What's in YOUR wallet?

A fun story; here’s just a bit of it:

Crock Life

Lois Jurgens never paid much attention to the hulking stoneware crock sitting on her back porch in ​​Holdrege, Nebraska.

Her late husband Dick had moved it from the family shed years ago when they built their home in this south-central Nebraska town of around 5,000 people. She asked him to put a board on top so she could use it as a table next to the grill.

“Dick did the grilling, so that’s what he used to put the tools,” Jurgens told Cowboy State Daily, describing how she stashed extra fuel tanks inside.

That was about the extent of her relationship with the massive vessel that had weathered decades of indifference from Jurgens.

Last summer, she considered putting it in a garage sale for $20. Her son thought about hauling it to a community sale, but it was too heavy to lift.

“It just stayed on the porch,” Jurgens said.

Birthday Surprise

On Jan. 10, auctioneer Ken Bramer stood before nearly 300 people at the Phelps County 4-H building and dropped his gavel at $32,000 for the weathered piece of pottery.

It was Jurgens’ 91st birthday.

She wasn’t there to hear it but instead volunteering at a funeral at her church that morning.

When she arrived later that afternoon, Bramer spotted her in the crowd and stopped the auction.

“Lois, could you come up to the front?” he called out.

He told the crowd this was the lady who owned the crock. Then he asked her what she thought it brought.

“Well, I hope you got $100,” she told him.

“We did just a little bit better,” Bramer replied. “We got $32,000.”

Bramer’s wife and son grabbed hold of her as she went weak in the knees. They walked her to the stage and sat her down beside the crock for a photograph.

A Study in Journalism and Narrative

the canucks will always be with us — unfortunately

A headline yesterday in the leftist rag Bangor Daily News reporting record 2025 tourism at Acadia National Park reminded me that the paper had spent the spring and summer whipping up hysteria over Trump’s Canadian tariffs and the devastating effect they would inflict on the tourism business. As the summer unfolded, it was obvious that the BDN’s predictions were wrong, but they kept it up anyway because, like all modern journalism, it’s about the narrative, not the truth. As such, I think this otherwise irrelevant, insignificant story serves as a pretty good example of how the media covers news in general.

AI Overview

Based on

Bangor Daily News reports, the 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods imposed in March 2025 by the Trump administration, combined with increased political tension, caused a significant drop in Canadian visitors to Maine. This decline directly impacted tourism, including, according to the Bangor Daily News, reduced traffic to Acadia National Park and on the CAT ferry in Bar Harbor. 

Here’s a sampling of the paper’s “reporting”:

April 4, 2025: Trump’s tariffs expected to cause 25 percent drop in Candian tourism to Maine

Tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on Canadian goods could significantly reduce the number of Canadians visiting Maine for vacation, according to the state’s top tourism official.

MAY 23, 2025: Bar Harbor business owners are pessimistic as tourism season begins

With the unofficial start of Bar Harbor’s tourism season just days away, local business owners are apprehensive about what 2025 might bring. President Donald Trump's bellicose rhetoric could deter foreign tourists while federal cuts could also mean more jobs go unfilled at Acadia.

July 15, 2025: Fewer Canadians are coming to Maine this summer on Bar Harbor Ferry

But uh oh, what’s this? Troubling signs: the numbers aren’t cooperating, but not to worry, there are reasons why this is actually awful news, and the BDN provides the needed perspective:

August 18, 2025: Why more people than ever are visiting Acadia National Park

… Since COVID, visitation has climbed even higher, topping 4 million in 2021 and hovering around 3.9 million each year since. Warmer and drier weather, which experts say is a result of climate change, has been cited frequently by both Acadia and local business officials as a factor in Acadia’s growing crowds, including its highest-ever monthly total just last month.

This increase coincides with a global phenomenon called overtourism, in which some critics say the number of visitors in a particular place exceeds what that host community can comfortably accommodate. The tide of tourists has been met with squirt gun protests in European cities, government scrutiny in Japan and complaints about cruise ships in Maine and Alaska.

Those who object to the throngs of tourists say the proliferation of housing units dedicated to vacation rentals puts the cost of housing out of reach and that crowds overwhelm local resources and infrastructure, making the experience unpleasant for residents and tourists alike.

Now back to the narrative:

SEPTEMBER 12, 2025: Turned off by Trump rhetoric, Candians cancel trips. New England pays the price.

…. [T]hese days, tariffs and White House rhetoric have left Canadians a rare breed of visitors in New England, usually a hotspot vacation ..

And finally:

JANUARY 24, 2026:

Acadia set new record for total visits in 2025

Acadia National Park saw its busiest year on record in 2025, according to statistics released by the National Park Service this month. 

The park recorded more than 4 million visits last year, surpassing Acadia’s previous record set in 2021 when the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to an influx in outdoor recreation across the country. The surge in park visitors has helped strengthen Bar Harbor’s booming tourism industry but has also required park and town officials to cope with packed crowds, heavy traffic and exorbitant housing costs.

The park counted 4,079,318 visits last year. Until now, 2021 was the only year in recorded history that Acadia tallied over 4 million visits. Last year’s numbers broke the record by over 10,000 visits, according to National Park Service data. 

Acadia’s visit count hovered between 2 million and 2.5 million for decades, and first surpassed 3 million in 2016, when the park turned 100 years old. Barring a brief interruption at the outset of the pandemic, visits have steadily increased since then.



Eweather forecast for Greenwich and surrounding areas

snow day at tod’s point

The eweather app is the best source I’ve found for non-hysterical, accurate weather predictions. No click-bait, no ads, just a very good meteorologist, either amateur or professional, I don’t know, but he’s excellent. Unfortunately, his interest and coverage is focused on the Long Island Sound region, but he does stretch as far north as Boston, and as a general rule, weather that happens on Long Island Sound doesn’t stay in LIS, so with a bit of extrapolation, folks further north can get a hint of what’s coming, albeit with adjustments for colder temperatures. I’ve taken snapshots of his full forecast and am posting them here.

Immigrants

coming our way, again

So daughter Sarah sent me that video, and asked for comments. I texted her back the following:

I’ve now viewed it 4X, and I’m still not sure I can see what’s happening. There are at least two protesters here: one’s dragged away, the other struggles and is shot. The ICE narrative is that they were arresting an illegal alien when a number of protesters intervened and tried to stop them. One pulled out a loaded 9mm semi-automatic and that’s the struggle to disarm him you see here. If true, well, the lesson is don’t bring a gun to a “peaceful” demonstration and point it at armed cops. So we’ll see.

The long term problem is what to do with these 20-30 million people. Do we want borders? If not, do we simply let in the 3 billion people in the world who, polls suggest, want to come to the US? If not, how do we select those we want to come in, and keep out the we don’t? Current federal immigration law restricts entry to those individuals who have been vetted and demonstrated among other things, that they can support themselves and won’t become “a charge on the public”. That’s a lengthy, years-long process, and the applicants must stay out of the US until and unless they are granted permission to enter.

The exception to that process is granting refugee status to individuals who can demonstrate a danger of persecution or danger to themselves personally. The grounds for asylum specifically EXCLUDE persons who want to come in for economic reasons (90% of the people coming in during the past 4 years said that they were motivated by the hope of making a better living for themselves and their families - a perfectly understandable reason, but not one that would qualify them for admission under the asylum exception).

The process is supposed to be that the would-be refugee remains outside the country while his application is considered and ruled on. That too took years, so Biden by executive order opened the borders: border guards were instructed to wave each applicant into the country, give them each a hearing date years in the future, and wished them well. So now we have at least 20 million new residents, some capable of earning a living, most not — 86% of the Somalis in Minnesota receive at least one form of welfare, often a combination of cash, housing, medical care and free schooling for their children similar numbers in other states, other ethnics. You are being charged for those costs.

The next problem is that during the years asylum seekers are here, they have children who automatically become citizens. So you end up with the heartbreaking scene of a parent, or parents, sent back to the country of origin, and we see stories of families broken apart. Of course, the parents are free to bring their children with them and, when the kids are older, the can return to the US as a matter of right, but that’s not often pointed out by the media.

So maybe the solution is to seal the border, thereby stopping the flow of still more refugees, and absorb the 22 million that are already here. That’s going to be very expensive: Newsom in California, for instance was forced to cancel his previous order granting Medicaid (called Medi-Cal there) to “undocumented” residents because it had already cost $4 billion in in its first year and costs were still rising. The state doesn’t have the money to pay for it.

Poor people in the cities — citizens — are now competing with millions of new residents who also need housing, so supply, already insufficient, is growing worse.

And so on. We’ll never be able to evict the people Biden let in, and that was Biden and the Democrats’ intention, as many people on my ideological of the argument pointed out all along. Now it’s your generation’s burden to carry the costs. I think you guys were sold a bad deal.

Deportation of illegals without hearing

It’s allowable under existing law, but recently federal judge issued an order requiring an individual deportation hearing for a defendant that, by his legal reasoning, would require hearings for every every alien under his district’s jurisdiction — 776,000. That would require, as shown in the next paragraph, between 5.39 and 15 years, if every one of the 735 immigration judges worked exclusively on cases in the federal judges district; that’s not going to happen.

Here are some numbers from Google’s AI:

As of late 2024 to early 2025, there are approximately 685 to 735 immigration judges operating under the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). The number of final asylum case completions by judges has increased significantly, with over 12,000 monthly asylum decisions reported in April/May 2025, following over 51,000 total decisions in FY 2022. 

  • Immigration Judges (IJs): The number of IJs has grown significantly from 254 in 2015 to roughly 735 by the end of FY 2024, although hiring slowed in 2025.

  • Asylum Determinations: The annual number of final asylum decisions varies. While historically lower, recent trends showed over 50,000 cases decided in FY 2022. In 2025, the pace increased, reaching over 12,000 asylum case completions in a single month during April/May.

  • Case Management: Despite the increase in judges, the average caseload per judge has roughly doubled over the last decade, reaching over 5,000 per judge in 2024.

  • Outcome Variations: Asylum grant rates and outcomes vary widely depending on the court and judge. 

Thoughts outside that text:

Maybe the “answer” is to only seize and deport illegal aliens with criminal records; that would get rid of at least a couple of millions of them, and would probably be acceptable to the American public. One problem with that is that is that the criminals are mixed in with the general population of aliens, and sorting them out at the scene, especially when so many have false identification, would be nearly impossible. But maybe it could be done.

Long term, not only are these people here to stay, but so are their friends and relatives who are temporarily remaining outside the country, waiting. Border crossings are down to a trickle because of Trump’s ICE raids because who wants to risk their life travelling thousands of miles to the promised land if they’ll only be picked up, jailed, and returned? But it’s a waiting game. The aliens know that the borders will reopen when the Democrats regain control, possibly as soon as this fall. They’ll be here, soon.

So I don’t see an answer. Deportation polled well when it was still just a concept. The reality, especially the distorted, duplicitous reality they’re fed by the media, is too harsh, they feel, and won’t support it. They’ll vote the Democrats back in, and the country will continue its hurtle to hell.

I'd guess that 90% of the American viewing public saw or read about this incident, and will never see the true story - but you can

Viral Photo of ‘Pepper-Sprayed’ Minneapolis Agitator Leaves Out Vital Context

“The close up still shot by Lucky Lefty the Photog makes it look horrific. But let’s roll the video and see the truth.”

First, here’s how it was edited and presented to the country by the flying monkies of the press (including using the plural “them” for the singular “him”)

That old NYT whore Nick Kristof weighed in, of course:

What did these “Trust us, we’re the from the Fourth Estate”* omit, besides editing out the action of the protester that lead to his being pepper sprayed? This:

The stories being told by the press paint an incomplete picture, as evidenced by the below clips and video commentary that referenced the fact that the agents had initially let the agitator up, only to have him try to escape. That’s when they took him down again, and the pepper-spraying happened:

*Google AI provides an amusing definition of what these clowns mean when they call themselves the Fourth Estate”

The "Fourth Estate" refers to the press and news media, acting as an independent watchdog to hold government and powerful institutions accountable by informing the public, exposing corruption, and shaping discourse, stemming from historical European "three estates" (clergy, nobility, commoners). It's a vital part of democracy, though its role is evolving with digital platforms. 

“Evolving” should read “dissolving”, as those digital platforms Google refers to are now stripping away the media’s fraud and deception and letting true, unapproved news emerge.

they’ve certainly tried their best to accomplish it

Ahh, quit yer whining

A little cold in Greenwich? The whiff of snow is in the air? Well, if it makes you feel warmer, it was -40° up Copenhagen Village (part of Denmark) this morning, and although they’re only expecting a foot or snow tomorrow and Monday, they do get quite a bit up there: As of February 5th last year, they were at 257” and were still counting.

You can’t blame Trump for a vicious assault on the soon-to-be-former owners of Greenland however (although some will), because this Copenhagen is up on New York State’s Tug Hill Plateau, right next to, but above, Pal Nancy’s hometown of Watertown.

They get a lot of snow in Watertown, too, but not like Tug Hill.

(Now this seems heartless):

And guess who Walz (and his mob) blame?

Shots fired after federal police in Minneapolis struggle to subdue man brandishing gun amid protests, video shows

Shots rang out in Minneapolis early Saturday after federal police tried to subdue a man who was waving around a gun, according to law enforcement sources and video posted to social media.

A 39-second clip showed about half a dozen cops struggling with someone on the sidewalk in front of a donut shop at 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue, when the gunfire erupted.

The shooting happened after the man brandished a firearm with two magazines, a law enforcement source told The Post, sharing a photo of the firearm.

Did you guess, or did you peek?

“A shooting by federal agents”. Probably right after they’d finished kidnapping another five-year-old.*

It's hopeless

Maine is 42nd out of 50 in population. For every rock unturned up here that exposes more corruption, multiply it by the hundreds or even thousands. The graft is so widespread, so ingrained in our country, and so popular among the citizens that it will never be rooted out.

Maine Flagged for $45.6 Million In Improper Payments for Children’s Autism Care: Federal Audit

The U.S. federal government is demanding a $28.7 million refund from Maine as an audit uncovers rampant documentation failures in rehabilitative and community support services.
[RELATED: One Portland Office Building Has Five Medicaid Agencies and a Somali Money Transfer Office…]

…. The audit also sheds new light on Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey’s Jan. 10, 2025, directive to Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) employees that they refuse to cooperate with Justice Department lawyers. 

It also could provide a hint as to why DHHS Commissioner Sara Gagné-Holmes has expressed fear of a congressional subpoena in relation to a House Oversight Committee investigation into MaineCare finances. 

….

The fiscal wreckage of the audit is substantial, with federal auditors estimating that DHHS made at least $45.6 million in improper payments in 2023 alone. Of that total, the feds are demanding that the state refund the $28.7 million federal share immediately. 

But the bleeding doesn’t stop there.

The OIG flagged another $22.4 million ($14.2 million federal share) as “potentially improper,” citing documentation so unreliable or incomplete that officials could not verify if the services were actually rendered. The report, published by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the federal Department of Health and Human Services, only looked at one small part of MaineCare—notably, not the part attracting significant attention due to fraud concerns. The auditors for this report examined payments for services provided to children diagnosed with autism in 2023, as well as claims for reimbursement submitted to the federal government by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The results are comically bad. Or, at least, they would be if federal clawbacks didn’t presage more tax increases from Augusta.

The audit’s sample was a perfect 100-for-100: every single “enrollee-month” reviewed by the OIG contained errors, suggesting a lack of oversight, or perhaps no oversight, for Rehabilitative and Community Support (RCS) services. Investigators found that 81 percent of sampled months lacked required comprehensive assessments or necessary staff and parent signatures, meaning there was often no valid proof that care was ever authorized.

Nearly two-thirds of sampled months failed to meet basic documentation requirements, such as supporting the number of units actually billed to the state. In some cases, providers used “cloned” session notes—identical descriptions copied and pasted across different visits—which failed to show any unique progress for the child. Perhaps most shocking, 92 percent of the sample included “nontherapy time,” with taxpayers footing the bill for lunches, breaks, and naps. One out of every five sampled months even featured providers who could not prove they had the licenses or certificates required to treat children in the first place.

This regulatory lapse grew as spending on these services surged from $52.2 million in 2019 to $80.6 million by 2023. That period correlates perfectly with Gov. Janet Mills’ (D) decision to drastically expand MaineCare eligibility multiple times. The OIG laid the blame squarely on a decade-long oversight vacuum, noting that the state has not performed a statewide postpayment review of these providers since the program began in 2010. 

Ye shall know them by their mockery

The Left is always, and all about, projection: they attribute to their enemies the actions and attitudes that they themselves actually do and believe. That “homophobe” Trump appoints an openly-gay, married man as his Treasury Secretary, and they respond by putting out that ultimate schoolyard put down, “oooh, he’s gay! Hahahaha!”

Gavin Newsom's Team Drops Homophobic AI Memes on Gay Treasury Sec. Bessent

Of course, turnabout’s fair play — here are Gavin and Alex Soros at DAVOS, NTTAWWT: