Author: Ex-PH2

  • Thursdays Are For Cooking….

    It is definitely the end of summer, and all this summer stuff that we take for granted is going be replaced by the noise of crazy people crashing through underbrush on their hasty path to get a goose for the dinner table or a buck for the antlers.

    Okay, I like turkey, but in the fall, I have no interest at all in going out and tangling with an overexcited turkey cock who thinks you’re another turkey cock chasing his hens and wants to rip you a new one.

    I think it’s best to let all you shoot-shoot-bang-bang people have a go at what makes you happiest: shoot the peasants, hogs, turkeys, ducks, bucks, pheasants, or geese, but you’d better make sure they are ready for the oven or the firepit before you show up at my place. I am not gutting those things for you.

    It is, after all, open peasant season, now that midterm elections are rolling around. I fully expect to see a few heads on platters with apples stuck into those choppers, or even bits of wholesome roadkill when available. It’s entirely possible that some people whose agendas are not met may have to eat crow.

    Enjoy the day and the coming weekend, and good hunting to you!

     

  • We Few… We Happy Few…. We 21 Million Strong

    That article yesterday, about how “respect” for the military is okey-dokey, but being in the military is a waste of time and is undermining this country approached the subject from the viewpoint of the dorky kid who didn’t like sports in high school because he stunk badly at something as simple as softball and didn’t like football because the footballers got all the girls and…. Well, really, when you come down to it, even geeks in high school could get hot dog jobs after college at high-end companies like GE or General Motors or DuPont.

    That was then. And back in Them There Olden Times, even the geeks got their draft notices and showed up and served and subsequently got the girls hanging on them, too.  There is a balance there.

    There’s something unifying about a suit with a military cut that says “I’m part of something Really Big”. I think that’s the reason these people in glass towers don’t like the military. There’s a unity they can’t touch, a commonality that binds veterans and current A/D people together, and those in the glass towers are on the inside looking out at the Gathering of Brothers and Sisters, and the poor things just feel left out.

    I  think that some military service, no matter how brief, is a means of bonding that is missing from all the SJW/snowflake experiences. While they try to mimic it with the #metoo stuff, the “wimmins’ parades” and those “for the cause of –” public gatherings, it is not even close to the same thing as saying “my unit” or “my ship” or “this one time in Bien Hoa…’ or “I was posted/stationed… and hey, I was there, too. Did you know…?” Not even close.

    Are they jealous? Possibly. I think they are. It might be a reason for saying military experience “tears the country apart”, which is a falsehood, plain and simple.  My own humble bit of time, a mere two separate hitches, 5 years, 6 months and 28 days (they couldn’t give me those 2 extra days, could they?) has more substance, and made me more employable than many of these “graduates” coming out of schools with big, important degrees. It’s true of many people who show up here.

    But if a college degree makes you more employable, then why are trade schools advertising now and offering job assistance on completing courses? Why is it easier to find a job as a licensed cement or gravel truck driver if you have the training, or doing road construction (which pays +/-$40/hr around here) than it is to find a job with your several degrees in Chinese economic history?

    Why is the pseudo-intellectual response always the disparaging“Well, you know – education” – and then the ‘sour grapes’ look when you rattle off your education, basic and advanced, and your job experience and enhanced skills?

    Based on the limited amount of time I had, my view may be rather insular, but it is still wider and more broadbased than the narrow, hidebound viewpoint of the people who think they are ‘better’ somehow than those who did spend time serving, however brief it might have been. The fact that there is no get together to swap stories and share experience among Those People is a given. They have no commonality, no ‘this is no shit’ stuff, no epic tales of how hard it was to get the supply room girl to fork over a box of staples, and they know it. A firecracker or a cherry bomb will make them drop to the ground, quaking like a jello mold.

    While you and I can build a campfire, set out chairs, blankets, stumps and logs for people to sit on, pass around the bug spray, let the kids run and play freely and fire up the sparklers, roast half a feral hog on the spit along with foil-wrapped potatoes baking in the coals and a spread of dishes concocted by anyone with access to a kitchen (or a good deli), those denizens of the glass-walled towers can only watch as this Band of Brothers and Sisters gets together, shares what happened and when, tell tall tales that start with ‘No shit, I was there….”, hoist a few cold ones and end up singing the songs we all know under the stars.

    They can only watch… and wish….

  • Other Feelz Good Stories

    I have no idea where the Usual Suspects are, but here goes.

    You may enjoy this particular story.  https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2018/09/staff-writer/man-strangles-girlfriend-unconscious-then-gets-pistol-whipped-by-an-unnamed-third-person/

    In a somewhat atypical defensive gun use out of Walnut Hill, Florida (yes, it is always Florida), Cordaryl Lewis was pistol-whipped by an anonymous person who found that he had strangled his girlfriend.

    According to reports, Lewis and his girlfriend were “arguing about leaving the house they had just bought” when Lewis decided to grab the woman’s throat. He choked her to the point of unconsciousness before an anonymous third party walked in on the scene, saw the woman on the ground and pistol-whipped Lewis in the face. When authorities arrived, they found Lewis bleeding profusely. The woman had sustained injuries consistent with the allegations against Lewis, and the man was arrested and charged with domestic battery by strangulation.

    IMHO, there should be warning signs visible from guys who like to abuse women, but when women are desperate to have a man in the domicile, it seems these signs are still missed.

    And there’s  this one:   https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2018/09/staff-writer/whataburger-robber-shot-and-killed-by-security-guard/

    Most fast food joints don’t keep armed security personnel on staff, but this one apparently did – and ten customers have him to thank for potentially saving their lives.

    Around 1:00 a.m. in Houston this past week, a man walked into a Whataburger restaurant and opened fire.

    “I see a dude in a white bandana pull out a gun like it’s a movie or something, and start shooting behind the counter,” said a witness named Jayvier Green.

    Immediately, the security guard took action, firing four shots, all of which hit the suspect in the legs. That’s laudable marksmanship on his part, and police agree.

    Well, maybe the gun-nutz customer was unhappy with his bill. Not having eaten anything at a Whataburger, I can’t answer that question, but he obviously had a few issues.

     

  • Ridiculous

    This is in regard to the SJC hearings underway, among other things.  From ‘The Atlantic’:   https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/09/kavanaugh-fox-news-pushback/571201/

    What was aggressive was Kavanaugh’s presence on Fox News in the heat of a nomination battle.

    The most aggressive language he used was when he called one allegation against him “totally false and outrageous.” (He fully denied all accusations of sexual misconduct.) The most notable moments came when Kavanaugh acknowledged attending raucous parties as a teenager and said that he was a virgin for “many years after” the attempted sexual assault alleged by Christine Blasey Ford, who knew Kavanaugh in high school.

    “Yes, there were parties. The drinking age was 18. Yes, the seniors were legal and had beer there. Yes, people might have had too many beers on occasion,” Kavanaugh said. “In high school, I think all of us have done things we look back on in high school and cringe a bit. That’s not what we are talking about. We are talking about an allegation of sexual assault.”

    None of what Kavanaugh was saying was surprising per se. It was the fact that the nominee himself was saying it that was unusual. For a prospective justice to appear on cable news in such an interview is highly unusual—perhaps unheard of.

    On Sunday, Kavanaugh took matters into his own hands with a strongly worded letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, insisting he would not allow what he called a “coordinated effort to destroy my good name” to force him to withdraw his nomination.  (READ the letter, all of it.)   – Atlantic article.

    Fabricated evidence is bad enough. Snapping a bra strap or someone’s undies is vulgar and just plain bad manners in any setting, and apologies are due. They are not sexual assault. In the work place, they qualify as harassment. In high school, they are the acts of inebriated adolescents at parties.

    If I’m expected to believe that someone who has changed her story since 2012 from four to “other” and can’t remember anyone except Kavanaugh and later on after the other man’s name came up, him, too, I’ve got news for you: I can write fiction that is more believable than that. At worst, it would be considered sexual harassment on the job if it had happened at work.

    If you’re drinking at a party, why didn’t you report it to someone in authority? This reported act of assault does not include any indication of how much alcohol Ford had  consumed. This alone casts doubt on her story.

    No, I do not believe that Kavanaugh did any of the things he’s accused of doing. If this was so important, why was it not reported to the school administrator in the 1980s? Well, it was a party school and as the salvaged yearbooks have shown, the girls were the aggressors, not the guys. Teenagers do a lot of stupid stuff. I did and so did my brother. It is part of growing up. Disregarding whatever happened, the time limit has long since passed for Blazey-Ford to have reported it, and yet, there is another reported “incident” looming from someone else. It is bull shit. I want to see physical proof, not stories.

    Being on the sidelines in all of this, without a TV available to watch this asinine circus under the direction of that ragged, dried-up harridan Feinstein, I’ve seen nothing come of this other than a desperate effort at character assassination. I realize that, in the course of all these hearings, the entire goal by both sides of the political fence is to smear the poor soul unfortunate enough to be today’s target.

    That a decent human being should be smeared and publicly caned for an alleged teen-years incident is more than just character assassination. Not once has that heinous vulgarian Feinstein given a single thought to the consequences down the road.

    Since the 1970s, when reports of rape and attempted rape finally were taken seriously, and women in the work force were encouraged to report unwanted physical contact with a supervisor or a co-worker to Personnel, there have been enough visually recorded incidents of women being physically attacked by strangers and co-workers to generate verification that it is not women bringing these attacks on themselves. The worst case ever was a drunken off-duty Chicago cop who beat up a female bartender one-fourth his size because she refused to serve him any more alcohol. The video plainly showed him not just hitting her, but knocking her down and stomping and kicking her. He is no longer a cop. She sued the City of Chicago and the CPD for what happened, not to get money but to put a stop to it. Sometimes, you do have to make the buggers pay.

    Hollywood has a long, long history of misbehavior toward women who were stupid enough to put up with it in order to be stars, although I have my doubts that either Bette Davis or Joan Crawford or Lana Turner put up with it. It is a cesspit environment, but as plenty of actresses have said, you don’t meet a director or producer alone in a hotel room.

    The mid-terms are coming up. Feinstein is determined to wield her club over these proceedings, with the idiotic sympathy train flowing along behind Blazey-Ford. Is Feinstein aware that she no longer has her party’s endorsement in LaLaLand? I’ve seen people on power trips. We all have. Destroying someone of good character and decency seems to be the only thing Feinstein is interested in, which can be a fatal mistake.

    Unfortunately, the side effect of this, which may become long term, makes it entirely plausible that women whose claims of real sexual assault are valid will not be heard, not taken seriously, and shitcanned for complaining about some guy who is making a nuisance of himself at work. And for that matter, since women generally don’t like each other, there’s the lesbian angle on that, too. Everything now is taken out of context. Normal human behavior is being turned into something barbaric, as if a pat on the back for a job well done is an attempt to cop a feel.

    Frankly, I am so fed up with this obsession about sex and everything related to it that I’d like to dump a bucket full of used EPT sticks on the heads of some of these idiots. This aggressive hateful attitude toward men will have real consequences in the future.

    The underlying problem is not sex or anything related to it. It is that good manners and common decency, a sense of what is proper and what is not, have been thrown out the window and run over by the warthogs who are running things now.

     

  • Will the Real Secret Squirrel Please Stand Up

     

    Either someone does not know that April Fool’s Day is 6 months behind us, or there is trouble, my friends, trouble right here in Foggy Bottom. Someone is stirring the pot in an odd way.

    From WaPo:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/09/22/white-house-distances-itself-reports-that-trump-could-target-facebook-google-twitter-with-new-executive-order/?utm_term=.14bfc0495582

    The White House sought to distance itself Saturday from reports that President Trump is considering an executive order that would subject tech giants like Facebook, Google and Twitter to federal investigations into alleged political bias.

    For weeks, top tech com­panies have been on edge, fearing that the Trump administration could seek to regulate the industry in response to the president’s tweets attacking social media sites for silencing conservatives online. Their worst suspicions seemed to come true Friday night, with the emergence of a draft executive order that called for nearly every federal agency to study how companies like Facebook police their platforms and refer instances of “bias” to the Justice Department for further study.

    But three White House aides soon insisted they didn’t write the draft order, didn’t know where it came from and generally found it to be unworkable policy. One senior White House official confirmed the document had been floating around the White House but had not gone through the formal process, which is controlled by the staff secretary.

    Asked about the document, Lindsay Walters, the deputy White House press secretary, said of the digital age ‘who dun it’ on Saturday: “Although the White House is concerned about the conduct of online platforms and their impact on society, this document is not the result of an official White House policymaking process.” – Washington Post article

    CNBC also has an article here:

    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/22/white-house-prepares-order-directing-antitrust-probe-of-tech-companies-report.html

    • The White House is reportedly working on a memorandum for President Donald Trump to sign that would direct government agencies to “thoroughly investigate” whether social media companies such as Google or Facebook have violated U.S. antitrust laws, Bloomberg reported Saturday.
    • Social media company leaders, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter chief Jack Dorsey have denied that their platforms are politically biased.

    The White House is reportedly working on a memorandum for President Donald Trump to sign that would direct government agencies to “thoroughly investigate” big tech companies like Google and Facebook, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday, who have fended off accusations of political bias against conservatives. – CNBC article.

    In the WaPo article, is this: “Aides at the White House said all week that the National Economic Council – which would have been tasked under the draft order to help agencies probe online bias – didn’t write it and didn’t know where it came from. Likewise, the Office of Science and Technology Policy had nothing to do with creating this draft.”

    The document has been floated to tech companies, e.g., Book of Face and Giggles, as well as attorneys at so-called “white shoe firms” in Washington, DC.

    In the WaPo article, there is a statement that the first anyone had heard of it at all came from an e-mail sent by or through Yelp.

    You can draw your own conclusions about this.

    However, since Bloomberg News reported it first and it subsequently appeared elsewhere in WaPo and CNBC’s newsfeeds, then in my humble opinion it does not land the production of this “draft” in the laps of the people at Bloomberg News or any of the other news feeds.

    If it was done as a joke, it is in the same poor taste that is frequently manifested by the idiots on the lefthand side of the Mugwump fence. If it was done by any news source and forwarded to the media feeds through Yelp, it just compounds the fact that it is a lie.

    In view of this attempt at forging a White House document, I will add that I now suspect whoever created this “draft document” is the same person, self-described as part of The Resistance, who created the so-called “op-ed” published by the New York Times.

    If that is the case, then the media have just been hosed but good. The joke is on them.

    I hope they enjoy baloney sandwiches.

  • I Am Tired of the Fraud

    Yesterday, a report showed up on one of the weather-related websites that the people of various towns in the province of in Alberta have received snowfalls and the temperature was hovering around 1C (about 32F).

    There was also the news that one of Iceland’s nastier volcanoes appears to be preparing to give the whole planet what-for, because the volcano’s last eruption was in fact 100 years ago, and is long overdue.

    Meantime, the head of IPCC is being chastised for his overuse of luxury travel, jetting from one conference to another, from one important meeting to another, and for the “size” of  his carbon ‘footprint’, never mind his excessive expenditures. In addition, people in the fields of weather and climate are being blocked from meetings that they would normally be able go to, if they have the temerity to question the “belief” system that has become a blatant  attempt to gain control of governments and make them fall in line behind this twaddle.

    This idiocy has, through the auspices of the IPCC, become an expensive and sometimes fatal burden on taxpayers who have no say in the matter, and cannot afford to pay their heating and electric bills in Europe, never mind pay for food, thanks to Angela Merkel’s fumbling attempts to control what ordinary citizens in Europe are allowed to do to simply survive brutal winters.

    The people in charge of this hogwash are arrogant enough to not give a flying fart in space who suffers for their self-centered cupidity. They don’t have to give a shit. They are, somehow, better.

    Well, no, they aren’t. They aren’t better than anyone else. They don’t suffer in the winter, nor do they have to try to choose between food and heat, especially if the ‘heat’ in question is generated by natural gas, a forbidden product. It is so bad in Europe now, especially in Germany, that new coal-fired power plants are being built. Merkel[‘s asinine control freakishness is not in her favor. When Brexit takes place, that will be the chink in the weakening dam, although Theresa May is still facing some opposition from people who are afraid of being independent of the E.U. And we saw someone’s take on that earlier this week.

    The people who are responsible for making these abominably stupid decisions that are detrimental to the very people they supposedly govern are not the kind who will go to a marsh late in an October evening to watch the geese and ducks coming in to land for the night. They don’t produce anything of any use to anyone. They have repeatedly revised and moved the “projected” dates for whatever disaster they deem will occur, so that by the time the goal comes and is passed, they’re dead and no longer responsible for the con job they’ve been foisting on people for many years.

    However, if you disagree with them, and question their chokehold on climate science and the despicable crap that says ‘the world is drastically heating up’ when it ain’t, you are likely to not only be ostracized, but also lose your grants and possibly your position in the field. This is no longer ‘publish or perish’. It is ‘convert or perish’, which means the end of your career if you refuse.

    Remember when I said ‘Do NOT go medieval on my ass!’? Well, that is exactly what is happening now, mostly in Europe. This is as medieval as you can get. It is happening here, also.

    And do these jerks sitting on their pedestals care about the general populace or what really does happen? No, they do not. They only care about how much cash and support they can con out of the naïve and gullible and uninformed.

    The newest claim is that Atlantic hurricane numbers are up, when in fact, records show that they are down. This is why it is bullshit.  It is a con job, a con game and has always been that and nothing more. And our tax money has been going into this charade for far too long.

    Pres. Trump has already slashed climate change funding to the UN, to put that money to work here at home where it is needed.

    If these anxious con artists think they’ll miss out on their luxury travel and lodging accommodations in places like Davros, Switzerland, that’s just a damned shame. They’ll can go hit up Soros for cash. Our money belongs here at home.

    And yes, migration started very early this month, because it is getting cold up there in the Great Frozen North. Why is it cold earlier than usual? Hudson’s Bay did not melt out until late in July.  The so-called Northwest Passage, and access to it, did not clear out this past summer, and students who rented a Russian ship to go see how much “warming” was going on got stuck in the ice.  In addition, we’re in a solar minimum now and have been for some time. The next solar cycle, Cycle 25 was supposed to start months ago and has not. The Sun’s surface is as blank as an egg, no sunspots, but the occasional hole in the corona appears on magnetograms.

    If, as I mentioned yesterday, Iceland’s queen bitch volcano Katla decides to blow – and like any female with a bulging belly, she is long overdue – she may produce nastier and more damaging damaging effects, such as volcanic fog and a volcanic winter, never mind shutting down Iceland’s hydropower system. And the effect of this? Yes, it will go worldwide, and it will happen, regardless.

  • Thursdays Are for Cooking….

    Those are some of the nicest strawberries I’ve found in a long time. Unfortunately, they no longer exist. I ate them.  Haha!

    Last week, Aysel wanted to know if there is a slow cooker version of the red beans and rice that I love to fix in the cold season.

    Well, I had a better idea. Since Aysel is the Chief Cook and Platefiller at her domicile, and I do a bunch of crock pot stuff myself, the best place to look for slow cooker/crock pot stuff is at the Betty Crocker site, in the Slow Cooker recipes section. This is the link to that section:  https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/preparation/slow-cooker-recipes

    Aysel, you should be able to find there a wealth of stuff to fix, including chicken pot pie and beef stroganoff. They even have coffee mug desserts, and if you’re pressed for time as you say you are (and you want to keep Hubby away from the cookery stuff) this is your go-to site.  I would get several slow cookers or crock pots, because the inserts can be removed if there is still food in them, and stored for another meal. Or use those eminently useful plastic storage containers that are microwavable.  I have to go to the hardware store and get a couple smaller sized cookers next month.

    Anyway, my recipe for BBQ beans with smoked sausage is very simple and very hearty.  One 14.5 oz can is two servings.

    2 cans of red beans in chili sauce (or other sauce, your choice)

    BBQ sauce – your favorite brand, about half a standard bottle

    1 (one) big link of smoked sausage. Use 2 links if you’re feeding more people, or stretching this for two meals.

    spicy mustard – whole grain mustard works well if you want more spiciness but not heat

    Worcestershire sauce and garlic powder (both are optional)

    about a half cup of chopped onion (get the frozen seasoning mix from Pict-Sweet, it’s more convenient)

    Put the beans into the crock pot, add the BBQ sauce, add about a half cup of the mustard, two teaspoons of the OPTIONAL Worcestershire sauce and garlic powder. Use a dessert spoon if you don’t have a measuring spoon.

    Stir this mix well, add the onions or seasoning mix, stir again, and then place the smoked sausage links on top of the bean mixture. Do not immerse the sausage. It will steam and cook up nicely sitting on top, which is how it’s supposed to work

    Put the lid on. Cook on low for 5 to 6 hours. You can let it go longer, if need be.  And tell Hubby to leave the crock pot alone. It needs time to contemplate the Meaning of the Universe and must not be disturbed. Yoda would agree with me on that.

    Make some cornbread from one of those package mixes if you’re pressed for time. Takes about 8 minutes to mix the batter and 20 minutes to bake in the oven.  Slice up some veggies like zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, and put those on a plate with radishes, baby carrots, and whatever else suits your fancy.  Also, dill pickles go well with this, especially the refrigerator dills, or use your favorite brand.

    And for dessert, get the cotton-pickin’ apple pie at the bakery and some ice cream.

    Leaving the BBQ beans in the crockpot/slow cooker lets you reheat them (about 45 minutes) for another meal.

    Last, but certainly not least, adjust the mustard and other flavoring ingredients to suit your personal taste.

  • Lack of Credibility

    Last week, we brought to you the story about a nutty professor in Las Vegas shooting himself in the arm, leaving a bloody mess in a campus bathroom plus a $100 gift for the janitor to clean up the mess he’d made.  https://www.azuse.cloud/wp-admin/post.php?post=81766&action=edit

    Bird (the perfessor) was subsequently arrested and charged with several felonies.

    https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2018/09/daniel-zimmerman/college-professor-who-shot-himself-also-says-he-wants-to-ban-ar-15s/

    Last week, a deranged sociology professor at the College of Central Nevada shot himself in the arm in a campus bathroom because, he said, he wanted to protest the existence of the Trump administration. He was charged with a variety of felonies and has since been banned from the campus.

    But according to an apology letter he wrote that was obtained by Blue Lives Matter, 69-year-old Mark Bird was motivated by more than just the deplorable 45th president. Bird was also upset by a variety of societal ills including, naturally, civilian ownership of AR-15 rifles.

    I sincerely apologize for my behavior today. I was motivated by multiple reasons. A major reason is, derivative of the following October 20, 2017 CBS news story, the Earth had roughly 100 million malnutrition and pollution deaths in the past decade — and the Earth is on a course for at least another 100 million such deaths in the next decade. One hundred million deaths are more than all the military and civilian deaths of [World War II]. – Article

    His statement of the total number of civilian and military deaths during WWII is invalid. He cites no resource or reliable backing for it, offers no proof of any kind, but simply throws it out in front of the audience and is expected to be credible.

    The census of mortalities from both military action and diseases and starvation is much more reliable. World War II fatality statistics vary, with estimates of total deaths ranging from 50 million to more than 80 million. The higher figure of over 80 million includes deaths from war-related disease and famine. Civilians killed totaled 50 to 55 million, including 19 to 28 million from war-related disease and famine.  – source is Wiki.

    He does not name his sources for the 100 million deaths from malnutrition and pollution, and to be believable, would be both expected and required to provide source material for his statement. Lliewise, his projection of a future 100 million plus deaths is a non sequitur, because he provides no research or references as support.

    Frankly, with both his maladjusted behavior toward himself, and his lack of resource materials as backup, his credibility went right down the sewer when he shot himself.

    Self-destruction is not how you convince people to get rid of guns, especially when you use one on yourself.

    Understand that I do not believe for one tiny second that he is deranged, and neither do I believe he is credible as a source of statistics past and future forecasting. His assessment of how many people may or may not perish from the effects of both war and famine is, from what I’ve seen, based entirely on the misbegotten attempts of greedy politicians, greenies, climate science fabricators of pending doom, and willing government employees to falsify raw data records to suit the needs of a corrupt prior political administration that still has its fishhooks in the public’s psyche. You can specifically credit Algorebull for spreading dystopic propaganda to help support this Campaign of Disaster and create a New World Order.(NWO, aka Now Wank Off).

    This addled man is a castoff, a useful idiot, someone who can be justifiably sacrificed and tossed aside in as little time as it took him to shoot himself in the arm. Be aware that people like this and that man who torched himself in NYC’s Central Park last summer don’t exist in isolation.

    They only feel isolated. That is why they do these stupid things. It is also they reason for a lower and lower rating of credibility.