Holidays Are Depressing For Me

Written By:  Andrew Eide

I will be honest with you. Holidays, especially Christmas, is depressing for me. Christmas is the worst as I can make it through the other holidays without much stress and depression.

So, your question for me is, why is Christmas depressing for you. Here are my responses.

I grew up in the 1950’s and 1960’s where you couldn’t purchase a Christmas Tree until the 2^nd week of December. You never heard Christmas music until at least the 1^st week of December. Today you see Christmas items in stores in July. You hear Christmas music playing in October. And when we were kids the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was the big event of the year before Christmas arrives the next month. But today the big event in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade is the very last float which presents Santa and Christmas.

Then you have the commercialism. Gift-giving for Christmas has a tradition of being simple and worthy and items a person could use. Today you have spoiled people, especially kids, who get upset if you don’t purchase them the most expensive items on the market as gifts. Yeah it depresses me to no end to spend $50 on an item for a family member only to have them disrespect the gift and complain why I didn’t purchase them the $100 version of the item. You know what? You don’t want to appreciate my effort, and the money I spent, to present you with gifts then next Christmas don’t expect any gifts from me!

I will make it through the Christmas Holiday season for 2017 but I will be sad and depressed. Nothing that several cups of coffee and lots of chocolate can’t handle.

End Of The Year 2017

Written By:  Andrew Eide

I would like to give a brief run-down of 2017 and let you know my feelings and opinions.

I feel 2017 has been a good year. The reasons are simple yet they are things that have not happened in our country for nearly a decade. The short list is:

ECONIMY – Our economy is doing well. The number of private sector jobs has increased while Government sector jobs have decreased. Many companies that were planning on moving jobs to other countries were enticed by President Trump to keep many of those jobs here.

SECURITY – The security of the United States and our Citizens is the primary concern to me. Since President Trump cracked down hard on illegal immigration and people who are terrorists coming here under the claim they are refugees from a war-torn country has provided a more secure environment for our citizens. While we see terrorist attacks ramp up in England, France, Germany, and many other countries, you see terrorist attacks at an all-time low in the United States especially compared to the number of attacks that happened under President Obama.

INVESTIGATION ON SO-CALLED RUSSIAN COLLUSION – We have had a year-long investigation conducted by a group of Liberals who want to find collusion between members of President Trump’s campaign and Administration with Russia to change the outcome of the November 2016 Presidential election. In that year-long investigation there hasn’t been one allegation that has proven to be true. Robert Mueller and Democrats have wasted out time and our money on a witch hunt and they haven’t yet found any witches. There is no collusion, and there never was any collusion, it was a hoax perpetrated by Democrats to try to invalidate a legal and valid Presidential Election.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS & NON-ACCOMPLISHMENTS – Since 93 percent of the news is negative against President Trump for the sole reason that the majority of the news agencies are Liberals and they run “fake” news we are not hearing about all the great things President Trump and Congress have done for the United States and our Citizens. Even with some Democrats demanding Impeachment, but without one valid reason to do so, and with ten good things being accomplished by the Trump Administration to every individual not-so-good thing being accomplishes, President Trump has overcome the 93 percent Liberal-biased negative reporting on his Presidency and he still maintains an approval rating of around 50 percent. Compare that to Obama who had about 95 percent favorable news presented by the Liberal-biased news agencies and yet he was at around 50 percent. If President Trump can be at 50 percent approval rating with 93 percent of news from Liberal-biased news agencies being presented, but Obama was only able to reach 50 percent approval rating when 95 percent of the Liberal-biased news was favorable then that tells you something. It tells you if all the negative items on Obama were also presented he probably would have been at 35 percent or less approval rating. If the positive items were also presented about President Trump along with the negative Liberal-biased stuff he probably would be around 65 percent approval rating.

For me the United States is on the right path. They are regaining the world-wide superiority we lost under Obama. We are regaining our economic superiority. We are again a world organizing power broker. We no longer coddle and protect Islamic terrorist groups such as ISIS and Muslim Brotherhood. President Trump is, as he promised, making America great again.

Why We Need Photo ID To Vote

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Many people, mostly Liberals and Democrats, want people to be able to vote in elections without having to show a photo ID to prove they are who they claim they are in order to vote.

Here in the State of Georgia when you register to vote you have to include your Georgia Drivers License number as part of the registration process. When you show up to vote you have to show the poll workers your Georgia Drivers License. They scan the Georgia Drivers License, as it has a bar code on it, and their system, which is connected to both the State of Georgia Secretary of State’s Voter Registration system, and the Georgia Department of Driver Services, compares the information scanned from your Georgia Drivers License against the voter registration information at both the Secretary of State’s office and in our case the Gwinnett County Registrar of Voters. If all information matches you are allowed to vote. If not you can ask for a Provisional Ballot and if after they can verify your information your votes from your Provisional Ballot will be counted.

Liberals and Democrats use the stupid excuse that requiring a Photo ID to vote discriminates against Blacks. This is a worn-out stupid racially-biased argument. Most States provide FREE photo ID at the Department of Motor Vehicles to those who can show they are truly poor and cannot afford $10 for a photo ID from the State.

However these same people who claim they, and Blacks, cannot afford $10 to purchase a State issued Photo ID at the DMV are the same people who can, though, afford $100 for a pair of sneakers, $500 for a cell phone, and several hundreds of dollars for clothing. It has nothing to do with discrimination or the ability to pay for a Photo ID. Is comes down to how they prioritize their spending.

Without Voter ID in place anyone can walk up, state their name, and vote without ever having to prove they are who they claim they are. Here is why I have a problem with this.

Let’s say your name is Randy Johnson and you live at 123 Smith Street in Atlanta, Georgia. What is your neighbor is mad at you for some reason. He walks into the polling place early in the morning and he states “My name is Randy Johnson and I live at 123 Smith Street in Atlanta, Georgia.” The voting people give him a ballot and he votes in your name. All he has to do is sign a sheet stating the information he gave was truthful under penalty of Perjury. Well, gee, how can they find this man and convict him of fraud when they don’t even know who he is?

If you are an activist against requiring Voter ID to prove who you are when you vote how would you feel if you walk into the polling place only to be told you are not allowed to vote as you already voted earlier in the day. Even though you protest you will only be allowed to cast a Provisional Ballot until the investigation on your original Ballot is completed which could take weeks or months. Your Provisional Ballot may never be counted if they cannot prove someone faked being you to vote in your name.

Remember if your State or polling place required a Photo ID to prove who the person is before they vote then nobody...nobody...NOBODY...can walk up and state your name and address and vote as you because if they cannot provide a Photo ID they will be turned away from the polling place and denied an opportunity to cast a vote.

Voter ID protects YOU my friend. It does NOT discriminate against anyone.

Does Your Vote Really Count

Written By:  Andrew Eide

I do not believe that all votes cast in every election are counted. I also believe in many elections there are lots of illegal votes consisting of either non-United States Citizens voting or legal voters voting more than once under different variations of their names.

I will give you two examples. One is from Orange County California and the other is from California when it comes to counting Absentee Ballots.

I forgot the year this happened but the Incumbent United States Congressman representing Orange County was Robert Dornin a Republican. He was challenged by Loretta Sanchez, a Democrat, for his United States Senate Seat. After the election Dornin filed a protest stating he believes thousands of illegal aliens voted for Sanchez.

When the investigation was run by both the Registrar of Voters of Orange County and the Secretary of State of California they found that Sanchez had over 5,000 illegal votes with most of them cast by illegal aliens who are not legally authorized to vote. Authorities ordered another election between Dornin and Sanchez.

In this second election Dornin again demanded an investigation. This time the Registrar of Voters and the Secretary of State found that Sanchez had 1,200 illegal votes. They determined, though, that when those 1,200 illegal votes were removed from her vote total she was still around 500 votes ahead of Dornin so they gave the election to Sanchez to become United States Congressman for Orange County.

In my opinion if you have any illegal votes that should totally invalidate your candidacy and you should be kicked out of the race.

The second incident involves Absentee Ballots. In the State of California the Absentee Ballots favor Republicans over Democrats of a margin of around 70 percent to 30 percent. This means if you have one million Absentee Ballots you would end up, after counting them, around 700,000 votes for the Republican and 300,000 for the Democrat. However I have heard from very reliable sources that they place all Absentee Ballots into a secure warehouse and they only count them if an election is very close. If the election is classified as a wide margin they will not count the Absentee Ballots and then destroy them, uncounted, after the election has been officially declared decided.

When my friend, Matt Fong, rang for the United States Senate seat in California against Barbara Boxer. When all the regular votes were cast Barbara Boxer was declared the winner by around 100,000 votes.

Say there are one million Absentee Ballots and let’s say that all of them are counted (which they were never counted in this election between Boxer and Fong). Considering the 70-30 ratio of Absentee Ballots favoring Republicans, let’s assume that Matt Fong would have received 500,000 votes from the Absentee Ballots and Boxer would have received 200,000. Since Matt Fong was behind in regular votes by 100,000 if you were to add the 200,000 to Boxer’s vote count and 500,000 to Fong’s vote count, that would have placed Matt Fong with 200,000 more votes than Boxer and he should have won the election for United States Senate in California.

However due to the State of California never counting Absentee Ballots unless an election is very close Matt Fong was cheated out of a victory to become United States Senator for the State of California.

Never Trust the News

Written By:  Andrew Eide

I worked as a Journalist while serving in the United States Navy. The first things they teach you as a Journalist is to only report verified facts and keep your personal opinion out of the articles you write or present on television. Too bad the majority of news agencies don’t follow the main rules of Journalism.

Although all news agencies report unverified facts, or make stuff up, the majority of those news agencies are Liberal. This includes ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and many others. I will admit that Fox News, a Conservative news outlet, has on numerous occasions presented unverified facts or made up a news story, so Conservative news outlets are not exempt from creating and presenting fake news.

Now I will give you information that is currently considered to be verified facts. Anything mentioned in a news article or broadcast that contains anything that is not verified facts is classified as “fake” news.

Our verified facts are:  Andrew came home from a shopping trip to Kroger today and when he got home he found his wife, daughter, and mother in-law, dead and lying in a pool of blood in the living room. Police are conducting an investigation, they have no suspects, and they do not have anyone in custody.

There are three ways a Journalist or news organization can present this information. ONE is to state only verified facts and to keep opinions out of it. TWO is to report verified facts but throw an opinion in. THREE is to outright lie and make stuff up to make a sensational story even though it is false. Ready? Let’s do this!

ONE – REPORT ONLY VERIFIED FACTS

“Andrew came home from a shopping trip to Kroger today and when he arrived home he found his wife, daughter, and mother in-law dead and lying in a pool of blood in the living room. Police state they don’t have anyone in custody and they have no suspects at this time. We will report more facts as we receive them.”

TWO – REPORT VERIFIED FACTS BUT ALSO THROW IN UNVERIFIED INFORMATION AND YOUR OPINIONS

“Andrew came home from a shopping trip to Kroger today and when he arrived home he found his wife, daughter, and mother in-law dead and lying in a pool of blood in the living room. Police state they don’t have anyone in custody and they have no suspects at this time. You want to know what I think? I believe Andrew murdered his family, drove to Kroger to shop as an alibi, then came home to report his family is dead.”

THREE – IGNORE THE FACTS AND TOTALLY MAKE UP A FAKE STORY

“Andrew returned home from a shopping trip to Kroger and murdered his family. More details later.”

If you were the person in this story who found their family dead when you returned home would you want only verified facts presented, or would you like the facts presented with the Journalist insinuating you killed your family, or would you want the third situation where they flat-out lied about you?

Of course you would want the first scenario where only verified facts are presented. Anything else is “fake” news. Never trust what you hear or read in the news. When you hear or read something research of at least six other sources before you come to a conclusion. If the majority of the additional sources coincide with the original story then you can consider the story to be factual. If the majority of the additional sources contradict the original story then you can consider the original story to be “fake” news.

Polls and Statistics

Written By:  Andrew Eide

I’m here to tell you not to trust what the news organizations give you as polling data and for sure you cannot trust the statistics you see or hear. I served as a Statistician for one year at General Dynamics Corporation in New London, Connecticut from 1981 to 1982. I assure you I can take raw statistical data and make it state whatever you want to make it state so I know statistics are tweaked to make them say what the organization, person, news agency, or politician wants them to say.

Why would you not trust polling data especially when they conduct exit polls when you leave the voting place? Simply put the people running the polls and asking the question skew the data heavily to promote their candidate of political party. I’ve had times when I voted and on my way out someone doing polling asked me for my opinion. They would ask me who I voted for and when I told them the name of the politician, who happened to be a Republican, they refused to tally my vote. Therefore if they ask 100 people and 45 state they voted for the Republican candidate, but their vote wasn’t counted, then instead of claiming the Democrat had a 55 percent to 45 percent advantage, or only 10 percent, they would take the 55 votes for Democrats and maybe count only 10 of the Republican responses. When you divide 55 by 65 (because the poll taker refused to count the other 35 Republican responses) you now come up with them claiming their Democrat candidate has an 85 percent to 15 percent advantage over the Republican. See how, if they don’t take the raw data and only give you statics based on the raw data, that the results are incorrect and skewed?

When I worked as a Statistician my job was to pull completed welding job orders and then compare the work reported as completed against what the blueprint called for. Anything less than what the blueprint called for was an error.

At the end of the week my raw data of comparing completed work orders against what the blueprints required came to 11 percent. My supervisor, the Director for the Quality Assurance Engineering Department, told me that having an error rate of 11 percent isn’t enough to justify the existence of the Quality Assurance Engineering Department since the work is being done with a very low error rate. My supervisor then told me to factor the results in some other way to see what I come up with.

Since the welds I reviewed on the completed work orders came in various requirements, such as a well all-around, a weld half way around, a weld on one side only, and depth and width of welds from one-eighth inch to one-half inch I broke down the wells by size and how far around the object they were required to go.

Using the exact same raw data from errors made in the welding, but broken down into different categories based on type of weld and the size, I came out with error rates in each category which ran from 11 percent to 60 percent with an overall error rate of around 35 percent which justified the existence of the Quality Assurance Engineering Department. How in the world did I take raw data that gave an 11 percent error rate and make it come out to an average error rate of 35 percent? Not magic...just tweaking the numbers.

When you vote always remember the exit polling data is skewed, mostly by Liberals and Democrats, to try to get people to think their candidate is winning when, in fact, they are not.

USS LONG BEACH (CGN 9)

Written By:  Andrew Eide

In 1974, while serving on Active Duty in the United States Navy, I was assigned to the Staff of the Commander, Cruiser-Destroyer Group ONE. When we made a deployment with our ships assigned to our Group Staff, we would “embark” on one of the ships. By the term “embarking” it means we are guests on the ship and not part of the ship’s crew.

One of the ships we embarked upon during our service in the Vietnam was the USS LONG BEACH (CGN 9) which was one of the nuclear powered ships the United States Navy had at that time.

The USS LONG BEACH was the first nuclear powered surface warship in the world and the first large combatant ship of the United States Navy with its main battery of weapons consisting entirely of guided missiles.

The USS LONG BEACH was commissioned on September 9, 1961, which means when I was on board the ship with Cruiser-Destroyer Group ONE the ship was already 13 years old. The LONG BEACH was finally decommissioned on May 1, 1995, after having served the United States Navy for nearly 34 years.

USS LONG BEACH, the third ship in the Navy to bear the name, was the first nuclear powered surface warship in the world and the first large combatant in the US Navy with its main battery consisting entirely of guided missiles. She was also the first American cruiser since the end of World War II built entirely new from the keel up, and, when completed, boasted the highest bridge in the world. She was also the last warship to be fitted with teakwood decks.

I will relate two interesting incidents we had while serving on board the USS LONG BEACH (CGN 9).

The first is since the ship had a very large boxy superstructure this made the ship top-heavy. Even when anchored in the harbor in Hong Kong the ship would rock heavily, side-to-side, up to 20 degrees at a time. When underway the rocking of the ship was even more pronounced with 30 degrees being common.

The Admiral in charge of Cruiser-Destroyer Group ONE where I served was Admiral James D. Watkins who later became the Chief of Naval Personnel. During our time on board the LONG BEACH they were to undergo a major Nuclear Engineering inspection for continued certification of their propulsion plant.

During this inspection one of the things the Engineers needed to accomplish was to switch from Reactor Number 1 to Reactor Number 2 while underway. The concept is that you are to coordinate between the two Reactors to ensure that you take one Reactor off-line at the same instant you place the other Reactor on-line. The inspectors are under strict regulations that if you scram the Reactor, which basically means an EMERGENCY SHUT-DOWN procedures which causes the Reactor to shut down quickly without causing damage or release of radiation. The inspection criteria is if you scram the Reactor you immediately fail the inspection.

Well the Engineers scrammed the Reactor and we sat dead in the water for several hours until they could get both Reactors up and running and back online. Did the ship fail the Engineering Inspection? Nah! We had Vice Admiral James D. Watkins, who was the Commander of Cruiser-Destroyer Group ONE on board, and he didn’t allow that to happen to the LONG BEACH as his specialty in the United States Navy is Nuclear power.

San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant

Written By:  Andrew Eide

There is a nuclear power plant in San Onofre, California, that is easily visible from Interstate 5.

The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station has three generating units simply called Unit 1, Unit 2, and Unit 3. Unit 1 operated from 1968 to 1992 and Unit 2 started operation in 1983 and Unit 3 began operating in 1984. Although upgrades were made in 2009 and 2010 San Onofre was ordered to shut down. It was closed in Southern California Edison ceased all operations at San Onofre and official decommissioning procedures were put into place. The main reason for the shut down and decommissioning is that the plant was found to have premature wear on over 3,000 tubes in the replacement steam generators installed in 2010 and 2011. The California Senate Environment and Public Works Committee stated these defects are “unsafe and posted a danger to the eight million people living within 50 miles of the plant.”

However to close this blog I would like to make you laugh. When I first saw the San Onofre Nuclear Power Generation Plant my first thought was that the twin domes, with a point on top in the middle of the domes, reminded me of breasts.

Now that you have a smile on your face check back on our family blog as I have an upcoming article on one of the Nuclear powered ships I served on while on Active Duty in the United States Navy.

Nuclear Power

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Nuclear reactors are in use around the world mostly for the purpose of generating energy at a power plant.

Using general terms we can state that nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions that release nuclear energy to generate heat, which most frequently is then used in to transform water into steam to be sent through steam turbines to produce electricity in a nuclear power plant.

The term nuclear reactions includes nuclear fission, nuclear decay, and nuclear fusion. Currently the nuclear fission of elements in the actinide series of the Periodic Table produce the vast majority of nuclear energy in the direct service of humankind, with nuclear decay processes, primarily in the form of geothermal energy, and radioisotope thermoelectric generators, in niche used making up the rest.

The biggest problem I have is there is a group of people who adamantly hate the use of fossil fuels, such as oil and gas, to produce energy for us to use as they claim the pollution is too great. But then, when we build nuclear power plants, which are way cheaper to run and product way less pollution, these same people have a problem with the lower costs and less pollution.

I am for nuclear generated power to reduce costs with less pollution but I cannot wrap my mind around people who want lower costs and less pollution being against this form of energy also.

Nervous Breakdown

Written By:  Andrew Eide

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines NERVOUS BREAKDOWN  as: An attack of mental or emotional disorder especially when of sufficient severity to require hospitalization. A sudden failure of mental health that makes someone unable to live normally.

I’ve listed some common signs of a nervous breakdown below. A person may experience one or more of the symptoms or all of them. Just because a person experiences one or more of the symptoms doesn’t mean they are experiencing a nervous breakdown as the symptoms could be due to diet or illness.

Sleeping too much, or not enough – Some people find that they go into sleep overdrive. Sleep becomes an escape. Others may develop insomnia and be unable to sleep because their brain is in overdrive. They may lay awake at night mentally rehearsing situations over and over again that have no solution.

Fatigue – Extreme tiredness could also be a clue you're stressed to the max. You might feel weakness in your body. Activities you previously handled with ease may become increasingly difficult and things that used to bring you joy may lose their appeal.

Changes in appetite – Maybe you're not eating, or conversely, you might be overeating. The stress hormone cortisol can trigger cravings for high-fat, high-sugar foods. What's more, when you're in the middle of a breakdown, you may be less motivated to prepare healthy meals. There's less ability or desire to care for oneself in the way one typically would.

Physical pain – Think of headaches, stomachaches, and pains in muscles and joints. For some people there might be a gastro-intestinal reason such as diarrhea or constipation. These conditions often cause brain fog and inability to focus. As for body aches, pains, and fatigue, this could be related to stress and a nervous breakdown or it could be a result of a medical condition such as arthritis or an illness

                                     

I will be honest that I have all the above symptoms. I feel the need to sleep all the time. I am tired and exhausted all the time. I want to eat a lot or not at all. I am suffering physical pain in my lower back, my legs, and my hip. . I have a difficult time concentrating on things especially when something and someone interrupts me. It often takes five minutes or more to get my focus back after an interruption.

I have tried to inform everyone around me how I feel but they are not seeing the signs that I may be close to a nervous breakdown or they don’t want to believe it might be happening. I’ve had one nervous breakdown in my life and I never want to have another one. I know I over-react sometimes but it is usually after hours of having to deal with situations I have no control over. Others try to tell me to ignore those things. Unfortunately not being able to ignore things, or resolve things, because you have no control over doesn’t make the stress and the possibility of a nervous breakdown go away. The Jews in the Death Camps in Germany had no control over their situation. They were unable to change anything about their captivity. Trying to tell Jews in Death Camps to ignore the stressors, when there was no way for them to ignore or escape them, is as useless a suggestion as to tell me to ignore the stressors causing me problems as I cannot alleviate or control those outside influences.

Here are some suggestions of what to look out for that I found on the internet:

Are you having trouble concentrating? Or just feel like you're not thinking clearly? There are often cognitive symptoms with a nervous breakdown which might include anything from difficulty with problem-solving and indecisiveness to a sense of disorientation and memory loss.

Trouble breathing is another one. Keep an eye out for classic signs of anxiety too, such as tightness in your chest and rapid breathing. Taking quick, shallow breaths can ramp up the body's stress response even more. A breathing exercise designed to slow down your breathing can provide relief. But if you experience trouble breathing on a regular basis it's important to address the root of the problem. 

I am crying out for help. I don’t want to have a total nervous system collapse and end up in the hospital as I did once before. I cannot control the stressors and the lack of control drives my stress higher. Hopefully the stressful situation will be resolved soon and finally the stress-causing factors which are causing myself, my wife, and my daughter, to extreme stress levels, will be eliminated.

Work and Abuse

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Today I will talk about my time in the workforce. Most of the time I was a full-time worker and part of the time I was part-time. Below is a basic run-down of how many years I worked at a job outside the home.

United States Navy = 20 years

General Dynamics = 1 year

Civil Service = 1 year

Quiet Hour = 6 years

Southeastern California Conference = 2 years

Three Angels Broadcasting = 2 years

Miscellaneous Part-Time Jobs = 3 years

Although I did some work-from-home work I am not including that here because my comments are based on working for someone else.

During my 35 years working for others I was abused so much in many ways. Some treated me poorly because I was a male or White or older or from California. In other instances I was mistreated and abused due to others in the work place being jealous. It was hard to deal with the hundreds of false accusations and lies but I made it through. However some of those scars from that abuse and false accusations remain with me today even though I retired from working for others in early 2012.

What were some of the things that happened to me? I was accused of embezzling money. I was accused of stealing from the company. I was accused of not working my full work schedule. I was accused of so darn many things, and never once were any of them proven true, that I don’t believe there is anything I wasn’t accused of.

In every case I would tell my accusers, or if they were scared to confront me and turned their complaints over to my supervisor or some other executive of the company, if they honestly believe I’m guilty then bring a lawsuit against me and let’s go to Court. I told them I know I’m innocent and that I would love to go into Court, have the Judge, or a Jury if one is assigned, listen to all the evidence, and then find that I am right and my accusers are wrong. I told them to bring the lawsuit and let’s go to Court.

Never once in my 35 years of working for others has anyone brought a lawsuit against me because they knew I was right and they were wrong.

Hurricane Irma In Atlanta Georgia

Written By:  Andrew Eide

I wish to provide you with an update to Hurricane Irma. In the graphic provided in this Blog you can see that Irma was at that time coming up on the Islands which are located South of Florida. At that time there were several prospective tracks for Irma.

One was it hits Miami and then runs up the East Coast to hit South Carolina. Another was that it crossed over Miami to head into the Gulf of Mexico. The third track was that it would hit Miami, turn North, and run up the center of Florida and then North through the middle of the State of Georgia where we live, including crossing directly over Atlanta Metro where we live, finally ending up in Tennessee.

The update I’m giving you today is that Hurricane Irma was downgraded to a Tropical Storm just before he hit the Southern border of Georgia.

Another thing is that while Irma was initially scheduled to run straight up the middle of the State of Florida, it actually headed West and ran up the West Coast of Florida. What this did was cause Irma to run up the Western part of the State of Georgia instead of going directly over the Atlanta Metro area.

So what did this do for the weather in Atlanta Metro where we live?

Initial forecasts were for sustained winds of 60 to 70 mph with gusts close to 90 mph with lots of rain and possibility of numerous tornadoes. Since Irma moved to the West of Atlanta what we ended up with, at the worst part of the storm, were sustained winds of 35 to 50 mph with gusts close to 60 mph with moderate to heavy rains but not a constant rain.

Hard to predict where a storm will hit and what the damage will be but it is always prudent to predict the highest level of damage and winds and rain rather than to under-predict it as they did with Hurricane Harvey that hit the State of Texas.

Playing the Victim

Written By:  Andrew Eide

I do not like people who “play the victim” and by that term I mean they instigate stuff and when you call them out on it they immediately play the victim.

I’ve experienced this at work and in my personal life. It seems to be a never-ending vicious cycle.

When we were kids me and my sister would have arguments and fights all the time. Well, come on now, isn’t that how most siblings react to each other? My sister is two years older than me so that, in her mind, meant she was the boss of me. Sometimes when we had an argument she would take a swing at me and hit me. I, of course, took offense to being slapped or punched so I hit her back. My sister, who instigated the argument and instigated the hitting, would run to mother and father and yell out “ANDY HIT ME!” and then I would get into trouble. Our parents who ask me why I hit my sister and I would reply that she hit me first. They would always reply that just because someone hits you doesn’t mean you can hit them back. My question was always how come it is okay for my sister to hit me but I can’t hit her back. I never received a valid answer to that one.

There have been people where I worked who did stuff at work that I would classify as illegal and up to, and including, embezzling money or stealing stuff from the company. When they got caught doing the deed they would immediately claim to be the victim. No you are not the victim you are the perpetrator.

Our Computer IT person at The Quiet Hour ministry in Redlands was an overbearing evil mean person. He would abuse me all the time by yelling at me and accusing me of doing things I never did. I registered a complaint to our Vice President and I was flatly told by her that I have to back off since the Computer IT guy has high blood pressure and he is under a lot of stress. I asked the Vice President why I have to deal with abuse at work just because someone has high blood pressure? I told her that doesn’t give him the right to terrorize everyone in the organization.

Let me give it to you straight. If you do something wrong...If you instigate things...If you false accuse me...meaning you instigated the wrong-doing, then do NOT act like you are the victim when you get called out. Step up and be honest about it and admit you are wrong and move on and work to improve yourself.

I will NOT tolerate people abusing me and then hiding behind their victim mask.

Silence

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Silence. Just saying the word brings visions of solitude, peacefulness, and relaxation. But today I’m going to be talking about something different. Why would I give you one impression only to change directions on you? Read on and it will become clear to you.

Many people, and I’m one of them, want to help others. When I use the term “help others” I mean help them to understand that there doesn’t have to be many problems and failures in the lives. Examples:

A “stop” sign, and a red light, means stop right? What if you refuse to obey the stop sign or red light? You could cause an accident, run over a pedestrian, and likely receive a traffic citation and fine. However if you obeyed the traffic laws you would have stopped and you would have avoided a problem.

There are speed limits posted everywhere. Speed limits are there for a reason. The reason is to ensure you drive at  speed known to be safe to for you to drive at. Exceeding the speed limit could cause you to lose control of your car or hit another car. Obeying the speed limit would help you avoid a problem.

How about maintaining your vehicle? If you fail to maintain your car you can create a problem that could have been avoided. If you fail to maintain your brakes or fluid levels in your vehicle you could suffer a failure that causes your vehicle to go out of control. Maintaining your vehicle in proper operating condition helps avoid problems.

Those are just a few examples. There are so many in daily life and those are the ones I try to help people with. I tell them if they listen to me “9 out of 10 of your problems will be avoided” but often my suggestions are ignored and these people continue to have problems. They hate it when I’m right and when I tell them that they can eliminate 90 percent of their problems.

What type of problems would be included in this list? Read the short list below.

Purchasing something that states if you don’t like the products you must return it within a specified period of time or your credit card will be charged. When you fail to return the products you get charged. Having your teacher tell you that during an assignment there will be no talking and then you talk and get into trouble. Being told not to put glasses of liquid close to where your hands are but you do it anyway and then knock the glass over and make a mess on the table or floors.

I estimate in an average day of the average person there are at least 20 things they could do differently to avoid problems. There are 20 things that if you do the right thing you would avoid 9 out of 10 problems. If you would do 18 good things and only 2 problems hit you isn’t that better than having 18 problems daily with only 2 good things working for you?

People get tired of me stating “If you listen to me 9 out of 10 of your problems will be avoided.” However since rarely does anyone take my advice, and I have to watch them suffer with problems that could have been avoided, I’ve decided to take the stand of silence. Yes you heard that correctly. I will no longer give advice to try to help people avoid problems. Then when they ask “Why didn’t you warn me or tell me that would happen?” I will reply that since nobody listens to my advice to help them avoid problems I have gone silent and now they see that I was right.

Silence! Deal with it!

What If...

Written By:  Andrew Eide

What if? Man that has to be one of the longest questions to ponder eh? This can lead to an eternity of wondering what would have happened if you had some something different, or if you had a chance to change something, and you wanted to know how things would have turned out differently.

The master of the “What If?” was Rod Serling who created the television program “The Twilight Zone.” In many episodes someone wanted something changed only to find out the change was detrimental. In some episodes the change was a good thing. Today I plan on giving you several “What If?” situations and we will discuss them.

What if you were blind and had an opportunity to see? What if you were deaf and had an opportunity to hear. What if you were a paraplegic and had the opportunity to walk? What if you were an amputee with one or more limbs missing and had an opportunity to have use of your missing limbs again.

Well don’t jump into a decision so fast as there’s more information for you to think about.

Since our technology on Earth as humans is limited, and we cannot do these things, we will for the sake of this discussion stated there is an alien race, on another planet, who can accomplish this for you.

Wait! There’s still more! You would be required to move to their planet for this concept to take place. Also you wouldn’t really physically get your sights back, or your hearing, or your limbs, or your ability to walk.

What in the world are you talking about Andy? I know that’s your question. Now comes my explanation.

Say these aliens could put you into a state of suspended animation. Your brain would no longer register that your sight or hearing is missing. Your brain would no longer register that you are missing limbs. Your brain would no longer register you are a paraplegic. But...and this is a huge but for the sake of this discussion, they can manipulate your brain to be in a similar situation as Virtual Reality. Yes, you may be comatose and not know what’s going on around you, or that your body cannot function they way it is supposed to, but your brain will register that you can see again, hear again, walk again, and have your limbs back again.

So now comes the question what would you do? What would you select? There are down items for either selection.

If you remain in your current situation you might be stressed with your inability to function in your body to fully capacity as you want to. However if you decide to go off with the aliens to their planet. You will no longer have contact with any family members or friends. As far as they will be concerned you have passed away and no longer exist.

Can you live for eternity in a Virtual Reality world created by aliens for your enjoyment or would you rather remain on Earth with real humans and real family and friends? Think hard about this as both decisions have benefits and downfalls.

More Global Warming Debunking

Written By:  Andrew Eide

I love to bring up interesting facts to show that the Global Warming thing is nothing but a hoax by scientists to make money. Here are a few for you to consider.

They claim the ice at the Poles is melting and we will suffer global flooding. Well, gee, they’ve been saying this since the 1960’s and now we are 50 years down the road and the water level in the oceans has remained the same and the thickness of the Polar ice has gotten thicker. DEBUNKED!

They claim that the temperature of the Earth and our atmosphere has increased. Well, gee, since the 1960’s every time NASA sent a rocket into space they took readings of the temperature of the atmosphere and the temperature of the Earth’s surface. Want to know the facts? Since the early 1960’s NASA’s data shows that the temperature of the Earth has DECREASED from 2.5 to 3.0 degrees over the past 50 years. The Earth is not warming up it is cooking down. DEBUNKED!

They claim that human-created things are causing the pollution in the atmosphere. Want to know the truth? The majority of the pollution in the atmosphere, around 75 percent, is caused by volcanoes. The other 25 percent is caused by stuff humans do but not from where you are being told it is coming from. I will explain below.

The claim from Global Warming activists is that our internal combustion vehicles, and burning coal for energy production, is the problem. Not so. Of the 25 percent of pollution in the atmosphere that is not caused by volcanoes, about 20 percent is coming from two countries. Those countries are Indonesia and China. What’s that you say Andy? Yep there is so much burning of wood products that those two countries produce about 20 percent of the pollution in the atmosphere.

The State of California, where I was born and spent most of my life living there, has so much restrictions on emissions and pollution that they are one of the strictest in the world. But want to know how much all these laws and restrictions do to reduce pollution in the atmosphere? What California reduces in overall pollution in the atmosphere is about 0.0001 percent of all the pollution in the atmosphere.  When you consider that volcanoes produce 75 percent of the pollution in the atmosphere, and Indonesia and China produce another 20 percent, what difference does the 0.00001 percent that California is reducing? Makes no impact at all. DEBUNKED!

So there you have it. All the claims of the Global Warming activists debunked in one Blog.

Global Warming - Fact or Fiction?

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Global Warming...Fact or Fiction? Either Global Warming is true or it is not. It cannot be true over there and false over here. So I would like to evaluate the facts and see what conclusion I come up with.

Disclaimer:  I am not a scientist and I will never claim to be. What I am, though, is a person who listens to data, evaluates the facts, and comes to my own conclusion. What are the facts?

We know for a fact that the NOAA, which is responsible to provide climate data, has faked the data by tweaking it to make it look as though the Earth is warming up due to Global Warming when, in fact, the real data shows that since the early 1960’s to today the Earth’s temperature has actually DECREASED by about 2.5 to 3.0 degrees.

We know for a fact that our Earth is protected by an ozone layer and other layers in our atmosphere. These layers do two things. One is to prevent the more harmful rays of the sun from entering inside this protection and cooking us to death. The other thing is it keeps the required amount of air and moisture within our grasp instead of just flying out into space and we die due to lack of oxygen.

Global Warming activists cannot even agree on what they claim. One group of scientists claim that the problem we have with this so-called Global Warming is due to all the CFC’s we used to use in spray cans in the 1950’s to 1970’s since they released so much ozone into our atmosphere. So they banned the use of CFC’s to counter this so-called problem. This group of scientists claim that there is TOO MUCH ozone in our atmosphere and that causes our Earth to heat up as the overwhelming amount of ozone traps the heat.

But, as the cartoon character Quickdraw McGraw would say, HOLD ON THAR! There is another group of scientists who claim that there is TOO LITTLE ozone in our atmosphere and that caused more of the sun’s radiation to enter and heat up the Earth.

Well which is it? It is too much ozone causing the problem or too little ozone causing the problem. You simply cannot have too much and too little at the same time.

Also the Global Warming activists claim the ice is melting at a record pace at the Poles and this will cause global flooding. They have been saying this since I was a kid in the 1960’s. Guess what? The amount of ice at both Poles is MORE now than back then. The amount of ice at the Poles is increasing not decreasing.

Conclusion:  My conclusion is that since there is dissention among Global Warming scientists on what is really going on, and the NOAA is faking climate data, and those pushing Global Warming are making Billions of Dollars in money from this, that this is nothing more than a scam.

Condemn me if you want but I’m telling you that while Global Warming scientists are adding 2 plus 2 and coming up with 3, I am adding 2 plus 2 and coming up with 4. We have more important things to worry about in our world than concerning ourselves with faked Global Warming data.

Sports I Never Participated In Or Stopped Playing

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Today I wish to explain to you why there are several sports I either never participated in or I gave up playing and the reasons why I made those decisions.

When I was in Junior High School our Class Graduation Field Trip was to a beach South of San Francisco for a day in the ocean. My classmate decided to give surfing a try. He paddled out into the waves, turned around to catch the wave, and when the wave swamped him the surfboard whacked him in the back of the head. He suffered a nasty gash on his head, nearly drowned, and was taken to the hospital to get his head stitched up. That experience made me never want to attempt mounting a surfboard and riding waves.

I tried water skiing when I was a teen. My father took me and my best friend Steve on a two week houseboat trip on Lake Shasta in Northern California. My father rented a boat and skis and we went out to a quiet area to take our turns skiing. After numerous falls into the water it was apparent to me that this nice smooth soft water that we swim in and take showers and baths in is damn hard when you slam into when falling off the skis. It was like slamming face-first into a cement sidewalk. After that experience I never did water skiing again.

Snow skiing is another adventure I never participated in. Don’t get me wrong here. I loved playing in the snow. I would hop on a sled or inner tube and fly down the hills and often ended up flipping over or running into someone else on the hills. From 1980 to 1982 I worked at General Dynamics Corporation in New London, Connecticut. One of my fellow Quality Assurance Analysts took a ski vacation. When he returned he was on crutches and both his knees had braces on them. He looked as though he has just survived an automobile wreck. I asked him what happened and he told me snow skiing is very stressful on your knees. He said he was going downhill and was doing what you are supposed to do to control your descent and he ripped both his knees out. I figure our knees are extremely important to us so I never took up snow skiing.

I started playing regular golf when I was 16 years of age. I played until 2012 when I finally gave up the sport. There are several reasons including the high cost of playing a round of golf, the high cost of equipment, and I had back surgery in October 2004 to repair a ruptured disc in my lower back. The pressure put on your back during a golf swing was causing me problems so I gave up regular golf and took up Disc Golf instead. The Disc Golf courses are shorter and the movement you make to throw the discs is way less stressful on my back.

 

Thanks for joining me today for this explanation of what sports I never took part in, which sports I did participate in but no longer do, and what I am participating in now.

Why I Changed Banks

Written By:  Andrew Eide

There are many reasons why a person would change banks from their current bank. Today I will give you several examples of why I changed from the banks I worked with.

#1 My father banked with United California Bank (UCB) in the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area in the 1960’s and 1970’s and I also opened an account with UCB when I joined the United States Navy in March 1972.  Shortly after that my father wanted to change banks. He went to UCB and asked to withdraw all his money and close his account. I believe the amount he had in his account at that time was less than $10,000. UCB told my father they refuse to give him his money. He complained stating it is HIS money and he has every right to withdraw it and close the account. Then UCB changed their excuse to state they didn’t carry that much money in the bank at any given time. My father told them he knows they carry well over $50,000 at any given time and then he told them he will be back in the morning to withdraw his money and close his account and if they money wasn’t available he was going to bring a lawsuit against them. They had his money the next day and closed his account to prevent a lawsuit. I changed from UCB to Bank of America shortly after my father’s incident.

#2 During my time banking at Bank of America (BofA) things went well. Then I purchased a car while serving in the Navy in San Diego. At that time, which was in the mid-1970’s, there wasn’t the ACH automatic charge to your bank account or credit card as they do today. Back in those days you made an Allotment which was sent to the bank. Basically explained the bank would receive a spreadsheet with all the Allotments and account numbers and someone in the bank would process the payments to the appropriate accounts. Every month my Allotment from the Military arrived on the 1^st of the month. However Bank of America put a due date on my car loan of the 30^th of the month. So each 30^th of the month Bank of America would claim my car loan payment was overdue and charge me a late charge. I complained telling them they know my Allotment shows up on the 1^st of every month so stop charging me the late fee. They continued charging me the late fee so I switched banks.

#3 My final change of bank really wasn’t a change for a detrimental reason or customer service it was due to the branch being about 15 miles away when I had several other banks located in Redlands, California within 3 miles of my home. While searching for a bank to change to from Great Western which had only one branch 15 miles from me I searched out Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo in Redlands.

Washington Mutual stated if you have Direct Deposit to your bank account then your Checking and Savings are SERVICE CHARGE FREE. While talking with the banker at Washington Mutual I repeated that they offer service charge free Checking and Savings with Direct Deposit. The banker said yes and then went on to explain that I would be charged $10 per month service charge on my checking and 15 Cents per check. I protested and repeated about service charge free checking with Direct Deposit and several more times they told me even with Direct Deposit the fees are $10 per month and 15 Cents per check.

I stormed out of Washington Mutual mumbling about them being idiots and walked across the street to Wells Fargo Bank. Wells Fargo also told me you get service charge free accounts with Direct Deposit. I’ve been with Wells Fargo Bank since 1998 so I’ve been with them for 19 years.

If you give me good customer service I will stay with you. If you give me poor customer service I cease to use your services.

Cancer Treatment - What Is Possible and What Is Not Possible

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Disclaimer:  I am not a Doctor. I’ve never practiced medicine in any way, shape, or form. However I am informed and I know what I’m talking about.

You hear in the news all the time that this doctor or that scientist has discovered a “cure for cancer” and I call them out on this as I know that is a lie. How do I know that is a lie? Today I will explain it all to you and you will come away from my article enlightened.

There is no virus or infection that causes cancer. Unlike the Flu which has a virus that causes it, or a common cold which has a virus that causes it, or something else that has a specific disease or infection that causes it, there is no one direct cause of cancer. There is a general cause of cancer I will explain to you today but since there is no one direct cause, such as an infection you take antibiotics for, or the Flu which you take a vaccination for, cancer is truly a unique item to take on and resolve.

We have an immune system in our body. It is designed to keep us healthy. When a cell reproduces it divides from a single cell into two cells. Then those two cells each divide into two equal part and you now have four cells. The next division brings you eight cells, etc.

Ask yourself an important question. How does our bodies know if a cell is reproducing (dividing) correctly with all the genetic information it needs to continue reproducing into a product cell or cells? You know if you were on an assembly line and your company was making cakes when a cake came down the conveyor belt and it was flat, or uneven, or in some other way deformed or defective, it would be pulled off the conveyor belt and destroyed.

That’s exactly what our immune system does. When a cell divides the immune system does a Quality Assurance check on it. Our immune system checks the dividing cell and if it is dividing correctly without defects the immune system allows it go continue to reproduce. The next division of those two cells the QA check is done again. If everything is going correctly the cells are allowed to continue to divide and grow into something. But what if the immune system detects there is an error in the reproduction (division) of the cell? Then the immune system attacks the incorrectly dividing cell and destroys it.

However if a cell that is reproducing (dividing) incorrectly, with genetic damage, or with some other incorrect manner, but the immune system incorrectly allows it to continue to reproduce, then what you have is a mass of incorrectly reproducing cells which we use the catch-all term of “cancer tumor.”

Therefore the only thing standing in the way of cells reproducing abnormally and turning into a mass of cells, or tumor, that we call “cancer” is a healthy immune system. So your next question is how can a healthy immune system fail and allow just one incorrectly reproducing (dividing) cell to continue on thinking it is correctly reproducing (dividing)?

Here are some general statistics for you. How many cells to you think an average human being has? They have 10 Trillion cells. Yes you read that correctly. So now let’s look at how many cells are produced (i.e., reproduced) under certain time intervals. How many cells are reproduced as follows:

In one hour = 90 billion cells

In 24 hours = 2.5 trillion cells

In one week = 15.1 trillion cells

In one month = 78.9 trillion cells

In one year = 941.7 trillion cells

If in just one hour 90 billion cells reproduce then you can imagine that if you have an immune system that is less than 100 percent capacity that some cells are going to pass along and missed as being defective by the immune system. If just one percent of those 90 billion cells were allowed to get through the Quality Assurance check by the immune system when those cells divide that can amount to a large amount of incorrectly reproducing (dividing) cells.

There is no injection or medication that doctors of scientists can give someone to kill the cancer in your body since there is no infection or virus that causes the cancer it is simply a depleted immune system.

Thank you for dropping in and reading my article. You have been enlightened.

Amazon Shipping Problems

Written By:  Andrew Eide

For many years Amazon had pretty good customer service. Over the past few years their customer service has been horrible with the main problem being when items are shipped from Amazon using Amazon Shipping rather than the United States Postal Service, UPS, or FedEx. Here’s our two examples of how Amazon’s customer service failed us.

Becx purchased an item on Amazon. Up to this point in time she had good service from them. The item she purchased was needed in less than one week. The problem is that with regular shipping it said on Amazon’s website that it might take 7 to 10 days to arrive. Becx opted for two-day shipping to ensure we had the item before the special event came up that she needed the item for.

The item showed up in two days and in good shape. So far so good with Amazon customer service right? Wrong! A few days later she received calls from several credit card companies she pays monthly and they said their payments were rejected by our bank due to “insufficient fund.” Becx protested as she knew she had over $100 in her Checking Account.

When Becx went to her checking account she found that the money she had was wiped out due to Amazon charging her, without her knowledge, $100 for an Amazon Prime membership. When she called Amazon to protest that she never signed up for Amazon Prime they tried to tell her that since she asked for two-day shipping they had the right to assign her and charge her for an Amazon Prime membership of $100.

Becx protested stating that when we order something and want it delivered faster than normal shipping all that amounts to is a few Dollars more to cover the faster shipping. She demanded Amazon refund her $100 and they did but the damage was done due to the credit card companies she legally processed payments for refused to waive the late fees they charged her for late payment even though it was not her fault it was Amazon’s fault.

My sister sentsome items to us and Amazon said it shipped via Amazon Shipping instead of USPS, FedEx, or UPS. The items were to be delivered by 6 p.m. on May 3^rd. The items never showed up. Then we got an update on the shipping that it was to show up by May 5^th and the items never showed up. Then the final update from Amazon was that the items were dropped off at the Leasing Office of our Apartment Complex.

I went to the Leasing Office and no box was there. Amazon never delivered the items. A search on the Internet found hundreds of complaints of items never received or delivered to the wrong address.

Several days later while I was in our Leasing Office they told me I had a box. It was the box from Amazon I was waiting for that was never delivered. I asked if Amazon just delivered it our Leasing Agent told me no that it was wrongfully delivered to a different apartment complex in Duluth, Georgia, and the person who wrongfully received our box was nice enough to drive it over to our Apartment Complex and give it to our Leasing Office.

I hate poor customer service and had the person who wrongfully received our shipment not brought it to our Apartment Complex my sister could have been out a lot of money for her purchase.

Chadwicks Of Boston

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Chadwicks of Boston is a major catalog sales company and they have been around for a long time. However their customer service is horrible and due to what they did to me I will never shop them again. Here is my story.

It was in the mid-1990’s we ordered several items from Chadwicks of Boston. I tried to tell my wife to go into stores to purchase items as you can see the items and try them on. I told her when you order from a catalog, or online, you often get the wrong item, wrong color, wrong size, or some other problem.

When the items arrived most of it was the wrong size, wrong color, and the dress she ordered didn’t fit. I sent the items back and told them to issue a refund to my credit card I used on my account.

After two weeks I had no refund on my credit card so I called Chadwicks of Boston. They told me a credit was issued. I told them no credit was received.

After five minutes they came back on the phone to tell me they issued the credit to some other Chadwicks of Boston customer. So I told them that’s their problem and demanded they credit my credit card for the refund.

Chadwicks of Boston’s response shocked me. They said they could NOT process the credit back to my credit card until they recover the money they wrongfully credited to another customer. I told them that was stupid but they said that’s how they had to do it.

I wanted two more weeks and still no credit returned to my credit card. I called Chadwicks of Boston again and again they guaranteed me they credited back to my credit card. After a five minute wait they told me they again sent the credit to the other customer they previously wrongfully credited my refund to and did it again a second time.

I told them if I didn’t have the credit back to my credit card in one week they would be sued. I got my credit back within one week and I vowed never to shop at Chadwicks of Boston again.

Do You Believe White People Are Not Discriminated Again?

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Many people believe White people are never discriminated against. Today I will relate four personal experiences of discrimination and every case of discrimination against me by someone who was Black.

CONNECTICUT 1981

I wanted to obtain an FHA-Vet loan to purchase a home. The Black man I spoke with told me the requirement is you must have served on Active Duty in the Military for 180 days or more, received an Honorable Discharge, and have a family income less than $25,000. I replied that I served for 8 years on Active Duty in the United States Navy, I have an Honorable Discharge, and my combined family income is $21,000. When I told the Black man that he told me that I don’t qualify.

When I asked why he feels I don’t qualify when my information does qualify me he wouldn’t respond. When I asked him what the qualifications are he re-stated them and I re-stated what I have that is fully within the qualifications He refused numerous times to approve me for an FHA-Vet loan. This was Black on White discrimination.

OAKLAND CALIFORNIA 1982 FIRST INCIDENT

This incident was the same as the one in Connecticut but this one was called a Cal-Vet loan. They gave the qualifications as must have served on Active Duty for 180 days or more, received an Honorable Discharge, have a family income under $30,000, and be a California resident.

I told them my qualifications and the Black man I spoke with told me I don’t qualify as I am not a California resident but the other factors I have are within the Qualifications. I told him I was born in Oakland, California and I’ve lived in California my entire life. Again the Black man stated he doesn’t consider me a California resident so I don’t qualify for the Cal-Vet loan. Again blatant Black on White discrimination.

OAKLAND CALIFORNIA 1982 SECOND INCIDENT

I heard of a home loan program called Oakland Bond Money. I called them to apply. Requirements? Must have served on Active Duty for 180 days or more, received an Honorable Discharge, have family income under $25,000, and be a resident of Oakland.

I told them all my qualifications and the fact that I was born in Oakland and lived in Oakland my entire life. The Black man I spoke with told me I don’t qualify as I am not a resident of Oakland. I asked them how could I not be a resident of Oakland when I was born there and lived there all my life. I was denied again. Blatant Black on White discrimination.

OAKLAND CALIFORNIA 1982 THIRD INCIDENT

I saw a job in the Oakland Tribune newspaper where they were looking for people with Administrative Assistant skills to teach entry-level administrative skills to people to help them get into the work force. The requirements for the job were simple. You must have served in an Administrative Assistant position for a minimum of 5 years, have a desire to teach people entry-level administrative and clerical skills, and type at least 50 words per minute.

When I called the number a Black woman spoke with me. I told her I served as an Administrative Assistant for 10 years and I would love to teach people entry level skills to help them get into the work force. She asked me if I could type at least 50 words per minute. My response was while in the United States Navy from 1972 to 1980, and at General Dynamics Corporation from 1980 to 1982, I was typing 70 words per minute or higher. I told her I will gladly take a typing test if she would like. Her response was a loud and obnoxious IF YOU CAN’T TYPE 50 WORDS PER MINUTE OR MORE THEN WE DON’T WANT YOU! and then she slammed the phone and hung up on me. Blatant Black on White discrimination.

I was discriminatd against four times in 1982 and all four were by Blacks. So if you want to try to tell me that Whites don’t get discriminated against I am here to tell you to wake up and realize the truth.

These programs to help people obtain loans are supposed to be unbiased and are to apply fairly and equally to everyone across the board and hiring practices are also supposed to be unbiased. In my four cases of discrimination against me I fully met qualifications for the loan or the job. I didn’t get the loans or the job for no other reason than I was blatantly discriminated against by Blacks.