Category: Reply To

Submitted By: tduncan@pacifier.com – Click to email about this post

A note to you, Barbara–
Much gratitude for you and Chuck and your tireless work of building community. BBQ is one thing I read almost every day, a combination of postings and color! photos of stuff for sale, and interesting soicological perspectives, with the frequent beautiful poem thrown in. I am educated by the opinions regarding local goings-on. And sometimes I even get it together to drive from Astoria to catch a play or workshop, thanks to your BBQ. I am not on social media, so for me, it’s an artery of info.
I am, and always have been, charmed by your grace and charity, and your generosity of spirit. Thank you so much for giving us this amazing gift for so many days and years!
Love, Sue Skinner

Submitted By: dixiedarrow@icloud.com – Click to email about this post

Reply to B’ McLoughlins post’ – social security not hacked. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsGdTviSxCo. . THE CHECKS ARE BEING CASHED!! This video with Sen. John Kennedy and his bill should have had a date on it. But the current act is set to expire in 2026. The name of the bill is “Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act”— the video was put out by Forbes magazine, a prominent business magazine! Forbes also has a news channel that you can watch on you tube if you get tired of slanted news. It focuses on the economy and business. Kennedy and Carper have now introduced new legislation—the Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act—to make the measure permanent. No one will know if anyone is hacking your deceased family members social security. How would you? You send in the death notices and that is the end of it. No more social security checks arrive in your mail!! That is all you know. When my mother died, I had to get lots of death notices to send out to the required people, SS, banks, insurance, and I can’t remember all. When my husband died, I had to do the same. 69 million people receive social security checks every month! There are 3 million deaths on average reported to SS every year. I am sure most of these death benefits are not hacked. But I do not believe that Senator John Kennedy would go to the work of introducing a bill, If there were no reason for it. And he has data! Watch the video? Do you think he is making that up? Why would a senator do that? It takes a lot of work and a lot of time to produce a measure for the Senate to consider.
If I were a new or even old director of an agency I would also deny that social security fraud was happening. The most likely truth is that there is always some fraud in every agency that pays out money.
There are and will be problems with the DOGE audit. I do not feel positive with the shutting down of some SS centers around the United States, and it is true that the elderly, which definitely includes me, have problems with using the internet. I rely on my kids for help. I just tested out a web site that was supposed to show social security offices around the country, wondering if the one in Warrenton is targeted for closurel Probably too soon to tell! This web site wanted you to PAY for the information – 5 bucks – and has a place where you needed to put in your credit card info!! That is so frustrating! Of course I would not pay for that info, it should be free. I am definitely sure that site was not a SS web page. Despite problems and the accompaning hysteria about DOGE. I am all for it – I want a DOGE for Oregon!! It is good for citizens to keep their governments honest!

Submitted By: john@bainassociatesinc.com – Click to email about this post

This is a request to depoliticize the Site (again). The most recent issue had a political post.

I’m not writing to agree or disagree with the poster.

I’m writing to suggest that this site stay apolitical so that it can serve the needs of the users without triggering acrimony or conflict.

There are plenty of sites where political issues are welcome.

As a practical matter, no one is learning from the sort of post in the most recent issue. Those who agree, agree, those who don’t won’t.

The post wasn’t a call for engagement or debate. So what was it? What was the point? What does the poster want to happen?

This isn’t a free speech issue. The poster is certainly free to post anything, anywhere, any time that the platform allows it.

It reminds me of my neighbor’s dog in the city. It barks loudly and that is all it could do, is bark. We already know it’s a dog. Everyone knows it’s a dog. Of course the dog’s excuse is a brain the size of a walnut. Hmmm.

Feel free to message me if political commentary is a direction the users want to go. I’m happy to no longer participate.

Submitted By: genedieken@yahoo.com – Click to email about this post

Andy Norris lost me in the first sentence of his recent pro-Russia screed: “Russia lost 50-million soldiers fighting Nazis in WW2.”

The total Soviet population from the somewhat-reliable 1939 census was 170,500,000, so clearly, 50,000,000 military war losses is way off.

Generally agreed upon Soviet deaths are estimated to have been 13,000,000 military and 14,000,000 civilian. The largest ethnic groups were Russians and Ukrainians.

Of course these two numbers don’t include Soviet losses incurred from 1939 to 1941 when Russia aligned with the Nazis to take over Poland and the Baltic countries.

Opinions are malleable, facts less so.

Gene Dieken

Below:
Soviet War Memorial in Tiergarten, Berlin

Submitted By: yuiqwe1@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

The biggest medicare fraud case in history involved Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott. Why isn’t he in jail? Probably because if he was Trump would pardon him. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Scott#:~:text=During%20his%20tenure%20as%20chief,fraud%20settlement%20in%20U.S.%20history.

Submitted By: genedieken@yahoo.com – Click to email about this post

About a month ago Dixie Gainer assured us that Elon Musk and his Doge boys were going to take 90 days to straighten out the Federal government. I’m afraid they need to pick up the pace. The calendar now says 60 days till Elon’s miracle will appear from on high in a blaze of Crypto Glory.

But now she’s telling us “…and this is what is happening right now – getting a handle on excessive spending. that is what Trump is doing now – getting a handle on excessive spending. Thank god for that. If we go bankrupt, social security medicare, and medicaid will be dumped as America tries to become solvent again… [it’s] a Herculean task that could take decades.”

Meanwhile, GOP Reps in Congress just passed their version of a budget bill that aims to effectively eliminate Medicaid, throwing millions into pervasive insecurity while preserving trillions in tax cuts for billionaires.

Also, Ms Gainer feels that Elon deserves commendation for performing this Doge miracle for free. Free? Really? Did SpaceX just happen to bump Verizon out of their existing contract with the FFA for air traffic control modernization by chance? Nothing to see here! Move on! “Since you can’t do anything about it – watch fun stuff…”

Probably a good idea to remind yourself occasionally about Ms Gainer’s reliability by reviewing the post by BBQ’s own editors (RIP, beloved Chuck) about her allegations of tainted voter rolls in Oregon during last year’s election cycle:

www.northcoastbbq.com/2024/10/26/response-to-dixie-gainer-about-judicial-watch/

Gene Dieken

Submitted By: Karmatenfol@aol.com – Click to email about this post

“I could hear my heart beating. I could hear everyone’s heart. I could hear the human noise we sat there making, not one of us moving, not even when the room went dark.”
― Raymond Carver

Submitted By: lynn.joy.steinberg@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

I’d like to respond to some misinformation, and to those who have cheered the President’s dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. with a few facts noted by the NY Times today:
1. “The president, much less Elon Musk, cannot shut down a federal agency without a vote by Congress. To do so is illegal under the Constitution.”
2. “More than half U.S.A.I.D.’s spending in 2023 went to health programs intended to stop the spread of diseases such as polio, Ebola, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria or to humanitarian assistance to respond to emergencies and help stabilize war-torn regions. If you care about preventing the next pandemic or the pressures of global migration, U.S.A.I.D. is an investment you should want the United States to make.”

Submitted By: genedieken@yahoo.com – Click to email about this post

Hope Stanton’s recent piece expresses the confusion and fear many of us are feeling about the current state of our federal government.
One small way to feel less inundated is choosing better words to describe/oppose this takeover. Journalism in the Trump era became feckless because it chose to use inoffensive words to describe offensive behavior.
So personally, I’m not going to use words like “firings” or “layoffs” or “resignations” or “re-orderings” or “buyouts” to describe what’s happening with federal departments, programs, and workers. These are business words and inappropriate to the purges, criminality, clueless/intentional destruction, and despisal of the constitution going on at the hands of these scoundrels.
The words you use can be a mark of your resolve and courage. It was said of Churchill during Britain’s darkest hour in 1940: “He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.”
Gene Dieken

Submitted By: genedieken@yahoo.com – Click to email about this post

I’m a bit confused by Dixie Gainer’s notion that the first aircraft accidents to happen during the Trump/Doge administration were caused by DEI.

DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) is kind of table salt for rightwing conspiracy theories. Just shake on a little DEI and every allegation is much more savory!

For better answers about aviation accidents I recommend checking out Juan Browne at the Blancolirio channel on Youtube. Browne is a current Boeing 777 airline second officer who also provides thorough analysis of every incident, big and small.

DC incident:
https://youtu.be/n9mAUks0krI?si=rJ1gAxaCj4_g6vk-

Philadelphia incident:
https://youtu.be/u6_bLhBMngY?si=_t75OpV0gc1b4IP1

And here, I will say I do not trust Elon Musk being anywhere near the FAA. He hates it with a dark passion because the staff regulates safety and other aspects of his rocket business.

Gene Dieken

Submitted By: tevisdiii@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

I got busy so this is a delayed addition to the expanding planet concept.

I watched the hour plus rant, — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5sDo9ffl_E — and found the presentation disjointed and condescending. The presenter seems more focused on emphasizing that only an ignorant fool would consider such a concept because plate tectonics is obviously accepted as fact, whereas the whole point is to question what is accepted and it seems there are aspects that are questionable.

There are many examples throughout history of theories that harden into facts and are used by scholars to build whole institutions of research which then are forced to change as new perspectives are introduced. It happens through debate and it can be, and often is heated because of invested funds and egos. An example would be the idea of conformatism, that earth changes have always been slow, measured in eons, but with the exponential increase of tools to collect and collate data, ideas that magnetic reversals and cosmic impacts, including solar blasts, can occur far more often than previously thought, and are being accepted. It now appears that our planet’s history is peppered with events that literally changed the world, overnight in some cases, and not only are these recorded in the bones of the earth itself but painted on cave walls, in oral traditions and text. Old mysteries give up their secrets.

With the use of LIDAR imaging it’s now obvious that much of the Amazonian basin was once inhabited by a vast, complex society and the present forest is the remains of their runaway gardens. The point is that our planet, and in fact all of our sibling planets and their moons are offering up new perspectives daily on basic heavenly body mechanics. Our inclusion of plasma energy in an electric universe shows us how systems spin themselves into being like a cotton candy machine. How hard is it to imagine that a heavenly body can grow or shrink depending on its environment. When we refer to our earth as a living being is this just hyperbole?

On offer below are a few video lessons which show the range of views surrounding the study of earth’s crust. In some areas it’s a hot topic and if you are intrigued, consider these as just cracks in the door of earth sciences.

This presentation is similar to the one mentioned above and disputes the concept of expansion but is much more nuanced and provides details and history that helps with context. These are not simple studies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMOeFcff2ws&t=415s

Here is another example of dismissal out of hand using “accepted hypothesis” and theory as proof.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epwg6Od49e8&list=PLP7MGT6-gD1SLSYYfPdbxgFRhivKgmVnr

Here is another presentation which stacks theory on top of theory and shows just how wide open the foundation on which continental drift theory rests.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81KDvZ3B_ts

This lesson does a good job of detailing the mechanism of spreading ocean floors, which is a well known feature of our living planet. 12 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgYpZEacLuk&t=504s

Here is an observational documentary which explores many of those questionable aspects of the continental drift theory in some detail. This is an easy one to watch. 25 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9CQnFPnDls&t=469s

Another professor with questions. 25 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Othb0xsvZb4

Some major problems with plate tectonics. 8 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qoTs7w22r4

Plate tectonics at 55; not set in stone. Dr. James Kieth. This one requires focus because it gets into details
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTM01tML0IY

Modeling the earth’s geology just using data. Maxwell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO609uOKM2I

Submitted By: hatallman@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

https://youtu.be/O5sDo9ffl_E?si=ytdnVXp7wy6nj-p0

The video is on the long side but that might be because it contains actual scientific information while being respectful towards Neal Adams.

Submitted By: genedieken@yahoo.com – Click to email about this post

Just a response to Dixie Gainer’s abridged post of Ron Paul’s opinion piece on the authorization to use US weapons and technology to strike targets proximate to the Russian border (within 250 miles or so). Now we are also seeing some American air support for rebels trying to overthrow the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.
First let me acknowledge that Ms Gainer has many times demonstrated her fealty to what one might call the traditional Republican Party, the party that would be familiar to those in their mid-30s and older. I never supported that GOP, but it did have some reassuring qualities. I’ll simply assert here that that party no longer exists and has been replaced by something far darker.
Now about the Pauls. Both former Congressman Ron and current Senator Rand are proponents of the so-called Libertarian movement, an incomplete philosophy that strove for maximum liberty, minimum government, and no responsibility being placed on the wealthy/powerful who benefit maximally from the society created by every citizen (the commonweal). Libertarianism is now not much liked across the political spectrum except for the Silicon Valley/tech-bro community such as Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance, Larry Ellison, etc. who have rebranded it as “techno-utopianism.”
More important for this conversation, the Pauls are known to be emphatic supporters of (if not agents for) Russia. The quiet part has been said out loud, many time over the years. This has been a very noticeable trend in the GOP for years (google: Maria Butina) and now shapes Donald Trump’s policy toward Russia (google: Helsinki Summit). Thus I won’t ascribe much trustworthiness to anything either Paul says. And I’ll also assert here that the above-mentioned tech-bros have more connection with Russia than we should be comfortable with (google: Musk calls Putin regularly).
Biden’s recent authorization to use US weapons across the Ukraine border IS troubling. But the US and NATO have resisted this for three years as the Russians carried on an aerial war of obliteration largely against civilian targets in Ukraine. Russia and Syria worked this same game plan in Syria as Assad obliterated nearly the entire city of Aleppo over the years. Same game plan in Grozny, Chechnya. Where do we draw lines? It’s pretty clear where the once and future President and his captured GOP will draw them.
Gene
Please note that Dixie Gainer is NOT your friendly Manzanita wine merchant.

Submitted By: thedicedwitch@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Makes me so happy to see *someone* finally confront Dixie about her conspiracy theory and misinformation spreading she’s doing. So many people watching Fox and thinking it’s news. Literally classified as an entertainment company, not a news agency. It’s just so disappointing to see many of our neighbors and peers post in support of a man that wants to be a dictator and whose running mate thinks it’s absolutely ok to spread lies and misinformation if it means getting votes.

Anyway. More of us really should be countering and debating a lot of the straight up lies being spread here.

Submitted By: linadivenere@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Bravo diwax54

Submitted By: rkinor@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Let’s assume that both the City Manager and Accounting Clerk both spend two hours each day of every week that they show up to the office for the entire year on nothing but Water Fund business. This is an unrealistic estimate but I will be generous to make sure that all those daily meetings with the Public Works Director are accounted for.

Based on the salaries of these two positions, the City Manager should be reimbursed approximately $33,000 and the Accounting Clerk $22,000 for their respective time in their administrative support roles of the Water Fund. That leaves about $144,000 this budget year for your toner, paper, share of City Hall electricity, Water Fund cost share for a new printer every 3-4 years etc. Please do some better research to show how your narrative describing overhead allocation aligns with the dollars being transferred out of the Water Fund for the support services being described.

Remember Mr John Kunkle, the retired City Manager the Council hired as an interim prior to Ms Aman? For almost a year Mr Kunkle led the City which of course included providing his administrative support to the Water Fund doing all those tasks that the author has identified. At the end of his service with the City, Mr Kunkle estimated that he spent approximately 10-15% of his time in this activity. So just 3 years ago based on the salary Mr Kunkle was receiving, the Water Fund would have been reimbursing the City Manager $8,400 – $12,600 for these services.

Remember when Mr Kunkle told the City Council that he wouldn’t be making the transfer of $113,675 from the Water Fund to the City Hall Expansion Fund that the Budget Committee recommended and Council wanted to make because there was no justification for it?

With the use of money from the Water Fund coming under greater scrutiny, more creative explanations seem to have been found to keep the money flowing into the General Fund. After all, those debt payments starting next year on the loan for the new City Hall have to be paid and the banks do not care which City Fund the money comes from.
Randy Kugler

Submitted By: cbbcalm@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Reply to Tevis : Thank you yes many plans have a politic expression .
Dear Chuck and Barbara I have appreciated very much bbq. it has showed the pulse of the coast.
Yes to Diversity in our Learning discoveries Opening our Minds sharing those without fear of being shamed
Can we go from detesting to Caring
corinna & Daniel

Submitted By: diwax@msn.com – Click to email about this post

Concuring with both recent posts from Kathie and Judith.

Diane

Submitted By: babbles@nehalemtel.net – Click to email about this post

in response to last night’s post,

i find the employees at the Manzanita Transfer Station always friendly, cheerful and helpful.

i ditto paul’s appreciation.

om peace namaste

lucy brook
nehalem resident

Thank You Manzanita Transfer Station Employees!!!
Posted on July 15, 2024 by North Coast BBQ

Submitted By: badplaceforastump@gmail.com – Click to email about this post
I want to let the workers at the transfer station (I haven’t lived here long enough to call it CARTM) know how much I appreciate them. Though they’ve been hit by illness and weren’t open Thursday, they’ve been open the past two days, which I don’t think has been all that easy. In normal times I really enjoy going there, as they are a fine, fine bunch of folks, but to be able to do a few dump runs when they are not at full strength makes me appreciate them all the more!
Paul

Submitted By: glowpurple@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

I support the “Request to sign opinion posts” posting policy in North Coast BBQ. No need to hide if you are sharing informative material, constructive comments, and even complaints that are non-inflammatory.

Kit Keating

Submitted By: garys@nehalemtel.net – Click to email about this post

A few months ago there was someone on BBQ who was looking for a used sliding glass door for their greenhouse.
I forgot who you were, lost my sticky note with your contact info – hoping we can find each other through BBQ today.
Our new door will be going in around July 2 and the old door will be ready for you then.
Email me, or text, or call – 360-620-2685.
Thanks,
Gary

Submitted By: yuiqwe1@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Is there a conspiracy theory you don’t subscribe to? Do you ever post any credible sources for your hysteria? Lastly hey, if you don’t like masks don’t wear one. Sometimes sick people wear masks to protect others, some have pollen allergies but go ahead and slam them from your position of superior authority, or find something more rewarding and productive to do.

Submitted By: genedieken@yahoo.com – Click to email about this post

I haven’t quite been able to figure out why anti-vaxers and anti-maskers are often very pro-Russian, very hateful of our own country with all its flaws, and also despise people with different views of society, politics, and health.

As for masks, Andy, you have no idea why anyone chooses to wear a mask but insist on your right to pre-judge and condemn them. What or who makes you So, So Special? I’ve known some patriarchal dudes in my life, but… wow!

Gene Dieken

Submitted By: genedieken@yahoo.com – Click to email about this post

The School Choice movement (also widely known as school voucher or ESA programs) is a project devised and supported by members of the DeVos, Koch, and Walton families, and leaders of the Bradley Foundation among others, in an attempt to ultimately strangle public education.

I have followed an implementation by Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Legislature. The first wave hit the public schools by unpredictably lowering their funding immediately, thus making committed spending based on budgetary projections a challenge to meet. The Iowa diocesan schools didn’t allow Catholic parents to use the voucher payment to lower their tuition costs, they simply raised tuition instead. The legislature is now in disarray about how to pay for the financial peril created by their shiny new voucher program. It’s the same in several other Red states. www.bleedingheartland.com/2023/07/07/costs-soar-for-iowas-school-voucher-plan/

Oregonians should stay far away from this hobby project by far-right billionaires.

www.vox.com/politics/23689496/school-choice-education-savings-accounts-american-federation-children

www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/state-policymakers-should-reject-k-12-school-voucher-plans

time.com/6272666/school-voucher-programs-hurt-students/

www.brookings.edu/articles/research-on-school-vouchers-suggests-concerns-ahead-for-education-savings-accounts/

Gene Dieken

Submitted By: jamesk3nn3r@aol.com – Click to email about this post

It’s not about not supporting.
accountability for all

https://youtu.be/5nyFKDGOV14?si=eoEshsSp2bvjDV3q