You ask how such destruction might happen?

We are not talking about drug deals gone bad or stolen merchandise being hidden. We are talking about lavish gifts given to state and government employees who are obligated, by law, to report and turn over a gifts received from foreign entities valued at over $480. They also have the opportunity (which very few, if any, have ever taken)to purchase these more expensive gifts at fair market value.

At thePresidential level, flushing gifts down the toilet or tossing into the trash isn’t exactly an option. And they are still obligated to turn over these expensive gifts to the National Archives, within a reasonable period of time, we might presume. For example, in 2023 Jill Biden received from the Indian Prime Minister a 7.5 carat diamond very conservatively valued at $20,000. Rather than turning it over to the National Archives, it is reportedly being held in the East Wing of the White House for undetermined purposes for an undetermined period of time.

According to the Associated Press, CIA Director William Burns received the aforementioned $11,000 Omega watch and mysteriously reports that it was another victim of undisclosed destruction and could not be handed over to National Achives. Of additional interest, a CIA employee was the recipient of the mentioned $30,000 jewelry set as well an Omega Sea Master Aquaterra watch and a ladies Omega Constellation watch–all valued at $65,100. The status of this largesse?

Reported: All destroyed. Total destruction.

But there is more.

These are required reports that federal employees must make. Sometimes painfully so.

There was another CIA employee who was reported to have received a men’s Yacht Master II Rolex Perpetual watch valued at $18,700.

Reported: Destroyed.

A second CIA employee received a ladies Rolex Oyster Datejust watch with value of $12,500.

Reported: Destroyed.

Another CIA employee reported receiving a men’s Rolex Air King watch worth $7400, while another reported getting a lady’s Rolex Oyster Datejust watch valued at $12,500.

Both reportedly destroyed.

Another reported on this government disclosure was a $7,450 Rolex Air King watch

Reported: Destroyed.

Let’s give the benefit of doubt to many government servants who receive expensive gifts and turn them over to the National Archives, where they belong. Regardless of how painful the task might be.

But are we really to believe this level of luxury destruction? Do these people really expect us to believe that they would actually destroy a Rolex rather than turn it over to the National Archives?  Ditto for precious jewelry and lesser Omega watches?

And when will that 7.5 carat  diamond make it to the National Archives?

These are questions we should all be asking. And perhaps the National Archives can auction off these luxurious goods and help reduce our national debt–or pay their own operating expenses.

The post The Luxury of Destsruction appeared first on Luxury Home Digest.

by Roberta Murphy Thompson

I was enormously upset with the November election. It wasn’t who won or lost; rather, fury at what appeared to be a corrupted election process. In retrospect, the Cancel Culture crowd appeared to be hard at work manipulating votes and cancelling the votes of many.

Within a few days (or weeks), emotions calmed down and I then struggled with the need to act rather than complain about something over which I had no control. Inspired, I turned to Change.org and composed a level-headed petition that incorporated the following non-political ideas:

• Make Election Day a national holiday.
• Eliminate mass ballot mail in procedures. Registered absentee voters only allowed to do so.
• Eliminate ballot harvesting and replace with voter harvesting. Enlist volunteers from both parties to bring voters with limited transportation to the polls.
• Eliminate programmable voting machines and replace with paper ballots.
• Have human vote tabulators equally represented by both parties.
• Our voting day is sacred. Results should be tabulated and released the same day. No late vote counting and deadlines are honored.

I published the petition on Change.org and in short order had garnered some signatures–mostly from Facebook. The next morning I was flooded with messages from “Max” at Change, suggesting how this petition could go viral. His message, and my responses in italics:

Thu. Jan 28 7:16 AM
Hi Roberta, this is Max (not a robot!!) from Change. I think your petition has real potential, and I’d like to give you some advice over text to make it bigger. Up for that?

 I am open to suggestions

Great! I am happy to be working with you. OK here’s your dashboard: http://chng.it/yHmLtXFgib Let me take another look real quick (I am working on a few at once!) I’m so glad you’re standing up for all others who feel this way about our electoral system.

I took a look, and your petition looks great–clear and direct and heartfelt. Great work So what social media do you use? (this will help me give you good advice and to build momentum)

You must be busy, which I totally get! Standing by with some more ideas to grow your petition! Let me know when you’re free OR if you want me to drop you some advice here for you to read later?

 Primarily Facebook and to a lesser degree, Twitter. Exploring other sites as well. Feel very strongly that the integrity of our elections is bedrock for our collective trust.Text is fine and so is email.

Awesome! So, most people don’t realize how much you need to share to build and keep momentum. You should take time to post on all channels every single day to make it really big! Here’s some tips for getting the most out of every share:

1. Add a pic
2. Don’t just drop the link and run! Tell your story or give an update.
3. Ask people to sign AND share.
4. Include your link

To reach as many people as possible, I’d post on all your platforms today. On FB and Insta, I’d make a post AND a story, because some people only see posts and some only see stories. You could share to everyone in your email address book (this dashboard will help http://chng.it/yHmLltXFgib and scroll through your phone contacts & send your petition over text http://chng.it/M69Cws7dRn

What do you think? Oh and I have another thing that I think will help with this kind of petition. Still with me?

Still here. Am heading for hour workout.

How about searching for FB, reddit, or other online groups that care about this issue? I just took a quick look and found this one: https://www.facebook.com/groups/685344755466306 but I am sure there are many more!! You can look for subreddits here https://www.reddit.com/subreddits/search Reddit is very sensitive to “advertising” so make sure you on’t just drop your link and run. Explain why you started the petition, who will be affected, etc. You can also write to the moderator(s) to ask if it’s okay to post about your petition.

I don’t want to bombard you. Let me know if you want a little advice BEYOND your personal networks today, and otherwise I’ll check in tomorrow to see how it’s going. Sound good?

Thurs. Jan. 28, 7:44PM

   Good!

Sun. Jan 31, 5:13 PM

   Had time to work on the petition today and it has disappeared from the site. Do you know what happened?

No response.

I tried calling Max repeatedly and no answer. No response from Change.org either.  I have searched all over for the petition via links where I had shared it and could find nothing. The links were dead.

I had unwittingly become a victim of the Cancel Culture and was deeply surprised. The petition, from my point of view, was neither political nor hateful. Yet the initial enthusiasm from Change had strangely disappeared–and I had been cancelled.

We hear about certain Dr. Seuss books being banned along with Mr. Potato Head–and more seriously, conservative voices who have become victims of the Cancel Culture and are banned from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Like millions of others, I am concerned about First Amendment rights and also wonder who is leading the charge in this Cancel Culture movement. And why? We have always –until relatively recently–had the freedom to speak our beliefs and speak out against perceived or alleged injustices.

As a former journalist, I am also appalled at how marinated in hatred and fear most mainstream media have become over the last decade or so. Objectivity and  the level reporting of Walter Cronkite are long gone. And one by one, but at lightning speed, conservatives are being cancelled from media in an attempt to cancel them from the collective consciousness.

And what do those who support and implement the Cancel Culture hope to accomplish?

Perhaps like  rigid parents, they want no sass or argument. They want their children/subjects to listen with one ear and speak with one voice. Argument is a dangerous distraction from the goal of…what? A silent single party to rule the United States? A compliant one World? An uber-wealthy Oligarch Class that can control the masses and their thoughts/beliefs?

I am but a speck of a victim in the Cancel Culture, but if the supposedly neutral Change.org, who cares about tortured animals and human rights, feels compelled to eliminate a petition from one who cares about election integrity (and whose representative enthusiastically supported it initially), I have to wonder how deep the swamp flows–and to what depths the Deep State will go to flush out undesired voices.

And I now consider myself one of the undesired–and cancelled–voices.

The post Cancel Culture: Just Shut Up appeared first on Luxury Home Digest.

I was widowed New Year’s Day, 2019. Mike’s death was sudden, but not unexpected. I had been grieving for years over the inevitable–and spent the first two months of this year in a fog which eventually lifted. But the uncertainty did not. And that is because of this liminal stage or space. I know a chapter in my book ended with Mike’s death and that he will never appear in subsequent ones. But I am in that space between that prior chapter, and am early into the next one.  I feel like a chrysalis in that metamorphic stage of life.

And it helps to understand butterflies and their liminal space.

I have raised and nurtured Monarch butterflies for several years. I love watching Monarchs land on milkweed, lay eggs, and soon after see tiny caterpillars crawling over the milkweed leaves. They grow quickly and have voracious appetites. And like little kids, some immature ones wander off the nourishing milkweed plant and get lost on the saltillo tiles below. I’ve learned to rescue the ones I can and gently place them back onto the leaves where they belong–where they will soon grow into big, fat caterpillars.

When the big guys leave the milkweed, they are searching for a safe place to attach themselves with special caterpillar “glue.” There they hang upside down and over a few hours, will shimmy themselves into a little chrysalis that looks like a tiny, gold-rimmed Japanese lantern. The liquidy goo they morph into inside the chrysalis puts them into a liminal space. They will never again be the caterpillar they once were–and as we all know, if they emerge safely, that a beautiful Monarch butterfly will break free and emerge some weeks later.

The butterfly lifespan is short but instructive.

I am a widow with a much, much longer lifespan than a Monarch’s. But I do understand the state of being a chrysalis–and also know that we as humans might undergo that liminal space at several points in our lifetimes. It happens to a lesser degree when we enter college or change jobs, knowing we’ll not be going back to the one we just left and not knowing how the new job or school will turn out. A  stronger liminal stage would occur with the birth of a child, a marriage– and certainly divorce. My sister and I, though over a thousand miles apart and going through very different events in our lives–we are both floating in potent liminal space. She has moved out and is going through a divorce. Gayle is in a good place, but knows she is not going back–and still does not now what life has in store for her. I am a widow in similar circumstances. My challenge is also moving on–but not sure where I will land.

And I could choose to meet that challenge with either dread or excitement. But life is short and meant for learning. So think I will choose excitement instead.

—Roberta Murphy

The post Liminal Space: Floating Between Past and Future Tense appeared first on Luxury Home Digest.

Years ago, our oldest son Scott and I attended a long weekend with the Landmark Education Forum. I was challenged to take up a personal issue that I was willing to share with a thousand or so people the next day. I couldn’t help but consider Alzheimer’s, the disease that had rocked our family.

I went home that night and wrote a letter to my mother, Edith Michelson. It was a letter I would share with the large group–and perhaps my dad at a later time. I would not share it with her. I could not. Alzheimer’s disease had stolen so much of her past and life baggage. I share the letter below, written I believe, in 2004.

Dear Mom,

I am writing a letter you will probably never see, so in many ways what I write is self-serving. Still, I will try to share its essence with you this next week when we see you and Dad for dinner.

As you may remember, Scott and I are attending the Landmark Education Forum this weekend and I had come with the vague intent of coalescing courage to make a critical business move. That turned out to be what we might call an “inauthentic” motive–or perhaps was just an excuse to buy the enrollment ticket for something more needed.

As it turns out, much more is at stake.

You see, I have thought little of business the last two days and have thought much about you and how your past is irrecoverably peeling away. I am pained to see the bright, smart and witty woman I have called “Mother” lost so much of her past and life baggage. I can handle you losing your way, your purse, your keys, your jewelry, your ability to think or converse in an abstract way. It becomes a little more painful when you can no longer recall who is dead, who is alive–or even what you had for breakfast. It is tough,  especially for Dad, to handle your terror over people around whom you believe to be taking your possessions and rearranging your world.

Those are the hard times.

The good times are when I realize how you have mostly condensed your concerns into the need to know that your children and grandchildren are all right–and that you love us all so much.

Mom, I have so many questions and so many fears about Alzheimer’s and your disease. But I would like to invent a possibility for you: What if you just so tired in life, and so over-burdened with responsibility, that you designed a dis-ease that would allow or force others who love you to pick up the burdens and obligations you shouldered for so many years>

Is this your way of taking the past out of your present and future so you are only burdened with the NOW?

Is it you who is taking responsibility for your needs–or is it we who failed to see what needed to be done?

And finally, I’m not sure you are aware that I, your most astute student, have taken up your same racket and work hours. What I would like to invent, though, is a second possibility that I can take the past out of my present and future–but still retrieve it as needed or desired.  And I can’t help but wonder: Is it too late to extend that same wish for you. Probably so, at least in this lifetime.

Alzheimer’s is a thief–not only of memories, but dreams as well.

The post Alzheimer’s: Inventing a Possibility appeared first on Luxury Home Digest.