Dent’s Run: Fact or Fiction?

Mysteries 10 Minutes
GOLD

Treasure hunters claim there is gold in the hills of Pennsylvania, but is that fact or fiction? I am talking about the legend of Dent’s Run, an area in Western PA which had been under scrutiny from the FBI because treasure hunters claimed to found the place where a Union payroll of gold bars has been hiding since the Civil War era.

From the Courier Express:

In 1863, a Union wagon train left Wheeling, W.V. with 52 bars of gold, each weighing 50 lb., which were meant to pay Union soldiers. The wagon train was to travel northeast through Pennsylvania to Ridgway and then head southeast to Harrisburg. It made it to St. Marys and that was the last time it was seen. The wagons and dead soldiers were found later — but not the gold.

stock photo Civil War reenactment

In 2012, Finders Keepers said it found the gold, but federal law kept them from digging for it.

According to current market value, the gold bars would be worth more than $55 million. But Burke isn’t sure that if the search is successful that all of them will be found there.

You see, Finders Keepers aren’t the only ones who have been looking for the legendary Civil War era gold haul. Jim Burke, a historian has too.

“I’ve looked for the gold and have had a private investigator from Washington, D.C. go through our archives (at the historical society),” Burke said in a phone interview Wednesday afternoon.

He said the story of the gold is multi-layered — some of it rooted in legend and other elements in documented fact.

According to the story Burke has pieced together over many years, three men came out of the gold train alive.

The person who was leading it, Lt. Castleton is said to have come down with typhoid fever and in his delusion, divulged the secret of what the wagon train was carrying somewhere around its last stop in St. Marys.

Other characters on the trip were a man known as O’Rourke, who was a ruthless character, as well as a man known as Conners. There are 10 said to have been in the train in total and not all of them have been accounted for.

Legend has it that Conners and two other unnamed men walked out before the wagon train met its storied end. Legend has it that Conners said that end was “over Thunder Mountain near Hicks Run.” All three went into the Civil War, but only Conners survived. He is said to have gotten drunk on numerous occasions on his return from war and would tell others in the bar — “I know where there’s gold back in the hills of Pennsylvania.” Ultimately, he died while building roads in California.

Another part of the story Burke found in searching for the gold is that when a company was surveying the Elk and Cameron county lines when Cameron branched out on its own, seven skeletons were found in the hollow of Bell Draft, near the tributary of Hicks Run.

At that time (circa the late 1800s-early 1900s), the Pinkerton Detective Agency came to the area and lore has it that 3.5 gold bars were found. After some of the detectives left the agency, they were said to have spent the rest of their lives in the area looking for the rest of the gold.

Pinkerton Detective Agency

Moving forward, to the 1990s, Burke said a man named Jack Schall, who currently lives in North Carolina, came to the region to do studies on elevation marker accuracy for the government. During his stint in the region, he is said to have met a man in a St. Marys drinking establishment, who said he kept a bar of gold under his bed. According to Burke, Shaw claims the man showed him the gold bar, which he took out of a canvas basket. After this, Shaw started to travel around the county lecturing about the lost gold.

Burke said at one point his partner in the search went to a “soothesayer” in New York state.

“He didn’t tell her what he was looking for. She went into a trance and said you’re looking for gold buried in Pennsylvania,” Burke recounted, adding that she also said she heard the voice of a man, whose description fit that of Lt. Castleton, saying, “I’m stuffed down in the hole. I can’t get out. There’s a bobcat licking my face.”

While Burke, in his retelling, often paused in uncertainty about the factuality of what he knows, he said that if it is true, he doubts the FBI will find what it’s looking for.

“Let’s suppose the Pinkertons found 3.5 gold bars. That tells me there was a division of gold,” Burke said. “If they do find a box of gold on the hill (in Dents Run) it was hidden by somebody, but it’s not the whole batch.”

When asked if he thought the search would be successful, Burke said frankly, “I hope it’s not. But, it might not be the end of the story if they do. And the first thing I’d ask then is how many bars did you find. I think somebody left with some of that gold.”

And if this site doesn’t pan out, Burke has one in mind, saying only that he has found a weathered rock with an important marking scribbled on it which has yielded some notable artifacts nearby.

The Courier Express article ends before the results of the FBI investigation were finished and released. Since then, the FBI, who conducted their search and diggings out of the public eye, claim they have excavated the site and have found nothing. Believable? Perhaps, but the entire story has some serious flaws.

This excerpt is from an interesting site called The Pennsylvania Rambler and this is from a post on February 16, 2020:

The treasure has divided people like no other legend within the borders of Pennsylvania. People have argued and debated the legend, with each bringing their evidence to the table to defend their side of the argument. I admit at one time, I was taken in by the legend and I too wanted to seek out and discover the fortune in gold. However, the story which first captivated me years ago is now an amusing piece of my past as I watch and read how people continue to scour the woods of Elk and Cameron Counties for a treasure that does not exist.

Yes, you read that last line correctly – in my opinion, the treasure that the FBI was accused of going in at night, digging up and stealing away with does not exist. Now I’ve read countless message boards and articles about the treasure and I find it strange that people are so committed in their belief that this treasure exists that they are willing to spend a small fortune on the continual search for it.

So why don’t I believe it exists? Allow me to present my evidence.

1). The most obvious answer is – I’m almost as old as the legend of the Lost Treasure of Dent’s Run. This piece of evidence is the biggest problem with the legend of the lost treasure. The oldest record of this tale is from a 1973 issue of Treasure Magazine. The article, written by a Sandra Gardner – who may or may not have actually existed – was the first telling of the tale that I can find. Since then it has appeared in numerous guide books and regional histories and with each retelling, the story gets more details added. The story fails to appear in Beers’ History of the Counties of McKean, Elk, Cameron and Potter, Pennsylvania (1890) and while this history is definitely missing some pieces, if the event had happened, I cannot imagine it would have been omitted from the history. In fact, the first time the story appears as an “official” part of Cameron County’s history is in the History of Cameron County, Pennsylvania (1991).

Note: I have found mention of the legend being as old as 1965, but the story that is recorded in that message board is the same as Gardner’s version. The article posted there had nothing with it to state where they obtained the story from, so at this point I’m still going with the oldest version being from 1973.

2) The characters mentioned do not exist. I’ve contacted so many U.S. Civil War historians to seek out Lieutenant Castleton and Sergeant Mike O’Rouke that most of them have me on a block list. There’s no solid proof anywhere that the two men existed. One version of the story states the unit assigned to transport the treasure was from either Indiana or Illinois, but again no state records there show the two men being a part of any regiment.

As far as Conners, the citizen guide who supposedly led the group through the mountains of central Pennsylvania, he remains a mystery. Recently I read that there was a man named Conners who was killed near Benezette, but – as far as I can tell – that Conners had nothing to do with the Civil War or the lost gold.

Note: In a recent conversation with a friend, we were discussing the lost treasure and he made an interesting suggestion about the name Castleton. In the Benezette Valley is the community of Castle Garden and maybe the writer used the community name to give Lieutenant Castleton his name. “Castle Garden to Castle Town to Castleton.” He also suggested Conners might have been a corruption of Connelly, an outlaw shot in the Benezette Valley in 1820. I can’t say this is correct, but it is an interesting theory that might hold some truth in it.

3) The route taken. This is one of the biggest problems I have with this legend. It makes absolutely no sense and the more I have looked into this route, the less sense it makes. They leave Wheeling, go to Pittsburgh, drive north along the Clarion River before arriving at Emporium. Then they go overland to St. Marys to Driftwood, where they planned on floating it down stream. First, if you’re in Wheeling, put it on a train, go to Pittsburgh and then to Altoona, to Harrisburg. A lot faster. Second, if the Bucktail Regiment could not float rafts down the West Branch, then why a couple years later would the U.S. Army think they could float a couple million dollars worth of gold down it?

The argument to this point is usually “The Battle of Gettysburg was going on at that time.” The fabled group left Wheeling in June. That’s a whole month before Gettysburg. The nearest major battle would have been the Second Battle of Winchester in early June, but even so, there would have been enough time to put the treasure on a train and send it to Washington, D.C. by rail.

4) The “Henry Shoemaker Theory.” No, I’m not accusing him of making this story up, although he would have if he would have thought about it. To be honest, I never thought I’d use Henry Shoemaker and his writings to defend my beliefs. The “Henry Shoemaker Theory” is the treasure probably does not exist, because he did not write about it. Although many of the stories that Shoemaker wrote were from his own imagination, or moved folktales from other parts of the world and set them in the wilderness of Pennsylvania, he did take a number of regional stories and retell them. Shoemaker seemed fascinated about lost treasures and focused a lot on another treasure in the region, the silver bars hidden north of here near the small community of Gardeau. I cannot help but believe, if the Lost Treasure of Dents Run existed, Shoemaker would have written about it because he had set a number of his stories within the Sinnemahoning Region. Note: more about the lost treasure of Gardeau can be found here: Blackbeard’s Treasure.

Two other questions arise in regards to the Legend of the Lost Treasure that I feel need to be addressed.

1) Were human bones found? The point most treasure hunters make is that human remains were found, along with other Civil War relics, proving there was a massacre. I have not found any reliable source pre-1973 to prove that human remains were found while either surveying the county line or while widening any of the roads. However, with there being numerous family cemeteries in the region, it is possible a forgotten cemetery was discovered and is the source of the story of human remains being found.

2) Where did it happen if it did happen? The lost treasure was supposedly buried along Dents Run or nearby Hicks Run. However, that has not prevented newer versions of the story – which are claimed to be the “correct” version – from changing to location. The treasure has been reported to have been buried near Caledonia, under a “concrete slab at the top of Winslow Hill” and in Driftwood itself. I personally love the Driftwood version because it states the reason the Bucktail Monument was moved from the center of Route 555 was because the state recovered the lost gold buried beneath the monument.

Bucktail Vista

If I’m correct in my belief the Lost Treasure of Dents Run does not exist, then the question must be asked: “Where did the story originate? My personal belief is the legend is a corruption of Shoemaker’s story about Blackbeard’s Silver Bars. Both have a lost treasure being transported overland by wagon and are set in the Sinnemahoning Valley. Mix into the story some elements of truth – the Bucktail Regiment came out of this region and a short distance south was the fight between army deserters and U.S. troops. Add into this mixture of history the similar stories of lost Union or Confederate gold and silver existing in other parts of the state and in the mountains of Appalachia and there is a story that becomes a part of regional lore that has just enough “fact” in it to make people believe it is true.

Note: Strangely, most of the stories about lost Civil War treasure first appear in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I’m not sure why these stories all seemingly appear roughly at the same time and – in my mind – there has to be a connection to why these stories suddenly became a part of American culture, but I have not been able to make any type of relevant connection to their origins.

Final Thoughts

I always thought it would be exciting to go on a treasure hunt, but it seems legends cloud the actual facts and it’s difficult to know if there are indeed undiscovered treasures still buried deep beneath the ground. Did the FBI uncover $54 Million in gold bars and whisk it away under cover of darkness? Hard to say, but with the current state of the FBI, it would not be surprising at all.

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Published by pat frederick

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144 thoughts on “Dent’s Run: Fact or Fiction?”

  1. Good morning! Very interesting reading, Pat! Had never heard of Dent’s Run! My guess? No, it was split up and there is no treasure there. But that’s practical, pragmatic me talkin’ so…..! LOL – then again, as he said, this is the FBI we’re talking about! That wouldn’t surprise me…….

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Morning!
      I think there should have been transparency…if it was gov’t claimed, then offer a finder’s fee…allow the treasure finders the credit of the find.
      but this dark of night, no one can see stuff? another black eye on the eff bee eye

      Liked by 2 people

  2. Morning All!
    another chilly morning here!
    yesterday on the way to see the wizard, a small (2 yr old) bear ran across the road in front of the truck and then on the way home, on our dirt road, a mama and her fawn were running. the fawn was as small as a puppy–so really young! they ran and we stopped till they could find a place to dart into the woods…

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Babies everywhere, eh? Chilly here, too – 47 at the moment – but it’s supposed to be sunny and in the high 70’s today so……hopefully, I can get the trumpet vines done and some scraping on the windows, perhaps. I may make a quick run to Bomgaars in Creighton to see what annuals they’ve got left……

      Liked by 2 people

  4. EXCERPT: “The Pennsylvania secretary of state officially ordered a statewide recount in the Republican Senate primary race between David McCormick and Dr. Mehmet Oz on Wednesday. State law requires a recount when results are within a 0.5 percent margin. This recount was triggered because even as thousands of Republican mail-in and provisional ballots potentially remain outstanding, the results will still come within that designated margin.

    McCormick trailed Oz by 902 votes out of more than 1.3 million cast as of Wednesday, according to Secretary of State Leigh Chapman’s notice about the recount. The Pennsylvania State Department said Wednesday that about 10,000 ballots were outstanding and that 6,000 of those were mail-in or absentee ballots and 4,000 were provisional ballots, according to Politico.

    The department noted it did not have a breakdown by party of the ballots, meaning many of the 10,000 ballots left could be Democrat primary ballots as Democrats historically outnumber Republicans in mail-in voting. The state accepted military and overseas ballots through Tuesday at 5:00 p.m., and said that of the 6,000 mail-in and absentee ballots left, an estimated 3,000 of those were military and overseas ballots.”

    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/05/25/pennsylvania-senate-race-heads-to-recount-thousands-of-mail-in-ballots-still-left/

    Liked by 2 people

        1. Agreed! Trust, but verify. I’m too black pilled and jaded at this point. I’ve got too much tolerance built up from over doing the hopium. 😜

          Liked by 2 people

  10. SMDH – enough already!!!!

    EXCERPT: “Mattel has announced the release of its newest Barbie doll to celebrate transgender actor Laverne Cox meant to “highlight the importance of inclusion and acceptance”

    “We are proud to highlight the importance of inclusion and acceptance at every age and to recognize Laverne’s significant impact on culture with a Tribute Collection Barbie,” said Lisa McKnight, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Barbie and Dolls at Mattel, according to People.”

    https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2022/05/25/mattel-announces-barbie-doll-to-celebrate-transgender-actor-laverne-cox/

    Liked by 2 people

  11. Hmmmm…..not sure what to think about this one….

    EXCERPT: “Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is currently in Jerusalem meeting his Israeli counterpart, Yair Lapid, in the first visit in a decade and a half by Ankara’s top diplomat. The two discussed reviving Israel-Turkish cooperation after years of frosty relations, which would include restoring ambassadors and signing a series of agreements.

    In a humiliating scene that was filmed, Turkey expelled Israel’s envoy in 2018 in response to fatal clashes by Palestinian rioters on the Gaza-Israel border. Jerusalem responded by likewise dismissing Ankara’s envoy.

    Çavuşoğlu on Wednesday said a Turkish-Israel rapprochement will also help advance a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in light of Ankara’s history of playing a diplomatic role in the peace process.

    “We agreed to relaunch our Joint Economic Commission,” Lapid said in English-language remarks, “and to begin working on a new civil aviation agreement between our countries. Israeli airlines are currently barred from flying to Turkey after Ankara refused to heed Jerusalem’s security requests.

    Despite the measures discussed, restoring full diplomatic ties was not planned for the immediate future, with the countries preferring a gradual approach, the Times of Israel reported citing unnamed sources. “The goal is to form and expand economic and civil cooperation between our countries,” said Lapid, “to create business-to-business and people-to-people ties, and to leverage our two countries’ comparative advantages regionally and globally.”

    https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2022/05/25/turkey-fm-visits-israel-in-a-sign-of-warming-relations/

    Liked by 2 people

  12. EXCERPT: “Billionaire business magnate Elon Musk told CNBC via emails on Wednesday that he is in favor of “tight background checks” for all firearm sales and that he supports restricting assault weapon sales to individuals in special situations, such as gun range proprietors or individuals residing in a “high risk location, [such as an area with prolific] gang warfare.”

    Musk also noted that he thinks the right to bear arms serves as a critical check against the possibility of tyrannical governments. “Regarding recent events, the shooters are obviously doing this to generate the most amount of attention possible. Why is the media doing exactly what the mass murderers want?” Musk wrote, according to the outlet.

    “I strongly believe that the right to bear arms is an important safeguard against potential tyranny of government. Historically, maintaining their power over the people is why those in power did not allow public ownership of guns,” Musk noted.”

    https://www.theblaze.com/news/elon-musk-guns-government-tyranny#toggle-gdpr

    Liked by 2 people

    1. his stance about allowing assault rifle in areas with gang warfare doesn’t make sense to me…so only gangs should have them?
      i know that’s not what he intended, but that’s what will happen–the gang bangers will get them and those trying to protect themselves will be out of luck

      Liked by 2 people

  13. Entire Article @ National File: “Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said the company is being forced to “throw away” 30 million COVID-19 vaccine doses due to low demand. Bancel made his comments while speaking at the World Economic Forum on Monday, adding his displeasure over the lack of people getting vaccinated and “waning immunity” among those who have had the shots but declined to get boosters.

    “It’s sad to say, I’m in the process of throwing 30 million doses in the garbage because nobody wants them. We have a big demand problem,” Bancel said.

    The Moderna CEO added that the pharmaceutical giant has reached out to a number of world governments but has been unable to find any takers. “We right now have governments—we tried to contact … through the embassies in Washington. Every country and nobody wants to take them,” he said. “And so the challenge we have right now is very different to the one we had two years ago.”

    Liked by 2 people

  15. EXCERPT: “At some point during the next nine days, British Home Secretary Priti Patel will decide whether or not to extradite imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange to the United States to face espionage charges for publishing accurate information revealing U.S. war crimes.

    Pressure is building from both sides on the home secretary. Press freedom and human rights organizations, a Nobel laureate, the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, journalists and Assange supporters have appealed to Patel to let Assange go.

    While it would be deemed improper for outside influence to be brought on judges, it would not be fanciful to imagine that behind the scenes Patel is getting the message from the U.S. Department of Justice and possibly from U.S. and U.K. intelligence services about what is expected of her.

    The home secretary should know without prodding what the U.S. and British governments want her to do. Patel is a highly-ambitious politician who no doubt will calculate how her decision will impact her career.

    “Politicians think about their next election, they think about their voters … that’s what makes them tick,” Kristinn Hrafnnson, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, told Consortium News at a protest outside the Home Office in London last Wednesday. “For the first time it’s in the hands of a politician, and Priti Patel, if she wants to think about her legacy … she should do the right thing.”

    https://consortiumnews.com/2022/05/22/pressure-mounts-on-patel-over-assange-decision/

    Liked by 2 people

  16. Liked by 1 person

  17. EXCERPT: “Disinformation has become a central tool in the United States and Russia’s expanding information war. US officials have openly admitted to “using information as a weapon even when the confidence and accuracy of the information wasn’t high,” with corporate media eager to assist Washington in its strategy to “pre-empt and disrupt the Kremlin’s tactics, complicate its military campaign” (NBC, 4/6/22).

    In defense of the US narrative, corporate media have increasingly taken to branding realities inconvenient to US information goals as “disinformation” spread by Russia or its proxies.

    The New York Times (1/25/22) reported that Russian disinformation doesn’t only take the form of patently false assertions, but also those which are “true but tangential to current events”—a convenient definition, in that it allows accurate facts to be dismissed as “disinformation.” But who determines what is “tangential” and what is relevant, and what are the guiding principles to make such a determination? In this assessment, Western audiences are too fickle to be trusted with making up their own mind.

    There’s no denying that Russia’s disinformation campaign is key to justifying its war on Ukraine. But instead of uncritically outsourcing these decisions to Western intelligence officials and weapons manufacturers, and as a result erasing realities key to a political settlement, the media’s ultimate guiding principle for what information is “tangential” should be whether it is relevant to preventing the further suffering of Ukrainian civilians—and reducing tensions between the world’s two largest nuclear powers.

    For Western audiences, and US citizens in particular, labeling or otherwise marginalizing inconvenient realities as “disinformation” prevents a clear understanding of how their government helped escalate tensions in the region, continues to obstruct the possibility of peace talks, and is prepared to, as retired senior US diplomat Chas Freeman describes it, “fight to the last Ukrainian” in a bid to weaken Russia.
    ————————-
    The outsized influence of neo-Nazi groups in Ukrainian society (Human Rights Watch, 6/14/18)—including the the Azov Regiment, the explicitly neo-Nazi branch of Ukraine’s National Guard—is another fact that has been dismissed as disinformation.

    Western outlets once understood far-right extremism as a festering issue (Haaretz, 12/27/18) that Ukraine’s government “underplayed” (BBC, 12/13/14). In a piece called “Ukraine’s Got a Real Problem with Far-Right Violence (and No, RT Didn’t Write This Headline),” the Atlantic Council (UkraineAlert, 6/20/18) wrote:

    ‘Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House and Front Line Defenders warned in a letter that radical groups acting under “a veneer of patriotism” and “traditional values” were allowed to operate under an “atmosphere of near total impunity that cannot but embolden these groups to commit more attacks.”

    To be clear, far-right parties like Svoboda perform poorly in Ukraine’s polls and elections, and Ukrainians evince no desire to be ruled by them. But this argument is a bit of “red herring.” It’s not extremists’ electoral prospects that should concern Ukraine’s friends, but rather the state’s unwillingness or inability to confront violent groups and end their impunity.’

    But now Western media attempt to diminish those groups’ significance, arguing that singling out a vocal but insignificant far right only benefits Russia’s disinformation campaign (New Statesman, 4/12/22). Almost exactly three years after warning about Ukraine’s “real problem” with the far right, the Atlantic Council (UkraineAlert, 6/19/21) ran a piece entitled “The Dangers of Echoing Russian Disinformation on Ukraine,” in which it seemingly forgot that arguments about the electoral marginalization of Ukraine’s right wing are a “red herring”:”

    Much more: https://fair.org/home/disinformation-label-serves-to-marginalize-crucial-ukraine-facts/

    Liked by 2 people

  18. EXCERPT (this is where I found the 2 above): “They’re not worried about disinformation, they’re worried about information. They’re worried about journalists using the unprecedented information-sharing power of the internet to reveal inconvenient facts about the largest and most murderous power structure on earth. They’re worried about people finding out that they’ve been lied to their entire lives about their world, their nation and their government. They’re worried about people using their newly connected minds to decide together that they don’t much like the status quo as it’s been laid out for them, and deciding to build a new one.

    All the safeguards they’re setting up now to manipulate the flow of information online are not there to eliminate lies, they’re there to eliminate truth. These people have a vested interest in keeping things dark and confused, and we the ordinary people of the world have a vested interest in shining a big inconvenient spotlight on everything. The elite agenda to keep things endarkened is at direct odds with the people’s agenda to get things enlightened.

    We are not being protected by a compassionate alliance of corporations and governments who only want us to know the truth, we are being manipulated and oppressed by an oligarchic empire that wants us to believe lies. That’s why they’re locking up Assange, that’s why they’re censoring the internet, that’s why they’re filling our minds with propaganda, and that’s why we can’t let them win.”

    https://caityjohnstone.medium.com/theyre-worried-about-the-spread-of-information-not-disinformation-6791fb66389a

    Liked by 2 people

  19. consumers getting smarter…kim never eats the crap she’s trying to push…LOL
    FTA
    Social media is losing its mind after Kim Kardashian posted a 30-second video of her doing an advertisement for a plant-based food company called Beyond Meat in which she never actually appears to eat any of the food she encourages others to buy.

    The 41-year-old reality star shared the ad on Instagram Tuesday for the vegan company (she’s been named as its Chief Taste Consultant). In the video, the reality star shows off the variety of food items, combined with close-up shots of the food and her chewing. However, eagle-eyed fans noticed there did not appear to be a moment where the Kardashian actually takes a bit of the food and eats it.

    https://www.dailywire.com/news/she-didnt-even-take-a-bite-internet-losing-it-over-kim-kardashians-beyond-meat-ad-not-showing-her-actually-swallowing-the-food

    Liked by 1 person

  23. Good morning y’all! Rainy day here, but not chilly. Have 3 walkthroughs to do this morning so I won’t be on until around lunchtime. Ready to go look for that gold! Haha,

    Liked by 2 people

      1. Thanks! 1st one not going according to script, having to do the project manager’s job for him.

        Like

  24. the eff bee eye wants an $11BILLION budget…but they can’t seem to get on top on cases like salvadors. i know, i know, that’s on purpose…but still. if i were on the budget committee I’d be asking a LOT of questions given all their abject failures of late
    FTA
    According to a Santos Valdez Jr., a former friend, Ramos had previously cut his face up with a knife “just for fun” and was known to shoot at random people with BB guns. Other classmates recalled he ‘cut himself’ saying, “I like how it looks.” Nadia Reyes, a high school acquaintance, said Ramos posted videos to social media documenting domestic fights with his mother as law enforcement was present.

    With all these very clear and glaring warning signs, why wasn’t this tragedy prevented? After all, the FBI budget request for 2023 is nearly $11 billion, and if they have time and generous amounts of taxpayer dollars to expend to investigate a garage pull, they should be able to identify real threats.

    Arguably, the failure to act is largely due to living in a debauched culture of leftism – one that glorifies mental illness as ‘living your truth’, and where morality is perversely inverted – particularly in terms of sexuality. Exhibitions of violence and hypersexual behavior ought to be indicative of a struggling youth – but under “progressive” leftism, we live in a world of excusing violent crime to avoid racial crime statistics, as well as the sexual torture of prepubescent children.

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/05/its_clear_salvador_ramos_was_mentally_sick_so_why_wasnt_he_stopped.html

    Liked by 2 people

    1. FBI, CIA, NSA, all of the so-called “intelligence” agencies have entire teams of people who sit on-line directing these wackos and twisting their minds even more to commit these acts!!!!

      Liked by 2 people

        1. Kinda gross, but we get those pale yellow ones with the 1 black one at our house and they love the spots where the dog pees out back!

          Liked by 2 people

  27. [NOTE: His endorsement didn’t count here, either, Emerald!]

    EXCERPT: “Let’s begin with a basic truth that most of the corporate media continually ignore or obscure: President Trump’s endorsement is the single most powerful force in the universe of American politics. There’s never been anything quite like it. Trump-endorsed candidates overwhelmingly prevailed in the latest GOP primaries by a margin of 24-4. In fact, President Trump is running the table on the GOP establishment in the 2022 races. His record stands at 92-7 at the moment.

    Trump’s endorsement basically won the race for JD Vance in Ohio, and for Ted Budd in North Carolina. In Pennsylvania, his endorsement did the same thing for Doug Mastriano in the governor’s race. This has happened again and again in 2022. Remember, Trump’s record is 92-7. That’s what makes the primary results in Georgia last night so curious and so suspect. Georgia is the only state where President Trump’s endorsements did not count.

    President Trump had endorsed quite a few candidates in Georgia, including David Perdue in the gubernatorial race with Brian Kemp, and Jody Hice in the race for Secretary of State against Brad Raffensperger. His endorsements were decisive in almost every political race in America this year. So why was Georgia such an outlier?

    Sure, Georgia is an open primary state — Democrats are allowed to vote in the GOP primaries there — but that’s not the real story. Look at the RCP polling average: Brian Kemp was getting 52% of the votes and his main challenger, David Perdue, was getting 38% of the votes just before the race.

    On Primary Day in Georgia, Kemp gets 74% and Perdue gets 22%. Nobody in any election in America gets 74% of the votes. Ever. It doesn’t happen. Obvious fraud.

    Brian Kemp’s funny numbers are not the only funny numbers in the Georgia primaries either. In the race for insurance commissioner, Trump-endorsed candidate Patrick Witt lost to a nobody named John King — and John King got 70% of the votes! Now take a look at Patrick Witt’s numbers county by county: he got the same percentage of votes in 122 out of 159 counties in Georgia.

    Let me repeat: the same percentage. Patrick Witt gets the same percentage in deep blue counties as he gets in deep red counties. Uniform numbers.

    A month ago, the University of Georgia conducted a poll of Georgia’s Republican voters found very different results that directly contradict these funny numbers. In fact, the University of Georgia was predicting that Trump-endorsed candidates were going to win almost everything — which is happening in every other state in the country right now.
    ————————-
    So, to summarize, Trump’s endorsement is so powerful that Patrick Witt gets 52% of the vote, Jody Hice gets 60% of the vote, and Burt Jones gets 59% in a poll one month before the races. On Primary Day in Georgia, none of this happened.

    In fact, the candidates that were not endorsed by Trump went from single digits in the poll to commanding wins rarely seen in American politics. John King (who won with 70% remember!) was getting only 7% of the poll vote. Brad Raffensperger (who won!) got only 16% of the poll vote. Butch Miller (who might still win in a recount!) got only 8% of the poll vote.

    Ask yourself: is that possible? No, it’s not. Meanwhile, the election integrity organization VOTER GA held a press conference on Monday to announce that 102 Georgia counties could not produce their drop box surveillance videos for the stolen 2020 election.

    Let me repeat that number: 102 Georgia counties. Apparently, 72 counties were forced to admit that all those videos had been destroyed. Read the full press release for yourself.””

    More: https://emeralddb3.substack.com/p/something-stinks-in-georgia

    Liked by 2 people

  28. going thru some of the pictures i found.
    when my granddaughter was younger, and they were visiting, we played Shave Your Daddy. hubby and my son in law sat on our wooden swing, covered with thin tablecloths we got at the $$ store and wore goggles. I applied whipped cream on their faces and their daughters had a race to see who could “shave” their daddy’s face the fastest using a SQUIRT GUN at 10 paces. hubby and my daughter versus son in law and my granddaughter.
    OMG it was hysterical and so much giggling…but the men were sooo cooperative…such a blast!!!

    Liked by 2 people

  29. I’m just now watching Tucker from last night – Jason Whitlock – blaming the companies who provide the social media instead of the people who allow their children to access things and “games” like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty – he says the companies are our enemies and, if you look at it from a victimhood mentality, yes, they are. But WE choose to get buried in it ourselves and allow our children to be buried in it willy-nilly! What about personal responsibility??? PLEASE, can we talk about personal responsibility?

    Of course Apple, MS, etc., etc., are going to push what sells!!!! Reminds me of that LH episode about the “Yellow Journalism” and the outright lies they printed – Charles: “Why do you keep buying that paper???” IT IS UP TO THE PARENTS TO STOP THIS!!!! We’ve seen how the government “takes care of it!” Turn them out on the streets and provide them with the drugs and paraphernalia to off themselves!

    OK – rant over! 🙄😏🤔🤨

    Liked by 2 people

    2. I have played those games extensively in the past. Never ever thought about doing that to people in real life. Lack of active parenting is to blame…but there’s never any personal accountability anymore. It’s always someone elses fault.

      Liked by 2 people

  31. Wow! She lists shooting after shooting after shooting after shooting…… 8 or 9 in Baltimore w/in 2 day and like 10 in a week in Chicago alone!!!! Very long article but a good read:

    EXCERPT: “But what is not justified, especially from the nation’s political leaders, is racial propaganda. Biden’s recurring suggestions that white hate crimes are America’s dominant reality are false. Whites are not the biggest source of hate crime and interracial violence in the U.S.; blacks are. From 2016 to 2020, blacks nationally were twice as likely to commit a hate crime as whites, according to FBI data, among hate-crime suspects whose race and ethnicity were known.
    ——————–
    The typical mass shooter in America is not a white supremacist. He is black and either retaliating for a previous shooting or impulsively reacting to a current dispute. In 2020, more than two dozen blacks were killed every day—more than all white and Hispanic homicide victims combined—even though blacks are only 13 percent of the population. The country turns its eyes away. As the former Baltimore gang member said of his community: “It’s like a norm now.” The black homicide toll will be higher in 2021 and 2022.
    ——————–
    The media and Democratic politicians are tying the Buffalo atrocity to discourse opposed to mass illegal immigration from Third World countries. Glenn Greenwald has laid out the definitive rebuttal of efforts to blame ideas and the people who hold those ideas for violence committed by homicidal madmen who may also share some of those ideas. As a legal matter, Greenwald’s free-speech absolutism is unequivocally correct. Yet his robust assertion of the bright-line distinction between speech and action fails to capture our intuition about the power of language and ideas. To be sure, our inclination to connect repugnant acts to speech is in direct proportion to the degree to which we find that speech repugnant. While the Left blames Great Replacement theory for the Buffalo massacre, others may see demonization of the police since 2015 as responsible for increased cop killings, which rose by 59 percent in 2021.
    ——————–
    The false claim that we are living through an epidemic of racist shootings of black men by police officers arguably led to the crime waves of 2015 and 2016, and to the more dire anarchy since 2020. With the two-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death upon us, it’s not hard to imagine that the equally false claim that we are living through an epidemic of white-supremacist shootings of blacks could escalate America’s violence.”

    https://www.city-journal.org/using-the-buffalo-tragedy-for-racial-propaganda

    Liked by 1 person

  35. if THIS is what the fda requires to be printed..imagine how bad it can get? are anti despressants to blame for the uptake in violent behavior of youths?
    FTA

    But there’s another side to these drugs, one that must be taken into account. Read the potential side effects that the FDA requires to be printed on the label of every antidepressant:

    Anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, aggressiveness, impulsivity, akathisia, hypomania, and mania have been reported in adult and pediatric patients being treated with antidepressants for major depressive disorder as well as for indications, both psychiatric and nonpsychiatric.

    We all know that every FDA warning label will scare the pants off if you read it closely, but this one seems especially concerning. The National Institutes of Health way back in 2006 studied the SSRI-violence link in judicial outcomes, and came to this conclusion:

    Both clinical trial and pharmacovigilance data point to possible links between these drugs and violent behaviours. The legal cases outlined returned a variety of verdicts that may in part have stemmed from different judicial processes. Many jurisdictions appear not to have considered the possibility that a prescription drug may induce violence.

    A more recent Swedish report from 2020 made a similar conclusion:

    This work shows that SSRI treatment appears to be associated with an increased risk for violent criminality in adults as well as adolescents, though the risk appears restricted to a small group of individuals… Previous work has found an association between SSRI use and violence in young individuals, but not in adults. Ours is a much bigger study which allows us to confirm that there is an association in adults as well.

    https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2022/05/26/could-ssri-antidepressants-be-one-of-the-causes-behind-these-mass-shootings-n570142

    Liked by 1 person

    1. EXCERPT: “The following information is the most accurate and documented data available on psychiatric drug usage in the United States. The information is from IQVia (formerly IMS Health), a company that provides information, services and technology for the healthcare industry. It is the largest vendor of U.S. physician prescribing data. The following data was taken from the IQVia Total Patient Tracker Database for Year 2020, extracted January 2021. To see drug regulatory agency warnings, studies and documented side effects of the psychiatric drugs prescribed to children, click hyperlinks below in blue (i.e., ADHD Drugs, Antidepressants, Antipsychotics, etc).

      Drug Class: Age Group: Number of People:

      All Psychiatric Drugs 0-17 Years 6,155,852
      0-5 Years 418,425

      Age Breakdown:
      0-1 Years 85,003
      2-3 Years 138,822
      4-5 Years 215,120
      6-12 Years 2,652,554
      13-17 Years 3,188,966

      ADHD Drugs 0-17 Years 3,155,441
      0-5 Years 58,091

      Age Breakdown:
      0-1 Years 310
      2-3 Years 1,300
      4-5 Years 57,010
      6-12 Years 1,750,481
      13-17 Years 1,409,438

      Antidepressants 0-17 Years 2,154,118
      0-5 Years 35,216

      Age Breakdown:
      0-1 Years 7,811
      2-3 Years 12,137
      4-5 Years 18,911
      6-12 Years 543,120
      13-17 Years 1,605,375

      Antipsychotics 0-17 Years 829,372
      0-5 Years 30,632

      Age Breakdown:
      0-1 Years 1,318
      2-3 Years 7,873
      4-5 Years 22,180
      6-12 Years 304,754
      13-17 Years 502,372

      Anti-anxiety Drugs 0-17 Years 1,153,351
      0-5 Years 233,125

      Age Breakdown:
      0-1 Years 60,068
      2-3 Years 89,453
      4-5 Years 90,716
      6-12 Years 357,976
      13-17 Years 571,210

      Mood Stabilizers 0-17 Years 794,715
      0-5 Years 100,233

      Age Breakdown:
      0-1 Years 21,593
      2-3 Years 36,986
      4-5 Years 50,206
      6-12 Years 289,262
      13-17 Years 419,221

      SOURCE: IQVia Total Patient Tracker (TPT) Database, Year 2020, Extracted January 2021.”

      https://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-drugs/children-on-psychiatric-drugs/

      Liked by 1 person

  38. Liked by 1 person

    1. Entire Article @ NYP: “Ray Liotta, the legendary actor known for his career-defining performance in crime classic “Goodfellas,” died in his sleep while filming a movie in the Dominican Republic, according to reports Thursday. He was 67. Liotta, who also starred in the critically acclaimed film “Field of Dreams,” had been filming the upcoming flick “Dangerous Waters” on the island before he passed away, a source close to the star told TMZ.

      His cause of death and other details were not immediately known Thursday. His fiancé, podcaster and entrepreneur Jacy Nittolo, had been with him on the movie shoot when he died. The pair got engaged around Christmas 2020.

      Liotta is best known for his breakout role in the renowned 1990 Martin Scorsese flick, “Goodfellas,” where he played New York mobster Henry Hill alongside Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. The actor also had starring roles in “Cop Land,” “Blow,” “Marriage Story” and “Something Wild.” Liotta leaves behind a daughter, Karsen, 23, whom he shared with his first wife, actress and producer Michelle Grace.”

      Liked by 1 person

  40. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two. here’s one I found that I liked.

    Liked by 1 person

  43. Back from my trip to Bomgaars – got my usual yellow and orange Marigolds for the pot in the metal wheel barrow; and yellow and dark pink Celosia for the 3-bowl tier planter in front. Still need something for my huge black pots by the garage and the tire tower. Still haven’t decided on the hanging baskets yet…..the clouds have mostly disappeared and it is a really nice day, altho still only 65.

    Liked by 1 person

  44. Just finished off another jar of jelly! Those birds are voracious! All 3 of the containers were empty or almost empty! Sheesh! They’d better be making a LOT of babies!!!!

    Liked by 1 person

  45. EXCERPT: “Less than a day after State Farm ended its partnership with a nonprofit that promotes “positive stories about transgender and non-binary kiddos,” several more corporations and a federal agency disappeared from the nonprofit’s partner page as well.

    It wasn’t a mass exodus, the GenderCool Project told Just the News: It was an opportunity for spring cleaning after the insurance company’s hasty exit.
    ————————
    By Wednesday afternoon, nine of the remaining 22 entities on the partner page Tuesday night were gone: Capital One, NBC Universal, General Mills, Adobe, Indeed, Bank of America, Sprout Social, Oracle and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the last of which disappeared within hours of Just the News asking for an explanation of its partnership.

    Most were still indirectly tied to the project by their partnership with an LGBTQ workplace nonprofit that has long partnered with GenderCool. Out and Equal Workplace Advocates counts more than 200 corporations as partners, including State Farm.

    Five government entities — USDA, FDA, NSA, State Department and Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago — are also listed as partners with Out and Equal. Four didn’t respond to queries, and one declined to talk on the record. John Grosshandler, founder and chairman of GenderCool, said State Farm was the only partner to leave this year and the first to leave in this way.”

    https://justthenews.com/accountability/watchdogs/transgender-youth-program-explains-why-corporate-partners-disappeared

    Liked by 1 person

  46. EXCERPT: “Ohio voters moved a step closer to deciding if noncitizens can vote in local elections after the House on Wednesday approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would put the issue on the November ballot. Supporters said House Joint Resolution 4 would close a loophole that could allow noncitizens to vote on local candidates and tax issues in cities and villages. If it passes the Senate, it could appear before voters in November.

    “With our vote today, we are giving Ohio’s voters a very clear choice,” said Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Green Township. “They can either decide that Ohio should imitate New York and San Francisco by allowing noncitizens to vote, or that Ohio reserves its voting rights only to qualified citizens. I am confident in their judgment.”

    The Ohio Constitution allows home rule to municipalities and chartered counties and supporters said that could potentially be misused to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections.

    “This is about the integrity of our elections,” said Rep. Jay Edwards, R-Nelsonville. “Citizenship matters. We are being proactive to ensure our election laws are clear and unambiguous. I believe this is an issue most Ohioans, regardless of party affiliation, will support.”

    https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/ohio-house-passes-resolution-calling-only-citizens-vote

    Liked by 1 person

  50. A little background on Ray Liotta:

    EXCERPT: “The Newark, New Jersey, native was born in 1954 and adopted at age six months out of an orphanage by a township clerk and an auto parts owner. Though he mostly grew up playing sports, including baseball, during his senior year of high school, the drama teacher at the school asked him if he wanted to be in a play, which he agreed to on a lark. And it stuck: He’d go on to study acting at the University of Miami. After graduation, he got his first big break on the soap opera “Another World.”

    Liotta’s first big film role was in Jonathan Demme’s “Something Wild” as Melanie Griffith’s character’s hotheaded ex-convict husband Ray. The turn earned him a Golden Globe nomination. A few years later, he would get the memorable role of the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson in “Field of Dreams.”

    His most iconic role, as real life mobster Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas” came shortly after. He, and Scorsese, had to fight for it though, with multiple auditions and pleas to the studio to cast the still relative unknown.

    “The thing about that movie, you know, Henry Hill isn’t that edgy of a character,” Liotta said in an interview in 2012. “It’s really the other guys who are doing all the actual killings. The one physical thing he does do, when he goes after the guy who went after Karen — you know, most audiences, they actually like him for that.” In the same interview, he marveled at how “Goodfellas” had a “life of its own” and has only grown over time.

    “People watch it over and over, and still respond to it, and different ages come up, even today, teenagers come up to me and they really emotionally connect to it,” he said.”

    https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2022/05/26/ray-liotta-goodfellas-star-and-field-of-dreams-actor-dies-at-67/

    Liked by 1 person

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