Facebook Is Stupid

Earlier today I posted the following to Facebook in response to the article, Contaminated foods from China flooding into the U.S. under the ‘Organic’ label by Natural News:

As I correctly predicted I have been placed in Facebook Jail, banned from interacting with others on Facebook for 7 days.

This isn't the first time the Facebook sensors have failed to take words into proper context.

Is this the work of robots?

I don't thing so.

The reason I say I don't think so is because there are at least 2 other places on Facebook where my comment, "Americans are stupid" still remains. One posted just moments before I made my post in the comments on a friend's post about the same article I was commenting on.

But if the problem is robots then why is context so hard to program?

Can Facebook not tell that I am posting from Greensboro, North Carolina?

Can Facebook not tell that every post I have ever made to Facebook has been from the exact same address in Greensboro, North Carolina?

Can Facebook not look at my vast history of posts, combined with where I am posting from and determine that odds are very good that I am an American, and that as such my comment is not hate speech?

As for Facebook's review process? Sometimes they get around to it but I'm still waiting on one from January 28, 2019.

And since I can't post this to Facebook and no one else will ever bother to do so, no one will know what happened.

Isn't that convenient?

Update: 31 December, 2019 Since contacting Facebook is impossible I've made an effort to contact Community help. Taking it to the streets...

The Future Of Poverty

History repeats itself. Prophets correctly interpret the current events of their times and draw out the logical conclusions to which those events will lead. It's science, not magic. History is repeating itself now as homeless people across the nation are being jailed for the crime of being homeless.

Remember the FEMA camps? It will be done privately just as is being done with border camps.

The homeless will be forced into these camps under the guise of a national emergency. When the costs begin to mount the homeless will be billed for their keep, but since the homeless have no money their debt will be sold into "indentured servitude" as were my ancestors in Wales and England.

Few will ever pay off their contracts as they won't be able to meet the production quotas in their contracts. Just as before.

My "indentured" ancestors ran away from Jamestown and Williamsburg to the Appalachian Mountains where the King's soldiers dared not go. But these new labor camps will be on farms in the Amazon and factories in Mongolia, perhaps Siberia where Americans will not speak the native languages and life outside the work camps is impossible for most. And the distance to civilization is too far.

And like the NAZI concentration camps of WW2, the residents of these camps will be marked but not with tattoos. They will be chipped and electronically tracked everywhere they go.

This is the future of poverty.

And we all know it to be true.

Why Has Greensboro Become So Violent?

If you don't already know, Greensboro saw record murder rates in 2019 and people are wondering why. To get to the bottom of what breeds violence I decided to look into what breeds violence in other cities across the nation. Here are some of the things I learned.

From the Chicago Tribune in an article entitled, Why is there so much shooting and killing in Chicago?

“We are not just the most segregated city in America, but the level of concentrated poverty we have in our neighborhoods is unlike anything in Los Angeles or New York. You would not find an Englewood or Garfield Park anywhere in Los Angeles and New York.”

Next we go to The Hill with an article entitled, Violence is a symptom of poverty, not a cause:

"According to the most recent census data for Baltimore, the poverty rate is 24 percent. A quarter of a city that is 63 percent black. Of those people in poverty, only six percent will ever escape it in their lifetime. When you need to pay rent, or feed your family, or just find something to eat yourself, and there is nowhere else to turn, the poor turn to crime, and that usually means selling drugs.

The illegal drug trade is fueling most of the violence that’s occurring in the streets of Baltimore and in the streets of most other cities that face the same problem. There aren’t a lot of positive outcomes once you enter the drug game. Usually, it means prison, which is another of the main forces that drives poverty. If it’s hard to get a job coming from poverty, coming from prison it is almost impossible, and so to survive you return to selling drugs, and on and on it goes."

Now two articles certainly doesn't establish a trend so I went on to see what academics have to say about it and in this abstract from a study called Poverty and Violence it appears academia is in agreement that violence is a symptom of poverty:

"Poverty is widely believed to cause violence. The general public treats this notion as a truism, and most academics also accept it as such. Debates among the latter tend to be over which social mechanisms cause poverty to affect violence. But there are other positions to be sure. Poverty has been linked to violence in a number of ways. Most scholars as well as lay persons believe that those who live in poverty more frequently engage in acts of violence as a consequence of conditions that they are subjected to. There is, however, disagreement among scholars about which conditions are important and how and why they lead to violence. These conditions may include poor housing (Stark, 1987), distressed neighborhood (Krivo & Peterson, 1996), and disrupted families (Sampson & Groves, 1989). Living conditions of this sort are ordinarily defined as social structural consequences of poverty. While this structural approach has usually viewed poverty as the independent variable and violence as the dependent, some scholars have also argued that violence can cause poverty at the aggregate level by creating an unstable or dangerous environment which is not conducive to economic development or growth (Staley, 1992). It may also be that those who are financially better off will move out of areas with high rates of violence leaving only those who are economically unable to relocate (Wilson, 1996)."

So what are economic conditions like in Greensboro? Well let me just put it to you this way. The December 5, 2019 Scott Yost article in the Rhino Times, entitled Officials Charged Up Over New Battery Plant In East Greensboro, is tagged as Satire.

https://www.google.com/search?q=economy+in+greensboro+nc&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjqhNTixsrmAhVBm-AKHdp_Bc8Q_AUoAnoECBEQBA&biw=1271&bih=872


And very poorly written satire at that.

So what is the Greensboro City Council doing about the poverty that is the root cause of the increasing violence in Greensboro?

Former Greensboro Police Chief Under Investigation

Authorities in South Carolina are investigating former Greensboro Police Chief Ken Miller for allegedly having  worked to dismiss a criminal charge for a wealthy businessman and covering it up. From the Greenville, South Carolina News:

"Greenville Police Chief Ken Miller and interim Capt. Jason Rampey have been placed on paid administrative leave after a State Law Enforcement Division investigation revealed evidence that they worked to dismiss a criminal charge for a wealthy businessman and were untruthful about it."

The Trump Impeachment Conspiracy

Democrats and Republicans got what they wanted. Think about it. Think really hard about it. Look back on the events of all these many months with an open mind and you'll begin to piece it together.

What was impeachment really about? I'll give you 2 hints:

1. Impeachment was not about removing Trump from office.

2. Impeachment was not about protecting the Constitution.

Hell, I'll even give you a 3rd hint:

3. Look back at how both sides telegraphed their every move as if they were 9 year olds in a boxing ring having put on gloves for the first time.

We have just witnessed the biggest unplanned, un- conspired conspiracy in the history of the world.

Here, let me spell it out for you: Independent/unaffiliated voters out number both Democrats and Republicans by a very wide margin and no one can predict how unaffiliated voters might vote. The 2016 election was so close it was called by the Electoral College and neither side likes such close calls as both sides want a mandate. Even if the Electoral College had of decided in favor of Hillary Clinton the win wouldn't have been big enough to call it a real mandate. So both the Democratic and Republican Parties need desperately to get Party members to the polls in the hopes that alienated independents will simply sit this one out.

What better a way to do it?

And both sides were in on it without ever working together.

The American voter has been duped... again.

Celadon Trucking Fell To Corporate Raiders

I'm a retired long haul trucker. I've experienced a company leaving me stranded far from home. I learned early on to always have money enough to get home in my pocket because hitchhiking sucks. And I learned the signs of a company that is going under soon. The one thing I have noticed about the Celadon Trucking bankruptcy story is that no one in media has connected the dots.

Article after article has pointed to the 2016 accounting scandal in which the value of Celadon's equipment was inflated in order to push up share prices but the persons responsible for the fraud were caught in 2016, fired that same year, and according to the Wall Street Journal, Celadon settled with the government in 2016.

"Freight trucking company Celadon Group Inc. has agreed to pay $42.2 million to settle fraud claims after filing false financial statements and lying to auditors in efforts to hide losses of its aging trucking fleet."

So that bankrupted Celadon, right? Well, not actually. Also according to the Wall Street Journal printed August 1, 2019:

"Trucking company Celadon Group Inc. has received $165 million in new financing that the company said will help its turnaround efforts.

An unidentified shareholder is providing part of the debt and could snag as much as a 49.9% stake as a result.

The shareholder is set to receive warrants to buy 16 million common shares that are exercisable immediately as part of the deal. Fully exercised, the warrants would account for about a third of the company’s fully diluted equity and would give the lender a roughly 49.9% stake in the company, Celadon said.

The new financing includes a $105 million in term loans and a revolving credit facility of $60 million.

The shareholder is also receiving warrants to buy 5.5 million shares that become exercisable in the case of a change of control."

Seems there's a new boss at Celadon and thus far his or her name is a secret.

Who loans money to a company they know is going to fail?

Of course Celadon does have, again according to the Wall Street Journal, $427 Million Dollars in assets. You know, cash and things that can be quickly sold off. In that same article the Journal identifies the secret buyer as Luminus Energy Partners Master Fund Ltd. which just happens to be registered in Bermuda and has thousands of sketchy references on Google involving various companies going bankrupt.

Is it legit? Probably.

Was it the right thing to do? You tell me.

Danville Gets Jobs, Greensboro Gets Glitter

I'd like to point you to 2 stories in the local news that exemplify why Greensboro continues to fail economically when cities around us are thriving.

The first story from Danville, Virginia: AeroFarms plans to build largest indoor vertical farming facility to date in Dan River Region, bringing 92 jobs with $42 million investment. So how much did this cost taxpayers there:

"Incentives for the company include $190,000 in grant money from the Virginia Tobacco Commission, $200,000 from the Governor’s Commonwealth Opportunity Fund and $200,000 from the state’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund."

Meanwhile here in Greensboro we get, Greensboro Science Center unveils plans for new holiday light display:

""Think Tanglewood on steroids," CEO Glenn Dobrogosz said of the $1.6 million investment.

The plan is for the attraction to last 40 days as a way to boost the tourism economy during slow months, the organization said."

There is no way in HELL that $1.6 Million Dollars spent on flashing lights can even begin the compare to $42 Million and 92 long term jobs growing local food that won't be sprayed with sewage waste that causes diseases like the produce that comes from California, Mexico, and no telling where else. And Greensboro is spending over 3 times as much while claiming it is for economic development.

"as a way to boost the tourism economy during slow months"

But these are the people that you chose to run our community.

Another Ringer In Local Political Circles?

Anyone know this face? I'm told he is an Alabama attorney by the name of Burton M Sullivan, PO Box 14673, Greensboro, North Carolina, 27415-4673 telephone (336) 335-9435.

You can check out his brand spanking new Facebook profile here. Correction: His Facebook page dates to 2014 but is mostly unused or deleted.

He can also be reached at PO Box 611206, Birmingham, Alabama, 35261-1206, telephone (205) 853.3506
I'm also told his Greensboro address is 122 Fallen Oak Road as seen in the second photo taken from Google Maps. Does that look like the kind of house a successful attorney lives in?

You know what else I was told? I was told that Burton M Sullivan has registered to run as a Democrat against Guilford County Commissioner Jeff Phillips earlier today.

Remember Reverend Diane Moffett who lived in Jamestown and ran for Mayor of Greensboro back in 2017? Last I heard she was living in Kentucky.

Now I'm not saying that Mr Sullivan doesn't live in Greensboro or Guilford County or that he isn't eligible to run.

And should he win it wouldn't be the first time a political unknown came seemingly out of nowhere, just a few years ago Reverend Mark Walker won his first political race ever when he was elected to the US House of Represenatives, but Congressman Walker did have a huge church behind him.

I wonder who Burton M Sullivan has behind him?

Anyway, if I heard right we'll probably have more questions tomorrow.

Fiscal Conservatism 101

Infrastructure must be built and maintained for any community to thrive. And the most important infrastructure any community has is its people. Greensboro's leaders have long failed to understand that people are more important to community than are buildings, roads, performing arts centers, and monuments to the rich who got rich by using taxpayer dollars to do so.

You can talk tough on crime all you want. You can shout partisan talking points all you want. You can do all those things that have been tried and failed in every city in America all you want but until we recognize our people as our most important infrastructure and invest in them as such we will always fail.

That, my friends, is Fiscal Conservatism 101.

It is also Religious Conservatism 101 no matter your religion.

Smith Richardson Foundation Funds Climate Change Denial Propaganda

As discovered in an article entitled Meet the Money Behind The Climate Denial Movement in the Smithsonian, , Greensboro's very own Smith Richardson Foundation has spent $13.5 Million Dollars to promote anti-climate change propaganda.

This is how the money produced by the workers of the Vick Chemical Company, now a part of  Procter & Gamble, Inc.is being spent, to protect the interest of the few while the many suffer, unlike the legacy left behind by H. Smith Richardson and his wife Grace Jones Richardson.

" I believe the need for the time and thought of able men is that they be applied to the increasingly weighty problems of government and the serious social questions which now confront us and will continue to press for solution in the future…the greater the material wealth of the citizen the greater are his obligations to the State and Nation…the obligations to give his time and thought to these public and social problems." -H. Smith Richardson

These are the people who pull the strings in Greensboro and beyond. They live in the shadows hiding behind the legacies of great men like H. Smith Richardson spending fortunes on political outcomes while our veterans and children live on Greensboro's streets.


And they claim to be working for the good of humanity. Even if climate change isn't real that $13.5 Million could be doing lots of better things.

Has Your Car Been Illegally Towed?

"A vehicle parked in a privately owned parking space in violation of this section may be removed from such space upon the written request of the parking space owner or lessee to a place of storage and the registered owner of such motor vehicle shall become liable for removal and storage charges."

-NC. G.S. 20-219.2Page 1§ 20-219.2.  Removal of unauthorized vehicles from private lots

In North Carolina it has long been against the law for towing companies to monitor parking lots and tow cars without first being directed to tow said car every single time.

Of course some towing companies will claim they have a signed contract with the business but there is no mention of any contract in state law.

Laws are very specific. It says a vehicle not vehicles. Therefore the signing of one contract cannot cover multiple vehicles.

I used to work for a reputable towing company here in Greensboro. We never towed any car without getting a signature first. It just isn't done. If we towed 10 vehicles then we had to get 10 signatures.

The way I hear it, Gotcha Towing & Recovery has been illegally towing cars for years. Gotcha Towing & Recovery has had more complaints at the Better Business Bureau®  than most Greensboro towing companies have had in 20, 30, 40, 50 years or more in business combined. Seriously, check for yourself. Pick the name of any local towing company, search the BBB and not only do they tell you the complaints but they tell you how long the company has been in business.

The law also says:

"Any person violating any of the provisions of this section shall be guilty of an infraction and upon conviction shall be only penalized not less than one hundred fifty dollars ($150.00) in the discretion of the court."

Of course, you would also be due a refund of everything you paid to get your car back.

Check your receipt. Is there a signature there from someone who owns or works for the business from where your car was towed? If not then your car was towed illegally.

Cover Up After Cover Up And Hinson Comes Up Again

Remember the years and years of claims that Greensboro Police Officer, now Deputy Chief James Hinson was operating a brothel in a women's half way house he operated in east Greensboro?

Remember the series in the Rhino Times, Cops In Black And White, in which journalist and best selling author Jerry Bledsoe wrote that Hinson was running a drug dealing operation here in Greensboro?

Remember when our City Council voted to hide Hinson's work record from the incoming chief of police so that the new chief would have no legitimate reason not to promote Hinson to Deputy Chief thereby making him next in line for the top cop position?

Remember when Hinson's wife was convicted of fraud and embezzlement of government funds? Or something to that effect.

Remember when Hinson covered-up for then Councilman Jamal Fox?

And many more...

Some say where there is smoke there is fire. Well today we have more smoke. In an article entitled, Group home owned by GPD deputy chief faces allegations of child sexual abuse, possible cover-up, Sayaka Matsuoka of Triad City Beat writes:

"Allegations of sexual abuse at a group home co-owned and run by Greensboro police Deputy Chief James Hinson calls into question whether there was a cover-up of the incident at a time when Hinson is potentially in the running for the department’s top position.

A recent report by the state Division of Health Service Regulation uncovered allegations of sexual abuse against at least one minor at Center of Progressive Strides, a group home co-owned and run by Greensboro police Deputy Chief James Hinson."

Why is it that Hinson comes up again and again in cover-up after cover-up?

Now perhaps Hinson didn't know about the sexual abuse but as the story points out there are things here he should have known about:

"The report, dated July 31, goes into vivid detail about allegations of sexual abuse by a former staff member at the group home, which serves youth and adolescents under 21 years of age with mental-health issues. The report lists eight counts of deficiencies on the part of the organization, including failure to complete and submit an internal investigation into the alleged acts, failure to have an adequate number of employees during each shift, and failure to report the incidents to law enforcement or the county department of social services as required by law. The report also includes contradictory accounts between the agency and the victim’s mother regarding a signed statement that the victim’s mother said was falsified by agency staff."

Of course, it must be really hard to be deputy chief of a police department and operate several businesses at the same time. Most folks I know wouldn't dream of taking on such challenges as doing so is certain to have horrible consequences. But then most people I know seem to have better judgement than the Deputy Chief of the Greensboro Police Department.

At the very least, Deputy Chief Hinson has a long and storied history of using his position as a police officer to enrich himself. That in itself is against the law.

It is long past time Deputy Chief Hinson was relieved of duty and deprived of his retirement.

The Neoliberal Scam: Public Money for Private Playgrounds

Whenever you hear the word Baltimore, think Greensboro. SSDD.


And remember: myself and others warned you for years and years while you laughed and said we were crazy.

Tanger Center Swallowed By Giant Sinkhole

As pointed out by my co-writer abner doon on Monday, shares in Tanger Factory Outlets has dropped from $40 per share to only $14 per share. In an article entitled, The Mistake You Are Making With Tanger Factory Outlet Centers: The Safety Of The Dividend, investment advisor Julian Lin of Seeking Alpha concludes:

"While SKT did raise guidance, there's still little indication that they've escaped the worst of it. The continued deterioration in long-term leases is worrisome, and they will need to continue to direct all excess free cash flow towards paying down debt indefinitely as long as cash flows continue to decline. I rate shares a sell."

There's no Tanger Factory Outlet Center in Greensboro so why should the citizens of Greensboro be concerned that the stock prices are falling unless perhaps you own shares in Tanger?

Well there is that matter of the naming rights. You see, according to the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts website Steven Tanger committed $7.5 million and named the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts on September 9, 2019 but there is no mention anywhere on said website that Mr Tanger has actually paid that $7.5 million.

Many of Mr Tanger's customers have been going out of business, will Steven Tanger live up to his obligations or are we to add $7.5 Million more to the run away cost taxpayers have been forced to bear under the guise of economic development.

Tanger still hasn't repaired a giant sinkhole that swallowed up 6 cars in one of their parking lots over a year ago-- could it be Steven Tanger is broke already?

"No date has been announced for the completion of this project."

Yesterday, while having lunch with a TV journalist I was asked why it is that Greensboro has been unable to attract businesses to come here and my answer was, "You don't attract businesses, you build businesses from the ground up."

Retailers open new locations based on demographics. If enough of the kind of customers you think will buy your products are located there you go there. And it really doesn't matter that your biggest competitors might already be there. As a matter of fact: in retail, competition is good for business.

But manufacturing is something altogether different. A large manufacturer wants to be close to the resources they need to make their products and they don't want to get caught up in bidding wars to buy those products. Notice there are no large sawmills in the Piedmont Triad. We simply don't have enough trees to support a large sawmill.

Brick used to be a major export in this area. When I was young I hauled many a load of brick out of the Piedmont to cities all over the Southland. Until developers built houses, roads, and various other structures on top of all the available clay. The demand for brick never dropped off but these days most of our bricks are shale brick trucked in from Tennessee. I hauled shale brick in my later years.

Of course we all know how cotton and tobacco used to be the backbone of our local economy but the TV journalist who bought my lunch yesterday isn't from here and couldn't understand why cities everywhere have recovered and Greensboro hasn't. It was then I gave him a history lesson about television from before his time.

Every evening on all 3 networks the national news used to begin with an anchor man saying that housing starts were rising or falling and by how much. You see, throughout the '50s, '60s, and '70s housing starts were considered a major economic indicator. Then something changed.

What changed was that developers and builders figured out they could get loans and incentives from governments to go into speculative building. No longer did they have to be worried that the house might not sell as often they were turning a profit as soon as they started construction. All they had to do was build and put some of their new found fortunes into the pockets of politicians.

And suddenly, housing starts began to be considered an economic driver instead of an economic indicator.

Amazingly TV news anchors stopped talking about housing starts at just about the same time this change took place. Then developers started getting tax dollars to build all kinds of speculative ventures like malls, student dorms, shopping centers, stadiums, airports, and yes, even performing arts centers.

And for over 40 years every Mayor and City Council member elected to represent Greensboro signed on to every one of those ideas. And then some.

So it is, now the only resources Greensboro has left are located in the long neglected east side of town. I can show you 3,000 to 4,000 acres zoned commercial to heavy industrial all located in east Greensboro with some plots almost 1,000 acres on their own. The City of Greensboro owns 1,000 acres. Guilford County has extensive holdings in east Greensboro as well. Is it going to be business as usual for the east side just as it has been for the rest of the city or will residents of the east side finally get our share?

Pavement alone does not produce economic development. People are our #1 resource. If Greensboro is to grow we must invest in our people instead of concentrating on a few connected developers.

John Hammer Questions His Boss?

John Hammer raises suspicion about City Council, the February One-Westin Hotel parking deck, and his boss, Roy Carroll, builder of the $33 million Dollar taxpayer funded Eugene Street parking deck in his article, Council Action Raises Questions About Feb. One Parking Deck:

"Sleight of hand might best describe what happened to make the financial arrangements for the February One-Westin Hotel parking deck disappear from the resolution passed by the Greensboro City Council at the meeting Tuesday, Aug. 20."

For those who might not be up to speed, the City is paying Roy Carroll to build the Eugene Street parking deck so that Mr Carroll will have plenty of parking for his new multi-use complex he intends to build on top of the parking deck. John left that part out. John goes on to write:

"But there was no explanation as to why the resolution was changed, and when the agenda item was read by Mayor Nancy Vaughan, she didn’t note that the resolution had been changed from the one provided to the public or that the February One parking deck had been dropped from the resolution."

But the following statement by Mr Hammer might infer favoritism on the part of City Council.

"The fact that the financing for the Eugene Street parking deck was kept in the resolution and approved by the City Council seems backwards because the February One parking deck is much further along than the Eugene Street parking deck. The land for the February One deck was purchased in 2017, and all the easement issues were cleared up by August 2018, while the land for the Eugene Street parking deck was purchased a few weeks ago.

Before the meeting, when City Manager David Parrish was asked when he expected to sign the contract to build the February One parking deck, he said by the end of the month.

That answer seems to indicate that the city and the developer are close to reaching an agreement, except that Parrish has been making similar statements for months."

Or it could mean that the City of Greensboro is working to cover up several years of forged feasibility studies, bribes, misappropriation of funds, and other crimes committed. You decide.

Question: Because my memory isn't what it once was, who did the feasibility studies for the February One-Westin Hotel, aka the Wyndham Hotel, the Tanger Center for the Performing Arts, the Downtown Greenway, and the South Elm Street Redevelopment Plan? I think you'll find the answers very enlightening.

Some Answers Are Just That Simple

My only child, my son died 6 years ago-- a massive heart attack. He was only 34. Like his father he couldn't afford health care. We are killing our children America. Want to grow old all alone with no one to look after you like I am doing? Let America's health care system remain as it is. You'll die alone. And you'll deserve to die alone because you did nothing to change it.

Single payer is the only solution proven to work world over.

Share this post and vote for the candidate who is committed to single payer health care or be prepared to die alone.

The "Right" To Borders

What gives the US or any other country the "right" to establish a border other than the "nation or "tribe's" ability to draw and enforce lines in the sand, tax, etc.... ?"

Does might make right?

How is it that someone who spent his or her life protecting and serving ALL THE PEOPLE, who swore an oath, can take the side of those who have, for hundreds of years, thousands even, used violence to "draw and enforce lines in the sand, tax, etc...." solely for profit?

Are laws not meant to protect everyone equally?

Are rights not granted by God? Or do we as Americans, bow to some king, government, or invisible state that decides who has rights and who doesn't?

Whatever happened to the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

And lest we forget:

"The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I the LORD am your God."
— Leviticus 19:34

When you call them "illegal" are you talking about man's law or God's law?

Even though the Bible tells us to "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's" it goes on to say "and to God the things that are God's."

Nowhere in your Bibles does it say children belong to Caesar. Children belong only to God.

National security?

History has shown us that borders and walls do nothing to protect national security. The Walls of Jericho came tumbling down. Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes rode over and around the Great Wall of China. Every wall ever built was eventually breached.

It's history, look it up.

Building walls only forces an enemy to take the time to become stronger before they attack. And in the meantime those who hide behind the wall become fat, lazy, and complacent. Think about it, America can't even maintain it's life blood, our Interstate Highway System, how well do you think a wall out in the desert will be maintained? In 20 years the wall will be scrap metal.

Borders were designed for taxation-- figure it out. Municipal, county, state, national, all borders exist to collect tax dollars from those who reside within. Cities, counties, states, and nations all argue and fight over borders in order to gain control of the largest numbers of taxpayers and tax dollars.
After all, when has any city, county, state, or nation ever said, "We don't want that land because we cannot afford to patrol it, protect it, maintain it, etc, etc?"

The answer: Never.

So what is the solution?

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
We have the money but instead of spending it to help people we chose to spend it on wars not for freedom but for profit.

This Is The Kind of City Mayor Nancy Vaughan Is Building

This is the kind of city Mayor Nancy Vaughan is building: https://www.kcet.org/shows/city-rising/episodes/city-rising-gentrification-and-displacement?fbclid=IwAR0sG8vuia8AOuSb3-Brad2Utyxx1TdU0IFAMeyCdS51b66K7J_gn2rgsM4

Hat tip Karen D. Spigner

Is The Smokeable Hemp Debate Just A Bunch Of Smoke?

Perhaps you have read or seen recent media reports stating that various law enforcement agencies want to make it illegal to drive while using smokeable hemp, a form of Cannabis that does not contain THC and is legal in North Carolina?

Users of Smokeable Hemp use it as a cheaper alternative to CDB for pain relief and health benefits.

North Carolina farmers are very concerned about the possible ban because hemp has the potential to become a very lucrative crop for them.

Law enforcement agencies are asking for the ban because they claim they are unable to tell the difference between Hemp and marijuana.... But is that true?

A Google search using the words marijuana breathalyzer turns up a number of companies that claim to already sell devices that officers can use at traffic stops to test for marijuana and several other companies that claim such products will be on the market very soon. Are these claims real? I don't know but if I were a con man there are lots of folks I'd attempt to con before I started trying to con cops.

Then there's this: If you are caught in possession of marijuana, even if you are not driving, how do the police determine that what you have is actually marijuana and not hemp... or parsley? Just looking and smelling isn't going to stand up in court. I mean the smell might have come from the Boy Smells Purple Kush Scented Candles sold by Nordstrom or the his and her favorite Marijuana Perfume by Kolmaz.

Get real, People, court convictions require real evidence and making something illegal just because law enforcement is difficult does not make it right. Could it be someone in the CDB manufacturing business doesn't want to compete with cheaper Smokeable Hemp. Before you brand me a conspiracy theorist keep in mind that Hemp and Marijuana were first made illegal because of efforts by competing industries.

From WRAL in Raleigh: Perhaps this is the real reason they want to make Smokeable Hemp illegal:

"If this bill passes without the ban, we will put 800 of our law enforcement dogs and their handlers out of business," Dixon said."

Cops trying to protect other cops with no concern about the health of those persons who have managed to better their lives by treating illnesses with the best product available to them at the lowest possible cost. Yep, same old story, competing industries who don't give a damn about anyone other than themselves.

Show me a police department anywhere in the State of North Carolina that wouldn't hire more officers if they could, dogs or not. And do these dogs serve no purpose than to sniff drugs?

Will a dog's nose stand up in court or does the marijuana the dog finds also have to be tested by some scientific process? Sure the dog's nose meets probable cause but can a conviction be based solely on a dog's nose? I mean the smell might have come from the Boy Smells Purple Kush Scented Candles sold by Nordstrom or the his and her favorite Marijuana Perfume by Kolmaz. Can a dog tell the difference? To confirm my suspisions I contacted retired DEA Special Agent Fred Gregory who lives here in Greensboro and sent him the following e-mail:

"As a DEA agent did you ever have to confirm the THC content or strain of  marijuana to prove it was in-fact marijuana and not industrial help?

It seems to me that even though both are/were illegal, as marijuana is a Schedule I drug and Hemp is not a Schedule I drug that any good attorney could use the failure to produce test results as an easy means to get a case thrown out of court.

-Billy"

Fred replied the next day:

"Billy,

All DEA seizures or purchases of marijuana are submitted to one of the DEA labs where chemists conduct tests on the substance and  send the reporting  office a written report. In most cases the defense would accept the chemist's findings. Once in  while some a-hole attorney would require the chemist to come to court and testify. I think our chemists were exceptionally well trained and experienced enough to distinguish the two .

Actually, I think in the 7 years I was Agent-In-Charge of DEA Greensboro ( Middle and Western Federal judicial Districts) that we only brought only one marijuana case to Federal court and that was a 1200 pound hashish seizure. 

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/824/297/121810/ 

Best

Fred"

I think I've made my case that a dog's nose will not stand up in court and therefore the argument that putting drug sniffing dogs out of work is reason enough to make Smokeable Hemp illegal. As for the handlers, perhaps they could be reassigned to the much bigger problem of distracted driving.

And perhaps the SBI and FBI need to be looking into the possibility that manufacturers of CDB and Big Pharma are pushing to make Smokeable Hemp illegal? Yep, it's a conspiracy theory but quite often conspiracies turn out to be real. Don't you think we should know before new legislation is passed?

Share with everyone you know including your elected representatives to find out.

BJ Barnes IS A LYING SOB

You know, I've long supported BJ Barnes, voting for him time and time again right up to and including his last election which he lost because he went over the top politically. And in his most recent Facebook post you can see how he will make up any lie that suits his agenda.

I have never supported Bill or Hillary Clinton

I don't even know who Mr Barnes is running against but it is apparent he is willing to tell any lie necessary to become Mayor of Stokesdale, North Carolina.

He goes on to lie again:

You see, I voted for Ross Perot-- twice. I hated Bill Clinton when he was Governor of Arkansas and I was having to deal with what I believed was the most crooked law enforcement agency in the nation-- the Arkansas DOT-- on a weekly basis while working as a long haul trucker. And I despised Hillary just as badly.

And now BJ Barnes ASSumes that because I'm not a supporter of President Trump that I must be a supporter of the Clintons. Well go ahead and search my Facebook page and see for yourself where I have ever supported the Clintons.

Honesty above ideology is what I live by. There was a time when I thought BJ Barnes lived that way too.

Update: July 17, 2019 9:41 AM It appears that Mr Barnes has deleted or hidden my comments in an attempt to hide his lies:

If BJ Barnes were already elected to Mayor of Summerfield it would be illegal for him to delete such comments. Is this an example of how he plans to run Summerfield, in secret, behind closed doors, and in fear of criticism, striking out at people for nothing more than asking simple questions, then hiding the evidence of his actions.

This one will never go away Mr Barnes. Not only are you a liar but politically you are a coward.