Sloan gave me a long look that said, “Me and you both, buddy.”

Then he turned into the lot, sighed, and said, “I don’t either.”

What is the attraction of a fair to someone who isn’t interested in anything anyone’s selling? I’ve said I could be happy with a book, a beer, and a pair of hiking shoes. What does a fair add on to this? The joy of crowds? As for what is sold,

• anything they have is going to be cheaper at a store, and then cheaper again online

• if they sell food it’s going to be 25% more than at a food truck or fast food place

• I could sit down at a quiet restaurant and eat comfortably, without the noise, plastic utensils, styrofoam, overflowing garbage cans, sun, wind, etc.

Now, guess who is setting up their tents right across from, and right next to Bitterroot Beacon Radio?

• The US Army

• The US Marines

“Hey Sloan, should I tell them right away that the US would have been better off not getting into any war since the Revolution, or leave that question for later.”

Sloan thought about that.

I said, “I could ask them which war they think we’ve fought was a legit defense of the nation.”

“If you ask that one I’m filming,” said Sloan.

Honestly, what should I do? The Army and Marines are there to recruit. Should I yell out at the patriotic local teenagers, “HEY, YOU SURE YOU WANT TO SIGN UP AND GO DIE FOR ISRAEL?”

I’d be a big hit at the fair!

Man, I bet I could come up with a hundred good questions for the recruiter. Thing is, I have friends who don’t disagree with me about our ridiculous, never-ending, costly wars, but who would admonish me with, “Don’t be anti-social at the fair.” Maybe there’s a clever way to go about this. Any ideas?

WWJD? He’d probably consider the mischief and mayhem our military has caused over the years, walk over to those tents and flip their tables. Right?

Sloan said, “Too bad you didn’t get placed next to Roger’s chemtrail tent.

Anyway, wish me luck at the fair. Maybe I’ll have some of these memes printed up poster size, to increase my popularity in a very patriotic valley. I think the first two here will win me many friends.

I’m being fun but really I already have that tract in my mind and I will indeed post it here; for the time being I’m too busy getting things ready for the county fair and NYC trip.

Speaking of apologetics and evangelizing, there is a spectrum of course of how persistent/manifestly spirit-filled/overtly evangelistic a Christian (or adherent of any philosophy) one chooses to be. When Sloan Youngblood and Mark Ryan are out and about, they can’t wait to share the Good News with everyone. I’m more reserved. I just ran into Gil Nystrom yesterday. I said, “Hey Gil, when are you going to give me your pitch for the Orthodox Church that you promised?”

Gil said, “Yeah. You know, I think I might have to pass. I’m thinking I’m less keen about trying to go out and convince people. I’m aiming toward a more quiet approach to my sharing Orthodoxy.”

My dad always told me about his uncle Charlie, who would pester him every time he visited Eugene, OR.: “Billy, are you good with God? Do you know Jesus?” Charlie meant well, but this approach didn’t work with my dad. For now, I lean toward a more moderate approach.

Aristotle, Ben Franklin and Oscar Wilde are perhaps the most famous names in the “Everything in Moderation” camp. In Wilde’s case, this is probably because there’s a funny line attributed by some to Wilde : “Everything in moderation, including moderation.” I really like that one but it is almost certainly apocryphal, considering his lifestyle and things we know he said.

So when I put myself on the in-your-face vs. reserved evangelizer spectrum, I apply my everything within reason approach to place myself in the proper range on the spectrum. It’s tricky- go too far to the right and you’re going to scare off the Bill Shumways of this world; too far to the left and you might get the I never knew you treatment at Judgment.

There’s another related spectrum: The all-thoughts captive vs. no thoughts captive spectrum. Now the fervent evangelical might say, “Wrong, Dan. For the Christian, there’s no spectrum here as there is no equivocating 2 Corinthians 10:5!”

Sloan and Mark in expert-scripture-rememberer unison: Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ!

Dan: Well, yes…within reason.

Sloan and Mark: Heretic! You will burn!

Devil:

Had to throw that in. I used to use that voice to shock friends and get a laugh back in my jr. high days. Maybe uncle Charlie should have used it on my dad- fear of hell is a strong motivator to choose good and shun evil. I think it is why evil doers have trouble sleeping at night. Maybe I’ll incorporate it into my apologetics tract.

The issue of hold every thought came up yesterday at church. I don’t know if that scripture was quoted or not, but the idea of bringing God into everything did come up. It’s a very common biblical theme:

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."
— Proverbs 3:5–6 (ESV)

“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, — Col 3:17 & 3:23

Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." — 1 Cor. 10:31

What prompted the introduction of this theme was a story from Priscilla. She began by saying that that morning when she started her truck, “the gas light was on” (i.e. gas running very low). Long story short- Glory be to God- Priscilla easily made it to the gas station and it turns out there was gas to spare.

Then everything within reason Shumway had to open his big fat mouth.

D- Priscilla, is your truck a Chevy by chance? (remember I have a Suburban)

P- Well, yeah. I mean, it’s a GMC.

D (knowingly nodding)- Ah, OK. Electrical!

Her truck is old like mine. Probably came from the same factory. I know from mechanics and friends that GM cars from 25 years ago, give or take, were notorious for electrical problems. My gas light is flashing all the time. So is every other warning on the panel. I ignore it. The Burb runs fine.

But later in the service, Dave Gleason, who is a God always and everywhere Christian, just like Sloan and Mark, chided me a bit on this secular explanation for the gas light miracle thing. He said something to the tune of, “We can say electrical and what not, but we musn’t fail to see God’s hand in everything!”

I kept my peace. Who am I to spoil a good spiritual lesson?

Sometimes Dave can be a bit of a demotivator for me. As you know, all this truth-telling stuff in my interviews, monologues and writings involves focusing on evil. If the Synagogue of Satan is hounding you and you want to fight it, you might have to occasionally consider and mention the Synagogue of Satan, metaphorically speaking at least (but also literally). But frequently, when the group gets to talking about fighting evil, Dave is quick to jump in and say something to the tune of, “All distraction! What you need to do is simply put your focus on God!”

This injunction is fine if you are over-obsessed with evil and it’s becoming something that distracts you from your duty, job, role etc. and you become consumed. But what if your duty is indeed to point out evil?! Dave is a competent, successful construction contractor and he doesn’t need to be depressed and fret about Masonic malevolence when he’s putting up sheet rock or running the numbers on an estimate. I don’t do that either when I’m out doing seasonal work; The Rothschild financial juggernaut does not keep me from doing a fine job at beautifying a pond. I’m not close enough to Dave to know him well, but I imagine his time is spent in

• construction

• family

• church and meditation

• fun

with an emphasis on eyes on God in everything he does.

It seems to work very well for him. He’s successful, confident, calm and happy. And he’s very generous. More power to him. But I would just say one thing to him: Dave, my list is like yours, but there’s one more thing:

• work

• family

• church

• fun

• attacking the Synagogue of Satan (or to be less dramatic, simply “battling evil”)

Just because your life doesn’t regularly involve pointing out evil, doesn’t mean it’s not an integral and necessary part of mine. You do your construction and I’ll do my:

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Roger, a good friend of mine- a fellow Saturday-breakfast zealous truth-crusader, was at the Creamery Picnic telling me about his upcoming County-Fair Chemtrail Tent.

DWS interviews Roger Mitchell (12 min.) click video above.

In this chapter: Fauci trying to cover biological tracks; blaming Wuhan; reporting to the FBI; consternation among the participants; “I don’t recall”; Fauci being shown the evidence; top experts concluding an engineered virus as the most likely scenario.

Link to chapter 15.

Link to all chapters.

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There are no shortage of stories and vignettes that come off the soccer field on Sundays and Wednesdays. Like my stories from Weedville, Ditch Valley and the rest of the Bitterroot, I give everyone pseudonyms, to make it all fiction, just in case I get a fact wrong and someone sues me for libel.

In this case I will not use a pseudonym for the main character. It’s always fun to do, and sometimes I think my fake names match the real person better than their real name, but in this case, I simply have to go with the real name.

There’s a guy at soccer whose name is Hitler.

You think I’m joking but it’s true. He’s a Guatemalan seasonal worker and a fine middle defender.

Here is how I’ve dealt with this situation:

And now, I introduce the paywall, something I virtually never do. For one, I don’t feel like restricting my content to only those who have the spare change to pay for it. Secondly, I don’t think my writing is good enough (and PC enough) to generate much income anyway. So why the paywall here?

Well, just before clicking ‘publish now’ on this piece, I got cold feet and wondered if I wasn’t getting a laugh at someone’s expense. There truly is a player on the pitch named Hitler, and this brings up interesting situations and dilemmas. In exploring these, I can’t help but chuckle- it’s like a Monty Python sketch, but real. And it’s all true. Nevertheless, I was unsure about publishing, so I sent the story off to two trusted friends and asked their opinion. One said, “Publish it,” and one said, “Don’t.” Ha! Smooth move, DW- now I have to disappoint one friend or the other.

However, a solution presented itself. I’ll publish it with a paywall! Which means almost nobody will read this, heh. I have 1,147 combined subscribers and followers, and within that a whopping 11 paid subscribers. I guess you have to throw a bone to the paid subscribers now and then, eh?

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In this video I talk about an encounter while wearing my USS Liberty Hat, the Montana Constitution, and an idea I have about something we could do at the state level, or even locally.

The idea is local oversight over national criminality. In the Marbury vs. Madison ruling, chief Justice John Marshall said, “A law repugnant to the constitution is void.” Well, we know how well the three branches in DC do a job of overseeing each other- a poor job indeed. I think I mentioned a town in Iowa or Indiana where the city council had voted in a resolution condemning the Federal government for the undeclared and therefore unconstitutional war in Iran.

-Good luck with that one, Shumway. You expect Podunk, Iowa, or Weedville for that matter, to have any effect on Washington, DC?

-Not immediately. The point is for Podunk, Iowa to be brave and stand up and say, “We reject this war and we reject the corrupt DC politicians that allow it.” If more towns and cities, and people across the nation did this we could then expect an effect on DC., just like popular opposition to Israel in Spain causes their government to not be the cowards/sycophants/slaves of Zion that our reps are here.

So I propose The Montana Department of Federal Oversight.

And if that doesn’t fly, we’ll scale back and create The Ravalli County Department of Federal Oversight. And if that doesn’t fly, we’ll create The Weedville Department of Federal Oversight. Then The Shumway Family Department of Federal Oversight. Finally, if in the unlikely event I can’t convince my own family, it’ll be The DW Shumway Department of Federal Oversight, with corresponding enforcement arm.

It’s all in the rambling video.

My video below is a response to his, so if you want to watch his first, here it is on Twitter (4 minutes).

I was in a hurry and only caught half his video, but I’d heard enough to respond, so yesterday on the 20-minute drive to soccer from Weedville to Mountain View, I recorded my response video to the Canadian guy. I came back to his video today and watched the whole thing. I think my recollection of what I’d seen in the video was good enough and I stand by my off-the-cuff recording yesterday, so I’ll post it here. After watching his entire video, I see there is more that needs to be addressed, so I have a few point-by-point comments to make, which I’ll post below my video.

DW responds to gwud-think Canadian (15 min.):

PS: Sorry about the crummy camera-angle on this shot. I regret forcing anyone to look up my schnozz. I need to get one of those dashboard-surface phone holders- more junk to buy!

addendum: incidentally, yesterday I wrote about AI; it was a bit of a backhanded compliment for AI being dishonest and faulty. Bart told me to stop using the demonic normal AI outlets available for free, and splurge on Abacus. Already, a couple searches that got me nothing on Google popped up fast on Abacus, including while I was writing this stack, trying to find the video of that Canadian guy in Japan.

music credit: Video beginning and end music: Thank you Eugenio Mininni on mixkit.co.

Here’ the web page of the organization (click screenshot to access site):

One thing I dislike and like about the interview: My infernal smart phone rings and I take the call! just briefly, though. Matt says, “Spirit Taker.” Absolutely, Matt!

DW Shumway interviews Matt Dean of the Sapphire Mountain Men Shooting Club (28 minutes). Click video above.

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photo credits:

Morag McTavish, who would use you as an easy warm-up for a real scrap, and her husband Hamish and brother Lachlin (who is which I know not): Thank you sapphiremountainmen.com.

1. Physical activity. Keep moving.

2. Mental challenges.

3. Community- frequent gatherings.

Ha! I can check those three boxes. Maybe it’s why my AFIB doesn’t bother me.

One of the reason I’m learning/studying bridge is for the benefits in category 2 above.

There are plenty of sources on line and in books where sample hands will be presented, and you have to decide how they will be bid and played. One site I frequent only gives you the sample hands. Well, I get to a conundrum and the fastest way to solve it is to appeal to AI. “Ah,” you say, “that’s the easy way out. You should really think about it first and run the scenarios and possible solutions through your head, like Kasparov in a chess match. Then you’ll build your bridge muscles and strengthen your mental acuity and longevity!”

There’s much truth to that, and thanks for the suggestion, but of course there is a happy medium here. AI will tell me how the masters would play a hand, and what the textbooks will say, and in that information there will be plenty of knowledge I don’t have that will help me make a decision. It’s Dan’s intuition and limited knowledge vs. (ideally) the entire history and encyclopedia of bridge knowledge and play.

You-It’s still a copout to just consult the oracle (AI) and save yourself the trouble of thinking.

Me- I told you, it’s a happy medium. I generally try to solve the problem, and then consult the oracle to see if my solution is legit, or if I can’t see a solution and am stuck, wrack my brain just enough to make sure the synapses are getting exercise, and then ask AI.

-Well, I guess then you have to train yourself to not be too reliant and give up early.

-That’s true, but here is one ironic beauty of AI. They don’t always give you the right answer! It makes mistakes, and as has been proven, it lies too!

-Huh, what’s the beauty in that? If I ask for 22 divided by seven, I expect to see pi (π), as far beyond the decimal point as I need, not a number that isn’t π! If my calculator told me π to the tenth digit after the decimal is 3.1415926575 instead of 3.1415926535, that’s would just be plain wrong. My Texas Instruments scientific calculator from high-school calculus days never misses this. Neither does my Walmart simple calculator. AI should also be programmed to tell the truth!

-Agreed! And we should search for the most honest AI. I’m simply saying that the beauty of AI making mistakes and lying is this: Now I can’t let my mental guard down. I have to be on my toes! Consulting AI doesn’t mean I give up thinking; it just means I’m going to see how it answers, and then check that with my sense of logic (as well as consulting alternative AIs, incidentally). This requires mental exercise. I haven’t ‘given up’.

-OK, DW. If you say so.

-Let me give you an example.

Before recording another chapter from Covid-19, Mystery solved, I thought I would have a short break and go through a few bridge hands, as I have a game scheduled tonight with Curtis Braithwaite and the boys (heart health points 2 and 3 above!). I ran into a most interesting hand, and I was sure the website algorithm was bidding this hand wrong. (It’s a free site and you get what you pay for.)

Terribly wrong, in fact. At the very least, this hand should be bid to game, not a mere 2H (take my word for it).

I ran this hand through the AI and it gave me answers that first made me say, “Yes, that’s it!” but on second thought I kept saying, “but what about …?”. You are probably familiar with the way that the google AI, when caught dead to rights, says, “You are completely correct in pointing this out!” and then they apologetically semi-admit their lie and change their answer.

In the end it was a joint effort. AI and I worked together, me calling AI on it’s mistakes all the way, and we discovered how this hand could be bid and played by E/W to not only get game, but a small slam- a major point coup! Two hearts - two schmartz!

So thank you AI for your lying ways. You help me remain sharp! At least in one way.

photo credit: bridge hand image with the powerhouse double void- thank you saycbridge.com

Finally an interview from the Creamery Picnic. This one took me a while to edit as it’s the one, you’ll remember, that came out in slo-mo at about 1/5 speed. I made the parody video of that, but this one is regular speed, with sound, and no joking around (though upbeat and cordial). It was a chore matching the regular-speed soundtrack with the video, which had no sound and needed to be scrunched (sped up). Sorry about the background noise- music from the band on stage.

More interviews to come.

DWS interviews happy Mormon girls making their pitch (14 minutes). Click video below:

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photo credits:

Mormon percentage by state map: Thank you LDS365 website. The other photos are all Public Domain, provided by Mormons we may assume.

Link to chapter 14

Link to chapter 16

Link to all chapters

I told Bart Lambert that if I was given a camera that had all the whingdings and doodads, I’d still just pick it up, set it to auto, and point and shoot. I have two cameras now that can take near pro-quality movies and stills, if you know how to use them, and adjust the settings correctly. I just grab the one that’s smaller and works better on AUTO and point and shoot. The smorgasbord of junk that comes up on the EVF (electronic viewfinder or simply rear monitor) when you click ‘display’ just confuses the heck out of me. If Bernd isn’t on the line telling me ‘scroll down to this’ and ‘click that’ I’m pretty lost. I’m simply too lazy to learn that stuff, and I make do with auto mode. Stuff like Davinci video software, or Reaper sound editing, however, has no auto mode and you must learn it. So I go to AI and Youtube tutorials to figure it out. In that case I can’t be lazy because if I don’t do the homework I can’t use the software.

The same mentality plagues me as I try to get BBR started. “Hey Dan, you have some pretty good interviewing skills! I think this is something right up your alley!”

-Thanks, I guess I’ll try to make something out of this. I know, I’ll create a podcast, but with a twist- local and global. My immediate audience will be people right here in the Bitterroot Valley, but it’s internet, so the world can tune in. BBR! Bitterroot Radio streaming 24/7 as a Beacon to the world!

-Sounds great. Now set it up that radio station!

-OK, I shall!

But it’s not the point and shoot camera. I can’t simply continue writing and interviewing and wave a wand and say, Abracadabra. Now make it all a radio broadcast and station- Shazam!

I asked Sloan Youngblood, who was a hotshot radio DJ back in the day, about the roll of the show hosts.

Dan- So Sloan, it’s different because you were playing music, and I’m going to be doing talk, but thinking about talk-radio jocks…

Sloan- Oh, we had those guys at our station.

D- And did they get to focus on content and concentrate on informing themselves and such, or were they doing all the different radio work, like scheduling, advertising, promotion, tech work, payroll, legal, management…

S-We had lots of other people working for the station doing all that stuff.

D- So the talk jocks weren’t spending all their time on that stuff, right? I was at the studio today slogging my way through an AI tutorial. And thinking about all the crap that requires fantastic skills, technical and organizational, to run a successful radio station, even a rinky-dink online one. Since learning about this conference in New York a few days ago, I’ve done zilch on preparing for interviews and presentations for either New York City or the local fair.

Sloan could see I was flustered. “I hear ya man! You take it easy and concentrate on what you’re good at. We’ll get you set up. Take a breather and enjoy your evening.”

Bart assured me that the AI would be simple. “Look, you’re already good at asking questions. That’s most of it. All you really have to learn is which AI to direct Abacus to when you initiate the inquiry. They’re not all the same and Abacus gives you the ability to compare results, which is very useful.”

Then I saw it- a button that puts Abacus into automatic mode- Abacus would decide for me which of dozens of AI question-answerers/info-generators would best suit my inquiry- the equivalent of the auto mode button on my camera! Ha! I can hear Bart admonishing me now. “Dan, Dan, listen to me. Do not click that automatic button! You need to learn a little about each of the AI generators first. Dan, move your mouse away from that button!” Which reminds me of when Terry and Jeff were watching me play an online poker game back in my salad sinful days and said, fearing I might ‘call’ or worse, “Dan! Take your hand off of that mouse!”

I tried an AI inquiry or two using the auto mode, contrary to Bart’s imagined admonition. Then I wanted to have the AI make me a picture. Every time I want to make a picture on Grok or another popular AI it asks me to sign in via Google and essentially give away my first son so I never do that any more. Now that I had a paid service that Bart suggested I figured I’d check out the image-making capabilities. Let’s see…

“Draw me a turtle riding a bicycle.”

gears whirling. a message says, “creating image”

Out came a typical, cute turtle riding on a path through a colorful forest on a sunny day.

“Change the helmet to a Chinese peasant’s army hat during the Cultural Revolution days.” (I’m just dinkin’ around.)

gears whirling

Abacus’ answer: Sure, I can give your turtle a typical Chinese farmers conical hat.

The turtle now had one of those rice-field, bamboo coolie hats.

“Hey wait. I asked specifically for a Cultural Revolution, peasant’s army hat! Put that on the turtle!”

gears whirling

A message came up. It didn’t say creating image. It said, “Your request has been queued.”

Queued forever I guess, because Abacus (or whatever AI it connected to) refused to produce a simple, green with red star, floppy cotton Mao-Cap. What’s the big deal here? Oh well.

I gave up on that and looked around the studio at all the collected junk. Three computers; Three cameras; desk mics; lapel mics; wires everywhere; studio lighting laying around the room; extension chords; power strips, tripods, light stands, portable background screens, and tons of junk in coffee cans and boxes and ‘organizer’ shelves- all miscellany I’m not going to describe. Bluuuughhhh.

This evening I went to a interesting presentation at the Weedville Library. It was a video conference. A historian in Helena was giving a one-hour lecture/Power Point on the history of the Montana Constitution. She was very good. At one point she asked the viewers whether they’d used AI today. We were supposed to raise our hands, though she couldn’t see us. I raised my hand and so did a couple others. “Now,” she said, “How many used AI because they had to at work?” I answered, though only the people in the conference room at the library could here me- we were muted on the zoom. I said, “Me, reluctantly.” The woman right in front of me frowned and nodded in agreement.

I’d like to take everything; all the computers, smart phones, wires, recorders, cameras, data cards, external hard drives, etc. and just dump it all at the Goodwill. Give me a book, a beer, and a surfboard. Wait, I’m in Montana. Make that a pair of hiking shoes. Now I’m happy.

End of rant. Sigh.

Don’t worry, I’ll get it all sorted. Tech woes aren’t going to defeat me- not with the competent friends helping me, both here in Montana and over in Germany. I just had a bad tech day today and got nothing done content-wise, that’s all.

Wait, one more thing. A blast from a simpler past. 40 years ago I was on a study-abroad program in Spain. 1986. It was spring break at the University of Barcelona so some of us in the Diploma de Estudios Hispánicos program at La Facultad de Filología decided to go on a trip down south to Andalucía. Highlights included a visit to the Alhambra in Granada and a camping excursion on the beach in Almuñécar, near Málaga on the Costa del Sol. (Almuñécar is fun to say. Try it!)

It was a bittersweet trip. We were ten or twelve foreigners, an Irishman, a couple Brit lads, a French Canadian tough-guy hockey player with scars from fights, two pretty Dutch girls, a Belgian/German soccer wunderkind, and one crazy Spaniard from Barcelona who spoke good English, tagging along with us extranjeros. And me. There might have been an English-colonial girl and an American girl- I can’t remember.

-That sounds like a blast. Why was it Bittersweet?

-For the same reason I can’t remember if the last two girls were on the trip. I was constantly thinking about a girl in Barcelona I’d just started dating a couple weeks before our trip. A vacation to Andalucia, sweating by day and camping in the scrub brush and sand at night was OK, but I was thinking about Verónica too much of the time.

Anyway, we had a good time. This was way before cell phones and internet cafes. We had to entertain ourselves and talk to each other. Swim. Play a little beach soccer. Visit a castle. Kick back by the oceanside cantina, etc. Go to a bar with a flamenco guitarist. Watch the slow Semana Santa procession with the spooky masks and María’s trono go by, etc. One day, to try to get my mind off Verónica, I bought a postcard and wrote my friend Doug Pappas back in Seattle. Who remembers postcards and stamps from foreign lands and all that? I’m glad Doug kept that card. He took a snapshot and texted it to me the other day. Here’s a glimpse into the past, where unlike today we had to go through all kinds of hoops to send an image and a message- buy a postcard, pen a note, go to post office, buy a stamp, send, wait weeks and hope it arrives. Also a glimpse into the goofball sense of humor of DW, aged 20. This is the postcard I sent Doug:

front of postcard (chest-hair blob, brown-trunks man on right exhibiting my typical at-ease posture and leer smile)

back

Ah, the good ol’ days. Speaking of which, I had coffee yesterday at the Super-1. Woke up early and didn’t feel sleepy so I went down around quarter to six with a book, to start the day digital-free. Cafe Amore doesn’t open until 7:30 and Weedville coffee is shuttered until 8:30- this isn’t Seattle here, or even Missoula! Jerry the ex-army guy was already at the bakery/deli customer-tables nook, waiting to chew someone’s ear. Of course I didn’t get any reading done. The rest of the old-timers, vets most of them, started filing in around 6:30. I kid you not, the oldest of these geezers said, “Damn kids these days!” That’ll be my go-to fun phrase when I turn 70, provided the Israelis don’t do me a favor in south Lebanon and drop one on my head, ending my ordeals with AI, A/V equipment and Davinci tutorials.

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This post is over but solely for the entertainment of recovered poker addicts, here is an ADDENDUM:

My imagined description of Bart’s mouse remonstrance reminds me of my (wasted) poker days. It was an online game in the late 2000s. My Canadian friends Terry Lewicki and Jeff Johnstone were watching the game from their own computers at home. It was a hold-em tournament and I’d made it to the bubble (the ITM, or in-the-money cut-off line). Terry and Jeff were already knocked out. This was typical. I had a very good ITM percentage. Terry’s was OK but Jeff’s was poor. This does not necessarily make me a good poker player. Even with my impressive ITM I was an aggregate online poker loser, while Terry was an aggregate winner- significant winner actually. The important number is one’s ROI (return on investment), a figure poker players commonly lie about to their friends. Terry got knocked out of lots of tournaments early, but it was because he was aggressive (and playing four games at a time on multiple screens), while I was careful and conservative. When both of us made it to the bubble, he’d have about 5 times more chips than me, and 5 times better chance of making it to the final table.

Anyway, the night they were watching me on the poker software and simultaneously talking to me on a separate group chat line (a fatal flaw in online poker if you think about it) I had made it to the final table with plenty of chips. I was sitting on a hand that currently was the nut (the best possible hand) but there was a still a river card to come (the river is the last card exposed on the board {the five shared community cards on the table}) that could bust my winning hand. Call? Bet light? Bet hard? Go all in?

Terry and Jeff didn’t trust my online poker acumen and simultaneously shouted, “DAN. WAIT!!” Jeff said, thinking I might accidentally click my mouse, “I hope you’re not hovering over the ‘call’ button. Terry, always good for a joke, said, “Or the ‘fold’ button!” We all laughed. Jeff said, “Dan. Dan. Serious. Take you hand off your mouse now.”

I’m pretty sure I took my hand off the mouse, followed their instructions, clicked the correct choice, and won the hand. Sometimes you gotta listen to friends.

Now I play bridge, a far superior, and far less evil game.

Which brings me to lunch today. I’d finished today’s post and as I was at the church studio here in Ditch Valley I didn’t want to drive all the way home to Weedville for lunch. They have Fish and Chips at the Admiral Nelson Pub but it’s like $21 plus drink and tip so I walked to the little VFW cafeteria where they have a cheeseburger with potato salad for 6 bucks. I accidentally left my book at the studio and with no smart phone I was empty handed- the horror. Luckily they had the latest Tidbits flyer. It’s one of those free, 8 1/2 by 11 sized newsletter/advertisers you used to kill time with before you were tethered to the Borg 24/7 with your phone.

The front-page feature for August is, Tidbits asks, Do you Remember?

It began like this:

According to psychologists, we all develop what they call “flashbulb memories,” defined as “a memory for the circumstance in which one learned of a public event.”

These are those, “Where were you when…” type events, where everyone knows exactly where they were and what they were doing. They begin with Pearl Harbor- something the Greatest Generation types all knew about. Then they move on to JFK, RFK, MLK and 911, “when New York City’s World Tade Center was attacked by al-Qaeda.” Of course there’s no mention of Building 7 and all the other fun stuff.

Almost nobody in my circle thinks that 911 went down just as they described it on PBS and NBC news. My circle of skeptic friends certainly includes Boomers but this stack of Tidbits advertisers was sitting on a counter in a very Boomerish place, the local VFW cafeteria. After reading the article, I scribbled a note on the front page of the advertiser: “Use ‘Do You Remember’ for YNP-10 at the Fair.”

I could start like this: “Did the JFK assassination happen just as the mainstream media describe and high school textbooks tell it?” (answer, “Yes, No, or Pass [I don’t know]”) I’m guessing I’d get a lot of people to answer No to that question. It might be fun and instructive to check out the Bitterroot Valley Tin Foil Quotient (the higher the better). I could ask another way, “Is the official version of 911 bunk?” (Y/N/P)

Or I could ask, “Are there huge holes in the official story of X?” or “Are they hiding something from us in the official story of Y?” etc.

Here are the ten questions. Answer them yourself.

1. Is the Warren Commission version of the JFK assassination factually accurate in its main assertions and conclusions?

2. Is the official (mainstream) story of the attack on Pearl Harbor accurate?

3. Is the official (mainstream) story (~) of the RFK assassination accurate?

4. ~ of MLK accurate?

5. ~ of 911 accurate?

6. ~ of OJ Simpson.

7. ~ of Elvis.

8. ~ of John Lennon.

9. ~ of Michael Jackson.

10. ~ of Princess Diana.

These are just the names from the Tidbits article. In my inquiry at the fair I probably wouldn’t mention Elvis or OJ Simpson. I would mention the big ones: The Maine; The Lusitania; PH; 911; Covid; Gulf of Tonkin; Saddam’s WMDs etc.

I’m convinced we’ve been lied to about, at the least, six of the ten YNP questions in that numbered list above. My trip to NYC is to help bump the percentage of skeptics of the official 911 story into the JFK range. Everyone needs to know- they lie all the time.

I want significantly more people to look at that Tidbit article and roll their eyes and chuckle when they see “Japan’s surprise strike on the Pearl Harbor naval base.”

Surprise my arsch. Jeannette Rankin knew in ‘42 that it wasn’t no surprise to the people who facilitated it.

In this chapter: The impossibility of engineering SARS2 in China; differences between Chinese and US facilities; non-transmissibility in various animal species; working with bats; Shi trying to clear her name; the RaTG13 and SARS2 sequences; Baric’s biological tools; and more.

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Hey Dan,

have you heard about this conference which is taking place in New York to mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11 (which interestigly is in the same year as the USA has its 250th anniversary):

Here is the website for the event: [click the poster for the link]

……..
I personally would love to go there and get as many interviews and contact data as possible. But I most likely will not make it.
What do you think about this? Generally would you be interested to be there and do interviews?
cheers,
Bernd

I said to Bernd give me a break- you know that’s a rhetorical question. OF COURSE I want to go to NY and report on this event! We immediately began planning. In no time I had my event ticket and a flight to Newark all booked. Bern got on the line with his kla.tv contact in western New York State, Marty Wentworth, and he agreed to be my tech guy/cameraman! Marty booked a hotel for us in Manhattan, so I won’t be cheaping out in normal DW fashion, commuting daily from Yonkers or somewhere in Joisy. Bart from Boston, who has been to NY many times, said, “Dan, spend a little money why don’t you?” I told him some of the towns where I was contemplating staying in a flophouse. “You know,” said Bart, “there are some folks in those places that, well, don’t really like old white guys!” Marty booked the place that the event organizers recommended, in Harlem (old-white guy central, right?), so we’ll be close enough to walk or take a short bus ride to the event at El Teatro del Barrio on Museum Mile. With only an occasional subway ride, I probably won’t bother packing an illegal Smith & Wesson, Bernard-Goetz style.

As you can see by that (partial) list of presenters on the poster, there should be ample opportunities for good interviews. The goals for the NYC trip look like this, for now:

1. expose the fraud of the mainstream 911 narrative and get the truth out, by

2. interviewing experts

3. meeting fellow-dissidents with more knowledge than me

4. visiting Ground Zero and getting footage of the important 911 locations, while presenting the facts about each

I expect to be very busy- no time for Coney Island or the Ziegfeld Follies.

Bernd, Marty and I will meet online a few times to prepare in advance. The big question mark for me is, what do I do after the conference ends?

My air ticket is one-way. I fly from Missoula to San Francisco, then take a red-eye which arrives in Newark before 6am on the 10th. My return is open-ended. I’ve been thinking about possible return routes, and have narrowed it to 3. I have to choose the best of these options:

1. New York Linger Option: Say goodbye to Marty and hang around in New York or nearby cities for a few days and fly back to Montana from NY. Get more interviews, not necessarily on 911. I’d really like to talk about the situation in the Middle East. I know just who to talk to: Max Blumenthal, Aaron Mate, and Norman Finklestein. On that note, maybe I could also get interviews with Alan Dershowitz and Rabbi Schmuley! If I did nothing else in New York City, getting to rap with the Schmules and the Dersh would make it worthwile!

2. Rustbelt Option: Hitch a ride with Marty to his place in upstate and then continue on through the midwest, by Greyhound, until Chicago, where I’ll catch a cheap flight to Missoula. This route, a tourist favorite- Buffalo-Erie-Cleveland-Toledo-South Bend-Gary-Chicago gives me plenty of self-defense, interviewing and broadcasting possibilities. I already have some specific ones in mind.

3. The are-you-serious option: NY to London or Frankfurt; corresponding interviews; Frankfurt to Switzerland to check in on colleagues at kla-Central; Zurich to Beirut for a Lebanon report; Back to Zurich, then Japan to visit wife. Then back to Montana.

OK folks, I get that option 3 sounds ambitious and far-fetched. And I’ve been a bit flippant up until now with this post. But I’m serious- I’ll already be in NYC and I have to plan the rest of the trip after the conference. I have to go to Japan anyway before the end of the year, or I lose my spouse visa. It will be a whole separate round trip at holiday time. I could add Japan onto my itinerary during lower-airfare season in early fall instead of waiting until high-fare New Year’s holiday.

-But Beirut? Do you understand there’s a war going on in Lebanon now?

-Yes. And to continue in a serious vein, I think this war in Lebanon is a tragedy and a crime that has to be stopped. If people are paying any attention to the Middle East at all, it is to the war in Iran and maybe a glance at the continuing tragedy in Gaza. You can’t get to Gaza, but Beirut is open for international travel. The massacres in south Lebanon is a story that must be told. If I go, I plan on interviewing Vanessa Beeley and many others, and traveling to whatever regions in the South the government will allow reporters to go. There are serious restrictions and all kinds of strict protocol must be followed, but Ms. Beeley says it can be done. I’m almost certain that, although they may not green-light it due to safety concerns, kla.tv would very much appreciate a report from Lebanon.

So, what should I do?

I think all three options are very good; there’s no lemon in this lineup. Incidentally, my BBR radio-broadcast software is all online; I can broadcast from anywhere, live or recorded.

In this chapter: Shi Zhengli (the ‘bat lady’); Wuhan; Fauci; Peter Daszak; bats in China; the four-letter amino acid sequence; and more.

Link to Chapter 12

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Link to chapter 11.

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Curtis Braithwaite said he’d like to help a bit with editing, and he asked me specifically for

1. a tutorial for Davinci video software

2. the Davinci download site

3. files (video and audio) to practice with

That came as great news; I can always use help. He’d better be careful because if he gets good, my kla/English-Frankfurt team is going to be pestering him for volunteer work.

Anyway, I gave him the clips of my friend Roger Mitchell, who talked about chemtrails in a short interview with me for BBR. I figured that would free me up to edit the Mormon Girls interview. Two pretty LDS Sisters came by the booth and introduced themselves, as they do. They asked about BBR and what not, and wouldn’t you know it, they agreed to an interview. I had the camera and sound recorder ready to go so I had them sit down and we got right to talking.

I wasn’t all alone at the picnic. Stan’s daughter Natalie was a huge help in setting up. Natty helps her mom sell homemade, high-end soap at farmer’s markets all across Western Montana, and she was indispensable in getting me set up on time. My buddies from the Saturday breakfast group came also, at various intervals. My son Andy helped out too. One person I didn’t have was a tech/camera/sound guy, like Bernd, or Lukas, or Andy either when the Mormon Girls were there.

Here I should thank Lukas for his great help with the Artur Pawlowski interview of late July. He took care of everything tech-related, including the post-filming editing, and all I had to do was talk with the Polish/Canadian Super Preacher. Thanks, Lukas!

So without tech help I of course botched the Mormon Girls interview. I somehow had the camera set to slow motion, so I got a real high-quality video of these sisters at about 1/5 speed, with no sound. I’ve done this before. I knew right away when I uploaded the video and it was 55 minutes long instead of 10, and sure enough, the girls were moving in very slo-motion. I’ll see if I can compress it and speed it up to normal, and then add the sound from their mics, which should be fine.

Meanwhile, I thought I’d just show you the first four minutes of the slo-mo. Even if I botched the settings, I was able to use the file to get a little DaVinci editing practice, like Curtis.

Mormon Sistas at the Fair (4 minutes) click video below:

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photo credit: Duke-NUS Medical School Logo: Thank you Duke-NUS Medical School (Duke University / NUS), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59442087