Month: February 2023

We don’t mean to be rude, but many Americans today can best be described as the little kitty pictured above. Many of our Nation’s citizens are enamored with and distracted by whatever seems to “pop up” next in the political spectrum. Many have a hard time figuring out what the game above is really all about. Many have memories that are either quickly erased and forgotten, or most likely are too encumbered with their daily lives to be able to focus on remembering more than one issue at a time, and even if remembered, give it little care or concern. It would seem that many cannot keep more than a couple political issues juggling “in the air” at the same time. Our current government leaders have thrown so many of these balls “in the air” that it would seem nearly impossible for anyone to keep track of the multiple political issues that are of critical importance. While the current government leaders claim they can deal with more than one issue at a time, they have only proven that they can screw up multiple issues simultaneously.

We are simply amazed at the large number of political issues that have become hot topics over the last two years. What is so depressing is that whenever one issue arises and becomes the center of attention, one more “pops up” right away drawing attention away from the one that “popped up” just before. There never seems to be time enough to deal adequately with one issue before another issue rears its ugly head. Our focus is quickly diverted from the first issue to “pop-up” to now focus on the new issue. That which was once “top of mind” has now become forgotten. After a while, so many issues have “popped up” that we quickly lose all awareness of previous issues. Sadly, even if one issue is dealt with, it is either so poorly addressed or resolved, that over just a short period of time it once again “pops up” and becomes a major issue that needs to be redressed. This is where our blog title takes its roots in Current Government “Whack-a-mole”. We thought it vital to remind all of our readers as to the number of “pop up” issues that need to be remembered and need to be adequately addressed. In no particular order, see if you can remember all of these political issues created by the current government leaders. See if you can add to our list.

Restricting and cancelling the leasing and permitting of fossil fuel harvesting, transportation, and refining, all the while increasing fuel and energy costs for the average American.

Encouraging illegal aliens to “surg” our country’s borders, halting barrier construction, redirecting border funding from security to processing, while at the same time funneling taxpayer money to NGO’s allowing them to conduct the current government’s dirty work.

Implementing and mandating mask and vaccine mandates, while closing businesses, institutions, and prohibiting religious gatherings and practices, fining and penalizing those who choose to practice FREEDOM and LIBERTY.

Allowing the perpetrators of COVID-19, foreign and domestic, to remain unchallenged and unaccountable.

Aiding our CDC, the WHO, social media conglomerates, and elite corporations to filter information only allowing the preferred governmental agenda narrative.

The pathetic retreat from Afghanistan, leaving behind Americans and many of those who assisted us there, as well as the 80 to 90 billion dollars-worth of equipment, while hastily bombing an innocent family to death in response to the killing and wounding of many of our service members.

Supply chain issues caused massive cargo vessel backups waiting for port space. Shortages of baby formulas and eggs.

Allowing a war to develop and continue in Ukraine, fed by our tax dollars and weapons, and not seeking a peaceful resolution. Meanwhile, the CCP grows in influence and power, fully aware of our County’s weakened leadership and world dominance.

Stating that the Nord Stream Pipeline would not be allowed to exist, as it was subsequently bombed out of existence, an environmental catastrophe. We wonder what parties, governments, and agencies were responsible?

The current government leadership is encouraging attacks on private citizens, who stand by their FREEDOM and LIBERTY to speak and protest, by government agencies like the FBI and the DOJ.

Trillions of dollars funneled into sketchy programs leaving our citizen’s children and grandchildren with a CBO projected national debt of 50 trillion by end of this decade (Forbes). Due to the increasing debt, our nation’s interest rates are triple their target value of 2 percent, and inflation is devaluing our currency making all commodities more expensive each and every month, weakening the dollar as the world currency.

Recently, the national air transportation system came to a complete halt due to supposed computer problems, first time this took place since September 11, 2001.

A CCP spy balloon was allowed to fly over the entire breadth of our Nation, and in response we shot down three large party balloons which our government has no desire to find as it would verify our waste of millions of dollars used to take them down.

A train wreck was allowed to occur creating an environmental disaster, and citizens are left in the lurch as to their long-term health and property and business investments.

Now our current government cabal wants to transfer our Nation’s sovereignty over to the WHO, giving it the authority to dictate lockdowns, injections, penalties, and financial obligations.

We only want to ask one question in response to any of the “Whack-A-“Mole” issues mentioned above. Have any of these issues been totally resolved in a favorable manner? We declare to you that none of these political bomb shells have been disarmed safely and successfully. Not only have they remained as thorny issues, but they continue to “pop up” in our national awareness when something new is added to the issue. It can be an illegal alien causing a death of an American citizen, or the cost of food continuing to increase, or the threat of a nuclear conflict growing closer, or a push for more mandates requiring injections or masks, or our National debt continuing to increase, or another train spills hazardous chemicals, or another attack is made on our electrical power grid, or another computer hack exposes more personal identities while shutting down bank transactions pending ransom payments, or . . . . we think you get the point. What comes around goes around, or what goes around comes around, it doesn’t matter which you prefer. These issues, along with other ones, are bound to “pop up” under the current inept government leadership.

All we know for sure is that any one of these or other issues are a threat to our individual and National FREEDOM and LIBERTY. It is incumbent upon each one of us to do our part to oppose in any way possible the current government’s attempts to disarm and destroy our Nation’s Constitution and Bill of Rights. Be a national patriot and buy American, resist the belief that we are a racist nation, and that equity supersedes equality. Love our Creator. Love our neighbors. Abhor evil. Speak the truth without fear and be not ashamed of our heritage, for we are truly a blessed Nation, but only if we appreciate it and fight for it. Put feet to your prayers, and hands to your righteous acts.

By now, many of you are becoming more aware of the advancement of AI (Artificial Intelligence) into the fabric of our society. Some of you may have also become aware over the last month of a “chatbot” known as “ChatGPT”. “ChatGPT is an advanced AI chatbot trained by OpenAI which interacts in a conversational way. The dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer followup questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests. ChatGPT relies on the powerful GPT-3.5 technology. GPT stands for Generative Pre-Trained transformer, a complex neural network based on the revolutionary Attention concept.” (chatgptonline.net.) Okay, we may have lost a few of you so far, but just wait. Let’s confuse even more of you. So, what is the “Attention concept”. The above quote sent us to another site for the definition. Hang on to your hats. Here it goes. “The dominant sequence transduction models are based on complex recurrent or convolutional neural networks in an encoder-decoder configuration. The best performing models also connect the encoder and decoder through an attention mechanism.” (arXiv.org; Cornell University; Computer Science – Computation and Language; revised December 6, 2017.) The article goes on, but unless you are an IT expert, you are probably already confused enough. But let’s confuse you even more. “ChatGPT is fine-tuned from a model in the GPT3.5 series, which finished training in early 2022 . . . [and} were trained on an Azure AI supercomputing infrastructure.” Those who developed this AI also share some of its limitations. “ChatGPT sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers. Fixing this issue is challenging, as: (1) during RL training, there’s currently no source of truth; (2) training the model to be more cautions causes it to decline questions that it can answer correctly; and (3) supervised training misleads the model because the ideal answer depends on what the model knows, rather than what the human demonstrator knows.” (chatgptonline.net.)

We consider ourselves at FREEDOMGOFORTH.COM to be relative novices, neophytes, to the developing area of Chatbots, and how AI is developed in support of these tools. We do understand that as more information is fed into AI, the more data and source material is available from which to draw its conclusions. As it is in all things starting with the beginning of the computer age, “Garbage In – Garbage Out“. The accuracy of AI is therefore dependent upon the validity of source material, and potential bias of those providing the source material. AI can be set up to accept or reject source material by a human generated algorithm. Therefore, anything produced through these Chatbots needs to be taken with the proverbial “grain of salt”. As it is with all good research, it should be backed up with multiple sources to be able to determine validity.

We were very curious about “ChatGPT”, so we decided to try it with a couple of questions to see what it might say in response. Quite frankly, we were shocked at the results. Not only was the information provided quickly, in about one minute, but the response was well organized and thought provoking. Below, you will see the question we asked, and in the yellow boxes is ChatGPT‘s response.

This was our question:

500-word essay as to why morality is taking a back seat to sociopathy.

Here is ChatGPT’s response:

“In recent years, it seems that morality is taking a back seat to sociopathy in many aspects of our society. Sociopathy, which is characterized by a lack of empathy and disregard for others, is becoming more prevalent and accepted, while morality and ethical behavior seem to be losing ground. There are several reasons why this might be happening.

Firstly, the rise of social media and online communication has created an environment in which people feel more anonymous and less accountable for their actions. This can lead to a lack of empathy and increased aggression, as people are more likely to say and do things they wouldn’t do in person. Social media also creates a “cancel culture” in which people are quick to judge and condemn others without knowing the full story, leading to a lack of forgiveness and empathy.

Secondly, the increasing focus on individualism and self-interest in our society can lead to a lack of concern for others. When people are encouraged to focus solely on their own needs and desires, they may be less likely to consider the impact of their actions on others. This can lead to selfish and unethical behavior, as people prioritize their own interests over the common good.

Thirdly, the dehumanization of others has become more widespread in our society. This can occur when people view others as mere objects or statistics, rather than as complex human beings with their own thoughts, feelings, and experiences. This can lead to a lack of empathy and a disregard for the well-being of others.

Finally, the influence of popular culture and media has led to a normalization of sociopathic behavior. In movies, TV shows, and video games, sociopathic behavior is often glorified and celebrated, leading young people to view it as desirable and cool. This can lead to a desensitization to violence and a lack of empathy for others.

In conclusion, there are many reasons why sociopathy may be taking a back seat to morality in our society. The rise of social media, the focus on individualism and self-interest, the dehumanization of others, and the influence of popular culture and media all contribute to this phenomenon. It is important that we recognize and address these issues in order to promote a more compassionate and empathetic society. This can be achieved through education, increased awareness, and a focus on promoting empathy and ethical behavior in all aspects of our lives. By prioritizing morality and empathy, we can create a better and more just world for all.”

All of what was in the six paragraphs above was written entirely by ChatGPT. Some 421 words, under our requested 500-word thesis. The only glaring flaw we noted was in the first sentence of the last paragraph where it flipped sociopathy and morality, in direct conflict with the first sentence of the first paragraph. Why, we have no idea, but it is only proof that ChatGPT needs a proof-reader, and that whatever it produces needs to be checked and double checked. Within the next couple of weeks, we will reveal ChatGPT‘s response to our other question. We do not intend to use this AI to develop all of our blogs. We want to be able to trust the multiple sources we use, and we constantly do our best to provide accurate information that is truthful. Our goal is to always encourage our readers to fight for our FREEDOM and LIBERTY, even in the realm of the world of AI. We must be vigilant to always seek out the truth and be on guard to not naively believe everything that we read or hear, as the source can be from a biased and flawed AI system.

Wow! You may now be thinking we have really lost our marbles with a blog title like the one above. But before you jump to some wild conclusions, let us aim you in the right direction in our attempt today to expose a danger that potentially lies ahead for our Nation. Now, we are not at all “zombie” believers. We will admit there seems to be a rather large following within our country who seem to be mesmerized by this particular topic. There are those who will dress up as zombies for conventions, and who may even attend “The Living Dead Weekend” in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania (Evans City) this coming October. Believe it or not, it is the 45th anniversary of this event. There is also a similar event in Monroeville in June. One can even get stickers to go on your vehicle claiming you are part of the “Zombie Outbreak Response Team”. How about the wide variety of bumper stickers available to affix to your vehicle, like “My zombie ate your honor student’s brains”, or one of our favorites which we have personally seen, “I Don’t Brake for Zombies”. Zombie movies have been around for more than 80 years. In 1932 we got “White Zombies”, and in 1943 we got “I Walked with a Zombie”. Zombies appeared in literature as far back as 1697 (history.com; June 10, 2019). Zombies were even getting their “groove on” in Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video. “A zombie, according to pop culture and folklore, is usually either a reawakened corpse with a ravenous appetite or someone bitten by another zombie infected with a ‘zombie virus’.” “Zombies are usually portrayed as strong but robotic beings with rotting flesh. their only mission is to feed.” (history.com; June 10, 2019.) Here in lies the crux of our blog today.

We are pretty sure that the vast majority of our blog readers have not become familiar with the new form of addictive drug that is inundating our society today. The drug is called “Xylazine”. It is a clear liquid and is also known as “tranq”. “Xylazine was first synthesized by Bayer in 1962 and then approved as an animal medicine by the FDA in 1972” (drugs.com; November 10, 2022). It “. . . is a pharmaceutical drug used for sedation, anesthesia, muscle relaxation, and analgesia in animals such as horses, cattle, and other non-human mammals.” (Wikipedia.) “Xylazine, a fast-acting central nervous system depressant that is not approved for human use, is showing up largely in fentanyl, the ultra-potent synthetic opioid that is mixed into heroin and pressed into counterfeit pills and responsible for more overdose deaths than any other drug. Adding xylazine to fentanyl, which is also a depressant, increases the already high odds of overdose. It’s a double whammy to the central nervous system.” (news.yahoo.com; September 23, 2022; Georgea Kovanis.) The number of deaths attributed to Xylazine “is certainly an undercount. Most hospital emergency department drug tests are not calibrated to detect xylazine and since a xylazine overdose looks similar to an opioid overdose . . .they’re often mistaken for heroin or fentanyl overdoses. In addition, medical examiners don’t always look for xylazine post-mortem.” “Narcan . . . may reverse an opioid overdose if given in a timely manner. But it only works on opioids. And xylazine is not an opioid.” (news.yahoo.com; September 23, 2022; Georgea Kovanis.) “. . . repeated exposure to xylazine may lead to dependence, addiction and withdrawal symptoms, which may include agitation or severe anxiety when doses are decreased or stopped. These side effects may lead to continued abuse and undermine any efforts to treat an ongoing opioid use disorder (OUD)” (drugs.com; November 10, 2022). As of the writing of the preceding quote, “It is not yet known if xylazine is produced illegally or diverted from the veterinary drug supply. The FDA is continuing to investigate the source and will report when more information is available.” It is really unknown how many drug deaths were found with xylazine present. “A study from 2022 found that illicitly manufactured fentanyl was present in 98.4 % of overdose deaths where xylazine was also present. Other drugs detected with xylazine included cocaine (45.4%), benzodiazepines (28.4%), heroin (23.3%), alcohol (19.7%), as well as gabapentin, methadone, and prescription opioids.” (drugs.com; November 10, 2022.)

Here is where our blog comes into greater focus. “Use of xylazine is linked to grotesque skin ulcers that turn into craters of rot. It’s ‘not even a normal abscess’. ‘This is more like tissue death. This is black, necrotic tissue destruction.’ And the necrotic tissue doesn’t necessarily develop at the site where the drug was injected. There’s evidence it can appear anywhere on the body.” So why do drug users prefer to use Xylazine? “A fentanyl high is more intense than a heroin high, but it is also relatively short-lived. Drug users . . . have told researchers that xylazine extends the feeling of euphoria they get from a fentanyl high.” (news.yahoo.com; September 23, 2022; Georgea Kovanis.) “Xylazine is not listed as a government-controlled substance, so it ends up in a legal grey area.” “Users can be knocked out for hours, and there’s a mysterious flesh-eating effect that leaves some users with horrific, hard to heal wounds that can lead to amputation.” (abc7chicago.com; February 9, 2023; Maggie Green.)

With the knowledge you now have about this new curse brought upon our society, we need to be more diligent to make every effort to eradicate this disease sweeping through our Nation. We must make Xylazine impossible for the general public to get and make it a “government-controlled substance”. Any unauthorized manufacture, distribution, purchase or use must be dealt with swiftly and forcefully. This will help stem the flow of this zombie drug into our society. The other action that must be taken is to zero in on those who are using these drugs. Safe drug use locations, building tiny homes for them to reside in so they can “use” their preferred drug in the privacy of their “own little home”, will never solve the root problem. It would be comparable to frosting a cake before it is baked. Our Nation is being attacked on every front. One attack front that is eating away at the soul of our Nation is our lack of concern for the homeless, drug addicted masses. It is much easier to ignore them, than to even recognize them. Shuffling the homeless and drug addicted from one location to another only moves the real problem from one area to another. Mark our words. If we do not attack this issue head on, we will have a front-row seat to “Xylazine and the Coming Apocalypse”. Many of these individuals will become more and more addicted, and when they wake up from their near-death sleep, they will need another “fix” to keep their addiction intact. They will walk around with sores and cavernous wounds as they commit acts of violence and destruction looking for something they can steal and sell to be able to afford their addiction. If you are in the way, you will be an impediment to their overwhelming desire, and they will do whatever it takes to achieve their goal, unconcerned of any potential consequences. Establishing a “Zombie Outbreak Response Team” is not the answer. A recent debate for the governorship of a west coast state had both the Republican and Democrat candidates stating that mandatory drug treatment would not be required as a prerequisite to providing the addicted homeless state funded housing. When does it ever make sense to give out rewards before the race is even begun? Again, this weak approach to those who are drug addicted only moves the real problem from one area to another. The real honest and brave answer resides in a communal intervention with each individual involved in these drugs to bring them into a recovery protocol.

Our FREEDOM and LIBERTY are at stake. The foundation of our Nation is being eaten away at the very lowest levels, eating away at the very flesh of those individuals who reside in a constant state of dependency upon drugs. If we cannot take care of them, what does this declare to the world, but more importantly, to our Creator who gave us everything while we were yet consumed in our own decay, eating away at our very souls, in sinful addictions (Romans 5:8-10)?

And you thought balloons were only for birthday and wedding parties. Surprise! Balloons have been in use for centuries. In 1794, “The French Committee of Public Safety created the Corps d’ Aerostiers.” “These balloons were sporadically used for reconnaissance during the French Revolutionary Wars, seeing action during the battles of Charleroi and Fleurus. Nearly 70 years later during the American Civil war, balloons were still being used for similar military purposes.” (nps.gov; January 12, 2021.) The high-altitude free-fall record from a balloon was set by Google Engineer Alan Eustace on October 14, 2012, jumping out at a height of 135,890 feet. Steve Fossett flew the first solo balloon flight around the world in 2002, flying over 20,000 miles in 14 days. “Lawnchair Larry”, Larry Walters, took to the sky in 1982 climbing to over 3 miles high while sitting in his lawn chair attached to 42 eight-foot balloons filled with helium. He took sandwiches for the trip, sunglasses which he dropped as he lifted off, and a pistol to shootout the balloons to provide his descent, which he also eventually dropped. He was found dangling five feet off the ground, the remaining balloons hanging up in powerlines which the power company had disabled, and he hopped out of his chair as a crowd surrounded him. Balloons are also used to scare off unwanted birds, to announce yard or estate sales, or lend directions to events. Balloons are used routinely to record and track weather data, and balloons can be twisted into carnival shapes delighting children and can be used to power kids’ toys. We can even sit on large balloons for relaxation or exercise.

The picture above is the “spy balloon” which had been haunting our Nation of late. We are doing our blog today to declare another use for a balloon, “Floating a “Trial Balloon”. We have all heard and are familiar with this term many have used, which has really nothing to do with any kind of a balloon. It has to do with a form of sample test to see if a proposed course of action would be acceptable as a method to use in moving forward with any plan. It is done to sample the reaction of those who become aware of this “Trial Balloon”. Usually, it is used to “test the waters” and to observe the reactions. If the reaction is very negative, the “Trial Balloon” is allowed to “deflate”, and the proposed course of action is halted. If few react to the “Trial Balloon”, this becomes a potential course of action to take.

What we have witnessed this last week is basically a “Trial Balloon”, sent by the Chinese Communist Party. They really could not care less about any potential secrets, pictures or videos that may have been obtained, for that really was not their purpose in sending this “Trial Balloon” our way. There is no doubt that the CCP has invaded our Nation’s sovereign air space. Why would they do this? We believe we can answer this question. It really doesn’t take a rocket scientist, or in this case a balloon scientist, to figure this out. What frustrates us is that apparently many in the woke lame-stream media cannot figure this out, and we hate to say it, but even those in charge of our current government seem ambivalent to what is really going on. Our Nation has been set up by those currently in power of our Nation’s government. We have shown extreme weakness in our foreign affairs of late. We bungled our retreat from Afghanistan, and we have stubbled our way into a kinetic conflict in a part of the world that has little bearing on the safety of our Nation. The current government has terminated policies designed to ferret out CCP operatives within our Nation’s business, college and academy institutions. We have not forced China to reveal how they allowed COVID-19 to be manufactured and released from their country killing millions world-wide, nor have we applied any pressure to the CCP to halt the manufacture and distribution of Fentanyl into our Nation, which is killing thousands. We have allowed the CCP to invest in our financial institutions and food processing and agricultural operations. They have been allowed to purchase our land. Even the COVID-19 injections have a connection to the CCP. Probably most troubling is that the current occupant of the White House has been compromised by the CCP through personal financial dealings, orchestrated by his family, and has become unable to act in the best interest of the country he is sworn to protect and defend. Our current government is only reactionary and seems unable to predict and have ready optional plans for potential events. Our Nation has proven it is weak and unable to make important decisions in a timely manner.

Do other countries protect their airspace? You bet! On July 27, 1955, Bulgarian jets shot down a civilian aircraft that strayed into Bulgarian airspace. On April 20, 1983, Korean Airlines flight 007 was shot down by the Soviet Union when it intruded into Soviet airspace. On April 20, 1978, Korean airlines flight 902 accidentally violated Soviet airspace and was shot down. Actually, the list is massive as nation upon nation have taken aggressive actions to protect their airspace. Why are we not defending our sovereign airspace?

What is disturbing is that those currently in control of our Nation have known about this balloon for months! They knew it was from China, because they have been monitoring it as it left China and flew over the Pacific Ocean, then over Alaska, and over Canada on its way to the U.S. It is not that the current leaders of our government were caught off guard. Even more troubling is that we are now learning that these balloons have been flying over Japan and other countries, and even over our Nation before. Currently, there are other Chinese balloons flying over other nations as of this writing, namely one being reported flying over Latin America.

China is Floating a “Trial Balloon”. They are testing our resolve, our courage, our defenses. China is watching what the U.S. will do. Do we take it down with a missile, or with a laser, or some other “secret” weapon system we have on the shelf? Do we reveal an undisclosed method of defense, dropping our trousers and revealing our hidden secrets? So far, we have been weak and have done nothing until the damage was done. Maybe we have intercepted transmissions from the package of sensors under the balloon, but that is not the point. The point is that the CCP has successfully penetrated our Nation’s defenses. What really was it carrying? Could it have carried bioweapons? How about a nuclear device that could have been exploded above us creating an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) that could have disabled our Nation’s power grid system and many of our electronic components, devices and transformers, including computer chips found in most newer cars making them little more than very heavy paper weights.

China is Floating a “Trial Balloon”. Will the balloon’s destruction give China justification to take some sort of retaliatory action? Would this take us one step closer to a kinetic conflict? China is already at war with us politically, economically, biologically, socially, and in cyber space. China has been Floating a “Trial Balloon” over and around Taiwan for months, overflying their sovereign airspace and penetrating their sovereign waters, just itching for a response to give China a reason to invade. Are they just itching for us to take action giving them reason to escalate tensions? China is simply pushing the “envelope” to see what they can get away with. If our Nation responds “in kind” by sending higher level delegates to Taiwan or expediting the shipment of weapons and weapon systems there, we could be stepping into their trap. Prevention always supersedes retaliation.

How should our Nation have responded to China Floating a “Trial Balloon”. We should have notified the CCP that if that balloon reaches our sovereign airspace in Alaska, it WILL be brought down! Unfortunately, we didn’t know about its approach because that was another one of those national “secrets” our current government kept from the citizens of our Nation. No sense crying over spilled milk now. The damage has been done. Those sending any more balloons need to be warned that if they make their way towards our sovereign airspace, they will also be brought down immediately to preserve our Nation’s security. One writer put it this way. “So, if you climb up with a stratospheric balloon over 30km [98,000], every nation on earth is practically helpless. I don’t need to say that such a stunt would really tick off a nation and is by no means recommendable.” (Thorsten S.; September 3, 2017; aviation.StackExchange.com.) I guess our current government leaders were not “ticked off” enough. By every population sample we observed, there was almost unanimous agreement to bring down that “Trial Balloon” sooner, rather than the later time, as finally decided by our flat-footed government leaders. They were unwilling and unable to make the early call to terminate the balloons flight before it traversed the entire breadth of our Nation. Shame on them for making our Nation look indecisive and weak!

Our Nation’s FREEDOM and LIBERTY are at stake. Any country attempting to penetrate our Nation’s sovereign air and water borders without prior approval and coordination should be met with swift and decisive actions. If you agree with our stand on this Floating “Trial Balloon”, make your voices heard to your representatives.