Just trying to be helpful!

Since some of my relatives seem to be having difficulty understanding the words they toss around frivolously, I’ve included below some definitions of terms:

Communism (from Latin communis, ‘common, universal’)[1][2] is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement,[1] whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered around common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange that allocates products to everyone in the society based on need.[3][4][5] A communist society would entail the absence of private property and social classes,[1] and ultimately money[6]and the state (or nation state).[7][8][9]

I.E. Democracy is NOT Communism.  Communism isn’t the opposite of Authoritarianism.

Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political status quo, and reductions in democracy, separation of powers, civil liberties, and the rule of law.[1][2] Political scientists have created many typologies describing variations of authoritarian forms of government.[2] Authoritarian regimes may be either autocratic or oligarchic and may be based upon the rule of a party or the military.[3][4] States that have a blurred boundary between democracy and authoritarianism have some times been characterized as “hybrid democracies”, “hybrid regimes” or “competitive authoritarian” states.[5][6][7]

Minimally defined, an authoritarian government lacks free and competitive direct elections to legislatures, free and competitive direct or indirect elections for executives, or both.[11][12][13][14] Broadly defined, authoritarian states include countries that lack human rights such as freedom of religion, or countries in which the government and the opposition do not alternate in power at least once following free elections.[15] Authoritarian states might contain nominally democratic institutions such as political parties, legislatures and elections which are managed to entrench authoritarian rule and can feature fraudulent, non-competitive elections.[16]

I.E. Democracy is NOT Authoritarianism.  Trump wants Authoritariansim: Project 2025

Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, and social transformation. Marxism originates with the works of 19th-century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism has developed over time into various branches and schools of thought, and as a result, there is no single, definitive Marxist theory.[1] Marxism has had a profound effect in shaping the modern world, with various left-wing and far-left political movements taking inspiration from it in varying local contexts.[2][3][4]

In addition to the various schools of thought, which emphasise or modify elements of classical Marxism, several Marxian concepts have been incorporated into an array of social theories. This has led to widely varying conclusions.[5] Alongside Marx’s critique of political economy, the defining characteristics of Marxism have often been described using the terms “dialectical materialism” and “historical materialism”, though these terms were coined after Marx’s death and their tenets have been challenged by some self-described Marxists.[6]

I.E. Democracy is NOT Marxism. 

Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/ FASH-iz-əm) is a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement,[1][2][3] characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.[2][3] Opposed to anarchism, democracy, pluralism, egalitarianism, liberalism, socialism, and Marxism,[4][5] fascism is placed on the far-right wing within the traditional left–right spectrum.[6][5][7]

TRUMP, Projuct 2025 are Fascism and Authoritarianism, and Mysoginy and xenophobia and racism.

Neo-Nazism comprises the post-World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy (often white supremacy), to attack racial and ethnic minorities (often antisemitism and Islamophobia), and in some cases to create a fascist state.[1][2]

Neo-Nazism is a global phenomenon, with organized representation in many countries and international networks. It borrows elements from Nazi doctrine, including antisemitism, ultranationalism, racism, xenophobia, ableism, homophobia, anti-communism, and creating a “Fourth Reich“. Holocaust denial is common in neo-Nazi circles.

I.E. Trump

Racism is discrimination and prejudice against people based on their race or ethnicity. Racism can be present in social actions, practices, or political systems (e.g. apartheid) that support the expression of prejudice or aversion in discriminatory practices. The ideology underlying racist practices often assumes that humans can be subdivided into distinct groups that are different in their social behavior and innate capacities and that can be ranked as inferior or superior. Racist ideology can become manifest in many aspects of social life. Associated social actions may include nativism, xenophobia, otherness, segregation, hierarchical ranking, supremacism, and related social phenomena. Racism refers to violation of racial equality based on equal opportunities (formal equality) or based on equality of outcomes for different races or ethnicities, also called substantive equality.[1]

I.E. Trump

Xenophobia (from Ancient Greek: ξένος (xénos), “strange, foreign, or alien”, and φόβος (phóbos), “fear”)[1] is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange.[2][3][4] It is an expression which is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-group and an out-group and it may manifest itself in suspicion of one group’s activities by members of the other group, a desire to eliminate the presence of the group which is the target of suspicion, and fear of losing a national, ethnic, or racial identity.[5][6]

I.E. Trump

Misogyny (/mɪˈsɒdʒɪni/) is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls. It is a form of sexism that can keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the social roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practised for thousands of years. It is reflected in art, literature, human societal structure, historical events, mythology, philosophy, and religion worldwide.

An example of misogyny is violence against women, which includes domestic violenceand, in its most extreme forms, misogynist terrorism and femicide. Misogyny also often operates through sexual harassment, coercion, and psychological techniques aimed at controlling women, and by legally or socially excluding women from full citizenship. In some cases, misogyny rewards women for accepting an inferior status.

Misogyny can be understood both as an attitude held by individuals, primarily by men, and as a widespread cultural custom or system. Sometimes misogyny manifests in obvious and bold ways; other times it is more subtle or disguised in ways that provide plausible deniability.

I.E. Trump

Malignant narcissism is a psychological syndrome comprising a mix of narcissism, antisocial behavior, sadism, and a paranoid outlook on life.[1] Malignant narcissism is not a diagnostic category defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR). Rather, it is a subcategory of narcissistic personality disorder(NPD)[2] which could also include traits of antisocial personality disorder, paranoid personality disorder. 

Malignant narcissists are grandiose and always ready to raise hostility levels, which undermines the families and organizations in which they are involved, and dehumanizes the people with whom they associate.[3]

I.E. Trump

Narcissistic mortification is “the primitive terror of self dissolution, triggered by the sudden exposure of one’s sense of a defective self … it is death by embarrassment“.[1] The concept has been widely employed in ego psychology and also contributed to the roots of self psychology.

When narcissistic mortification is experienced for the first time, it may be defined as a sudden loss of control over external or internal reality, or both. This produces strong emotions of terror while at the same time narcissistic libido (also known as ego-libido) or destrudo is built up.[2] Narcissistic libido or ego-libido is the concentration of libido on the self. Destrudo is the opposite of libido and is the impulse to destroy oneself and everything associated with oneself.

I.E. Trump

Dad’s Remembrance Week

Every year, the third week of October, the Gardner Family spends time thinking about Dad.  Mom usually organizes a “wood weekend”, where everyone in the wider Gardner Family circle is invited to participate in the work and fellowship.  Remembering Dad is the theme woven into the “event”, but getting wood into the barn is really the main focus.

Except this year.  Some parts of the family were invited.  Others weren’t.  Monica and I as well as others were not informed; not invited, excluded, yet Mom initially claimed that we were not (she was mistaken).  Still, she defends petty actions of Mary.  Still, she defends the pernicious actions of Mary. 

Here is the actual header of the email that was used to announce the “Gardner Remembrance Week” via Mary herself:

Yet Mom keeps saying “No one was excluded”.  Maybe she might have meant they didn’t tell anyone they couldn’t come; they just didn’t tell some people what was planned or that they could or should come.  Mom clearly isn’t in touch with the reality of the invitation: her story kept changing.

Here is Mom’s mail claiming everyone should have received the mail:

From: gardnermtn

To: ‘monikers’

Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2023 at 03:17:27 PM CDT

Subject: FW: wood day 2023

As you can see – everyone should have received word of the Remenbrance day happening.  You can forward this to all the kids – they are all welcome here anytime, and you are too.  You  and anyone of your family don’t need an invitation.  Remembrance can be any time.   I am happy to see anyone of you and grateful for all the help you have given me in the past. 

As we can clearly see, not everyone was sent the mail and the lame excuse about being “welcome here at any time” doesn’t constitute having “received word”.  It also clearly shows Mom isn’t reading the mail or simply refuses to believe Mary can do anything wrong (likely).  Mary is working hard to equate “dissociation from LLC” with “banned from Gardner Family”.   Is there anything Mary won’t USE to her own ends?

In other communications, Mom claims “She saw the invitation before it went out, so if the list was incomplete it was her fault”.  But it is highly unlikely she saw the message AS IT WAS GOING OUT i.e. with the full To:list.  Mom is taking the blame for something Mary did because the evidence against Mary is incontrovertible.  Also in that communication, Mom says that Mary “gave up her plans for the future to make Mom’s possible”.  Funny, in all the years Mary has been at GM there has been no mention of Mary lost plans, by Mary or by Mom of giving up “future plans”.  Mary has lived there free or nearly so, continuing to do her job remotely.  Also, odd that giving up “future plans” was something Jim CLEARLY did for Mom.  He didn’t just slide early into retirement; he gave up a promising career.  Maybe Mary had future plans – she never shared them with the family at large.  I heard a rumor once, she planned to get a trailer (RV)and hit the road.  If that is the case, I’m sorry she gave that up.  If she had been more cooperative with her siblings, one or more of them could have taken their RV to GM and stayed with Mom a few months of the year so she could travel.  Monica lives just down the road.  We all could have cooperated to enable Mary to travel at least part-time.  But she turned GM into the mess it is today, so she misses out.  She burned those bridges and utterly destroyed those relationships.

Too bad Mom doesn’t realize that Mary is trashing her plans for the future.  Oh, Mary will make Mom think Mary is going to keep GM “in the family” forever.  Someday, too late, standing next to Dad, he will point out to Mom what a mistake she made, and how she was used.  Is there anything Mary won’t USE to her own ends? Only time will tell. She could still change the situation. Mary, it’s not too late.

And, as usual, Mom has to drag HER politics into the situation, claiming that Monica and my politics (that she truly doesn’t understand) are to blame for the horrid condition of the Gardner Family.  Faux News and Friends has a stranglehold on her rationality.

Oh, and Mom mentioned this weekend was “A Remembrance weekend in honor of Dad and Jim.  Wait – these weekends were ALWAYS just for Dad.  Jim was never mentioned in conjunction with the Dad’s weekend after he (Jim) died.  I don’t think I ever heard one of the other siblings (Mary, Jeanne, John, Joe or Matt) say ANYTHING positive about Jim since the funeral.  So why include Jim now? I strongly suspect it, again, is Mary at work.  She knows I am out west and can’t be at Gardner Mountain for the weekend.  She also knows that Monica is unlikely to go because of her horrid relationship with Mary.  Between her busy schedule and the hard feelings, that Mary has made sure continues to exist, why would she subject herself to that situation?  So, to turn the screw a little deeper, Mary suggests to Mom to include Jim in the Remembrance Weekend.  Then they get to say, we didn’t care about Jim or Dad.  They include Jim as a façade when all they’ve ever done is dishonor him.  Is there anything Mary won’t USE to her own ends? Nope

So, Mary has basically called an end to any discussion – which is fine, I no longer allow her mail to reach my inbox. Just to wrap things up.

  1. At no time was any agreement necessary that said anything other than the LLC accepted our less than 1% share back.
  2. At no time was any agreement put forth that didn’t contain a lot of extraneous legal mumbo jumbo that could have been interpreted in various ways, including stuff she acknowledged was included for her own CYA. Mary did ask at one point if I would sign an agreement with the phrases I objected were removed (that I didn’t answer), but no such document was ever forwarded.
  3. At no time did Mary explain why she insisted on making it so difficult for us to leave Gardnermountain.LLC.
  4. A new Operating Agreement was being drafted which would make membership in GardnerMountain.LLC even more onerous – which is why we decided to leave.
  5. At no time since the first discussion of the new trust has Mom demonstrated a working knowledge of the Trusts OR Gardnermountain.LLC.

And one last question: In all these months of angry, nasty emails, all the siblings and mom were always included, even if I left them out. This last bit of tirade, the siblings where left off….. mmmmmmm……why?

P.S.

From the Gardner Mountain Propagandist:
And remember, if you can’t question it, it’s not science – it’s PROPAGANDA.
ContraryMary

Science by definition is designed to be questioned and to survive being questioned. But it isn’t simply the process of questioning that makes it Propaganda, it is whether the questioner has SUFFICIENT FACTS contrary to the ones used to define the Science, or whether the questioner is simply applying his/her baseless opinion. Baseless opinion = Propaganda.

In case you didn’t understand that, here is an example. There are millions of data points that clearly indicate that global temperatures are increasing DUE TO THE INFLUENCE OF MANKIND. But you can find so-called evidence, where people who start with a bias, cherry pick data in an attempt to prove their pre-determined position of climate science deniers. They are issuing propaganda, usually for profit, politics, or simply stupidity, and attempting to equate their “questioning” with scientific process when they have NO VALID DATA.

Oh, and speaking of science – just one page of search links – about just how stupid your firing range is….. When you get around to selling GM, you’ll have to apply for an EPA cleanup or respond to the buyer’s lawsuit when they are informed that you contaminated the property with a gun range and didn’t clean it up or tell them. Not to mention, poisoning groundwater (Your Mother’s well) with lead because the soil there is basically very porous sand.

https://www.hazardouswasteexperts.com/lead-contamination-in-shooting-ranges/
https://static.ewg.org/reports/2001/LeadPollutionAtOutdoorFiringRanges.pdf
https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/acclpp/SupplementalOct04/Lead%20Contamination%20in%20Shooting%20Range%20Soils-Hardison.pdf
https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/documents/epa_bmp.pdf
https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/lead-contamination-remains-a-5173963/
https://www.tribtalk.org/2016/06/15/shooting-ranges-an-unexpected-source-of-lead-poisoning/
https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/lead-contamination-remains-a-5173963/

Mike

p.s. two things in the lastest post on the LLC site. 1. Commercial Concealed Carry classes at GM – means the shooting range was used for commercial purposes by people not living on GM…..You might want to read this: https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/documents/epa_bmp.pdf and get mom’s water tested at least once a year for lead contamination.

2. the following quote appeared at the end of the post: And remember: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer I thought this was funny as Bonhoeffer was executed for opposing a fascist dictator that Trump adores: HITLER. So yes, call out evil wherever you see it, and boy is there so much going around nowadays. Maybe Mary is turning around her politics? Nah!!!

Will it ever end? Of course not.

Some Gardners get seedy before they die.

Mary convinced Mom the trust that she and Dad put together wasn’t good enough – so she shepherded Mom into Trust 2.0.  Then that wasn’t good enough, so she moved on to an LLC, which all of us siblings were encouraged to sign on short notice with too few answers to questions.

This spring, in March, having viewed a draft of the new Operating Agreement, Monica and I chose to leave the LLC behind.  First, we were told that we couldn’t leave.  Wrong. Why would they try to force us to stay?  Never answered.  Then Mary was then informed that she didn’t know what she was talking about.  Then more demands for our dissociation letters – to which we complied. 

Then silence for almost three months.  Then we received an “agreement” from Mary’s lawyer demanding we return it within 9 days of the agreement date.  A.  At least my copy arrived so late it was impossible to return by the deadline.  B.  The document contained typos.  C.  The document contained several items that had nothing to do with dissociation or returning our portion of the LLC – that could only be described as Cover Your Ass requirements to protect Mary.  Why?  She never answered “why” though she did acknowledge the requirements were in fact: CYA.  One requirement committed me to executing unspecified “necessary” future actions as required by yet an unspecified person.  Would you sign that?  Not unless you are a fool.

Mary claims we didn’t try to negotiate.  A bald-faced lie.  I proposed several versions of the agreement, all of them were rejected. Our lawyer proposed a version with some additional language (including a number of legal corrections to Mary’s lawyer’s agreement), and it was ignored.  The so-called final version from Mary’s lawyer still contained all the offensive phrases along with one minor modification that didn’t substantially change the negative tone of the “agreement”.  Remember, all this crap so we can walk away from the LLC and return our tiny share.  What is Mary so afraid of that she needs all the legalese to protect herself?  Creative accounting? Some big faux pas in the original LLC operating agreement? I wish I knew what it was……..

NONE of that agreement was necessary.  All Monica and I needed was a simple acknowledgment of the receipt of the TINY share (0.9545 %) of the LLC (yes, that is less than 1%).  Why the hell wouldn’t Mary just let us go?  I don’t know, but I can imagine all sorts of underhanded, Chicago-style reasons.  Mary has never explained what difference our leaving could possibly make.  So, now Mary (who holds the largest interest in the LLC after Mom) is now free to kowtow Joe, Jeanne, John, and Matt into doing whatever she wants done.  All through this fiasco, Mary pretends that Mom is “in charge”. The MANTRA from the siblings has been: “Mom can do anything she wants!”. And that is true, if she understands what it is she’s being guided to say or do. Some emails “from Mom” looked suspiciously as if they were cut and pasted from someone else (completely different font from the signature or a writing style ANYONE could see wasn’t Mom). As for Mom – she has not demonstrated any ability to discuss either the Trusts or the LLC in any meaningful way.  Every question to Mom was either ignored, answered wrong or deflected with “talk to Mary”.  I am not convinced Mom is of sufficient sound mind to be signing LLC documents.  I love my Mother, and to a limited degree, my siblings.  But this fiasco has all the hallmarks of Mom being USED for financial gain.  

Here is what Mary posted on HER web page today.

And finally, dissociation matters with Gardner Mountain LLC have come to a close as of 9/1/2023, as Mike and Monica incomprehensibly refuse to intelligently negotiate or sign the Dissociation and Transfer Agreement, to confirm what they have been declaring all year: that they want out. As a result, they are now transferees (per WI LLC law) with no rights of membership or voting rights; and no right to any LLC information after 3/8/2023. We will now move on to drafting a new operating agreement for the LLC… and a new chapter.

This paragraph contains more lies and falsehoods than I have time to deal with.  This is the kind of “negotiation” we have been putting up with all year (except some of it has been far nastier).  But she won’t let us out; she wants to keep us in the LLC limbo with a tiny percentage while she changes all the rules (New Operating Agreement is in the works). Why? It can’t be anything good.

UPDATE – you won’t believe this – but if you know Mary, you likely will. She actually demanded Monica and I pay a portion of HER lawyer bills. She calls them Mom’s bills and she is trying to get Mom to pay for them, but the lawyer bills are SOLELY Mary’s responsibility. She started this fight. She refused to end it. Some huge balls….. Obviously, this is just another attempt to drive a wedge between Mom, Monica and I.

Mike

What’s up?

This is an update from the Michael Gardner family .

Our extended family is doing well.  Jen and family are at Death Valley for a couple of months before they move on to Idaho for the summer.  Rob, Megan and their family are still in Champaign.  Megan is a PA and Rob works for an Internet based company.  Tom and Ashley are still in Mohomet.  He still works as a Medic and Ashley manages a Spencer’s store.  We are ensconced in Tucson till March, then back to Phoenix for a couple of weeks, then back home for the summer.  We have visited several national parks, done some hiking, taken lots of pictures and at the RV community here, learning lapidary.  We’ve managed to meet a number of the residents (who are from all over the country, even Canada).  They have a permanently mounted telescope here and have Sunday scope nights when the skies are clear.  Here is a stacked image from the Orion nebula.

M42 (108 exp)

 

 

 

 I’m still working with my scope to get everything working well enough to take deep sky pictures.  Janessa and I (back in Yuma) managed to take this mosaic of the moon.

Seeds

Seeds

Seeds, scattered in the winds,
seeking freedom and completion.
Making out of life as best they can
a copy of whence they came.

Seeds, scattered in the winds,
one by one from the pod.
Alike in their origins,
yet so diverse in their lives.

The reckless one, what does ne need?
The adventurer, between these two.
The solitair, what does he seek?
The mother, retracing, yet her own path.
The worker, doing and doing.
The husband; true his fathers son.
The successful one, but at what cost?
The oldest one, what wisdom has he found?

These offspring you could argue,
are just seedlings from the pair;
a genetic step progression,
like the color of our hair.

But weren’t we pressed and molded,
by each other creased and folded?
The love, the hate, the work, the play,
ten lives now reflecting us
as we lived when youth we shared.
That’s what made each seed it’s tree today.

Eight trees, buff’d by the winds of youth,
carried and rooted so far apart.
how seldom they reach to another
though touch they need to fill the heart.

As time turns their yearbook page by page,
the past comes clear as does the mind.
Now as they grow and learn with age,
will each understand, reach and find.

Find that life is not a single tree.
Find their god,
their light,
their roots,
their past?

mgg
late spring, 92