Happy National Kansas Day!

Travel 3 Minutes

Here are Trip Advisor’s top picks of places to visit in Kansas!

Safari Zoological Park

We had the BEST day at the Safari Park in Caney! The owners and workers are all so knowledgeable, very engaging and supe friendly. The grounds were so nice, the animals so healthy and you can tell extremely well taken care of. This was not just a walk through, but a guided tour where so many aspects of each animal was explained and they answered all the questions we had about them.It was so neat to see them being fed up close and see all the different animal personalities. 🙂 Its evident that owners and workers are so passionate about the animals, giving them the very best care. This place was such a gem, we had so much fun, and plan to go back!! From Stephanie and family from Independence ks. (Bessie) ️

Boot Hill Museum

The exciting and unique story of early Dodge City is told daily along Front Street at Boot Hill Museum. The museum chronicles the establishment of a rough and rowdy cattle town known as Dodge City. The museum is located on the original site of Boot Hill Cemetery and highlights the glory days as Queen of the Cowtowns with creative, lively, interactive displays and activities the entire family will enjoy. Boot Hill Museum is open all year long where you can belly up to the bar for a cold sarsaparilla, enjoy some of grandma’s homemade fudge in the General Store or take home a lasting memento of your old west experience from the Boot Hill gift shop. During the summer months, children’s activities, gunfight reenactments, country-style dinners and the Long Branch Variety Show provides entertainment like none other!

Strataca

Travel 650 feet underground into an active salt mine! Experience a cool and soothing subterranean world formed by salt deposits in the Permian Sea long ago. See the raw mine as it was left more than 50 years ago on the Salt Mine Express train ride and catch a guided tour on a tram to the Dark Ride. You won’t want to miss a special gallery filled with authentic movie costumes and memorabilia. And don’t miss the SALT SAFARI add on tour. A one hour guided adventure tour that goes BEYOND STRATACA. See salt formations not available to the general public until now! Limited capacity — only 12 visitors at a time depart 3-4 times a day.

Tanganyika Wildlife Park

I discovered Tanganyika Wildlife Park on social media. Seeing the pictures and videos of people having these once-in-a-lifetime encounters with animals blew me away! I was so excited to meet otters and penguins and sloths (and Mars, the pgymy hippo, of course). I signed up for the Ultimate Weekend and it was ultimate plus plus! I was traveling solo, and the staff took such good care of me. From the check-in counter to the VIP Room where you meet up for your animal encounters, everyone was friendly and personable and oh-so-knowledgeable about the animals. You could really tell that they loved them, too. A special shoutout to Lexie for introducing me BY NAME to pretty much every animal in the park. The animal reserve itself is beautiful and very well maintained, but the people make it come alive. Plus, I got to swim with penguins and hang out with sloths and feed a baby kangaroo — it was a bucket list trip.

The Keeper of the Plains

The Keeper of the Plains stands at the confluence of the Big and Little Arkansas rivers with hands raised in supplication to the Great Spirit. Renowned Kiowa-Comanche artist Blackbear Bosin donated the Keeper of the Plains to the citizens of Wichita on May 18, 1974.Since the sculpture’s installation to commemorate the United States Bicentennial, it has become a symbol for the city of Wichita and a tribute to the local American Indian tribes. in 1974. A complete renovation of the sculpture and installation of the Keeper of the Plains Plaza now brings people out each evening to see the Keeper and the “Ring of Fire.” The 44-foot Cor-Ten steel Keeper of the Plains statue is now 30 feet higher than before with its new pedestal, surrounded by a plaza which describes the Plains Indian way of life.

SOURCE: TRIPADVISOR.COM

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Published by pat frederick

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100 thoughts on “Happy National Kansas Day!”

    2. Good morning! We’ve got about an inch on the ground and the snow is still falling, 27, and windy. No Wheezer overnight – I brought the food dish inside since the tuna is frozen solid. LOL

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        1. Yeah, the wind is supposed to be worse in the northern states. It’s died down somewhat here but the snow is coming down heavier.

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  3. so now we got Russian-Armenian mafia getting in on the hospice fraud in CA!

    article

    Families who are going through the hospice experience — that is, a loved one has six months or less to live — have the added misfortune of being caught up in fraud investigations.  California, by far, leads the country in hospice fraud numbers, and of course Gavin Newsom blames President Trump for these violations.

    What makes the situation especially intriguing in California are the locations of these supposed businesses:

    A new investigation is adding to the growing mountain of evidence that a network of hundreds of hospices is allegedly ripping off tens of millions of dollars from taxpayers across California.

    And ground zero for the alleged fraud — a stretch of road in Van Nuys:
    ‘You can’t throw a rock without hitting [a] hospice,’ Sheila Clark, President and CEO of the California Hospice and Palliative Care Association (CHAPCA), told CBS News. 

    The new findings highlight what the California Post exclusively reported earlier this month, that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is now actively cutting off payments to suspicious operations across Los Angeles, which is home to almost half of America’s end-of-life care providers.

    Even more absurd is that this is not a new discovery.  Gov. Newsom’s administration identified the fraud five years ago, and some action was taken, but not nearly enough:

    His office wrote on X: ‘Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law BANNING all new hospice licenses in 2021 to curb fraud. What’s Trump doing? Making it easier for scammers to steal taxpayer dollars!’

    Newsom’s office also told Newsweek: ‘In 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law banning ALL new hospice licenses. That moratorium is still in place—blocking bad actors from entering the system while the state tightens oversight of existing providers.’

    (If anyone can tell me how President Trump is to blame, I’d be most grateful.)

    Meanwhile, the California state administration response has been pathetically small, while the rip-off continues:

    State attorney general Rob Bonta says his office has brought criminal fraud cases against more than 100 defendants in the hospice industry and about two dozen civil cases. But he acknowledged that more needs to be done.
    ‘We need to be responsive to the red flags and react to them, not just count them,’ Bonta told CBS. ‘Our main lane is the accountability side, the criminal investigations, the civil investigations. That’s after the damage is done though, unfortunately.’

    A moratorium on issuing new hospice licenses in the state was recently extended through January 2027, because the state missed its deadline to enact new emergency regulations for hospices. 

    In spite of their investigations and the moratorium on new licenses, new hospices are still managing to get licensed in California:

    Despite the statewide moratorium, a ProPublica 2024 report found that new hospices were still cropping up in California and receiving Medicare certification. In one instance, 15 new hospices received Medicare certification, all operating from the same two-story building in Los Angeles, according to a ProPublica.

    Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, shared these observations:

    ‘There is lots of action, it seems,’ Oz said in a You Tube video posted on Tuesday. ‘In this four-block area in Los Angeles, there are 42 hospices. So, either there are a lot of people dying here, or you’ve got fraudulent activity that is so good that everyone wants to get in on it. What we have learned is there is roughly $3.5 billion of fraud taking place here in Los Angeles in hospice and home care. It’s run, quite a bit of it, by the Russian-Armenian mafia.’

    This situation is outrageous.  Not only are the American people being cheated, but the hospice patients and their families are being caught up in this fraud and abused by the mismanagement and mistreatment from these criminals.

    It’s time for California to get serious about treating its dying hospice patients.

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/03/hospice_fraud_in_ca_exceeds_the_fraud_anywhere_else.html

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    1. Considering how they’ve handled the drug addiction crisis, they appear to WANT people to die!!! CA – chop it off and turn it into an island already!!!

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  4. Snow is coming down even thicker now than when I took the pic 10 minutes ago….I do believe we’ll be getting more than 2″ – we’ve probably hit that already!!!

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      1. Still coming down! And the wind has picked up a lot, blowing snow onto the patio. It’s a very wet, heavy snow, too.

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  5. EXCERPT: “…..More than 300 TSA officers have quit since the start of the shutdown and unscheduled absences have more than doubled, according to internal TSA data first reported by CBS News. Footage of long security lines went viral this past weekend and prompted some airports to warn travelers to arrive as many as five hours before their scheduled departure time.

    According to data from the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE), TSA employees have worked without pay for nearly half of all workdays so far in fiscal year 2026, as a result of the government shutdowns.

    “That’s the federal government failing them,” AAAE President and CEO Todd Hauptli told The Hill.

    Hauptli said he expects the negative impacts of the shutdown to worsen before conditions improve…..”

    https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/5782173-tsa-paycheck-missed-shutdown/

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  6. Just The News: “The Trump administration will receive about a $10 billion transaction fee from investors involved in the recently sealed deal to take control of TikTok’s U.S. operations, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Friday.

    The payment stems from an agreement in which a group of investors with connections to the administration took control of TikTok’s U.S. operations from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, according to sources cited in the report. The fee will be made separate from the capital investments related to establishing a new U.S.-based entity to operate the TikTok app domestically.

    Investors reportedly involved in the deal include cloud-computing company Oracle, private-equity firm Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX. Sources in the report said the investors and their partners paid about $2.5 billion to the U.S. Department of the Treasury when the transaction closed in January. 

    Additional payments are expected to be made over time until the total reaches roughly $10 billion.

    The deal follows years of national security concerns raised by U.S. officials about TikTok’s Chinese ownership and the potential handling of American user data, issues that ultimately led to negotiations aimed at shifting control of the platform’s U.S. business to investors aligned with the United States.”

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  7. Just The News: “AU.S. fugitive was captured in Mexico just over an hour after being added to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, marking the fastest arrest in the history of the list and breaking a record that had stood for more than 55 years.

    Samuel Ramirez Jr., 33, was wanted in connection with the May 21, 2023, shooting deaths of two women at a bar in Federal Way, Washington, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice. Federal Way Police Chief Andy Hwang identified the victims as Jessyca Hohn and Katie Duhnke. A third person was also injured in the shooting. 

    Authorities issued an arrest warrant for Ramirez after the killings, but investigators had reason to believe he had fled the country. In November 2025, he was charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution and a federal arrest warrant was issued, the Justice Department said. The FBI later announced a reward of up to $25,000 on Dec. 10, 2025, for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

    On Tuesday, the FBI increased the reward to as much as $1 million and added Ramirez to its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Just one hour and 13 minutes later, he was taken into custody without incident in Culiacán, in Mexico’s Sinaloa state. The FBI said the arrest was the result of coordination between its Legal Attaché office in Mexico City, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington, and Mexican authorities.

    CBS News reported that the previous record for the fastest arrest after a suspect was added to the list dates back to 1969, when a fugitive was captured roughly two hours after being placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list.”

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  8. And, of course, the only people objecting to the exposure of candidates’ dual citizenship are Dems!!!!

    Just The News: “Florida’s sweeping election integrity bill has cleared the Legislature and now only requires the governor’s approval in order to become law. House Bill 991, referred to as Florida’s version of the SAVE Act by bill sponsor Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers, will enact widespread changes to Florida’s election law.

    The bill requires voters to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote. If they are not able to verify their citizenship, that individual will be tagged as an unverified voter who can cast a provisional ballot. They must confirm citizenship in order for the ballot to count. The Florida DMV must include legal citizenship status on drivers licenses and state ID cards and include the type of proof the cardholder provided as evidence of their U.S. citizenship. Student IDs would no longer be an acceptable form of voter ID.

    A hotly debated point of contention is a new requirement that candidates running for political office must disclose if they hold dual citizenship.

    “I think it’s harmful,” said Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, D-Parkland. “I think there are certain people who could be targeted based on their religion if they had to disclose, for example, if they had citizenship to the state of Israel. And so I think there are harms that could be had with this identity.”

    Hunschofsky offered an amendment to do away with the disclosure requirement, but it failed. When asked for the reasoning behind the dual citizenship disclosure requirement, Persons-Mulicka said it was about “transparency for the voters.”

    “I feel like the implication when asking this question is that somehow if you have citizenship somewhere else that you are not patriotic and you cannot serve your community as well as somebody who doesn’t,” said Rep. Jennifer Harris, D-Orlando. “We want the right people, we want people who love their communities to serve in these places and therefore I think it’s important that we don’t put an otherization of a group of people simply for holding citizenship to another country.”

    Rep. Jervonte Edmonds, D-West Palm Beach, said the bill raised concerns over equal protections for naturalized citizens, voters who have changed their names, and voters whose records don’t perfectly match state databases. “Election integrity does matter to all of us here.,” Edmonds said. “We all can agree upon that. But protecting elections should never come at the cost of constitutional voting rights.”

    Gov. Ron DeSantis is likely to sign the bill into law as he took to social media Thursday to post about the vote on the bill.

    “The Florida version of the SAVE Act is about to pass the Legislature,” the governor wrote. “Although Florida has already enacted much of what the federal legislation contemplates, this will further fortify our state as the leader in election integrity.”

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  11. “Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced new legislation alongside Ro Khanna called the Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act, which would impose a 5% annual wealth tax on Americans worth more than $1 billion. The proposal would target roughly 930 billionaires in the United States, representing the wealthiest fraction of the population. According to estimates tied to the proposal, some of the world’s richest individuals could face massive annual tax bills. Elon Musk could owe roughly $42 billion per year, while Mark Zuckerberg could owe about $11 billion annually, based on current wealth estimates.

    The plan would initially fund $3,000 direct payments to Americans in households earning $150,000 or less, with future revenue directed toward programs aimed at addressing what the bill describes as “the most pressing crises facing working families.” Supporters estimate the tax could generate trillions of dollars over the next decade.

    Sanders defended the proposal by arguing that the country is facing extreme wealth inequality. In a statement supporting the bill, he said, “At a time of unprecedented income and wealth inequality, this legislation demands that the billionaire class in America finally pay their fair share of taxes so that we can create an economy that works for all of us, not just the 1%.”

    While the legislation is considered unlikely to pass Congress in its current form, analysts say the proposal could become a major policy issue heading into the 2028 presidential race, as Democrats debate wealth taxes, economic inequality, and government spending priorities.

    SOURCES: Vox | Forbes | The Guardian | Facebook Florida Hillbilly

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  12. “Here we have our first really black President, sitting with his grandparents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham, during his time in New York City. Google it if ya’ don’t believe me….”

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  13. “Poor people, needy people, will vote for anyone or anything that gets them shit they don’t have to work for. Those are the votes these pols are after when they introduce stupid shit like this. Doing so forces the wealthy to make decisions that are counter-intuitive to what the politician wants. It’s a vicious cycle in which everyone at every level stands to lose something.”

    “Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) has introduced a legislative proposal intended to redefine and tighten the eligibility requirements for federal office. While the U.S. Constitution currently mandates that a President be a “natural-born citizen” and that members of Congress meet specific citizenship duration requirements, this new bill seeks to establish “American-born citizenship” as the mandatory standard for all three roles.

    The proposal aims to provide a rigid definition of eligibility, requiring candidates to be born on American soil to American parents. Proponents argue that this “Soil and Blood” standard is a necessary safeguard to ensure that every seat in the House, Senate, and Oval Office is held by individuals with exclusive, lifelong allegiance to the United States, thereby eliminating potential “split decisions” or foreign influence in policy-making.”

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  16. “Sunday Strip: Convoy to Cuba — The latest thing.”

    Dr. Robert W. Malone, Mar 15, 2026

    True story – the Republican Party is destroying its chances of winning the midterms.Ignoring the voice of the people who elected them is dangerous. And ignoring the issues MAHA supports is a good way for a candidate to rapidly circle the drain.

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  17. “The Doom Goblin with the weird hair is once again making idiotic demands of our President.Greta would rather see the Cuban people wallow about in poverty, due to their Communist dictatorship than allow the government of Cuba to be overturned. It seems like just last week that Greta was protesting for oil production and usage to be banned from the world. For the sake of climate change, y’know!”

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    1. we rarely go out where we tip a server, but when we do we’re very generous and we always ask the waiter/waitress when is their birthday. then we hand them a “birthday present” and tell them it’s NOT a tip!

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  18. BUT THAT IS SO YESTERDAY! Now Greta’s furious that the evil President Trump won’t let the Cuban communist regime import fossil fuels to run their dictatorship. What’s the matter, Greta? I thought you wanted everything to go green!

    So, another grifter donation campaign has been developed.“Free Cuba – lets the oil flow freely.”

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  20. Just The News: “The Trump administration has invoked the Defense Production Act to compel an oil company to restart previously shut-down offshore operations in California, arguing the step is needed to guard against potential supply disruptions and limit dependence on imported crude.

    Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Friday directed Sable Offshore Corp., a Houston-based oil and gas company, to restore activity at the Santa Ynez Unit and the Santa Ynez Pipeline System located off the coast of Santa Barbara, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

    The directive gives priority to bringing oil production and pipeline capacity back online so crude can move through the Las Flores Pipeline System to Pentland Station, which is a crucial inland hub that routes offshore oil to refineries and into interstate pipeline networks.”

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          1. Yep, altho not as heavy as it was coming down earlier. But the wind has picked up and it’s all kind of swirling around so it’s hard to tell how much new snow is falling. Definitely some, tho…..temp 24.

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  24. The Manchester Mayhem: Islamic Vigilantes vs. Freedom Celebrators

    The chaos unfolded during a candlelit vigil for Khamenei on Sydney Street, off Oxford Road—a somber gathering of 100-200 regime supporters waving Iranian and Palestinian flags, burning images of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and mourning the fall of Tehran’s tyrannical theocracy.

    Across the street, a jubilant counter-protest of 300-400 people—Iranians waving pre-1979 flags (symbolizing the pre-revolutionary monarchy), Israelis, and Brits—celebrated the strikes that ended Khamenei’s reign, chanting “King Reza Pahlavi!” (referring to the exiled son of Iran’s last Shah) and blasting music to drown out the mourners.

    Amid the tension, men on horseback—described by witnesses and viral posts as “Sharia patrols”—emerged from the pro-regime side, charging at the counter-protesters with screams and apparent intent to intimidate or harm. Footage shows the horsemen galloping toward the crowd, armbands visible (though some edits add “Sharia Law” text digitally for emphasis), while protesters scatter amid shouts of fear. 

    Despite the clear breach of public order—chasing civilians on horses could easily qualify as assault or reckless endangerment—the police formed a barrier but made no arrests, allowing the riders to continue unchecked. 

    Greater Manchester Police later claimed the events “concluded peacefully, with no significant disruption and no arrests,” crediting their “heavy presence” for de-escalation. But eyewitness accounts and videos tell a different story: minor scuffles erupted as groups dispersed, and the horseback charges went unpunished, fueling accusations of two-tier policing.

    Britain’s Islamic Takeover Accelerates: Armed Sharia Vigilantes on Horseback Terrorize Manchester While Starmer’s Cops Refuse to Intervene

    https://rairfoundation.com/britains-islamic-takeover-accelerates-armed-sharia-vigilantes-horseback/embed/#

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  25. “Makes AI seem a little fragile doesn’t it? Just sayin’…..

    Why it matters: Ultra-high-purity quartz is an essential component to semiconductor chips, and the only places in the world that can meet this need are two mines in a small North Carolina town. The mines’ owner, Sibelco, is investing $700 million to expand capacity, but is that enough to keep up with AI-fueled chip demand?

    Spruce Pine is a small town about two hours drive northwest of Charlotte, NC. You can get to the general area via a number of ways, depending on your point of origin, but for the last stretch of the trip, you need to travel down Fish Hatchery Rd. It’s a two-lane rural highway, as depicted in Google Maps, set amid a pleasant scenic backdrop.

    It’s on this road that the modern economy rests, according to Wharton associate professor Ethan Mollick, who teaches innovation and entrepreneurship and also examines the effects of artificial intelligence on work and education. That’s because the road runs to the two mines that are the sole supplier of the quartz required to make the crucibles needed to refine silicon wafers.

    This is not the first time these mines – owned by Sibelco, which mines, processes, and sells specialty industrial minerals – have been highlighted as integral not only to the global semiconductor industry but also to the solar photovoltaic markets.”

    https://www.techspot.com/news/102377-two-mines-north-carolina-key-suppliers-world-semiconductor.html

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  26. Brian Allen
    @allenanalysis
    The CEO of Palantir just said the quiet part out loud.
    Alex Karp — whose company builds surveillance and defense technology for the U.S. government — just openly stated that AI will deliberately shift economic power away from highly educated, often female, Democratic-leaning workers and toward vocationally trained, working-class, often male voters.

    He then admitted these technologies are — his word — “dangerous” and “suicidal,” and that the only justification for deploying them is the military argument: if we don’t, our adversaries will.

    So let’s be clear about what was just said on the record: A defense contractor CEO told you AI is being built to restructure the American class system, that it will destroy the economic power of an entire political demographic, and that the only way to sell it to the public is to wrap it in national security.

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  38. he makes a good point…

    The Gipper Lives

    March 15, 2026 3:19 pm

    Reply to  Colkitto

    When Barack Obiden deployed Illegal Alien troop movements with Republican collaborators, he brought them here, put them on welfare and registered them to vote.

    Even if they go home, 20-30 million names are in the Registration Base, available to be VOTED.

    This is why the Blue States will not let their voter rolls be inspected.

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  40. Shipwreckedcrew

    @shipwreckedcrew

    Because SCOTUS didn’t explain why, and the district judges granting injunctions now are “rationalizing” their cases around the possibilities.

    BUT, there is no better example than the 9th Circuit in early Feb. simply ignoring the stays in affirming Judge Chen on the basis that SCOTUS’s lack of an explanation meant they could just ignore the stay as a substantive matter.

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  41. Well, the snow has finally stopped; it has cleared from the road already for the most part. The wind helped with that! It’s weird – the snow that fell in the gutters is melting – I can see it dripping outside the patio windows – but the temp is still only 25. Snow is blowing but no new snow is falling. Forecast to be 45 by Tuesday and 83 by Friday!!! SMH

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  42. Liked by 1 person

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  48. “Grandma Jeanie, Target staffer harassed for wearing Charlie Kirk ‘Freedom’ t-shirt named Woman of the Year in California Assembly District 3

    Jeanie Beeman, the Target employee who went viral in 2025 for wearing a Charlie Kirk Freedom T-shirt after his assassination, has been named Assembly District 3 Woman of the Year in California.”

    The Post Millennial, Mar 14, 2026

    Grandma Jeanie, Target staffer harassed for wearing Charlie Kirk 'Freedom' t-shirt named Woman of the Year in California Assembly District 3

    ENTIRE ARTICLE: “Jeanie Beeman, the Target employee who went viral in 2025 for wearing a Charlie Kirk Freedom T-shirt after his assassination, has been named Assembly District 3 Woman of the Year in California. James Gallagher, a member of the state assembly, announced this week that Beeman, a resident of Chico, received the recognition.

    “We need more Jeanie Beeman’s in America. People who stand for what they believe in and do so with civility and decency still matter, and Jeanie is a great example of that,” Gallagher said in an announcement on social media.

    “Jeanie has two daughters, five grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter,” he continued, “She is active in suicide prevention after losing her husband of 40 years. A lifelong Californian, mostly in the Central Valley and Chico. She has worked happily for Target 23 years. Jeanie treasures her family, love, and God daily.”

    Beeman gained national attention after a left-wing healthcare worker with thousands of TikTok followers posted a video of herself confronting Beeman and berating her for wearing a red Charlie Kirk T-shirt while working. In the video, the woman, identified as Michelea Ponce, asked Beeman, “Are you f*cking stupid? You support a racist!” Beeman remained calm and responded, “I’m sorry, but I’m not going to stand here and argue with you,” and walked away.

    After the incident, a fundraiser was launched for Beeman on GiveSendGo, raising money to support her. Beeman later thanked donors for their support.

    Because of her support for Kirk, Beeman was recognized at TPUSA’s AmericaFest in December, where she appeared on stage alongside Benny Johnson and Jack Posobiec. When asked about Kirk’s legacy during the event, Beeman said, “It meant that I can stand for freedom, I did in a way. I stand for my rights.”

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  50. “SITREP IRAN: The Past is the past—like it or not, America better focus on the future”

    Michael T. Flynn LTG USA (RET), Mar 15, 2026

    ENTIRE ARTICLE: “We can second guess all we want the decision for the United States to enter another war in the Middle East, this time in Iran. However, cutting to the heart of how geopolitical debates often get mired in rearview mirrors rather than what’s next, I want to break down the dynamics at play.

    Why the Fixation on the Past?

    People (policymakers, analysts, media, and the public) dwell on historical decisions for a few interconnected reasons, even as the current situation demands forward-thinking:

    1. Accountability and Blame-Shifting: The Persian Gulf’s volatility, marked by Iran’s nuclear ambitions, proxy conflicts in Yemen and Syria, ballistic missile tests, and disruptions to shipping lanes like the Strait of Hormuz, stems directly from past U.S. and allied policies. Think the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the Iran-Iraq War (with Western backing for Iraq), the 2003 Iraq invasion that empowered Iranian influence, or the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal and its 2018 withdrawal.

    These aren’t abstract history; they’re scapegoats. Critics on the left blame Bush-era neocons for destabilizing the region, while those on the right point to Obama-Biden appeasement or Clinton’s missed opportunities. It’s easier to litigate old choices than own new risks, especially in a polarized environment where admitting “we need to adapt” feels like weakness.

    2. Lessons from History as a Crutch: The Gulf’s strategic importance (oil flows, U.S. naval presence via the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, and alliances with Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Israel) makes every misstep feel existential. Past events like the 1980s Tanker War or the 2019 drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities are invoked to justify caution or aggression. But this often turns into paralysis: “We can’t trust diplomacy because of the failed Algiers Accords” or “Military action backfired in Iraq, so let’s not repeat it.” It’s a valid way to avoid repeating errors, but it crowds out innovation, like exploring new deterrence models or economic levers.

    3. Institutional Inertia and Media Cycles: Bureaucracies in Washington, Tehran, and Riyadh are staffed by veterans of those eras, so institutional memory biases toward hindsight. Media amplifies these headlines’ love “what if” retrospectives (i.e., “How the Iran Deal’s Collapse Led to Today’s Crisis”) because they’re clickable and don’t require predicting uncertain futures. In 2026, with ongoing Houthi disruptions backed by Iran and potential escalations post-any recent incidents, this backward gaze distracts from evolving threats like cyber warfare or Iran’s alliances with Russia and China.

    Shifting to Future Decisions:

    The real imperative RIGHT NOW is ensuring a proactive strategy. The situation today (escalating Iranian enrichment to near-weapons-grade uranium, proxy militia attacks on U.S. bases, and Gulf states diversifying away from oil amid climate shifts) demands decisions that aren’t just reactions. Here’s what could (and should) be prioritized:

    1. Strengthen Deterrence Without Endless Wars: Build on Abraham Accords momentum by integrating Israel-Gulf defense networks, perhaps with AI-driven early-warning systems for missile threats. Future-focused: Invest in non-kinetic options like economic sanctions tied to verifiable de-escalation, or cyber defenses to counter Iran’s hacking prowess.
    2. Energy Independence and Diversification: The Gulf’s oil chokehold is waning with global renewables push. Decisions now could accelerate U.S. and allied transitions to alternatives, reducing Iran’s leverage from asymmetric warfare on tankers. Think incentives for nuclear power or green hydrogen hubs in the region.
    3. Diplomatic Off-Ramps with Teeth: Instead of rehashing JCPOA debates, craft a new framework that includes ballistic missiles and regional proxies, enforced by a coalition including Europe, India, and even cautious outreach to moderates in Tehran. But this requires bold leadership willing to risk short-term backlash for long-term stability.
    4. Countering Broader Influences: Iran’s ties to the Axis of Resistance (Hezbollah, Houthis, etc.) and partnerships with Moscow/Beijing are accelerating. Future moves: Bolster Gulf cyber resilience, support proxy countermeasures, and use trade deals to peel away Iranian allies economically.

    In essence, the past obsession is human nature, comfort in the known versus the gamble of the unknown. But America is a leader who’s navigated these waters before, we know victory comes from decisive action ahead, not endless autopsies. If we keep debating yesterday’s calls, tomorrow’s threats will outpace us.

    There are clearly emerging and unknown threats that we must consider and be prepared to address when they raise their ugly heads. Let’s not fall into the traps of staring at our strategic navels, instead, think geo-strategically, long-term, and use common sense and then move rapidly to end this war.”

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