the Durham Investigation via the Danchenko trials coming up for his involvement in the 2016 election interference.

Auten interviewed Igor Danchenko, who was the main source of the Steele dossier, used to illegally spy on and smear Trump leading up to and after 2016.

Here Are the Senior Biden Officials Entangled in Durham’s Criminal Russiagate Probe

The months of silence from the special prosecutor do not signify a lack of activity as much as the ability to maintain secrecy, which the CIA is probably envious of.

Current Biden administration members are likely being put under the microscope by Durham’s team of investigators and attorneys.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, for instance, was thrown under by the bus by Clinton’s former campaign manager during Sussmann’s trial.

Clinton Campaign Manager Robby Mook, who managed Clinton’s failed 2016 presidential bid, said she signed off on peddling election disinformation. Mook testified she approved it despite campaign officials not being “totally confident” in the legitimacy of the data….

It ain’t over yet.

Forwarded from ULTRA Pepe Lives Matter 🐸 (Pepe Lives Matter)

MSDNC just lamented that the Great Awakening is unstoppable and the ideas that Q supposedly brought to the table have become mainstream.
They are upset that terms like groomer and deep state have become part of the mainstream lexicon and that we are winning the war of ideas.

We have become far more powerful during the precipice because everyday that goes by the truth is revealed more. They can’t stop it.
Boom.

(He almost said normie but caught himself btw)

From that perspective, XVII was a massive success.

A Few Good Headlines:

Okay, just headlines:

BEWARE: Disinfo Campaign Launched to Discredit Key Questions Concerning Ray Epps and January 6th

Epps disinformation curiously pops up and goes viral just days after a failed damage control attempt by the New York Times? Not to fear, the Associated Press is ready to pounce and expose the disinformers! To be fair, the AP didn’t do a bad job… and they were only a day slower than Revolver’s Darren Beattie.

The college industry is a waste of money, time and talent. And I’m putting it on trial

My experience founding and growing Turning Point USA into the largest conservative campus organization in the country has given me a unique vantage point into this corrupt world and hardened my conviction that the root of the college tree is rotten to the core. I am very pro-education, but I am most definitely anti-college.

Allow me to submit the evidence.

First, colleges are running a federally sponsored scam, in the most literal sense of the word.

The college industry is heavily subsidized by the federal government, making it a scam not only perpetrated against students, but taxpayers as well. 

Charlie Kirk takes college to the cleaners.

Trump Ally Defends Christian Nationalism as ‘Good and Healthy’

SOROS-FUNDED SERPENT IDOL TO REPLACE ICONIC ROBERT E. LEE STATUE IN NEW ORLEANS

The historic statue was replaced with a modern sculpture by Simone Leigh called “Sentinel.” The sculpture depicts a snake wrapped around the slender, spoon-like body of a female. The woman is a stylized depiction of the water deity Mami Wata, while the spoon is a symbol of status in Zulu culture.

In a statement, Naima J.  Keith and Diana Nawi, artistic directors of the 2021 New Orleans triennial, wrote: “Ultimately, Simone felt, and we agreed, that because the original placement of the Robert E. Lee atop the pedestal was one of power and domination—the statue loomed over the city, symbolizing the tyranny of white supremacy—that her work should be closer to the level of the individual.”

Mami Wata, also known as Mammy Water or La Sirene, is a water spirit venerated in Africa and the African diaspora in the Americas. Mami Wata spirits are usually female but are sometimes male. Mami Wata is frequently depicted with a snake wrapped around her waist.

According to the pagan beliefs associated with the idol, she demands sexual fidelity from her followers while representing sexuality and promiscuity. Her followers claim that she wants her followers to be healthy and well off, while at the same time, they blame the spirit for misfortune such as treacherous ocean currents or illness. While believed to be infertile, barren mothers often call upon the spirit to cure their affliction.

Oh, my.

About the Zelenskyy’s and the Vogue Photo Shoot….

With the Deep State’s favorite photographer, Annie Leibovitz.

Uh-huh.

https://twitter.com/PotatoSmug/status/1552266896162029570

Reading Room picks:

I was wrong about Trump

I recently wrote a column about why I believed Trump should not run in 2024. I was wrong. I allowed my distaste for Trump’s personality to override his virtues, which are considerable. Some people want Trump without his vices. I was among them — until yesterday, when I watched and listened to Tom Klingenstein’s speech titled “Trump’s virtues.”  It was masterful and shamed me that I did not make the distinction between Trump’s character and his virtues, the former being deeply flawed, the latter being almost perfect.

A Nation of Fools

The average 12-year-old student at a yeshiva has more wisdom than almost any student at Harvard or most other universities. (A yeshiva is an Orthodox Jewish school with an emphasis on religious studies. About half the school day is devoted to religious studies—taught from the original Hebrew sources.)

This is probably true for many 12-year-olds in traditional Christian schools as well.

College students do have more knowledge than almost any 12-year-old in religious school. But they have much less wisdom.

Dennis Prager

Narcissistic Rage on the Left

What is worrisome today is that the Obama-Biden left now seems to be deliberately adopting narcissistic rage as a weapon of war.  This can’t be pure chance, because the Democrats have a small army of high-paid consultants who write and massage their public messages.  When Liz Warren does her Vladimir Lenin imitation, we can see the professional polish of her act.  Those high-paid media spinners of the left will undoubtedly raise their rhetorical heat higher and higher toward the midterms.  That will not be an accident.  Some of the woke left may be genuinely mad, but there is method in their madness.  Their aim is to make all of us a little more mad.

Most Americans don’t like psychiatric jargon, but we don’t need jargon to feel Hitler’s narcissistic rage in those old speeches, even if we don’t understand the words.  Screaming hatred is a danger signal in everyday life, and it tells us to get away from the screamer as fast as possible.  Hitler’s radio rages were both deliberate and spontaneous: he went on the air to throw spectacular s— fits, and then he improved his act by getting ever more diabolical.

The Dehumanizing Tyranny of Densification

Stated simply, population densification will fundamentally undermine Americans’ ability to preserve their freedom and independence. You don’t have to reference Agenda 2030—about which it is now almost impossible to find any negative commentary online—to understand how easily a population can be controlled when it is relocated and concentrated into a handful of megacities.

What beachfront property says about global warming

Sure, I could have started this by pointing out, as many other observers have, that warmists ex-president Barack Obama and billionaire Bill Gates have recently bought low-lying beach properties.  That certainly seems in conflict with what they claim to believe about global warming and rising sea levels.  But Obama and Gates are human beings.  We human being are often inconsistent.  We sometimes support USC football and UCLA basketball.  Some of us root for both the New York Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys.  We sometime drink more than we know is good for us.

TWEETS:

https://twitter.com/PapiTrumpo/status/1551725438405312512

Even Scott Adams has seen the light on this.

https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet7/status/1551910999246135296
https://twitter.com/JamesMelville/status/1552183280732094465

Yeah…no. And I’m a city girl.

https://twitter.com/PapiTrumpo/status/1552356484687831040
https://twitter.com/RobertJ04760227/status/1552370929686151168
https://twitter.com/JessieLivermore/status/1552292652053413888

Thank you, Sir Charles Barkley. (It’s worth hearing the potentially sensitive content.)

MEMES:

https://twitter.com/TheFigen/status/1550872125732438016

If you haven’t listened to JT Wilde’s Patriot Games yet, here it is:

____________________________________

And now for the business portion.

Please review our HOST and site owner’s Guidelines for posting and discussion for this site. Wolf is kind enough to put up with *most* of us and our antics after thorough vetting. Violators of the baiting and deliberately attempting to divide the group rules WILL face consequences.

The discourse on this site is to be CIVIL – no name calling, baiting, or threatening others here is allowed. Company manners are appreciated. Those who are so inclined may visit Wolf’s other sanctuary, the U-Tree, to slog out discussions best saved for a wrestling mat. If, for some reason, this site is not available, head over to the UTree and visit the post at the top of the list or the closest rescue thread.

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Be careful in expressing thoughts as we would all like to think well of the rest of the group, and ill-thought out comments have a way of wrecking that for everyone.

Fellow tree dweller, the late Wheatie, gave us some good reminders on the basics of civility in political discourse:

  1. No food fights
  2. No running with scissors
  3. If you bring snacks, be sure they are made with bacon

Auntie DePat’s requests as we are all supposedly adults and don’t just play them on TV like the body doubles pretending to be the squatter in chief:

If you see something has not been posted, do us all a favor, and post it. Please, do not complain that it has not been done yet.

The scroll wheel on your mouse can be your friend. As mature adults, please use it here in the same manner you would in avoiding online porn.

Thank you so much for any and all attention to such details. It is GREATLY appreciated by more than one party here.

____________________________________________________

MATTHEW 13:47-53

47“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind; 48when it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into vessels but threw away the bad. 49So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous, 50and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. 51“Have you understood all this?” They said to him, “Yes.” 52And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” 53And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there,

_____________________________________________________

Dear KAG: 20220727 Open Thread

https://twitter.com/hilarityjane/status/1551934076726247425

For those who do not know, we here in the Lion of the Valley, aka the STL region, got slammed with record rainfall in the wee hours of Tuesday. As in the Emergency Broadcast Service alarm and flash flood warning was issued at three o’clock in the morning when it was dark outside, and pouring and blared on every phone in the house.

Seriously…we went from one rainy day in six weeks to this:

That is the MetroLink station at Forest Park/DeBaliviere where the two mass transit rail lines come together. I’ve spent a lot of time on that platform over the years. In its existence, yeah, there’s been some minor flooding, but the platform has never been totally covered. To put it mildly, we’ve got a mess here. My part of STL County, at the low parts, got hit REALLY hard. Chain link fences along the open storm drains are down everywhere. Thankfully, building in the flood plains was kept to a minimum.

And I’m a little punchy, so here it goes:

America First Policy Institute…we love him more than the think tank.

About Senator Grassley’s strongly worded letter to the FBI and DOJ….

From Sundance:

Senator Chuck Grassley Outlines “Systemic Institutional Corruption” Within Dept of Justice and FBI

Unfortunately, what this amounts to, is Senator Grassley is telling Chris Wray and Merrick Garland, the leaders of the institutionally corrupt activity, that they are systemically corrupt. Which is akin to telling a criminal that he is engaged in unlawful conduct.

and Technofrog:

FBI Whistleblowers Allege FBI Scheme to Protect Hunter Biden and Joe Biden

If these allegations are true, it’s a damning depiction of FBI leadership and it proves their efforts to influence the 2020 election. This is the second (if not third) straight election the FBI has meddled in, given the influence the Trump/Russia investigation – and its unlawful origins with the FBI – had over the 2018 midterms.

What good will this do? Maybe some waking up of still snoozing normies, but not much else.

These Post-Vaccine Blood Clots Aren’t Blood Clots: There’s Something Very Strange Going On

Essentially, they analyzed the elemental composition of the post-vaccine clots from deceased samples and compared those to naturally-occurring blood clots in untampered (non-injected) human blood. He says he has found several things that are “shocking.”

#1) The post-vaccine clots are not made of blood

The science sorts here will parse this further, I trust.

The Professional Republican Club Blames Inflation and More Discerning MAGA Supporters for Failure to Support Selected Club Candidates

The professionally republican party members, led by Ronna McDaniel Inc, are not happy with the grassroots MAGA voters who are not filling their party campaign coffers at the anticipated rate.

If the donors of the grassroot MAGA base continue to withhold financial contributions, mostly due to a lack of club alignment with the priorities of the voting base and the right wing of the DC UniParty refusing to act for our interests, the professional republican club business may suffer.  The tenured board members of the club are not happy. Not happy at all.

Boo effing who.

CNN crying towel piece:

How two Texas megadonors have turbocharged the state’s far-right shift

This is Texas now: While the Lone Star State has long been a bastion of Republican politics, new laws and policies have taken Texas further to the right in recent years than it has been in decades.

Elected officials and political observers in the state say a major factor in the transformation can be traced back to West Texas. Two billionaire oil and fracking magnates from the region, Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, have quietly bankrolled some of Texas’ most far-right political candidates — helping reshape the state’s Republican Party in their worldview.

And a lot of Americans agree.

Senator Liawatha Rants Big Mad with Forked Tongue

Essentially Liawatha is big mad because Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is raising interest rates into a contracting economy.

The duplicitous senator accurately notes what the fed chairman is doing is only going to deepen the recession and hurt main street worse.

American workers are going to suffer, and the middle-class is going to bear the majority of the pain inflicted by the Biden administration policy.

All of that is true, but Fauxcahontus is not stupid.  Instead, she attempts to distance herself with forked tongue while knowing the monetary policy is specifically designed to support the energy policy she demands.

Bee-Line to Extinction: TBS Kills Off Leftist Sam Bee’s ‘Comedy’ Show

It’s about effing time.

Knoxville’s Leanne Morgan is funny, but she isn’t political, so….

Reading room items:

The harridans on ‘The View’ got rebuked by their own legal department

Where did the money go? Ukraine set to default on loans after American taxpayers provided tens of billions in aid

What Greens don’t get about volcanoes, oceans, and weather

The Republican Party is about to betray Christians and destroy the traditional family

Tucker Carlson targets up a serious, dangerous crisis in American science

Anderson Cooper: It’s Weird That Democrats Are Funding GOP Candidates They Say Are Threats To Democracy

Tweets!

https://twitter.com/JosephJFlynn1/status/1551871340675735552
https://twitter.com/TheFigen/status/1551560678590267392
https://twitter.com/TheFigen/status/1551894929072394240
https://twitter.com/disrupttheplan/status/1551662561124302848

^^^^THIS^^^^

https://twitter.com/TheFigen/status/1551893968379678725
https://twitter.com/PapiTrumpo/status/1552057537373081601

And…of course:

https://twitter.com/PapiTrumpo/status/1552049664903479296

MEMES!

https://twitter.com/TheFigen/status/1551926392266362881

Have a good day y’all.

(I don’t remember who brought this to a daily in the comments, but thanks.)

And, of course, the obligatory George Carlin:

Per the Boss:

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Fellow tree dweller, the late Wheatie, gave us some good reminders on the basics of civility in political discourse:

  1. No food fights.
  2. No running with scissors.
  3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone

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__________________________________________________

JEREMIAH 15:10, 16-21

10Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me. 16Thy words were found, and I ate them, and thy words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I am called by thy name, O LORD, God of hosts. 17I did not sit in the company of merrymakers, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone, because thy hand was upon me, for thou hadst filled me with indignation. 18Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Wilt thou be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail? 19Therefore thus says the LORD: “If you return, I will restore you, and you shall stand before me. If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall be as my mouth. They shall turn to you, but you shall not turn to them. 20And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you, for I am with you to save you and deliver you, says the LORD. 21I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.”

As always, prayers for the fight against that which seeks to enslave us are welcome.

Please include: President Donald Trump, the Q team, our soldiers in the field, special forces, tactical units, first responders and those working behind the scenes…and any and all people with family members in the hospital, COVID or not.

And…members of the QTree who no longer participate for one reason or another, as well as Gil, RDS, Bakocarl, Nora, Cthulhu (who is getting prayers whether it’s life threatening or not) and any others facing serious health issues right now..

It is quite clear, as per Wolf’s message from July, that we are under spiritual attack. Building up a robust arsenal of prayer and discipline is a must in fighting the enemy and his minions.

In that spirit, the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel from Tuesday’s threads, and the Breastplate of St. Patrick, not to mention the Litany of Humility are favorites recommended by exorcists in spiritual warfare.

SATIRE SECTION

Dear KAG: 20220726 Open Thread

Cover image: Afternoon by Boat by Irene Borg

Okay, I have been collecting links since Friday. I’m just going to clear the tabs in no particular order. I am sure people have read some of these:

DC RINOs Campaign Against Trump-Endorsed Gubernatorial Candidate Kari Lake

Revolution and the Minds of Children

Yes, I did know about the Mexican Revolution of 1917. I read Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory when I was a senior in high school. Thank you Sister S.

Axios reveals Trump’s plan to take out the deep state

I seriously question if the Axios piece wasn’t a canary trap of some sort.

A more robust culture

Is the Government Directing Big Tech Censorship?

The Stigmatization of the Ordinary

Libertarians Are Not Our Friends

Matt Gaetz: Women Who ‘Look Like A Thumb’ Shouldn’t Gripe About Abortion Rights

Check out the tweet section. He doubled down on that.

Is Q a PSYOP?

Some Lessons from January 6 Committee Finale

An Appeal to Heaven

How Evil Advances: The Tyranny of Good Intentions

yes, birx is lying about her vaccine stance

She really did give us scarf wearers a bad name.

Pretending Has Consequences – Western Media and Western Govt Continue Saying, Falsely, Global Food Crisis Caused by Russia

Those western climate and energy policies create downstream consequences.  The decision to chase a new global energy policy under the name “Build Back Better,” in combination with short-sighted EU sanctions against Russia, and you get food shortages. And boy howdy are they trying to avoid taking responsibility for it.

It was not Vladimir Putin who told British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz their proactive recommendation to switch from crop-based biofuels to human food would be blocked.  That G7 decision was made by Justin Trudeau and Joe Biden. {link} Even more significantly, it was not Russia who threatened the multinational energy companies about investing in Africa for expanded natural gas supplies for their fertilizer needs. That threat came from the same western government alliance, per their instructions from the World Economic Forum group {link}.

It was predictable {JUNE 21st} {June 30th} and {July 6th} that western government leaders would seek to avoid responsibility for the food crisis they created, and now we see more western media trying, desperately, to frame the Putin is to blame for global food shortages in order to protect them.

CONTROVERSIAL LINK OF THE DAY:

China’s Response to Pompeo vs. Pelosi

TheStormHasArrived17

Forwarded from StormyPatriotJoe ️️️ Channel (Stormy Patriot Joe)

6/4/2020 Q 4414 Clas movement of Pelosi

4/11/2021 Pompeo tweets chessboard
Eating Taiwanese dried pineapple
“Checkmate”

7/24/2022
Pompeo tweets about meeting Nancy Pelosi in Taiwan

Nothing to see here
Not odd at all
Not Comms or anything
Move along

Still keeping options open on who is on what side, although this movie is turning into one heck of a long mini-series.

Tweet hopper:

https://twitter.com/Carol38553/status/1550837780560969730

When the Democrats have Jonathan Turley defending Clarence Thomas, we are definitely in interesting times.

https://twitter.com/PapiTrumpo/status/1551306752204742656

Any thoughts?

Meme hopper:

I’m not that optimistic just yet.

Whadya think…header image?

https://twitter.com/Yoda4ever/status/1551207195001233409

Something to remember, always.

Per the boss’s instruction:

I’d throw in a few Rockefellers and Rothschilds also.

Of course, this does not mean committing felonies, but standing up to the forces that want to tear this nation – and humanity apart. The very people XVII told us will be destroyed by the time this movie comes to an end are currently roaming the halls of power…supposedly. It’s a sickening sight.

Your weekly reminder to take the pledge:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”

Guidelines for posting and discussion on this site were outlined by our host, WolfM00n. Please, review them from time to time.

The discourse on this site is to be CIVIL – no name calling, baiting, or threatening others here is allowed. Those who are so inclined may visit Wolf’s other sanctuary, the U-Tree, to slog it out. There is also a “rescue” thread there for members of the Tree to rendezvous if the main site goes kablooey. A third site has been added for site outages of longer duration.

This site is a celebration of the natural rights endowed to humans by our Creator as well as those enshrined in the Bill of Rights adopted in the founding documents of the United States of America. Within the limits of law, how we exercise these rights is part of the freedom of our discussion.

Fellow tree dweller, the late Wheatie, gave us some good reminders on the basics of civility in political discourse:

  1. No food fights.
  2. No running with scissors.
  3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.

And Auntie DePat’s requests:

If you see something has not been posted, do us all a favor, and post it. Please, do not complain that it has not been done yet.

The scroll wheel on your mouse can be your friend. As mature adults, please use it here in the same manner you would in avoiding online porn.

Thank you so much for any and all attention to such details. It is GREATLY appreciated by more than one party here.

__________________________________________________

MATTHEW 20:20-28

20Then the mother of the sons of Zeb’edee came up to him, with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. 21And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Command that these two sons of mine may sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” 22But Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” 23He said to them, “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” 24And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. 25But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. 26It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; 28even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

109

Anonymous ID: hHkrVD7x No.148156632 
Nov 5 2017 20:06:36 (EST)

Anonymous ID: pqW40Wgk No.148156518 
Nov 5 2017 20:05:48 (EST)

>>148154137

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And do thou, Prince of the Heavenly Hosts, by the power of God, cast down to Hell Satan and all his evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

>>148156518
Amen brother.
Q

As always, prayers for the fight against that which seeks to enslave us are welcome. Via con Dios.

Dear KMAG: 20220725 Joe Biden Didn’t Win ❀ Open Topic

Joe Biden didn’t win. This is our Real President:

US President Donald J Trump (L) and First Lady Melania Trump (R) await the arrival of Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison and his wife, Jenny Morrison, to the South Lawn of the White House for a state arrival ceremony in Washington, DC, USA, 20 September 2019. The occasion marks the second state visit of Donald Trump’s presidency.

AND our beautiful REALFLOTUS.


This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).

And indeed, it’s Monday…again.

But we WILL get through it!

…and we will have fun doing it, too!


The Rules

TL;DR –

Wheatie’s Rules:

  1. No food fights.
  2. No running with scissors.
  3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.

Boilerplate, more or less, but worth reading again and again, if only for the minor changes, and to stay out of moderation.

The bottom line is Free Speech. Theories and ideas you don’t agree with must be WELCOME here, and you must be part of that welcoming. But you do NOT need to be part of any agreement.

Bottom line – respect other people’s FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS.

Our only additional requirement is that you do so NICELY. Or at least try to make some effort in that direction.

SO….. [ENGAGE BOILERPLATE…..]

We must endeavor to persevere to love our frenemies – even here.

Those who cannot deal with this easy requirement will be forced to jump the hoops of moderation, so that specific comments impugning other posters and violating the minimal rules can be sorted out and tossed in the trash.

In Wheatie’s words, “We’re on the same side here so let’s not engage in friendly fire.”

That includes the life skill of just ignoring certain other posters.

We do have a site – The U Tree – where civility is not a requirement. Interestingly, people don’t really go there much. Nevertheless, if you find yourself in an “argument” that can’t really stay civil, please feel free to “take it to the U Tree”. The U Tree is also a good place to report any technical difficulties, if you’re unable to report them here. Please post your comment there on one of Wolf’s posts, or in reply to one of Wolf’s comments, to make sure he sees it (though it may take a few hours).

We also have a backup site, called The Q Tree as well, which is really The Q Tree 579486807. You might call it “Second Tree”. The URL for that site is https://theqtree579486807.wordpress.com/. If this site (theqtree.com) ever goes down, please reassemble at the Second Tree.

If the Second Tree goes down, please go to The U Tree, or to our Gab Group, which is located at https://gab.com/groups/4178.

We also have some “old rules” and important guidelines, outlined here, in a very early post, on our first New Year’s Day, in 2019. The main point is not to make violent threats against people, which then have to be taken seriously by law enforcement, and which can be used as a PRETEXT by enemies of this site.

In the words of Wheatie, “Let’s not give the odious Internet Censors a reason to shut down this precious haven that Wolf has created for us.”


A Moment of Prayer

Our policy on extreme religious freedom on this site is discussed HERE. Please feel free to pray and praise God anytime and anywhere.

Thus, please pray for our real President, the one who actually won the election.

You may also pray for our nation, our world, and even our enemies.


Musical Interlude

In the style of our beloved Wheatie, we include some music for your enjoyment.

This week, some LATER (90’s) but absolutely quintessential MEAT LOAF.

I remember when this guy’s improbable music burst on the scene. It was catchy – I grew rather fond of it. A gal I knew LOVED his first album (which at that time was an LP vinyl record). She was a really good person – a model scientist, in the rear-view mirror of life. I have no idea what happened to her, but…..

In her honor, Meat Loaf!


Call To Battle

Our beloved country is under Occupation by hostile forces.

Daily outrage and epic phuckery abound.

We can give in to despair…or we can be defiant and fight back in any way that we can.

Joe Biden didn’t win.

And we will keep saying Joe Biden didn’t win until we get His Fraudulency out of our White House.


Wolfie’s Wheatie’s Word of the Day Year Week:

gynocracy

noun

government by women; gynarchy

Used in a (rather long) paragraph:

Sadly, when the old-boy system of Shallow State was overthrown, it was ultimately replaced by a politically obsessive and scientifically incompetent globalist gynocracy, which marginalized many of the most scientifically and technically competent women, simply to defend and preserve the new progressive political order. Token men interspersed the chain of command, relied upon for their technical competence, but valued above all for their loyalty to the new order. Religious global warming, ‘settled science’, political correctness, and the rise of corrupt Chinese communist science ethics were the result. Many old white women were replaced by young Indian men with more flexible and unquestioning ethics, but little domain knowledge. As a final bit of gender irony, the entire spread of the hen-house was better referred to as ‘Obamatization’, than named after our new lady commissar, since the rise of Obama was clearly a higher focal point of the entire plot. Still, there was a shining moment, somewhere between the men in black and the Marxists in pantsuits, when we sailed happily past a state of freedom, equality, truth, and scientific integrity, and thus I can tell you, without a doubt, that such a world exists, even if not in the here and now.

Used in a picture (literally):

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/2018/09/30/life_in_a_gynocracy_454821.html

ENJOY THE SHOW

Have another great week!

W

https://youtu.be/ifs8crL5p4E

House of Haslam, Part 2 – The Rise To An Industry Power

As promised we will now move into the HOH rise to power within the expanding Pilot Oil empire in the vehicular retail fuel distribution industry. From the start of the business until Big Jim’s buy out of Marathon’s ownership, the company grew primarily through internally generated cash flow, smaller bank loans and funding from Marathon. Convenience with fuel stops was the path of the industry and Pilot was good at it. As the cash flows became stronger Pilot’s headquarters in Knoxville began to expand with more support staff. Experimenting with the travel center concept began. During this time Knoxville had been introduced to the general public internationally with the 1982 World’s Fair, so Pilot’s marketing opportunity to become a fixture in the minds of motorists throughout the country was magnified. In 1980, The Wall Street Journal gave Knoxville the “scruffy little city” name that stuck as the city bid for the fair. A section of the city and businesses within adopted it and became known as Scruffy City. The WSJ’s intent to disparage was adopted and turned by locals into a compliment and business opportunity.

During the period there had been complications within the Tennessee banking industry as the empires of Jake and CH Butcher crumbled in the early 80s with Jake’s obsession with his ill-fated run for governor (Democrat), funding of the World’s Fair and related businesses, while also growing their bank holdings through an investor Ponzi type scheme. Along the way they would siphon off excessive cash for themselves and personal ventures. The Haslam family had steered clear of the Butcher shenanigans, however, all banks were being impacted by the downturn in the industry after banking deregulation and the 1986 tax reform act. This led Pilot to rely on their partner and supplier, Marathon, along with a handful of financial institutions to fund the growth in locations.

Pilot, which had strongly increased its retail locations regionally, began expanding into the rest of the country through acquisitions as well as internal development of travel centers. They had somewhat perfected operations, customer products, facilities design, marketing, and so forth. There were many independents in the travel sector and the southeastern U. S region. There were also chains with lower facilities costs that mixed retail and trucking needs equally in Speedway and RaceTrac as well as higher end, trucker dominated chains known as TravelCenters of America (TA) and Petro (now owned by TA). Each had its own operations model and target market. However, the industry was splintered nationwide and no industry consolidation efforts were underway. It was still the wild, wild west in the sector. Pilot saw its opportunity.

Jimmy and Bill Haslam had begun to make their marks on the company at this point with Jimmy being more operations and marketing oriented and Bill with more finance and executive management duties. The buy out of Marathon had increased their ownership interests at the same time that regional banks had begun increasing risk taking with finance as well as making acquisitions of other banks. Pilot had grown to a size that made it an attractive target for corporate banking. Big Jim’s politicking and associations with other business leaders and bankers around the country began to pay off for the business.

Store without fast food franchisee

Enter Goober Gump

As previously discussed, my life had changed significantly in the mid-80’s with a divorce, move to east TN and remarriage. My employment began in east TN with a large, regional, Memphis based bank that had made acquisitions of bankrupted Butcher banks around the state. They needed a commercial loan officer to develop the Knoxville business market, the third largest market in the state, from a bank they had acquired in a nearby county. Their intent was to acquire a bank or simply branch into Knoxville after building a book of business. I expressed my interest, interviewed and received the job offer. A month later I moved to the area and began.

Commercial loan officers are employed to make and service commercial (business) financing. So the job meant I needed to get out of the office and go meet potential customers and referral sources to learn more about their businesses and build relationships. Once an opportunity to do business occurred, my job was to determine if the business customer had the profile, financial condition, ability, etc. to use the financing to accomplish their business goals and repay the loan(s) to the bank on a timely basis as agreed.

It is one of those unusual jobs where you ask a prospective customer for their business, the prospective customer agrees to give it to you or give you a shot to see what you can do, and then sometimes you have to back out of taking their business and decline it because the prospective customer may not be able to repay the loan or your employer may not want the prospect’s business type in its loan portfolio. Weird, huh? Happens everyday, multiple times per day, all across the business world in America and other capitalistic countries.

Over the next seven years I built a customer and referral base in the market with a couple of banking employers. I obtained 90+% of my customer base through customer involved professionals or by satisfied existing customers. I called on every CPA and attorney who would give me time to gain their trust as they are an integral part of every successful business owner’s team. For two of those years I left bank employment to partner in a small commercial real estate financing firm that worked with commercial developers and financing sources. We later merged into a much larger regional banking and mortgage operation based in Virginia who wanted a presence in our market. With the merger I returned to a better version of business banking that included commercial real estate financing. In addition to being a business lender I became the regional underwriter of all commercial real estate loans. Later, I was also given the role of the regional commercial construction underwriter. To say I wore many hats in that banking organization would be an understatement. Senior management asked me to attend an executive seminar series in my areas of expertise at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville at their famous Darden Graduate School of Business. I was humbled as this was an honor since the school was then and is still rated now in the Top Ten in the world. While there I listened to lectures and broke bread in the evenings with other business bankers and a couple of their highly accomplished graduate school professors. Turned out the professors moonlighted as consultants and trainers of corporate and small business bankers for my employer and were scheduled to do so in our state’s main offices in six months. I was aware of a training I had to attend during the time period, so it was easy to put two and two together. We scheduled time together at that future event. This was in the fall of 1991.

My employer finished that year going through yet another bank merger, this time to form a top twenty in assets sized bank that was located in a half dozen states primarily in the southeastern U. S. Our systems and loan policy remained as they were and it all appeared to be business as usual, a true merger of equals. So in the spring of 1992 I headed to the training event and met with the professors. We hit it off well again and came up with a plan where they would do a training program designed for prospective business customers in our area over a three day event. I made arrangements for facilities and invited business owners and leaders in our area. I would act as the presenter on behalf of my employer, who would sponsor the shindig.

Upon my return to the office the next week after the training session, I looked up from my desk to see four men in suits walk into our offices. Big Jim, Jimmy, Bill and their CFO had made arrangements to see us through my supervisor while I was gone. It turned out they were long term friends and had done business previously with our bank’s state President. The President had sent them to us to work on a financing project since they were local to our market. My supervisor typically handled the large corporate accounts and had been assigned as primary contact. My role typically was more small business accounts under $20 million in sales. However, it appeared the professors had informed the President that I needed to run point on underwriting Pilot’s financing proposal, especially since it involved commercial real estate and construction. My supervisor was known to be a good back slapper, but not much with the numbers and the President wanted it done right since the loan facility was his to present to the Board of Directors in our state. No pressure on ole Goober Gump, right?

The Deal

Over the next couple of weeks we met with one or more of the Haslam’s a few times along with their CFO many times. The deal itself was to take their version of the travel center prototype they had been developing and fine tuning, and formally introduce it throughout the country. Pilot had developed a prototype that was mid-cost in the sector. It had much more to offer than the independents and low end companies, but was lesser cost and expansive as well as more retail customer oriented than the high end TA’s and Petro’s, which were dominated by trucking customers.

In 1992 dollars it meant their average project cost was $3-4 million depending on land and local building costs whereas the low end competition was at $1.5 to $2 million with less products and services. The higher end competition was at $5-7 million per location. The mutually agreed financing plan even provided for them to be able to expand the facilities with loan funds of some of their proposed locations at their sole discretion later if business was good. They had tested the concept with actual locations and felt comfortable they would succeed. After non-disclosures were executed, the details and projections were provided. I was assigned to work directly with the Pilot CFO, who I liked a great deal. Just a regular guy doing his job well.

I would be remiss if I did not give my observations and impressions of Big Jim, Jimmy and Bill. They were pretty much as you might imagine. Big Jim was confident and cordial to all of us including the admin assistants. It was clear he was large and in charge. Jimmy ignored all of us except my supervisor. He was all business and it was clear in his mind he did not want to mingle with the lesser players. Bill made it a point to get to know everybody, ask what our roles were and shake hands. He was very polite and people oriented.

Upon completion of the underwriting and presentation of the financing for approval by the President, we were given the perfunctory ‘atta boys and girls’. We had the satisfaction of helping a locally based national business take the next step. The financing itself was a $45 million participation loan with a half dozen other regional banks taking anywhere from $2-10 million dollars for their portfolios. It was a considerable sum in those days. The loan facility provided for Pilot to construct and start up operations on as many as ten travel centers around the country initially. It was designed differently than most packages and outside of normal loan policy. From the beginning, loan proceeds would be used to start construction of facilities after Pilot acquired the land with their own funds. Upon the first use of loan funds there would be interest only payments on the loan balance outstanding for each location for up to three years. The locational loan balance that remained at the end of that three year period would be amortized over 10 years. As loan balances were paid down, loan funds would be freed up to finance additional locations in the same manner. If it worked as well as projected, the financing package could be renewed periodically and continue for as long as Pilot desired to expand.

In practice, Pilot accelerated the pay downs of loan balances faster than projected as many of the locations were major successes. Only a handful were amortized. This accelerated their expansion. It was not long before other larger banks began offering the company similar, larger loan facilities, which allowed them to take the expansion nationwide even faster. They struck deals for acquisitions of other smaller competitors that banks clamored to finance. Domination of an industry had begun.

Their timing for the expansion could not have been better. Slick Clinton had gone in as POTUS and the GOP had taken over Congress with Newt’s Contract with America. Business was rolling and jobs were plentiful. America was on the move.

As a side note before we move on, fuel providers for vehicles make very little money selling gas and diesel. Typically they make their money on the stuff and junk they sell (my personal technical banking terms – lol). Stuff is food items and junk is non-perishables of every type if you have ever visited a travel center. They also make money on leasing fast food space to franchisees as well as providing specific services to corporate trucking customers. Pilot did not start fuel wars, but they could move their prices down with them to keep customer traffic up and outlast the independents because of the profit margins in all of the stuff, junk, leases and services.

Stuff
Junk

The Larry and Bob Show

Normally the story would end there for Goober Gump’s 15 minutes of fame. However, it did not as while all of that was underway, the event I had planned with my UVA professor buddies was being set in motion. The name I came up with for promotion was The Larry and Bob Show. Obviously, those were their first names. In their side venture as trainers of commercial bankers, they had developed quite a routine that utilized great humor. For old timers, picture Mutt and Jeff as high end business professors doing their schtick. The only visual difference was the tall one was also heavy and the short one had an average build. Their presentation was spectacular in terms of business value and entertainment. They held the attention of every attendee for three days and all of us gained a great deal of practical knowledge, applicational tools and business wisdom that we could apply.

Included in the group of 40 invitees was the CFO of Pilot along with a host of other business owners and key managers of businesses from the area. The CFO had already cut a deal with the Haslam’s to leave after the financing and project began to go to a nearby state and build two independent travel centers that he planned to own and operate while granting Pilot a first right of refusal to buy them if he ever sold. Which is what happened and he never had to work again, but I lost track of him. Another of those attending you may have heard of by the name of his new business venture at that time, Regal Cinemas. Yes, Michael Campbell, the founder of Regal along with his partner/CFO at that time were participants in our event with the professors. He would later grow Regal Entertainment Group into the largest and most influential cinema chain in the world. It is now the second largest. And yes, his company was based in Knoxville. Regal sold a majority interest in it to Cineworld out of Great Britain in 2017. After the event he made it a point of thanking me, Larry and Bob, and the bank for all they had learned from the event. Our corporate bankers were soon granted access to work on Regal’s future financial needs due to the relationship we built. Similar results occurred with nearly all of the attendees.

Life Change

I had given my eye opener to senior management. My thoughts were, “Hey guys, none of you have ever done something like this that worked this well and brought in so much business, throw me a bone.” I had spent $20 K of my region’s marketing budget to produce untold millions in profit long term for the bank. My expectations were to be given a more clear path to position upside in our growing organization instead of them throwing even more responsibility at me in more market segments without more compensation. The actual senior management response was disappointing. I received a 5% of salary bonus at year end with a bank wide announcement that, once again, we were merging with a larger bank in early 1993. We would soon be working for Hugh McColl and NCNB with a name change to NationsBank. Our policies would be changed to their policies and reorganization was in the works. So, in reality, we sold out to a brutal dictator type CEO and his cronies. Great. It was the same NationsBank that later acquired Bank of America on the west coast and changed their name to it.

In not quite 4 years I had worked through three mergers, four assigned customer market changes, taken on two additional market segments to underwrite all regional requests, and had four immediate supervisor changes – while still exceeding every personal job performance goal they set before me. In return I received mediocre salary trap compensation, no clear upside mobility, and a heck of a lot of frustration. It seemed the referral and customer base held more respect for my work than my own employer who benefitted greatly from it. Even other bank employers had inquired about making a move to them, which I had declined.

As we entered the fall of 1993, I had enough of commercial banking even though I loved my small business banking role. I resigned and went to work in senior management for a local, long term established equipment dealership. I learned a hard lesson in a very short period of time that one should refrain from doing things in frustration or based solely on increased compensation. Eight months later I was unemployed as I had learned they were committing bank, insurance, and tax fraud while violating every applicable environmental law on the books. I did not think I would look good in a prison uni, so it was better to vacate than try to fix the unfixable. For what it is worth, a few years later they tanked and creditors sold off their remaining assets.

During this period I hit 40 years old. I was unemployed and burned out from playing the game. I helped others realize their dreams including the Haslam’s and many others while struggling to provide reasonably for my own family when considering the time and commitment that was required. I still had bills to pay, a family to provide for, and a lot of years left to live if it fit the Lord’s plan. So, I hit my knees and gave all of me to Him, not just the parts I wanted to give. I revisited The Cross, the place He died for my sins and the sins of the world. I gave him all of my goods and the bads and handed him the keys. I was done trying to get ahead and giving more than I should have to the world. Whatever happened, from that point, happened. He would determine, not me. I literally prayed all night and followed up with renewed dedication daily.

The next morning I called a friend who ran a small business banking operation for the holding company of a small group of local rural banks. He had asked me for years to work with him. It was time if he would have me. I needed less job pressure and to do what I enjoyed doing instead of playing somebody else’s game. I was at peace in my heart, even though I knew the salary would be much smaller albeit with a good commission percentage for getting deals done. The customers would be small businesses and we would use SBA guaranteed financing programs a lot of the time. My trusted referral sources could use my services for clients. My friend and now, new boss, told me the offer would be in the mail that day, to consider it done. I asked if I had time to take my family on vacation for a week that we had scheduled previously and he agreed.

Effectively, I had taken a major step back in the world’s view, however, I decided it was time to bet on me and doing it the Lord’s way from that point on.

The vacation went wonderfully. I sat at the ocean’s edge with my wife and daughter for the most part of 6 days as my internal peacefulness grew. My wonderful wife continued to do her part upon our return and stand in the gap for us throughout the process. She found part time work in a mortgage company to supplement our income in the interim after having left her full time banking position the year before to take care of our young daughter who had just started school with a hearing disorder. She wanted her husband back, the guy she married and not the guy I had become while striving so hard to get ahead.

It was a bet we would win together with the Lord’s clear direction and blessing.

Don’t think I have strayed too far from the series as this will lead to the next part of the HOH story. We are not done with them yet by a long shot. Stay tuned.

For you, Sunshine…

Look at the quiet reverence of his friends as greatness is displayed.