Stop being ungrateful.
No matter how good or bad you have it, wake up each day thankful for your life.
Someone somewhere else is desperately fighting for theirs.
Instead of thinking about what you’re missing, try thinking about what you have that everyone else is missing.

A Chinese-backed and California-based Faraday Future plans to build a $1 billion electric car manufacturing plant outside Las Vegas, with billionaire Chinese investor Jia Yueting as the company’s major financial backer. From the onset of this news, I’ve been trying to puzzle-out if Senator Harry Reid had anything to do with it, because it sounds like his ‘kind of deal.’

Well, it could be as simple the fact that the new plant will be built inside Apex Industrial Park. Now Apex is managed by Land Development Associates, whose President is Dave Brown, a friend to Key Reid and son of Jay Brown.

But I’m betting it not that simple as Nevada politics is like Kabuki Theater.

Jay Brown is under investigation in Utah for an alleged bribery scheme embroiling Utah Attorney General John Swallow. In Reid’s 2009 autobiography, ‘The Good Fight,’ Reid calls Brown a “longtime friend,” with the families close to the point that their kids frequently played with one another while growing up.

Could be, I have the wrong Brown in mind — but I know that I don’t.

When you look at Reid’s past, there are his connections to the Chinese-back solar-power ENN Mojave Energy, where Reid, through confederates, tried to sell land to the now defunct company for a solar-panel farm. Add to this how Reid introduced Anthony Marnell II, chairman of XpressWest, another Chinese-backed consortium to Elon Musk, the owner of another well known electric car company called Tesla Motors.

Oddly, Musk had already announced plans to move his Hyperloop Technologies Inc. into the same Apex Industrial Park as Faraday prior to Yueting’s decision. To make this seem even more conspiratorial, four of the top five employees Faraday hired are all formerly of Tesla Motors.

Hyperloop, as described by Musk, will provide high-speed travel between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. In 2012 Hyperloop Technologies formed a relationship with China Railway International USA, a consortium led by the Chinese government railway company, which has committed $100 million to the XpressWest project.

Then in September 2014 Reid met with executives from Hyperloop Technologies, where he was asked to introduce Musk and Marnell. As far as anyone can tell, that’s all that came out of that meeting, so at this point, where and how all of this shakes out is anyone’s guess.

“There was a time in Reno when the casino workers’ best friend was Jack Joseph. When they got off swing shift at midnight and went home to unwind, the late-night movies he hosted were the only thing on the air,” writes Dennis Myer of the Reno News and Review in August 2006.

Much of what Jack did on-air; either in radio or on the television would be considered hokey by today’s standards — with his down-home approach and corn-ball sense of humor — but in the 80’s he was the pinnacle that many in the broadcast business secretly want to be like. He knew how to get the stars talking and he knew how to get his audience involved.

Eventually, his show was cancelled and now only his coupons book are what newcomers to the area know him best for instead of his signature sign-off of, “blue skies, green lights and peace.” The “Jack Joseph Coupon Books” are still delivered to area mailboxes every month.

Born Jack Joseph Brosnan in Binghamton New York, August 25th, 1924, he passed away at the age of 91 on November 13th, 2015, in Reno, Nevada. Jack was preceded in death by his parents and two older sisters and is survived by his wife of 61 years Helen Kitt, daughter Jacqueline and cousins Edward, (Leslie) Ann, Michael and James Rapson.

Jack graduated from Central High in Syracuse New York and at the age of 18, enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. As a member of B Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Regiment, 5th Marine Division, he was with the first wave to hit the beach during the Battle of Iwo Jima. Wounded twice during the battle, Jack was awarded he Purple Heart and was present for the raising of the U.S. flag on Mt. Suribachi.

Following World War II, he returned to school on the G.I. bill, graduating from Syracuse University to become a radio and TV announcer. His first gig was at WMBO in Auburn NY with a semi classical show called “The Jack J. Brosnan Show.”

Later he worked at WOLF, Syracuse NY; WGR in Buffalo, NY; WCLR, Clearfield, PA; WKKO, Cocoa Beach FL along the east coast. Moving west he could be heard on such notable stations as KTSM radio /TV, El Paso Texas and KSL radio /TV, Salt Lake City, Utah.

First arriving in Reno, Nevada, in 1962, Jack’s voice could be heard on KOH, KOLO radio/TV, and later on KCBN, broadcasting his shows live from the Waldorf restaurant on South Virginia Street in downtown Reno. He also hosted dance parties at the historic Riverside Hotel Casino and was even referred to as “The man who knew his music,” by Metronome and Down Beat magazines, both forerunners of today’s Rolling Stone and Billboard Magazines.

He hosted the TV shows, “‘The Jack Joseph Late Night Horror Show” and his “After Hours” show with many great movies and on camera interviews with performing artists and TV and movie stars that came to town. Jack also enjoyed broadcasting at the Reno Air Races and the Great Reno Balloon Races and was instrumental in starting the Catholic Mass TV, which still airs Sundays on KOLO TV.

In 2006, Jack was inducted into the Nevada Broadcast Hall of Fame. While I was working for KROW in Reno, I had the pleasure of getting to know him as he plied his one-of-a-kind craft, down the hallway from me at KNEV, during the early 90s.

On June 6th of this year I responded to the Facebook meme by writing: “A person who returns fire isn’t a victim — they’re a combatant. LOL”

And I’m guessing Joseph Millard, some schmuck fro New Jersey, jus’ woke up from his slumber beneath whatever rock he was laying under and responded this morning, nearly six-months later, with: “So, when you miss your target and it kills an innocent by stander, what are you then. I prefer to live with civilians not combatants.”

“There are no civilians in war,” I returned, paraphrasing the comic book character, “Sgt. Rock,” of DC Comics fame.

Well, that must have got his panties twisted in a bunch because he really let me have it, responding to me as if he knows me or something:

“You live in a warzone Tom ? Didn’t know that Nevada got invaded. Sorry to here (sic) it. Were (sic) I live it is peaceful and we are civilians.

Also, you are a soldier Tom? What is your rank ? What unit are you in ? Who is your commanding officer ?

I see you are an ex-deputy reservist from your profile. You know we pay billions of dollars for Homeland security. The same that hunted down the bastards in CA and killed them.

So, what is the difference between being shot dead by a terrorist and shot dead by someone in a gun fight with a terrorists who missed his target ?

Not to mention I am not sure how being armed is going to prevent you from being shot at a Christmas party, unless you fell (sic) it is OK, to be at a Christmas part (sic), fully armed, and pointing a gun at every threat you deem necessary.

If you consider where you live a warzone and we are all combatants then I guess the terrorist have already won. We no longer have any peace, we no longer have the freedom because we are so busy judging and condemning each other.

That is mighty sad. I would hate to live where you live.”

Poor Joe is obviously an angry typist. But he jus’ had to open the door…

I shot back (no pun intended,) “It is only an armed citizenry that prevents tyranny, whether at a Christmas party by jihadi’s or by the federal government with its willing puppets and useful idiots. And no, not a soldier. First an Airmen and than a Marine. You, Joe? Ever stand a post?”

I’m betting he hasn’t and never will, preferring instead to let someone else do the harder things in life. But that’s another topic for another day.

And of course I couldn’t help pointing out his error in ‘thought,’ by adding: “And BTW — Homeland Security didn’t stop the jihadi terrorists in San Bernardino — the San Bernardino Police Department did that. In fact, the FBI was relegated to a secondary position while the local’s took the lead, killing both terrorists.”

Does the collapse of the U.S. dollar begin to speed up November 1? If it does, it could trigger an event worse than the current economic recession we find ourselves dealing with right now.

The International Monetary Fund’s executive board is scheduled to meet to decide on whether to include the yuan, also known as the renminbi, alongside the U.S. dollar, euro, Japanese yen and British pound their ‘Special Drawing Rights.’ SDR is a less ominous way of saying ‘world money.’

If this happens, the Central Banks around the world will begin to off load some of their dollars to “spread the risk,” and in the end, without the dollar as the world currency, our dollar begins to become worth no more than the paper it is printed on. In fact, it’s possible that a yuan reserve currency will trigger a transfer of $1 trillion into Chinese assets in less than two years.

Much of the money pouring into the yuan will result in sales of U.S. Treasuries – how most governments hold dollars. When foreign governments start to dump the $6 trillion they hold, U.S. dollars will flood the market and trigger massive inflation.

Furthermore, the race to dump the U.S dollar has already started – even before we get a yuan reserve currency. The IMF’s plan to dethrone the U.S. dollar is in fact part of a larger scheme to put the IMF in charge of the world’s monetary system.

When it happens, another block in the “fundamental transformation of the United States,” will be complete.

As President Obama and his entourage, including California Governor Jerry Brown, jet off to Paris on Air Force One to attend the United Nations Paris Climate Change Conference that begins November 30, a new sustainable energy scandal has erupted.

Unfortunately, the Progressive media will cover the administration’s ass rather than cover the story.

Spain’s Abengoa SA, which received $3 billion in administration sustainable energy loans and Export-Import Bank guarantees, announced that it has started bankruptcy proceeding and may soon default on its debt. The company has 607 independent subsidiaries, 17 associates, 28 joint businesses and 244 temporary joint ventures spread out over more than 50 countries.

The complicated legal structure of Abengoa SA means that if it defaults, the Obama Administration cannot look to any of the other subsidiaries to collect on the $3 billion of loans and guarantees. Under Spanish law, the preliminary creditor protection request granted Abengoa SA is a four-month leeway to suspend debt payments while it negotiates with its creditors.

The National Security Agency has supposedly ended its data collection of Americans’ phone records over the weekend. In its place will be a so-called ‘new, scaled-back system’ that has been in development over the last few months.

Under the law, the NSA and other law enforcement agencies are prohibited from collecting telephone-calling records in bulk to sniff out suspicious activity, a practice that was allowed under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act of 2001. Analysts must now get a court order to ask telecommunications companies to enable monitoring of call records for specific people or groups for a period of up to six months.

The new program came about as a part of the USA Freedom Act, which Congress passed at the end of May.

Davis County, Utah Attorney Troy Rawlings is investigating Nevada Senator Harry Reid in connection with a pay-to-play scheme involving two former Utah attorneys general. Reid has denied wrongdoing since a businessman said in 2013 that a former Utah attorney general arranged a deal to pay the senator to get rid of a federal investigation into a software business.

Reid’s name came up as Rawlings looks into the actions of former Utah attorneys general John Shurtleff and John Swallow. The two were arrested after engaging in a scheme where they traded favors with businessmen in trouble with regulators during their combined 13 years running the state office.

Both Shurtleff and Swallow had dealings and received donations from indicted St. George businessman Jeremy Johnson in 2014. Court documents detail how Johnson sought Swallow’s help to ward off civil and criminal investigations into his company’s IWorks’ business interests.

Johnson went on to implicate Reid in two bribery schemes.

Other documents filed in 2014 lay out a series of email exchanges between Johnson, Swallow and the late Provo payday-loan magnate Richard Rawle. They show that Swallow was helping Johnson send funds through Rawle to a contact close to Reid in hopes of securing a meeting with the Senator.

Johnson claimed he needed Reid’s help to make a Federal Trade Commission case against him, disappear. The same documents show that Johnson sent Rawle $250,000, some of which allegedly went to Swallow.

Johnson recorded conversations between himself and Shurtleff which also include how a group of online poker business owners funneled $2 million to Reid in 2010 to get the Nevada Senator to introduce legislation legalizing online poker. Reid had promised Nevada’s gambling industry a federal law to legalize Internet poker by the end of 2012, calling it Nevada’s “most important issue” since the nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain was scuttled.

Swallow has pleaded not guilty to bribery charges and Shurtleff has pleaded not guilty to obstructing justice charges. Both have trials scheduled in 2016.

A new challenge is going viral on social media, called the Condom Challenge. It’s supposed to raises awareness for safe sex, but experts say the challenge doesn’t explaining the benefits of condoms to teens, and comes off as a silly stunt.

How it works: a person takes a condom, fills it up with water, and then has a partner drop it over the top of his or her head. It forms a bubble around the persons face for several seconds before popping.

It seems to me that this ‘challenge’ is more about getting 15-seconds of fame than it is about ‘safe sex,’ — which in of itself is an oxymoron.

So a White cop kills a Black teen, high on PCP and waving around a knife, by shooting him 16 times. That is a news story – but it is being misused for the benefit of an agenda.

After all a Black student from Jackson State University is accused of going on a shooting spree and randomly selecting his targets in Jackson, Mississippi, but the Progressive media remains silent. Move along — nothing to see here — or is there?

Both of the targets Zebulum Lael James took aim at were white women, Suzanne Hogan and Kristy Lynn Mitchell. James went on the shooting rampage November 20, killing Hogan as she pumped gas and then Mitchell in the parking lot of a Logan’s Roadhouse.

It doesn’t make sense that a ‘poop swastika’ creates fake outrage on the campus of Mizzou and the media practically has an orgasm trying to cover the manufactured protests, the football and hunger strikes and the safe places, while the murder of two people rates not even on mention. Furthermore, if a ‘shit-stika’ can rate an investigation by the DOJ as a ‘hate crime,’ a double homicide should get the same treatment.

I’d like to know if he was affiliated with Black Lives Matter at Jackson State University.