#Richardson TX Family Activities

[inboundremblog]

Top 5 Things to Do in Richardson, Texas

Credit: Image by Vika Strawberrika | Unsplash

Must Try Things to Do in Richardson

Richardson is a fast-growing suburb of Dallas, Texas, famous for its diverse cultural backgrounds, rapidly growing technology strongholds, and proactive community. Whether a local or a tourist, you will stay energized in Richardson and have something to do. So, if you're interested, here are the top five things to do in Richardson:

1. Discover the Beauty of the Richardson Nature Preserve

Things to do in Richardson: Richmond Nature's Preserve is entirely off the radar and provides a natural oasis from the busy world. It is on 100 acres and has several species of plants and animals.

Tourists can stroll somewhat developed hiking/biking pathways that pass through heavily wooded timber and meadowlands. Bird enthusiasts will particularly relish the place as the preserve offers a spot to capture a glimpse at native and migratory birds.

Educational Programs and Events

Several instructional and related activities are also conducted at the preserve at different times of the year. Such programs aim to acquaint visitors with the local environment and the initiatives undertaken to conserve the ecosystem and its constituents. Interactive sessions such as workshops and group guided tours are ideal for children and adults.

Ideal for Picnics and Relaxation

Due to its natural beauty and surrounding environment, the Richardson Nature Preserve is one of the best places to picnic. Two barbecue pits, a couple of benches, and table settings have been provided, and families and groups can choose to have picnics in the designated areas.

The pond and giant trees in the compound are handy when one wants to take a break from the world and breathe fresh air.

2. Experience the Cultural Richness at the Charles W. Eisemann Center for Performing Arts

World-Class Performances

The Charles W. Eisemann Center for Performing Arts is a Richardson production house that occasionally presents various performances.

This art center features multiple performances, such as Broadway musicals, ballet, concerts, and theatrical performances, in a more personal atmosphere. The facility's infrastructure is one of the most technologically advanced, guaranteeing the best view for all guests.

Art Exhibitions and Events

Along with performances, the Eisemann Center displays artworks by local, national, and international artists in visual arts exhibitions. These exhibitions allow artistic creativity and enable art lovers to view different creations.

The Center also hosts special events such as lectures, workshops, and community meetings, which help iCenter a rich civil society culture.

Educational Outreach

The Eisemann Center offers many educational programs and ensures its involvement in community-related activities. Schools and local organizations collaborate with the Center to promote education programs and strategies to develop young artists and artists' appreciation.

These include master classes, art residencies, and inventive workshops through which the next generations of artists and performers can be developed and nourished.

3. Delight in Retail Therapy and Dining at CityLine

Shopping and Entertainment

CityLine offers a smooth progression of development configurations that continue to create a destination for shopping, dining & entertainment in Richardson. The general outlook of CityLine screams modernity through its built-up environment, which is pretty accessible on foot.

Culinary Delights

Gourmands will especially be thrilled with CityLine's culinary culture. It has various restaurants, cafes, and bars, which means there are varieties of foods from different countries in the particular development.

What's more? CityLine covers you for a less formal brunch, dinner, casual meal, or fancy dining. These include sushi, grill, Italian restaurants, desserts, Tex-Mex, Rocky, and Burger Palace.

Events and Festivals

With some extraordinary facilities like a complex, food court, and amusement park aside, CityLine has an ever-joyous vibe with many events and festivals held throughout the year.

Be it live concerts held in the urban outdoors, farmers' markets, holiday events, festivals, or art fests, there is always something going on at CityLine.

Such occasions are perfect for social interactions with residents, getting acquainted with the performances of actors and singers, and tasting the works of local masters of arts and producers.

4. Engage in Interactive Learning at the Sci-Tech Discovery Center

Hands-On Exhibits

The Sci-Tech Discovery Center is an entertainment option for families because it involves or is mainly focused on technology, science, and fun. This will let family members learn numerous things they did not know before.

Based in Frisco, next to Plano, this Center offers practical physical activities for students in S.T.E.M. subjects. Reasonably expected, the exhibits dealt with subjects like Robotics and automation, Space Exploration and Research, Environment and Oceans, and many more.

Educational Workshops and Camps

Besides the standard installations and displays, the Sci-Tech Discovery Center has several educational workshops and children's camps. Summer camps and programs, after-school programs, and seasonal and holiday programs and workshops allow the kids to engage in more intensive study of S.T.E.M. fields and subjects they choose.

Special Events and Guest Speakers

The Center invites distinguished guests, speakers, and individuals from different professions to talk to the students. These events must entail individual and group learning on astronomy, wildlife, and technological studies, especially for children and young people. The public can also do demonstrations, watch presentations, and discuss with others in the Center.

5. Enjoy Recreational Activities at Breckinridge Park

Expansive Green Spaces

Breckinridge Park is by far the largest park in Richardson, encompassing 400-plus acres of park, open space area, game fields, and recreational facilities. It has multiple certified trails for walking, jogging, or biking; the park enables any visitor to get a glimpse of its beauty to do so.

The park has space for each of them, a lawn to lay, a picnic area for those who want to take some snacks and food, and a playground for kids.

Sports and Fitness Facilities

The well-maintained fields and courts are noticeable and provide adequate space for recreational and sports activities. Besides, open spaces, benches, and stations in the park are perfect places for outdoor exercising, yoga, and keeping fit.

Community Events and Festivals

It is also used for various functions throughout the year, including carnivals such as the Breckenridge Festival, vital, which is held locally.

Another use of Richardson Park is the annual festivals, including the Richardson Wildflower Festival and July Fourth celebrations, where people enjoy structures, live music, food, and other activities for families to engage in. These festivals bring people joy and unite society to celebrate those who are positive.

Get an insider's look at what living in this city is like by checking out our website at https://richardsontxrealestate.com/richardson-tx-things-to-do/.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

February 21, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

The centerpiece of Republicans’ case for impeaching Democratic president Joe Biden is the allegation that he and his son Hunter each accepted a $5 million bribe from Ukrainian oil and gas company Burisma when Biden Sr. was vice president. But in the last week, that accusation has revealed quite a different problem, one that implicates Republicans. 

The accusation that the Bidens accepted bribes broke into public channels on May 3, 2023, when Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Representative James Comer (R-KY), chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray saying they had received “highly credible…whistleblower disclosures” that said the Department of Justice and the FBI appeared to have “valuable, verifiable information that you have failed to disclose to the American people.” 

Grassley and Comer claimed there was “growing concern about the DOJ and the FBI’s track record of allowing political bias to infect their decision-making process,” and so Congress would be conducting its own “independent and objective review of this matter.” 

Comer then issued a subpoena for the document containing the information, a so-called FD-1023, which is the form used by FBI agents to record “raw, unverified” information from confidential informants. In it, informant Alexander Smirnov made a number of allegations about the Bidens, including that they had accepted bribes. 

In July, Grassley and Comer got the document and showed it to others in a secure facility. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) saw it there, took pictures of it, and posted them on social media. She claimed that “Joe Biden is a criminal and is compromised” and that he was backing Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion because Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky “has proof of more Biden crimes.” “IMPEACH BIDEN,” she wrote.

Grassley also released it, suggesting that the Justice Department and the FBI were trying to cover up a “criminal bribery scheme” implicating the Bidens. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) jumped in, saying: “Every day, the evidence keeps mounting and the evidence that is coming in is number one, of a widespread bribery scheme of Joe Biden and Hunter Biden and the entire Biden family, to extract bribes from foreign nationals.” 

The idea that Biden had accepted bribes was central to the House impeachment effort that then–House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced in September 2023.

That story fell apart a week ago, on February 14, 2024, when a federal grand jury indicted Smirnov for lying and “creating a false and fictitious record.” 

And the story became even more troubling yesterday, when Trump-appointed Special Counsel David Weiss of the Justice Department filed a document establishing that the informant, Alexander Smirnov, has “extensive and extremely recent” ties with “Russian intelligence agencies.” 

The filing revealed other, more recent, false allegations Smirnov had made, and concluded that “Smirnov’s efforts to spread misinformation about a candidate of one of the two major parties in the United States continues…. What this shows is that the misinformation he is spreading is not confined to 2020. He is actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November.” 

Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, told reporters today that “the impeachment investigation essentially ended yesterday, in substance if not in form, with the explosive revelation that Mr. Smirnov’s allegations about Ukrainian Burisma payments to Joe Biden were concocted along with Russian intelligence agents. And it appears like the whole thing was not only obviously false and fraudulent but a product of Russian disinformation and propaganda. And that’s been the motor force behind this investigation for more than a year.”

The Republican release of Smirnov’s allegations in July 2023 did not happen in a vacuum: they came right after the Republican-led House censured Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) for “misleading the American public and for conduct unbecoming of an elected Member of the House of Representatives,” including “spread[ing] false accusations that the [2016] Trump campaign colluded with Russia.”

But the Mueller Report concluded that “[t]he Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion” and that “the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.” The Senate Intelligence Committee Report found that “the Russian government engaged in an aggressive, multifaceted effort to influence…the outcome of the 2016 presidential election” and that Trump campaign advisor Paul Manafort worked directly with Konstantin Kilimnik, “a Russian intelligence officer.”  

That effort continued in 2020, with the U.S. intelligence community assessing in March 2021 that “Russian President Putin authorized, and a range of Russian government organizations conducted, influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process, and exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the US.”

That foreign countries try to influence elections is far less a surprise than that one of the two major U.S. political parties now appears to be, wittingly or not, working on their behalf.

That willingness to do anything to win—even working with a foreign dictator—seems a logical outgrowth of the process begun during the administration of President Richard Nixon, when his people deliberately appealed to voters’ emotions with a picture of traditional America under siege by antiwar student activists, people of color, and feminist women. 

To rally voters to their party in the 1970s midterms, Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew engaged in what they called “positive polarization.” Nixon’s speechwriter Pat Buchanan wrote a memo to Nixon warning: “We are in a contest over the soul of the country now and the decision will not be some middle compromise…. It will be their kind of society or ours.” 

The theme that the Republicans' opponents were dangerous socialists out to destroy the country became the centerpiece of Republican rhetoric. From President Ronald Reagan’s welfare queen, who was scamming the system and thus taxpayers, through talk radio host Rush Limbaugh’s “feminazis,” to Trump’s claim that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” the party has defined itself as “true America” standing against enemies.

And if you believe you are fighting for the right, it only makes sense to do whatever it takes to win.

Meanwhile, that belief has now overlapped with the evangelical base that supports what it considers traditional values so that, as Alexander Ward and Heidi Przybyla outlined in Politico yesterday, the party is now advancing plans to impose Christian nationalism on the country. Leaders of the Christian nationalist movement incorrectly believe that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, so they intend to rest the government and public life on what they consider to be Christian values. 

In December, Trump promised: “Upon taking office, I will create a new federal task force on fighting anti-Christian bias to be led by a fully reformed Department of Justice.” 

What that might look like became clear this week when the Alabama Supreme Court decided in a wrongful death suit resulting from the accidental destruction of embryos that were part of an in vitro fertilization (IVF) process, in which doctors artificially fertilize eggs outside the womb and then transfer them into a person, that fertilized human eggs have the same status as children. Chief Justice Tom Parker declared in a concurring opinion that the people of Alabama have adopted the “theologically based view” that “life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God.”

About 2% of U.S. births are a product of IVF. Today the largest healthcare system in Alabama has announced it is halting its IVF program out of fear of prosecution. 

Reworking the nation to impose Christian nationalism requires minority rule, which aligns with the ideology of authoritarianism, enabling Trump and those who share his views to praise someone like Vladimir Putin. And, it seems, to accept his help winning elections.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[tacoocho123]

Savor the Flavor: Exploring Tacos in McKinney's Culinary Scene

As you step into Tacos McKinney, you are greeted by the lively ambiance that permeates the air. The restaurant's décor pays homage to its Texan roots, with rustic wooden furnishings and accents of vibrant Mexican tiles adorning the walls. The atmosphere is inviting, drawing you in to embark on a culinary journey like no other.

At the heart of Tacos McKinney's menu are, of course, its namesake tacos. From classic carne asada to flavorful al pastor, each taco is a masterpiece in its own right. The ingredients are carefully sourced and thoughtfully prepared, ensuring that every bite bursts with authenticity and taste. Whether you prefer your tacos soft or crunchy, loaded with meat or packed with veggies, Tacos McKinney has something to satisfy every palate.

One cannot talk about Tacos McKinney without mentioning their signature dish: the brisket taco. Slow-cooked to perfection, the tender brisket melts in your mouth, complemented by a symphony of spices and toppings. It's a true Texan delicacy that has earned Tacos McKinney a reputation far and wide.

But Tacos McKinney offers more than just tacos. Their menu boasts an array of Tex-Mex delights, from savory quesadillas to hearty burritos, each crafted with the same dedication to quality and flavor. Vegetarian and vegan options abound, ensuring that everyone can indulge in the culinary delights of Tacos McKinney.

Beyond the food itself, what sets Tacos McKinney apart is its commitment to community. The restaurant serves as a gathering place for locals and visitors alike, where friendships are forged over shared plates and laughter fills the air. From family dinners to casual lunches with friends, Brunch Richardson Tx Tacos McKinney provides the perfect backdrop for memorable moments and unforgettable meals.

But Tacos McKinney is more than just a place to eat; it's a pillar of the McKinney community. The restaurant actively participates in local events and fundraisers, giving back to the community that has embraced it with open arms. Whether it's sponsoring a little league team or hosting a charity taco night, Tacos McKinney is dedicated to making a positive impact beyond its doors.

[pearlstendercare]

Pearls Tender Care: Delivering Compassion and Care in Dallas and Beyond

Welcome to the heart of compassion, comfort, and companionship - Pearls Tender Care. Located in Dallas, TX, we are proud to extend our services to surrounding areas, focusing on offering companionship, caregiver assistance, and medication management to those in need. With us, you are not just availing a service; you are becoming part of a community that values empathy, understanding, and the art of gentle care.

Companionship: The Bond That Nurtures

In the bustling city of Dallas and its nearby areas, we've identified a profound need for genuine companionship, especially among the elderly and individuals with special needs. Pearls Tender Care is here to address this requirement. Our companionship services are designed around the unique needs and interests of every individual.

Our trained professionals go beyond casual conversations and shared activities. They strive to foster deep connections that can make our clients feel valued and understood. We are committed to breaking the chains of isolation and loneliness, ensuring every individual under our care feels the comfort of companionship that nurtures their soul.

Caregiving: The Hands That Support

Pearls Tender Care offers top-tier caregiver services. The caregivers in our team are not just staff members, but dedicated individuals with a passion for helping others. They come equipped with expertise, experience, and, most importantly, a deep sense of empathy.

From handling daily chores to helping with personal care, our caregivers provide an all-around support system for our clients in Dallas, TX, and the surrounding regions. The safety, comfort, and dignity of our clients are our top priorities, and we are unwavering in our commitment to ensure these.

Medication Assistance: The Eyes That Monitor

Managing medication is a delicate task, one that requires precision, diligence, and a keen understanding of individual health requirements. Pearls Tender Care excels at offering medication assistance, ensuring that every individual under our care in Dallas and nearby areas takes the correct medication, at the right time, and in the right dose.

Our caregivers are trained to handle different medications and understand their respective schedules. We maintain a stringent process to avoid errors, ensuring that our clients' health remains stable and their recovery, if any, is seamless.

The Pearls Tender Care Pledge

Our name signifies the gentle, nurturing care that we provide, much like a pearl enveloped in layers of tender protection. Pearls Tender Care is not just a service provider but a family that offers unwavering support and affection to those in need.

At Pearls Tender Care, we pledge to ensure the well-being and happiness of your loved ones, one day at a time. Trust us to bring a ray of sunshine into their lives, lighting up their world with our compassionate care. Give us a call today, and together, let's make life better for those we hold dear.

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[rankrancherpro]

Your Guide to 3 Bedroom Apartments in Richardson, TX

If you're searching for a spacious and comfortable living space in Richardson, Texas, a 3-bedroom apartment might be the perfect choice. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore options, highlight the benefits of living in a 3-bedroom apartment, and provide valuable insights to help you find the ideal home in Richardson.

The Appeal of 3 Bedroom Apartments

Spaciousness and Flexibility

One of the main advantages of a 3-bedroom apartment is its ample space. With three bedrooms, you can allocate rooms for various purposes, such as creating a home office, a guest room, or a play area for children. The extra space ensures that everyone in your household can have their private retreat while still enjoying common areas for shared activities and relaxation.

Ideal for Families and Roommates

Three-bedroom apartments are particularly well-suited for families and roommates. Having multiple bedrooms allows for comfortable sleeping arrangements and individualized spaces if you have children. For roommates, a 3-bedroom apartment allows them to split the rent and utilities, making it a more affordable and practical choice than renting multiple separate apartments.

Potential for Higher Resale Value

Another advantage of a 3-bedroom apartment is its potential for higher resale value. As a larger living space, it attracts a broader range of potential buyers in the future. Whether you plan to live in the apartment long-term or consider it an investment, the resale value of a 3-bedroom apartment can be an appealing aspect.

Exploring 3 Bedroom Apartments in Richardson

Richardson offers a variety of options when it comes to 3-bedroom apartments. Different apartment communities may offer distinct features, amenities, and rental prices. To find the ideal 3-bedroom apartment in Richardson, consider the following factors:

Location

Start by identifying the preferred neighborhoods or areas in Richardson that align with your lifestyle and preferences. Consider factors such as proximity to schools, workplaces, shopping centers, parks, and other amenities that are important to you.

Amenities and Facilities

Evaluate the amenities and facilities offered by different apartment communities. Some standard amenities in 3-bedroom apartments may include swimming pools, fitness centers, playgrounds, pet-friendly areas, and community spaces. Determine which amenities are essential to you and prioritize them in your search.

Rental Costs and Lease Terms

Consider your budget when searching for a 3-bedroom apartment. Rental costs can vary depending on location, apartment size, and included amenities. Take time to compare rental prices in different areas of Richardson to ensure you find a 3-bedroom apartment that fits within your budget.

Additionally, review the lease terms and conditions, including the duration of the lease, pet policies, and any additional fees or deposits that may apply.

Online Listings and Real Estate Agents

Utilize online listing platforms, real estate websites, and the services of reputable real estate agents specializing in rentals to explore available 3-bedroom apartments in Richardson. These resources can provide detailed information, photographs, and virtual tours to help you narrow your options and make informed decisions.

Conclusion

In conclusion, 3-bedroom apartments in Richardson, TX, offer spaciousness, flexibility, and the potential for higher resale value. Whether you have a growing family, want to share living expenses with roommates, or desire extra space, a 3-bedroom apartment can be an excellent choice. By considering factors such as location, amenities, rental costs, and utilizing available resources, you can find the perfect 3-bedroom apartment that meets your needs and enhances your lifestyle in Richardson. For more real estate in Richardson, TX, please visit this website https://richardsontxrealestate.com/

[richardsontexas]

Discover Exciting Activities: Fun Things to Do in Richardson, Texas

Richardson, Texas, a vibrant city located in the heart of the Lone Star State, is brimming with opportunities for entertainment and exploration. From cultural attractions to outdoor adventures, Richardson offers a plethora of fun activities for individuals, families, and friends to enjoy. In this article, we will delve into some of the most exciting things to do in Richardson, TX ensuring an unforgettable experience for everyone.

Explore the Eisemann Center for Performing Arts: For theater enthusiasts and art lovers, the Eisemann Center for Performing Arts is a must-visit destination. Experience captivating Broadway shows, mesmerizing concerts, dance performances, and plays that will leave you in awe. This state-of-the-art venue hosts a diverse range of events throughout the year, making it a cultural hub in Richardson.

Immerse Yourself in Nature at Breckinridge Park: Escape the hustle and bustle of the city and reconnect with nature at Breckinridge Park. Sprawling over 400 acres, this picturesque park offers serene walking trails, scenic picnic spots, and beautiful lakes. Bring your furry friend along, as the park features an expansive dog park where your four-legged companions can socialize and play.

Discover History at the Richardson Historic Village: Step back in time and explore the Richardson Historic Village. This living museum showcases a collection of historic buildings and structures that depict the city's rich heritage. Stroll through the charming streets and get a glimpse of the past through the restored houses, a schoolhouse, a church, and a blacksmith shop.

Engage in Interactive Learning at the Interurban Railway Museum: Located in the historic Richardson Interurban Building, the Interurban Railway Museum offers an educational and engaging experience for visitors of all ages. Discover the history of electric railways in Texas and explore interactive exhibits that allow you to step inside a vintage railcar and learn about the impact of transportation on the region.

Unleash Your Inner Gamer at Free Play Richardson: Calling all gaming enthusiasts! Free Play Richardson is a retro arcade and bar that offers a unique and nostalgic experience. With over 100 classic arcade games and pinball machines, you can relive your childhood memories or introduce a new generation to the golden age of gaming. Sip on craft beers and enjoy delicious food while immersing yourself in a world of pixels and joysticks.

Indulge in Culinary Delights at CityLine: Head to CityLine, an innovative urban center in Richardson, to satisfy your culinary cravings. This vibrant district boasts a wide range of dining options, from upscale restaurants to casual eateries, serving cuisines from around the world. Explore the diverse flavors and enjoy al fresco dining, live music, and a lively atmosphere.

Embrace Outdoor Recreation at Spring Creek Nature Area: For outdoor enthusiasts, the Spring Creek Nature Area is an idyllic destination. This 100-acre nature preserve offers walking trails, fishing ponds, and abundant wildlife. Take a leisurely stroll, pack a picnic, or go bird-watching to experience the tranquility and beauty of this natural oasis in the heart of Richardson.

Conclusion: Richardson, Texas, offers a multitude of fun-filled activities for everyone. Whether you're interested in arts and culture, outdoor adventures, or interactive learning, this vibrant city has something to offer. From exploring the performing arts scene at the Eisemann Center to immersing yourself in history at the Richardson Historic Village, you'll find an array of exciting experiences. So, pack your bags, grab your camera, and embark on a journey of exploration and fun in Richardson, Texas.

[uncannychange]

Seeking a cure for testosterone poisoning Dr. Babbitt Bernadette Badeaux turned to quantum flux engineering.

There she found success, hoping to perhaps turn down hyper-masculinity from 11 to somewhere around 7 or 8 she instead found that her experimenting was turning her subjects, mostly male grad students assigned to her as compensation for their chronic sexual harassment, completely into women.

This led her to be blacklisted from every University in the world.

But it didn't stop her from refining and creating the ultimate version of her discovery.

Obtaining financing from a shadowy organization it was not long before Dr. Babbitt's Girl Machines started to appear all over the place advertised on the internet as being for When You're Tired of the Whole Damn "Guy Thing". They showed up at fairs, street parties, trade shows, weddings, and other such venues and everyone was sure it was just some sort of joke item.

And joke item it did seem to the men who, after stepping into one, and paying the five dollars to activate it and were treated to an intense light and sound show while the thing let out a deep B Sharp tone that shook them to their bones but was kind of pleasant. Then it stopped, out they stepped and everything was the same.

Nothing for three days anyway, at which point the growing waves of quantum flux, at last, did their thing and as soon as the men who been in a Girl Machine were out of the sight of anyone (it's a quantum thing) there was a flash and a youthful female version of themselves, clothes and all, came into being.

Chaos then ensued, but no one listened to the crazy girls, I mean they didn't look much like their former male selves, even their fingerprints were changed.

Reactions to this varied. Also, much to the surprise of many Dr. Babbitt's Girl Machines then saw a spike in popularity.

Below are some of those reactions.

Dan Wright, Unionville, ON

“Now I can buy all of the stuff like this I've always wanted too!” thought Dan, happy as can be about what the Girl Machine had done for him.

Frank Reed, New Gloucester, ME

For most, the flash and change caused by the Girl Machines came as a complete surprise because they had already forgotten them without giving another thought to what they had thought were just novelty devices. This is what happened to Frank as he was on his morning run when suddenly he almost fell over when his running shoes turned into her new heels. Frank is still mystified about what happened.

Zachary Allen, Richardson, TX

Never out of his cowboy boots and stetson, Zach knew something was up with he felt his boots just “poof, go away” then on further exploration Ms. Allen found out his boots were not the only thing that had been replaced.

Chester Norris, Edmonton, AB

“Is this for real?” thought Chester “Is this mine?” Yes, Ms. Norris, it is.

Douglas Howard, Juneau, AK

Tired from overwork, shortly after his Girl Machine exposure suddenly felt a spring in his step, or rather her step. Fortunately along with all the other changes Dr. Babbitt's device also gave those changed a new burst of energy.

Timmy Winter, Milwaukee, WI

Knock Knock

Timmy: (opens door) “Yes?”

Agar Collection Agency “Is Timmy Winter here? We need to talk.”

Timmy (knowing he is in deep trouble) “Nope, haven't seen him for a week.”

Agar Agent: (sounding angry) “When you see him tell him to call us.”

Timmy: “Sure,” said Timmy Walker at first shocked and now relieved that he had somehow changed from a deeply in debt doughy 45-year-old man into the cutie he had turned into the week before. “Good luck finding him.” thought Tammy as she had already decided to call her new self

Jerry Wong, Pearl City, HA

For five generations the oldest son in the Wong family had joined the military, Jerry Wong didn't want to do that, but the tradition was tradition. Then he encountered a Girl Box and well the rule was the oldest son, not the oldest daughter so goodbye to that! Plus Jerry loved the new clothes.

Andre Phillips, Arlington, TX

In one of the oddest transformations caused by Dr. Babbitt's Girl Machines Mister Andre `Andy Boy,' Phillips found his change somehow influenced by his favorite movie Giant (1956)and much to his chagrin just as he was stepping on stage to address the Arlington Cattleman's Association, a good old boy organization he had been a part of for twenty years.

Meanwhile in Homewood, Alabama just outside of Birmingham, Praying Mantis kung fu instructor Mike Summers waits for his first class of the day to greet him in the proper manner. In stead they stare wide-eyed at the space where he had been standing. “Yeah, they’re in awe of my still” thought Mike not knowing that it was the new material of his new form, and her uniform, that they were struck by, not his kung fu form. 

[behaviorpioneers]

The New Normal ASD In The Covid-19 Era

  What Do Autism Therapy Experts in Richardson, TX Have to Say? Over the last 12 to 15 months, all of us have gone through the effects of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, which has completely altered the way we live, dress, socialize, entertain, work, play and more. While massive inoculation drives across most countries has given everyone the hope of an eventual reopening of communities, a return to the old “normal” still seems elusive at this stage. For families dealing with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), the big question is, “What is the new normal for children with Autism?” Many are wondering whether life will look the same in different settings for learning, shopping, dining, recreation, community cultural events, and more. Behavior Pioneer’s Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy providers at Fort Worth, TX offer expert tips on how children with ASD and their families can cope with the evolving situations in the COVD-19 era. Navigating a New Way of Living with ASD during the Coronavirus Pandemic More than a year into the pandemic, most children are aware of the additional safety measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether it is the use of face masks and sanitizers, a cautious approach to touching things in a store aisle, or temperature checks and form filling outside doctors’ offices, children understands the newer routines. However, it is important to talk to the child and discuss the heightened hygiene and safety measures at periodic intervals. For families dealing with ASD, it is also important to find innovative ways to give the child a sense of comfort and predictability. If your child with Autism has not been out much during the pandemic, familiarize them with the new ways of doing things before taking them out for any chores or activities. Here are some aspects to consider: - Procuring or making masks with their favorite colors, patterns, or designs will encourage them to wear them correctly and keep them on when most required. - Getting the child used to a rigorous hand wash routine, or helping them understand that the watery, slippery texture of hand sanitizers evaporates quickly will build greater acceptance of the additional safety measures that are imperative in the current times. - Calling stores or looking up their websites before going shopping will help you give the child clarity on whether it is going to be a curbside pickup or in-person shopping. Higher the predictability of the routine, better the chances that your child feels comfortable during such outings. - Teaching the child the importance of social distancing through social stories will help them distinguish between interacting with people in your own bubble versus greeting or communicating with friends, teachers, or other people in various settings. Besides sensitizing the child on social distancing and safety measures, help them understand the volatility of routines in a COVID-19 era. Various activities may continue to open up or shut down due to the peaks and troughs in the nature of the pandemic. If infection rates rise or new variants wreak further havoc, your child will need to adapt to the changing rules and measures around study, play, and social activities. For example, schools may shift between online and in-person learning, based on the evolving situations during the pandemic. There may be new protocols related to partitioned seating, restricted breaks, or a ban on food sharing to keep the children safe. Discuss such changes with your child in order to give them a better sense of control. If you think that your child may not be able to cope easily with the changes, discuss this with the school and let your child remain on an online learning schedule for an extended timeline. Everyone is anxious to get back to a pre-pandemic “normal” life. However, at this point, it is unclear on when and if that will happen. Preparation, planning, and explanation are key in helping your child with ASD cope during and beyond the COVID-19 era. Simplifying and easing the transition to the evolving “normal” will help families dealing with ASD cope better with change and help children with Autism thrive despite the pandemic. About the Authors Behavior Pioneers, LLC, is a leading Autism diagnosis center and trusted ABA provider in Fort Worth, TX. Besides individualized sessions for behavior therapy in Dallas, TX and Fort Worth, TX, they also offer programs for autism therapy Richardson TX at their centers in Richardson, TX and Carrolton, TX. Led by Clinical Director Brian Tanenbaum, their team of ABA specialists comprises qualified and experienced Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) and Registered Behavior Technicians (RBT) who hold top-notch credentials. Their goal is to bring about meaningful, long-lasting changes in the lives of children with ASD and their families. Call 877-725-8397 or contact them online to learn more about their Autism therapy offerings near you.

[anonohmiss]

A Letter to the Homosexuals I’ve Encountered in My Life

Dear friends,

I am writing this letter, and it is long overdue.  I write it with a saddened but softened heart.  I remember back in high school, either my freshman or sophomore year, I had two very good friends.  I think their names were Athena and Pablo.  Kids were not nice to me at my high school; I was an outsider who hadn’t grown up in Richardson, TX, threatened their status as the most intelligent student in the class (not intentionally – I just used to be really smart, I guess?), and was respectful of and reverent to all authority figures, which gave me the quick label of “teacher’s pet” in almost every class.  Girls excluded me from activities; boys didn’t even look at me sideways; and the only time people wanted to interact with me was when they wanted to use my brain or my work ethic to their advantage.

And yet, in my gym class – where I was terrible at gym-ing (I know nothing) – there were two lovely people who reached out to me, the girl who sat alone in the bleachers, hiding her face and sometimes her tears in a book.  Pablo and Athena were kind to me when almost no one else was; moreover, they were my friends.

A ways into our relationship, I found out that both Pablo and Athena were homosexuals. I had never personally met a homosexual person before, and all I knew was what I heard at church.

“Homosexuals are the most sinful of all, giving into the worst of fleshly perversions.”

“Homosexuals will live a life of pleasure but burn in the eternal fires of hell.”

“Homosexuals are not people to be associated with.”

 I immediately became uncomfortable around them, recoiling at Pablo’s touch when he would hug me and answering Athena’s conversations in as few words as possible, lest I be struck dead for having associated – nay, befriended – not one, but TWO homosexuals.  We slowly grew more and more distant, until they both finally confronted me and asked me what was wrong.

I don’t remember the exact words I said, but the gist was, “I am a Christian, and you both are homosexuals.  I can no longer be friends with you, because you are sinning.”

And I think that’s the last time we spoke.

 To Athena and Pablo, I am sorry.  At the time, I was doing what I believed was right in the eyes of God, my family, and my church.  I did not know any different, and I was still growing in my faith as a Christian and learning how to read and interpret the Bible myself.  I was ignorant, and what I did to you all was deplorable.  I bit both hands that had fed me, and walked away without a second thought.  I used my religion that day to “promote social inequality and social conflict” (Sociology 659).

 I am 24 years old now, and what I made happen between us breaks my heart.  I cannot find either of you to say how sorry I am, and to explain that every single one of us sins, and no sin is greater than another in God’s eyes – the adulterers, the thieves, the murderers; we don’t revoke their civil rights the way we do towards homosexuals.  That is not our right.  I learned as I grew that the love of God is not like that.  I am supposed to love every person I come into contact with, even my enemies!  And you all were not my enemies.  I know that this experience helped shape me, but I hate that this happened.  I pray for you two sometimes, and I ask for forgiveness for the hateful thing that I did in my ignorance.

 I want to use my Christianity to “motivate people to work for positive social change” (Sociology 659).  That is why I want to say that I am sorry.  Not only to Athena and Pablo, but to every homosexual who has had the Christian finger of disapproval wagged in their face instead of being shown the love of Jesus Christ and being led by example.

 I am so so sorry.

 All the best,

Kerissa

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

August 30, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

At 3:29 ET on August 30, 2021—early on the morning of August 31 in Afghanistan—the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan ended. It was the longest war in American history.

Among the last to come home were the 13 Americans killed in an ISIS-K attack last Thursday. They arrived at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware Sunday morning from Germany. President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, and 8 aides attended the dignified transfer between the plane and a waiting vehicle.

In the last 17 days in Afghanistan, U.S. troops evacuated more than 120,000 people, making up the largest airlift in our history. For comparison, as Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post pointed out, the U.S. evacuated no Americans from the civil war in Yemen in 2015, and only about 167 from Libya in 2011.

While critics have suggested that America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan will hurt American credibility abroad, President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have called for combatting terrorism through financial sanctions, bombing, and drone strikes like the one they used to retaliate against ISIS-K for the attack on the Kabul airport that killed more than 160 Afghans and 13 Americans last Friday, and by strengthening democracy at home.

There is plenty of work to do on that last front.

Last week, Peter Wehner, who served in the Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush administrations, pointed out in The Atlantic that the right wing has moved to such extremism that former president Trump, whose behavior seemed so shocking in 2015 and 2016, is now being sidelined by lawmakers and pundits who are even more extreme.

Yesterday, in an event hosted by the Macon County Republican Party, Representative Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) insisted that the January 6 rioters are “political hostages” and said he wanted to “bust them out.” When someone in the audience asked “When are you going to call us to Washington again?” he said, “We are actively working on that one…. We have a few plans in motion that I can’t make public right now.” He called for removing Biden from office under the 25th Amendment and added, “when Kamala Harris inevitably screws up, we will take them down, one at a time.” He concluded by saying: “The Second Amendment was not written so that we can go hunting or we can shoot sporting clays…. The Second Amendment was written so that we can fight against tyranny.”

Increasingly, right-wing agitators are calling for violent overthrow of the government.

Today in Pennsylvania, Steve Lynch, a candidate for Northampton County executive, said: “Forget going into these school boards with freaking data. You go into these school boards to remove them. I’m going in with 20 strong men and I’m gonna give them an option—they can leave or they can be removed.”

At a protest in Santa Monica yesterday before a vote on a mask mandate, a man held a sign with the names and home addresses of each Los Angeles City Council member and said protesters would go to the homes of anyone who voted for the mandate and, if it passed, “Civil War is coming! Get your guns!”

This sort of street-level violence is known for radicalizing individuals as they get swept up in it and then later embrace the larger political arguments behind it. It also forces more reasonable individuals out of government positions as they conclude that their position on a school board, for example,  is not worth threats against their families and their lives.

Far from trying to tamp down this violence, right-wing leaders are egging it on. Tonight, on the Fox News Channel, personality Tucker Carlson told his audience that no leader had apologized for “these terrible decisions” in Afghanistan. “This can’t go on,” he said. “When leaders refuse to hold themselves accountable, over time, people revolt…. We need to change course immediately… or else the consequences will be awful.”

The images on the screen behind Carlson were of President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, Defense Secretary Austin, and Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Milley. Carlson often tries to undermine the current leadership of the military, suggesting that he would welcome its replacement by officers he finds less objectionable.  

Republican offense may be an attempt at defense.

Today, Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS), chair of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, announced that the committee has demanded that 35 major communications companies preserve their records from April 1, 2020, to January 31, 2021, for people involved in the January 5 and January 6 rallies in Washington, D.C., or “potentially involved with discussions” about stopping the electoral vote count on January 6 or otherwise  “potentially involved with discussions" in planning the January 6 insurrection. According to CNN, the companies affected include cell phone giants Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile, US Cellular, and Sprint. Social media companies covered under the request include Apple, Google, Facebook, Signal, Slack, YouTube, Twitch, and Twitter.

CNN reports that members of the committee have requested preservation of the records of representatives Cawthorn, Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Mo Brooks (R-AL), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Jody Hice (R-GA), and Scott Perry (R-PA). They have also asked the companies to preserve the records of former president Trump; those of his children Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump; and those of his daughter-in-law Lara Trump and Don Jr.’s girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, who worked on the campaign.

Those determined to regain control of the country from the Democrats also have to contend with continuing good news from Biden’s policies. A new study from the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University shows that the first child tax credit payment kept 3 million children from falling below the poverty line and that the child poverty rate dropped from 15.8% in June to 11.9% in July. Coronavirus relief measures kept another 3 million children from poverty. Families are using the money to buy food and pay off debt.

The administration is also coordinating aid to the states hit hard by Hurricane Ida, which brought up to 15 inches of rain to parts of Louisiana and knocked out the state’s power grid. The administration deployed more than 3,600 employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, who prepared more than 3.4 million meals, millions of liters of water, more than 35,700 tarps, and roughly 200 generators in the region before the storm hit. They have moved ambulances and search and rescue teams into the area and have opened shelters. The Army Corps of Engineers has mobilized personnel to remove debris and to provide temporary roofing and housing.

The administration is shifting its focus from unilateral military might to multilateral alliances to deal with common problems. Tomorrow, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry will leave for Asia, where he will meet with leaders from Japan and then China to bolster international cooperation on climate change before the meeting of the 2021 U.N Climate Change Conference in early November.

—-

​​

Notes:

Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1CENTCOM's Gen. McKenzie: In total, 123,000 civilians were evacuated from Afghanistan over the last 18 days.

869 Retweets3,334 Likes

August 30th 2021

Aaron Fritschner @FritschnerAt Macon County GOP event yesterday, Madison Cawthorn called January 6 rioters “political hostages,” and spoke of trying to “bust them out.” Then- Attendee: “When are you gonna call us to Washington again?" Cawthorn: “We are actively working on that one.”

4,235 Retweets7,587 Likes

August 30th 2021

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/cawthorn-calls-jan-6-defendants-political-hostages-muses-about-trying-to-bust-them-out

Scott MacFarlane @MacFarlaneNewsALERT:  House Select Jan 6th Committee asks 35 major communications companies (including major cell service providers, Twitter, Parler, etc) to preserve records  for "individuals  potentially involved with discussions" in planning Jan 6 Sweeping request (more)

1,408 Retweets3,875 Likes

August 30th 2021

/photo/2

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/08/30/statement-by-president-joe-biden/

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/30/politics/fact-check-biden-dover-afghanistan-kabul/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/28/world/asia/kabul-airport-attack-isis-us-strike.html

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/30/politics/january-6-phone-records-members-of-congress/index.html

Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowskiAt protest in Santa Monica today before the vote on mask-mandate, Jason Lefkowitz has the home addresses of each LA City Council member on his sign. He says they are going to the homes of whoever votes for it, and if it passes, it’s “civil war, get your guns.” From @chadloder

3,407 Retweets5,941 Likes

August 30th 2021

Andrew Lawrence @ndrew_lawrencethe most watched cable news host in america justifies a coming "revolt" unless we "change course immediately"

261 Retweets957 Likes

August 31st 2021

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/01/american-civilians-yemen-left-behind

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/30/1032615984/house-panel-investigating-the-capitol-attack-orders-35-companies-to-preserve-rec

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/30/how-evacuation-americans-is-going/

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/08/radicalism-post-trump-gop/619891/

https://www.povertycenter.columbia.edu/news-internal/monthly-poverty-july-2021

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/08/30/readout-of-president-bidens-briefing-with-gulf-coast-elected-officials-on-hurricane-ida/

https://www.businessinsider.com/child-tax-credit-expansion-reduce-child-poverty-rate-research-2021-8

https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-ida-louisiana-new-orleans-c43c2c68946ceb6100c2239534c6c290

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[phoenixjobs8]

Software Staff Engineer

DescriptionCirrus Aircraft’s Mission is to deliver an aviation experience that is the pinnacle of innovation, quality, and safety to our customers.

Cirrus Aircraft is the recognized global leader in personal aviation and the maker of the best-selling SR Series piston aircraft and the Vision Jet

, the world’s first single engine Personal Jet and recipient of the 2017 Robert J.

Collier Trophy.

Founded in 1984, the company has redefined performance, comfort and safety in aviation with innovations like the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System® (CAPS®) – the first FAA-certified whole-airframe parachute safety system included as standard equipment on an aircraft.

To date, worldwide flight time on Cirrus aircraft has passed nine million hours and over 170 people have returned home safely to their families as a result of the inclusion of CAPS® as a standard feature on all Cirrus aircraft.

Find out more at cirrusaircraft.com.Cirrus offers a competitive benefits package and is dedicated to the advancement of general aviation.

The Cirrus Flying Club offers employees and their family members the unique opportunity to obtain their private pilot’s license in the comfort of a Cirrus or rent a Cirrus for an impromptu adventure at a greatly reduced rate.

We are committed to investing in the future of our employees and company by offering professional development and career progression opportunities and we engage employees by offering several employee and family events throughout the year, as well as the opportunity to take part in activity clubs and community events.Job Summary:Responsible for the the design, testing, and certification of avionics system and component-level software for FAA certified single engine aircraft.

Develop software architecture and module requirements from high-level design objectives.

Perform design and analysis of all aspects of system and component-level software and related interactions with aircraft systems and avionics equipment.

Generate certification plans and reports to meet 14 CFR Part 23 requirements.This position is responsible for embedded software development from the ground up on new designs and hardware.

Collaboration with electrical and mechanical engineering to achieve fully integrated systems will be required.

Experience with small multi-disciplinary teams is a plus.Qualifications:Education and/or Experience:Minimum:+ Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineer, Computer Science, or Software Engineering or equivalent required.+ 10-14 years’ experience in a related field+ Generating System Requirements, Traceability Matrices, Interface Control Documents, and related design specifications.+ Proficient with software development tools and methodologies+ Proficient in C, C+++ Ability to work both independently and within a cross-functional team+ Proficient with Microsoft Office tools (Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Visio)Distinguishing Education and/or Experience:+ Safety-critical software development and certification (Aerospace, Medical, Automotive)+ Embedded software development (some hardware background is a plus)+ Generating all required documentation in support of DO-178C and DO-254 certification activities+ Requirements Management Software tools and methods: DOORS, Jama, or similar programs+ Change Management Software tools and methods: Jira, Clearcase, SVN, or similar programs+ Familiarity with open source tools a plus (GCC, GDB, and other similar programs).+ Compliance with 14 CFR Part 23 regulations, including DO-178/DO-254 or similar processesSupervisory Responsibility: NoneOther Duties:Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job.

Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Overtime hours may be required.This opportunity is located in Duluth MN, North Dallas TX, or Phoenix AZ East Valley.Cirrus gives priority to candidates interested in moving to our Duluth headquarters for innovation and activity center of our manufacturing, engineering, and enterprise operations.

We will also consider candidates who are interested in working with us from Dallas, TX or Chandler (Phoenix), AZ.

Phoenix Arizona, East Valley.

The economic growth and superior quality of life found in the PHX East Valley didn’t just happen overnight.

From thriving cultural opportunities to amazing recreation areas, the PHX East Valley has developed into the place where individuals want to work, live and play.

From pedestrian-friendly downtowns with urban vibes, to small town communities bustling with personality, to the Superstition Mountains where there is wide-open space and urban growth is on the horizon, the PHX East Valley has it all.Duluth, Minnesota.

As the home to our corporate headquarters, Duluth is a four-season city on the western tip of Lake Superior and was voted “Best Town” by Outside Magazine.

The splendor of the largest freshwater lake in the world offers a multitude of outdoor activities for adventure or rejuvenation.

The North Shore lifestyle is known its year-round activities, including bicycle and snowmobile trails, kayaking, rock climbing, fishing, hiking, golfing, sailing and skiing.

And as a top employer in the area, Cirrus Aircraft was recently named “Best Overall Large Company to Work for in the Northland” and “Best Workplace Culture” by the Duluth News Tribune readers.Dallas Texas is the third most populous city (after Houston and San Antonio) and the metropolis of the sprawling Dallas–Fort Worth urban area, known locally as the Metroplex.

Fort Worth lies 30 miles (48 km) west; other major cities in the metropolitan region include Arlington, Carrollton, Denton, Garland, Grand Prairie, Irving, Lewisville, Mesquite, Plano, Richardson, University Park and McKinney (home of the 1st remote Cirrus Aircraft Factory Service Center).

Cirrus is dedicated to a drug free work environment promoting equal employment opportunity.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, national origin, color, age, disability, religion, pregnancy, veteran status, marital and family status, sexual orientation, receipt of public assistance, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

The post Software Staff Engineer first appeared on Valley of the Sun Jobs. source https://valleyofthesunjobs.com/it-tech-support/software-staff-engineer-da8661/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=software-staff-engineer-da8661

[socialjusticeartshare]

Back to the Border

Republicans Return to a Favored Talking Point

Republican pundits and lawmakers are, once again, warning of an immigration crisis at our southern border.

Texas governor Greg Abbott says that if coronavirus spreads further in his state, it will not be because of his order to get rid of masks and business restrictions, but because President Biden is admitting undocumented immigrants who carry the virus. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is also talking up the immigration issue, suggesting (falsely) that the American Rescue Plan would send $1400 of taxpayer money “to every illegal alien in America.”

Right-wing media is also running with stories of a wave of immigrants at the border, but what is really happening needs some untangling.

When Trump launched his run for the presidency with attacks on Mexican immigrants, and later tweeted that Democrats “don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country,” he was tangling up our long history of Mexican immigration with a recent, startling trend of refugees from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras (and blaming Democrats for both). That tendency to mash all immigrants and refugees together and put them on our southern border badly misrepresents what’s really going on.

Mexican immigration is nothing new; our western agribusinesses were built on migrant labor of Mexicans, Japanese, and poor whites, among others. From the time the current border was set in 1848 until the 1930s, people moved back and forth across it without restrictions. But in 1965, Congress passed the Hart-Celler Act, putting a cap on Latin American immigration for the first time. The cap was low: just 20,000, although 50,000 workers were coming annually.

After 1965, workers continued to come as they always had, and to be employed, as always. But now their presence was illegal. In 1986, Congress tried to fix the problem by offering amnesty to 2.3 million Mexicans who were living in the U.S. and by cracking down on employers who hired undocumented workers. But rather than ending the problem of undocumented workers, the new law exacerbated it by beginning the process of guarding and militarizing the border. Until then, migrants into the United States had been offset by an equal number leaving at the end of the season. Once the border became heavily guarded, Mexican migrants refused to take the chance of leaving.

Since 1986, politicians have refused to deal with this disconnect, which grew in the 1990s when the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) flooded Mexico with U.S. corn and drove Mexican farmers to find work, largely in the American Southeast. But this “problem” is neither new nor catastrophic. While about 6 million undocumented Mexicans currently live in the United States, most of them–78%– are long-term residents, here more than ten years. Only 7% have lived here less than five years. (This ratio is much more stable than that for undocumented immigrants from any other country, and indeed, about twice as many undocumented immigrants come legally and overstay their visas than come illegally across the southern border.)

Since 2007, the number of undocumented Mexicans living in the United States has declined by more than a million. Lately, more Mexicans are leaving America than are coming.

What is happening right now at America’s southern border is not really about Mexican migrant workers.

Beginning around 2014, people began to flee “warlike levels of violence” in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, coming to the U.S. for asylum. This is legal, although most come illegally, taking their chances with smugglers who collect fees to protect migrants on the Mexican side of the border and to get them into the U.S.

The Obama administration tried to deter migrants by expanding the detention of families, and made significant investments in Central America in an attempt to stabilize the region by expanding economic development and promoting security. The Trump administration emphasized deterrence. It cut off support to Central American countries, worked with authoritarians to try to stop regional gangs, drastically limited the number of refugees the U.S. would admit, and—infamously—deliberately separated children from their parents to deter would-be asylum seekers.

The number of migrants to the U.S. began to drop in 2000 and continued to drop throughout Trump’s years in office.

Now, with a new administration, the dislocation of the pandemic, and two catastrophic storms in Central America in addition to the violence, people are again surging to the border to try to get into the U.S. In the last month, the Border Patrol encountered more than 100,000 people. They are encouraged by smugglers, who falsely tell them the border is now open. Numbers released on Wednesday show that the number of children and families coming to the border doubled between January and February.

The Biden administration is warning them not to come—yet. The Trump administration gutted immigration staff and facilities, while the pandemic has further cut available beds. Most of those trying to cross the border are single adults, and the Biden administration is turning all of them back under a pandemic public health order. (It is possible that the 100,000 number is inflated as people are making repeated attempts.)

At the same time, border officials are temporarily holding families to evaluate their claims to asylum, and are also evaluating the cases of about 65,000 asylum seekers forced by the Trump administration to stay in dangerous conditions in Mexico—this backlog is swelling the new numbers. Once the migrants are tested for coronavirus and then processed, they are either deported or released until their asylum hearing.

This has apparently led to a number of families being released in communities in Arizona and Texas without adequate clothing or money. In normal times, churches and shelters would step in to help, but the pandemic has shut that aid down to a trickle. Residents are afraid the numbers of migrants will climb, and that they will bring Covid-19. Biden offered federal help to Texas Governor Abbott to test migrants for the coronavirus, but Abbott has refused to take responsibility for testing. (Migrants in Brownsville tested positive at a lower rate than Texas residents.)

There is yet another issue: the administration is having a hard time handling the numbers of unaccompanied minors arriving. Their numbers have tripled recently, overwhelming the system, especially in Texas where the state is still digging out from the deep freeze. The children are supposed to spend no more than 72 hours in processing with Border Patrol before they are transferred to facilities overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services while agents search for family members to take the children. But at least in some cases, the kids have been with Border Patrol for as much as 77 hours. Last week, there were more than 3,700 unaccompanied children in Border Patrol facilities and about 8,800 unaccompanied children in HHS custody.

The Biden administration is considering addressing this surge by looking for emergency shelters for minors crossing the border, activating the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or placing more HHS staff at the border. It has asked for $4 billion over four years to try to restore stability to the Central American countries hardest hit by violence. Yesterday, the administration announced that HHS would not use immigration status against those coming forward to claim children, out of concern that the previous Trump-era policy made people unwilling to come forward.

The Senate has not yet confirmed Biden’s nominee to head HHS, Xavier Becerra, who is the son of Mexican immigrants. It is expected to do so next week at the earliest. When he finally takes office, he will have his work cut out for him.

We are pleased to be presenting daily posts from Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letters From an American” email newsletter. You can sign up to receive it in your inbox here.

Article Source

[thingstoseeinrowlettv36-blog]

The Urban Dictionary of Places To Go In Rowlett

When In Rowlett, These Are A Must: An Overview

Pinot's Palette - Garland Garland Dec 222:00 pm - 4:00 pm Santa will be so happy to see the yummy deals with left on this tray by the tree! Merry Christmas!! MORE ".

When you live near Rowlett, TX you are never far from some truly spinal column tingling haunted tourist attractions. If you're someone who enjoys being afraid during the month of October, you'll like all the wide variety of haunted tourist attractions they have in your area. These destinations are really scary. This is one engaging reason why if you're around during October, checking out some of these haunted attractions is something you ought to be doing if you aren't currently.

One haunted attraction that is a should see is Dark Hour Haunted House . Dark Hour Haunted home has fantastic horror shows with frightening monsters sure to offer you chills. They produce the highest quality of haunt experience, and you'll be thankful you came. This haunted attraction is the very best regional haunted house and has been included n well known news outlets.

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Rowlett is a moderately-sized city located in the home rate to earnings ratio compares the typical home rates to the average family income. In Rowlett, the home cost to income ratio is 2, which is 23.1% lower than the Texas average. Real estate gratitude rates in Rowlett are essential to consider, as they can serve as a guide to determine if your new home purchase will be a strong financial investment going forward.

STEM Cafe - Check Out Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) with hands-on activities and crafts. This program is for school age students 5-18.

Top Rated Most Visited Places In Town

In order to assist in building and construction of the infrastructure, the public boat ramp has been closed and will remain so for numerous months.

Found near to the city of Texas is known for being a dynamic and diverse place to come, with lots of all-American Texan features to take pleasure in, as well as some gorgeous outside landscapes and some enjoyable indoor tourist attractions. Many visitors won't know that Garland is in fact a manufacturing hub in the United States, and apparel from this area is exported all over the world.

When it concerns getting outside, you will find over 2,000 acres of park land here, so you will definitely have a great deal of option, and need to you go to in the Texas summer season, there are 2 different water parks to select from if you desire to choose a dip.

Our Best Best Local Attractions

The Bass Pro Shops nevertheless likewise offer not just excellent views, however a remarkable 120,000 square foot shop that is complete with a 13,000 gallon fish tank filled with saltwater aquatic life. There is also an arcade here and there are live demonstrations held throughout the day. If you get starving here, then you can dine at the onsite dining establishment or bar and there is even a private sand beach here for patrons to enjoy.

# 2 of 30 Things To Do in Rowlett Sting Dallas Complex 535 E. Buckingham Rd. Richardson TX ~ 9.61 miles from Rowlett city center.

Rowlett is a pretty city that rests on two peninsulas along Lake Ray Hubbard, and there is plenty to do throughout the year. Here are some recommendations: Lake Ray Hubbard has more than 30 miles of charming shoreline, and one of the finest places to kick back, unwind and enjoy the sun set is Picturesque Point Park.

The Top Family Oriented Events

In a Main Street structure with a rustic 1920s environment, Bankhead Developing Business is a genuine brewpub that opened in 2016. A full menu is offered to patrons in addition to 15 craft brews with names like Wheels Off (pale ale), Hootenanny (German bock), Laugh Water (Vienna lager), Doohickey (oatmeal stout) and Whoopee (Czech pilsner).

The plays are performed at Main Street Event Center, and 2 current productions were The Middleton Breeze and Of Moss and Guys. Canoeing, kayaking and paddle boarding are enjoyable activities along Paddle Point Creek Path situated on Lake Ray Hubbard. The entrance to the path is off Miller Roadway and the water is often calm, and wildlife like herons, egrets and eagles can often be seen.

Rowlett partners with local businesses and non-profit organizations to host a variety of totally free events throughout the warm-weather months. A Summer season Show Series showcases some of the location's best cover bands, while Films at Pecan Park is staged every Friday night during September. Films in 2017 included The Secret Life of Animals and Appeal and the Beast.

The Best Most Visited Places In Town

Activities consist of food tastings, a kid's zone, concerts, dance efficiencies and vendors offering ethnic items. The Very Best Reasons for You to Relocate to Rowlett, TX Take the kids to Wet Zone Waterpark, which opens from mid-May to mid-August and functions attractions like a large pool, long slides, splash pad and wave zone.

The city starts the holidays in early December at Pecan Grove Park with a yearly Main Street Fest, that includes a tree-lighting event along a beautiful Path of Trees. 6 days later, an annual Rowlett Vacation Parade brings in more than 50 floats that proceed along a long path on Main Street.

Details About The Awesome City of Rowlett Texas

- The latitude and longitude for Rowlett is 32.907020, -96.547415

- Rowlett is a growing, upscale community with nearly $1.5 billion in development in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex

- The estimated population in Rowlett as of 2018 is 66,285

- Rowlett is bordered by Garland to the West

- Rowlett is bordered by Lake Ray Hubbard to the East

- The population density of Rowlett is about 2,509.2 people per square mile

- The area codes for Rowlett are 214, 469, and 972

- Rowlett Residents in Rockwall County are zoned to Collin College, while residents in Dallas County are zoned to the Dallas County Community College District

- About 3.0% of the Rowlett population live below the poverty line

[behaviorpioneers]

The Importance of Social Skills Development in Children with Autism

Child Behavior Therapy Specialists in Dallas, TX Offer Insights One of the most prevalent childhood developmental disorders in the U.S., Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) impacts about 1 in 54 children every year. As a complex, neurological condition, ASD manifests itself differently in every individual. While the challenges, severity of symptoms, and impairments may vary for every child, one aspect that usually needs attention and intervention is social skills. Any deficit in this skill tends to impact the way a child interacts with others and builds relationships. In fact, the lack of social interactions and limited social-emotional reciprocity often impacts the quality of life of the entire family. For parents of children with Autism, the ultimate goal is to ensure that the child behaves in a more neurotypical manner and assimilates better in society. This is where a powerful, evidence-based Autism treatment, such as Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy comes into play. ABA therapy focuses on improving skill deficits, enhancing function, and promoting independence in children with ASD. The ABA therapy experts at Behavior Pioneers discuss the importance of social skills development and share some strategies that specifically address the gap in this skill set. Social Skills Development with ABA-Based Programs and Interventions Children with Autism usually have a difficult time participating in social activities or interacting with peers, parents, teachers, siblings or other people in day-to-day situations. Whether it is starting a conversation, making friends, playing, attending events, or other social interactions, they may need additional support in developing these abilities. Why is Social Skills Development Critical? Studies1,2,3 show that social competence may have an impact on the child’s academic skills and educational performance. In fact, there is sufficient research4 that social adjustment indications can help predict academic performance. While social skills development is critical for the academic or professional endeavors of individuals with ASD, it also plays a key role in: - Bolstering self-confidence and preventing peer victimization (in the form of bullying, shunning and isolation) - Promoting companionship, emotional support, affection, and a sense of belonging - Creating opportunities to share hopes, fears or interests - Enhancing learning of the outside world Building the social skills and abilities of children with Autism is all about helping them: - Share with others and be empathetic - Build trusting relationships and enjoy companionship - Consider others’ perspectives and resolve conflicts What Strategies Help with Social Skills Development? Here is a glimpse into some of the ABA-based strategies that can potentially enhance the social skills index of children with Autism. 1. Pivotal Response Training (PRT): These are direct child-specific interventions that consist of instructions and positive reinforcements. The ABA therapist teaches the child self-monitoring techniques, while also practicing stimulus control and behavior modification prompts. PRT aims to increase the frequency and quality of social behaviors displayed by children with ASD. 2. Social Stories: An increasingly popular intervention, social stories involves individualized stories that teach appropriate social behaviors to children with ASD. This is a highly targeted approach, where each story contains specific activities or situations that the child finds challenging. 3. Peer Mediated Interventions: Peer mediation involves training the neurotypical peers to interact appropriately with children with Autism. Whether it is developing meaningful relationships, treating their peers with dignity and respect, or decreasing stigmatizing behaviors, the neurotypical peers learn how to contribute to the development of social skills in children with ASD. Designed to increase the child’s social initiations and communicative interactions, peer mediated interventions involve parallel play, cooperative play, close proximity observations and verbal or physical response to initiations. 4. Social Scripts: Social scripts apply prompting, reinforcement and modeling techniques to teach the child how to interact in various social situations. Once the child starts using the scripted techniques spontaneously in real-life interactions, the therapist begins script fading and discontinues this approach. Typically, ABA practitioners apply the principles of ABA to design personalized social skills plans that cater to each child’s unique abilities and developmental goals. About the Authors Behavior Pioneers, LLC, specializes in Applied Behavior Analysis therapy near me for treating individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). With clinic-based therapy in Richardson, TX and Carrolton, TX, along with in-home ABA sessions throughout Dallas, TX, they aim to bring about meaningful, long-lasting changes in the lives of families and children living with Autism. Led by Clinical Director Brian Tanenbaum, the Behavior Pioneers’ team includes experienced Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) and Registered Behavior Technicians (RBTs), who hold master’s degrees in Child Development, Early Childhood Disorders, Educational Psychology, and Low Incidence Disabilities and Autism. At Behavior Pioneers, the focus is on creating customized, flexible, high-impact ABA plans that build essential skills (including motor, social, verbal and cognitive), decrease challenging behaviors and enhance the functioning and independence of individuals with ASD. For more information on child behavior therapy in Dallas, TX, get in touch with the ABA therapist near me at any of their Autism treatment centers. You can also call 877-725-8397 or contact them online.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 7, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

Early in the wake of Trump’s presidency, Republican Party lawmakers facing upcoming elections appear to have made the calculation that radicalized Trump voters were vital to their political futures. They seemed to worry that they needed to protect themselves against primary candidates from the right, since primaries are famous for bringing out the strongest partisans. If they could win their primaries, though, they could rely on tradition, gerrymandering, and voter suppression to keep them in office.

So Republicans tried to bury the January 6 insurrection and former president Trump’s role in it. Although both Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) called attention to Trump’s responsibility for the attack immediately after it happened, they voted to acquit him of the charge of “incitement of insurrection” placed by the House of Representatives, and either to echo or not to oppose the accusation that the 2020 election was fraudulent.

Republican governors like Greg Abbott in Texas and Ron DeSantis in Florida, both of whom appear to have presidential ambitions, along with Kristi Noem in South Dakota, took strong stands against immigrants who they insisted were invading the country, masks that they claimed were stifling children, and now, in Texas (but soon to spread), against abortion. At the same time, Republican-dominated states dramatically restricted the right to vote.

This calculation is hardly a secret. In Washington state, two Trump-type candidates have recently challenged the popular Republican incumbent Jaime Herrera Beutler, who voted for the former president’s impeachment. Trump has endorsed one of them, and Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz, a Trump loyalist, traveled there this weekend to boost that candidate's campaign.

Republicans in Texas have swung hard right to rally their white base in a state that is now majority minority. The governor recently directed state police to arrest immigrants believed to have come to America illegally. The Republican legislature has passed, and the Republican governor has signed, a draconian abortion law empowering neighbors to collect $10,000 if they win a lawsuit against anyone who “abets” an abortion after six weeks, before most people know they’re pregnant; a strong voter suppression bill; and a law that permits people to carry guns without a permit.

​​Democratic state Representative Ron Reynolds, vice chair of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, told the AP’s Will Weissert and Paul J. Weber: “They have to entertain and they have to appease because these are the people that are excited about voting in Republican primaries.”

But the Republicans' move right was always a political gamble. The fact that politics is getting so frantic suggests it is a gamble they are afraid they are losing.

Far from disappearing, the events of January 6 loom larger every day. On September 4, Jacob Chansley, who then called himself “QAnon Shaman” and was seen in the Senate Chamber on January 6, shirtless, painted, wearing a horned helmet, and carrying a flagpole topped with a spear, pleaded guilty to a felony. He could face 41 to 51 months in prison. He is one of 600 charged so far in the insurrection. Like others, he claimed he believed Trump had called him to the Capitol that day.

Some Republican lawmakers might be looking at Chansley’s four or so years in prison and getting nervous as they might face their own day of reckoning.

Senate Republicans filibustered the creation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the events of January 6, so the House created a select committee instead. McCarthy tried to sabotage the select committee by adding to it two representatives who had already declared their opposition to it; then, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected them, McCarthy withdrew all the Republicans from the committee and refused to participate in it, clearly hoping to discredit its work as a partisan hit job. But Pelosi invited anti-Trump Republican representatives Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) to participate in the committee, and they agreed. As of September 2, Cheney is now the committee’s vice-chair.

The committee has asked a wide variety of sources for a wide variety of records, prompting what certainly looks like concern from lawmakers who worked closely with the former president. When the select committee asked telecommunications companies to preserve the phone records of certain members of Congress, as well as the former president and members of his family, the lawmakers in question strongly opposed the committee’s request.

McCarthy claimed that any company turning over private information was “in violation of federal law and subject to losing their ability to operate in the United States,” although experts say there is no law that stops companies from complying with a subpoena (and, of course, Republicans demanded—and received—Hillary Clinton’s private data in 2016). McCarthy seemed to issue a threat when he said: “If companies still choose to violate federal law, a Republican majority will not forget and will stand with Americans to hold them fully accountable under the law.”

Eleven House Republicans wrote a letter to Yahoo (mistakenly addressing it to a CEO who left the company in 2017) warning that “the undersigned do not consent to the release of confidential call records or data,” claiming that “your company has a legal obligation to protect the data of your subscribers and customers,” and threatening that “[i]f you fail to comply with these obligations, we will pursue all legal remedies.”

The eleven lawmakers signing the letter were those most closely associated with Trump: Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Scott Perry (R-PA), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Jodie Hice (R-GA), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Mo Brooks (R-AL), Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), and Jim Banks (R-IN), who seems to have aims for higher office.

Greene warned that any company complying with the committee’s request would be “shut down.”

McCarthy also claimed that the Department of Justice had said Trump did not cause, incite, or provoke the violence on January 6. This prompted select committee chair Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) and Vice-Chair Cheney to issue a statement “on McCarthy’s January 6th misinformation campaign,” calling “reports of such a conclusion… baseless.”

The anti-government anti-mask movement also probably seemed like a better idea before the Delta variant hit. Governors like Abbott and DeSantis have doubled down on opposing mask mandates: DeSantis has gone so far as to use the government to prevent private businesses from requiring masks and to block local officials from requiring masks in schools.

But mask mandates are widely popular, and as hospitalizations and deaths spike among the unvaccinated, popular opinion is turning against anti-maskers. The area around Miami, Florida, has seen the deaths of at least 13 school staff from Covid-19; hospitalizations of children are rising; and north Idaho has begun to ration medical care; Covid hospitalizations on Labor Day 2021 were 61,000 higher than they were a year ago (99,000 versus 38,000), and health care workers are exhausted. Doctors are beginning to push back against the anti-maskers, while school boards in Florida are defying DeSantis’s ban and Texas schools are challenging Abbott’s rule in court.

While Trump-reflecting lawmakers are demanding Americans put their lives, and their children’s lives, on the line for “freedom,” news broke tonight that Trump and his son Don, Jr., will spend the night of September 11, 2021, the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, commenting on a "gamecast" of a boxing match between former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield (who stepped in when Oscar De La Hoya tested positive for Covid) and Vitor Belfort at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. "I love great fighters and great fights," Trump said. "You won't want to miss this special event..."—which can be purchased for $49.99.

—-

Notes:

https://hillreporter.com/commentary-watch-long-read-my-day-in-magaville-111691

https://www.npr.org/2021/09/03/1034076581/an-arizona-man-who-wore-horns-in-the-jan-6-capitol-riot-pleads-guilty-to-felony

https://oversight.house.gov/news/press-releases/house-republicans-issued-more-than-70-subpoenas-and-letters-investigating

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/30/politics/january-6-phone-records-members-of-congress/index.html

https://biggs.house.gov/sites/biggs.house.gov/files/documents/Letter%20to%20Yahoo%21%5B1%5D.pdf

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/09/07/gop-effort-hamstring-jan-6-investigation-enters-new-phase/

https://january6th.house.gov/news/press-releases/thompson-cheney-statement-mccarthy-s-january-6th-misinformation-campaign

https://apnews.com/article/health-texas-coronavirus-pandemic-race-and-ethnicity-gun-politics-7fc96749dd93d45ff0f2f9bab1fd7b40

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/31/texas-voting-restrictions-bill/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/07/desantis-abbott-youngkin-covid-mask-mandates/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/17/latest-gop-anti-mask-lunacy-is-stirring-backlash-new-polling-reveals-it/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/07/desantis-abbott-youngkin-covid-mask-mandates/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/09/07/covid-delta-variant-live-updates/

https://blog.idahoreports.idahoptv.org/2021/09/07/crisis-standards-of-care-activated-in-north-idaho/

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/570995-austin-area-district-defies-abbot-on-school-masks-ban

https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/06/republicans-6-january-investigation-intimidation

Jeff Stein @JStein_WaPoCovid hospitalizations, Labor Day 2020: 38K Covid hospitalizations, Labor Day 2021: 99K

Idaho moves to start rationing medical care amid surge in covid hospitalizationsThe surge illustrates how the delta variant has hampered progress in curbing the pandemic even as vaccines became widely available.washingtonpost.com

1,053 Retweets1,544 Likes

September 7th 2021

https://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/id/32167639/donald-trump-son-provide-commentary-evander-holyfield-vitor-belfort-alternate-telecast

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[humanhost]

DEDICATED AND SOFT RESTING

Over the past three years it’s been a tradition here for a year end rundown of HH activities to be posted up just about now. This will happen in a few lines, but it’s always good to question the routine kinda things that we all do.

 Time gets enough of our attention as it is every day, every hour, every moment whether you’re at the beginning of the year, or the end of it, in the middle, whatever. To constantly acknowledge its power (or even its weakness) would make us feel obsessive. How many times do you hear folks worrying about getting old? Or dying? Or showing up late to something? Or waking up? Or “getting enough hours” of this, that, or the other thing? The looming presence of time will never disappear. That’s actually a good thing for an infinite number of reasons. But, unless perhaps there’s some kind of magical time-spirit being who is really interesting and fun to hangout with, why pay extra special attention to something that has about as much personality as your average everyday grain of sand?

On the other hand time possesses the amazing, beautiful super power of invisibility, and it seems to be incapable of feeling any pain. You can’t say that about whole lot of other things, invisible or otherwise. So yeah, it seems like the jury’s still out. So what the heck, we might as well have ourselves a good old fashioned time blastin’ fun-o-rama-lama

~ 

For roughly 3 months out of 2018 Human Host was on the road. This was the largest amount of gigs we ever played at any time within the last decade (’08-’18). Being a traveling artist can be a strange and sometimes awkward endeavor, but as far as HH’s 2018 tours are concerned it was pretty smooth sailing all year long. There’s a big reason for this: people - good people who work in many capacities to support independent/original artists because they genuinely *love* doing that. A ton of venues, promoters, talent buyers, and show bookers of all shapes and sizes helped make ‘18 one of HH’s most productive years ever and we thank *all* of these folks & venues massively. 

But tours aren’t always succesful strictly because of people in the “business”, or even due to the support of folks working in the art-centric underground, or any of the other more typical proffesionals who you can imagine are responsible for getting great gigs together. There are tons of other people who often wear a thousand hats, or simply work behind the scenes to make great art come to life in contexts that are far more complicated/multi-faceted than that of the average concert promoter. Below are the names of a whole giant ton of great people whose help, moral support, and kindness made Human Host’s 2018 adventures unforgettable and extra special in every way possible:

Nathan Dowell, Alex Dowell, the entire Dowell family of Birmingham, Al., and David Richardson of Hamilton, Md.

Doug Hammond of Los Angeles (TGAUC forever!)

Lorraine DeGraffenreidt/UCB and Richard McClaughlin from the KMAN 92.5 Tapes label of Glendale, Ca.

Cory Davolos/T.E.A.M. & Joy Eichert of Columbus, Oh. (next time HH gets the ice cream tab, seriously!)

Devon Till/T.E.A.M. of Jacksonville, Fla.

Jacob Markus and the whole crew from The Southside House & the band From Worlds Alike of Smyrna, Tn.

Sarah Brandes & Matt Reilly and family of Los Angeles

Mac Burns of Los Angeles

Kaitlyn/Illegal Shirts & Perseus The Cat, and the RAT PPL collective of L.A.

Jarod Walker/In Case Of Emergency Press of Bloomington, In.

Nick Riddle and family of Raleigh, N.C.

Chris Bishop/garagehangover.com from upstate NY

Destination Coffee Bar and Bistro of Hemet, Ca.

Ruthy who was with us on the Greyhound bus going from Jackson, Ms. to Monroe, Louisiana.

Son from La Plata, Ia. who was with us on the Amtrak train up until Chicago

Regina from Chicago who traveled with us on the Amtrak train to D.C.

The El Pollo Loco location near the UCB Theatre on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood

Landon Deaton of Milwaukee, Wi.

Alex of Nightmare In Wonderland from Monroe, NY

David & Radcliffe of Hill Boys, and Joe Vick of New Brunswick, NJ

The Dump community center/spiritual hub of Brooklyn, NY

Amy Beth & Argyle Zandolis of Elmsford, NY

Darren Mabbee and Russell Dolan of Jersey City, NJ

Jared Fischer & Michelle Silvester of Brooklyn, NY

Billy & Maria from The Poconos

Alberta & Jim from The Poconos

Wayne Llewellyn of Roanoke, Va.

Jason Donells of Austin, Tx.

Jack Elliot-Higgins from St. Louis, Mo.

Cody & Kimmie from The Philistines of Kansas City, Mo

Chris MacGarvey of Athens, Ga. 

Eric Rosario of Bubble Wand from Baltimore

Dee Crittenden of Joy Lane/Alien Witch from Orlando, Fla.

Jill Lloyd Flanagan of Forced Into Femininity from Chicago

...yow! That’s alotta awesome people, and (cant stress this enuff here) most of those mentioned weren’t directly involved with booking any shows. To anyone that might feel forgotten here, HH sincerely apologizes. They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well, it takes friggin telepathic megopolis to keep the healing meta embers of weirdness a’smoulderin for cosmic glory.

~

In addition to all the touring, 2018 saw HH release a new full length record, create recordings with a slew of side projects (including the newest album from T.E.A.M., a group who has only become active after a nearly 25 year hiatus), and some Human Host members even sat in for a few open jam sessions in New Jersey and Ronaoke, Va. Some new Human Host writing projects were completed, and there was even a combination HH music/spoken word performance which was recorded live in the L.A. suburbs out at the University Of California’s Irvine campus (which the school’s radio station KUCI-FM has archived; more info on this is coming soon).

The Host also became the subject for an excellent piece entitled ‘Strange Symbiosis’ which was run by suburban L.A.’s Ventura County Reporter. In this piece writer Karen Lindell brings the Human Host experience to life in a new way which highlights the core political and philosophical concepts of our purpose. You can read the article here:

https://www.vcreporter.com/2018/12/strange-symbiosis-experimental-pop-outfit-human-host-goes-off-the-beaten-path-in-ventura-and-ojai/

~

O.k., Time Cult, time’s up 

HH needs a rest (a real big one). As we enjoy the sleep of brief ages, 2019 awaits with even more goodies in store. We’re puttin ‘18 out to pasture in style, so please stay tuned.

            YOURS IN PEACE, MYSTERY, AND LOVE,

  Gurgle Bliirrg, Talb Chrang, Z’mabattadanergustre, and the whole gang out there pseudo-spelunking through the inverted cave of trampoline lava-clava a.k.a. ))) Human Host ((( 

~

(Image credit: A page from the ‘79 edition of P. Craig Russell’s “Night Music”)