A PIG IN A POKE

by Ace

9-15-2024

A PIG IN A POKE (Updated) by Ace Answers

Updated

I am glad you had a moment or two to join me in my thoughts today.  My ability to work was curtailed by chronic pain and this prevented me from being productive.  I was unable to produce a post or podcast, and I am taking each day as it comes.  Of course, when I tried to record a new podcast, my system crashed.  I LOVE WHEN THAT HAPPENS! 

This computer is only one year old.  While I was out of commission, I thought if I bought a new mic from an online store this would work with my editing software.  NOPE.  So, I went back online to buy several new microphones expecting this to improve to no avail.  I tried wireless, Bluetooth, and other wired mics (3.5 mm & USB).  No go.  Not fun. This told me resistance is futile, and to just focus on my health.  Thank you for your patience as I try to navigate a different workaround.  

Bizarre Influences

I've been keeping up with certain current events including the Trump vs Harris debate. The loudest voices in mainstream media lambasted Trump for mentioning the recent news report(s) that Haitian immigrants in the Midwest were seen eating cats. The latest news is reporting that the immigrants are rounding up waterfowl.  We know people eat birds all around the world.  But pull the brake lever for cats or even dogs as these are not typical entrees except perhaps in certain other nations to abate starvation. 

Naturally, my mind went into overdrive, and I tried to recall the last time I read and heard the local TV news report that there was widespread disease among beef in our nation.  I think the rule is: if a cow can stand up and proceed to the processing plant then they are considered ‘well enough’ for human consumption. 

One point to ponder is the urban legend that 1,000,000 cattle are moved into the beef processing system per day.  The only way this would be sustainable is if 1,000,000 new head of cattle are born daily.  Ummm…really? Is this happening?  Forget for a moment that the price point for one pound of beef skyrocketed last year and that some grocers do not maintain a full display of their organic line of ground chuck or sirloin. 

During the covid lockdown I ate a burger from a hamburger stand and it did not taste like beef.  I asked if it was marked as USDA AND grown and processed in the USA and the staff seemed unsure except to say the box was marked USDA.  It did not taste like a ground beef burger of which I had grown accustomed since childhood.  Perhaps the growth forecast after the last culling was unrealistic after the last massive disease outbreak and various unidentifiable red meat was imported to cover the need in the U.S. marketplace. 

Well, I also tried a salad that contained beef slices and I will tell you it had a different texture than bovine sourced beef, and tasted like the smell of “wet dog”.  Later, I learned that our beef was being shipped abroad to China where it was prepared then shipped back to us.  DOES THIS MAKE SENSE?  If the beef is being convoluted with mystery meat should we know about it?  In times of war or in the aftermath some people living in the city were in a race to eat mystery meat. Another beef burger during the same time frame tasted like an exotic animal and that staff told me it was imported but labeled as ‘beef’.  They could not second guess this and had to go by the labeling.  Well, I realized we are not speaking the same language for certain animals around the world.  Especially if a nation does not maintain stockyards of bovine cattle.  Far away, their idea of beef could be a different beast altogether.  If so, then this is false advertising to customers seeking to purchase ground bovine sourced beef in the USA.  Do we plate up lamb or venison and call it beef? NO, we learned that animals such as venison/deer or lamb are not beef. They have a distinct wild game flavor whereas beef has a mild flavor and depending on the cut it has an amazing smooth texture, which is more noticeable in organic raised beef…and you will be spoiling yourself and your family when you are able to get around to trying it…it tastes the way it was intended to be eaten. Nothing added and nothing subtracted. Yes…I am an omnivore but I have limits to trying wild game. Perhaps beef-alo some day. Lamb has a flavor that is wild enough for me right now and probably my favorite BBQ more so than beef. I will say I made modifications to my diet after reading GOD’s dietary laws, but I do not have this section memorized. Some people told me it is okay now to eat any animal because the prep and cooking methods have improved since old times. Really?! A rose is a rose is a rose folks! The open flame of a BBQ is the hottest and cleanest way to cook anything and this method predates the oven range. Retrieved from:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=leviticus%2011&version=NKJV

I saw in a documentary a massive whale swim with its mouth open to gobble up all the floating shrimp. ‘I'm a whale-oh listen what I say oh’.

Often times I will parody the lyrics of a song. Some of you may have heard me do this. You probably know this is a spoof from RHCP, Snow.

Okay back on topic.

Semantics is not as equal as I once thought. One day at a grocery deli counter I requested that a deli clerk wipe down the Hobart slicer before slicing my order of beef and cheese…I wanted to begin with a clean slicer. Today there is no issue, if they are asked to clean the slicer they will wash it with water and a cloth, and cheese is usually sliced on exclusive slicers for vegetarians. So back then that deli clerk raised a question to get out of the task. She believed that if I said I do not eat pork it meant that I may perhaps eat ham or other porcine products like pork chops, pepperoni or pork sausage. I had to say to her it is all derived from the pig, and I do not eat that, and would she be able to please wipe down the slicer? She hated to do it. It did not matter to her. The leadership in her home betrayed her and defined ham and pepperoni as different and separate animals. I am glad I did not mention prosciutto. I would never have received a completed order. The learning was deliberately broken down and rewired to ultimately believe something contrary and incorrect. Unbelievable, that this goes on right here in our country. I call these insulated factions. To some people it is a challenge. I was not speaking of food preparation, instead I was speaking of the meat of a specific animal. There is a widespread semantics barrier and I have to go with my discernment and intuition that if another person did not give me the correct or appropriate feedback, then we are not on the same page. I mean specifically this faux pas: saying I want ‘triple cheese’ on my pizza vs. I want the ‘three cheese’. Do you know the difference? Order the triple cheese and you will never make that mistake again unless you like a heavy blanket of mozzarella bubble gum on your pizza vs. the three cheese blend. Anyway, perhaps using a graphic representation of globally eaten gazelle vs. llama vs. a bovine cow should be used to differentiate the packages. Some bison packs already show a diagram of a bison/buffalo.

I first realized that we don't have any details as to how those immigrants in the Midwest ended up starving and forced to obtain wild game food.  Does everyone recall there is widespread cannibalism in many parts of the world? Why is it they don't know where the shelters, food pantries, and soup kitchens are located? Did they arrive after midnight via a bus drop off and left to fend for themselves? How did they intend to prepare their food? Shouldn’t a representative of the district or city reach out to the people and arrange for a language interpreter that can distribute information and point the way to resources such as shelters? Certain Internet and mobile app translators will perceive the spoken word and ‘detect a language’ in order for it to be translated to English. Did the new immigrants purchase a dwelling in the USA before they boarded a plane in Haiti? No. The apartment buildings were no doubt fully occupied with a closed wait list. Where does the district arrange for them to go? Are they staying at a hotel on the interstate freeway? Furthermore, if they are not eating cats but torturing them there needs to be an investigation because serial killers begin their killing sprees with animals then move on to human beings. This subject should not be taken lightly.

Detect a Language

Let's face it most people in each community finds a cluster of new faces and it's as if we stepped into a foreign country with accents at a store but many new migrants are speaking with an American accent OR have NO ACCENT. Then there are other migrants speaking with an American accent but they are not that new. People that learn English as an adult typically have a foreign accent their entire lives. Students now can learn English in their classrooms abroad and are being taught the American accent by their American teachers. This makes it appear as though some of the new immigrants have been here for some time to have learned to speak American so well. That can be confusing e.g. as a child I met another student that spoke with a British accent but she grew up taking language lessons in a different country. So her accent was not a Southern twang but rather she sounded like a Brit.

X Does Not Always Mark The Spot

However, the crime wave from illegal immigrants should be considered atrocious and especially if they have vicious tendencies. The indicator of danger or destruction is not in an accent. There is no connection to bad behavior if someone is speaking English or American with a foreign accent. IF they are hell bent everyone will see the bad tendencies and this must be filtered or recognized rapidly to protect everyone else.

Those other people have arrived from a different path and have no regard for human life. Something awful may have happened to them and they believe the rest of humanity has to now pay for it. A few cultures from around the world actually embrace similar tenets. They teach their young not to answer a human being’s cry for help, because they were not helped decades ago, or relatives that are now deceased had it rough ‘back then’. To not be able to move forward or learn to love again is one thing, yet to create barriers and or to refuse to help others is a sickness.

Does anybody remember that in the last 10 years we could read news about teaching jobs that were very rare here in the USA and teachers without jobs or with student loans needed to go abroad just to be able to teach?  American teachers went to foreign countries to teach English with the American accents so that the foreign student population grows up, graduates and comes to the USA already speaking American. This of course helps them to merge quickly into the workforce and the community. And they obtain employment, etc. but the stealth at which they arrived is intriguing.  They will say they have been here a few years. Acceptance of law and order should be a priority but this may be a barrier for some immigrants that are bent to earning cash illegally so they follow instead a criminal path. We may be learning to cope with a new paradigm, but we should not wish to be in the wake of disaster they create with their oppressive and illegal ways.

Are we ready to send drones to film their former home location to find out the condition they left it in?  Have GMO crops scorched the Earth making it impossible for new plantings? Is the water polluted?  Are these the reasons they're evacuating their home countries and coming to this nation in such a haste?  What about locust swarms?

But how is it that the migrants did not blend into their surrounding areas or nations next door that speak the same language?  Why did they come all the way up to the USA? How is it that China was not beckoning? Were they told they would get free “universal income” in the USA, while everyone here has not yet received it?  And just the tour buses and fuel are highly expensive. How do you suppose the migrants will make cash money after they have arrived? How did they get ahead of the line on the apartment wait list? Who did they use as a reference?

Home Is Where The Heart Is

I loved my parents dearly. They were each very loving. It broke my heart when I lost them. My late father whom I dubbed “Pop” always told me, “Read, and you will have the whole world in the palm of your hands”. I also had a stepfather whom I loved very much. He also passed away. He was such a wonderful and caring man I call him my second dad. My late mother moved to the USA after marrying my late father. My mother was my champion. I still miss her. She had an accent her entire adult life. There are some days when I look back I wish I could hear her voice all over again. She was beautiful, modest, and quiet, compassionate, intelligent, quick, she respected authority and she followed the rules. Often on a Thanksgiving holiday she would invite one older person that was living alone to join us at the dinner table. They showed up with a smile knowing that they would soon eat an amazing feast. Ma was truly a wonderful cook. She told me it was better to have leftovers than to run out of food especially when guests were present. She always looked like an elegant hostess. She also held pizza parties. This was the only exception to the ‘leftover’ rule. She would circulate thirty (30) pizzas and there were never pizza leftovers and by the time all the pizza was eaten, everyone was ready for the dessert pies. Those parties were famous and are still talked about today. She learned from a friend that moved from Italy to the USA (having met through their Citizenship class), all the finest methods of making from scratch a pizza dough and pizza sauce that was stocked from a homegrown garden. People raved and raved. Once the coffee started to brew the guests would race over for a slice of pie. They could not wait to select their first and second slices of her homemade dessert pie line up: Blueberry cream cheese pie (my all time favorite), banana cream pie, lemon meringue pie, mincemeat pie, apple pie, and chocolate cream pie.

Naturally, I was born in the USA. English was not my first language and I learned it in school and from listening to people and to TV sitcoms, cartoons, plus I sang along to the radio. Some of the silliest programs were on Saturday morning television. Looking back, I wonder if this was meant to create some level of psychosis or completely unintentional. There were kids in school that were imitating the way certain characters spoke and fought. There were ridiculous towering talking animal hybrids. Many of the sitcoms and cartoons were and still are violent or extolled drug use. Was that a bad idea? Can this influence be called brainwashing? Of course I had enjoyed reruns of some of the shows. For example, Lidsville.

This was a scream. It gives me pause during the balloon close up. Did anyone notice the flesh colored balloon in the foreground? This gave off subliminal messages that it was human skin from a man's chest, and I get sick seeing it. Just the opening song set up the entire storyline in under 2:00 minutes. Was the audience out of their gourds for watching this? Every other channel had similar stuff. I don't know if you can convince me otherwise. I believe however 1. These lunatic shows took our minds off regular stuff as did the catchy tunes 2. These shows are the products of some kind of lottery budget allocation. Sooo, did this show build a psychosis? I'm going to leave that question open ended because it is too bizarre for words.

As an auditory learner I learned my school lessons by reading out loud, and I grew my vocabulary by reading new definitions in the dictionary. Classmates relied on me to define words because they hated to use the dictionary. I was the quiet kid that observed everyone else. So if we had logical type sitcoms would we all grow up to be logical and methodical instead of rowdy?

A few rerun favorites were Viva Las Vegas, and The Flintstones, Ann-Margrock episode.

Back on topic again.

It was just a few years ago when Venezuela had a famine and people were going to Columbia for water and food. Yet they all looked healthy on camera. The news photos did not match the false narrative.  

This brings to mind the origination of the “pig in a poke” concept.  A concept that is spread, which has no factual information and is being touted as a panacea, a remedy or something else entirely…and is instead much different than what the hawker says it is.  Things are not always as they appear.

So, when someone says this item or a new regulation will be good for the nation just sign it for now, and we can read it later…WATCH IT because it cannot be edited and getting reform will be a lengthy process. 

Should we respect people that promote that we do not bother to read something that may create a life changing aftermath?

When did we as citizens lose our methods of discernment?  Why have so many people become apathetic to the point that they may be clouded in their observations? Most people doing something wrong do not wish to be ‘bothered’.  When we see a box and turn a revolving handle on the side most of us will recognize it is a jack-in-the-box toy so it is no surprise that there will be brief music, then a doll or clown will spring up and pop out of the lid.  But telling an alternate description is not telling the truth, and is meant to deceive others.  This is the pig in a poke.

Collectively all voters must determine who is capable of leading our nation and not just going along to get along at a rate of 100%.  People from overseas used to want to come to the USA because we did not go along with backward ideas used in other nations. Now our nation seems to be conforming to the leaders of other nations or leaders of non-governmental organizations (NGO). Will our nation survive multiple agendas that resemble our getting hosed?

It depends on what is coming next.  We have heard sound bites regarding the ideological leanings of everyone on the stage.  Hopefully, we can compare the concept of a pig in a poke to a spinoff of the title of an old fairy tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen, to instead, “The Emperor Has No Clothes”.

The next administration will either bolster and stabilize our culture for the common good, and hire law enforcement at increased numbers and give them top translator apps for their mobile device that is preset to ‘detect a language’ and Velcro it to their shoulder. Use a WIFI network located in their cruisers. This may minimize language confusion or utter chaos; cover the established citizens; cover also the new burgeoning populations.

The alternative scenario will usher in further national decline at a pace that will begin a tailspin that may be non-survivable.