Friday, August 29, 2014

Observing communism, aka socialism, aka progreessivism

As a long-time observer of American and world politics, communism and their actors have been the story in my eye. Their organization is nothing short of supreme. It's why they have been successful overthrowing governments around the world and taking control of their peoples. The only way their political and economic model can work is if EVERY NATION is communist. Hence their ongoing efforts everywhere, especially in the U.S.

Their most recent activity here has been Ferguson, Missouri. They are quick to assemble their minions and show up at flash points. Why, when other Americans did not follow suit with their rioting, did they? Unfortunately, it is my belief that the kind of television that was produced in Ferguson fed the government-controlled media outlets here and overseas.. "See, look what it's like here/in America. You don't have that kind of behavior here in your (fill in the blanks) communist country. America is NOT what it's cracked up to be. Thousands upon thousands of people are oppressed and persecuted there. Just watch the news. Seeing is believing."

The tragedy in all this is the so-called journalism in our so-called free nation. The news is spun based on emotions, not facts. The result is pre-judgement of people and events. Unless American journalism returns to its roots we are doomed to another Dark Age.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Why is the U.S. bankrupt?





Subject: unbelievable


It's easy to dismiss individual programs that benefit until they're put together and this picture emerges. Someone did a lot of research to put together all of this data. Often these programs are buried within other programs, making them difficult to find.
A Real MEye Opener 
WHY is the USA BANKRUPT?
You think the war in Iraq was costing
us too much? Read this:
We have been hammered with the
propaganda that it was the Iraq war and
the war on terror that is bankrupting us.

I hope the following 14 reasons are
forwarded over and over again until
they are read so many times that the
reader gets sick of reading them. I also
have included the URL's for verification
of all the following facts.

1.
$11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare
to illegal aliens each year by state governments.
Verify
at: 
http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=iic_immigrationissuecenters7fd8

2.
$22 Billion dollars a year is spent on food
assistance programs such as food stamps,
WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.
Verify

3.
$2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on
Medicaid for illegal aliens. 
Verify at: 
http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.HTML

4.
$12 Billion dollars a year is spent on
primary and secondary school education
for children here illegally and they
cannot speak a word of English!
Verify
at: 
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.....0.HTML

5.
$17 Billion dollars a year is spent for
education for the American-born
children of illegal aliens, known as

6.
$3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to
incarcerate illegal aliens. 
Verify at: 
http://transcripts.cnn.com/%20TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML
7.
30% percent of all Federal Prison
inmates are illegal aliens.
Verify at:
http://transcripts.CNN..com/TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt....01.HTML 

8.
$90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on
illegal aliens for Welfare & social
services by the American taxpayers.
Verify
at: 
http://premium.cnn..com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01..HTML

9.
$200 Billion dollars a year in suppressed
American wages are caused by the illegal
aliens.
Verify
at: 
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRI

13.
In 2006, Illegal aliens sent home
$45 BILLION in remittances to their
countries of origin.
Verify
at:
.<http://www/..rense.com/general75/niht.htm>
14.
The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration:
Nearly One million sex crimes committed
by Illegal Immigrants In The United States ...
Verify
at:
http: // www.drdsk.com/articleshtml

M
The total cost is a whopping

$ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS
A YEAR AND IF YOU'RE LIKE ME,
HAVING TROUBLE UNDERSTANDING
THIS AMOUNT OF MONEY; IT IS
$338,300,000,000.00
WHICH
WOULD BE ENOUGH TO STIMULATE
THE ECONOMY FOR THE CITIZENS OF
THIS COUNTRY.

Are we THAT Stupid? 
YES,
FOR ALLOWING THOSE
IN THE U.S. CONGRESS
TO GET AWAY WITH DOING THIS YEAR AFTER
YEAR!!!!!

If this doesn't bother you, then just
delete the message. If, on the other
hand, it does raise the hair on the back
of your neck, I hope you forward it to every
legal resident in the United States

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Are we crazy? Welfare payments for doing NOTHING!


 

 OBSCENE SALARIES   

 THE WORK ETHIC WE INHERITED GROWING UP HAS FALLEN PREY TO THE 'WELFARE'
SYSTEM

The Cato Institute released an updated 2013 study (original study in 1955) showing that welfare benefits pay more than a minimum wage job in 33 states and the District of Columbia. Even worse, welfare pays more than $15 per hour in 13 states. According to the study, welfare benefits have increased faster than minimum wage. It’s now more
profitable to sit at home than it is to earn an honest day’s pay. 

Hawaii is the biggest offender, where welfare recipients earn $29.13 per hour, or a $60,590 yearly salary, all for doing nothing.

Here is the list of the states where the pre-tax equivalent “salary” that welfare recipients receive is higher than having a job:

1. Hawaii : $60,590
2. District of Columbia : $50,820
3. Massachusetts : $50,540
4. Connecticut : $44,370
5. New York : $43,700
6. New Jersey : $43,450
7. Rhode Island : $43,330
8. Vermont : $42,350
9. New Hampshire : $39,750
10. Maryland : $38,160
11. California : $37,160
12. Oregon : $34,300
13. Wyoming : $32,620
14. Nevada : $29,820
15. Minnesota : $29,350
16. Delaware : $29,220
17. Washington : $28,840
18. North Dakota : $28,830
19. Pennsylvania : $28,670
20. New Mexico : $27,900
21. Montana : $26,930
22. South Dakota : $26,610
23. Kansas : $26,490
24. Michigan : $26,430
25. Alaska : $26,400
26. Ohio : $26,200
27. North Carolina : $25,760
28. West Virginia : $24,900
29. Alabama : $23,310
30. Indiana : $22,900
31. Missouri : $22,800
32. Oklahoma : $22,480
33. Louisiana : $22,250
34. South Carolina : $21,910

As a point of reference the average Middle Class annual income today is $50,000, down from $54,000 at the beginning of the Great Recession.  Hawaii, DC, and Massachusetts pay more in welfare than the average working folks earn there. Is it any wonder that they stay home rather than look for a job. Time for a drastic change. America is virtually bankrupt.

Are we Nuts or what? How do we un-do this type of stupidity on the part of Americans?
This is crazy!

Salary of retired US Presidents $180,000 FOR LIFE
Salary of House/Senate....$174,000 FOR LIFE

This is stupid.
Salary of Speaker of the House ....$223,500 FOR LIFE!

This is really stupid.
Salary of Majority/Minority Leader $193,400 FOR LIFE!

Ditto last line.
Average Salary of a teacher .. $40,065
Average Salary of Soldier DEPLOYED IN AFGHANISTAN .. $38,000

Think about this.
Nancy Pelosi will retire as a Congress Person at $174,000 Dollars a year for LIFE. She has retired
as SPEAKER at $223,500 a year. PLUS she will receive an additional $193,400 a year as Minority Leader. That's $803,700 Dollars a year for LIFE including FREE medical which is not available to us .... the taxpayers. She  is just one of the hundreds of Senators and Congress that float in and out every year!

 
__._,_.___

__,_._,___

Friday, July 25, 2014

HAMAS - anything to gain their ends, including allowing civilians to be killed.

Since these July, 2014 Hamas attacks on Israel, there have been many civilian deaths in Gaza. Hamas, like other Muslim terrorists, don't care about anything other than their political ends. If they have to fire into Israel from civilian areas to provoke Israeli firing back into the areas where Hamas is firing from, they will do so. They can now proclaim Israel is attacking civilians, schools, hospitals, et al.

Are we understanding this?

I note MM in America is portraying Israel as the bad guy here. This is to be expected as it fits the agenda of the current occupant of the White House and his minions. 

Friday, July 18, 2014

Obamanation

COMMUNIST RUSSIA IS THE CULPRIT, NOT 'SEPARTISTS'

Most of the unrest in the world can be directly linked to the communist governments of Russia and China. They have been contributing to world unrest since they grabbed power during the Russian Revolution and postwar China. They don't like to be publicly seen as doing the dirty work; they use proxy governments they install, or attempt to install, in power.

President Roosevelt, in his weakened state, sowed the seeds of continued communist aggression when he met with Stalin and Churchill in Yalta. Either he was naive or did not possess the will to understand the ultimate goals of postwar Russia.

General George S. Patton had the right idea, although it would have not been the American way. He wanted to turn the German Army around and, along with U.S. forces, drive the communist forces back to Russia and into oblivion. It could've happened but didn't.

The U.S. under the current administration is disarming our military forces and ultimate capabilities. At the same time they continue to dismiss American military officers while replacing them with their own (Stalin-style political cadre). They are conducting fire sales on military equipment instead of pre-positioning it in the likely event that communists throughout the world continue their ongoing attempts to conquer liberty-loving nations.

The free world has long looked to the U.S. for stability and leadership. Today they are not seeing it because it is no longer there.


Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Older than dirt - author unknown.


  SLOW FOOD
 
 
 
'Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?'
'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,'
I informed him.
'All the food was slow.'
'C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?'
'It was a place called Home,'' I explained. !
'Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'

By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it :
 
Some parents NEVER owned their own house, never wore  Levis, never set foot on a golf course, nevertraveled out of the country or had a credit card.
In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears &Roebuck.
Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer.
I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow)
We didn't have a television in our house until I was 9.
(Ours was a 7" screen jcs) and it was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a..m. And there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.

I was 21 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called 'pizza pie.' When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.

I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.
 
Pizzas were not delivered to our home but milk was.
 
All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers-- I delivered a newspaper, 7 days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. I had to get up at6AM every morning. On Saturday, I had to collect the 49 cents from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave me 50 cents and told me to keep the change. My least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.
 
Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most anything offensive.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children orgrandchildren
Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?
 
MEMORIES from a friend :
 
My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Colabottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it.. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.
 
How many do you remember?
Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.
Real ice boxes.
Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.
 
Older Than Dirt Quiz :
Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about. Ratings at the bottom.
 
1. Blackjack chewing gum
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
3. Candy cigarettes
4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke  boxes
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines on the telephone
8 Newsreels before the movie
9. P.F. Flyers
10. Butch wax
11.. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. (there were only 3 channels... [if you were fortunate])
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S& H green stamps
16. Hi-fi's
17. Metal ice trays with lever
18. Mimeograph paper
19. Blue flashbulb
20. Packards
21. Roller skate keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Drive-ins
24. Studebakers
25. Wash tub wringers
If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young
If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older
If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,
If you remembered 16-25 = You' re older than dirt!

I might be older than dirt but those memories are some of the best parts of my life.
Don't forget to pass this along!! Especially to all your reallyOLD friends
 
 
 
 

Monday, June 09, 2014

Lies v Truth in America


LIES v TRUTH

by

JC Sullivan

Because of ugly divorce proceedings, Filmmaker/Writer  Michael Moore's wife has revealed an offer that was made to him to make an anti-gun film after the Newtown massacre. This has got to be the tip of of an enormous iceberg. See the story at the link below. It only my confirms my long-time suspicion of just that - Hollywood leftists making movies that are anti-American (read jealousy of American wealth and world leadership.) Isn't that just what Joe McCarthy said was going on?

Two names immediately come to mind, one an actor, the other a writer - "Hanoi Jane" Fonda (China Syndrome) and Oliver Stone (JFK). I'm tempted to include Fonda's "Barbarella" but  I won't. Both are, however, notable for their portrayal of leftist causes and viewpoints. One must wonder how many other Hollywood films have been made to diminish American exceptonalism, values and history.

In a related publication, I have been recommending M. Stanton Evans' Blacklisted by History' for several years. It is the story of Joe McCarthy, whose accusations against communists in the American government, were branded "McCarthyism." The author initially set out to prove his mother wrong. She was an ardent supporter of McCarthy. In the process Evans was converted. His book is thick but an eye-opener. All the insidious lies of communists reach right into our present times with the lies of Susan Rice and others, who mirror the political agenda of the current Administration.

There are times I feel I'm another 'voice in the wilderness' but lies need to be exposed. One must read/hear voices such as mine less the truths they reveal are forever silenced, assigned to the gulags that are American mainstream media..  

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2014/06/07/ugly-divorce-michael-moores-wife-reveals-he-was-offered-funding-another-?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Marketing&utm_term=Facebook&utm_content=socialflow&utm_campaign=moore-guns

Wednesday, June 04, 2014

DESTABILZING UKRAINE and the rest of Europe

                                           THE DESTABILIZATION OF UKRAINE

Anyone with a world view and who pays attention to events  believes the alleged "pro-Russian rebels" fighting in Eastern Ukraine are actually either Russian soldiers or their surrogates. But why? The answer lies in how communists have come to power - by destabilizing legitimate governments and putting their fellow travelers into power - communist power. One only need to be aware of the history of what they did to the nations of eastern Europe they overcame in World War Two. They didn't leave... and their fellow travelers were employed while the opposition was suppressed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that the fall of the Soviet Union is the worst thing to happen to them. In my eye he would like to re-create it in a 21st century style. Don't call him a communist though. That scares people who pay attention. Just like you can't call current American leadership communist...but they ARE communists. But to have come out of the closet as such would immediately tell us all their true intentions. And they don't want that known.

Ukraine is smartly appealing to the NATO nations of Europe to stand up to Russian aggression by increasing their military budgets. Let's hope the  appeal is not too late. They've all enjoyed the support of the United States since the end of World War Two. While we are pulling back from our defense commitments there the vacuum must be replaced by their own.

Look at a map to understand the huge geographic colossus Russia is. Wouldn't you think that their Western provinces would want to run their own household? Maybe the NATO nations should mirror Russian aggression by destabilizing Russia's Western provinces and give 'em a taste of their own medicine?

Sullivan is a well-known writer in the U.S. Irish community and Ireland. His works have been published in Irish America Magazine, National Hibernian Digest, Irish Echo Newspaper, Mayo News, Western People, Ulster Gazette and many others. He is past National Press Officer of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America.

.

Tuesday, June 03, 2014

BRITISH CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH


BRITISH CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH

by

Michael J. Cummings



In Saint John’s  Gospel  Pontius Pilate responds to Jesus with the question:  “What is truth?”  It is a puzzling and profound question that colors history down through the ages.    Truth, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder.  Or so it seems in the N. I. conflict.    Truth is  on the minds of many there and is  pivotal to understanding  the legacy of British rule in Ireland. Since partition  Her Majesty’s Government views its role  as defending democracy, justice and the rule of law.  Nationalists argue that the British are entitled to their own opinion but NOT to their own facts. The facts reveal  a different truth.  

 This struggle for truth and ‘interpretation’ of facts is a fight for  power and the legacy of history around the world.  In China today journalists are instructed not to use certain words to describe the events of 1989 and Tiananmen Square.  The Tiananmen Mothers group continue to demand truth  and  accountability for their murdered children but few have heard their appeals.    Twenty-five years after the British government murdered her lawyer husband Patrick , Geraldine Finucane gets Britain’s version of the truth which is more significant for what questions it doesn’t answer.   She, too, is unyielding in her demand that the report not be the last word on his killing.    Leon Aron, author of Roads to the Temple:  Truth Memory, Ideas and Ideals in the Making of the Russian Revolution, 1987-1991, describes  President Putin’s new “State mythology” and labeling of “national-traitors.”  No doubt in a revised “history” of Russia. Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer,  would qualify as the latter.  Sergei  disclosed  the truth and facts of  corrupt  Russian tax officials and died in prison from beatings and neglect.

 Terrorism and censorship  are essential for  authoritarian regimes to retain power.  One need only read  the  2013 book Lethal Allies by Anne Cadwallader to see  it  practiced by the British  in Northern Ireland.  Fearful of losing the last of their empire, from 1968 thru 1974 the British unleashed a ruthless N. I. police  force  on those protesting internment and discrimination in housing, voting and jobs.    Army paratroopers launched an onslaught on Catholic ghettos and began a killing spree with the Ballymurphy (1971)  and  Bloody Sunday  (1972) killings.    In  1974  Britain  colluded  with loyalists to detonate  no-warning car bombs in the shopping centers of Dublin and Monaghan in an undeclared act of  war  against the Irish Republic  that cost 34 lives.   Thus began the campaign of labeling protesters as criminals and terrorists and spreading the State  mythology  of their defending democracy and the rule of law.  Russia and China have learned well from the United Kingdom’s example.    

 How does Britain do it?  How do they cover-up their actions and keep a prying media from uncovering the truth?   A few years ago the British bank Standard & Chartered admitted laundering $200 billion to undermine U. S. sanctions against Iran.   U. S. investigators also found  a handbook  for the secret operation complete with a codename of GAZELLE and a how-to step-by-step list of ways to mask the transactions. I am convinced such a manual for maintaining their beachhead in Belfast will be found  in the bureaucracy of Whitehall, Britain’s Ministry of Defense complex near Trafalgar Square.  Until such time as it surfaces, let me list some of the  techniques England has used to keep the truth of their deeds in Ireland  from the public, the Irish and U. S. governments and, most importantly,  from an  inquiring media.

1.      Greenmail—Millions of pounds have been spent hiring  back pensioned Royal Ulster Constabulary officers to review and assess the original investigations, if there was one, of nearly 800 killings of Catholics.   They get to bury the very crimes the security forces  are suspected of committing and are paid a bundle for it.   

2.      Personal Immunity Certificates—These are issued   to members of the security forces and their paid undercover agents.  A grant of immunity from prosecution and an incentive to lie.  The Official Secrets Act is the ultimate hammer against the truth.    

3.      Media Massage—The conflict is viewed as a  small  foreign policy problem.  The UK thoughtfully provides  all  journalists  with what  they ‘need to know’  briefing materials and arranges the ‘right’ people to interview.  The last reporter to ignore these inducements, and who chose to independently search out for the truth,  Ms. Jo Thomas of the New York Times, was removed from her  London post for “unexceptional reporting.”  Smears  in the tabloid press are a favorite.  Gerry Adams is ‘linked’ to the McConville killing, IRA commander Gerry Kelly  is  “romantically linked “ to Senator Mitchell’s aide and Chief Inspector John Stalker was “associated with gangsters.”    All  in an attempt to obscure truth and impugn their  integrity.  To this date Stalker’s report on police killings in the North  has  not been released.

4.      Inquiry & Ignite—In order to quickly silence criticism,  Britain authorizes a inquiry   and some solicitor looking for an Order of the British Empire is appointed to conduct it.  Naturally Sir Desmond de Silva dismissed any “overarching conspiracy” in the murder of Pat Finucane.   Sir John Stevens, a  former  Metropolitan Police Superintendent conducted three  inquiries into police corruption in N. I.  An arsonist somehow entered  his  highly secure offices  in Antrim and set alight records.  A report of 3000 pages was never released but  a  summary of  27 pages was.    

5.      Jamming Justice—Some coroners inquests into killings in N. I. have not been conducted for 30 years.  A coroners report contains important facts into the cause and circumstances of death. N. I. has   separate rules  for  coroners inquests from the rest of the UK.  Their funding and staffing is   reduced.  The Ministry of Defense maximizes delays with litigation.  Closed Material Procedures or 'secret trials now are used also for civil matters.     

6.      Disappeared—A frequent government response to many inquiries into official misconduct is that requested files have ‘disappeared.’ The RUC took the   most unusual response to an asbestos problem in an old station building.  They destroyed all their records.  

7.      Assassinations—A too curious   journalist like Martin  O’Hagan  and  too successful  lawyers like Patrick  Finucane and Rosemary Nelson were executed without  charge or trial.   Those who expose deceit or corruption of law enforcement are natural targets.  Five Sinn Fein elected officeholders   espousing  anti-government views  were assassinated.   No   modern democracy has witnessed such slaughter of a political party which  also  included  the murder of 8  campaign workers.  

  British governments difficulty with the truth is not limited to N. I.  The Hillsborough Inquiry into  the  1989 deaths of 96 football fans is still ongoing   25 years  later  after earlier reports  found authorities attempted to hide data and police had altered witness statements.  The Not-So Reverend Ian Paisley once held aloft the book The Narrow Ground by local historian A. T. Q Stewart declaring  to the multitude “…this book was the truth.”  That  author once stated “they [the Irish] have woven themselves a garment of myth and legend which they call Irish history.”  It is, in fact,   the British who have woven this shroud of deceit  in Ireland because they can’t handle the truth.



Michael J. Cummings

12 Marion Ave

Albany, NY 12203-1814

518-482-0349 & 505-2851



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael J. Cummings, a native of Springfield, Mass., is a graduate of St. Anselm’s College (B. A., 1968)  and  New York University (M. P. A., 1970).   A member of the National Boards of the Irish American Unity Conference (1996-2013),   the Ancient Order Hibernians  National Board (2001-2008), and  the National Executive of the Irish Northern Aid Committee (1988-1996),  he served six National AOH Presidents ,  5 IAUC  National Presidents  and two National Chairman of INA primarily in  public relations capacities.   He is the only person to serve on the national policymaking bodies  of all three  major Irish American organizations.    He also served on the Commission on Peace and Justice of the  Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.

Cummings has appeared on American, English and Irish television and radio and his commentary and letters and those of the Presidents have appeared in major American, Irish-American, Catholic print media. He is a frequent columnist for the weekly IRISH ECHO newspaper.   He has been  married to Nuala Hogan,  a nurse and native of Ireland,   for 41 years and resides   in Albany, New York .  They are the parents of five children and two  grandchildren.   
 To contact Mr. Cummings for speaking engagements or for an opinion piece, please  call 518-482-0349 or 505-2851 or via  e-mail at michaeljohncummings@outlook.com