I don't trust Big Pharma anymore, never got the COVID jabs or boosters, and try to keep my immune system boosted with a daily regimen of vitamins and supplements -- Quercetin, Black Cumin Seed, Turmeric, etc. I exercise regularly with heavy weights and aerobic rowing and am in excellent overall health.
But I am of an age where pneumonia is considered a "killer" among my cohort, and just last night another friend had to go to the ER with pneumonia-like symptoms.
So I'm wondering if anyone here has any expertise or insider knowledge about current pneumonia vaccines. Do they contain mRNA components? Spike proteins? ...or are they considered "safe" by our GAW community?
Any info will be appreciated, thanks.
Remember when Target was the darling of the Left for carrying "gender affirming" toys and clothing for children? Yeah, well that was then... and this is now. Target recently decided to drop its DEI policies and now they are suddenly being vilified by the very same people who once thought Target was on their side. This is what happens when a business loses sight of its main function (retailing clothing at an affordable price) and starts dabbling in the dark arts of DEI and wokeism.
From https://eatgrueldog.wordpress.com/2025/03/06/leftards-begin-target-boycott/
Leftards begin Target boycott Posted on March 6, 2025 | Leave a comment A 40-day Target boycott starts today. It couldn’t come at a worse time for the company
By Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN
Updated: 9:13 PM EST, Wed March 5, 2025
Source: CNN
Target is facing a 40-day consumer boycott starting Wednesday over the company’s shift away from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies.
“We’re asking people to divest from Target because they have turned their back on our community,” Rev. Jamal Bryant, a prominent Atlanta-area megachurch pastor who started the boycott, said in an interview with CNN.
The boycott, which begins during the start of Lent, comes more than a month after Target made changes to its DEI programs and at a difficult period for the company as it faces an onslaught of tariffs in the middle of a challenging economy.
On January 24, days into Donald Trump’s presidency, Target announced it was eliminating hiring goals for minority employees, ending an executive committee focused on racial justice and making other changes to its diversity initiatives. Target said it had a new strategy called “Belonging at the Bullseye,” which it first introduced last year, and the company remained committed to “creating a sense of belonging for our team, guests and communities.” Target also stressed the need for “staying in step with the evolving external landscape.”
https://lite.cnn.com/2025/03/05/business/target-boycott-jamal-bryant/index.html This will be the most traffic CNN gets all day…
So I got a letter on Friday from the Centers For Medicare / Medicaid Services saying that a survey will be mailed to me later this month. Suspecting SPAM or a Phishing scam, I checked them out and they ARE a federal agency under HHS. It gave a URL to take the online survey, if I wished, but it was a dead link.
I'm beginning to suspect that, if this is real, that it might be a "proof of life" checking the pulse of Medicare people, sort of like Elon's email to fed workers to "list 5 things you did last week", more to see if a living person is there than anything else.
Has anyone else received this survey notice, and if so, what is your experience with it?
So... a liberal acquaintance just posted on her FB account her outrage over a Forest Service employee of 20 years (it was his "dream job") go laid off under the Trump federal reductions.
I didn't respond to her, not wanting to further alienate her, she's a good person other than her virulent liberalism... We almost fell out over the COVID-19 vaxx issue and I'm not into alienating people.
Does anyone here know more details about the Forest Service layoffs and any other reasons besides government reduction?
I k
Knoxville, TN: My wife and I decided to stop by our AAA office for help in planning a trip to South Dakota later this year. We pulled into the parking lot where we have been many times in the past, and walked to the front door, and a man in uniform came out and said, "Let me guess, you're looking for Triple A?"
"Yes," we said, and he told us they had moved to another location and showed us a map on the door. He wouldn't let us enter and when I tried to look at his clip-on badge, he covered it with his hand. But my wife had already seen it and she told me later that it was a FEMA badge.
So this is something new here, I didn't even know we had a FEMA office. My initial question was, "Why?" Why does Knoxville, TN need a FEMA office? This was the second week after Trump took office, so I'm really wondering what shenanigans are going on?
Anyone?
INSANE: CONGRESS FUNDED $516 BILLION IN EXPIRED PROGRAMS! Hal Turner
Hal Turner Radio Show
INSANE: CONGRESS FUNDED $516 BILLION IN EXPIRED PROGRAMS!
CONGRESS FUNDED $516 BILLION IN EXPIRED PROGRAMS! You read that right—over HALF A TRILLION DOLLARS was handed out by Congress this fiscal year to programs that aren’t even active anymore.
Where’s the Money Going? Defunct agencies that should have been shut down, "Temporary" programs that mysteriously never ended. A complete list of such items is pending . . . . Here's a Summary from the COngressional Budget Office (CBO):
https://halturnerradioshow.com/images/2025/02/07/Expired-Authorizations.png
I have some unfinished business with the DOL that in normal times would be resolved within about 3 to 4 weeks. However, under the new Administration and many agencies being put on hold, payments postponed, and employee buy-outs being offered, I don't know if I can resolve my issue as soon as I thought.
Anyone have any inside knowledge about what's happening at Labor?
Anyone know how average Americans will be affected by the proposed Sovereign Wealth agency?
I just realized that now that Trump is president, I wonder who on the Supreme Court will now find it's time to retire? Trump has a 4-year opportunity to appoint SCOTUS justices, so who do we think will finally decide to call it quits and let a new generation to take over the reins?
Just saw a local news spot about AmeriCorps doing work in a minority community. Anyone know anything about them?
https://lists.theepochtimes.com/archive/fSQHcYspuP/5kdG8QBtO/vu1v8OLWpRZ
In Ideology, Diversity Is Strength By Jeffrey Tucker
The weeks before the inauguration have sent political reporters looking for ways to tie up the incoming administration in knotty internal splits and disputes. The hope is to weaken the sense of unity ahead of the big transition, turning MAGA/MAHA/DOGE into versions of the classic internal firing squads.
To some extent this is working. It has been bracing to watch the wild disputes over H-1B visas, the priorities over technology, as well as the disputes within the health-freedom movement over the future of the mRNA technology and vaccines more broadly.
There have been some serious fights that have broken out and some extremely harsh words exchanged over these weeks. There is no reason to feel alarmed about this. These debates needed to happen long ago. Disputes and debates can only strengthen social, cultural, and political movements.
All this activity unfolded just after I returned from Phoenix, Arizona, for the AmericaFest event held by Turning Point USA. I’ve been going to various ideological, political, and philosophic gatherings for decades, some of them quite big and well organized. I will say as clearly as I can that I’ve never in my life experienced an event like this one.
The energy emanating from the wildly enthusiastic attendees was palpable, and of substantively different form than that which comes from loud music and bright lights alone. Every exhibitor space was practically vibrating with enthusiasm from the people themselves.
The smiles were broad and the laughter and exuberance everywhere present. The massive crowd, probably exceeding 20,000 at some points, was diverse in age, race, and religion. There was truly a sense of joy present. I could feel it as I went on stage to speak.
On Saturday evening, I turned in at 10:30 p.m. to sleep well and prepare for my flight the following morning. At 3:00 a.m. I was awakened by shouts of “U-S-A” and various cheers coming from outside. I went to the window to see what was going on and there were crowds and lines gathering, clearly because Trump was speaking the next day at noon at the venue two blocks away.
Amazed that things could be going strong already—thousands were skipping a night of sleep—I tried to sleep more but that proved impossible. At 4:30 a.m. I realized that I needed to get an Uber to the airport before the streets became impassable. By the time I left, the lines had circled back and forth three and four times over—again two blocks from the venue.
I saw people having a wonderful time, meeting strangers and becoming friends, exchanging information sources and news, and offering little bios of their lives and hopes. Here I saw something that is obvious to me now, but I could not have known before. The Trump lines have become a major source of social and cultural organizing in themselves.
There is a theory that the anti-Soviet revolution of 1989-90 and the overthrow of the communist government that had held power since 1918 was born in the bread lines. They became societies of their own, places where people met and gossiped and shared news from their lives and experiences. In these lines, strangers became friends and exchanged views on the news of the day. Here they learned who to trust and who not to trust, and the makings of the revolution were born.
I see now how this could happen and I see now why it is that people line up to hear Trump speak for 12 hours and more before he gets on stage. Trump is the focal point but the substantive value that people gain from this experience is meeting people, disputing ideas, making friends and sharing experiences, seeing in real time how isolation gradually becomes community.
This is the real value of these in-person meetings that no amount of online chatter can replicate. As I watched it all unfold, I had in mind the typical reporter for a major mainstream newspaper and what he or she must think about the sheer strength and cultural power on display at these rallies. I discussed this briefly with a CNN cameraman who was marveling at the energy, happiness, and hope on display. We both agreed: there’s never been anything like this in our living memory.
The joining of MAGA with MAHA and DOGE is surely one of the most remarkable political coalitions ever to be assembled in such a short period of time. It put together people who had no idea that they had much in common before, and impressed them all with a sudden realization that perhaps they had overlooked features of other groups that bear examination.
Just think about the class and political divides that this coalition has helped to heal. The tech bros seemed to have nothing in common with the patriotic, flag-waving cowboys in the MAGA base. The crunchy whole-foods shopping fans of organic produce that formed in the 1990s have always voted left and were deeply suspicious of both bourgeois religious fervor and high-tech innovations.
In a matter of weeks, the divisions between these groups melted away, as they all realized their common interest in freedom: free enterprise, free speech, freedom of religion, and peace in the world. This coming together has provided huge opportunities for exchanging views and learning from each other, almost as if the private salons many of us formed during lockdowns had gone public and then become a mass movement.
A historian of society will do a much better job of covering this than I can but we can see the outlines of the story already. And it is a remarkable one, something far too strong to be dissolved by online disputations concerning H-1B visas or the future of vaccines. These arguments need to be had and they are ongoing. They are essential, not existentially dangerous for the coalition that has formed.
This is what the typical reporter at big city newspapers does not understand. The movement that has formed around Trump is much larger than one person. It has come to appreciate disputes, diversity, learning, and a variety of points of view. That is ultimately what freedom is all about, not the triumph of one ideological orientation but the capacity of many points of view to co-exist within the same society.
Speaking for myself, I discovered how much I need to learn during lockdowns, a time when our old personal networks and ideological circles were blown up. We had to assemble new ones, and I confronted a huge range of points of view to which I had not been previously exposed. I still retain my biases and preferences but now have a greater appreciation than ever of what I need to learn, books I need to read, and points of view I need to consider. I’m much better off as a result.
Just for example, four years ago, I never could have imagined joining up with people who have grave concerns over chemicals in food and dangerous medical products that subvert the human immune system. I did not see how these issues overlapped with my own focus on economic freedoms. And I could not have imagined how much we would all depend on the freedom of speech to learn and act. This is all new and quite exciting.
And this is precisely why all the supposed divisions within the coalition now preparing to assume the responsibilities of governance do not bother me. We are all united in the belief that the American people and all people should enjoy the right and freedom to manage their own lives with technocrats, big corporations, and permanent bureaucracies overriding our dreams and aspirations. This is a simple demand, in the end, the insistence on getting our lives back after so many years of upheaval.
Getting along with others doesn’t mean surrendering principles. It means understanding the bigger picture that we all have an interest in protecting freedom against its enemies. This is the essential and core belief of the remarkable coalition that has emerged so suddenly to overthrow the old. Yes, it is diverse, and that is precisely why it is so strong.
Jeffrey A. Tucker is the founder and president of the Brownstone Institute and the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press, as well as 10 books in five languages, most recently “Liberty or Lockdown.” He is also the editor of “The Best of Ludwig von Mises.” He writes a daily column on economics for The Epoch Times and speaks widely on the topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture.