Opuscula Author ruins tale By citing sites That aren’t real

I JUST STARTED READING Got the Look by James Grippando.

According to the blurb on the jacket, Grippando “lives in Florida where is was a trial lawyer for 12 years.”

If his courtroom efforts were as sloppy as his book’s siting (vs. citing), then he probably lost more cases than he won.

 

Some of the action in Got the Look takes place in Miami.

This scrivener spent many of his adolescent years in Miami; all over Miami.

Bottom line: the discrepancies in his description of Miami locations is disconcerting, at best.

I could understand if Grippando — and his editors at HarperCollinsPublishers — lacked access to information about Miami, but the mistakes are pure laziness.

Setting the mood, Grippando puts the hero on a bench at the intersection of Miami Avenue and Flagler Street. According to 311 Transit (miamidade.gov), there is no bench at this intersection. (It took one email exchange to discover this.)

For anyone who knows Miami, it is divided into quadrants: NE/SE, NW/SW. Flagler is the north-south divider; Miami Avenue is the east-west divider.

Miami Avenue and Flagler Street intersection (https://tinyurl.com/y2sz79zm)

Grippando is not the first writer, and HarperCollinsPublishersis not the first bookseller to commit a geographic faux pas.

Another writer put the University of South Florida in Miami.

A logical mistake; Miami IS in “south Florida,” but the University of South Florida (USF) is mostly in Tampa FL (with branches in neighboring communities).

How do I know this? My First Born holds a degree from USF in Tampa.

By the way, Disney is not in Orlando; not even in Orange County. The major airport’s call letters, MCO, do NOT represent Mickey’s COuntry but McCoy. The flying field once was McCoy AFB, a Strategic Air Command (SAC) base.

To be fair, Grippando’s tale is “OK.”

Not all that believable,” but “OK.”

It is hard to suspend belief when known locations are incorrectly sited.

Perhaps I am simply a curmudgeon. Not perhaps; I am.

When I worked as a reporter, I had to describe things accurately. If I failed the accuracy test, either my editors or the readers would correct me. Readers can be hard on a young reporter.

That may somewhat explain why I take umbrage when something that easily can be checked is allowed to go unchecked.

Television and films are not much better, despite continuity editors.

It was funny when the mole on a face moves from place to place as it did for Richard Lewis as “Prince John” in Robin Hood: Men in Tights (right), but it is not funny when a character’s wardrobe varies from frame to frame in the same scene. It doesn’t happen often, but it happens.

Fortunately for tv and movies, the faux pas usually is quickly forgotten.

Not so with printed matter.

I’ll finish Grippando’s yarn, but I’m afraid I’ll be looking for more “sins of laziness.”

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Citing sites

Opuscula Curmudgeon retired To recliner & tv

I AM A GEEZER, AN OLD MAN, a curmudgeon.

I like shoot’em ups, Westerns.

Nothing new.

I was a fan of Tonto (Jay Silverheels nee' Harold Jay Smith, right) and his partners (two) as a youngster. I’ll still watch the program — only for the snippet of the William Tell Overture, of course. 😀

 

BUT, BEING A CURMUDGEON and being a former honest newspaper reporter, I pay attention to (selected) details.

For the record, I’m still honest, but I traded my press card for other work.

Learning from the Lone Ranger

The opening scene to most of the Lone Ranger (tv) movies showed the Lone Ranger firing his six shooter, raising his hand, then lowering it and firing again.

As a child I gave it little thought.

As an adult owning SA/DA revolvers, I understood WHY the guy did what he did.

Revolvers in the era the Lone Ranger represented were single-action (SA).

Translation: the shooter had to first pull the hammer back and then pull the trigger.

Many revolvers today are double-action (DA); pulling the trigger raises the hammer and then allows it to fall on the cartridge.

Most of my target practice is single-action; thumb back the hammer, acquire target, pull trigger.

Double-action can pull the barrel off the bulls eye.

That doesn’t mean I NEVER fire DA, but not often.

Six shooters were not

Smart cowboys knew that their six shooters should have one empty cartridge chamber.

Revolvers of the day lacked safety features of today’s pistols.

The hammer — and firing pin — was over the empty chamber.

If the gun fell, there was minimal chance it would discharge.

On the other hand, as soon as the hammer was pulled back, the cylinder advanced and a live round was now ready to be fired.

Some gun manufacturers today still recommend an empty chamber for revolvers, even with modern safety features.

Bottom line: Cowboy’s six-shooters actually were five shooters.

Safe Carry recommendation from modern revolve

Hollywood can’t count

Both Hollywood cowboys and other gun-totters — good guys and bad ones, too — seem never to reload their weapons.

They never seem to run out of cartridges already in the weapon.

It makes no difference it the gun is a revolver with five, six, or seven rounds in the cylinder, or a semi-automatic with “n” rounds in the magazine.

Hollywood guns almost never run out of ammunition.

I often watched Paladin (Richard Boone) fire an over-under Derringer and never reload the two-shooter.

Likewise, I recall seeing Matt Dillon (James Arness) load a revolver once — after Chester (Dennis Weaver) cleaned the marshal’s revolver and forgot to load it.

Lever (repeating) rifles also seemed never to be reloaded.

The 1860 Henry did hold an amazing sixteen (16) .44 caliber cartridges. (https://tinyurl.com/y522dp9g) The Winchester 1876, by comparison, held 10 rounds. (https://tinyurl.com/y3ty7tr8)

James Arness (Matt Dillon), left, and Richard Boone (Paladin), right)

Bullets vs. Cartridges

Bullets sit on top (or in front, depending on perspective) of a cartridge.

The cartridge contains a cap to ignite the propellant that sends the bullet on its way.

There are many bullet types, as there are many cartridge sizes. A .22 caliber cartridge and a 75mm Howitzer shell basically are the same design. (Size, of course, does make a difference.)

A magazine holds cartridges in a rifle or semi-automatic pistol. (A “pistol” may be a revolver, a semi-automatic, or by most accounts, a Derringer.) Clips hold cartridges that will be inserted into a magazine. The exception to that are “clips” designed to hold cartridges to be inserted into a revolver’s cylinder.

Cartridge components (https://tinyurl.com/yxgmcv7g)

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Curmudgeon

Opuscula Nobel presidents: Some for nothing, Nothing for some

Dry Bones by Kirschen for 26 Oct 2020 (https://tinyurl.com/y6yqdj43)

SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO WONDER: Are prizes worth the paper on which they are printed?

For example: A former U.S. president receives the Nobel Peace Prize early in his term, according to the Nobel committee (https://tinyurl.com/y5wb4uf7) “"for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

Mind, (citing the Nobel award, ibid.) “Barack H. Obama, the 44th President of the United States, had been in power for less than eight months when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009. Among the reasons it gave, the Nobel Committee lauded Obama for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples". Emphasis was also given to his support – in word and deed - for the vision of a world free from nuclear weapons.

Rhetorical Question: Did he accomplish any of those things during eight years in office?

For example: Another U.S. president managed to forge peace agreements between

Israel and
*  United Arab Emirates
*  Bahrain
*  Sudan
Between Kosovo and Serbia
Reduced tensions between North Korea and the world.
Reduced contributions to organizations that promote hatred and terrorism.

Never mind that the previous administration — led by a Nobel Peace Prize winner —

*  Failed to manage a peace agreement with ANY antagonists
*  Exacerbated conflicts
*  Refused to deal with North Korea despite its on-going threats to world peace
*  Bolstered Iran’s capability to make a nuclear weapon, ignoring Iran’s threats to all nations in the Middle East
*  Encouraged and provided financial support to terrorists (PLO/PFLP, Hamas/Islamic Jihad) by keeping U.S. taxpayer aid flowing to the terrorist “leadership.”

 

FOR THE RECORD, the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize went to the UN's World Food Program.

According to Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/yy6fjhwf),

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the food-assistance branch of the United Nations. It is the world's largest humanitarian organization, the largest one focused on hunger and food security, and the largest provider of school meals. Founded in 1961, it is headquartered in Rome and has offices in 80 countries. As of 2019, it served 97 million people in 88 countries, the largest since 2012, with two-thirds of its activities conducted in conflict zones.

Most assuredly the UN’s program — largely funded by U.S. taxpayers under the current administration — is a worthwhile function.

But compared to peace making? Compared to reducing the chance that people will be murdered in the name of religion or race or any other excuse?

As my Second Born, a computer wizard, would opine: “That doesn’t compute.”

Not the first Nobel embarrassment

According to both the BBC (https://tinyurl.com/yarclup4) and the New York Post (https://tinyurl.com/y264flh7),

Geir Lundestad told the AP news agency that the committee hoped the award would strengthen Obama.

Instead, the decision was met with criticism in the US. Many argued he had not had any impact worthy of the award.

Lundestad, writing in his memoir, Secretary of Peace, said even Obama himself had been surprised.

"Even many of Obama's supporters believed that the prize was a mistake," he says. "In that sense the committee didn't achieve what it had hoped for".

Some Obama’s advisers decided the honor could not be refused. But as ridicule rained down on the committee for handing a peacemaker’s award to a man who was ordering drone strikes on civilians overseas, the White House grew increasingly hesitant, dithering for weeks over how much of the traditional three-day awards gala he would attend.

Bottom line: the Prize committee had “high hopes” that failed to develop.

The Prize committee also gave the 1994 Peace Prize jointly to Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. It ignored Wm. Jefferson Clinton (Dem) who brokered the deal.

Rhetorical Question: How did that work out?

Is the Prize committee showing bias?

Democrat presidents get it.

Republican presidents don’t get it.

President Nixon, who opened China and got the U.S. out of Vietnam was nominated, but Henry Kissinger got the award. Only the Prize committee knows why a subordinate (Kissinger) won the prize while the boss (Nixon) was ignored. (Kissinger did deserve a Frequent Flier award.)

According to ThoughtCo. (https://tinyurl.com/y6gjgk9z) , three presidents and one vice-president were honored by the Prize committee:

Theodore Roosevelt (GOP), who was in office from 1901-09, was awarded the prize in 1906 "for his successful mediation to end the Russo-Japanese war and for his interest in arbitration, having provided the Hague arbitration court with its very first case.”

Woodrow Wilson (Dem), who was in office from 1913-21, was awarded the prize in 1919 for founding the League of Nations, the predecessor to the United Nations.

Jimmy Carter (Dem), who served one term from 1977 to 1981, was awarded the prize in 2002 "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."

Vice President Al Gore (Dem) won the prize in 2007 for his work in researching and disseminating information about climate change.

Consider for a moment how the UN, nee’ League of Nations, has prevented conflicts; the “international conflicts” avoided by Carter, and the great progress made combating climate change during Democrat administrations.

Teddy (Roosevelt) won the prize for “successful mediation” of one war (that the Japanese actually won with their surprise attack on Port Arthur — a tactic they would use again on 7 December 1941 at Pearl Harbor.)

In comparison, President Trump managed to arrange peace or “normalization” agreements between multiple countries in the Middle East and in Europe. To paraphrase the “Soup nazi” from Seinfeld (https://tinyurl.com/zwblsg9), “No prize for you (Trump).”

Here’s a thought: In how many peace — or even “non-aggression” — treaties has Joe Biden been involved in his 47 years in Washington, including eight as Prize winner Obama’s vice president?

Republican Ronald Reagan did not garner the Peace prize, but Communist Mikhail Gorbachev won the honor for “for his leading role in the peace process which today characterizes important parts of the international community.” (https://tinyurl.com/yxsgab25)

Dry Bones by Kirschen for 25 Oct 2020
(https://tinyurl.com/y6yqdj43)

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Embarrassed

Opuscula Fact checking? Only check facts That favor Biden

Thursday’s debate between the president and his opponent was — thanks to a MUTE button threat — more “civilized” than the previous debate between the two men. (I cannot bring myself to key “gentlemen.”)

The confrontation was limited to topics that should have put the opponent in good stead.

Topics that would highlight the president’s accomplishments, e.g., foreign affairs, were deliberately off the table.

The moderator, Kristen Welker, NBC News’ White House reporter, managed to, more of less, keep control of the event.

But it was AFTER the combatants left the stage that the bias became blatant.

 

Immediately following the face off, Norah O'Donnell and friends — Gail King and John Dickerson — trashed the president and promoted the contender.

Then the trio of obviously left-leaning “news” people called on Major Garrett to “check facts.”

The “fact checks” can be seen at https://tinyurl.com/y6a5npob — BUT FIRST, viewers must watch at least one advertisement for the contender. Does that suggest bias to anyone?

Garrett picked three facts to check.

Two for the incumbent; he ruled that those were false.

One for the contender; he ruled that one true.

This was, basically, a continuation from the first “debate” after which Garrett cherry picked the facts to check assuring the contender looked good at the incumbent’s expense.

Who said the media is biased?

As an aside, the only thing “major” about Major Garrett is his name. There is zero indication in his Wikipedia bio (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Garrett) that he ever served in any military organization or even volunteered for any public service (e.g., Peace Corps or AmeriCorps VISTA). “Major” is a “rank” given by his parents.

Foreign experience

Kirschen Dry Bones for 21 OCT 2020 (https://tinyurl.com/yxh62wmp)

Although the incumbent never served in the U.S. armed forces, during the current administration, he managed:

*  Peace with at least two of Israel’s Muslim neighbors was achieved and trade opened

*  Sudan is preparing to sign a normaliation agreement with Israel

*  (In the wings): Qatar, Oman, Muscat, Saudi Arabia

*  A peace agreement was inked between Kosovo and Serbia

*  Tensions with rogue North Korea were reduced (albeit not eliminated)

*  NATO European members were obliged to pick up a greater portion of the tab to protect the members

*  Iran sanctions, canceled by the previous administration, were reinstated

*  The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East had is budget cut, reducing some war-mongering, xenophobia in text books, and the amount of funds flowing into the pockets the PLO/PFLP and Hamas/Islamic Brotherhood leaders.

The peace agreements will help keep Americans out of harms way.

The contender, also lacking any military experience — although he suggests otherwise in a video at https://youtu.be/TM9dlqEdmp0 — should be promoting peace. He his son, Beau, was a major in the Delaware Army National Guard and served in Iraq.. He died of brain cancer at the age of 46 on May 30, 2015 after more than a week receiving treatment at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where he spent his final moments. (https://tinyurl.com/y38qgon4)

Son Hunter managed to enlist in the Navy Reserve as an officer. He lasted less than a year, being released from the service in February for cocaine use. (https://tinyurl.com/yy45aj8p)

Hunter Biden, twice married, dated his brother’s Beau’s widow, Hallie Biden. (https://tinyurl.com/y4po9xax) According to Wikipedia, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_Biden) Beau's widow was Hunter's "domestic partner" from 2016–2018, A period during which he was married to Kathleen Buhle (1993; 2017)​.

The contender’s foreign relations activities involve him and son Hunter.

According to Fox News' Jesse Watters (https://tinyurl.com/y5m2vzk6),

Hunter was on the Board of Directors of a Chinese investment firm called BHR that was funded by the Chinese government and what did they do? They started acquiring companies that were beneficial to the Chinese military.

They were an anchor investor in something called China General Nuclear, which ended up being charged by our FBI for stealing nuclear secrets in the United States. They ended up buying part of an American dual-use technology company, meaning it produces technology that has civilian and military application. They ended up buying that for the benefit of the Chinese military.

Son Biden served on the board of Burisma Holdings, a major Ukrainian natural gas producer, from 2014 to 2019. (https://tinyurl.com/y4s9g7jl)

According to one newspaper,

A Ukrainian natural-gas company that employed Joe Biden’s son Hunter allegedly paid the former vice president $900,000 in lobbying fees.

Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, cited as evidence claims made by Andriy Derkach, a member of Ukraine’s parliament. Derkach held a press conference earlier Wednesday in Kyiv where he claimed to have documents showing how Burisma Holdings paid Joe Biden the lobbying fees.

“Biden, his son and his brother had a 30-year-long scam to make money, millions, selling his public office,” Giuliani claimed.

Hunter Biden worked for Burisma while his father served as vice president and acted as the point man on US effort to stamp out corruption in Ukraine. Hunter was paid $50,000 a month. (https://tinyurl.com/y26fxagk)

In Thursday’s face-to-face, the contender said he told the Chinese U.S. ships and planes could, and would, enter the China Sea at will. The contender’s boss refused to deal with North Korea, setting the stage for renewed conventional and possibly nuclear warfare.

It took a Republican (Richard Nixon) to open China to U.S. trade (perhaps Nixon’s greatest mistake). Nixon also got the U.S. out of Vietnam.

It took a Republican (Ronald Reagan) to bring down the Berlin Wall.

Xenophobia and racism

The contender accused the incumbent of xenophobia because the incumbent

*  Banned Chinese entry into the U.S. due to the Chinese Virus

*  Banned Muslims only from select countries known for exporting terrorism

*  Banned everyone coming to the U.S. from countries experiencing Covid-19

Unlike a previous U.S. president, the incumbent did NOT put U.S. citizens in prison camps (https://tinyurl.com/yahl2s3g).

Unlike a previous U.S. president, the incumbent did NOT send refugees back to their deaths (Medoff, R (2019). The Jews Should Keep Quiet, Chap. 5, ISBN 9780827614703)

Blacks are better off economically than under the previous administration. (https://tinyurl.com/yxvfb2dw, https://tinyurl.com/y43av4gc)

Latinos are better off economically than under the previous administration. (https://tinyurl.com/y5mwd3gd, https://tinyurl.com/yas7pkhg)

Chinese virus and Chinese trade

The contender said if he is elected he will

*  Have PPE made in America

*  Have medications made in America

*  Will reduce the U.S. dependence on China

All of the above are what the incumbent already is doing.

The incumbent does rashly claim that there will be a vaccine before the elections.

That is highly unlikely as the election only is days away. Spring is a more realistic time frame according to multiple government and non-government sources.

The challenger makes no claim when a vaccine will be available.

Does anyone care?

In truth, I suspect no one reading this cares about facts and fancy.

They made up their minds and many of us already cast our ballots.

The contender’s fans must be exceedingly confident that their candidate will prevail. I have not heard as many “name” personalities threaten to leave the country if the incumbent wins a second term.

Even when they promise to leave the United States, they don’t do it.

The contender promises to be president for ALL Americans, yet it is his party’s supporters (and a few in Congress) that has caused much of the nation’s division.

It is the opinion of some that if the contender prevails, he won’t last a year in office (https://tinyurl.com/y6elzo5g). The husband of the contender’s vice president choice already is announcing that “I am married to the next president of the United States” (https://tinyurl.com/y2vlvvz2). What does he know that the voters should know? For whom are they REALLY voting?

 

We live in interesting, albeit troubling, times.

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Fact checking

Opuscula College: Who needs it? Not the voters

The Democrats said they wanted to eliminate the Electoral College.

The Republicans said they wanted to eliminate the Electoral College.

Yet, the Electoral College still exists.

Why?

 

According to History.com (https://tinyurl.com/y27u3wz9)

Five times in history, presidential candidates have won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College.

History.com continues,

Among the many thorny questions debated by the delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, one of the hardest to resolve was how to elect the president. The Founding Fathers debated for months, with some arguing that Congress should pick the president and others insistent on a democratic popular vote.

Their compromise is known as the Electoral College.

As with most compromises, rather than everyone winning, everyone — in particular five politicians — lost.

The fear

Still citing History.com,

First, they thought 18th-century voters lacked the resources to be fully informed about the candidates, especially in rural outposts. Second, they feared a headstrong “democratic mob” steering the country astray. And third, a populist president appealing directly to the people could command dangerous amounts of power.

While that could happen in 2020, given the presence of extremists on all sides and the number of unsolicited absentee ballots — blame it on Covid-19 — that may, or may not, be cast by unregistered persons or persons who are registered but not citizens — being able to register on-line without having to prove citizenship actually is no worse than registering in person and not having to prove citizenship.

Actually, in some states more proof of citizenship is required to get a driver’s license!

Knowledge of issues

Newspaper, tv, radio — all carry advertisements promoting candidates and issues.

That is not to claim that the advertisements are truthful or that either the candidates or those supporting them or specific issues are honest. Even “fact checkers” can be biased and check facts that best support their position.

Yes, I believe the media is biased; some more blatantly than others.

There is a plethora of information available. There is no excuse for a voter to claim ignorance of a candidate. Have email? The candidates’ supporters will find you. Have text messaging? Ditto. It doesn’t matter if you are a registered Republican; the Democrats still will try to get your vote. I’m sure the Republicans are no better.

Perhaps there should be a test before a voter is handed a ballot to see if he or she actually KNOWS who and what is on the ballot.

Yes, I know that would immediately be declared unconstitutional.

Technology

Today, October 2020, most voting at precinct places is electronic.

Voters show up at the polling place and prove they are registered to vote by providing some evidence; often a driver’s license. The poll worker compares the evidence to a list; if they match, the voter gets a ballot.

Voters mark their ballots and carry them to a scanner that records their votes.

The scanners are “dumped” into a computer at the Supervisor of Elections (SOE) or similar office and added to the output of other scanners at other polling places.

Mail-in and drop off ballots are scanned at “Election Central,” the Supervisor of Elections’ office.

As with polling places, there are supposed to be “poll watchers” to assure everything is on the up-and-up; kosher.

The biggest weakness in the mail-in ballots is the U.S. Post Office (USPS).

There is no guarantee that a ballot stuck in a voter’s letter box will be collected by the carrier; there is no guarantee that a ballot dropped in a USPS drop box or a Post Office branch will be delivered to the SOE, especially if the ballot is handled by a mail sorting facility between the time it is collected at the drop box or Post Office branch and the time is it supposed to be delivered to the SOE.

This scrivener has particularly bad mail service; despite complaints, Civil Service and the union protect the carrier.

Voters with mail-in ballots have the option of dropping them off at a local polling place once early voting commences, or taking the ballots to an SOE secure drop box. Both ways avoid putting the ballots into USPS hands.

Vote early and often

Incumbents generally are more concerned with cheating by their opponents’ followers.

With lax — sometimes non-existent — requirements to prove citizenship, the suspicion is that illegals will be casting ballots.

The Heritage Foundation Election Fraud Database (https://tinyurl.com/ycyn6t2z) presents a sampling of recent proven instances of election fraud from across the country. This database is not an exhaustive or comprehensive list. It does not capture all cases and certainly does not capture reported instances that are not investigated or prosecuted.

The database lists 1,298 “proven cases of voter fraud,” but fails to specify WHEN the fraud was discovered making is less useful.

History, unfortunately, has some (in)famous voter fraud.

The City Journal site (https://tinyurl.com/y3y45euf), records that

Nowhere did voter fraud have a more notorious record than in Tammany-era New York. Tammany Hall's ruthless efficiency in manufacturing votes—especially during the zenith of its power in the second half of the nineteenth century—is legendary. At the time, America didn't yet have privacy-protecting voting machines or official government ballots, so Tammany fixers could ensure that voters would cast ballots as promised. Vote riggers would simply give people pre-marked ballots and watch as they deposited them into the voting box.

The people of Chicago might dispute that.

The Block Club Chicago site (https://tinyurl.com/y654l7m7) offers

Chicago is famous for its history of people voting from the grave and for helping President John F. Kennedy “steal” the 1960 election. (JFK beat Richard Nixon by 9,000 votes in Illinois by capturing what some considered a suspiciously high 450,000 advantage in Cook County.)

Mayor Anton Cermak, the first in an unbroken stream of Democratic mayors since 1931, created what would became known as the infamous “Democratic Machine,” said Bob Crawford, a now-retired journalist who covered city politics for decades. The Machine ensured voters picked the right candidates, and the people who worked in it weren’t shy about using money, bribes or fake identities to get votes for Democrats.

Tactics may have changed, but the prospect of voter fraud is once again a significant consideration. Instead of registering names from tombstones, illegal aliens may be voting thanks both to unsolicited ballots and voter registrars who don’t demand proof of citizenship.

Both WUSA9 (https://tinyurl.com/y4mh8hbp) and WTOP (https://tinyurl.com/y59nympj) report that A half-million unsolicited absentee applications cause confusion in Virginia. That’s just one state. Similar situations have been reported elsewhere.

House decides

If neither presidential candidate receives the required 270 votes, the House of Representatives elects the president.

For the 2020 election, given the House’s Democrat majority, Harris-Emhoff will become the first female president of the United States.

I predict that Joe Biden will not complete a full term in office. His age and health are an issue and if that doesn’t force his capitulation, his party will drum up a way to get him declared unfit for office. I could be wrong.

The question is: WHEN will the House get the job, if ever?

There is so much speculation that voter fraud will be rampant that who ever looses the election likely will challenge many votes. At this point, it seems likely that the winner will be named sometime in December.

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Embarrassed

Opuscula Where are they? Where are BLM And black leaders?

Do ALL black lives matter, or only when tv cameras are on?

A WHITE COP SHOOTS A “PERSON OF COLOR” — never mind what the “Person of Color” was doing — and suddenly

Black Lives Matter is protesting (sometimes peacefully)

Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson appear in front of tv cameras

Democrats condemn the cop (who cares if the shooting was justified)

But where are these people when a “person of color” murders another “person of color”?

Sharpton & Jackson (AP Photo/Matt Rourke @ https://tinyurl.com/y44nzkpa)

IS IT POSSIBLE THAT black lives only matter when a non-“person of color” injured or killed a “person of color”?

Apparently.

Blacks kill blacks at an alarming rate.

I just watched footage of a black man walking up to another black man and shooting him at point blank range. There was less than “social distancing” (six feet) between the two men when the shooting started.

By the way, another “person of color” stood by and watched.

No arrests have been made as this is keyed.

Drive by not worthy

The other day the mother of a toddler was shown on the tv weeping for her child who was killed in a drive by shooting, the latest “sport” here.

She was surrounded by friends and neighbors.

Noticeably absent were BLM representatives, any national black “leader,” or, for that matter any local politician of any hue.

Unfortunately, the gathering was not unusual; it is an all-too-frequent occurrence in neighborhoods where “people of color” are the majority.

Also “unfortunately,” in many cases the “people of color” refuse to cooperate with the cops; they don’t share what they know … so the murders keep happening and babies to ancients keep dying. Is it fear of retribution or is it distrust of law enforcement, regardless of the cop’s skin color.

Yes, there ARE bad cops

Anyone who denies that there are some cops who need to be kicked off the force is a fool.

There are bad white cops and bad “cops of color.”

I’ve seen both.

There also are white cops and “cops of color” who are great people who go out of their way to help people — regardless of skin color or any other identifying characteristics.

Claiming that all white cops are racists is as accurate as saying all “people of color” are criminals.

Both statements are lies from the lips of bigots.

When I was in elementary school, I was victimized by a group of bullies. The bullies were Latinos from South America. Should I hate or even fear Latinos today? I don’t. I know too many Latinos who are great people.

Ditto for Arabs. Should I fear all Muslims because some hate non-Muslims? I fear haters, regardless of race, creed, and any other attribute that is appropriate. I have worked with and for too many Muslims that are not haters to tar all Muslims with the same brush.

It makes about as much sense as hating all Aaron Copeland music which, I stupidly did before I learned about Appalachian Spring (https://tinyurl.com/yxtmj4ak), Fanfare for the Common Man (https://tinyurl.com/y69cvbw3), Tender Land Suite (https://tinyurl.com/y3ee3exo). Copeland’s early works (Piano Variations (https://tinyurl.com/y6k78wo7) as an example), which were my introduction to the composer, were discordant and offended my ears.

Promoting racism

I might suggest that “politicians of color,” the Squad for example, and the self-appointed leaders of “people of color” — that means anyone other than a Caucasian — are blaming everything on “others” even when many of the “others” continue to support their cause — even to looting and destroying neighborhoods in the name of Black Lives Matter or, as in Portland OR, the mostly Caucasian “antifa”

This rioting and looting “turns off” the people who may support some of BLM’s activities, but it slowly is turning them into people who will shun “people of color;” who will prefer to do business with anyone by a “person of color.”

Almost nobody likes a bully, and BLM and antifa followers often act like bullies.

BLM will turn people who once felt comfortable with all people, regardless of skin color, into people who are suspicious of all “people of color” they don’t already know. It’s human nature.

I remember when “BLM” meant “Bureau of Land Management.” Better days.

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Where are they?

Opuscula How to reduce Illegal entry Without a barrier

THE SOCIALISTS (A/K/A DEMOCRATS) TURN A BLIND EYE to illegal immigrants, a/k/a “criminals.”

They fought “Trump’s Wall” — but not Obama’s on Mexico’s southern border — and they set up “sanctuary cities” where Immigration officers dare not enter for fear of their lives.

But there IS a way to reduce the flow of illegals.

 

ARREST THEIR EMPLOYERS and send them to jail after a hefty fine.

Illegals don’t come to the U.S. to vacation.

Illegals don’t come to the U.S. for the educational systems.

They DO come to the U.S. for welfare.

They DO to the U.S. for free medical care.

They DO come to the U.S. for jobs.

Keep it simple

If a person hires an illegal when there are citizens available and willing to do the work — at the state’s minimum wage or greater — arrest the employer.

If a person fails to find a citizen willing to do the work — at the state’s minimum wage or greater — then the prospective employer needs to turn to the Immigration office and request an appropriate visa for a non-citizen employee (and family, if any).

Businesses do it all the time. Look at all the “programmers” from the Indian sub-continent. Look at all the farm workers from Mexico and elsewhere. Many foreign companies install managers from their own country. Examples include Japan and Israel. These managers have U.S.-issued visas.

No knock ID check

Immigration officers need the ability to check workers’ identification.

If the worker has

Birth certificate issued in the U.S.
Naturalization document issued by the U.S. federal government, or
Visa issued by the U.S. federal government for the work being performed

then the worker is legal.

If the worker fails to have one of the three items above, the Immigration officer will

Ask if the worker has a spouse in the U.S. and where can the spouse be located
Ask the worker if he/she has minor children in the U.S. and where can the children be located.

The idea is to maintain family integrity — to keep families together as a unit.

Immigration will take the worker (and any family members) into custody and house them in a secure facility — a BRAC-closed military installation with on-base family and bachelor quarters is appropriate — until the illegals can be deported.

Meanwhile

Meanwhile, the illegal’s employer will be billed for

The illegal’s medical bills
The cost of housing, feeding, and clothing the illegals in custody (at the published standard domestic Federal Per Diem Rate)
The cost of education based on the state’s per student costs

The employer also will be arrested, brought to trial, and, if found guilty, fined for a first violation and jailed if the employer is a recidivist. The fines and jail terms must be sufficient to discourage repeat offenses.

Deportation hearings

All illegals will be allowed — they are not “entitled” — a hearing.

If they can convince a hearing board that they are endanger if returned to the country from which them emigrated, the government will offer a reasonable alternative destination. The alternative destination will match, as closely as possible, the immigrant’s culture; e.g., a Spanish-speaking illegal would be deported to a Spanish-speaking country if the illegal claims he/she fears for his/her life if returned to the country of origin.

Had the illegal immediately sought asylum in the U.S. this hearing might have been avoided.

An illegal from Mexico could be sent to, as an example, Argentina — assuming that Argentina is willing to accept the illegal.

The U.S. taxpayer will foot the bill for the illegals’ deportations.

Since the taxpayers deserve the “economies of scale,” deportees will travel in groups by whatever means are suitable for the trip; e.g., a bus back to Mexico, an airplane to South America.

As noted above, as long as the illegal is in custody, the illegal’s employer will be billed at the published standard domestic Federal Per Diem Rate.

Inhumane, draconian? Hardly

At no time will an illegal be

Deprived of a hearing before an Immigration court
Deprived of housing, medical care, clothing, food, education for children
Separated from family members

The illegals shall be photographed and fingerprinted and placed on a Cannot Enter list for not less than 5 years. This move is to allow people who are legally applying for immigration to move ahead without someone “cutting in line.”

Quotas and “anchor babies”

Congress and the President need to re-examine the infamous Quota System that favors the countries from which the original European settlers originated.

The quota system and the whims of the politicians once banned Chinese immigrants when their cheap labor no longer was needed (to build the railroad). FDR ordered his State Department to use the quota system to send Jews to their deaths from 1936 until his death.

WHAT to do about quotas: keep them, revise them to reflect current conditions, or abandon them altogether in favor of (a) asylum seekers and (b) (as Canada does) the needs of the country.

Personally, I would like to see a law that prohibits citizenship-by-birth to any child born to parents who failed to reside in the U.S. for a minimum of two uninterrupted years before the birth. That would eliminate the “anchor baby” problem.

This scrivener has no problem welcoming legal immigrants. This country is what it is today because of immigrants.

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Dealing with illegals

Opuscula Let me vote, Let me vote, Let me vote

Democrats Accuse Florida GOP of Voter Suppression After Registration Site Crashes Before Deadline, by Khaleda Rahman (Newsweek, https://tinyurl.com/yxb6ptwy)

MY NAME IS KUNI LEMEL and I want to register to vote.

I have a driver’s license and I have a Social Security card for identification.

I chose not to register at the many other registration drives held at libraries, malls, and other places.

I did not want to register on-line even though I could have done so for free at my local library.

I ignored the heavily promoted deadline to register.

But I want to vote.

EXTEND THE REGISTRATION DEADLINE !

Voter registration options in Florida

I was born at home in a small rural town. Somehow my birth never was registered and I do not have a birth certificate.

I never did anything for my country — no military service; I didn’t even have a draft card — so I have no proof that I am a U.S. citizen.

But just ask me and I’ll tell you.

I’ll even answer YES to an on-line citizenship question.

(No, I did not answer the Census questionnaire; that’s too invasive although I never looked at the questions. I know its a Republican plot.)

I demand that registration deadlines be cast aside so I can register to vote for the Democrat of my choice — never mind that I decided not to do this during the primaries — having missed yet ANOTHER chance to register to vote.

More proof needed for driver’s license

In the “old days,” in order to get a driver’s license a person had to pass two tests; one written and one on a road.

Can’t read or comprehend English? No problem. The state will provide a translator who also might “coach” the applicant to pass the written or verbal questions. Never mind that the soon-to-be licensed driver cannot read or comprehend road signs. (Granted, many signs are pictorial, but not all.)

The racist, xenophobic President Trump wanted to make basic comprehension of English a requirement for citizenship. Imagine! In south Florida, if you don’t know Spanish you don’t do business. The U.S. does not have, and never had, an “official” language.

Today, getting a driver’s license, at least the first one, is harder. Applicants now must present proof of citizenship.

ID requirement to apply for a driver’s license in Florida.

Of course there are those who find it more convenient to have a license created by the friendly, neighborhood forger, but …

Compare the ID requirements for a driver’s license to the ID requirement to register to vote.

ID requirement to register to vote in Florida.

Bottom line

The “bottom line” for all the organizations demanding that the voter registration deadline be extended — again — is simple: Forget it.

You had ample time and methods to get your people registered.

If any organization — and this time it is the Democrat party — wanted to “get out the vote,” then the organization should have (and maybe it did) set up registration points in the neighborhoods and gone to the neighborhood in a registration bus (just like the mobile library and blood bank). The organization could register potential voters 24*7 so that there would be no excuse that “I couldn’t get off work to register.”

It is simply too easy to register to vote.

There is NO reason why a person could not be registered.

In a hospital or long-term care facility? Register there.

Although I never have heard of it, county prisoners in jail for misdemeanors could be registered behind bars.

I am against extending the registration deadline simply because the people who failed to register when the opportunities were there probably are not good citizens who probably will vote not on issues but on how they are told to vote.

While it is not the same, this reminds me of places such as New York City where political hacks registered people whose names they got off tombstones and Chicago where drunks were paid to cast a ballot for a favored politician.

The Heritage Foundation (https://tinyurl.com/yapzw8oe) has a page that “Explains Voter Fraud.”

Solomon was right.

As William Hale Thompson, Chicago mayor from 1915-1923 and 1931-1935 allegedly said: “Vote early and often.”

Yes, this scrivener IS a registered voter and has been a registered voter since I came of age.

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size. Comment on Let me vote

Opuscula Can Biden survive In office for a year? The odds are against it

IF JOE BIDEN WINS THE WHITE HOUSE, he will be well advised not to get too comfortable in the Oval Office.

If Biden’s physical health does not fail him, “his” party will find a way to legally remove him for mental deficiency.

Gary Varvel editorial cartoon on Biden’s debate comment
that he is the Democrat party. (https://tinyurl.com/y4vnf6ru)

 

Biden is malleable. To paraphrase a former soap opera’s tag line: “As the (political) wind blows, Biden turns.” This is a fact proven during his 47 years as a politician in Washington.

Compared to Bernie Sanders, an admitted Socialist, and the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Biden is — dare I write it? — a conservative Democrat (or is that is an oxymoron?).

Biden’s politically correct selection of Kamala Harris Emhoff as his running mate assures that the left-wing extremists will already have an ally in the White House if Biden wins in November.

The ladies of the Squad are prime examples of people destroying civility and making the chasm between left and right wider. An example:

“I got your back,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted at Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who created a stir by telling supporters on Thursday that “we’re gonna go in and impeach the motherf—–,” referring to the president.

THIS is who will be running the U.S. government before the end of Biden’s first term, assuming he prevails.

The problem is not so much their almost anarchist views, but the fact that, like a kindergarten bully on the playground, they are “entitled” to do whatever they want and no one else has a right to say or even suggest something different.

The United States always has had differences of opinions between philosophies.

For most of the years, each side showed both restraint and a modicum of respect for the other side, at least publicly. Various presidents have been demeaned in private, but until the likes of The Squad, I never heard or read anything so obscene from a U.S. representative mouthed in public.

As an aside, the higher a person politically, the less protection that person has from abuse. Still, Tlaib’s outburst went beyond anything acceptable. The “lady” has a JD from Western Michigan University so she should know better.

Admittedly, Donald Trump is hardly the most diplomatic, even tempered person to sit in the Ova Office. His tweets are often embarrassing to the country.

On the other hand, he DID revive the economy. He has increased minority opportunities. While keeping us out of any new wars, he has increased defense spending due to threats from Russia and China. He tried to build a wall to reduce the number of illegal aliens entering the U.S. but the Democrats stymied that. He DID manage to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem where it is more accessible to people of ALL faiths. He DID manage to arrange normalization between Israel and at least two of its neighbors. (Iran also deserves credit for that.) He DID withhold taxpayer dollars from UN organizations that have Israel bashing as their sole raison d’etre. He DID reduce taxpayer dollars going to the PLO/PFLP “slay for pay” program that encourages murder of Israelis. Trump DID insist that America’s European “allies” start to pick up a bigger share of the defense burden.

While Biden claims to support Israel, many “progressive” (i.e., leftist) Democrats hate the country and treat unkindly anyone associated with it (e.g., Jews, pro-Israel Christians, Israelis). Biden will return the U.S. to the Obama days when a president snubbed a prime minister in a fit of pique’.

Biden’s campaign ads are amusing in that he promises to do what Trump already is going: bringing jobs back to the U.S., restoring the economy, weaning America from China’s pervasive presence in the U.S. marketplace, buying American (unlike Obama who went tpo Canada for a campaign bus).

The problems began with Trump’s Electoral College defeat of Democrat Hillary Clinton. Unlike previous losers (in both parties), Mrs. Clinton did not admit defeat gracefully nor did she congratulate the winner, THIS despite the fact that Trump gave her a pass on her illegal servers, on her connection — not his — to Russian supporters, and on Benghazi.

If Trump prevails in November, he can be expected to treat Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, with the same undeserved generosity. That, of course, probably will not satisfy the leftists. Name calling and destroying public and private property is more likely.

BY THE WAY, why does the U.S. still have the Electoral College? Both the Democrats and the Republicans claim they want to abolish it (usually just after winning the popular vote and losing the election in the “collage”). The popular vote by citizens (and not a few non-citizens) can be tallied quickly enough with no more danger of cheating than with the “college.” At one time, the “college” served a purpose. I suggest that time has passed.

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement wmailto:bcplanner@gmail.com?subject=Ifas accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on If Biden wins

Opuscula The Proud Boys Are Racists ! The WWW says so

EXCEPT IT IS A LIE.

IF, as the Democrats, liberals, many cartoonists and editorial writers, and the denizens of the WWW are correct, then

WHY is the leader of the Proud Boys a black (!), Cuban (!)-American?¹

WHY are the Proud Boys and Black Lives Matter (!) working together in Utah?²

As my son the geek might say: “That does not compute.”


Candorville cartoon by Darrin Bell for Monday, 5 OCT 2020³

LET ME REPEAT,

The leader of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, is a black Cuban-American; so much for racist and xenophobic charges.

The Proud Boys are working with BLM, at least in Utah.


Screen capture of KUTV Channel 2 meeting with Proud Boys and BLM leaders.⁴

 

Established in the midst of the 2016 presidential election by VICE Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, the Proud Boys are self-described “western chauvinists” who adamantly deny any connection to the racist “alt-right,” insisting they are simply a fraternal group spreading an “anti-political correctness” and “anti-white guilt” agenda.

Ignoring this, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) declared that Their disavowals of bigotry are belied by their actions: rank-and-file Proud Boys and leaders regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists.⁵

Wikipedia, that also declares the Proud Boys to be a danger, claims it is ”the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit”, basically meaning that anyone can enter anything about anything and it may go unchallenged; accepted as fact simply because “Wikipedia said so.”

Apparently the Proud Boys reputation as being “white supremacists” goes back to when they, along with other groups, clashed with (mostly white) liberals tearing down history in Charlottesville, VA.

It was never a matter of “white supremacy” but a matter of trying to prevent the mostly white liberals from erasing history.

Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás’ remark on history ignored may predict another civil war in the United States: anarchists against patriots. The only possible winners will be China or Russia. America as we know it will be a thing of the past.

The U.S. has been sliding slowly toward socialism since Franklin Delano Roosevelt owned the White House. Lyndon Baines Johnson pushed it along during his tenure in the White House.

Joe Biden promises to move the country farther toward a socialist state, driven by Harris-Emhoff and her far-left supporters.

 


Gary Varvel editorial cartoon for 5 OCT 2020 ⁶

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Sources

1. Proud Boys' leader: https://tinyurl.com/y3jur5xk

2. Proud Boys & BLM: https://tinyurl.com/yyj7yudy

3 Darrin Bell: https://tinyurl.com/y66mrr3d

4. KUTV 2: https://tinyurl.com/yyj7yudy

5. SPLC: https://tinyurl.com/y2rzvdxu

6. Gary Varvel: https://tinyurl.com/y2eaeyvx

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Proud Boys

Opuscula What’s the source? Product’s origin Must be on product

The Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA or Act), enacted in 1967, directs the Federal Trade Commission and the Food and Drug Administration to issue regulations requiring that all "consumer commodities" be labeled to disclose net contents, identity of commodity, and name and place of business of the product's manufacturer, packer, or distributor.¹

 

The canyon-wide loop hole

The Act is useless regarding “name and place of business of the product's manufacturer” since, per the act, this information need not be disclosed as long as a distributor is listed.

I

Sampling of products listing DISTRIBUTOR in lieu of manufacturer.

It is clear that the distributors use multiple vendors to produce the same product, but the distributors should be obliged to list the PLACE of manufacture.

All things being about equal, I will buy Made in the U.S.A. before I will by a foreign-made product, regardless of country of origin. (I will NOT pay 200% more for a “Made in the U.S.A.” product over an import, but a 10% or even 20% difference may be acceptable.)

If it goes in my mouth

If something goes into my mouth, be it veggies, mouthwash, toothpaste, fish and meat, even garlic for seasoning, I want to know the product’s origin.

I don’t want to eat fish that was fed human feces.

I don’t want to eat garlic fertilized with human feces.

I don’t want to eat something labeled one thing when it is another.

While the US Food & Drug Administration and the U.S. Trade Commission may not be 100% reliable, it is more likely to have inspected U.S.-produced products than imported products.

If a product, as this is keyed, onions are the focus of recalls, is found to be unsafe, the inspection agencies recall the product and publicize the recall. ² In addition, many consumer groups also publish the recalls. The U.S. CDC raised the hue and cry regarding onions.³

Clothes, toys, and more

Haband, the clothing-by-mail retailer, never lists the origin of products it sells. The buyer finds out when the product arrives (if it arrives.)

On two occasions articles sent from Haband via DHL “disappeared” then DHL was supposed to hand off delivery to the USPS in Orlando. USPS claims it never got the hand off. Despite a tracking ID from Haband, the product just “disappeared.”

What’s the big deal?

Flammability. Materials are supposed to be treated to reduce the chance they will catch fire. Most U.S.-made clothing will burn for a second or two, then the fire is out. (I gave up smoking because I had burn holes in my trousers; no fires. Sad and expensive experience.)

It was not long ago the flammability issue was raised with imported infant and child pajamas.

Likewise, in the not too distant past, the U.S. imported toys painted with lead-based paint, long outlawed in the U.S.

The “and more”? Fake wood flooring (formaldehyde)⁴ and drywall material (sulfur)⁵. Even automotive tires.⁶

That is not to claim that all “Made in the U.S.A.” products are safe and all foreign-made products are unsafe.

It IS to say that consumers should know where a product originates. If the product contains components from multiple points-of-origin, e.g., orange juice, the points (plural) of origin should be clearly shown in both advertising and on the product container.

Representatives and senators — on both sides of the aisle — need to pass laws to force retail merchants — the Walmarts, Targets, CVSs and other pharmacies, Haband and other clothing retailers — to include the points (again, plural) of manufacture of each major component in the product.

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Sources

1. Fair Packaging and Labeling Act: https://tinyurl.com/y9bgav5e

2. FDA recalls: https://tinyurl.com/y5kxnwbu

3. U.S. CDC: https://tinyurl.com/yxmocvnw

4. Flooring: https://tinyurl.com/yb86gfd3

5. Drywall: https://tinyurl.com/yb86gfd3

6. Tires: https://tinyurl.com/ybbohujo

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Points of Origin