I thought maybe it was the wine “But you only drank an ice water”; It seemed like an afternoon. “But you only visited for an hour” she said. Whatever.

  Mainline Florida: Link to Mainline Florida. 

I am making more use of links, music and visual. Click on them and then you might have a second link to search. Some locations, such as YouTube generate revenue for your "free" viewing by running ads, so be patient. On occasion there is a "skip ad" button. Sometimes it will load and start when you go there, sometimes you need to click on the white arrow in the red box.

I hope you enjoy the updates to my art and life as presented in this blog. IF you don't like the political stuff and don't want to receive future blogs just say so, no hard feelings. So far, only five have taken me up on the offer. With that in mind, remember: BELOW THE FOLD is where (most) of the controversial stuff is placed. Sometimes stuff is a hybrid, say humor and political. Nevertheless, I do this blog for me, it clears my mind and then I do it to share stuff I think is interesting, fun, needed to be considered, etc. I like, also, the feedback I receive, either on a specific article or the concept in general. Right now there are about 70 of you who receive this directly. Claude

Before I get into my current art, I need to make clear to you that:

During my visit to Saint Louis there were two conversations that distressed me and mis-categorized my view of life and the people in it…

I have never said anything negative about Blacks, I have criticized individual behavior by persons who happen to be straight, homosexuals, Spanish heritage, Asian, Afro-American, Afro-French, Afro-Brit - well I could go on there, men, women, etc. NEVER. I have been discriminated against because I am Catholic. I know what it feels like. I worked for three months in north Saint Louis on playgrounds during college years where I was truly the only white face for blocks and blocks. I was called “whitey” names (that’s one of the milder terms back then, but the intent was just as intense as today). My supervisor was a Black woman, whose supervisor was a Black man - Sam Westbrook who was the STL boxing guru - think the Spinks brothers - who asked if I wanted to be moved to a White playground; of course I said “No, I’m alright here”. I walked into and out of the neighborhood and rode the Kingshighway bus to and from home. (I get it, every night and after three months I could return to my lower-middle class neighborhood.). The only time I ever had a problem was not racial, it was unemployed teens who had a pistol, put it to the head of a dog in front of about 15 children. I never prayed so hard, and it seemed to work “Let’s get out of here” is what the gun holder said as they turned and drove away. I don’t user the word nigger like some of my liberal friends, relatives and contacts still do. Biden used it often. LBJ, and Donna Brazile disappointed me when she called him the greatest US president because of the ‘65 Civil Rights Act, used it all the time including the sentence that said if they passed that Act, THEY (editorial substitution) would vote Democratic for ever. I don’t tell racial jokes. So lets be clear, I Do Not have a negative view of other races or religions. 

 Example #1. Cori Bush from Saint Louis (You voted for this train wreck).

Example #2. The exploitation of men and women who are confused about their sexuality, why God made them, what they are on earth to accomplish or be, not helping children who are being sexually mutilated because of their confusion. There are individuals who need help and instead we cheer them on. I use an example: If your daughter came to you and said I am now a doggie - I want to crawl on all fours, drink and eat out of bowls on the floor, get shots that dogs get, sleep on a pillow on the floor, only communicate by barking, pooping in the yard, etc…wouldn’t you say Jenny, or Keke, “we need to get you some help”? You are not a dog, you are better than that, that is not why God put you on this earth, we are not going to your parade during a newly created DOGGIE MONTH. 

And legal immigrants: I love them, some of my favorite bank-clients are immigrants who came here with nothing, worked hard, saved, created, kept families together, kept their faith, are proud to be US citizens, left family to be here. I can not say enough how much I admire them, in part because I am not sure I could ever do what they have done, do that to my family, turn on my country of birth. 

What I do have a problem with is our elected “leaders” and officials who are putting you and me at risk by not monitoring our borders, letting thousands of people stream across our borders, politically rejecting others, putting foreign workers ahead of US workers, letting our supply chain and education sources being co-opted by countries like China so professors, teachers, business owners can get some money in their pocket.

Example 3. I have criticized organizations who exist to harm the US, you, me, and others in this world; and media who help this happen. One simple example is the individuals and corporations, churches who got on the Black Lives Matter bandwagon; from everything I have seen is that this is clearly a communist organization that is intent to sow divisiveness in this country, taking advantage of individual acts that may or may not have been wrong in their context and using it to frame our society, or other groups. Their icon is the communist fist. Their leaders are siphoning donations for their benefit, their economic gain, etc. It has nothing to do with a harmed Black woman or man. Companies have funded this just to buy freedom from unjust/incorrect criticism. That last US leader who stood up to this mess did not get re-elected…so again I ask you who voted for Biden “What were you thinking, how did you think this was going to turn out?”

Finally, on the contrary, in this very blog I have mentioned/celebrated minorities who have achieved, and often it is enormous wealth or prestige because they figured it our, tried this and that until it worked, worked many ours and days, asked mentors for help, maybe failed but got up and tried it again until they achieved what they wanted. And, by the way, this is probably the only country where it could happen. I go back to a teenager in Chicago K West, what he has done he could never have done in, lets say, Peru or Indonesia or Tibet or…you get the idea.

I just want to be clear. Now I’ll move on…

ART:

SAINT LOUIS SCENES:

We flew to STL for our daughter-in-law’s baby shower(s). L made a remarkable three-tiered cake, one lemon with raspberry, one vanilla with almond crunch and a chocolate. Decorated it, iced it, hired a chocolatier to make some of the animals/the toy chest, wrote a multi-page narrative about the land of Brentwood, etc. Here are some of the pics. 

 These are hand-“drawn” lace flowers…

 The story revolved about, or used Stich as the character to get from here to there.

 I enjoyed the fountain outside the Ritz Carlton waiting to pick up after shower #2. 

In my friends Jim and Anne’s garden.

L’s gift which she constructed and assembled…

 The propellers are infant enamel spoons, the wheels are diapers.

Made by Linda, the plane is Dom’s Cessna 172, it has his call numbers on the tale. The monkey was crocheted by my grandmother for Dom. 

 Great meal at Yellowstone, I almost always order the walleye. Never disappoints. Another night it was IMO’s square beyond compare. One night at Pasta House. One evening at Smoke + Salt in St Charles. St Louis Bread Company (Panera to the rest of you) for a breakfast conversation. 

Made it to MIZZOU one day to see a good friend

 On the way to and back visited grade school and high school classmates. 

BACK TO FLORIDA: Some you received a special edition after my last blog. These scenes are from one evening walk, unedited, after a mist which left some grey clouds that made the blue sky just pop, and you will see a little red and orange thrown in for effect:

Well, Florida could be in this one but you will never find it.  From the repaired Hubble telescope, just part of the universe.  Those dots are probably other galaxies, not other suns or stars. THE UNIVERSE. How can people see this and deny God’s creation????? Look in just the upper right quadrant. 

HUMOR:

Where is the humor in all of this? Maybe by the next blog I’ll find something funny for you😬

I FOUND THIS TO BE INTERESTING:

There is one in there that really bugs me, his first.

 Art in Webster, wish I could join them…

GREAT heading to Gungor’s idiocy

 Or Biden, or…there is whole list of phonies.

I have touched on this before, if you don’t live in a large city…

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IF they are going to not use credit standards, there will be a great employment future in mortgage liquidations…

 I did not know this…

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So, Elon is not the only one…

 This is something I have mentioned for the last 30 years…one of the messages at Medjugorje from Mary was “you will wish you had more children.” I wasn’t sure to whom it was directed or in what context, I thought maybe the disparity between Muslim and Christian birth rates, maybe it is a combination of things of which Covid is a part, nevertheless…

BELOW THE FOLD: WARNING:

 Nothing for me to add, the obvious smacks you in the face.

 This, that, mandate, guidance, Fauci, CDC, local governments, county leaders, mask, vaccinations, 6 feet-3 feet, This Guy has NO plan, is grabbagging, gonna harm us and the economy, dividing us, WHO VOTED FOR THIS MESS?

 I like their (Babylon Bee) follow up finding an INDIAN mascot from India, well, from The Simpsons 😅

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Back to our LEADER…He kills the XL Pipeline which put thousands out of work, offended Canadians, resulted in immediate gasoline price increases, lets Russia and OPEC move back in front of us eliminating our energy independence which will not improve the so called climate crises (see Merkel’s comments below), Who voted for this guy???

Then we can go back to the phonies aka liberals, progressives and their mouthpiece…

Under the heading NOT ALL CHANGE IS GOOD…

 In my opinion, this is nuts and your children and grandchildren will have to pay for it…All those who celebrate Bruce Jenner wearing a bra and long hair, but still has HIS plumbing rom what I read…again, it is the behavior not the person.

UNDER SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE

So, you could have read something like this 15 - 20 years ago.