The end of June 2024: (https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/millions-across-us-told-to-avoid-driving/ar-BB1oHyyo)

Americans in a number of states are being urged to avoid or limit driving in response to pollution fears.

The federal National Weather Service has issued a number of Air Quality Alerts across the U.S. meaning that "ground level ozone within the region may approach or exceed unhealthy standards."

Warm air is trapped beneath an area of high-pressure for an extended period causing temperatures to surge. These conditions typically cause ozone levels to also surge, which can lead to lung damage, asthma attacks and breathing difficulties, especially dangerous for children and the elderly.

People in Ohio's Miami Valley are being urged to "carpool, if possible, bike, walk or take the bus instead of driving alone" to help improve air quality. The National Weather Service also says those living in this area should only refuel their vehicles after 8 pm, avoid idling any vehicles and avoid gas-powered lawn equipment.

My note: Instead of sending so much unhealthy aid to the Ukraine, perhaps we could have the United Nations with their overinflated delusion of their world authority ...to tell all nations at war that they have to fight with 'pool noodles', if indeed they must fight. (Of course, whoever would buy this concept would likely be scorched by the opposition's weapons. And a much better lesson could be learned from this.)

(https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/we-ve-been-accidentally-cooling-the-planet-and-it-s-about-to-stop/ar-BB1oQVS3) ...

Methane has a warming effect, but like aerosols, doesn’t remain in the atmosphere for very long.

Still, a lot of scientific questions remain — and until they are answered, the world won’t know exactly how much ...(we don't know?)

Another subject in 2024, and a Presidential debate to take place in less than two days.

(https://cis.org/Report/Immigration-Courts-Aliens-Disappear-Trial)

Many claims on how guns were taken out of the hands of many people who failed background checks. And that is very good indeed. What also should be considered is some of the following stats:

Key Takeaways

• 43 percent of all aliens free pending trial failed to appear for court in 2017.
• Since 1996, 37 percent of all aliens free before trial disappeared from court.
• Aliens abscond from court more often today than they did before 9/11.
• Deportation orders for failing to appear in court exceed deportation orders from cases that were tried by 306 percent.
• 46 percent of all unaccompanied children disappeared from U.S. immigration courts from 2013 through 2017.
• 49 percent of unaccompanied children failed to appear in U.S. immigration courts in 2017.

Introduction

U.S. immigration courts recently released their numbers to Congress for fiscal year 2017. Hoped-for improvements are largely absent and problems that have defined the courts since their beginning persist. Most persistent of all is the failure of aliens to appear for their trials. These no-shows remain high, with 43 percent of all those free before trial — 41,302 aliens out of 95,342 — disappearing from court in 2017.

My note: Let it also be said that I was surprised that the 'Center for Immigration Studies' listed them as 'aliens' instead of the more politically correct terms. Though that should not deter us from looking at the data. And I have also read numerous articles where those committing crimes are very readily released, as also noted in the above mentioned article ---which brings relevancy to the fact that many don't show up in court, or when they do, if they have little or no consequence ---then there is little or no deterrent. And crime becomes too easy, with little motivation to change.

And this failure to hold accountable has also made cities and college/universities rather unsafe (as they are often popular sites for gathering of protesters ---which often claim to be peaceful, but are not, and they do not hold their own gathering responsible to law-abiding behaviors.

A great divide in Canada?? How does one view this quote by Jordan B. Peterson: “The idea that women were oppressed throughout history is an appalling theory.” Islamophobia is “a word created by fascists and used by cowards to manipulate morons”. White privilege is “a Marxist lie”. Believing that gender identity is subjective is “as bad as claiming that the world is flat”.

Or Andrew Klavan, who quotes the Bible: 

Klavan, himself a Jewish-American who professes to hold to a Christian faith that affirms homosexuality, attacked Christians who have a desire to see Jewish commentator Ben Shapiro bend the knee to Christ:

“Christ is the King and one day every knee will bow and recognize that, because he’s not just my King but King of the universe, but when you use that phrase to mean that God has abandoned his chosen people the Jews through whom he came into this world incarnate and that he’s broken his promises, his covenant with the Jews, you are quoting scripture like Satan does in the Bible. You are quoting scripture to your purpose, and that to me is specifically wicked."

Then there is Matt Walsh, a columnist for the 'Daily Wire', who is mostly known for his traveling around the world to do his documentary of 'What is a Woman?'

I worked for the State of Michigan, and started employment with them in the field of 'Community Health', working with teens. We offered a good deal of sporting activity for them to participate in ...and one of my co-workers seemed to enjoy sports as much as I do. We got a long very well at work with that common interest we shared with the kids we worked with.

Other ideologies, we differed in varying degrees ...but the entire cumulative staff had much diversity of backgrounds and ideologies. Some of those ideologies seemed to vary to a degree that it seemed it would highly affect the treatment and growth of the teens we were employed to help. And though I can not really write well, nor speak with a high degree of expertise, I do know how to communicate to others the things that are of importance to me (if allowed the chance).

I was not very popular at times, but I was not rude or condescending ...and I would criticize what I strongly believed were 'wrong points of view' ...without verbally criticizing or insulting the person. So, I do not believe they disliked me as a person, but that they perhaps disliked the fact that I was an obstacle that was not so easily overcome as they tried to proceed with their plans or chosen path.

It didn't matter to me whether the person was a friend, or not so much so ...as I wanted what was best for the kids. My main concern was how we helped the kids, not whether I maintained a friendship that may be compromised by my views at work, or whether it could jeopardize any socialization outside of work. And to be honest, I don't drink or smoke or cuss ...so my socialization outside of work was not a high value to me.

Like I said ...it was my job, and I took it seriously, to do my best to help the kids navigate their own lives down a healthy path. 

And speaking of a healthy path for kids ...how about us grown kids??? How about a healthy nation???

Tonight is the first of two scheduled Presidential debates ...to somehow help us choose how we want our nation to proceed. 

When you have neighbors, you try to get a long ...'be neighborly'.

Yet, I cannot see any scenario where either Trump or Biden would be my neighbor.

A better analogy would be junior high school. I was going to say high school, but I think high school was a bit too mature for what I'm describing ...it seems more like junior high, or perhaps middle school. I know classmates who were much like Trump and there were those who were like Biden. None of those classmates were in my circle of friends. 

So, it is difficult to approach what I am trying to say. Let me ask you ---if you had a serious operation that you had to undergo, who would you chose to do the operation?? 

Here is the scenario: One doctor is a person you don't like at all, but that doctor has a very good success rate. The other doctor is a person you find to be very likable, but his success rate is not very good at all. Which person would you go to for the surgery??

Now, you may say that what I just presented is not relevant to the debate tonight, and for you, it may not be. But, how you approach the scenario in your mind is important ---as it has much to do with how you think.

Let's take Donald Trump's case. One of the moderators tonight has compared Trump to Hitler. While Trump was actually President for 4 years, he said he was not going to tolerate the unfairness of China, he talked with North Korea's leader (Kim Jong Un), and with Russia's leader (Putin). And we had much peace for those 4 years. The biggest trouble we had was the internal stirring of the pot. It is fairly documented that the 'Russian collusion' was a lie and a deliberate divisive stroke of 'treason' against our own government ...not accepting the results that Trump beat Hillary, and working from within corrupt factions within the government that had been established for selfish. It seems like the one who had put the communist leaders in check, is compared to a communist dictator. Before Trump became President, the news on more than one occasion said that he'd quickly call for the nuclear codes, and have his finger on the button per se. Yet, as reality speaks ...Trump did nothing in his 4 years to even suggest the thought that he'd start a nuclear war. But, the suggestion was made by the news media ...and people used to trust the news media, and many people still do. 

Over a dozen years ago, one lady in a County in Michigan, south of me, bragged how she voted for her preferred Presidential candidate six times. I also saw how Romney was winning in Wisconsin ---which was not surprising, since his Vice-Presidential candidate was from Wisconsin. Only one country was holding out, reporting late ...and it was a county with a large population center. When the votes finally came in, it showed that over 80% of the people voted in that county ---not something that even comes close to happening in large population areas. There was even one occasion of more votes being cast than there were people of voting age. So, if this is a reason to question the elections, it seems to me to have some merit ---not to be shamed for challenging the election results, like the 'over the Hillary gang did for years following the election without legal recourse demanded. It used to be said that people in the city did not vote because they felt it wouldn't make a difference. The urban areas also have many homeless, the most undocumented immigrants, the most crime (including much tied to the drug trade) ---and it was understood that they don't vote. But, suddenly we are expected to believe that they do. Yet, I find that hard to believe. My father-in-law received two absentee ballots ---someone listed with the same last name, but besides his own first name, he received a separate ballot for his last name with a different first name. It has also been documented that people who have passed away also vote absentee ballots. Aren't these good reasons to question what is going on???

I personally wish that neither Trump or Biden were running for President this time around ...but I don't own a 'wishing well', nor do I believe in them.

When the fact-checkers come around after the debate, there are some things that can't be checked ...because they are not facts, they are opinions. If we ask whether we were better off during Trump's administration or Biden's ---not all depends how we view 'better off'. I personally think we would be better off if neither were on the ballot.

I am not on to other things. I also think we would have been better off without embracing the ideologies of Alfred Kinsey and also John Money. But, as they say, if something seems wrong ---follow the money.