Category: Reply To

Submitted By: dixiedarrow@icloud.com – Click to email about this post

I was thinking about how silly it is for people like us to make a decision for others miles away – people living in a few blocks of downtown Portland as to wether or not they need police or federal law protection. That is really stupid especially as the so called “news” shows only what they want you to believe. And to ad a little more – a warehouse was found in that area that kept the things needed for this group to continue doing what they are doing – costumes, first aid supplies, bottled water, etc. and more tents and camping equipment etc. This is definitely a funded group as is the others in LA, Chicago, and etc. A gun was fired in one of these cities as they were rioting.
I would like to say also that out of that area but still downtown Portland, interviews with shop owners showed them saying that everyday they put up with druggies staggering into their shops or collapsing on the sidewalk and or vandalism. 911 does not answer – they go to a busy signal, or there is a recording. There are plenty of videos taken with smart phones and local journalists that show this is not a definitely not a peaceful protest.

It is also kind of silly to try to analyze one video as there are many, many – taken by many – to be found on the internet showing violence in this area. The people living there, in these apartments are so very thankful some law enforcement entities showed up tp stop this. They were giving thumbs up and clapping to see these riots put down. I haven’t checked recently o see what is happening there.

A question is why our TV cable news – does not show this – or maybe it does – I don’t watch it ,but because many here say there is no rioting -( my hair dresser for one), and no troops are needed.

Another question is why do we here think this is OK- I guess it is denial – you don’t see it – therefore it doesn’t exist…… right

Well I have to say that the young know what is going on. And the future belongs to them – we are leaving them a corrupt planet – and at least in Oregon many of these kids can’t read or do math and don’t know history………….how ill they cope?

Submitted By: jmgilpin@msn.com – Click to email about this post

It is, most certainly, difficult to take any of dixiedarrow@icloud.com’s opinions seriously when nearly all of her talking points are far from the truth of what is going on in Portland. Coming from a person who has been there – SEVERAL times, day or night, I can say the overblown statements are, at best, bollocks. At worst…well, one can easily figure. As a protester and an American patriot, I find it more than offensive to imply we’re “paid”. It’s also highly dubious (understatement) that ANTIFA is an organized group funded by “elites”. Sadly, people watch carefully curated footage which supports their cognitive bias. What we truly have is, a WAR ON FACTUAL/UNBIASED REPORTING.

Submitted By: elusivetailwind@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

This is the most sane bit of ‘politicking’ I have seen on this site.

Submitted By: jmgilpin@msn.com – Click to email about this post

To: dixiegainer@gmail.com

When was the last time you were at the ICE facility in Portland?

Submitted By: corinnewiz@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Thank you Barbara

Submitted By: barbaraandchuck@nehalemtel.net – Click to email about this post

This is a reply to www.northcoastbbq.com/2025/09/27/political-nonsense/

Free speech is fundamental to who we are as a people and a nation. So as administrator of the BBQ, I won’t be blocking any poster, unless they consistently submit posts that contain hate speech of any kind, personal attacks or foul language. I do monitor individual opinion pieces and very occasionally refuse to post, or send back to the poster, items that include any of the above.

It’s not only free speech that is fundamental. Other things I believe are vital are
respect the right of others to think differently than I do
being open to new ideas
allowing nuance and discourse for possible understanding and change
taking deep breaths when my emotions about what others are saying and or doing become big so I don’t just react
not giving up my stance of love
not believing everything I think

Our country is extremely polarized right now and violence against others who are different for whatever reason has sadly become acceptable to some. Somehow, we have to change that dynamic. I am not sure how to do that. I do believe aspiring to the ideas above could help.

I certainly don’t agree with every post on the bbq. And I just ignore them (after checking for no-nos listed above). Even though some of the bbq posts are extreme in my opinion and the responses back and forth don’t seem to lead to understanding, allowing people to express themselves on the bbq is still a fundamental right.

Perhaps we all could step away from our staunch beliefs occasionally and look around to what else is out there.

Barbara McLaughlin

Submitted By: barbaraandchuck@nehalemtel.net – Click to email about this post

WOW
Jett, Thanks.
Well written.

www.northcoastbbq.com/2025/08/15/a-dream/

Submitted By: diwax54@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

RE: Here in America, during ‘red’ regimes, ‘blue’ folks can expect a lower social credit score, and during ‘blue’ regimes, ‘red’ folks can expect a lower social credit score.
How far the totalitarians will go remains to be seen.
Want a revolution?
USE ONLY CASH

I’m 70 years old and have been using only cash/debit only for more than 40 years. Through the years I’ve paid off car and house loans and other major big purchases (Home Depot, Lowe’s, and other major companies for home upgrades etc). I was maintaining the highest FICO/credit score for years. As when I did apply for credit, I the paid the intial balances in full on the first payments. Thus, maintaining good/excellent credit scores.
Since, I know longer am making any major purchases using any issued credit cards my FICO score is declining. Though, I’ve kept a few of the credit cards open they haven’t been used for years. As I was told closing them would lower my credit scores. However, my credit scores are currently declining. I’m
sure is due to NOT using credit and only paying cash.
I’m not understanding how using only cash wether you are ‘red’ or ‘blue’ during any blue or red regimes lowers credit scores. As my once excellent score has been declining since I don’t use cash.

Submitted By: morematt@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Can’t forget this little immigration gem from Hillary Clinton. How soon we forget.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCrw7v6Worc

I’m personally an advocate for immigrants here locally. I just thought it might be educational for those of us who’s doom scrolling has clouded our memories. The establishment democrats (and republicans) are playing a game with us where we are but pawns in a billionaire’s racket.

Hegelian dialectic: Problem/Reaction/Solution

Dem establishement creates the “surge”, naturally problems will arise in communities unable to handle such a surge, chaos ensues (and wages conveniently suppressed across the board), and now the Trump wagon rolls in to implement the technocratic biometric real-time all-seeing-eye of a surveillance system (a la Palantir etc.) as the solution.

The “Biden” administration couldn’t quite get their “Covid vaccine card” (to track your monthly bio-compliance) biometric tracking system in place for the bilionaire technocrats, so they create a “problem” that Trump can conveniently find a “solution” to. And they get to rip our communities down the middle as a bonus.

Technocracy incoming. Bipartisan cooperation. How exemplary.

The revolution will not be televised, let alone promoted 24/7 like this current “no kings” pied piperism. Mean’t to divide us and keep us from coming together on CLASS ISSUES against the Oligarchs. Divide and rule indeed.

The revolution will be local and it will be face to face building community with those very neighbors that the corporate press is goading us to hate.

Don’t be a hater.

Matt

Submitted By: genedieken@yahoo.com – Click to email about this post

Well, there you go again!

An awkward appearance by RFK Jr on the Doctor Phil Show verifies nothing about chemtrails.

Here’s the thing: there’s common technology available to do an extensive double-blind high-atmosphere sample survey that wouldn’t be very costly. Fire up your favorite AI gizmo and enter: “sampling high-altitude air quality.”

Chemtrail folks will never do this of course, because they’d be unable to deal with the shame of spending so much life-energy being a guppy.

The most disturbing part of Andy’s post was his assertion that a local business is part of the conspiracy. No evidence cited. Waking up from a fever dream doesn’t count as research.

Gene Dieken

Submitted By: genedieken@yahoo.com – Click to email about this post

Back in January, Dixie Darrow requested that we all be patient and give Elon Musk and the DOGE boys 90 days to work their magic and then we’d see major accomplishments. So it’s telling that as we’ve reached the end of that period she’s back, not to celebrate the DOGE magic but to insult her fellow citizens, calling them Lemmings for being outraged by any of a hundred horrors begun in this period.

It’s disappointing that the two most consistent contrarian voices on this platform both seem to have contracted Rickles Syndrome: make your point by insulting your audience.
Pictured: Don Rickles, aggressively caustic comedian and actor, 1926-2017

Submitted By: genedieken@yahoo.com – Click to email about this post

Whoa now!

Here’s how the Cambridge Dictionary defines hate speech: “public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation.”

I have frequently challenged Andy Norris on this platform and I imagine that might put me on Andy’s list of “war pigs.” So what?

I submit that whatever you may think of them, many of Andy’s comments reflect HIS hatred toward things in our society that actually ARE NOT right. He’s not encouraging YOU to hate. Does he go way, way overboard in how he expresses himself? Yes, indeed. Is he too captivated by shiny conspiracy theories, e.g. chemtrails? Yup.

But here’s my point: expression has value and silence can be complicity.

One of the downsides of our utopian tri-village community is that we spend too much effort trying to turn it into a virtual gated community, free from the weight of the world. The latest example on this platform was a request by john@bainassociatesinc.com to “depoliticize [BBQ]… so that it can serve the needs of the users without triggering acrimony or conflict.”

We LIVE in an era of acrimony, conflict and loss of basic rights! How does it serve us to ban any mention of this in a public forum?

Grow a spine! Far worse is yet to come.

Gene Dieken

Submitted By: tduncan@pacifier.com – Click to email about this post

A note to you, Barbara–
Much gratitude for you and Chuck and your tireless work of building community. BBQ is one thing I read almost every day, a combination of postings and color! photos of stuff for sale, and interesting soicological perspectives, with the frequent beautiful poem thrown in. I am educated by the opinions regarding local goings-on. And sometimes I even get it together to drive from Astoria to catch a play or workshop, thanks to your BBQ. I am not on social media, so for me, it’s an artery of info.
I am, and always have been, charmed by your grace and charity, and your generosity of spirit. Thank you so much for giving us this amazing gift for so many days and years!
Love, Sue Skinner

Submitted By: dixiedarrow@icloud.com – Click to email about this post

Reply to B’ McLoughlins post’ – social security not hacked. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsGdTviSxCo. . THE CHECKS ARE BEING CASHED!! This video with Sen. John Kennedy and his bill should have had a date on it. But the current act is set to expire in 2026. The name of the bill is “Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act”— the video was put out by Forbes magazine, a prominent business magazine! Forbes also has a news channel that you can watch on you tube if you get tired of slanted news. It focuses on the economy and business. Kennedy and Carper have now introduced new legislation—the Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act—to make the measure permanent. No one will know if anyone is hacking your deceased family members social security. How would you? You send in the death notices and that is the end of it. No more social security checks arrive in your mail!! That is all you know. When my mother died, I had to get lots of death notices to send out to the required people, SS, banks, insurance, and I can’t remember all. When my husband died, I had to do the same. 69 million people receive social security checks every month! There are 3 million deaths on average reported to SS every year. I am sure most of these death benefits are not hacked. But I do not believe that Senator John Kennedy would go to the work of introducing a bill, If there were no reason for it. And he has data! Watch the video? Do you think he is making that up? Why would a senator do that? It takes a lot of work and a lot of time to produce a measure for the Senate to consider.
If I were a new or even old director of an agency I would also deny that social security fraud was happening. The most likely truth is that there is always some fraud in every agency that pays out money.
There are and will be problems with the DOGE audit. I do not feel positive with the shutting down of some SS centers around the United States, and it is true that the elderly, which definitely includes me, have problems with using the internet. I rely on my kids for help. I just tested out a web site that was supposed to show social security offices around the country, wondering if the one in Warrenton is targeted for closurel Probably too soon to tell! This web site wanted you to PAY for the information – 5 bucks – and has a place where you needed to put in your credit card info!! That is so frustrating! Of course I would not pay for that info, it should be free. I am definitely sure that site was not a SS web page. Despite problems and the accompaning hysteria about DOGE. I am all for it – I want a DOGE for Oregon!! It is good for citizens to keep their governments honest!

Submitted By: john@bainassociatesinc.com – Click to email about this post

This is a request to depoliticize the Site (again). The most recent issue had a political post.

I’m not writing to agree or disagree with the poster.

I’m writing to suggest that this site stay apolitical so that it can serve the needs of the users without triggering acrimony or conflict.

There are plenty of sites where political issues are welcome.

As a practical matter, no one is learning from the sort of post in the most recent issue. Those who agree, agree, those who don’t won’t.

The post wasn’t a call for engagement or debate. So what was it? What was the point? What does the poster want to happen?

This isn’t a free speech issue. The poster is certainly free to post anything, anywhere, any time that the platform allows it.

It reminds me of my neighbor’s dog in the city. It barks loudly and that is all it could do, is bark. We already know it’s a dog. Everyone knows it’s a dog. Of course the dog’s excuse is a brain the size of a walnut. Hmmm.

Feel free to message me if political commentary is a direction the users want to go. I’m happy to no longer participate.

Submitted By: genedieken@yahoo.com – Click to email about this post

Andy Norris lost me in the first sentence of his recent pro-Russia screed: “Russia lost 50-million soldiers fighting Nazis in WW2.”

The total Soviet population from the somewhat-reliable 1939 census was 170,500,000, so clearly, 50,000,000 military war losses is way off.

Generally agreed upon Soviet deaths are estimated to have been 13,000,000 military and 14,000,000 civilian. The largest ethnic groups were Russians and Ukrainians.

Of course these two numbers don’t include Soviet losses incurred from 1939 to 1941 when Russia aligned with the Nazis to take over Poland and the Baltic countries.

Opinions are malleable, facts less so.

Gene Dieken

Below:
Soviet War Memorial in Tiergarten, Berlin

Submitted By: yuiqwe1@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

The biggest medicare fraud case in history involved Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott. Why isn’t he in jail? Probably because if he was Trump would pardon him. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Scott#:~:text=During%20his%20tenure%20as%20chief,fraud%20settlement%20in%20U.S.%20history.

Submitted By: genedieken@yahoo.com – Click to email about this post

About a month ago Dixie Gainer assured us that Elon Musk and his Doge boys were going to take 90 days to straighten out the Federal government. I’m afraid they need to pick up the pace. The calendar now says 60 days till Elon’s miracle will appear from on high in a blaze of Crypto Glory.

But now she’s telling us “…and this is what is happening right now – getting a handle on excessive spending. that is what Trump is doing now – getting a handle on excessive spending. Thank god for that. If we go bankrupt, social security medicare, and medicaid will be dumped as America tries to become solvent again… [it’s] a Herculean task that could take decades.”

Meanwhile, GOP Reps in Congress just passed their version of a budget bill that aims to effectively eliminate Medicaid, throwing millions into pervasive insecurity while preserving trillions in tax cuts for billionaires.

Also, Ms Gainer feels that Elon deserves commendation for performing this Doge miracle for free. Free? Really? Did SpaceX just happen to bump Verizon out of their existing contract with the FFA for air traffic control modernization by chance? Nothing to see here! Move on! “Since you can’t do anything about it – watch fun stuff…”

Probably a good idea to remind yourself occasionally about Ms Gainer’s reliability by reviewing the post by BBQ’s own editors (RIP, beloved Chuck) about her allegations of tainted voter rolls in Oregon during last year’s election cycle:

www.northcoastbbq.com/2024/10/26/response-to-dixie-gainer-about-judicial-watch/

Gene Dieken

Submitted By: Karmatenfol@aol.com – Click to email about this post

“I could hear my heart beating. I could hear everyone’s heart. I could hear the human noise we sat there making, not one of us moving, not even when the room went dark.”
― Raymond Carver

Submitted By: lynn.joy.steinberg@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

I’d like to respond to some misinformation, and to those who have cheered the President’s dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. with a few facts noted by the NY Times today:
1. “The president, much less Elon Musk, cannot shut down a federal agency without a vote by Congress. To do so is illegal under the Constitution.”
2. “More than half U.S.A.I.D.’s spending in 2023 went to health programs intended to stop the spread of diseases such as polio, Ebola, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria or to humanitarian assistance to respond to emergencies and help stabilize war-torn regions. If you care about preventing the next pandemic or the pressures of global migration, U.S.A.I.D. is an investment you should want the United States to make.”

Submitted By: genedieken@yahoo.com – Click to email about this post

Hope Stanton’s recent piece expresses the confusion and fear many of us are feeling about the current state of our federal government.
One small way to feel less inundated is choosing better words to describe/oppose this takeover. Journalism in the Trump era became feckless because it chose to use inoffensive words to describe offensive behavior.
So personally, I’m not going to use words like “firings” or “layoffs” or “resignations” or “re-orderings” or “buyouts” to describe what’s happening with federal departments, programs, and workers. These are business words and inappropriate to the purges, criminality, clueless/intentional destruction, and despisal of the constitution going on at the hands of these scoundrels.
The words you use can be a mark of your resolve and courage. It was said of Churchill during Britain’s darkest hour in 1940: “He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.”
Gene Dieken

Submitted By: genedieken@yahoo.com – Click to email about this post

I’m a bit confused by Dixie Gainer’s notion that the first aircraft accidents to happen during the Trump/Doge administration were caused by DEI.

DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) is kind of table salt for rightwing conspiracy theories. Just shake on a little DEI and every allegation is much more savory!

For better answers about aviation accidents I recommend checking out Juan Browne at the Blancolirio channel on Youtube. Browne is a current Boeing 777 airline second officer who also provides thorough analysis of every incident, big and small.

DC incident:
https://youtu.be/n9mAUks0krI?si=rJ1gAxaCj4_g6vk-

Philadelphia incident:
https://youtu.be/u6_bLhBMngY?si=_t75OpV0gc1b4IP1

And here, I will say I do not trust Elon Musk being anywhere near the FAA. He hates it with a dark passion because the staff regulates safety and other aspects of his rocket business.

Gene Dieken

Submitted By: tevisdiii@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

I got busy so this is a delayed addition to the expanding planet concept.

I watched the hour plus rant, — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5sDo9ffl_E — and found the presentation disjointed and condescending. The presenter seems more focused on emphasizing that only an ignorant fool would consider such a concept because plate tectonics is obviously accepted as fact, whereas the whole point is to question what is accepted and it seems there are aspects that are questionable.

There are many examples throughout history of theories that harden into facts and are used by scholars to build whole institutions of research which then are forced to change as new perspectives are introduced. It happens through debate and it can be, and often is heated because of invested funds and egos. An example would be the idea of conformatism, that earth changes have always been slow, measured in eons, but with the exponential increase of tools to collect and collate data, ideas that magnetic reversals and cosmic impacts, including solar blasts, can occur far more often than previously thought, and are being accepted. It now appears that our planet’s history is peppered with events that literally changed the world, overnight in some cases, and not only are these recorded in the bones of the earth itself but painted on cave walls, in oral traditions and text. Old mysteries give up their secrets.

With the use of LIDAR imaging it’s now obvious that much of the Amazonian basin was once inhabited by a vast, complex society and the present forest is the remains of their runaway gardens. The point is that our planet, and in fact all of our sibling planets and their moons are offering up new perspectives daily on basic heavenly body mechanics. Our inclusion of plasma energy in an electric universe shows us how systems spin themselves into being like a cotton candy machine. How hard is it to imagine that a heavenly body can grow or shrink depending on its environment. When we refer to our earth as a living being is this just hyperbole?

On offer below are a few video lessons which show the range of views surrounding the study of earth’s crust. In some areas it’s a hot topic and if you are intrigued, consider these as just cracks in the door of earth sciences.

This presentation is similar to the one mentioned above and disputes the concept of expansion but is much more nuanced and provides details and history that helps with context. These are not simple studies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMOeFcff2ws&t=415s

Here is another example of dismissal out of hand using “accepted hypothesis” and theory as proof.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epwg6Od49e8&list=PLP7MGT6-gD1SLSYYfPdbxgFRhivKgmVnr

Here is another presentation which stacks theory on top of theory and shows just how wide open the foundation on which continental drift theory rests.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81KDvZ3B_ts

This lesson does a good job of detailing the mechanism of spreading ocean floors, which is a well known feature of our living planet. 12 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgYpZEacLuk&t=504s

Here is an observational documentary which explores many of those questionable aspects of the continental drift theory in some detail. This is an easy one to watch. 25 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9CQnFPnDls&t=469s

Another professor with questions. 25 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Othb0xsvZb4

Some major problems with plate tectonics. 8 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qoTs7w22r4

Plate tectonics at 55; not set in stone. Dr. James Kieth. This one requires focus because it gets into details
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTM01tML0IY

Modeling the earth’s geology just using data. Maxwell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO609uOKM2I

Submitted By: hatallman@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

https://youtu.be/O5sDo9ffl_E?si=ytdnVXp7wy6nj-p0

The video is on the long side but that might be because it contains actual scientific information while being respectful towards Neal Adams.

Submitted By: genedieken@yahoo.com – Click to email about this post

Just a response to Dixie Gainer’s abridged post of Ron Paul’s opinion piece on the authorization to use US weapons and technology to strike targets proximate to the Russian border (within 250 miles or so). Now we are also seeing some American air support for rebels trying to overthrow the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.
First let me acknowledge that Ms Gainer has many times demonstrated her fealty to what one might call the traditional Republican Party, the party that would be familiar to those in their mid-30s and older. I never supported that GOP, but it did have some reassuring qualities. I’ll simply assert here that that party no longer exists and has been replaced by something far darker.
Now about the Pauls. Both former Congressman Ron and current Senator Rand are proponents of the so-called Libertarian movement, an incomplete philosophy that strove for maximum liberty, minimum government, and no responsibility being placed on the wealthy/powerful who benefit maximally from the society created by every citizen (the commonweal). Libertarianism is now not much liked across the political spectrum except for the Silicon Valley/tech-bro community such as Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance, Larry Ellison, etc. who have rebranded it as “techno-utopianism.”
More important for this conversation, the Pauls are known to be emphatic supporters of (if not agents for) Russia. The quiet part has been said out loud, many time over the years. This has been a very noticeable trend in the GOP for years (google: Maria Butina) and now shapes Donald Trump’s policy toward Russia (google: Helsinki Summit). Thus I won’t ascribe much trustworthiness to anything either Paul says. And I’ll also assert here that the above-mentioned tech-bros have more connection with Russia than we should be comfortable with (google: Musk calls Putin regularly).
Biden’s recent authorization to use US weapons across the Ukraine border IS troubling. But the US and NATO have resisted this for three years as the Russians carried on an aerial war of obliteration largely against civilian targets in Ukraine. Russia and Syria worked this same game plan in Syria as Assad obliterated nearly the entire city of Aleppo over the years. Same game plan in Grozny, Chechnya. Where do we draw lines? It’s pretty clear where the once and future President and his captured GOP will draw them.
Gene
Please note that Dixie Gainer is NOT your friendly Manzanita wine merchant.

Submitted By: thedicedwitch@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Makes me so happy to see *someone* finally confront Dixie about her conspiracy theory and misinformation spreading she’s doing. So many people watching Fox and thinking it’s news. Literally classified as an entertainment company, not a news agency. It’s just so disappointing to see many of our neighbors and peers post in support of a man that wants to be a dictator and whose running mate thinks it’s absolutely ok to spread lies and misinformation if it means getting votes.

Anyway. More of us really should be countering and debating a lot of the straight up lies being spread here.

Submitted By: linadivenere@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Bravo diwax54