The ‘F’ title stands for several things, but first it’s “Good Morning, bring on the coffee.” Some might want a bit of a teaser, so here goes. Look for things such as; ‘F’ for fun, ‘F’ for fear, ‘F’ for freedom, or even ‘F’ for a happy Father’s Day.

I have to point out that a (small) portion of this was written last evening. To the north of us Tornado touchdowns have happened; we’re in for some hefty weather and flooding during the night, especially since warning sirens can be heard. I thought I’d get a head start in case of sleep disruptions.

Quotation:

”Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times>” ~ G. Michael Hopf

In today’s parlance ‘men’ should have been entered as ‘persons’ and would include both ‘child-bearing’ and ‘sperm donating’ persons equally.

Pumas – Last week I wrote about the most excellent band Kirstin and I watched. That then reminded me of that wonderful television comedy show of years ago where it too featured a bit of music; WKRP in Cincinnati. Here is the clip I had in mind, this starring Howard Hesseman as the uber cool Dr. Johnny Fever:

[also, RIP Frank Bonner (Herb Tarlek on WKRP) 2-28-1942 ~ 6-17-2021]

F = Freedom – at least I hope so; slight rumblings that the border to Canada will open in a matter of a few weeks. Wait, that’s wrong, now the opening was just moved back to the end of July – again. It just doesn’t stop!

What has happened to Canada under Covid-19 lockdown and with it most of the Charter Rights afforded their people? Now we see the tossing of Preachers in jail merely for holding open-air services, this while leadership hobnobs without hindrance – this includes arresting a national opposition political party leader. ‘Approved’ gatherings for BLM and hockey are just fine; none of it is ‘Science’, it’s all a power play.

F = Fish – Tevita and Adrianne spent a week at the beach. While there you just don’t watch fish, you go out and fish and make use of the fish market. And that they did. Back home they treated us to a fish and crab dinner. It was spectacular. Thanks guys!

F = Folly – watching the pathetic performance of our President at the G-7 and later during his Putin sit-down; couple these with the MSM covering of the events, and it makes for a sorry show. How can a leader in the space of a few minutes lose track of what nation he was talking about and inserted Libya when he was talking about Syria – three times over. The man looked visibly confused or tired, not certain which.

Later in the one on one with Putin, cheat cards in hand, we walked away from the table without a single solid piece gained. Not even a release promise of the jailed Americans. Afterwards Putin must have ordered his Cossacks a special round of Vodka.

The single concrete piece of news from the event came yesterday when the White House announced that the $100-million military aid package to the Ukraine had been halted.

F = Fear – I am old enough to remember Vietnam. The lives lost, the lives changed, and the crazy withdrawal which left thousands of our Vietnamese allies in fear for their lives. I remember desperate people hanging onto the last helicopters leaving.

All the final chaos as we withdrew from a war we had little business entering and no will to win as it was politically driven. Now we are ready to repeat history; this time in Afghanistan. 20-years, two trillion dollars, and more than 2,000 service members lost.

Our ‘drawdown’ is poised to leave behind are 170-180,000 of our allies, translators, and those who worked with us under an ‘umbrella’ of trust. Sorry, you lose. These “are about to learn that trusting America was a bad bet. Many will be condemned to torture and death as the reward for their service” (American Thinker, June 18, 2021), as that country is poised to quickly return to a brutal, medieval, theocracy. Already the Taliban has overrun one of our former bases.

F = Fun – Most notably the importation of sausages from the UK into Northern Ireland under the Brexit rules. Each sausage must be inspected. And wouldn’t you know, this sausage nonsense reared its ugly head just as President Biden and PM Boris Johnson set their sights on re-doing the 1941 Atlantic Charter between FDR and Churchill. Great fun for us news junkies.

But actually, I wanted to place the brand new, independent, British news service, GB News, under the fun column. Britain has its BBC, Canada has the CBC, and we have PBS. All three, without hesitation, are heavy left leaning enterprises – meaning that viewers get a single viewpoint of each news cycle. Canada shovels $1.5-billion towards their CBC. Britain does it better by pushing to the BBC approximately (in dollars) $5-billion (PBS receives +/- $1.35 per citizen per year).

GB News, touting itself as “Britain’s news channel” has at the head of their presenting team Andrew Neil (as revered as Walter Cronkite was here). It promises to present ALL viewpoints and even some lighthearted FUN stuff. Early ratings show promise; 166K for GBN, 133K for BBC, and 57K for Sky news.

So why bring up this British focused entity? Simple, it’ll be a great way to gain a new perspective on both International and news dealing with our own situation with high quality in depth content. [I got connected through my mobile app store.]

Fini –
• The last surviving officer on D-Day, first wave, turned 99 this past week. At the time a lieutenant, he retired as Major General John Raaen.

• This is for Greta T. (climate wunderkind); this past week we just broke -81° Celsius (-113.8 °Fahrenheit) in Antarctica.

• The Science is settled. Global warming might cause the ice caps to grow. Global warming might cause the ice caps to shrink. We’re not certain, so either way….we nailed it! Dr. James E. Hansen, NASA-GISS

• Twitter does it again. Dr. Peter McCullough, MD, MPH, FACC, not an anti-vaxer, but also a believer in early Covid-19 intervention with alternate treatments was ‘scrubbed’ from Twitter – even with 17.4K followers. Just as a point of interest, he’s the most cited medical doctor on COVID-19 treatments at the National Library of Medicine, with more than 600 citations. Yet Twitter does not allow any open debate of controls and treatment. That’s what the “nation’s town square” is all about – censorship. So wrong!

• Still keeping track of our current VEEP’s border travel – after all she is our border Point Person. This week she was spotted here.

• This past week in 1902 the Musical, “The Wizard of Oz”, opened in Chicago.

• Jason and Cathy have a massive Oak tree in their new backyard. This week they had an arborist company work on it. A team of three crawled over all 50’ of this beauty.

• Think on this: During Black history month Amazon (while amplifying Black voices) kicked “Created Equal” the amazing story of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (born in poverty in the segregated south) off their site.

• Think on this #2: “Palestinians fired 4,360 rockets at Israeli civilians last month, now Israel is giving them 1.2 million Pfizer vaccine doses” ~ Hillel Neuer, Canadian-born lawyer, executive director of UN Watch.

• RIP Rudolph (Rudy) Moreira, MD, 1943-2021, born in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Rudy was the amazing surgeon who successfully operated on Marcia for breast cancer over 20 years ago. At the same time he and I played on the same soccer team. BTW – Rudy was a much better player.

• Anybody remember Dr. Timothy Leary PhD?

• June 17, 1939 France held its last public guillotining when Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, was put to death. This spectacle was held outside of the prison Saint-Pierre.

• Cancel Culture has also taken hold in Canada. This past week the 1895 statue of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime Minister was hurriedly removed after the discovery of his role in their residential school system.

Make it great week people, keep the peace, be happy, stay safe, and head outdoors!

Dirk