Decades ago I went to Kenya on a safari. Rather than the lux safaris of today, it was an overland camping trip. Showers were in a tent with a hanging bucket and we enjoyed incredible meals cooked on an open fire. Initially we traveled by safari truck and then traded trucks for horses. Our camp was broken down each morning after we departed and reset at our destination. We galloped with animals, outran storms, engaged with the Masai and swam in water holes. The Masai guarded our campsite at night to protect the horses from the lions. It was phenomenal. One thing we all learned, Africa holds a special allure. Is it “miles and miles of bloody Africa”, hanging with wildlife or something more elemental that speaks to our souls. It doesn’t matter why, it just is. I had to go back.
Sadly the world has become too careful for safaris like the above but there is something to be said for a comfortable bed, indoor plumbing and hot water bottles on a chilly morning. Plus my 20+ year quest to convince Earl to go to Africa would have failed immediately if I even mentioned the word “camping”.
With a commitment that this trip would include the finer things in life such as air conditioning, we started our research. We highly recommend Rob Slater of Safari Consultants who crafted a wonderful trip that satisfied both of our requirements. We settled on South Africa because there is a nonstop flight from Washington DC to Cape Town and the animal viewing in the north was best when we wanted to travel, our summer and their winter.
What follows is a four part photographic story of our journey beginning in Cape Town where we spent three days before and after our time at the safari camps.
Cape Town is a good city and has the potential to be great if they can solve their cultural and crime problems. Apartheid was truly abhorrent. It began to crumble in 1990 and was officially dead in 1994. Unfortunately however, South African leadership has not found a path forward culturally or economically that enables the majority of the citizens to lift themselves out of poverty. Crime is a serious problem. It was safe to walk around the V&A Waterfront after dark due to notable police presence but nowhere else.
On the other hand, Cape Town is beautiful, people are unusually friendly, there is plenty to see and do and it’s relatively inexpensive for a sizable city. Plus the excellent restaurants are a foodie’s delight.
Rob recommended the Fairmount Cape Grace in the V&A Waterfront and we loved everything about it. Another hotel that gets attention is the Silo Hotel. The photo below is from the Silo’s rooftop deck. The Fairmont is the brick building bottom right.
Table Mountain dominates the Cape Town skyline and often has a cloud cap in winter as shown in the photo above, upper left. For a great view, the more adventurous can hike up Table Mountain or, like us, take the cable car and hike the trails at the top. We were walking in a cloud for much of our visit but that too was interesting.
One of the coolest things about Cape Town is a working dry dock in the middle of the tourist area. In the photo below, they have floated the boat and are in the process of opening the gate. The Fairmont Cape Grace is the structure far left.
One of the more bizarre happenings was a standing protest every Saturday exactly at 2:00pm with pro and anti-Isreal protestors chanting at each other. What do the nearby store employees say: “Please make it stop”.
During our wanders in the V&A Waterfront, we went to the excellent Oranjezicht Market wishing we had gone before lunch.
We thoroughly enjoyed Kirstenbosch Gardens. Miles of good walking trails in a beautiful environment.
How nice that this collared sunbird landed in the bird of paradise just as I was taking a shot.
We visited Bo-Kapp formerly known as the Malay Quarter. It is at the foot of Signal Hill and is famous for its brightly colored houses and the oldest mosque in South Africa. “The houses in the area are a mix of Cape Dutch and Georgian architecture and the bright colours, it is said, are attributed to the fact that while on lease, all the houses had to be white. When this rule was eventually lifted, and the slaves were allowed to buy the properties, all the houses were painted bright colours by their owners as an expression of their freedom.”
Perhaps it started this way, but my instincts suggest the bright colors were embraced and expanded in recent years to attract tourists. There are a few interesting shops and a photography studio worth a visit. A sketchy guy followed us into a couple places and then started closing in on me, or more likely, my camera. Earl, whose head was on a constant swivel, issued a loud warning as he and the potential thief walked toward me. Not surprisingly, the guy skittered away.
A trip around the Cape is worth it and do stop at Boulders to see the African penguins. Go early to beat the crowds. Note the buses can only travel the Cape road in one direction. Our excellent guide Warren wisely suggested we drive the Cape in the opposite direction to arrive at the penguins before the hordes. I am glad we did because the platform was elevated (not great for photographing wildlife) and if I were not already lying down shooting before the busses arrived, it would have been impossible to do so.
African penguins are between 24”- 28” tall and weigh 4.9 – 7.7 lbs. These social birds are also known as Jackass penguins due to their donkey like call. It’s very funny to hear this little creature make that loud braying sound. They spend most of the time in the water either cooling off or eating. They can swim up to 12.5 mph when chasing prey, mostly “anchovies, horse mackerel, round herrings, and pilchards. They may also eat crustaceans and squid.”
When on land, it appears that preening is penguins’ favorite activity: “African penguins regularly preen themselves, rearranging their feathers to clean off dirt, ticks and parasites. Preening also distributes natural oils to ensure insulation and a water-proof quality.” It was entertaining to watch parents diligently chase after their babies to preen them. Mom and dad finally corralled this young one who looks super happy about it.
Can I please just go play?
The Cape itself is full of nice walks and beautiful vistas with ostriches wandering about. I have a thing for ostriches and we both recoiled in horror when we first saw ostrich meat on the menu. We accidentally ate some one day and discovered it a is delicious red meat with a very good nutritional profile. One learns something new every day in Africa.
Our opinion of Capetown can best be answered by whether we would return. Absolutely yes as a starting and ending point for another African adventure.
Social Contagion, the Sex Change Industry and the 2024 Election, Part 8 of the Transgender Campaign
Social contagion is real. It is defined as “a ubiquitous process by which information, such as attitudes, emotions, or behaviors, are rapidly spread throughout a group from one member to others without rational thought and reason”. As we have seen repeatedly throughout history this spread occurs even when obvious logical arguments to the contrary are present.
Our tendency towards contagion is one reason marketing dominates our society. The goal of most marketing campaigns whether they be for products, ideas and/or political candidates is social contagion. There are endless benign and harmful examples.
Years ago, Big Mouth Billy Bass (a mounted singing fish) reportedly raked in $100 million. Fashion design houses have exerted significant influence on the public over the decades. The abominable bell bottoms, high cut, low cut, skintight, wide leg, cuffed, short shorts, long shorts, etc. Once the market becomes saturated with skinny jeans, for example, wide legs are introduced, influencers mobilized to spark contagion and the money flows.
In recent decades cosmetic surgery, fashion for the body, offers an interesting window into social contagion. Why else would an otherwise intelligent women insert bags of gel in her body and be happy about it? The first breast augmentation was done in 1952. There are now an average of 310,000 of these surgeries per year as indicated in the chart below published by the Surgical Times.
Influencers such as Pamela Anderson of Baywatch and the Kardashians helped sparked the initial bigger is better trend. Breast augmentation became and still is one of the most popular cosmetic procedures. However the fashion trend has changed as detailed by the National Association of Plastic Surgeons (NAPS): “Procedures focused on the body remain highly popular, and 2023 saw continued movement toward a more natural and athletic physique. Dubbed the “ballet body,” this figure is known for its emphasis on a harmonious, proportionate and elegantly contoured body shape.”
Translation – smaller boobs. No surprise, breast implant removals and/or replacement with smaller implants are trending significantly upwards.
As the “ballet body” trend deepens, some celebrities are championing a return of the “heroin chic” body trend. When this trend first surfaced in the 1990s, young women succumbed to social contagion and embraced eating disorders to become unnaturally skinny. Will we see this again?
Meanwhile there is yet another trend impacting young women and adolescent girls that goes well beyond cosmetic fashion surgeries. The Free Press reports that Planned Parenthood “… has also, in less than a decade, become the country’s leading provider of gender transition hormones for young adults, according to insurance claim data. In 2015, around two dozen of their clinics began offering this service. Now it’s available at nearly 450 locations. Insurance claim information provided to The Free Press by the Manhattan Institute shows that at least 40,000 patients went to Planned Parenthood for this purpose last year alone, a number that has risen tenfold since 2017. The largest proportion, about 40 percent, were 18- to 22-year-olds.” Emphasis added. There are many other clinics who supply these drugs, therefore the total number of patients is larger than 40,000.
Trends matter. Will the number of girls and young women seeking to masculinize increase to 310,000 patients annually as with breast augmentation?
The sharp increase is worrisome. Equally disturbing is how easy it is for these women to get testosterone. The Free Press reports that Planned Parenthood admitted: “Most of our patients can get a hormone prescription at the end of their first visit with us.” Destransitioners have confirmed quick prescriptions without psychological evaluation even in the presence of other serious mental health conditions.
A women can change her mind and remove breast implants but, depending on how long she is on testosterone, there is no going back from sex change drugs. She may never regain normal sexual function or fertility. Her uterus and vagina will atrophy requiring eventual hysterectomy. Her clitoris will be permanently enlarged and potentially painful. She will also develop a deeper voice, male musculature and body/facial hair. Long term complications include increased risk of heart disease, stroke, weight gain, blood clots, bone fractures and hormone-dependent cancers.
Note this same trend is present in other western countries whose cultures have also been steeped in gender ideology. Society for Evidenced Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) has a wealth of data on this phenomenon plus rates of detransition. Their article entitled “Sharp Increase in Incidence of Gender Dysphoria in Children and Young People”located at the bottom of their home page is essential reading. Below is one of several examples provided. Note data collection has finally begun in the United States but has proven difficult due to the decentralized nature of health care facilities.
Because the health and societal consequences of sex change drugs and surgery are far more serious than boob jobs and bell bottom jeans, it seems imperative that in depth studies be conducted to understand why so many more minors and young adults, some with significant mental health challenges, want to become the opposite sex or no sex.
Unfortunately those who have conducted such studies have been canceled and ridiculed for their efforts as Lisa Littmancan attest to. She published a research paper in 2018 titled “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria in Adolescents and Young Adults: A Study of Parental Reports” and was subsequently terminated from her consulting position at Brown University.
In an interview with Quilette, Dr. Littman states: “This research explores, through the reports of parents, a phenomenon whereby teens and young adults who did not exhibit childhood signs of gender issues appeared to suddenly identify as transgender. This new identification seemed to occur in the context of either belonging to a group of friends [in which] multiple—or even all—members became transgender-identified around the same time, or through immersion in social media, or both.” The short version, social contagion is a factor.
This SEGM synopsis and critique of the Bailey and Diaz report provides excellent insight. An excerpt: “The question of the etiology of adolescent gender-related distress is critical. Without an understanding the etiology of this condition and its natural history, the development of safe and effective treatments is challenging. This study’s findings, along with a growing number of detransitioners who have endorsed the applicability of the ROGD theory in their own lives, should prompt the medical community to take ROGD seriously. This means engaging with this very plausible theory in good faith, rather than continuing to rely on straw man arguments in a concerted clinician-activists-led effort to debunk it.”
Proponents of the medicalization of children suggest the increase is due to a greater societal acceptance of transgenderism. While this may be true for a small percentage, the increases are too large and sudden for that simple explanation. Kids and young adults started flocking to gender clinics after the social media marketing of gender ideology began in earnest. Logic suggests a link. It is also logical that anyone whose priority is the physical and mental health of the country’s young people would welcome such studies, not seek to suppress them.
As mentioned above, European countries are grappling with the same issues, but their studies of the increase do not appear to be subjected to the same level of attack. In fact, these studies have resulted in a number of countries banning medicalization of minors except in extreme cases.
SEGM critically evaluated an important German study entitled “Gender Dysphoria and Anorexia in Adolescent Females”. This research study examines “the sharp rise in transgender identification in adolescent females” and draws strong parallels between gender dysphoria and eating disorders. One observation: “Secondly, gender incongruence and “being trans” are currently extremely socially and politically legitimized and have been defined as a matter of human rights in recent years, which is also reflected in the planned “law of self-determination”. As a result, those affected experience strong external validation and positive reinforcement in their disorder – which, according to the proponents of a transaffirmative care, should no longer be described as such.”
In other words, being trans is cool. Big boobs are cool. Ballet bodies are cool. Super skinny is cool. Big butts are cool. Until they aren’t.
The data, common sense and experiences of destransitioners strongly suggest social contagion is a serious factor. Researchers should continue their studies to verify but to protect young people now from dangerous, irreversible medical treatments, parents should do everything possible to inoculate their kids from the tenets of gender theory which teach kids that they can be a boy, a girl, both or neither. Big Pharma and gender surgeons await with open arms should they listen.
Equally important we should recognize that the rapid acceptance of gender ideology itself among adults is also a social contagion deserving of study. What else besides contagion would cause people to agree that a novel theory of human sexuality should be promoted to kids as if it were fact? A theory that states medicalization of minors and young adults is the best and, according to many, the only treatment for gender confusion. Until we understand and stop this contagion among adults, children and young adults will be at risk.
Please understand, however, that gender dysphoria is a real and potentially debilitating condition. Prior to widespread marketing of gender theory and the medicalization embodied in “gender affirming” care, there had always been a very small number of children, mostly prepubescent boys, who developed persistent gender dysphoria. Depending on the study between 61% – 98% became comfortable with their sex after puberty.
If social contagion is the obvious factor it appears to be, coupled with the desistance rate mentioned in the above paragraph, how can permanent medicalization with drugs and surgery be the appropriate solution for adolescents and young adults? This is simple logic. We should return to conventional psychotherapy and ensure adults (after brain fully developed to minimize damage) can modify their bodies if they believe the serious potential health consequences outweigh their psychological distress.
A major difference between the trend for young women to masculinize their bodies and other social contagions, is that it has been relentlessly promoted by the federal government under the Obama/Biden/Harris administrations, progressive governors, teachers’ unions, LGBTQ+ groups, major medical institutions, social media, etc. It is a top down movement. Can you imagine Biden stating: “All you girls starving yourself to death to be skinny, I have your back, you belong. We affirm your choice to starve yourself and will force schools to teach all kids they can starve themselves too.” Or “boob jobs for all!”
In summary, while we wait for research on social contagion both among young people and adults, parents should operate on the assumption that social contagion is a notable factor and protect their children in school and online from sex change influencers as they would from any other dangerous contagion.
Concerned citizens can help by removing those from power who prioritize medicalization over psychotherapy and who legislate gender ideology as if it were a proven fact instead of a questionable theory. A vote for Harris/Walz is a vote for novel gender theory in schools, the medicalization of minors and young adults, masculinizing a growing cohort of vulnerable young women and the opening of women’s spaces to biological men.
Please seriously research each candidate and vote to save our youth from the physical and psychological harms of medicalization. Their future depends on your diligence and critical evaluation.
SUGGESTIONS FOR ADDITIONAL RESEARCH
Google searches on the concepts discussed above generally reveal glowing testaments to “gender affirming care” which is a euphemism for medicalization of youth for a condition they are likely to grow out of. Many of these articles include a web of untruths that have increasingly been debunked by more rigorous studies. These studies are often suppressed in searches. Therefore quite a bit of effort is required for those who seek to understand this issue beyond the talking points. To help, many important links are included above and below.
· For those who need a primer on the difference between gender ideology and gender dysphoria please read a previous articled entitled “Exposing the Underbelly of Gender Ideology”.
· Please note Tim Walz, Harris’s running mate, is all aboard the campaign to medicalize youth. It appears he has no understanding of the data referenced above which makes him and politicians like him incredibly dangerous for troubled youth. His nickname “Tampon Tim” is the result of adding tampons to boys’ bathrooms, a classic example of a subtle, manipulative technique to expose children to novel and unproven gender theory.
· “How did Planned Parenthood Become One of the Largest Suppliers of Testosterone” by Jennifer Block highlights both the data and personal stories of detransitioners. “For Hineman, the whole project of gender identity was “kind of like a punk thing,” she says. But rather than sex, drugs, and rock and roll, it was just drugs. And surgery. “It’s a medicalized version of normal teen rebellion. And I got completely sucked into that.””
· The organization Do No Harm recently published a data site called “Stop the Harm” which highlights the number of sex change treatments being performed on minors at US healthcare facilities. The good news is that 2023 saw a decrease in medicalized treatments. Hopefully this is due to people waking up to the psychological and physical dangers associated with “gender affirming” care.
· An earlier Reuters study titled “Youth in Transition” details the increasing numbers of minors (6-17) being diagnosed, drugged and cut. Note these numbers likely underestimate the actual totals because some pay out of pocket or do not indicate gender dysphoria as the diagnosis.
· Unfortunately, US data for the total number of minors diagnosed annually with gender dysphoria over an extended period does not appear to have been compiled yet. A chart of this nature would pinpoint when the patient numbers began to skyrocket. This eye opening data for the Amsterdam clinic in the Netherlands is included in the Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) critique of a Netherlands study. It also demonstrates how data can be misrepresented to support gender theory and medicalization.
· The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) is the first US medical association to break ranks and denounce “gender affirming’ care for minors. This is an important development as outlined by this City Journal article, “A Consensus No Longer”. “The main justification for “gender-affirming care” for minors in the United States has been that “all major U.S. medical associations” support it.” Not anymore. I wonder if the growing number of lawsuits by detransitioners who were rushed into medicalization has something to do with their new position.
· Gender ideology is embedded in many of our primary and secondary schools which contributes to the possibility for contagion. California was the first state to include history on LGBT individuals in 2011 and by 2020 the Second Edition of the National Sex Education standards was published. One highlighted change was “continued evolution in language related to gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation and sexual identity.” The update broke “gender identity” and “sexual orientation and identity” into two topic strands “to better reflect that these are separate areas of identity that should not be conflated”.By the end of the second grade students should be able to “define gender, gender identity and gender role stereotypes”.
As we examined in “Beliefs, Biases and Bad Ideas”, the concept of gender identity as distinct from one’s sex is a recent concept, championed by a man named John Money who performed unethical sexual experiments on young kids. The pressing question, which is rarely asked, is why a new, unproven and illogical ideology that suggests we are not a sexually binary species should be taught to children as fact?
· This 2022 Washington Post article summarizes how gender ideology is treated in various schools.
· Obama was the first president to push gender ideology mainstream. This Washington Post article details his legislative efforts. While this article is supportive of his actions, those who understand gender ideology will see how it was subtly but definitivly embedded into society.
· The first social media influencer pushing medicalized transition was Gigi Gorgeous who announced in 2013 that he was a she and went on to detail the procedures to feminize his body. There are now many such influencers with millions of followers. Influencers are an integral part of creating contagion.
· One of many examples of the Biden/Harris administrations forcing gender ideology on the country is the proposed change to Title IX. Consider reading this article by Ilya Shapiro who has recently filed briefs in lawsuits challenging the new regulations. It should be noted that the first few pages of a google search on the Biden/Harris revised Title IX were all positive. Please read both sides of this issue.
· Inserting gender theory into the culture was greatly assisted by the modification of language by its proponents. Examples include “gender assigned at birth” and “people with uteruses”. The use of pronouns is also a signal that one supports gender ideology as Kamala Harris has done in this video.
· Jen Christianson from CNN published “Gender affirming surgeries nearly tripled in US from 2016 to 2019” in August 2023. Note this article positively supports sex change surgeries. A good number of her statements have been refuted by recent studies many of which can be found on the SEGM website under the “Spotlight” tab.
· The cover photo above is from an article in Very Well Health in support of drugs to masculinize or feminize female and male bodies respectively.
Last summer I had a wonderful opportunity to visit Lake Clark National Park, Alaska with Jared Lloyd and Annalise Kaylor of Photo Wild. It was my first introduction to bears and it was love at first sight. Bears captured my imagination with their complexity and strength of personality. No one adjective can sum up a coastal brown bear. They are compelling, protective, fast, ambling, powerful, adorable and curious, to name a few. I examined their many manifestations in the photo essay “Hanging with Bears”.
When there was a cancellation for the August 2024 trip, I took the spot immediately. Hanging with bears is like any great experience, once is never enough.
While weather in coastal Alaska is often cloudy and rainy, it poured heavily for days just before we flew from Anchorage to Silver Salmon Creek Lodge. When our plane was swapped out for a float plane, we suspected we would be in for some challenges.
Like last year the flight was great. I was captivated by the abstract nature and remoteness of the coastal areas. The scene below had me wondering. How do you get to these houses and what do you do when you are there? Equally important how can I get there?
We landed in a beautiful lake. Lily pads in Alaska? For real? Ducks that walk on water?
Our arrival at Silver Salmon Creek Lodge felt like coming home. It was great to see everyone such as Dave our excellent guide, Joanne and David the owners and all the staff who make this a special place. We asked about our favorite local bears, in particular Crimp and Old Sow. Unfortunately, after hibernation, Crimp returned without her cubs. Equally disturbing, Old Sow and her cubs had not been seen at all. This news still makes me sad, but it is life. Not all cubs make it to adulthood and old bears die just like old humans. Cheers Old Sow.
Our first excursion was eye opening. The massive storm blew out the rivers, created 12’ cliffs and deposited an incredible amount of large debris in areas of the beach. The high water in the rivers penned us into a far smaller roaming area plus the weather patterns remained unsettled our first couple days. As the photography gods have taught us, however, bad weather and bizarre happenings can lead to unique opportunities.
One such opportunity came with morning fog. We found Crimp in cow bear mode but she paused eating long enough to meander beautifully into this scene. Thank you for that Crimp. My favorite subtle detail is the oval frame of green grass.
We headed to the beach and this lovely emerged from the fog. Zoom in on the bear’s eyes and check out the single hair in front of each. I wonder if those are just errant eyebrow hairs or if there is a purpose. If find an answer will pass it on.
Later in the afternoon, we saw Crimp out on a sandbar.
Come on out and take my photo!
Unfortunately we had to walk through very strong current to get there. As I gripped a heavy lens and camera, hoping the current would not win the contest with my legs, I gladly accepted a steadying hand. We assumed our typical shooting position – flat out in the sand and water. This softens the foreground, providing more focus on the bear. Plus the stature this perspective delivers is ideal when shooting bears. Beware, however, even chest waders can turn into cold water buckets if the water gets too high.
We were delighted when Crimp turned our way. I think she loves the camera.
While we were shooting the above stills, Dave was shooting video. I remember both him and Jared saying “keep shooting” when Crimp was close enough to almost fill the frame at 200mm. For those who think we have lost our minds, consider this article which explains why we can be reasonably close to the bears in this area.
How do you like this pose? Your face is in shadow but it’s still good!
Let’s talk about that collar. Recently the Park Service collared Crimp ostensibly to study her movements and hibernation habits. She has been a well-known fixture in this area for years. Is it worth the potential trauma to her for humans to know where and when she eats and sleeps? How does this help bears? While I am willing to be convinced, it is hard to believe this is a good idea.
After the storm the beach was a minefield of debris. That afternoon we came upon a bear wandering among the dead trees. She sat down, rolled a bit and then stood up. She was facing away from us but then she looked back with a snap moment of acknowledgement.
I was so excited I stopped paying attention to the technical aspects and cut off a sliver of her right foot. You might ask why I would descend into youtube and photoshop hell to figure out how to paste the bottom of the previous photo on to this one. Aside from taking the opportunity to learn something new, I wanted to show the standing bear in the post storm debris. The main reason, though, is to remember how I felt when she looked over her shoulder.
This recalls a subject we discussed in depth. Why do we do this? Having given this question a great deal of thought, the answer is simple. It makes me happy. Sometimes intensely so. As I tumbled down this rabbit hole, what kept coming to me is the joy of spending time in nature and meeting new friends. It is connection to the natural world. It is the childlike discovery of wondrous things and playing in the mud. It can be as simple as a flick of a bear’s head, a baby alligator who magically appears at my feet or stunning white pelicans marching in unison. One of my goals is to communicate these feelings in my work. Yes, that is a lofty goal, but why not reach for the stars.
Later that afternoon we spied a bear headed to the sedge. Jared ran ahead, surveyed the area and had us all gather in a marshy area. Sure enough she wandered straight for us. Why did Jared pick here? Due to the moisture, it was the yummiest grass in the field and it was a good bet she would go there first. This was an ideal demonstration that understanding animal behavior increases our opportunities. I particularly like the water droplets falling from the bite of sedge in her mouth.
The next day we came across an adorable scene. This bear was laying in the grass with its cream tipped ears backlit by the sun. Since Old Sow had similar colorings, it led folks to wonder if this was one of her children.
Sometimes wildlife habitat alone can ignite our imagination. This is a bear trail, worn three inches deep by generations of bear traffic.
Bear Trail
The next several photos help illustrate another discussion we had about wildlife photography. Predator Porn. We humans are drawn to scary threatening photos of predators. It must resonate somewhere in our psyche right up there with disaster movies and wrecks. Photographers have filled this demand consciously or subconsciously.
What I had not considered is how this obsession with predator porn has warped people’s impression of these animals. Yes bears are predators but they also are caring moms, foragers, fishing bears, clamming bears and are steeped in their own traditions. The predator porn genre of click driven media might lead folks to believe sharing an environment with bears and other predators will only lead to mayhem.
As I contemplated this further, the Ten Commandments came to mind. They have been a guide from time immemorial to create positive interactions between humans. Similarly, there are rules of engagement between humans and bears. These rules are different for coastal brown bears, interior grizzlies and black bears. Just like the Ten Commandments, when we follow them, good things can happen. When they are broken there is a high probability of a bad outcome for the animal, human or both.
For example, this woman broke a serious rule. Never knowingly fish next to a bear and hope you never do it by accident. If she caught a fish, the bear would be all over that fish and possibly her. If she were injured, would the bear be put down because it was deemed dangerous? Has the preponderance of predator porn impacted the answer to that question?
Most folks responded to the following photo with trepidation. I see magnificence.
I want to hug her. As that breaks the rules of engagement, I would never do that, but the point is bears can be as tender as they are intense. The photos above of Crimp in the fog and Old Sow with one of her cubs have a similar quality.
Jared and Annalise posed the question – should wildlife photographers assume the responsibility to tell the whole story of bears and other creatures that inhabit our shared home? My answer is yes. It’s better for the animals and great for us.
The next day brought rare calm seas and blue skies. As such it was a perfect opportunity to visit Duck Island where puffins summer. I enjoyed the steps necessary to get to the boat. Drag a canoe to the water, paddle to the boat, gather us and then tow the canoe to the mooring ball.
Puffins are funny looking. Back in the day, “early sailors referred to them as “sea parrots” due to their triangularly shaped beak, stocky body, short wings, and reddish-orange feet.” They are mesmerizing to watch and hard to photograph. They’re fast.
I was fixated on this puffin as it repeatedly cocked its head in a curious way.
Hmmm…What are you are pointing at me?
Then the puffin flew straight towards me. Jared thought it was going to land on my head. While I was not set up for a 50 mph bird in flight, I luckily caught this shot before he got up to speed. I have had curious reactions to this shot. What is yours?
The first photo below is just puffin funny to me and will no doubt be the cover shot of a future blog while the second is an attempt at puffin pretty. I was not able to get any shots with their mouths stuffed with fish. Next time!
Our final morning was spent with clamming bears. Bears love clams and due to their amazing sense of smell, they know where to dig. Lucky for us the photography gods dished up a low tide at sunrise. My favorite.
This could be called “gym photography”. My elbows kept sinking into the sand and it was a full-on lats workout to stay propped up.
While I considered cropping the first photo below so folks could see the mud flying more clearly, I liked the light frame too much to remove. I cropped the next photo to tell that story. Their long claws are designed for this work and the hump on their back is musculature to help them dig.
When the sun became too hot we turned around. Here Crimp shows us how it is done among soft blue layering. I experimented with perspective for this shot. This was taken from my knees which provided the clear reflection. At sand level the reflection was too distorted by the divots.
After hanging with clamming bears, sadly it was time to load up and head to the plane.
Baggage Handling
Thank you so much Annalise and Jared for a fabulous trip and learning experience. You turned lemons into lemonade considering the weather challenges. When we were grounded, we explored our craft in other important ways. Those discussions are still rolling around my brain and will make us better photographers.
Thanks to Dave for ensuring we had the best opportunities available. I think Dave might actually be part bear. He seems to smell them as well as they smell us.
And finally thank you to everyone at Silver Salmon Creek Lodge, a down home, comfortable place with excellent food and camaraderie. Until we meet again!
Dear Readers, please note many of the photos above have been hyperlinked to my website should you be interested in a print for your own wall. Also if you prefer reading on Substack, please feel free to visit my Substack page, My Two Cents by Sue Seboda. Hope you enjoyed the above!
The combination of political folly, extreme hubris and a dishonest media have put our country in an untenable position. While the chattering political class visibly squirms to save themselves, they ignore the potential consequences of their actions. As they feel power slipping away, they hope voters remain blissfully ignorant of their duplicitous strategies that brought us to this juncture. Fortunately for the country, eyes are opening. To keep them open and help us evaluate the sequel we all know is coming, let’s examine a handful of these schemes.
Before we dive in, it is important to note that anyone who was surprised by Biden’s performance in the presidential debate needs to face some hard truths. Much of the country knew before the 2020 election that Biden was in cognitive decline and that his rate of decline had notably increased in the last year. For those who were unaware of Biden’s condition, the first question they should ask is why. With an open mind, perhaps the chronology of compounding political cons that prioritized power over country, might shed some light on the answer.
Regardless of Trump’s questionable character, it is also true that he and the office of the presidency were maligned by the Democratic party with the years long Russian collusion narrative. It’s common knowledge that it was a strategic fabrication. The lies succeeded in undermining Trump’s presidency, divided the country horribly and damaged our faith in the political establishment. Politicians like Adam Schiff never faced consequences for shamelessly promoting the lie. Those in media who peddled the false narrative still have their jobs. No accountability anywhere for this documented 2020 election interference or the negative impacts to our country. Perhaps if the voters had demanded accountability, we would not be in our current position.
The Russian collusion narrative and related media commentary accomplished another critical goal, the voters donned Trump Colored Glasses. Between Trump’s own behavior, the false attack narratives and people’s acceptance of them, Trump is hated passionately by at least half of the country. Heightened emotions provide wonderful cover for strategic deceit. When it comes to Trump, even the greatest defenders of democracy will make a mockery of it to wound him.
Biden was chosen in 2020 as the best person to marshal the anti-Trump vote. Many were incredulous that a man in the early stages of cognitive decline was chosen and were equally puzzled that he was backed up by someone as unpopular as Harris.
What game were the Democrats playing? We assumed Biden would be a puppet who shielded the actual “president” and therefore dubbed him “Pinocchio Joe”. Biden’s tenuous relationship with the truth in combination with his reduced mental acuity made him an ideal puppet. If this is even remotely true, it is a stunning bit of deception. Please note the meme below is four years old not four days old.
It was generally accepted there would be a massive “red wave” in 2022. Nope. While the abortion issue was a key element, clever Democratic strategists also understood what a gift they had in Trump. To give their candidates a boost, all they needed to do was keep Trump front and center. Trump with great fanfare backed several primary Senate candidates over more electable choices. The Democrats then financed Trump’s picks and painted them as extremists. Trump’s base voted for his candidates in the primary without regard to electability. Democrats watched with glee as moderates and independents rejected Trump’s picks in the general. Republicans lost the Senate and barely won the House.
The midterm strategy was so successful, it appears Democratic leadership ramped it up to unprecedented levels for 2024. If they could just keep a beatable Trump in play, Democrat chances of remaining in power were greatly improved even with a candidate who regularly displayed symptoms of dementia. They elevated Trump to the nomination with a series of well timed, legally dubious indictments. Understandably half the country was incensed that Democratic leadership weaponized the justice system against a political opponent. Trump’s base reacted as predicted with a middle finger to the establishment and voted enthusiastically for Trump. The Democrats got what they wanted. Republicans were outmaneuvered once again.
In April 23 after Biden declared he was running again, I posted “Predictions”. With his obvious mental decline, it was inconceivable Biden could function even as a puppet for 4 more years. Therefore, it was highly likely another con job was underway. I posited that, for various reasons, Biden would pick a new vice president and then exit the race due to “health issues” sometime before November 5 if it appeared the Republican candidate would win.
The article concluded with this sentiment: “…running a puppet president is an insult to Americans and indicative of the contempt Democratic leadership holds for voters. While time will tell if the above predictions are true, it is certain a con is underway. Otherwise they would have run a capable candidate willing to honestly debate the issues. The deceptions are a colossal warning flag that their agenda is great for them and horrible for us.”
During and after the primaries, Biden’s condition continued to deteriorate and the cover up intensified. A hallmark of a good con is the effort to discredit any information to the contrary. Incredibly it was only a few weeks ago that the Democratic “cheap fakes’ talking point was deployed which essentially claimed that Biden’s decline was a right wing talking point backed up by doctored videos. We must remember two things can be true at once. Biden’s decline is a nonstop Republican talking point and Biden has a serious problem with his brain.
The comment that will go down in infamy, however, comes from Joe Scarborough: “Start your tape right now because I’m about to tell you the truth. And f*** you if you can’t handle the truth. This version of Biden, intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever. Not a close second. And I’ve known him for years. … If it weren’t the truth, I wouldn’t say it.”
Where are we now? The strategies and scams have exploded due to various miscalculations:
· Biden likely declined faster than he, the administration, media and his handlers anticipated.
· Biden promised to choose a woman of color as vice president. Sadly she is also a woman of great incompetence with a serious likability problem.
· If Biden is unfit to run, he is also unfit to serve the remainder of his term, yet the specter of a Harris presidency will ensure he does.
· After the debate, it is no longer possible to cover up Biden’s decline and all those who participated in the coverup have been exposed as either liars or dupes.
· The world is a tinderbox, and the Biden/Harris/Trump debacle presents an opportunity for our enemies especially those who have waltzed over our borders unvetted.
· Perhaps the biggest bomb is that Biden appears to have gone Frankenstein and broken free of his handlers. He is refusing to step down. For now.
· While the indictments helped nominate Trump, the overall strategy backfired. Trump is more popular than ever plus his supporters are highly motivated by the lawfare leveled against him. Nor will he be in court or jail during the final months of the campaign as hoped.
· 2020 and 2024 lawfare has undermined our faith in the judicial system and the political process.
· The voters do not know who is running the country. Many are very angry at this betrayal and will vote accordingly.
What a pathetic mess. The Democratic party has jeopardized our country with their conniving arrogance that prioritized their power over the good of our country. With other viable candidates ready to serve, the feckless Republican party nominated Trump who is despised by half the country. If Biden and Harris stay in, the actual choice is Trump vs Harris. Republicans’ best hope is that Trump selects a well-respected vice president capable of being president rather than a weak sycophant.
For now we are trapped in the game. Let’s be clear why we are in this position so we can evaluate the next salvo which is surely coming. Hopefully we exert our influence and avoid another date with a hungry predator.
For those who prefer to read on Substack, please visit My Two Cents on Substack.
Ugliness can be as thought provoking as beauty. Such was the case when I stumbled upon a vast area smothered in vines. It seemed a perfect metaphor for the suffocating impact of progressive ideology on our culture. I wondered if the strangled shrubs were aware of the danger or remained oblivious. As I stood transfixed and contemplated their potential death, the concepts of good and evil came to mind.
Progressive western governments increasingly use lies and deceit to enact totalitarian measures to solidify their power. These laws seek to choke free speech, eliminate dissent and subjugate our limitless human spirit. Absolute clarity is required to thwart these efforts, a difficult task considering we are bombarded daily with subtle and outrageous lies. We can clear the fog with the application of morality. This requires a practical definition of good and evil.
M. Scott Peck’s book “People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil” offers such a definition: “Evil, then, for the moment, is that force, residing inside or outside of human beings, that seeks to kill life or liveliness. And goodness is its opposite. Goodness is that which promotes life and liveliness.” Dr. Peck offers this simple yet profound summation: “evil is also that which kills spirit.”
Dr. Peck outlines how lies are the hallmark of an evil individual. “The evil attack others in order to avoid facing their own failures.” “While they seem to lack any motivation to be good, they intensely desire to appear good. Their goodness is all on a level of pretense. It is, in effect, a lie. This is why they are the people of the lie.”
“People of the Lie” focuses on individual and group human evil. Please note this article focuses on whether policies are good or evil as measured by their impact on the human spirit. It is not intended to comment on the spiritual state of those who propagate those policies.
Some might suggest an entrance into the metaphysical is a bit dramatic. I maintain that it is essential because the politicians have already introduced good and evil into the 2024 election. Without our serious consideration we are subject to unconscious emotional manipulation. Jill Biden recently said she “believes Americans are going to choose good over evil” and vote for President Biden. President Biden has also evoked similar sentiments: “We are in a battle for the soul of America. A battle that by the grace of God, the goodness and gracious, greatness of this nation we will win.” In more precise language, we are in a battle between good and evil.
With their statements the Biden’s have essentially labeled President Trump and conservatism evil. What about their policies? Let’s examine several interwoven progressive policies supported by the Biden administration.
Self-Reliance – Good or Evil?
“No one can be great, or good, or happy except through the inward efforts of themselves.” – Frederick W. Robertson
The above quote epitomizes self-reliance. It is formally defined as “reliance on one’s own efforts and abilities”. Self-reliance builds self-confidence, leads to personal growth, and success. A self-reliant individual learns to make decisions and assumes responsibility for their success or failure. Self-reliance is independence. The absence of it is dependence which in turn reduces individual power.
Over the years it appears this core American principle has lost favor. We have exchanged self-reliance for dependence on Big Government, Big Pharma, and Big Food.
It seems however that Big Government has had the greatest impact on the decline of self-reliance. In the 1960s President Johnson launched a massive expansion of social welfare programs entitled the “Great Society”. Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams and many others have studied the negative impact of these programs on black communities, family structure and individual responsibility. For example, many black men abandoned their responsibilities because they could. Thomas Sowell provides the data in “Black Rednecks and White Liberals”:
“Accordingly while two-thirds of black children were living with both parents in 1960, only one-third were by 1994. While only 22% of black children were born to unmarried women in 1960, 74% were in 1994.” There was a “widespread abandonment and casual abandonment of their children and the women who bore them by black fathers in the ghettos of the late 20thcentury…”
The data on the disintegration of the family and its impact on crime, violence and upward mobility has been actively ignored. Instead, public policy to foster government dependency has continued unabated. President Obama glorified the culture of dependence in his 2012 campaign ad “The Life of Julia”. To our credit there was such a backlash that Obama removed the video from his campaign site.
This excerpt from a David Harsanyi article titled “Who the hell is Julia and why the hell am I paying for her?” summed up the reaction of many: “What we are left with is a celebration of a how a woman can live her entire life by leaning on government intervention, dependency and other people’s money rather than her own initiative or hard work. It is, I’d say, implicitly un-American, in the sense that it celebrates a mindset we have – outwardly, at least – shunned.”
Considering the intensely negative reaction to “Life of Julia”, it is curious Biden released a similar cartoon on the life of Linda to support cradle to grave welfare policies: “But the Life of Linda is a telling tragedy, one where a woman is “liberated” from the love and support of family and community and instead comes to rely upon the leviathan of the state.” The saddest thing about this cartoon is there was barely any reaction from the public. How we have change in 9 years.
In his excellent article entitled “The Destructive Legacy of the Great Society”, Jason Riley explains how the “Democrats are now aiming to create new entitlements and expand the existing ones, not only for the poor but also for the professional class.” These policies seek to increase the number of citizens politically shackled to their benefactors.
The latest disturbing example of the attack on self-reliance and personal responsibility is the “cancellation” of student debt. It is not canceled. The student’s responsibility has been shifted to the taxpayer. It is an incredibly unfair vote buying scheme that teaches young people they don’t have to make good decisions. It is a grievous insult to taxpayers who sacrificed to pay for their or their children’s education or could not afford to go to college themselves. The lack of outrage from the citizenry speaks volumes.
Because self-reliance uplifts the human spirit and leads to personal growth, it is good. Conversely, that which reduces self-reliance smothering our spirit and personal growth falls into the evil column.
The Effort to Splinter Society and Cast Underperforming Groups as Victims – Good or Evil?
The decline in our core self-reliance created fertile ground for victim/oppressor ideology to take root.
These narratives attempt to splinter society into groups and then pit them against each other. One group is labeled “marginalized” and a corresponding group is labeled the “oppressor”. Members of the marginalized group are taught they are victims and their failures are due to the oppressors. Failure is always somebody else’s fault. Concepts like meritocracy, personal responsibility, group culture, lousy schools, home life and the content of one’s character are ignored. What could possibly go wrong?
Divisive victim/oppressor ideology has been widely deployed on the basis of skin color, gender, socioeconomic status and religion. Narratives pushing gender ideology, for example, have been especially divisive because the government has declared the ideology factual when it is only a collection of ideas. Worse the ideology has been tangled up with those who suffer from gender dysphoria. Consequently individuals who speak against the ideology and its impact on young people are then accused of “hate speech” and prejudice against people who have gender dysphoria.
The skin color chapter of victim/oppressor ideology is often called Critical Race Theory (CRT). It is also called neoracism because the ideology condones racism to fight racism. Coleman Hughes is a young black author who recently published the “The End of Race Politics”. Sadly he has been viciously labeled as a sell out and Uncle Tom for his efforts. Below is his summary of neoracist ideology:
“White people have always had power in society – power that they used to create systems like slavery and Jim Crow that oppress people of color. Even though those systems were destroyed, American society has made little or no progress redressing the wrongs that white people have inflicted on people of color in the past and continue to inflict on people of color in the present… All around us, policies and institutions give rise to racial disparities – differences in outcomes between white people and people of color…Wherever racial disparities exist, racism – past and present – is the cause….”.
In other words, black people are taught they are perpetual victims. The source of their failures can never be found in the mirror.
Mr. Hughes’s book addresses the falsehood of these assertions in detail. In summary, neoracist theory takes the ugly truth of slavery, Jim Crow and racism and wraps it in lies and half-truths to advance the concepts of systemic racism, white supremacy, and black victimhood. For example, it is obvious we have made significant progress neutralizing racism since the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Plus, it was white people who initiated the end of slavery, a global practice that had existed for millennia. It was black and brown people who resisted its elimination. Please read the chapter entitled “The Real History of Slavery” in Thomas Sowell’s “Black Rednecks and White Liberals”.
The evil reality of black victimhood during slavery and the ugly racism that followed has erroneously been projected to the present. We should ask why.
Even though only a modest amount of research is required to debunk the tenets of neoracism and its divisive impact on society, it is still advanced at the highest levels of our government. Consider President Biden’s commencement speech at Morehouse College:
“You started college just as George Floyd was murdered and there was a reckoning on race. It’s natural to wonder if democracy you hear about actually works for you.
“What is democracy if a trail of broken promises still leave black—black communities behind?
“What is democracy if you have to be 10 times better than anyone else to get a fair shot?
Neoracism in general and these remarks in particular are heartbreaking. To lie to any young person about their potential for success, especially by the leader of the free world, could derail their efforts and future achievements. It is demeaning and abusive. We must ask if limiting success and therefore personal power is an intended or unintended consequence of all forms of victim/oppressor ideology.
Racists will always exist. They can be neutralized, however. The solution is quite simple. Shift the cultural paradigm to equal opportunity, meritocracy, and a collective focus on excellence not skin color, gender or any other single characteristic of an underperforming group. This will result in a more united culture striving for success, not one mired in resentment and “hate speech”.
Unfortunately, the implementation of such a shift will be exceedingly difficult. True progress will require individuals and underperforming groups examine their own limiting behaviors. It is also essential that we admit our significant policy failures that shackle the poor, discourage self-reliance and personal responsibility. Sadly this is something that politicians and hustlers are loathe to do. They just pile on more bad policy and taxpayer dollars to cover up their mistakes.
The Efforts to Quell Free Speech: Good or Evil?
Free speech is under attack in many western countries often under the guise of quelling disinformation and “hate speech”. It is notable that those who want to regulate free speech to stop “hate speech” are the same progressive governments who promote victim/oppressor narratives that encourage “hate speech”.
The most egregious attack on free speech can be found in Canada’s proposed Online Harms Act. State media suggests the bill is designed to stop the online exploitation of children. Justin Trudeau stated in a speech introducing this bill “…people will see that it is very specifically focused on protecting kids and not on censoring the internet as misinformation and as the right wing tends to try and characterize it as…”. Even though parts of the bill do attempt to protect children, it goes far beyond that. Trudeau seeks to stop lying by lying.
Matt Taibbi, Racket News, summarizes the bill in his article “Blame Canada? Justin Trudeau Creates Blueprint for Dystopia in Horrific Speech Bill”. Below are highlights of the proposed bill from his article:
· enlist Canada’s citizens in an ambitious social monitoring system, with rewards of up to $20,000 for anonymous “informants” of hateful behavior, with the guilty paying penalties up to $50,000, creating a self-funded national spying system;
· introduce extraordinary criminal penalties, including life in prison not just for existing crimes like “advocating genocide,” but for any “offence motivated by hatred,” in theory any non-criminal offense, as tiny as littering, committed with hateful intent;
· punish Minority Report pre-crime, where if an informant convinces a judge you “will commit” a hate offense, you can be jailed up to a year, put under house arrest, have firearms seized, or be forced into drug/alcohol testing, all for things you haven’t done;
· penalize past statements. The law gets around prohibitions against “retroactive” punishment by calling the offense “continuous communication” of hate, i.e. the crime is your failure to take down bad speech;
· force corporate Internet platforms to remove “harmful content” virtually on demand (within 24 hours in some cases), the hammer being fines of “up to 6% of… gross global revenue.”
If this bill passes, Canada will become the “thought police” and thereby limit individual growth and freedom. Fear, not a dedication to excellence, will dominate the culture as people become compliant surfs and snitches who must constantly self-censor. It will eliminate dissent and debate. It will crush people’s spirit. It is evil.
It is also the direction many western countries are headed. As a constitutional republic it would be difficult to enact and enforce Canada’s proposed bill in the United States. However, as we have seen with exposes such as the Twitter Files and the censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop, there are rampant efforts to censor and curtail free speech often under the pretense of stopping “hate speech”, disinformation and “saving democracy”. This is illogical. Free speech is a nonnegotiable component of a successful democracy. Without it, we will no longer have a democracy. The “saving democracy” façade, therefore, is a lie to gain our support for legislation that will limit our discourse, freedom and spirit. It goes into the evil column.
Lies and disinformation can be found everywhere – social media, traditional media and exiting the mouths of politicians. Legislation will never stop it. It will only give those in power free rein to lie with impunity. Our only hope is to neutralize lies with an honest media, critical thought, personal responsibility, dedication to reality, vigilance, continuous exposure to differing viewpoints and rational debate. Let’s work on these things.
Summary
Above we examined just three intertwined progressive policies and strategies that have the full support of the Biden administration. Individually and together, they restrict the human spirit, free and open expression, personal and cultural growth. It seems that President Biden and his wife have engaged in a classic case of projection in their remarks on good and evil. It will be interesting to observe if they ever offer detailed examples to back up their words.
There are many other policies that would benefit from the application of the good and evil filter such as lying to children and parents that puberty blockers are fully reversible, supporting late term abortions for convenience or weaponizing the justice department to attack a political opponent.
Ultimately change is dependent on us, the voters, and our clear view of the evil impact of these policies on our cultural and human spirit. Too many citizens have taken the victim bait, tolerated failure, the collapse of our cultural mores and unbelievably continue to elect politicians and systems that foster our decline. Let’s pull the suffocating vines out by the roots.
For those who prefer to read on Substack, please visit My Two Cents on Substack. Details section included below.
DETAILS
As always, I include a details section to support the opinions above and provide resources for the reader to continue their own research:
Let’s keep the definition of tolerationism handy as we observe global events: “Of, relating to, being, or imposing a form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed.”
The quote from Frederick W Roberston on self-reliance was sourced from this article.
“The polls say President Biden has lost support among black Americans, and the White House appears to have settled on a strategy to win them back: spread more racial division.” The quotes from Biden’s commencement speech to Morehouse College were from this editorial from the WSJ.
Jason Riley compares Obama’s and Biden’s speeches to Morehouse College in this WSJ editorial. “Mr. Biden’s speech revealed someone who doesn’t believe that black people can or should be held to the same standards as other groups.”
Manhattan Institute columnist Douglas Murray received the Alexander Hamilton Award for his “unwavering defense of Western values”. Consider watching or reading his inspiring acceptance speech.
Please note that “hate speech” is in quotes because this phrase is being used as a cudgel to limit free speech. Too often, opinions that disagree with the various victim/oppressor ideologies are deemed “hate speech”. It has therefore become a meaningless phrase in my opinion.
Thomas Sowell has done much to shine a light on myths and lies that promote victimhood. Note that “underperforming groups” is his language. In addition to his excellent books consider the youtube series, Black Wisdom Matters. Perhaps watch this video of young black men’s reaction to Thomas Sowell. It is unfortunate his research and conclusions are not taught in schools alongside the likes of Ibram X Kendi.
Walter Williams also offer a path forward. Perhaps begin research into his work with this article “Blacks of Yesteryear and Today”.
An opposing viewpoint can be found in the Culture Ally site’s definition of marginalized groups. It appears everyone is marginalized except for middle and upper class heterosexual white men. “Marginalized groups include women, people with disabilities, people of color, LGBTQ+ folks, Indigenous peoples, people of a lower socio-economic status and so on. These groups have been historically disempowered and oppressed by influential and discriminatory groups.”
Public, Racket News and the Free Press are independent journalists who have done significant research and reporting on the subject of free speech. They publish on Substack. Should we wish to truly save democracy, we must educate ourselves. Perhaps begin with Michael Shellenberger’s Public, read the original and current Twitter Files, the Missouri v Biden case, details on Canada’s proposed Online Harms Act and add these publications to your reading list.
Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn in their “America This Week” podcast discuss both the NYT’s editor who responded negatively to the Biden administration’s request that they do more to take down Trump and the proposed dystopian Canadian law. Here is the transcript .
To compare both sides of the rhetoric, here is a favorable presentation of Online Harms Act.
Michael Shellenberger interview “Global Elites Fear of Democracy Behind War on Free Speech”.
We live in nonsensical times. Good is bad, bad is good and much ugliness attempts to blot out the beauty. Through the duplicitous tactics of the power hungry our basic sense of right and wrong has been upended resulting in chaos, division, and moral decline. We can restore cultural sanity with the application of core truths and common sense as outlined in the examples below.
Abortion
To drive votes, politicians have created a holy war over abortion. Let’s simplify. How can it be morally responsible to have an abortion for convenience when an unborn baby can feel pain. We jail people for torturing dogs, why would we torture our offspring. Yet we see people demand the right to abortion for any reason up to the moment of birth.
Religious beliefs regarding the beginning of life vary greatly. Each faction fervently believes they are right. Politicians have converted the righteous into loyal combatants in their service.
A simple solution lies in the middle. In the early stages of pregnancy, agree to let judgement occur at the pearly gates. Only allow abortion for convenience up to the point a baby can feel pain. Reasonable exceptions should be allowed for the life of the mother, incest, and rape. Let’s shut down the political games.
Immigration
The subject of immigration has also been politicized. Until recent years, both parties believed a secure, well managed border was essential. Whether the goal was accomplished is another matter, but a secure border was viewed as a good thing by most. Not anymore. For their own ulterior motives, the progressive controlled Democratic leadership and some Republicans insist we overlook logic, national security, fiscal responsibility, quality of life, and support thousands of daily border crossings, legal or illegal. By doing so they also effectively condone human trafficking and flooding our country with fentanyl.
Core truths can guide us. It is wrong to let people into our home we know nothing about. We don’t know their intentions, whether law abiding or criminal, contributors or parasites, willing to assimilate or not, or plan to blow things up while chanting Allahu Akbar.
Compassion for those who suffer in other countries is worthy, but we must be realistic and agree it is wrong to prioritize those who seek US residency over Americans. The financial and societal burden has become extreme. It is unwise to spend $150.7 billion tax dollars annually to facilitate illegal immigration when many states are in a deficit position, our national deficit was $1.7 trillion in FY2023 and national debt is $34.5 trillion. Being rational is not racist.
Would any parent bring a great number of unvetted people into their home if they don’t have the room, budget or ability to care for them without hurting their own children? Not likely. Why then would we do this on the national level.
It is wrong to continue policies that encourage the humanitarian crisis at our southern border. Human trafficking has become a billion dollar business with disastrous results for some including torture, rape and death.
There is a simple solution. Close the border to all asylum seekers until comprehensive immigration legislation is passed that serves the needs of the Country rather than the politicians. If it takes Congress years to do it, so be it. Any bill should have the blessing of border states, streamline legal immigration, be based on meritocracy, the individual’s ability to contribute and assimilate in our society with an appropriate number of immigrants allowed for humanitarian reasons. A maximum number of immigrants should be established annually based on our ability to fund related programs and absorb additional residents. Incentives to break the law should be removed and penalties for doing so severe and immediate. Build the wall and implement other strategies to further deter illegal crossings. Ensure Mexico supports our efforts. Kneecap the cartels.
Voting Law
Attempts to manipulate voting law for political gain are a true threat to democracy. The potential for some politicians and voters to cheat is a core truth we cannot ignore. Until recent years both political parties understood this and agreed boundaries must be in place to deter cheating. Now those boundaries have been relaxed under the guise of making it easier to vote. Unfortunately, these same changes have also made it easier to cheat. The disastrous result has been a loss of confidence in our elections.
Why can’t we make it easier to vote and harder to cheat?
Let’s go back to basics. Encourage in person voting on election day and for a short early voting period with voter ID and proof of citizenship. In lieu of mass mailing of ballots, allow any voter to request an absentee ballot for any reason with voter ID and proof of citizenship. Aid voters who may have difficulty obtaining ID.
Use paper ballots or voting mechanisms that are 100% tamper proof. Absentee ballots should be mailed or dropped at a monitored polling location with verification of receipt. Prohibit ballot harvesting and partisan donations and/or staffing of election offices. Absentee ballots must arrive by election day or earlier stipulated date so they can be counted by election day. Late ballots or those with errors do not count. Public service messages should underscore that voters have a responsibility to follow election rules. If they don’t, their vote won’t count. Penalties for cheating should be swift and severe.
Sex Change
The push to teach children they can change their sex with a declaration, drugs and/or surgery does not stand up when core truths are applied:
Humans are binary mammals.
A minuscule number of children have a psychological condition in which they are unable to accept their sex. Most of these kids accept their bodies after puberty and many are gay. We do not need to redefine what it means to be male and female to care for these individuals.
It is difficult to imagine a scenario where it is preferable to knowingly commit a child with gender dysphoria to a lifetime of health destroying drugs and surgery rather than employ extensive psychotherapy especially since no one can predict which 80% of kids will come to accept their bodies.
If kids are taught they can change their sex, when other psychological stresses occur, they may choose to believe they are were “born in the wrong body” rather then grapple with the idea they are gay, autistic, have been sexually abused, influenced by their friends, etc. Social contagion is real. The current standard of care puts children with rapid onset gender dysphoria, most of whom have other psychological issues, on a path to medicalization instead of comprehensive psychotherapy. How can this possibly be good?
Minors and potentially young adults prior to maturation of the brain do not have the capacity to comprehend the long-term serious health ramifications of sex change drugs and surgery. Detransitioners underscore this simple truth. How can it be good to peddle drugs to young people?
There is a way forward. Parents should unite and require local governments and schools teach kids basic biology and expose “gender ideology” as a well-financed notion that is inconsistent with human biology. The standard of care for minors with gender dysphoria should be based on psychotherapy not drugs and surgery. As is done with other harmful drugs, clearly outline the dangers and irreversible nature of sex change drugs. Warn kids to avoid the manipulation of political and social media influencers who have essentially become drug pushers for Big Pharma. Teach them it’s not cool to destroy their health. Bans will not be as effective as education since kids suffering from social contagion will just wait until they are 18 to start sex change drugs. Encourage compassion for and acceptance of those who struggle with gender dysphoria.
Summary
The above is intended to show how general policy frameworks can be simply crafted when we ignore political machinations and focus on core truths. We can apply this same strategy to other issues undermining our culture.
Unfortunately we are being smothered from every side by corrupt politicians and their operatives. To achieve their own dreams of power and domination they lie and manipulate the citizens to believe bad is good and good is bad to gain support for their nefarious actions. We know better. Right and wrong are universal.
While it appears we are trapped, we can act. Let’s neutralize those who seek to confuse us by rediscovering our innate sense of right and wrong and demand policy that reflects these core truths. Perhaps when we do, we will select better representatives.
DETAILS
As always I include a details section to support positions above and provide additional information.
Should anyone wish to refresh their knowledge on the national deficit, this article may be a good starting point. “A budget deficit occurs when money going out (spending) exceeds money coming in (revenue) during a defined period. In FY 2023, the federal government spent $6.13 trillion and collected $4.44 trillion in revenue, resulting in a deficit. The amount by which spending exceeds revenue, $1.70 trillion in 2023, is referred to as deficit spending.”
A refresher on the national debt can be found in this article.
Human trafficking is a massive problem exasperated by a porous border essentially controlled by the cartels. Here is a general overview.
I encourage folks to read “Rigged” by Mollie Hemingway for an overview of voting law changes that occurred in 2020. Historical context is also included.
Please consider reading Michael Shellenberger’s recently released “WPATH Files”. An excerpt: “But now, newly released internal files from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) prove that the practice of transgender medicine is neither scientific nor medical. American Medical Association, The Endocrine Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and thousands of doctors worldwide rely on WPATH. It is considered the leading global authority on “gender medicine. And yet WPATH’s internal files, which include written discussions and a video, reveal that its members know they are creating victims and not getting “informed consent”.”
As the reader may have noted, I no longer use the term transgender. I firmly support adults over 25 with gender dysphoria who gain psychological relief by assuming the characteristics of the opposite sex. Sadly for them they cannot change their innate biology and at their core will still be their natal sex. Therefore actual transgender individuals do not exist and I will no longer use language such as this and “gender assigned at birth” designed to manipulate my beliefs. After much research on the subject, summarized in previous articles outlined below, my thoughts have simplified. I do not believe in gender ideology. It is abhorrent to teach children they can change their sex and then peddle them drugs and surgery to do so. The Transgender Campaign series:
There has been a chorus of articles recently suggesting that “gender affirming care” for minors as recommended by the federal government and major medical institutions will soon be written off as one of the greatest medical malpractice events in human history. This standard of care recommends minors who believe they have been “born in the wrong body” receive immediate social affirmation to the opposite sex, puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and surgery. However, even though the public has begun to recognize the barbarity of “gender affirming care”, this will not be enough to stop this movement. We must eliminate the source of the massive increase in kids who wish to change their sex.
Gender ideology and those who push it are the culprits. Until they are neutralized, those children who do not fall into traditional stereotypes such as our feminine sons and tomboy daughters plus those with mental illness will remain at risk. The drumbeat to find one’s “authentic self” via health destroying drugs and surgery will continue. Vulnerable kids who have been spoon-fed this ideology both in school and social media will simply wait until they are 18 to harm their bodies.
The Difference Between Gender Ideology and Gender Dsyphoria
To critically evaluate gender ideology, we must first decouple the ideology from gender dysphoria lest our compassion for those who suffer from this condition obstructs our view. The two have been inexorably linked, purposely it appears, so that anyone who questions the ideology, or the money-making scheme behind it, is labeled a “transphobe” who wants to block treatments for those who have gender dysphoria. Aside from being false, this approach has allowed a corrosive ideology to flourish that manipulates young people to believe that biologic reality can be overridden by desire.
Gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder as it was called before the ideology influenced the medical institutions, is a condition in which a child experiences a marked incongruence with their sex and exhibits an intense persistent identification with the opposite sex. The standard of care used to be “watchful waiting” and psychotherapy not immediate affirmation, drugs, and surgery. There is an excellent reason for this approach. After puberty most of these kids accept their sex and many are gay. While not the subject of this article, note that a very small percentage of adults, mostly male, also experience this condition.
On the other hand, gender ideology is a belief structure. It posits that sex and gender are distinct and may or may not match. For example, a person can be born a boy but feel like a girl. Those feelings are described as one’s “gender identity”. This individual may choose drugs and surgery to make their bodies more closely resemble their “gender identity”. With or without medicalization the ideology dictates that a person’s “gender identity” defines their true sex and they should participate in society as such. “Gender identities” and therefore sex is fluid and can change at will. Defying gametes and chromosomes, gender ideology also teaches that humans are not binary mammals. Instead, there are multiple sexes any of which a person can choose and implement via desire, drugs and/or surgery.
It’s Not About Compassion…
It is critical to grasp that gender ideologues declared that gender dysphoria was no longer a rare psychiatric disorder that required treatment but instead a normal human experience. Any human could and should embark on a “gender journey” to find their “authentic” self. In other words, gender ideology used the plight of children with gender dysphoria to saturate our culture with a novel theory of human biology and sexuality.
The launch of gender ideology into society would have been a miserable failure without attaching itself like a malignant tumor to gender dysphoria. This was necessary to both garner compassion from the public and conceal the true nature of the ideology. Otherwise folks would have likely recognized that “gender identities” were actually our personalities and preferences, human biology is reality and that the strict stereotypes pushed by the ideology were regressive.
Gender ideology was the impetus for the “gender affirming care” model that encourages self-affirmation and on-demand drugs and surgery regardless of the presence of other mental health conditions. Prescribing testosterone upon request to a young woman who decided last month she is male is not compassion.
Marketing Gender Ideology
After gender ideology was declared a fact of life by the major medical institutions, the marketing began in earnest. In the name of inclusion, language was changed to include phrases such as “gender assigned at birth”. Youngsters were taught about “gender journeys” at school and that they could be a boy, a girl, both or neither. Preferred pronouns were added to one’s signature. To the delight of Big Pharma, gender clinics mushroomed over the country pushing sex change drugs without psychological treatment. The surgeons willing to cut breasts off and castrate healthy minors and young adults jumped on the bandwagon. Social media influencers also raked in the dollars. Holidays were established. The President declared those on gender journeys “brave”. Tampons were installed in boys’ bathrooms.
The marketing worked. Many of our youth and their parents became true believers.
The General Public’s Reaction
Sadly, as gender ideology and its proponents caught society in their web, the public remained largely ignorant of its teachings, its presence in many schools and social media, and the exponential growth of the on-demand sex change industry. Society’s blind eye allowed a growing number of vulnerable minors and young adults influenced by the movement to be drugged and mutilated. Media’s complicity is evident in its praise of “gender affirming care” coupled with silence on the considerable physical and psychological health consequences. Public figures who questioned “gender affirming care” or how the ideology impacted our culture were viciously labeled, canceled, and/or silenced.
The WPATH Files Expose the Underbelly
Anyone who doubts the impact of gender ideology on the treatment protocols, should read the WPATH Files published by Environmental Progress. It is a report that includes a compilation of leaked internal correspondence and videos from the World Professional Association of Transgender Health. WPATH establishes the standard of care for gender dysphoria and our major medical institutions, federal government, many state governments and associated government schools have followed their lead on “gender affirming care”: immediate affirmation, drugs, and surgery in lieu of psychotherapy and “watchful waiting”.
To say that the WPATH Files are intensely disturbing is a gross understatement. It is abundantly clear that the recommended standards of care that lead a girl with rapid onset gender dysphoria to self-harm and testosterone are based purely on the unproven everchanging landscape of gender theory without regard to evidence based science, ethics, or the long-term physical or psychological health of the patient. They are making it up as they go along.
It is difficult to choose the most troubling excerpt from the WPATH files. A top contender, however, is that WPATH members understand that it is impossible to gain informed consent from their patients. Yet they still proceed with treatments that, among other things, could sterilize them, block their ability to ever orgasm, impact sexual function, and result in a lifetime of drugs and surgery with serious physical and mental health side effects. “Metzger reminded those assembled that gender doctors are “often explaining these sorts of things to people who haven’t even had biology in high school yet,” adding that even adult patients often have very little medical understanding of the effects of these interventions.”
It is incomprehensible. But even more so is that any medical institution listened to these misguided ideologues whose judgement seems horribly twisted by their own psychological issues. This is a testament to the power of marketing. With the revelations and analysis included in the WPATH Files, some organizations will wake up and agree that WPATH members and associates are no different than the quacks who performed lobotomies and removed women’s ovaries to combat mental illness. But others appear to be standing firm in support of gender ideology and its spawn, “gender affirming care”.
Solutions
Even though folks are beginning to understand the threat, the sex change industry will not collapse until its market is eliminated. The market will only dry up when gender ideology, which teaches kids to believe they might be “born in the wrong body”, is exposed and discarded as junk theory.
To aid this effort, a comprehensive nationwide marketing campaign should be initiated to educate parents and children on the dangers of sex change drugs and surgeries. Gender theory should be removed from schools and parents given tools to inoculate their children from sex change predators on social media. We should vote out politicians who support the drugging and mutilation of minors in the name of gender ideology and “Budlight” corporations who do the same. Equally important, for the safety, health, and healing of those with gender dysphoria, the condition should once again be recognized as a psychiatric disorder and treated as such.
It is time to act. It is our duty to protect both those with gender dysphoria and those who have fallen victim to the mass marketing of gender ideology and its barbaric, unethical treatments. Let’s do what needs to be done.
DETAILS
As always, I include a details section to support positions above and provide avenues for additional research.
· The WPATH Files is essential reading for those who want to educate themselves and help protect minors and young adults from self-harm. It was released by Michael Shellenberger’s Environmental Progress and authored by Mia Hughes. I would recommend reading the raw files and watching the videos first and then read the report which provides a helpful history, commentary of the files and compares “gender affirming care” to other horrific medical procedures such as lobotomies and ovariotomies. Note I have included several excerpts of the raw files in this article.
· For those who do not have time to read but can listen, I recommend this Jordan Peterson podcast in which he discusses the WPATH files with Michael Shellenberger.
· Not long after the WPATH Files came out, England’s National Health Service banned the use of puberty blockers. SEGM, The Society for Evidenced Based Gender Medicine discusses the action in this article. The SEGM website is a wealth of information for those who would like to understand this subject in more depth. “Our aim is to promote safe, compassionate, ethical and evidence-based healthcare for children, adolescents, and young adults with gender dysphoria.”
· Colin Wright’s Reality’s Last Stand is an excellent publication for those who wish to examine the scientific aspects of gender ideology’s claims regarding sex and biology. Here is a sample that discusses the sex binary.
· A google search of “gender dysphoria” will reveal one source after another laden with the language of gender ideology. This Psychology Today article is an example. It establishes that there are more than two genders and that kids are assigned a “gender at birth”.
· Consider reading the definition of gender identity disorder/gender dysphoria in DSM 4 and DSM 5. It is a major shift based on the influence of gender ideologues.
· As the American Psychological Association states: “The presence of gender variance is not the pathology but dysphoria is from the distress caused by the body and mind not aligning and/or societal marginalization of gender-variant people.” This step to declare that gender dysphoria was no longer a psychological condition normalized the theory that gender identity was distinct from sex, provided a pathway for insurance to cover medicalization, and cast society at large as the oppressor.
· What is missing from the article above is a discussion of why gender ideology was plucked out of academia and thrust on society by the likes of Obama, Big Pharma, the Pritzkers and other big money bags. Power and money are usually the goals. I am not 100% clear on the twisted motives of this strategy but am perfectly clear that they have sacrificed children to achieve them.
· After much research on gender ideology and its impact on society, summarized in previous articles below, my thoughts have crystallized. I do not believe in gender ideology. I believe it is abhorrent to teach children they can change their sex and then encourage them to do so.
Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Fool most of the country repeatedly, and we wallow in shame. Our gullibility is a national hazard. We repeatedly accept nonsensical narratives and then blindly perform as intended with no regard to the consequences. We must connect the dots between the ring leaders, their motive, our own trip around the ring and the resultant havoc. How did free thinkers become circus animals?
A few things seem clear. Humans are habitual pack animals by nature. Allowing others to dictate our thoughts and actions becomes a habit which causes our ability and desire for critical thought to atrophy. This seems especially true with undeveloped young minds. With repeated failure to question the questionable, a negative spiral develops as critical thought continues to decline and the circus animal habit is reinforced. This allows the ring leaders to float increasingly dubious theories that increase their power and reduce ours. The beliefs and behavior spread through the pack.
This strategy to manipulate and control would fail without media compliance and censorship of competing views. Yet we give the media approval to distort the truth with our patronage. We continue to vote for politicians who deploy false narratives and support censorship to suppress views that challenge them. The secret sauce to a successful campaign, however, is our unquestioning gullibility. We are accomplices in our own bondage.
A good example of this decades long strategy is unfolding before our eyes. Social justice theory is based on the idea that racism is the sole reason some groups are less successful than others. A part of this theory focuses on decolonization or freeing the oppressed who have been colonized by racist oppressors. Do protestors steeped in social justice theories who chant “from the river to the sea” realize their words support the rape, torture, and killing of Jewish children and adults? It’s doubtful they have connected the dots between the faulty logic of the narrative, the motives of those who push it, their own behavior and the beheading of babies.
Simple logic dispels the “decolonization” theory. Every single human is a descendent of “colonists” and somewhere in their lineage experienced “colonization” peaceful or otherwise. Do we all require liberation or elimination? Humans have done horrible things in their wars. We cannot change the past, we can only impact the future. One of the best humorous take downs of this theory comes from Bill Mahar.
Let’s examine another example that is not as obvious but has had compounding destructive consequences for society. We were told George Floyd’s death was a racially motivated murder.
While it is true that instances of excessive police force and racism have occurred, is it true that George Floyd’s death in police custody was the result of racism? The body cam footage demolishes the racist cop narrative. Four officers, two white, one black and one Asian, who work for a black police chief, participated in the arrest of a 6’4” 223 lb man, repeat criminal, who was whacked on a lethal dose of fentanyl combined with methamphetamine and resisted arrest. Critically important, Floyd lied about his fentanyl intake and repeatedly said he “couldn’t breathe” before Chauvin arrived on scene. He also used the same language during a 2019 arrest. It is quite straightforward. Perhaps this is why the politicians refused to release the body cam footage initially. It tells a far different story than the politicians would have us believe.
Was it 2nd degree murder? Read the medical examiner’s autopsy, watch “The Fall of Minneapolis”, read “They’re Lying” by Liz Collin, compare to the official narrative and come to your own conclusions. Those who conduct this essential research will learn that many factors contributed to Floyd’s death not the least of which were his own choices.
It was not Floyd’s tragic death per se that caused the riots. It was how his death was characterized. The Democrat leadership, their operatives and the media presented Floyd’s death as murder by a racist white cop. As revealed in the above reference material, this packaging was a well-executed nationwide disinformation campaign.
The speed and scale of the George Floyd campaign was breathtaking. We must consider the possibility that it was ready to launch as soon as an appropriate opportunity presented itself. Plus the uniformity of the immediate reactions indicated organization at the highest levels and across multiple industries. Democratic politicians, including Biden, Harris, the Minneapolis mayor, Minnesota DA and Governor declared it a racially motivated murder immediately, well before the facts were known. Media relentlessly promoted this message. The mob harassed, threatened and canceled anyone who questioned the narrative.
The roll out of the Floyd campaign alone should have pushed our BS meters into high alarm. Instead, the pack did what packs do and followed along. It was not long before corporations poured millions into BLM and white suburbanites papered their yards with Black Lives Matter signs. People who proclaimed All Lives Matter were attacked as racists. Trips to the Panderverse were fully booked.
Floyd’s death was not a racial issue so why did Democratic operatives and their partners launch a racial narrative which was guaranteed to cause riots and harm the very people they claim to support?
“Dozens of people were killed or injured in the violent unrest, and thousands of businesses and properties, many minority-owned, were looted, torched, or otherwise vandalized.” As this FEE article explains the estimated damage of between $1B and $2B only reflects insurance claims and does not come close to estimating the long term negative impact to the communities where rioting occurred. “We must also remember that riots leave a lasting shadow on a city that haunts its economy for decades. The afflicted areas face higher insurance rates, lower property values, higher prices, reduced tax revenue, and decreased economic opportunity.”
The George Floyd campaign was likely deployed for the same reason political operatives do anything – to get votes. The 2020 election was upon us. Black voter turnout had declined in 2016 as compared to 2008 and 2012. Democratic operatives were concerned that Biden’s popularity among blacks was in line with Clinton’s in 2016 and notably lower than Obama’s. Popularity impacts enthusiasm and therefore turnout plus there was some concern that Trump was gaining with black voters. This spelled trouble in the swing states.
Progressive social justice theory had already taken root in our society. It was the basis for the battle cry that systemic racism murdered George Floyd. Meanwhile Biden and Harris positioned themselves as champions for victims of racism. The media had already tarred and feathered Trump as a racist. Voila, voter enthusiasm delivered in favor of the Democrats combined with increased Trump hate.
The numbers suggest that the Floyd campaign worked. Black voter turnout did not match 2012 at 67% but did increase from 60% to 63% from 2016 to 2020 even with Biden as the candidate.
Did Democratic politicians and operatives sacrifice lives, homes, businesses and communities with a lie to drive the vote and regain power? It certainly appears so and we let them do it. We can only wonder what will happen in 2024 considering Biden and Harris’s historically low favorability ratings. Will we aid and abet the ring leaders once again?
Donations were another likely goal. From Politico on July 1, 2020: “Online donors poured a record $392 million into campaigns and causes via ActBlue in June, a sign of surging activism and political enthusiasm on the left that smashed the previous monthly high, from just before the 2018 election, by a whopping 50 percent.” White supremacists are quite generous.
It is not clear what BLM did with the $90 million they received in donations but their website in 2020 clearly stated they were a political organization dedicated to driving people to vote in the 2020 presidential election. Somehow, someway we can assume some amount of the money found its way towards that goal. Like any good scam, we may never know what happened to the rest.
The George Floyd campaign had other results. We should carefully consider whether they were intended or unintended consequences.
· Many cities defunded their police departments during the Floyd campaign. This in combination with public policies that remove consequences to crime have resulted in notable spikes in crime and chaos in these cities. It would be a worthwhile effort to determine how many additional black lives were lost to murder as a result of the George Floyd and defund the police campaigns.
· It undermined the concept of “innocent till proven guilty”, a foundational principal of our democracy. It’s interesting how those who declared Chauvin guilty before seeing the facts are the same people who say democracy is under attack from the right.
· How many people voted for Biden because they were worried their communities would be destroyed by rioters if Trump won?
· The Floyd campaign pushed the systemic racism, oppressor/oppressed message mainstream garnering solid support especially among young people who had already been steeped in social justice theory in school and social media. This allowed Biden’s handlers to cement it into government policy soon after the election.
· Floyd’s death was tragic but he is not a hero our children should emulate. He was a drug addicted criminal given to violent behavior. As Thomas Sowell has pointed out, when a group tolerates (or worse, promotes) the bad behavior of its members, it brings the whole group down. We should ponder why the Democrats take actions that suppress poor black communities.
· One of the most damaging long-term consequence of the relentless social justice campaign is the increase in racial tension in our country. Divide and conquer is an axiom for a reason.
The aftereffects of the George Floyd campaign were disastrous for our county in general and poor minority communities in particular. We must face the fact that it is partially our own fault. We swallowed the narrative hook, line and sinker, ignored the motive, performed as desired and failed to connect our own actions to the results. People died, communities were irrevocably harmed and lives destroyed.
Unfortunately we humans have a history of ignoring our BS meters with great consequence. Remember eugenics? Thomas Sowell explains in his book “Social Justice Fallacies”: “In the early decades of the twentieth century, when Progressivism was a major new force among American intellectuals and in politics, one of Progressivism’s central tenets was genetic determinism— the belief that less successful races were genetically inferior.”
Eugenics theory was a basis for genocide. More from Sowell: “A widely read book of that era, The Passing of the Great Race by Madison Grant, declared that “race lies at the base of all the manifestation of modern society”96 and deplored “a sentimental belief in the sanctity of human life,” when that is used “to prevent both the elimination of defective infants and the sterilization of such adults as are themselves of no value to the community.”97 This book was translated into other languages, including German, and Hitler called it his “Bible.”98”
Unbelievably genetic determinism was quite fashionable. “There were hundreds of courses on eugenics in colleges and universities across the United States,90 just as there are similarly ideological courses on college and university campuses across the country today, promoting very different ideologies as regards race, but with a very similar sense of mission, and a very similar intolerance toward those who do not share their ideology or their mission.”
Genetic determinism and eugenics faded due to inescapable facts. The Progressives then shifted as Sowell explains: “In the later decades of the twentieth century, and on into the twenty-first century, latter-day Progressives substituted racial discrimination for genes as the automatic explanation of group differences in economic and social outcomes.”
The Democrats have absorbed Progressive theory and forced their racism based social justice vision into schools, corporations and government. Yet, just as with eugenics, this theory is fatally flawed. Why do we give it any credence when common sense suggests that many factors impact the economic and social outcomes of groups such as geography, culture, education, wars, personal choices, % of single parent homes, etc. just as many factors contributed to Floyd’s death. Racism has certainly impacted the success of various groups but so have any number of other factors.
Social justice theory will eventually collapse. The question is how much damage will be done in the meantime.
It is important to note the Floyd campaign is one of many manipulative narratives pummeling our country. We can inoculate ourselves and therefore the country via knowledge, exposure to different viewpoints, context and unparsed data which unfortunately is rarely found in traditional or social media on either side. Censorship and intolerance make this task difficult, but we must dig for truth and act on it.
We will pay a heavy price if we don’t connect the dots between the power hungry, their motives, our gullible compliance, and the resultant consequences. Let’s quit the circus and start thinking again.
DETAILS
As always, I include a details section with source material that supports the opinions above and a jumping off point for readers to do their own research. We are at a critical juncture in history. Our active participation is an absolute requirement to avoid further devastating consequences. I highly recommend starting with Thomas Sowell’s book quoted liberally above, “Social Justice Fallacies”, then watch “The Fall of Minneapolis” and read “They’re Lying” by Liz Collins.
· Consider watching “Black Wisdom Matters”, a series of videos curated by Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Carol Swain and other critical thinkers.
· To follow up, read Thomas Sowell’s “Discrimination and Disparities” and “Black Rednecks and White Liberals”. Note I recommend Sowell because he is a brilliant economist, black, grew up in Harlem and is 93 years old. He is eminently qualified to discuss racism and social justice theory.
· To gain a better grasp of the full impacts of the Floyd induced riots, please consider this FEE article.
· This Seattle Times article is an important read to understand the disastrous consequences of circus folly. Curiously the language attempts to justify their shameful actions: “The shooting, which occurred early on June 29, marked the second fatal shooting during the three-week Capitol Hill Organized Protest, which sprang up in the wake of national outrage over the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. The police-free zone was set up after the Seattle Police Department abandoned its East Precinct during the protests.” Emphasis mine. No. It sprang up because of a false narrative about race that was perpetrated and promoted by the ring leaders who remained unchecked by the people.
· This article outlines the historic black voter turnout in Georgia, a swing state. There are many reasons for this. It is logical to assume the enthusiasm created by the Floyd campaign is one of them.
· This Gallup opinion piece includes polling information and voter turnout statistics. It concludes with this sentiment: “The challenge for the Biden campaign lies in pushing Black voters’ enthusiasm (and, hence, turnout) closer to the historical records achieved by Obama in 2008 and 2012 than the lower levels seen in 2016.”
· There are many articles that state black support for Biden has fallen since 2020. Here is one. If Democratic operatives employ similar tactics, 2024 will be hell on wheels. Their strategic and well-coordinated campaign to get Trump nominated may not be enough to ensure a Democrat victory.
· Consider this article by Nate Hochman on the history of the defund the police movement. An excerpt: “The push for police dismantlement can be traced back to this view: Abolitionists maintain that crime is the result of social conditioning rather than a permanently flawed human nature, in contrast to the more traditionally conservative notion of violence as an inescapable aspect of an intrinsically broken human condition.” It is interesting to note the abolitionist view came into fashion about the same time as eugenics.
· The WSJ editorial details the aftermath of the defund the police movement in Seattle. There is a scramble to hire more police officers to combat increased crime.
· Survey results indicate that young people have been influenced by social justice narratives. Two-thirds of Americans aged 18 to 24 said they think Jews are “oppressors’, 75% said white people are “oppressors”, 60% said Hamas actions were justified and 51% believe Israel should be eliminated and given to Hamas or the Palestinians.
· The Censorship Industrial Complex (as Michael Shellenberger, Public calls it) is a serious component of narrative deployments and a frightening development in our country. Not surprisingly the politicians who support the implementation of social justice policy also support government censorship or act like it isn’t happening. Michael Shellenberger and Matt Taibbi have done much work on this subject. This Public article by Alex Gutentag is a good starting point.
· Eugenics and genetic determinism, the pet theory of early Progressives, had a profound impact on society. Consider this article from the Ethics and Public Policy Center. “The eugenics movement of the early 20th century was full of elite thinkers who advocated contraception and sterilization as a means of minimizing the reproduction of unwanted minorities: non-white Americans, the poor, and those deemed mentally disabled or otherwise unfit.”
““Elimination of the unfit,” Sanger argued, could not be fully achieved without widespread access to birth control.” Margaret Sanger started Planned Parenthood.
· My new favorite word is “Panderverse”. Thank you South Park.
· Thank you to the friends who helped craft the above message.
“Stupid people can create problems, but it often takes brilliant people to create a real catastrophe. They have already done that enough times— and in enough different ways— for us to reconsider, before joining their latest stampedes, led by self-congratulatory elites, deaf to argument and immune to evidence.” Thomas Sowell
In Everglades National Park I noticed a narrow dirt track and wondered what treasures it might hold. The trees crowded in and not surprisingly I reached a point where branches completely blocked the path. My choices were clear, back a long way out or pull out the clippers and get to work.
As I cleared the road, I spotted an interesting, snail type creature hanging from a branch and paused hacking branches to snap a photo. Subsequent research revealed that these tree snails are a mollusc of the genus liguss, or Ligs for short. Curiously, Ligs were quite the coveted item back in the day and their interesting patterns attracted the attention of serious collectors.
Dr. G. Thomas Watters is Curator of Molluscs at the Museum of Biological Diversity at Ohio State University and wrote a wonderful article on the subject. “In Florida the Ligs occurred in three general areas: the Keys, the Gold Coast, and the Everglades. Collecting them, particularly in the Everglades, could be an adventure. And those adventurers called themselves Liggers. On foot, on horseback, in Model As, some of America’s most famous malacologists ventured into the chigger-infested, cotton-mouth crawling, gater guarded, sawgrass cutting landscape in the early 1900s. Long before GPS or even decent maps, these intrepid collectors produced hand-drawn maps and named and numbered hundreds of hammocks and cataloged the Ligs they found there. Archie Jones, perhaps the most experienced of the Liggers, once remarked that a Ligger needed two qualities: high stamina and low IQ.”
Great. I am all in.
A few weeks ago, I was back in Everglades National Park in a special spot where spectacular sunsets are the norm. As luck would have it, there was another photographer who asked if I had seen the tree snails. Excitedly I asked if he was talking about Ligs? Yes indeed and he showed me where this batch were hiding. Imagine that, another modern day Ligger.
Each Lig had a unique pattern and, as snails go, were quite beautiful. I particularly liked the subtle gray marbling on the white Lig. For those curious about the snail itself, I focused directly on the snail’s body in the shell with horizontal stripes.
The moral of the story – nature is endlessly fascinating, clear your own path forward and enjoy the discoveries that await.
Bears have been calling me. “Come visit. Photograph us. We are better than alligators and birds. We do things, interesting things.” When efforts to find the few bears in my beloved everglades failed, I visited Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina and for the first time saw bears in the wild. As exciting as that was, it was only a warm up. I struck pure gold on a workshop led by Jared Lloyd and Annalise Kaylor in Lake Clark National Park, Alaska. Here we could hang with bears.
Mama Black Bear at Pocosin Lakes
The workshop included a day of instruction in Anchorage and then five nights at Silver Salmon Creek Lodge on Cook Inlet in Lake Clark National Park. The lodge is an ideal base, downhome comfortable with great people and food. Bears are everywhere.
During our classroom day, Jared and Annalise reviewed the shooting techniques that would yield the best results in the field. The short summary – keep it simple and keep it low. In most cases we would be wide open, a shutter speed of 1000 or 2000 depending on the activity of the bears and adjust ISO accordingly for a histogram to the right without blow outs. Shoot close to the ground to render otherwise boring foregrounds beautiful and depict the bears with the stature they deserve.
Tuned up for our adventure, the next morning we headed to a most enjoyable airport. They first piled our luggage and then all of us on a scale, loaded the baggage into a de Havilland Beaver and we were off for Lake Clark. Getting high always provides an interesting perspective and this area in Alaska is no exception. Looking out the window was a study in abstract art.
Baggage Loading Alaska Style
Alaska’s Abstract Art
Our plane landed on the beach. This alone propelled Lake Clark to the top of my “Places I Want to Be” list. We tumbled out into cool, misty weather. Moments later we were like kids running up the hill looking for bears. “Look, look!!” Off in the distance was a bear. Little did we know that was just a tiny promise of things to come.
The “Runway”
After getting settled, we headed to the sedge marshes. We learned several things. Bears eat a lot and they are also cows. This was the first inkling that bears are the mystical shape shifters of the animal world. Jared and Annalise called this manifestation “Cow Bears”.
Cow Bear
Another Cow Bear
We were also delighted to see cubs. Krimp and Old Sow, two mama bears who live near the lodge, both had “cubs of the year”, meaning they were born in January during hibernation, nursed through the winter and came out of hibernation with mom in May. While all of us are intrigued by bears, the cubs stole our hearts. They played with abandon, nursed, slept, climbed everything possible and spread happiness as babies do.
We also learned that the adult bears in the vicinity of Silver Salmon Creek Lodge were females (sows). Turns out the male bears (boars) don’t like humans and avoid the place. The sows don’t like the boars killing their cubs so they hang around the humans. Smart.
For the uninitiated like me there was another moment of realization. That hump on the bear’s back is disturbingly familiar. Why are we so close to what appear to be grizzly bears? Turns out coastal brown bears are the same species as grizzlies but just as environment impacts human behavior, the same is true for bears. There is enough food on the coast for all the creatures who live there and as a result the bears are more tolerant. Plentiful sedges, grasses, berries, clams and salmon make our new friends fat and happy.
Even though Silver Salmon Creek is remote, the sows see humans daily. Since the people at the lodge pose no threat and have predictable patterns, the sows tolerate them unless they do something stupid, come too close or interfere with their cubs. This makes for excellent and safe bear photography as long as no one thinks they are in a petting zoo. Regardless the guides always carry bear spray.
Perhaps lean and mean describes inland brown bears aka grizzlies. A National Park Service article on bears in Lake Clark National Park explains: “Because competition for resources is higher inland, brown bears here revert to their solitary nature and do not gather in high numbers. They will interact with fewer individuals in their lifetime than a coastal bear and are less tolerant of the presence of those they do encounter. They are also more likely to react to people from a greater distance so please use extreme caution when exploring the interior of the park.”
When we were not in the sedge marshes, we were on the beach. We hoped for bears fishing for salmon. Instead we were treated with endless opportunities to photograph cubs playing. The touching interactions with mom remind us we are all undeniably linked.
One of my favorite moments was when the cubs were trying to wake up Old Sow. When I was a young kid, Mildred used to babysit. She would take an afternoon nap and often I would park myself next to the couch and ask. “Are you sleeping? No, I am just resting my eyes. Are you sleeping now?” On it went until Mildred relented or actually slept. This scene brought that good memory back with a chuckle. Note the milk on the cub’s snout after they got their way and woke mom up.
We are hungry! Let me be, I am sleeping!
LunchHold on! Not finished!After Lunch Nap
One morning the photography gods were truly with us. The clouds broke for sunrise and the tide was very low. This is when the bears go clamming. Yogi Bear also made an appearance.
Downward Dog Bear
This effect was achieved by shooting at ground level. Pools of water in the sand reflected the light from the rising sun. It was spectacular.
Clamming Bear
Note the shoulder hump is actually “a mass of muscle, which enables brown bears to dig and use their paws as a striking force”. That comes in handy when digging for clams.
A bit later we moved further out where Krimp was having her way with some fish carcasses. We were kneeling waste deep with cameras just above the water. The sun was behind us and the light was amazing. Please meet Human Bear.
Human Bear
After tolerating us for awhile Krimp walked our way. We stood up and walked in the other direction. Being last, I turned around and noticed she was following us, closely. “You do know Krimp is right behind me? Yes just keep walking”. She moved us out of the way, returned to her previous position and resumed her morning snack.
Swimming Bear
After this I mentioned to Jared that I wished there was a photo of us and our tripods in the water. He laughed and said there were probably tons of those photos. We were the only group of photographers with full chest waders and boots. This allowed us to comfortably lay in the sand and water to get the sparkle shots. We could also sit in water and stay warm and dry when Krimp turned into a human. Everybody else was stuck ¼ mile away and will spend much time in photoshop cropping and removing us from their photos. Thank you, Jared and Annalise, for recommending my new favorite article of clothing.
Big Bear
We went salmon fishing, another first. I joked beginner’s luck would win the day. It did. After my tussle with the fragrant salmon, we were shooting a collared bear who walked quite close. At that moment Jared reminded us of bears’ incredible sense of smell and dubbed me “Salmon Hands Sue”. Later we saw this bear again. When she turned and looked at me, she asked “Is that you Salmon Hands”?
Is That You Salmon Hands?
We rarely saw the sun on this trip but another morning it did peek out at sunrise for some beautiful light. What is going through your mind Old Sow?
Nothing is quite like bears on the move. Aside from the wild motion of their feet, they exude power. This is Bear Bear. Compare Krimp’s photos below to Cow Bear above. Yup, they shift. I included several photos below to show her foot and leg motion.
Bear Bear
Let’s not forget the puffins who live on a nearby island. They are curious looking birds that fly about a million miles per hour. Perhaps that is an exaggeration, only 50 mph. Let’s just say I had an extremely low hit rate. Shooting the sea otter who floated by was much easier.
This was a first-rate photography workshop where I learned much in a spectacular setting. Jared and Annalise are excellent and patient teachers. Unlike every other photography group they also ensured we were properly outfitted to get the best possible shots. Dave, our guide from the lodge, put us in the right place at the right time. While I won the “hot mess” award on numerous occasions, I was still able to capture some wall worthy photos. We all did. I will go again. I love hanging with bears.
DETAILS
Silver Salmon Creek Lodge is fantastic. It is not surprising they are booked 6 years out. Don’t expect fancy but do expect solidly great with exceptional owners, guides, cooks and staff.
Feel free to visit Jared’s website PhotoWild and PhotoWild facebook page. PhotoWild magazine is one of my favorite learning tools as are his and Annalises’s podcasts. This is my second workshop with Jared and Annalise and while photography is normally a solo endeavor for me, I will likely do them all. I learn heaps about photography, wildlife and nature while having a blast.
