We continue into 2023…
Scary or not, it’s gonna be an interesting time.
All my suggestions of the past still play hold…
- Self reliance
- Food storage and garden
- Possess a local skill
- Make friends
- Alternative means of transport
- Power back ups
- Be part of a community
- Be the Rufus
- Affirmation campaigns
Now let’s get into the heat of it all…
What Was It Like To Be Shipped To A Concentration Camp?
We’ve been traveling for twenty-four hours. Where, only God knows. We’re all starting to get nervous. People were saying all sorts of things; listen to them and the front must be far behind us, and yet we’ve been traveling across Poland for half a day now and there’s no sign of it.
Now the train has started to slow. Could we finally be there? I don’t want to believe it—I’d started to think this trip would never end. We’re getting close, definitely—you can see buildings over there. And so many of them—it’s a huge camp. I can see people, but what are they wearing? It looks like pajamas, and they’ve all got the same ones.
My God, those are prisoners’ clothes! Where have they taken us?! This is a concentration camp! There are some men working over there, stacking boards. Why is that man beating them so hard? It must hurt horribly, he took a cudgel to them. How can he be so cruel? He isn’t even a German—he’s also in a striped jumper, but he’s got a band on his arm.
I must have been wrong; we can’t be stopping here. Why would they take us to a concentration camp? It’s not as if we’ve done anything. It’s horrible how they treat people here. I can’t watch; it makes me ill. He’s walloped another one, an old man. What a stinker; he’s barely twenty. Shame on him; that man could be his father and to treat him that way. He kicked him again till the poor old man staggered.
So that’s what a concentration camp looks like; I could never imagine it. People have been living this way for several years. And we complained about Terezín. That was an absolute paradise compared to this.
What’s this? The train has stopped. A whole group of striped people is running toward us. Is there anyone among them from Terezín? Maybe they’ve come to help with our baggage. Perhaps Dad’s among them. But no, they’ve probably just come to see what sort of train this is. We’re not getting off here, surely? Or—why didn’t it occur to me earlier?—this is Auschwitz, of course. Birkenau is nearby, maybe the trains don’t go there, so we’ll have to walk that bit. Definitely, that’s the way it is. This is Auschwitz, the concentration camp, and we’re going to Birkenau, the work camp.
The carriage next to us is already alighting. Why so much noise over there? They’re banging on our door. I suppose it’s our turn now. Why are there so many SS men outside? Are they all here to guard us? Where would we run to? It would be pointless anyway. We’re in it; there’s no helping us.
“Everyone out! Leave your luggage where it is! Alle heraus, schneller!!!” Leave everything here, hand luggage too? Why are they shouting so much, what’s with the spiteful smiles? They’re grabbing everyone by the wrist; what are they looking for, watches? If only they wouldn’t yell at us so much, and what do those grimaces and comments mean? They’re treating us as if we belong in that concentration camp. One woman just got a slap for trying to take a loaf of bread with her. Is this Birkenau?
Why is my throat so scratchy? I don’t want them to know how I feel.
Stupid eyes—why are they smarting? I mustn’t cry! For all the world, not now!! “Alles da lassen!”—“Leave everything as is!”—“Schneller, heraus!!!”
They sort us into two groups. One—older women and mothers with young children—goes to the left; the other goes to the right. “Sick people shouldn’t say anything,” hushed voices repeat; “you’re all healthy,” one of the ones in prisoner’s clothes whispers in Czech just behind me. A Czech, then. The lines in front of us move; soon it will be our turn. As long as they leave me and Mom together. Surely they can’t separate us if I say we belong together. Or will it be better not to say we’re together? Probably; maybe they deliberately wouldn’t let us stay together if they knew how much it mattered to us.
They’re even taking mothers away from their children. I know that girl there; she’s going to the right and her mom’s going left. But the mom’s quite old; she’s got gray hair. My mom still looks young. But . . . maybe I look too much like a child? Maybe they’ll ask me how old I am. Should I tell the truth? Fifteen; no, that’s too little—they’d send me left and separate me from Mom. I’d better say I’m older, maybe eighteen. Do I look it? Sure, maybe they’ll believe me.
The line is getting shorter; the group of five in front of us has gone. Oh Lord, I pray to you, leave me and Mom together. Don’t let them send us each a different way.
Two more people and it’s our turn. For God’s sake, what if he asks me what year I was born? Quickly: 1929 and I’m fifteen, so if I’m eighteen . . . 29, 28, 27, that makes 1926. Mom is standing in front of the SS man, he’s sent her to the right. Lord, let us stay together! “Rechts!” the SS man snarled at me and pointed the way with his finger. Praise be, we’re both on the same side. Thank you, God, a thousand thanks for making it work out.
First they led us to the baths, where they took from us everything we still had. Quite literally there wasn’t even a hair left. I’ve sort of got used to the shaven heads, but the first impression was horrid. I didn’t even recognize my own mother till I heard her voice. But so what, hair will grow back, it’s not such a tragedy, as long as we survive. I don’t hold out much hope. As soon as we got here, they held us up with a long speech, of which I remember nothing beyond the first sentence, which was plenty: “Ihr seid in Vernichtungslager!” You are in an extermination camp. Upon which they drove us here, into this building, on to bunks from which we are not allowed to move.
I’m seriously hungry; we’ve not eaten since morning, it must be seven o’clock already, but it doesn’t look as if we’ll be getting any supper. Who knows, maybe they won’t feed us at all and will leave us to die of hunger. If only we’d eaten that pâté on the train; we were saving it for Dad, so we’d have something to give him right away.
My God, we’re such idiots, what were we thinking? “You’re following your men to a new ghetto.” And we believed them. Some people even volunteered to come. That’s why they let us take all our luggage. A nice pile of things they can put in their warehouse today.
We’re better off going to bed and sleeping off our hunger. Maybe they’ll leave us alone for today. Figuring out how to fit ten into a space for four will be a problem, of course, but we’ll manage somehow. If we all lie on our sides in one direction, it might work. We have three covers (that’s not really the right word, but I can’t find another term for the filthy rags that perhaps at one time used to be covers) that we have to share; we’ll put our clothes under our heads—so yes, it’ll work. We won’t be comfortable, but after all the events and afflictions of the last twenty-four hours I’m so tired that I think I could sleep well even on these bare boards.
What must the girls in the Heim be doing? Francka, Šáry, and the others? Will they remember me? And what about my lovely bunk? I won’t see out the end of the war on it now.
So they’re not letting us die of hunger. By this I don’t mean that there was plenty of tasty food, not by any reckoning, but it doesn’t matter, the main thing is that there was something at all.
Early in the morning came the wake-up call, after which each bunk received a pot with scrapings in it. They said that we’re new here so there was no more left for us. I was utterly miserable. If that’s how they’re going to feed us, then it’s the end for us. Although it wasn’t at all edible—cold, thick, and bitter—we forced it down. Partially to fill our stomachs with something, anything, and also because we were afraid that they would punish us for leaving food.
After breakfast was roll-call, where they counted us, left us standing there for an hour, maybe two, I don’t know exactly, because I don’t have a watch—in any case it was endless. Why I don’t know; apparently it’s part of the daily program. They only let us back in the building once it seemed to them that we were sufficiently tired and frozen through and through. It’s only October, but it was freezing cold standing there at four in the morning (it must have been around then, it was still completely dark), almost naked, for the rags they dressed us in can’t be called clothes, our bare feet stuck in Dutch clogs (sometimes only one clog, if you’re not clever and energetic enough to clamber down from the bunk in time and there aren’t enough to go round)—and the worst thing of all, with a shaven head; that’s the part that gets coldest.
Besides that, this Polish climate is awfully odd. During the day the sun beats down till people faint from the heat, while in the early morning it freezes worse than at home in December. I have to laugh when I remember how Mom always got mad when I wouldn’t want to put on a cap or long stockings in winter. If I ever get home again, I will never wear anything on my head till the day I die.
No sooner had we crawled (in the true sense of the word; there are no ladders here like there were at Terezín) back on our bunks and wrapped our numb legs and hands in rags than it was time to get up again, from whence we went to the latrine and the Waschraum. Everything went by at such a pace that it was absolutely impossible to use either of these two rooms. We’d barely taken two steps inside and the guards were chasing us out again, using cudgels and suchlike.
Marching at a pace quick enough to lose your clogs in the mud so abundant here, we returned to the building. Shortly thereafter they brought soup—called zupa here—not too tasty, with everything possible (and impossible) floating in it. Rotten turnip, corn cobs, bits of frozen marrow, stalks, and beetroot, which gave the mixture a pinkish color. As earlier that morning, five to ten people ate from a single pot. That didn’t help the taste, because we don’t even have spoons. Many people turned up their noses or didn’t even eat, but not me. You have to eat—doesn’t matter how or what. Like the proverb “A good pig eats everything,” I stuffed myself as full as I could. I used my teeth and my hands—just like the others who understand what’s what and don’t give themselves airs.
In the evening there was roll-call again, when bread rations were given out—a quarter-loaf of dark rye for each person and a spoonful of jam. We have no knives, so we just broke off bits and spread the jam with the crust. Mom and I hid one portion for the next morning and ate the other for supper. One of the guards gave me a handkerchief—I was surprised, since they’re all such pigs. She saw Mom covering my head with her bare hands and it must have awakened a bit of human kindness in her; the rest aren’t susceptible.
I’m so angry with myself; I let myself be waited on like a small child and I just sob all day. I can’t help it; everything here is so horrible. Bedtime is drawing near and I’m already good for nothing. Lying unmoving in one position until morning. Last night I didn’t even wake up once, but this morning I was all bruised, my bones felt as if they’d been broken, dreadful. You can’t sleep well on a hard surface and now here it is again. Oh, God, why are you punishing us like this? “Ruhe, alle schlafen, schneller!”—“Silence, everyone to sleep, hurry up!” The block warden patrols the middle of the building and the guards tear about shouting like madwomen. “Schlafen, schneller!” The lights have gone out.
– Helga Weiss
Russian Official: Put “Zircon Hypersonic Missiles . . . 100 Miles from Potomac River”
Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Council (Senate) threatens to aim Russia’s Zircon hypersonic missiles at Washington by placing the ship carrying them 100 miles from the Potomac River.
Russia’s former president lashed out at the US in a statement calling for the country’s warships, armed with hypersonic missiles, to be stationed close to Washington, DC.
Dmitry Medvedev, who serves as the deputy chair of Russia’s security council, made the remarks in a vitriolic Telegram post in reaction to an appeal to ordinary Russians from the US Embassy.
On Wednesday, the embassy had tweeted a Russian-language video that said President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is “not worthy” of Russians.
In response, Medvedev said: “The main gift of the New Year was the arsenal of Zircon missiles that went yesterday to the shores of NATO countries.”
He then called for the missiles to be stationed “somewhere 100 miles from the coast [of the US], closer to the Potomac River”
Hypersonic missiles are exceptionally fast, and can travel on an unpredictable flight path, making them harder to intercept with traditional air defense systems. The Zircon has a range of between 310 and 620 miles, according to the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance.
The 405-mile-long Potomac River passes through Washington, D.C., the seat of the US federal government.
On Wednesday, Russia announced that it was sending its Admiral Gorshkov warship, armed with Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles, on a long-range voyage that would pass through the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Mediterranean Sea.
Medvedev has produced some of the most extreme and hawkish commentary since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, repeatedly touting his country’s nuclear arsenal and often going beyond the rhetoric offered by Putin.
Calling the US “sons of bitches” and “freaks” in his post, he described the US Embassy’s tweet as a cynical effort to use Nazi propaganda methods.
The US has been one of Ukraine’s most important allies during the conflict, sending billions of dollars of aid and weaponry to the country.
Medvedev said that the sight of the Admiral Gorshkov off the coast of the US would “bring to their senses anyone who poses a direct threat to Russia and our allies.”
Oh So Good Cabbage Rolls
“I have adjusted and tweaked this recipe to make it truly my own. During the last part of cooking the sauce becomes thick and delicious. For the adventurous, add a dash of Louisiana hot sauce when serving.”
Ingredients
- 1 -2 head cabbage
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1⁄2 lb ground pork
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 small onion, grated
- 1 cup shredded cabbage
- 1⁄2 green bell pepper, diced small
- 1⁄4 cup green onion, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons parsley, minced
- 1 small red potatoes, grated
- 2 eggs
- 1⁄2 cup raw rice
- 1 can tomato sauce
Sauce
- 2 cans tomato sauce
- 1⁄4 cup brown sugar
- 1⁄4 cup lemon juice
Directions
- Blanch cabbage (s) for approximately 10 minutes.
- When cool enough to handle, separate into leaves.
- Combine meat, salt, pepper, rice, shredded cabbage, shredded potato, eggs, onions, bell pepper, garlic and parsley and small can of tomato sauce.
- Mix well.
- Place equal portions of meat mixture in center of each cabbage leaf, fold ends over, roll up and fasten with toothpicks.
- Add one tablespoon oil each to two large skillets and place cabbage rolls sided by side in skillets.
- To the two small cans of tomato sauce add the brown sugar and lemon juice and pour over cabbage rolls.
- Cover skillets and simmer for 30 minutes, basting occasionally.
- Uncover and continue cooking 30 minutes more, basting occasionally.
- Sauce will thicken and become a wonderful sauce that adheres to cabbage rolls.
- Dash of Louisiana hot sauce can be added to top of cabbage rolls for those that enjoy it.
Confessions Of A DEA Agent
What’s your opinion on “The War On Drugs”?
No different than a war on pedophiles or war on murderers or any other serious crime. Did you lose the war because there’s still pedophiles? No, it’s a war that will never end. And I’m okay with that.
Do we defund all the police because crime still exists?
How is this different from the failed alcohol prohibition?
I would say it’s different because the majority of people are still against most of the drugs that are still illegal and continue to use their vote to say so.
Do you think we could catch more murderers and pedophiles if we stopped arresting and jailing people with addictions and clogging up the courts?
So for the most part when you see people getting time for drugs it’s because they’re pleading down other charges. So no. I can’t tell you how many wife beaters or shooters we’ve put away on drug charges.
What do you mean pleading down?
The DA will offer the accused the option of pleading guilty to the drug crimes and they will drop the violent crime charges of domestic abuse. In jail people that have committed crimes against women or children don’t get treated very well while people with drug charges get treated normally. If you know your guilty you might as well not go into jail with a target on your back.
Why is addiction something that deserves to be criminalized?
DEA doesn’t go after addicts or anybody that takes personal use drugs. That’s low level cop shit.
Do you every feel like your job is pointless or what you do is useless? There’s obvious US government backing of cartels as well as Mexican government?
I can’t tell you how many violent gang members or fentanyl laced stuff we’ve gotten off the streets and I’m very proud of that.
You have to realize that the US government refers to a million different departments. The DEA themselves doesn’t support the cartel.
How does the legal shakedown between states with legal weed and weed still being federally illegal work?
DEA for the most part won’t take marijuana cases unless it’s very large amounts. We mostly hand it off to locals, assuming it’s illegal. If it’s in a legal state and a small amount we don’t care. It’s a waste of our time.
What do you feel is going to happen to any DEA presence in Oregon?
Considering the DEA will absolutely still take on hard drug cases I imagine that nothing will change for them. It will depend on the courts and the AUSA’s on whether they’ll charge them or not.
Any agencies that you worked with that was less professional and would not work with again?
Hahaha oh man you’re asking me to dime agencies out. I think the general stereotypes fit the agencies. FBI is generally pretty bad with street level stuff and are a little more stiff and white collar. I’ve never had any problems with them. We’ve had issues with HSI trying to steal our cases because we overlap so heavily. I personally haven’t had any real issues with any individual agents or other agencies.
What was your path to the DEA like? Meaning.. where did you go to school? what did you take? how long? did you become a police officer and then work your way up? Always wondered what it took to get to that level.
I went to school for IT. I didn’t really enjoy it. I joined the National Guard and deployed and really enjoyed that. I went into military contracting then shotgunned my resume to a bunch of federal agencies, and accepted the DEA.
There were people in my class who were furniture salesman and stuff like that though. No prior police or federal law enforcement experience. From the day I applied to the DEA to the day I was at the academy was about 2 years.
Degrees are required though correct?
Can be waived for law enforcement experience from what I have seen
What is the best thing about your job?
The best thing about the job is when you get a really big score of money in my opinion. Getting drugs off the street is great but when you can get a good haul of cash, that really hurts them, and helps local police departments.
I enjoy the job and find it fun. The thrill motivates me, also bragging rights to your coworkers.
What was your biggest score?
700 kilos
They retaliate or anyone ever retaliated?
Hahah yeah some people died for that one
From your side or theirs?
Theirs. DEA agents dying in the line of duty like never happens
What is the worst thing you’ve seen?
The worst thing I’ve probably ever seen on the job was the first shooting I got into when they tried to revive the body. They put on what looks like a CPR machine but he had bullets all through him and his stomach was all distended from his internals. Everytime the machine would pump into him you’d see his guts distend a little more. That was pretty gross.
Who is the most mentally deranged person you’ve met or heard about in your active years?
If you mean like psychopath sociopath types, we honestly don’t see many of those. We see a lot of really really dumb people. A few years back I went to a detention hearing for an individual we arrested where we had video surveillance of him picking up a load of cocaine leading up to him getting pulled over. He gave written consent to search the vehicle and we found the cocaine. Pretty easy case honestly. And when I heard him plea not guilty I almost laughed out loud in court. I guess that shocked me quite a bit. There’s a lot of dumb people like that. We deal with dummies a lot haha
Upside Down Pepperoni Pizza Casserole
“Fun and easy take on pepperoni pizza – one of my sons favorites. Great one-dish meal!”
Ingredients
- 1 – 1 1⁄2 lb ground beef
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 (8 ounce) package mushrooms, sliced
- 1 (4 ounce) can black olives, drained
- 1 (15 ounce) can pizza sauce
- 5 ounces turkey pepperoni, slices
- 3 -4 ounces low fat mozzarella, shredded
- 1 (16 1/3 ounce) package grands homestyle refrigerated reduced-fat buttermilk biscuits, separated and cut into fourths
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees and prepare baking dish (I use a 1.75qt oval baker).
- Over medium heat, combine the ground beef, onion and garlic in a large skillet until beef is browned.
- Add the mushrooms, olives, pepperoni and tomato sauce and heat through.
- Pour mixture into prepared baking dish.
- Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
- Top randomly with biscuit pieces.
- Bake 15-18 minutes until biscuits are browned and casserole is bubbly.
What Was It Like To Go Through A Gas Attack In World War 1
Arthur Empey was an American living in New Jersey when war consumed Europe in 1914. Enraged by the sinking of the Lusitania and loss of the lives of American passengers, he expected to join an American army to combat the Germans. When America did not immediately declare war, Empey boarded a ship to England, enlisted in the British Army (a violation of our neutrality law, but no one seemd to mind) and was soon manning a trench on the front lines.
Emprey survived his experience and published his recollections in 1917. We join his story after he has been made a member of a machine gun crew and sits in a British trench peering towards German lines. Conditions are perfect for an enemy gas attack – a slight breeze blowing from the enemy’s direction – and the warning has been passed along to be on the lookout:
“We had a new man at the periscope, on this afternoon in question; I was sitting on the fire step, cleaning my rifle, when he called out to me: ‘There’s a sort of greenish, yellow cloud rolling along the ground out in front, it’s coming —‘
But I waited for no more, grabbing my bayonet, which was detached from the rifle, I gave the alarm by banging an empty shell case, which was hanging near the periscope. At the same instant, gongs started ringing down the trench, the signal for Tommy to don his respirator, or smoke helmet, as we call it.
Gas travels quietly, so you must not lose any time; you generally have about eighteen or twenty seconds in which to adjust your gas helmet.
A gas helmet is made of cloth, treated with chemicals. There are two windows, or glass eyes, in it, through which you can see. Inside there is a rubber-covered tube, which goes in the mouth. You breathe through your nose; the gas, passing through the cloth helmet, is neutralized by the action of the chemicals. The foul air is exhaled through the tube in the mouth, this tube being so constructed that it prevents the inhaling of the outside air or gas. One helmet is good for five hours of the strongest gas. Each Tommy carries two of them slung around his shoulder in a waterproof canvas bag. He must wear this bag at all times, even while sleeping. To change a defective helmet, you take out the new one, hold your breath, pull the old one off, placing the new one over your head, tucking in the loose ends under the collar of your tunic.
For a minute, pandemonium reigned in our trench, – Tommies adjusting their helmets, bombers running here and there, and men turning out of the dugouts with fixed bayonets, to man the fire step.
Reinforcements were pouring out of the communication trenches.
Our gun’s crew was busy mounting the machine gun on the parapet and bringing up extra ammunition from the dugout.
German gas is heavier than air and soon fills the trenches and dugouts, where it has been known to lurk for two or three days, until the air is purified by means of large chemical sprayers. We had to work quickly, as Fritz generally follows the gas with an infantry attack. A company man on our right was too slow in getting on his helmet; he sank to the ground, clutching at his throat, and after a few spasmodic twistings, went West (died). It was horrible to see him die, but we were powerless to help him. In the corner of a traverse, a little, muddy cur dog, one of the company’s pets, was lying dead, with his two paws over his nose.
It’s the animals that suffer the most, the horses, mules, cattle, dogs, cats, and rats, they having no helmets to save them. Tommy does not sympathize with rats in a gas attack.
At times, gas has been known to travel, with dire results, fifteen miles behind the lines.
A gas, or smoke helmet, as it is called, at the best is a vile-smelling thing, and it is not long before one gets a violent headache from wearing it.
Our eighteen-pounders were bursting in No Man’s Land, in an effort, by the artillery, to disperse the gas clouds.
The fire step was lined with crouching men, bayonets fixed, and bombs near at hand to repel the expected attack.
Our artillery had put a barrage of curtain fire on the German lines, to try and break up their attack and keep back reinforcements.
I trained my machine gun on their trench and its bullets were raking the parapet. Then over they came, bayonets glistening. In their respirators, which have a large snout in front, they looked like some horrible nightmare.
All along our trench, rifles and machine guns spoke, our shrapnel was bursting over their heads. They went down in heaps, but new ones took the place of the fallen. Nothing could stop that mad rush. The Germans reached our barbed wire, which had previously been demolished by their shells, then it was bomb against bomb, and the devil for all.
Suddenly, my head seemed to burst from a loud ‘crack’ in my ear. Then my head began to swim, throat got dry, and a heavy pressure on the lungs warned me that my helmet was leaking. Turning my gun over to No. 2, I changed helmets.
The trench started to wind like a snake, and sandbags appeared to be floating in the air. The noise was horrible; I sank onto the fire step, needles seemed to be pricking my flesh, then blackness.
I was awakened by one of my mates removing my smoke helmet. How delicious that cool, fresh air felt in my lungs.
A strong wind had arisen and dispersed the gas.
They told me that I had been ‘out’ for three hours; they thought I was dead.
The attack had been repulsed after a hard fight. Twice the Germans had gained a foothold in our trench, but had been driven out by counter- attacks. The trench was filled with their dead and ours. Through a periscope, I counted eighteen dead Germans in our wire; they were a ghastly sight in their horrible-looking respirators.
I examined my first smoke helmet, a bullet had gone through it on the left side, just grazing my ear, the gas had penetrated through the hole made in the cloth.
Out of our crew of six, we lost two killed and two wounded.
That night we buried all of the dead, excepting those in No Man’s Land. In death there is not much distinction, friend and foe are treated alike.
After the wind had dispersed the gas, the R. A. M. C. got busy with their chemical sprayers, spraying out the dugouts and low parts of the trenches to dissipate any fumes of the German gas which may have been lurking in same.”
True Differences Between Designers And Clients Show Why They Will Never Understand Each Other
Designers and clients see everything so differently that a conflict is only a question of time . To illustrate this, ‘Trust Me, I’m A “Designer”‘ made a witty animation that lists the things that cause the biggest disagreements.
From typefaces, to software – professionals and their clients cannot be any more different. It hits the very core of the problematic relationship between the two groups and shows why designers and clients will never be friends.
Mushroom Toasts
“This appetizer is not only delicious but adaptable as well. Use your choice of mushrooms, creme fraiche or sour cream, shallots or red or white onion. Make the mushrooms a few hours ahead if you like but toast the bread just before serving. Adapted from Fine Cooking magazine.”
Ingredients
- 1 lb mushroom (wild mushrooms, or a combination of cultivated mushrooms including portobellas, cremini, oyster, shi)
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil (or more as needed)
- kosher salt, to taste
- fresh ground black pepper, to taste
- 1⁄4 1/4 cup red onions or 1/4 cup white onion
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme, chopped or 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- 1⁄2 cup creme fraiche (I used recipe #171932) or 1/2 cup sour cream (I used Creme Fraiche)
- 1 tablespoon Italian parsley, chopped
- 12 -18 slices baguette, cut 1/2 inch on diagonal
- 1 1⁄2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1⁄4 cup parmigiano-reggiano cheese, grated
Directions
- Wipe any dirt from the mushrooms with a damp cloth or paper towel.
- Cut off any tough stems; half smaller mushrooms and quarter larger ones to make approximate even sizes.
- Heat butter and 1 Tbsp of the oil in a 10-12 inch deep saute pan over medium-high heat.
- Add the mushrooms and a pinch of salt and cook, stirring often, for 8-10 minutes, until any liquid has evaporated. If the mushrooms become too dry add a drizzle of oil.
- Transfer mushrooms to a cutting board, let cool a few minutes, and chop coarsely.
- Wipe out the pan and set over medium heat with 1 Tbsp olive oil.
- Add shallots, thyme and a pinch of salt and stir for a minute or two until shallots are tender and slightly golden.
- Return the mushrooms to the pan and stir in the creme fraiche to heat through without bringing to a simmer.
- Remove from the heat and stir in parsley and more salt and black pepper to taste.
- Note: If you are making the mushrooms in advance stir in only 1/4 cup of the creme fraiche now and add the other 1/4 cup when reheating later.
- Just before serving position oven rack 6 inches below the broiler element and heat broiler.
- Place baguette slices on a baking sheet and brush with olive oil; Broil for a minute or two to toast.
- Spread warm mushroom mixture over toasts and sprinkle on the Parmigiano-Reggiano.
- Note: Do not at any time overheat the mushroom mixture once the creme fraiche has been added or the cream will break.
What’s It Like To Find Out That Your Child Isn’t Yours
So, I’ve been with my wife (34yo, I’m 35) for 17 years. High school sweethearts, and got married 7 months before he was born, as soon as we knew she was pregnant. We have always had sex, and enjoyed it, ever since we started, with very few breaks. I can say we had, so far, a very happy life together, and no reason whatsoever to think the opposite.
Then, yesterday, my world collapsed: the boy’s health recently started to worry us, and we took him to a doctor, who tested him positive for a genetic disease that had to be present in both parents. We both got tested, but only she tested positive – I didn’t. And that’s when she said that the boy’s father was not me.
Right now, I don’t know what to do. I can’t process this – we went through college together with very few issues; we had, or so I thought, a happy life together, we have similar work schedules and I have never once suspected something was happening on my back. And yet, this is not my son. This is one of her co-workers from another job’s son, as she now told me. She told me she had fallen for this guy for about a month, they had sex a couple of times, and then they stopped because she loved me oh so much. And through this month, I suspected absolutely nothing, and happily lived my happy life.
I can’t trust her, now. I can’t barely look at her in the eyes. I thought we had everything that we wanted, and we were already making plans of having a kid, when he appeared. We were happy. I was genuinely happy. And now, I can’t help it but feel that I lived a nine year old lie.
I remember proposing (humorously) that we get a parenting test at the time, because I was still using condoms, and she just told me “don’t be silly” in an expectable reply. She could have freaked out, or get defensive, but acting normal was all she had to do to make it go away. I was actually kidding, and now, more than ever, I regret that. She knew I was kidding. She was a bitch.
It gets worse – I can’t look at the boy the same way. It’s not his fault, and I’ve loved that little pest ever since before he was born. But I can’t feel that now. I feel he’s someone I raised, but he’s not my son. I was taken that connection away. With him, with her, with everything. And he’s got a fucking life-threatening disease that may require a liver transplant and will probably need me more than ever.
We have a big house, good cars, a nice life without any financial worries, but I lost what mattered the most.
I need help coping with this. I don’t know what to do, or who to speak to about this. I have to let this out, or I’ll snap. It’s all a whirlpool of emotions. Hate and rage. Not healthy at all. We are still together, but I don’t know if we can make it. I can’t look at her, I can’t tolerate her voice, and I have started to be cold to the boy, which I’m feeling absolutely miserable about. He is a smart kid, and he already knows something is wrong. But I can’t help it.
She said it only happened that time, she felt adventurous, she just wanted something out of routine, but I can’t believe her. This was not simply being cheated. My life became a lie, and I feel I lost everything but the meaningless things. She’s not the person I knew, he’s not my son, and all in all, I’m alone, and without offspring of my own.
Has anyone been here, and got a happy ending? I don’t want a divorce, because that would be ending all that we ever had, but on the other hand, I question whatever it was that we really had.
Let’s Hope That The Irrational Optimists Will Be 100 Percent Correct About 2023
I hope that I am wrong about our immediate economic future, and I hope that all of the other respected voices that are warning of economic doom in 2023 are wrong too.
It would be wonderful if things turn in a positive direction at some point during the next 12 months and 2023 turns out to be a year of peace and prosperity for the entire world.
Of course virtually nobody is expecting the year to start well.
As I discussed yesterday, there is a growing consensus among the “experts” that the months ahead will be quite rough. But even though it has become exceedingly obvious that short-term economic conditions will not be good, some optimists are still trying to put a positive spin on things. For example, Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi is trying to convince us that we will only have to endure a “slowcession” before things finally turn around…
Many CEOs, investors and consumers are worried about a recession in 2023. But Moody’s Analytics says the more likely scenario is a “slowcession,” where growth grinds to a near halt but a full economic downturn is narrowly avoided.
“Under almost any scenario, the economy is set to have a difficult 2023,” Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi wrote in a report on Tuesday. “But inflation is quickly moderating, and the economy’s fundamentals are sound. With a bit of luck and some reasonably deft policymaking by the Fed, the economy should avoid an outright downturn.”
Let’s hope that he is right on target.
And if he does turn out to be correct, let’s hold a big celebration next December celebrating what a wonderful year 2023 was.
I would be up for that.
But I don’t think that is the way that things will play out.
Even now, all of the “mega-bubbles” are starting to burst all around us and the chaos that we have witnessed in the financial markets is unlike anything that we have seen since 2008.
The “bubble economy” that we had been enjoying for such a long time was dependent on a very rapidly growing money supply, but thanks to the Fed the money fountains have now been turned off.
In fact, the growth of M2 has just turned negative “for the first time in 28 years”…
Money supply growth fell again in November, and this time it turned negative for the first time in 28 years. November’s drop continues a steep downward trend from the unprecedented highs experienced during much of the past two years. During the thirteen months between April 2020 and April 2021, money supply growth in the United States often climbed above 35 percent year over year, well above even the “high” levels experienced from 2009 to 2013.
Since then, the money supply growth has slowed quickly, and we’re now seeing the first time the money supply has actually contracted since the 1990s. The last time the year-over-year change in the money supply slipped into negative territory was in November of 1994.
At some point, economic conditions will force the Fed to reverse course.
But for now Fed officials remain deeply afraid of inflation, and so we will remain on the current path.
What this means is that the early portions of 2023 are likely to look a lot like late 2008 and early 2009. We have already started to see a very alarming wave of layoffs, and this has particularly been true in the tech industry…
Tech-driven companies are embarking on a layoff spree the likes of which not seen since the pandemic, a new report has revealed – laying off more than 150,000 workers within the course of a year.
The concerning numbers were laid bare in a recently released analysis from Layoffs.fyi, which tracks firings in real time through information gleaned in media and company releases.
Through these means, the firm found that the technology sector – which had been largely spared in 2020 amid the mass wave of firings when Covid-19 first surfaced – are now among those with the largest numbers of job cuts, with rates increasingly rapidly over the past few months.
Sadly, it is likely that there will be even more tech layoffs in the months ahead.
In fact, one expert is ominously warning that we will see “a continued cutting of heads in Big Tech because they’re getting ready for the Category 5 storm” that is rapidly approaching…
Wedbush Securities managing director Dan Ives shared a similar sentiment about the 2023 economy on “Mornings with Maria” Tuesday, cautioning that Big Tech companies still need to “rip the Band-Aid off” in terms of layoffs as a “Category 5 storm” threatens the macroeconomic landscape.
“Look, a lot of Big Tech, they were spending money like 1980s rockstars. And I think that really shows,” Ives explained. “Sometimes they were increasing 15, 20% per year. I still think it’s a ‘rip the Band-Aid off,’ still some more headcount cuts. We think potentially another 8 to 10% headcount cuts in Big Tech. You look at what happened with Meta, and that’s a good example. Once Zuckerberg finally read the room, cut in terms of what he needed to, stock ultimately lifted. I think, be that as a catalyst, I think you will see a continued cutting of heads in Big Tech because they’re getting ready for the Category 5 storm in terms of what we’re seeing with the macro.”
I don’t like the sound of that.
Could we really see a “Category 5” economic storm in 2023?
Yes, we could.
But once again, let’s hope that the irrational optimists will be correct and that such a storm can be avoided somehow.
Ultimately, many of the irrational optimists are entirely convinced that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with our system and that just a few minor adjustments are all that is needed to get us back on the road to endless prosperity.
On the other hand, there are people like me that are entirely convinced that our system is fundamentally unsound and that it is inevitable that the entire Ponzi scheme will eventually come crashing down all around us.
Normally, most Americans tend to be quite optimistic about the coming year, but this year is different.
According to a Gallup survey that was just released, approximately 80 percent of U.S. adults believe that “2023 will be a year of economic difficulty”…
When offered opposing outcomes on each issue, about eight in 10 U.S. adults think 2023 will be a year of economic difficulty with higher rather than lower taxes and a growing rather than shrinking budget deficit. More than six in 10 think prices will rise at a high rate and the stock market will fall in the year ahead, both of which happened in 2022. In addition, just over half of Americans predict that unemployment will increase in 2023, an economic problem the U.S. was spared in 2022.
But maybe 2023 won’t be so bad after all.
Maybe our leaders will be able to find a way to reinflate all of the old bubbles one more time.
We better hope that they have one final miracle up their sleeves, because the alternative will not be pleasant at all.
Artist Vlad Kapichay Gives Foreign Anime And Fairytale Heroes A Russian Makeover
Popular characters from other cultures get their dose of peculiar Russian melancholy.
A young photoshop enthusiast from Chelyabinsk has turned his hobby into art. Inspired by the 2D Among Us art group, Vlad Kapichay, 21, experimented with the synergy of Russia’s mundane environment and foreign-made cartoon and anime characters. The result is an unusually melancholic but strikingly beautiful art.
Kapichay prefers working with classics, like Hayao Miyazaki, a Japanese film director and creator of the acclaimed Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro, and others.
Loneliness, a recurring topic in his work, is a reflection of his own life. “I’m still looking for my muse,” said Kapichay who is not dating anyone at the moment.
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What is it Like to Have a Nymphomaniac Girlfriend?
Dating a nymphomaniac ( or hyper-sexual – a REAL one) as a guy is completely exhausting.
Its real fun at first, but then after a while you see why it can be seen as an addiction. And even that’s cool. But after a month or two you have to establish some norms or boundaries to make it sustainable, (in my experience, after 8 months).
My nympho girl at first seemed just like any other girl. Not trashy or slutty looking, actually the opposite. We went on a few dates, at first I thought she was juat nervous…once during a walk in the park we sat on a bench, and she sat straight and stiff and just looked straight ahead.
It was the third date and we clicked before so I thought weird, put put my arm around her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. I also put my hand on her upper leg and noticed her crotch was super hot I could feel it on my hand (she was wearing a skirt). She squeezed my hand but otherwise just sat there staring forward.
Later she told me she had to do that to control herself, she wanted to bend over the bench.
So after that third date…..most people have sex once maybe a couole times then cuddle and what not. We had sex 12 times in 6 hours….the last time I literally passed out with her on top of me …but then get this- she grabbed some energy drink powder from her purse pulled my head up where I wake up a little, then she dumped it in my mouth hoping I could last once more. Nope I just flopped. Then at about 5am she wakes me up and we have sex a couple times in bed and once in the shower before I go to work. ..
So yeah she would get mad if I brought up, maybe a picnic in the park or something. She would actually get mad. So we go to a big park for a picnic and she leaves everything in the car except her “f-blanket” locks the door and puts the keys in her crotch with a big smile. So pretty much, well everything you do, there must be sex, and if not like 5 times or whenever you pass out like every night. And she even has enough energy to go running or run a freaking marathon ffs. And it doesn’t matter if she has friction burns or a messed up ankle she’ll want lots of sex right after in the shower!
Finally I had too much and she kept getting mad so I just broke it off. I’m not the open relationship type AT ALL, but I honestly hope she would find someone that would work for her sex wise. I’m not sure if this is related to nympho stuff, but she would just talk about herself and not really care about things about me (non-sex stuff,) Anyway..
So then she texts me after a bit, more to tell me it was a mistake, then a few we weeks after that.
So now we are back together and I said why not move in. I did make it pretty clear for boundaries and laid out what I was going to do, and for her not to be mad about it. She is still a little mad sometimes and she lets me know and we talk about it, its just more mellow now
And I know what you are thinking, oh shes totally sleeping around etc. No. She is really a into me. Ive read that means shes a focus nympho. Like when she goes out with friends (oh I love those times lol), she’ll want me to send her selfies of masturbating or something. Once I sent her a short video clip of me in the shower and she immediately came home ….lol
So, while those are some hard parts, there are a lot of neat parts like:
– She doesn’t “attack” me most the time, alot of times she wants me to initiate, (of course she will drop non-subtle hints)
– She is not into foreplay. Shell have an orgasm 60 seconds into sex, so she never complains about things like “I need this or that.”
-She is ready to go 24/7, and is always happy to. Doesn’t matter when, where, and every time its like I gave her a diamond ring or something.
– You get really comfortable talking about sex and what you like and etc. and doing different (sometimes way different) things. I would never talk about these things with anyone else, but with her its comfortable. Probably b/c we do it so much its like breathing
– She never uses sex as a weapon or denies sex to get something.
-She doesnt get mad really about anything (except not having sex, or missing an opportunity to have sex).
She’ll never get fat, she expends more energy per day than a nuclear bomb. I have seriously not seen her tired ever, except when she was really sick and then I said lets have sex and she was all full of energy again.
She gets lots of free stuff, or talks people into giving us free stuff. We went on a trip once and she got us a free car rental.
11 Ominous Predictions For 2023
There is a growing consensus that 2023 is going to be a miserable year for the U.S. economy and (maybe) for the global economy as a whole.
In fact, in all the years that I have been writing I have never seen so many big names on Wall Street be so incredibly pessimistic about the coming year. Of course much of that pessimism is due to the fact that 2022 went so poorly.
The cryptocurrency industry imploded, trillions of dollars in stock market wealth evaporated, inflation became a major problem all over the industrialized world, and a new housing crash suddenly erupted.
Considering all of the pain that we have experienced over the past 12 months, it is only natural for the experts to have a negative view of 2023. The following are 11 ominous warnings that they have issued for the year ahead…
#1 The IMF: “We expect one-third of the world economy to be in recession. Even countries that are not in recession, it would feel like recession for hundreds of millions of people”
#2 Bloomberg: “Economists say there is a 7-in-10 likelihood that the US economy will sink into a recession next year, slashing demand forecasts and trimming inflation projections in the wake of massive interest-rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.”
#3 The World Bank: “As central banks across the world simultaneously hike interest rates in response to inflation, the world may be edging toward a global recession in 2023 and a string of financial crises in emerging market and developing economies that would do them lasting harm, according to a comprehensive new study by the World Bank.”
#4 Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan: “We’re going to have a shallow recession”
#5 Mohamed El-Erian: “Many ‘high-conviction’ U.S. recession calls are immediately coupled with the assertion that it’ll be ‘short and shallow.’ Reminds me of the behavioral trap ‘transitory inflation’ proponents fell into last year”
#6 Nouriel Roubini: “No, this is not going to be a short and shallow recession, it’s going to be deep and protracted”
#7 Larry Summers: “My sense is that it’s much harder than many people think to achieve a soft landing”
#8 Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon: “Economic growth is slowing,” Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said at the same conference. “When I talk to our clients, they sound extremely cautious.”
#9 Charles Schwab & Co.’s Liz Ann Sonders: “We have to take our medicine still, meaning a weaker economy and a weaker labor market. The question is, is it better to take our medicine sooner or later?”
#10 BlackRock: “Central bankers won’t ride to the rescue when growth slows in this new regime, contrary to what investors have come to expect. They are deliberately causing recessions by overtightening policy to try to rein in inflation”
#11 Michael Burry: “Inflation peaked. But it is not the last peak of this cycle. We are likely to see CPI lower, possibly negative in 2H 2023, and the US in recession by any definition. Fed will cut and government will stimulate. And we will have another inflation spike. It’s not hard.”
As you can see, there is a general consensus that things will be bad in 2023, but there is disagreement about just how deep the coming economic downturn will turn out to be.
If the worst of these forecasts turn out to be accurate, that will actually be incredibly good news.
Because the reality of what we will be facing in 2023 is likely to be significantly worse than any of these experts are currently projecting.
With each passing day, we continue to get even more numbers that indicate that big trouble is ahead.
For example, we just learned that luxury home sales absolutely cratered during the months of September, October and November…
Sales of luxury homes fell 38.1% year over year during the three months ending November 30, 2022, the biggest decline on record, according to a new report from Redfin, a technology-powered real estate brokerage. That outpaced the record 31.4% decline in sales of non-luxury homes. Redfin’s data goes back to 2012.
The luxury market and the overall housing market lost momentum in 2022 due to many of the same factors: inflation, relatively high interest rates, a sagging stock market and recession fears.
We haven’t seen anything like this since 2008.
And we all remember what the housing crash of 2008 ultimately did to the financial markets.
Normally, the beginning of a calendar year is a time for optimism. As we look forward to a completely clean slate, it can be easy to forget the difficulties of the previous 12 months.
But this year things seem completely different.
On some level, just about everyone can feel that very challenging times are ahead of us.
Decades of very foolish decisions are starting to catch up with us in a major way.
Our leaders tried very hard to keep the party going for as long as possible, and to a certain extent they were quite successful in doing so.
Our politicians in Washington kept borrowing and spending trillions upon trillions of dollars that we did not have, and that definitely delayed our day of reckoning.
And the Federal Reserve kept the financial markets artificially propped up for years by endlessly pumping giant mountains of fresh cash into the system.
But such foolish measures only made our long-term problems even worse, and now our leaders are losing control.
All of the “mega-bubbles” are starting to burst, and the system is beginning to fall apart all around us.
It is time to turn out the lights, because the party is over.
We all had a lot of fun while it lasted, but now the bill is due and an extraordinary amount of pain is ahead.
Cheesy Beef Taco Skillet
“I really like recipes that are short, simple, easy, quick, and most of all tasty! This is definitely a good one!”
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 8 (6 inch) corn tortillas or 8 flour tortillas, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1⁄2 cup water
- 1 (10 1/2 ounce) can tomato soup
- 1 cup chunky salsa
Directions
- Brown beef in skillet, drain fat.
- Add in soup, salsa, water, tortillas, and half of cheese.
- Heat to a boil.
- Cover and let cook for 5 minutes or until hot.
- Add remaining cheese before serving!
The kitten lies in the manhole by the roadside and cries for help – No one noticed his presence
If only the humanity could be like this guy.
https://youtu.be/Qas17HmNKto
Designer vs Client
As a man that had (better late than never) evolved into a designer, I concur with this article perfectly. You are in a whole different universe from the client that seeks out your services, your perspectives being endogenously different from the person you are servicing. This can and often does lead to conflicts of interest and miscommunications, which in turn devolves into massive arguments and headaches if the client acts on their projections/ you fail to communicate in a language they understand.
Man raises a child that isn’t his own.
Far too common here in the USA, and this is partially due to the gynocentric bias in the judicial system and relationships. Paternity Fraud is not acknowledged as a crime in the US, and DNA tests are not compulsory nor recommended by families. They are actually strongly disapproved of by women and feminist-leaning groups (in other nations, it’s downright illegal to request one unless the mother demands it).
For the man in this entry, divorce would seem like a feasible option but it is not; it will dramatically worsen his situation since he will very likely lose his home, the child he mistook for his own, much of his money, and his future (through alimony and child support). Divorce court is severely biased towards the mother, and unless he could prove she is psychotic and abusive, he will be on the losing end of the case.
It’s no wonder why so many men would rather not marry nor have a longterm relationship here in the US (you can be forced to pay alimony/child support/be tried in divorce court if your relationship with a girlfriend has lasted long enough).
It’s hard to comment on everything you video and write about. But if ok with you, i will rant some
1. We are on the same track…clearly you are farther along because your experience in majestic. But i found you through the indeginous.
2. Totally agree the west collapse with the coup in assasination of jfk
3. I am doing my best to make this life good. I moved to asia in 2015. I lost many friends, family also but i not regret 1 thing
Thanks mate for the interesting post. Cheers