Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Why I'm Planning to Drive Across the Country and Back

For obvious reasons, this will be part of a series of posts.

As many know from following me on Facebook and Twitter, I’m planning a two-month road trip across the United States and back and I’d like to give a little background as to why I’m doing it.

As I’ve indicated in a couple of other posts, back in February, I found out that an old boyfriend had died. Through contacting his employer – a learning center that helps people get their GEDs – I discovered that the employer had built a memorial garden for him. Since I found out about this, I have longed to see that memorial and I asked God to let that happen before my own exit from Earth.

Not long after I made that request, I received two unrelated invitations to visit Kentucky and Tennessee, respectively in September and October. Both inviters will help me get there and accommodations are already assured. Additionally, I have a friend who would provide me with free air travel if I wanted it.

But I got to thinking that it sure would be nice if I could drive there and see my family, friends and some longtime fans of this blog along the way.

So, I tested the idea on Facebook and got an avalanche of requests to visit from every state in the lower 48! Even one of my friends who lives in South Korea is joking with me about visiting.

Of course, I don’t have the money for this and my car is too old to stand up to the rigors of such a trip, but what if I could do it through a campaign and through day-labor during the trip?

That’s what I going to attempt. And I want to document every part of the trip online.

So, that’s the plan.

Right now, the departure date is August 15 or thereabouts and the main thing I need at the beginning point is to reserve a rental vehicle. I check at Enterprise and two months for an intermediate-sized SUV will be about $2200, but I think I’d like to reserve one for one month at a time.

I have a list of roughly 20 people who have requested a visit – if only for me to swing by in their town and enjoy a cup of coffee – but I will be adding more.

A 57-year-old black lady, two months on the road alone in “terrible, horrible, racist” America; that is how many naysayers will think of such a trip. But I know better and want to see my country for myself, up close and personal.

I will start a GoFundMe campaign, but I’d like to reserve the vehicle now and take care of a few things in the two weeks before I leave, so if you want to hit the tip-jar, please do. When I get the vehicle reserved, I will post a photo of the receipt.

Looking forward to seeing every one of you.

PREVIOUSLY: Baldilocks Saddles Up

Every Tuesday and Saturday, I blog at the award-winning DaTechGuyBlog. Latest posts: LA is Better Than San Francisco.

When you hit the Tip Jar, it helps pays for: A Roof Over My Head, Food, Gasoline, Car Insurance, the writing of My Next Book(s), and Utilities--especially Internet and COFFEE! Yes, coffee is a utility.



Monday, July 30, 2018

Gift For My New Followers




I have many new followers on Twitter who don’t know that I’ve been blathering online about conservative politics, Christianity, and other stuff for quite some time now. So, I thought I’d give them a taste of some of my work.

Some of the links below are from my old Typepad blog which is still active. I’ve been thinking about combining it with this one.

Going back to 2003 – the year I started blogging – is more than a notion; I cringe at some of my old posts. But, writing is like weight-lifting: painful at first, but you become stronger and sleeker if you don’t give up.

These aren’t necessarily the ones that received the most traffic.

Disclaimer: I like to rant and am sometimes snarky.
Disclaimer 2: Some of you may not like what I wrote about Donald Trump prior to the 2016 election. I did vote for him and now I’m glad I did, but back then? Not so much.

When I’m wrong, I don’t hide my errors.

Enjoy … I hope.

Throwing Away the Crutches
The Scattered: Spiritual Reasons for Black Failure
To a Young One Who is an Apologist for a Terrorist
The Herding Series
View From Under the Bus
Don’t Make Me Whip Dis Out
I Accept the Shame You Cast Upon Me
Passing for Super Heroes
Message to the Black, White, Man, Woman: GROW UP!!! Language alert.
It’s a Trap!
Donald Trump and Our Current Level of Deception
Gun Control and the Desire to “Improve” Humankind
Yamasaki’s Towers

Every Tuesday and Saturday, I blog at the award-winning DaTechGuyBlog. Latest posts: LA is Better Than San Francisco.

When you hit the Tip Jar, it helps pays for: A Roof Over My Head, Food, Gasoline, Car Insurance, the writing of My Next Book(s), and Utilities--especially Internet and COFFEE! Yes, coffee is a utility.



Monday, July 23, 2018

Baldilocks Saddles Up


I'm planning to begin a road trip in a little over a month. Multiple destinations, fully documented.

Here's an audio intro to the idea.

I do plan on taking donations for the trip and I will post before and during the trip via multiple platforms. I'm also thinking about day laboring. Can Americans still do that?

Every Tuesday and Saturday, I blog at the award-winning DaTechGuyBlog. Latest posts: Washington Post is Racist Against Mexicans.

When you hit the Tip Jar, it helps pays for: A Roof Over My Head, Food, Gasoline, Car Insurance, the writing of My Next Book(s), and Utilities--especially Internet and COFFEE! Yes, coffee is a utility.



Pet Peeve: Your Behind

It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door.
-- Bilbo Baggins, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. J.R.R.Tolkien (1954)
It’s always something.
-- Gilda Radner (1946-1989) as Roseann Rosannadanna; this is also the title of her autobiography.

This morning, I committed an act of self-restraint, but don’t pat me on the back yet.

I opened the vestibule door of my building to see a girl standing on the porch directly in front of the doorway. When she heard the door open, she turned around and looked at me. I looked at her as well, but neither of us said anything.

Normally, I give everyone a chipper “Good Morning” or “Hello,” but not in this case. The girl was committing what I consider one of the most egregious non-violent sins.

After about five seconds, she unblocks the exit. So, I’m thinking that she must be a mind reader, because I was thinking the following. Multiple foul language alerts.



It’s one of the few pieces of modern hip-hop that I will tap my foot to. Listening to it all the way through is another story, however.

I see people blocking egresses all the time. Grocery shoppers are the worst violators of this infraction – my favorite is when a person is blocking the aisle with his body and his cart -- and it cuts across racial and gender lines. I’ve had people look at me with confusion when I said, “excuse me” or “pardon me.” Three people – all men – have even started an argument with me!


I suppose that if, in these cases, I ungagged my inner South Central ‘hood girl, the message would be much more speedily and clearly received.

Is this simple form of lack of consideration for others symptomatic of something deeper? Probably.

In the meantime, take a moment to consider that your backside may be in the way of progress. Love your neighbor and (re)move it.

Every Tuesday and Saturday, I blog at the award-winning DaTechGuyBlog. Latest posts: Washington Post is Racist Against Mexicans.

When you hit the Tip Jar, it helps pays for: A Roof Over My Head, Food, Gasoline, Car Insurance, the writing of My Next Book(s), and Utilities--especially Internet and COFFEE! Yes, coffee is a utility.



A Nigerian's Uncomfortable History

For the geographically deficient among us.
At the New Yorker, Nigerian novelist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani writes about her great-grandfather Nwaubani Ogogo -- a prosperous and honored man who became so by being a slave-trader. (For the record, I am not Nigerian. People keep asking.)
Long before Europeans arrived, Igbos enslaved other Igbos as punishment for crimes, for the payment of debts, and as prisoners of war. The practice differed from slavery in the Americas: slaves were permitted to move freely in their communities and to own property, but they were also sometimes sacrificed in religious ceremonies or buried alive with their masters to serve them in the next life. When the transatlantic trade began, in the fifteenth century, the demand for slaves spiked. Igbo traders began kidnapping people from distant villages. Sometimes a family would sell off a disgraced relative, a practice that Ijoma Okoro, a professor of Igbo history at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, likens to the shipping of British convicts to the penal colonies in Australia: “People would say, ‘Let them go. I don’t want to see them again.’ ” Between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, nearly one and a half million Igbo slaves were sent across the Middle Passage. (...)
My father succeeded in transmitting to me not just Nwaubani Ogogo’s stories but also pride in his life. During my school days, if a friend asked the meaning of my surname, I gave her a narrative instead of a translation. But, in the past decade, I’ve felt a growing sense of unease. African intellectuals tend to blame the West for the slave trade, but I knew that white traders couldn’t have loaded their ships without help from Africans like my great-grandfather.
The Igbo also used their slaves for human sacrifices to dark spiritual forces. In the last portion of the piece, Ms. Nwaubani gives accounts of the stigma still attached to Nigerians who are descendants of slaves and of her family's attempt to cleanse itself of the evil forces and their consequences.

It's a fascinating article and I make no judgment on the Igbo tribe or Ms. Nwaubani's great-grandfather. That's God's job.

The piece is just a reminder that, in the affairs of men and women, no nation or ethnic group is clean.

Every Tuesday and Saturday, I blog at the award-winning DaTechGuyBlog. Latest posts: Washington Post is Racist Against Mexicans.

When you hit the Tip Jar, it helps pays for: A Roof Over My Head, Food, Gasoline, Car Insurance, the writing of My Next Book(s), and Utilities--especially Internet and COFFEE! Yes, coffee is a utility.




Friday, July 20, 2018

This Is Why I am Not Married

 
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
-- Jeremiah 17:9 (KJV)

Dr. Helen features a study which finds that a bad marriage can kill you quickly. That may prove the theory there are some fates worse than death.

Some people have openly wondered why I’m not married, but I don’t.

Rarely do I get in the weeds about my personal relationships for one reason: there are a lot of weeds. There are many things in that area of which I am not proud.

I’ve been married only once and have been divorced since the early 1990s. My ex is the one who wanted the divorce and one of his complaints against me was that I didn’t love him. While he was correct, this was his evidence against me: that I was calm when we argued. I didn’t curse or call him names or throw things. Crazy, no?*

People do so love drama in their lives; some think it’s evidence of passion. Well, I’ve felt great passion for one man (not my ex-husband) but I despise drama, especially in my home. But, one way or another, it seems to find me in my love relationships. Over many years of prayer, reflection and honesty with myself, I think I know why.

It would be easy to say that my ex-husband and former boyfriends didn’t understand me. While true, it’s mostly irrelevant, since I didn’t understand myself for most of my life. But, in recent years, God has revealed some things to me about my relationships with people in general and with men in particular and the overarching theme of that revelation is this:

It's usually me rather than them. And when it's them, it’s because I picked them.

I’ve always felt a great deal of relief when a relationship ended – that is, after I was able to extricate myself from the emotions and vanities of the relationship. Once my emotions subsided, there was no way I would take the guy back.

There was one exception – the one object of my great passion -- but he’s no longer with us. (And, no, I didn't kill him with matrimony.) Thinking about him, there was another factor present in our relationship that was missing with the others.

Joy.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve seen the pattern of how much being in a relationship hinders my ability to think straight and the peace of my soul. I long wondered how other people do it, but then I remembered that I’m the problem. Recently, God showed me that I had not confronted this one thing about myself: how much I am capable of taking what I want regardless of who is hurt by that taking.

Undoubtedly, every single person has an issue like this – it’s translated as ‘iniquity’ in many English versions of the Bible. A secret sin.

An iniquity like this may be one that we no longer act on or have never acted upon. But if we don’t confront it head-on, it lodges itself deep with our souls and bides its time. Then, when conflict with our spouse happens, it rises to hurt those whom we claim to love.

I knew that there was a pattern of iniquity in my relationships, but it took me a long time to actually face it. And I bet that many people die before getting to that point.

I can see how living with a person who has not confronted her own character defects – her demons – can adversely affect one’s health. And since well-meaning men tend to quash their anger for the good of the family, they will suffer more internally – spiritually and, ultimately physically. We women tend to let things out. (For the record, I'm more inclined to hold things in for a long time until I've had enough.)

In the comments to Dr. Helen's piece, there's a lot of justifiable blame cast upon women and that's fine, but as I read it, I kept thinking, "you picked her, so whose fault is that?" Thinking about my ex-husband's words, I wonder how many men choose to marry drama-queens and airheads for whatever reason then are puzzled when that choice jumps up years later to bite them in the backside. (I had a boyfriend who said I was boring because I like talking about politics, religion and history.)

It isn't as if I haven't had many opportunities to pair up -- even now when I'm in my late 50s. (Heck, I could get my rent paid every month right now if I were a different kind of woman.)

But I remember all the tears, the anxiety in the pit of my stomach, the unanswered questions, and all the rest of it. The complete misery. And I know deep down that my own choices and my own iniquities were always the cause.

Until my iniquities are fully dealt with by God, it's just me and Him. And since one of His names is Jehovah Shalom -- God is our Peace -- I'm holding onto that.

*Long after we divorced, I found out that the ex had been fooling around. They married right after our divorce was final and are still married. I've long forgiven him, but I can't help but hope that he has all the "love" he can handle.

Every Tuesday and Saturday, I blog at the award-winning DaTechGuyBlog. Latest posts: Even Social Justice Must Give Way to Basic Economics.

When you hit the Tip Jar, it helps pays for: A Roof Over My Head, Food, Gasoline, Car Insurance, the writing of My Next Book(s), and Utilities--especially Internet and COFFEE! Yes, coffee is a utility.



Monday, July 9, 2018

California is Still Paradise Compared to These Places

Ten years from now? I plan to be gone.

On July 4th, a woman was arrested for climbing the Statue of Liberty.

Her name is Therese Patricia Okoumou. Why did she climb the Statue on Independence Day? To protest Trump in particular, white “supremacy” in general, and call for the abolition of the ICE.
Therese Patricia Okoumou, 44, was arrested on Wednesday after she climbed the statue’s pedestal and began a three-hour standoff with police that led to the evacuation of the landmark on the Fourth of July holiday, celebrating U.S. Independence. (…) 
An activist group called Rise and Resist said on Facebook that Okoumou was part of a protest at the base of the statue against immigration policy.
The protesters unfurled a banner that read “Abolish ICE,” the acronym for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Created in 2003, the agency has become a focus of criticism over U.S. President Donald Trump’s policy of “zero tolerance” for illegal immigration.
That chick is an immigrant from Congo, of all places.

This Congo?

This demon-possessed Congo?

She wants ICE abolished, eh? ICE is what's keeping her savage countrymen out of here.

The evil in that country didn't just start a couple of years ago. But Okoumou has been in the USA for 24 years, so, perhaps she has forgotten. Maybe she should have her memory refreshed.

*****

Back when Congo was called Zaire, and after the late boxing legend Muhammad Ali returned from his triumphant heavyweight championship bout in Kinshasa against George Foreman, aka the Rumble in the Jungle, Ali was asked what he thought of Africa.


Ali responded thus: “Thank God my granddaddy got on that boat!” Of course Ali was referring to the slave ships. That was a typical slice of honesty from The Greatest.

****

There's a deleted scene from the movie Tears of the Sun – a movie about a bloody civil war in Nigeria – during which a Nigerian tells a black American SEAL team member that he looks Nigerian and that, were it not for the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, the SEAL would have been born and raised in Nigeria “with us.” The SEAL has no response to this and it's easy to see why the scene was deleted because the only logical response is, “thank God for slavery.” Hollywood writers aren't brave.

Then, last week, there was reality in Nigeria.
In what the Christian Association of Nigeria is calling a "pure genocide," 238 more Christians were killed and churches desecrated by Muslims last week in the west African nation. This brings the death toll of Christians to more than 6,000 since the start of 2018.
According to a joint statement by the Christian Association, an umbrella group of various Christian denominations, "There is no doubt that the sole purpose of these attacks is aimed at ethnic cleansing, land grabbing and forceful ejection of the Christian natives from their ancestral land and heritage." 
The statement condemned the recent attacks, "where over 200 persons were brutally killed and our churches destroyed without any intervention from security agencies in spite of several distress calls made to them."
The statement adds that the majority of those 6,000 Christians massacred this year were "mostly children, women and the aged... What is happening in ... Nigeria is pure genocide and must be stopped immediately."
And, today, Haiti.
The Haitian government suspended a fuel price hike Saturday after widespread violence broke out across the capital and in the northern city of Cap-Haitien.

Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant had originally said the country needed to raise prices to balance the budget and gave no indication he would back down.

But his administration bowed to pressure after demonstrators took to the streets in protest.

A journalist from The Associated Press reported seeing several hundred people on Saturday attack a Best Western Premiere hotel in Petion-Ville, one of the capital’s wealthiest neighborhoods. Guests were forced to remain inside as rocks were hurled through windows around 10 a.m. local time.

Security manned the building, but rioters shattered the main entrance before moving to another hotel. 
*****

Four years ago, I speculated that Africa and those of black African descent, who are not followers of Jesus the Christ might be under a 4,000-year-old curse. And yesterday, the essay got a lot of new publicity, along with some criticism, because whaah slavery and because other people have done a lot of bad things over the centuries. Well, hey, they are subject to curses too, but not in the same ones we are.

And, as I said in 2014, how can we tell the difference between cursed and not-cursed in when it comes to places like Congo and Haiti?

I'm just glad I live here -- yes, even in California -- and not in those places. Safe ... for now.

Every Tuesday and Saturday, I blog at the award-winning DaTechGuyBlog. Latest posts: Patrons, Serfs, and Turf.

When you hit the Tip Jar, it helps pays for: A Roof Over My Head, Food, Gasoline, Car Insurance, the writing of My Next Book(s), and Utilities--especially Internet and COFFEE! Yes, coffee is a utility.



Wednesday, July 4, 2018

My June 2018 Post Digest for Da Tech Guy Blog

Voting Choice Pays Off
Many people cited a lone reason to vote for the presidential candidate that was Donald Trump: to keep Hillary Clinton out of the Oval Office. As it turned out, that was the sole reason that I voted for him. But there were other very good reasons.
DHS Makes a Blogger Watchlist
Watching as all our federal intelligence, security, and investigative agencies show us who they really are, it’s tempting to shut down all digital communications and go hermit. I, however, think that this would be an admission of defeat; one which would embolden them. And they’re bold enough already, are they not?
Trump to NFL Players: Bring Me a List
One would think that Longtime Civil Rights Activists and Venerable Civil Liberties Organizations would care more about injustice being rectified more than who gets the credit for the rectification.

Unless it was all about the Look At Me moral narcissism and preening for them – and for the pro ballplayers — in the first place.
Social Media Produces Lots of Unfinished Business
Of course, I’m paranoid enough to believe that the mass splintering of our collective attention spans is intentional.
Five Second Rule
This definitely isn’t about camping out in the lane or picking up food off the floor and eating it.
Figment Jesus
I cannot find an explicit or implicit indication of this rah-rah Team Jesus, phantom Uniter-not-a-Divider that people keep conjuring.
Segregation Now!
A business owner is free to refuse service to anyone – including conservatives, women, blacks, homosexuals, and Trump employees — and, after discovering a business’s preference, the rest of us are free to steer clear of that business. Or to give it our money. Or open up a competing business across the street with different rules of service.
Don’t Forget: They Want You Dead
All of these Democrat, leftist (BIRM) advocacies are intended to wear out the American public with chaos. Leftists want us to be overrun by criminals and terrorists and to have no defense against them.
Nomenklatura on the Rise
Like many, I’m watching the rise of young Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, an avowed Marxist, and the NY-14 Democrat candidate for Congress

Every Tuesday and Saturday, I blog at the award-winning DaTechGuyBlog. Latest posts: Tomorrow's Cookout Invaders.

When you hit the Tip Jar, it helps pays for: A Roof Over My Head, Food, Gasoline, Car Insurance, the writing of My Next Book(s), and Utilities--especially Internet and COFFEE! Yes, coffee is a utility.



Sunday, July 1, 2018

The Demonic Nature of Mob Justice Plus a Cleanser


People throw around the word attack too freely, especially online. There are only two ways, however, that a person can be attacked: physically and spiritually.

The mechanics of a physical attack are obvious, but spiritual attacks are less recognizable. Spiritual attacks sometimes come directly from the source, but, other times, they come from people in the physical world. In reality, such people are only conduits, the means through which the source of the attack -- the Devil -- sends his munitions -- his demons.

Think of such people as rocket launchers. God uses people and, since Satan is a mimicker of God, he uses people, too.

And Satan does this one thing very often: he deploys a Legion.

On Friday, the three US Senators who are black, Cory Booker (D-NJ), Kamala Harris (D-CA), and Tim Scott (R-SC) introduced an anti-lynching measure in the Senate. Many are deriding it as a race-pandering measure and it probably is, but, considering what I wrote above, I have a different take on it. And, if you think about it, you’ll notice that lynchings are not always race-based.

This one is an example.

We rarely think about this, but nation-states and ethnic groups are subject to the spiritual forces of the actions of their past: of their foundations, their good deeds, and their crimes. And those nations and groups will feel the effects of its crimes in particular throughout the generations unless one of two things happen: God intervenes and/or a nation or ethnic group repents of its crimes and embeds that repentance into national body and does so on its own.

Of course, it can be argued that this country has already embedded into its body the repentance of its crimes against Americans who are black via the Civil War, the 13th through 15th Amendments, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act. Fair enough and I agree.

But consider the following.

I think that lynching and any other gang or mob action against any target is carried out by people who are possessed by demons. This applies to any death of an individual at the hands of any mob when that individual has not been subject to a fair legal process and when the mob has no authority to carry out an execution. (This is why I’m not against all capital punishment carried out by the state.)

And, since this nation has refused identical anti-lynching measures 200 times – refused to disavow a method of human sacrifice carried out by Satanic forces -- this new measure is necessary for spiritual reasons, other reasons given notwithstanding. (Consider this when you think about Roe vs. Wade and about how many abortions have been carried out in this country since that court ruling.)

This horrifying lynching story in Texas epitomizes  – at least to me – the demonic nature of mob justice. [UPDATE: Dead link. Go to here.] It happens that the victim was guilty of the crime and probably demoniacally possessed himself, considering the nature of his crime. In some stories there are no good guys.

Read that last link before you continue.

*****

A funny thing happens when you read about things like that. You desire the cleansing of your mind and spirit. For me, that’s an instinctive process – or maybe it’s something that God does for me. As it happens, reading about that horror reminded me of a family story, also set partially in Texas. It's one of love and of individuals.

I’ve mentioned that, for the first part of my minor years, I was raised by my great-aunt and great-uncle, Alma and John Simpkins. Aunt Alma was my grandmother’s older sister.

Uncle John was from Texas, but he and a significant portion of his family had moved to Southern California starting in the 1920s or 30s. This move probably began with his own aunt and uncle, Lucy Collins – his mother’s sister – and her husband, J.B. Collins.

Aunt Lucy and Uncle J.B. lived in Fontana, CA and I always enjoyed visiting them because Fontana was quite rural back in the 60s. The two had been married since they were in their late teens or early 20s, but never had any children, so, they doted on all of us. I was not their blood niece, but they didn’t care and neither did I.

After Aunt Alma and Uncle John were divorced and I went to live with my mom and dad, I didn’t see much of Uncle John’s family. Much later, I found out that Uncle J.B. died in the 70s and around 25 years later, Aunt Lucy followed. I wasn’t surprised to find out that she had been 100 years old or more when she died because she and Uncle J.B. were old back in the 60s.

And here’s the interesting part, told to me by Aunt Alma.

Uncle J.B. was very pale-skinned and he shaved his head, so we had always thought that he was a “one drop rule” type of black man. But when he died, and his relatives came to the funeral, all of them were white. Uncle John’s family discovered that Uncle J.B. had no known black ancestry.

None of the relatives who attended the funeral were of his generation. They were all his nieces, nephews and second cousins. All his older relatives had died and/or disowned him.

It turns out that Aunt Lucy and Uncle J.B. met in Texas and had fallen in love there. But, of course, back then it was illegal in Texas for a white person and a black person to marry. So, unwilling to just cohabitate, they ran away to California, got married, and settled there. They were married until the day he died.

I only knew Aunt Lucy as an old lady, but Aunt Alma had a photo of her as a young woman. Suffice it to say that she was the kind of woman that a guy would ditch his family for: smooth brown skin, slanted eyes, high cheek bones, long, thick hair and a beautiful smile.

I hope that Aunt Lucy and Uncle J.B. are in Heaven. I envision them as two handsome young people, walking hand-in-hand, serving the Lord.

Fun fact: my sister’s husband is a white guy from Texas. They have five children and one granddaughter. They live in Fort Worth and in peace.

*****

I don't know if our nation has truly repented as a corporate body of its past and here's something else: if the descendants of those who were wronged refuse to forgive, they, too, will remain prone to the evil forces that desire to take this country down. Other countries have their own spiritual issues to face, but that their problem. I'm concerned about this one.

Repent and forgive. I try to do both every day, for myself and my people: Americans. Pray for this country.

Every Tuesday and Saturday, I blog at the award-winning DaTechGuyBlog. Latest posts: Nomenklatura on the Rise.

When you hit the Tip Jar, it helps pays for: A Roof Over My Head, Food, Gasoline, Car Insurance, the writing of My Next Book(s), and Utilities--especially Internet and COFFEE! Yes, coffee is a utility.