Dolly Parton lived a life that felt bigger than life itself. Born in a one-room cabin in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, she turned grit, talent, and that famous smile into one of the most remarkable American success stories of our time. Continue reading
hoto Illustration by Victoria Sunday/The Daily Beast/Getty Images/Reuters
Donald Trump has raised the extraordinary prospect of demolishing the Kennedy Center if he isn’t allowed to shut down the storied venue for renovations – including putting his name back on the building.
As the president moves to remake the performing arts center in his own image, Justice Department attorneys warned in a court filing that the current facility was “structurally unsound, fundamentally unsafe, and embarrassing to the Nation’s Capital.”
What’s more, the administration’s lawyers argued, blocking Trump’s plan to close the center for two years while he rebuilds it could cause donors to flee and contributions to dry up.
“Without those efforts, the Center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site,” wrote Justice Department attorney Brantley T. Mayer.
And Trump-US is out to destroy the country…… (Continue to full article)
Swipe left, another swipe left, swipe right, match, and it’s a date. It could be happily ever after, or it could mean becoming an unwitting international smuggler and accomplice to the cartels.
One of the latest tactics drug and human smuggling organizations are using to further their illicit cross-border activities involves taking advantage of lonely hearts, luring people searching for love south of the border, and turning them into so-called “blind mules.”
“They’re using a dating app to recruit somebody into Tijuana,” Chief Patrol Agent Justin De La Torre of the San Diego Sector said. “That person meets up with someone—and doesn’t know it—but they’ve got a magnet load of drugs underneath their car or a person put in the trunk of their car, and then that person drives into the U.S.”
But the cartels have not been dissuaded, Aki, Marin, and De La Torre stressed. The criminal organizations continually adapt, using new and old strategies to maintain their human and drug smuggling operations.
“Cartels are basically a business,” Aki said. “I’ve been in service for roughly 30 years. I’ve seen narcotics come through trunks, through roof panels, through quarter panels to rear panels to tires to spare tires—everything. We continue to see that, but we also see new, innovative ways…” (Continue to full article)
Canada has announced it is countering Washington’s (Trump’s) tariffs by imposing dollar-for-dollar counter-tariffs on hundreds of American goods amounting to CA$27.6 billion (US$19.9 billion).
The new tariffs announced by Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne during an Aug. 25 press conference will come into force on Sept. 8, increasing costs for imported American items ranging from seafood to furniture.
“[New U.S.] tariffs will have real consequences for Canadian workers, businesses, and communities across our nation. Canada must respond, and today we are in a proportionate, targeted, and strategic way,” Champagne said.
American steel and aluminum products, which were formerly subject to a retaliatory tariff of 25 percent, will now rise to 50 percent as well. Canadian steel and aluminum are currently subject to 50 percent sectoral tariffs by the United States.
Ottawa has published an extensive list of items that will be affected by counter-tariffs. Champagne said the “vast majority” of the products affected by the retaliatory tariffs could be substituted with a Canadian product.
Canada had announced its intention to introduce counter-tariffs on Aug. 22. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Aug. 24 that his country will be imposing new 50 percent tariffs on Canadian cars, trucks, and auto parts beginning in 2027. Canadian autos are currently subject to 25 percent U.S. tariffs… (Continue to full article)
Using the bathroom or having a cry is about to become more expensive for North Americans as the US and Canada enter a full-fledged trade war that threatens to flush away decades of peaceful trading between the two nations.
After trade negotiations broke down between the two countries last weekend, Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, vowed to match US tariffs “dollar for dollar” and unveiled a list of nearly 900 American goods that will face 25% to 50% tariffs starting on 8 September.
Paper products are among the hardest-hit sectors, with Canada threatening to put tariffs of between 25% and 50% on “toilet paper or face tissue stock” from 8 September in retaliation for a 50% hike from Washington DC.
What a Shitty deal… (Continue to full article)
US Geological Survey
Nine trillion gallons. Gone from the American West’s April snowpack over the last decade. That’s roughly the entire maximum capacity of Lake Mead — drained, not by drought alone, but according to a new peer-reviewed study, by the emissions of 122 specific, named companies.
BP. Chevron. ExxonMobil. Shell. The Carbon Majors database has been tracking these producers since 1950. Now researchers have connected their emissions to something you can measure in your kitchen faucet.
Quantifying who caused the damage and proving it in court are two very different problems.
The Union of Concerned Scientists describes the study’s core finding as a “widening seasonal gap between supply and demand” — which sounds technical until you remember that Arizona, California, and Nevada are currently under a federal operating plan requiring combined cuts of roughly 400 billion gallons of Colorado River water per year. Nevada has already filed a federal lawsuit challenging that plan. States are fighting over a shrinking pie while researchers argue a finite list of companies helped shrink it.
Attribution in a climate model and causation in a courtroom are not the same thing. Standing, evidentiary standards, jurisdiction — if litigation follows, it will be brutal and slow… (Continue to full article)
Before we get into Trump’s suicide mission to end the Iran war by destroying the US dollar, we should lead off with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s confession about how stupid he is because we have to grasp the ignorance level of those in charge to really believe they are embarking on their dumbest war plan to date.
The Jerry Lewis Klutz Award for Mental Gymnastics has to go this week to this statement by Secretary Bessent:
On Thursday, hours after announcing that Washington would keep its naval blockade and hit Iran with the too toughest sanctions in history, the Treasury Secretary watched crude climb and told CNBC, “I’m not sure why oil has popped up on this.” He called it a spike he doesn’t understand, and waved it off as noise. Buried in the bafflement is a remarkable assumption: that slapping draconian sanctions on a major oil producer should make oil cheaper.
It actually includes a lot more asinine assumptions than the overall thought that Bessent’s new financial war against Iran will make oil cheaper. For example… (Continue to full article)
The cast of characters during the political cycles over the past decade or so has provided plenty of satirical fuel for political cartoons across the USA TODAY Network. As the 2026 calendar moves into the fall behind a whirlwind of tariffs and taxes and political headlines from President Donald Trump and more, we’re looking back on some of the best of the best cartoons in recent history.
The cast of characters during the political cycles over the past decade or so has provided plenty of satirical fuel for political cartoons across the USA TODAY Network.
As the 2026 calendar moves into the fall behind a whirlwind of tariffs and taxes and political headlines from President Donald Trump and more, we’re looking back on some of the best of the best cartoons in recent history.
There are moments in the history of a republic when the deepest questions are not questions of policy, party, or personalities, but questions of first principles. Such moments arise when a government claims a power that the people never granted it, when an institution entrusted with enforcing a constitution begins to behave as though it were empowered to rewrite one, or when generations become so accustomed to a particular constitutional arrangement that they cease to ask the most elementary question of all:
Every generation searches for answers. Young people have always challenged the status quo, questioned authority, and sought a better future than the one they inherited. That impulse is not only understandable, but it is often essential to a healthy democracy. It is how societies reform, innovate, and correct injustice.
Yet one question has resurfaced with increasing frequency on college campuses, social media, and in political discourse: Why are some young people embracing communism or openly expressing sympathy for socialist and communist ideas despite the overwhelming historical record of communist governments?
The answer deserves more than slogans or political attacks. It deserves honesty, humility, and historical perspective. Continue reading
What you are about to read was written and posted on the date posted below… But then one must ask – “Does satire eventually come to pass and become reality?” Read on my friends – and then click on the Link at the end of the article – and see what apparently HAS come to pass! ~ Editor
October 27, 2018 ~ So I was awakened this morning with a phone call from some pushy woman doing a survey as to whether I had received my voting packages in the mail, to which I responded that I had. She then raised her voice in a snotty manner and demanded to know, “When are you going to send them in?” I told her, “When the people of Arizona start putting up quality people for office” and then told her to leave me alone. HEY – she woke me up out of a sound sleep – whaddya want? Continue reading
Let that sink in.This is a woman who has spent years in Congress producing more Instagram posts than actual legislation. Her legislative resume is thinner than the paper her Green New Deal was printed on. She’s the political equivalent of a restaurant with a fantastic social media page, but found to have an empty kitchen. Before she got into politics, she was a bartender who couldn’t remember the ingredients to a rum and coke.
OK, we’re joking about the drink – we’re sure she’s far more qualified to be a bartender or barista than a president. Continue reading
NOTE: The Federal Observer published the first 5 entries to this series in late June of 2021. As of July, 2021, the author had completed the series and Part Six – And the winner is??? has now been added at the bottom of this post. ~ Ed.
Is this all real, is there a problem or is what we see manufactured by the people who profit from the chaos they create? Both sides of this conflict – yes, it is a conflict – claim the other side is wholly to blame.
So stop for a moment and think. Ask yourself – who really wins in this situation? It certainly isn’t the people involved in this violence or hatred or conflict, and it certainly isn’t the citizens of this country. Continue reading
Not one of the people the email, below, was sent to, had the intestinal fortitude to respond. They are hoping that, if they don’t respond, this will go away. ~ L.F.
Mayor,
Spokane City Council,
I particularly ‘enjoyed’ reading Mayor Lisa Brown’s Q&A piece with Emry Dinman last week. One has to wonder if the Spokesman Review collaborated with the mayor’s office on what questions Dinman could ask.
In that article, Mayor Lisa Brown claims that “we’ve always taken the view that traffic safety and fire safety are where community safety really meets people.” Continue reading
When I was 10 years old, the United States was one trillion dollars in debt. Now we are nearly 40 trillion dollars in debt. So what did we get for spending 39 trillion dollars that we did not have? What we got was a gigantic mountain of debt that threatens to bring down our entire system. But the Congress critters in D.C. will never stop wasting our money. In fact, if the Democrats do really well in the upcoming midterm elections it is probably inevitable that our tax dollars will be going out the door faster than ever before.
I have been ranting about our national debt for nearly two decades. Continue reading
The Phillies and Twins take the field ahead of the 2026 MLB at Field of Dreams Game, featuring 26 Hall of Famers from baseball history on August 13, 2026.
This video is dedicated to men who served in the 498th Medical Company, also known as the 498th Dust Off, during the time the unit was operating in Vietnam – from 1965 to 1971. The video runs a little over 30 minutes and contains 385 photographs of men who served in the 498th while it was in Vietnam.
Many of the images are mine and many were lent to me for posting on my 498th Facebook page (498th Dust Off – Vietnam’s Finest). I’d like to thank all those who were kind enough to allow me to use their photographs. This video replaces one I created and uploaded last year (using many of the same images) which was recently blocked by YouTube due to a copyright snafu. I changed the format to allow for additional images and I change most of the songs. The songs in the sound track run, more or less, chronologically from 1965 to 1971.
I hope you’ll take the time to view the slideshow, and if you do, I hope you enjoy it.
Thank you.
Dennis E. Bishop
RTO, 498th Dust Off
Republic of Vietnam
December 1969 to December 1970.
For the past several years, probably more than I care to admit, decisions have been made that affect nearly all of us. I’m referring to the Portable Altar of Enlightenment: the modern smartphone, or cellphone, as many people call it. I prefer the moniker I’ve coined, PAE.
This ubiquitous personal appendage is in nearly every hand, from age 8 to 80 and beyond, across the country. The latest count puts the number of wireless subscriptions at over 331 million, and because many people own more than one connected device, the total number of phones and related units exceeds 380 million.
The PAE is the quintessential communication device. It provides instantaneous, bidirectional information transfer across the globe. There are precious few places on this planet these devices cannot reach; where they cannot, the satellite phone – Sat Phone, if you prefer – can still find us.
So as we watch, we are also being watched. But that is not entirely my point. Continue reading
This is something we all hope will never come to pass in America, but the way things have gone in the country since 2008, it’s not out of the realm of possibilities, depending on what direction America chooses after Trump is gone. Let’s hope and pray this is really just a figment of my imagination and not a prophecy of things to come.
If things should ever really play out as I describe in this essay and I live to see it, I’ll be old as dirt, depending on just how fast our decline moves — I’m thinking we’ll see major civil upheavals by 2935 due to several economic factors coming into the dynamic that year – and I’ll probably be more than ready to call it a day and slip on into the Great Beyond.
But not before I take a few thousand of America’s enemies along with me – pulling the trigger while sittin’ on my front porch if it comes down to it… Continue reading
You will note that the following video has been posted in two separate categories, “Point Blank and “Take a Little Pill.” What is interesting to me – is that in many respects – it was the 1960’s that much of what is presented in this video – is what led to the “taking of the little pill”. If you are not familiar with the reference, then I might suggest that you read a lengthy column which I wrote some years ago – and I DID witness the history of what was being discussed. Go ahead – read it: But it’s all OK – Just Take a Little Pill… where I opened with these simple words: “I was a third week Senior at Glenbrook North High School in 1965 – and I knew that something was wrong…” ~ Jeffrey Bennett, Editor
Parents are frustrated with public education and justifiably so. Most of the school day is spent on non-academic activities that are mainly DEI-related. This has been going on for a long time. Now a private school in Oklahoma is selling what looks like an escape: classrooms with no human teachers.
AI software will deliver the entire academic curriculum. Students will spend two hours a day in front of screens while algorithms teach them. The school claims these children learn twice as fast and post sky-high SAT scores. Do not fall for it! Continue reading
Cracked US flag, political divisions in America
Over the last 50 years, trust in the federal government has declined dramatically. About 77% of Americans once said they trusted the government. Today, that number has fallen to roughly 18%.
Events this week on Capitol Hill provided fresh examples of why trust in the federal government has eroded. Continue reading
Jeffrey Bennett, Publisher
After 27 years since I developed the site for Dr. Kelley – I have come to the conclusion that it is time to shut it down.
It is interesting that I received a recent request and offer to publish a contribution from a writer, but at the time I received his offer – I was going through some records – and I chose to share some of the records with him – and I believe that you – the reader – will better understand why I have made this decision.
The following is a moderation of that which I sent out to the author several weeks ago:
I am no longer able to continue on with the marvelous and important web-site..
It is a long story, but a dirty one – as a woman who was trained by Kelley has spent 27 years lining her own pockets and using Kelley’s name for her own purposes – and toward the end of his life – Kelley realized what a lying, greedy piece of garbage that she was (and I am being polite here).
She has gone out of her way to destroy all that I have done with the Kelley site since it’s inception in 1999, and she has gone out of her way to destroy the entirety of the Kelley family business – which up until 3 years ago – was the ONLY LEGAL supplier of the Kelley Enzymes. In addition to all of the above – she has done all that she could to insure that others who were trained by Dr. Kelley – would not be able to work with Cancer “victims” – INCLUDING me – who was also trained by the Doctor.
I could greatly expand on her story and what it has cost those of us who were committed to Kelley’s great work – but frankly – it would be a waste of my time to continue.
The sad part of all of this is – is that I made the difficult decision to shut down the Kelley site – something that truly makes me sad.
NOTE: To those of you who may be reading this column, I have been in touch with my printer and I HAVE ordered some copies of Dr. Kelley’s books, “Victory Over Cancer without Surgery, Chemotherapy or Radiation” and “The Self-Test for the Different Metabolic Types“. If you have an interest or need for either or both of Dr. Kelley’s books – do contact me via phone or email. so long as there is a need or interest – I will never cease making them available. ~ J.B.
For those of you who have been long time readers of the Kelley site, We thank you with all sincerity. You will note that what has been posted on Dr. Kelley’s web-site for all of these years – has now been removed, and it is expected that the final section dealing with ONE specific category – which has been poisoning our children in addition to their families since the early 1960’s – Bennett: But it’s all OK – Just Take a Little Pill… has now been transferred to the Federal Observer under the category of, “Take a Little Pill…” (but it might be going through a minor title adjustment – so stay tuned!)
Kettle Moraine, Ltd.
P.O. Box 579
Litchfield Park, AZ 85340
602 – 799 – 8214
KettleMoraineLtd@cox.net
“The theory of Communism may be summed up in one sentence: Abolish all private property.” ~ Karl Marx
“The goal of socialism is communism” ~ Vladimir Lenin
It has been said that communism will always attempt to come in through the front door. If locked, it will try the back door, if that fails, it will crawl in through a window. Continue reading