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Well said. I have to admit that I believed the "smoking gun" because I felt that a grifter like DT was more than capable of the accused behavior. But I was also not surprised by the recent revelation that it was a creation of the Clinton campaign/DNC, because I have always believed that they were capable of that sort of behavior as well.

Actually, I think I might have been disappointed had things not turned out as they did. Both parties are more than capable of the slimey behavior as accused.

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The book "The Ministry for the Future" talks about cloud seeding to avoid killer heat waves, although in the novel it is India that does it, without permission from anyone. And drilling the glaciers to pump the melted water out from under them and make them slow down again, and a lot of other stuff that I thought was pure fantasy but apparently is not. The book is weird, strangely flat, considering the premise. An odd read. And who knew?

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Good article, it's something to consider I think, since They control almost everything else

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I’m a natural-born skeptic, much to the consternation of my mother, who still calls me a difficult child. And I’m in my 50s. LOL Too many questions, she complains.

But these last six or so years I’ve not been skeptical enough. Too many times I’ve been outraged over some injustice or whatever, as reported in MSM or social media, or via a friend. Then when I looked into the matter further, I felt like a jerk. The reality was more nuanced, or sometimes completely different, than the reports.

My new policy is to presume falsehood of reported “facts” until proven otherwise. This is a tremendous burden, of course. I don’t have the time, and otherwise, to research everything.

For years now I’ve loosely held the position that it is immoral to have an opinion on everything, especially those things you know little about. If you’ve just seen a headline or read an article or two, that’s not fodder for a credible opinion. Mostly, I do the research I need to make the best choices for myself on the issues that are directly relevant to my life, as best I can discern, and leave it at that. There are so many more things about life that are worth spending time wondering about and basking in.

Regarding the change of seasons, I’ve long noticed that fall and spring seem to be times of churning and shedding skin, and winter and fall seem to be more about stasis, or perhaps hibernation.

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I make a habit of not believing what the media says about Russia and China in particular. I think that is a good rule of thumb. The more sensational, the less I believe it of course. Generally this saves me sanity points.

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As to the indictment of Sussman, I'd suggest waiting before leaping to any conclusions about him as an individual. We have known about the Clinton campaign's opposition research for years, and the icky nature of opposition research in general, and I'm not seeing what Sussman's alleged [because he hasn't been found guilty of anything] lie really has to do with any of that, or how it changes the equation. I have my own suspicions about the reason for all this hubbub, but they may never be confirmed. Fact remains that we'd have been better off if the person who got the most votes in 2016 had actually become president. Women in particular, if we look at the state of reproductive rights and the Opus Dei Supreme Court majority ready to lay down the law of their god.

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I would question anything that the Independent says about Russia (or many other things) BUT clearing out the sky for parades is not only true, it's a very very old news. The Soviets did it in the 80s and may be even the 70s, The technology is quite simple and it looks like it's routinely done all over the world https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_seeding . Which of course doesn't subtract anything from the main point of your very thoughtful essay.

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