‘Support Ms. Kemp and Her Excellent Work in Progress!’ Says Letter to the Editor

Welcome to our letters to the editor/opinion section. To submit yours for consideration, please send to [email protected]. Please consider including an image to be used–either a photograph of you or something applicable to the letter. However, an image is not necessary for publication.

Remember opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that of Redheaded Blackbelt nor have we checked the letters for accuracy.

Letter to the EditorAs we move forward through the end of the most interesting and challenging year yet, let us remember what is important!

Redheaded Blackbelt! That’s what’s important!

Look here: How much harder would this year have been without the constant flow of information from our favorite news digest?

How would you have dealt with the oncoming pandemic, the general shutdown, the shelter in place, the stay at home, the flow of health news coupled with the elections, the fires, the PSPS’s, and all the rest?

What would we do without Kym Kemp and her incredible work, the massive project called Redheaded Blackbelt?

As we move forward towards the checkered flag on the election, the upcoming CoV-19 vaccine, the hopeful return to the crazy normalcy we all remember, let’s pause, before the Holidays, to remember to make a donation to RHBB!

As in the past, I am calling on you to give whatever you can to Redheaded Blackbelt, in order to form a more perfect union, preserve the general welfare, and to help build the structure needed to move forward to the future!

Join me in donating to Redheaded Blackbelt! It’s easy too, just click on the button in the right hand margin, and be generous, using PayPal, Mastercharge, Visa etc! Give till it feels good, and look forward to 2021!

It’s a basis for a great start to the rest of our lives, and a contract with evolution!

Support Ms Kemp, and her excellent work in progress!

Thanks so much!

Paul Riley

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43 Comments
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Willie Bray
Guest
3 years ago

🕯🌳I’ll second this letter. 🖖🖖

The Real Brian
Guest
The Real Brian
3 years ago

The website and Kym are both great.

I’ve donated small amounts in previous years, and tried to support and promote in other ways.

However the comment sections needs help, especially on news-worthy posts.

I don’t think I can happily donate to a David Icke/infowar/civil war/everything’s a conspiracy and I’m a sheep- based mentality comment section that is largely allowed in the false sense of defending “free speech”.

Sorry.

Free estimates
Guest
Free estimates
3 years ago
Reply to  The Real Brian

That’s the problem with free speech, Brian. It’s free. You can’t control it, box it up, or sell it. It has no shape, size or volume. It is without mass, yet it’s effects are tangible.

I think the problem you have is that it is an equal platform. Everyone has a soap box and they’re all the same height. Sounds like gatekeeping opinions is what you’re advocating for and if that’s what you want, you can watch your team’s mainstream media channel and live in an echo chamber.

While I don’t agree with your pathology, I enjoy the format in which I get to respond to it. Thanks Kym!

hmm
Guest
hmm
3 years ago
Reply to  The Real Brian

In what way is it a “false sense of defending “free speech””?

Are you another pseudo liberal against free speech?

The Real Brian
Guest
The Real Brian
3 years ago
Reply to  hmm

Defending free speech happens in a court room, not a living room.

David Icke and Alex Jones represent self-admitted psychosis and delusional thinking; mental instability – not a political opinion.

Giving that a platform, especially without disclaimers is straight up destructive for any society.

I like stars
Guest
I like stars
3 years ago
Reply to  The Real Brian

Does anyone other than you ever mention either of those people here?

If so, who?

The Real Brian
Guest
The Real Brian
3 years ago
Reply to  I like stars

Just promote the same bullshit at the same time, and its obvious who you’ve followed for it….

No citations needed.

Willow Creeker
Guest
Willow Creeker
3 years ago
Reply to  The Real Brian

Brian, my understanding of free speech is you take the good with the bad. You have to listen to things you don’t agree with, in order to have it work. Limitations are set, of course (“yelling fire in a movie theater”) but letting the terrible uninformed opinions of some commenters here see light and be seen for their stupidity, is a part of free speech. Scroll on past. Don’t get sucked in.

Also- donate to Kym. A little monthly out of your account is easy and gives her a solid base to count on.
Especially all you trumpers who come here to bother me. You should be paying for all the times I’ve had to waste my time replying.

The Real Brian
Guest
The Real Brian
3 years ago
Reply to  Willow Creeker

I don’t mind listening to things I disagree with.

I’m just trying to find the point in which we can call something or someone disinformation- and move on without over-repetition.

This is Kym’s living room, per say, and she has invited the public in.

We all agree and disagree about many things, and she has a few rules about how we talk in her living room.

For instance, it is “free speech” to call another commentor a derogatory term, but Kym restricts that via her rules, so already, speech is limited -where the courts would disagree with her.

The other point is there are obvious disinformation trolls, and I find them just as (if not more) dangerous than derogatory language.

Trump’s brand of conspiracy fodder borders on treasonous, from birtherism to “lock her up” to Covid and beyond, this is a first for out political system.

Did Obama blame Bush for 9/11?

Again, this is Kym’s living room and her rule system.

I will donate, I think she deserves it.

And I got to make my stink public, in her living room, so I feel I can help with the rent.

Willow Creeker
Guest
Willow Creeker
3 years ago
Reply to  The Real Brian

I understand your point. Misinformation is a major problem in this time. Who gets to decide what is the truth? It’s a strange period in time, I wonder if there are historical parallels we could look to for guidance. It’s tricky when one side (lets not name names) can actually convince people that the the truth is fake news and that alternate facts are true, and then it becomes an actual debate.
Still, I would say that freedom of speech should not be curtailed for the clueless and misinformed. I think most people know what’s true and what’s not. People blathering on about trumps latest conspiracy show their own stupidity, no need to silence them .

The Real Brian
Guest
The Real Brian
3 years ago
Reply to  Willow Creeker

If Trump is not wholly rebuked, which he has not been, and likely won’t be, than I think you might reassess this statement:

 I think most people know what’s true and what’s not

Even the fact he was elected (geocratically) makes me doubt your statement.

I hope I’m wrong – and I hope you’re right.

Only the few understand fact based truth........checking
Guest
Only the few understand fact based truth........checking
3 years ago
Reply to  Willow Creeker

There are a number of Internet sites that fact check truths on a variety of subjects. Political and other. The problem is a number of posters just don’t want to spend the time “fact checking”. When someone posts that a person is a raging liberal that is their go to rebuttal for everything they don’t agree with. Forget fact checking. Doesn’t exist. The fallacy with always claiming a poster is a liberal is to label the poster. Nothing more. Don’t agree, call them a liberal. Or the other fallacy, Everyone lies, but I have the truth and if you don’t agree you must be a liberal. Instead of citing evidence it is bypassed with putting a label on the source. Maybe outlandish posters are just too lazy to take the time to verify information and sources. It is just easier to call them a liberal.

Rod Gass
Guest
Rod Gass
3 years ago

I’ll not only agree with your comment, I’ll strongly support it.

MSM and it’s step children, local talk sites, are biased. They’re biased beyond acceptability. We see every day the politics of directed bias. Harm is happening while the managers become even more incorrect.

Be honest with yourself, it’s the bias that attracts.

Free estimates
Guest
Free estimates
3 years ago

Or you could call them a trumper.

There’s at least two positions to any argument and only denouncing one side for what activities they both engage in does not make one side accurate and the other inaccurate. But your implicit bias is explicitly showing after reading your post.

Guest
Guest
Guest
3 years ago
Reply to  The Real Brian

Is your idea of “free speech” that only your opinion can be tolerated? That being called a “sheeple” is an intolerable insult while calling people stupid is not?

You must fervently believe in the reality of “sheeplehood” if you think that conspiracy theories are a danger to humanity and a belief in their power. A certain number of people always look for hidden someones controlling everyone else. It is an extreme expression of natural human drives to fit what they see into patterns in concert with a personal sense of lack of control. But to believe that is a danger to anyone else is to believe in its efficacy- that people are really able to be controlled by theories and not just looking for a theory to explain their fears. Probably the same delusion that people are so easily controlled creates rabid socialists too, who insist that humans can be made to forego acting in self interest if the right pattern can be imposed. Socialism is not just a belief in conspiracy theories but an actual attempt to impose them.

No wonder you find it so unbearable. You are a theorist in competition for the same demographic- people who believe in the power of theories – only with opposing theories.

The Real Brian
Guest
The Real Brian
3 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Alex Jones and his ilk who call you a sheeple are representing mental instability and delusion; self admitted psychosis – not a political opinion.

Please, give me your opinion if how Trumps delusional rhetoric is beneficial to this Country – let’s talk it out.

HotCoffee
Guest
HotCoffee
3 years ago
Reply to  The Real Brian

TRB

The people here talking about Alex Jones posts are about as elusive as your friend Sid.

Mental instability and delusion is when you only want to hear your own echo.

Is this what you don’t want to hear?

EXC: Hunter Biden Audio on Chinese Spies and Joe

https://thenationalpulse.com/exclusive/biden-recording-spy-chief-and-sdny/

The Real Brian
Guest
The Real Brian
3 years ago
Reply to  HotCoffee

You and Jones and Trump were lock stepping your hydroxychloroquin fantasy.

Should we count how many posts you made regarding just that one example?

Guess what:

Trump was hospitalized for days with Covid and didn’t use his own recipes.

I like stars
Guest
I like stars
3 years ago
Reply to  The Real Brian

There are many people like you out there. They support free speech as long as they personally find the content acceptable. They don’t actually support free speech at all.

The Real Brian
Guest
The Real Brian
3 years ago
Reply to  I like stars

Like Dane Wigington, the chem trail psychosis dude in Redding.

His websites and youtubes comments are 100 % supportive and ball licking bullshit, many of them are even fake and made by himself to make it seem as he is supported internationally.

And that’s not what I’m talking about supporting at all.

Bushytails
Guest
Bushytails
3 years ago

I don’t know… Kym Kemp’s commentors have probably doubled my blood pressure. 😛

The Real Brian
Guest
The Real Brian
3 years ago
Reply to  Bushytails

#howwevote$$

local observer
Guest
local observer
3 years ago
Reply to  Bushytails

you just need to read them with a scientific view point. society has lots of problems and this is one of them. its something that exists in our community and therefore worth studying for the better of our community. the interesting part i have found is that most are in the same generation. I got busted commenting one day by my Niece and she was like, you are a troll, and i was like no i am a troll hunter, and she replied with “so you think you are a good troll”. I have later learned that their generation has nothing to do with these sites and at some point these sites won’t even exist if they don’t evolve. its all science and yes i have determined that i am a troll, but a good troll.

Green Shirt
Guest
Green Shirt
3 years ago
Reply to  local observer

I am a troll.

I have definitely been known to deliberately troll controversial threads with cheerful posts that acknowledge my own lack of knowledge. Sometimes I do this knowing that people are going to react unfavorably without thinking my actions through and realizing that:

1.) It isn’t going to change anything. I’m just discrediting myself. If I ever do have something significant to add to a controversial topic, people are just going to scroll right past the troll.

2.) It’s making more work for Ms. Kemp or whoever gets stuck with moderation.

3.) It’s basic human nature. I’m not as funny or as clever as I think I am. If somebody really needs to be taken down a peg with cheerfulness, somebody else is going to have the same urges I do so it’s going to happen anyway. It is neither my responsibility nor within my power to save the world.

So maybe I can work on being less of a troll in the future.

Guest
Guest
Guest
3 years ago
Reply to  Bushytails

But then again you might have also returned the favor.

JRB
Guest
JRB
3 years ago

Paul’s right! We have to step up and donate what we can. Kym doesn’t get a set paycheck at the end of the week like some of us. There are lots of costs involved to be able to run a news site like this. She has given me important information, many times, that I couldn’t have attained in any other way! Her blog has become a necessity for many of us here in the Emerald Triangle.

So support her so she is able to continue to feed us the latest news.

Make a DONATION today, because it’s the right thing to do!

Guest
Guest
Guest
3 years ago
Reply to  JRB

Paying for news is rational. Paying for opinion much less so unless the opinion is expert. Which is a reason for having a good way to separate one from the other as a business model. Unless of course one is selling opinion.

Mountain Man
Guest
Mountain Man
3 years ago

Nice service provided . Could improve it by banning use of the f word, it has lost all meaning.

Angela Robinson
Guest
Angela Robinson
3 years ago
Reply to  Mountain Man

If it has lost all meaning why ban it?

My mom, who lives back east says that the west coast, especially the PNW part (of which I include most of northern California, the parts that are part of the Cascadia subduction zone for sure)….oh, where was I? Anyway, she says we don’t have an accent, but we do say f*ck A LOT.

It’s a noun, a verb, an adjective, maybe even an adverb. The only word that might have more uses is “Dude”, but that’s delivered in phrasing and tone. LOL

Somehow this reminds me of sixth grade,67/68. “Bitchin’ ” was all the rage on the Washington Elementary school playground that year. I don’t remember it so much after that. It just isn’t as “versatile” as “f*ck”.

Guest
Guest
Guest
3 years ago

The reason to object to it is that, if words have been made useless to express intense feeling, then words no longer have power to calm those feelings down. A good swear word said at a peak of frustration can release the tension but, if people use them so often that they are meaningless, then tension spills over to acting out. Best to save up a few for use when needed.

Angela Robinson
Guest
Angela Robinson
3 years ago
Reply to  Guest

I would agree. The c-word still has that punch. The N-word as well, for different reasons. That one will get someone kicked out of my house.

But if it has lost the “punch”, why bother banning it? Should “damn” be banned, or “hell” or any other words that at one time were quite scandalous. Hell, why not ban words that are used as stand-ins for foul language… 🙂

I did love how the new Battlestar Galactica managed to get the meaning of and usage of “f*ck”, Frack, fracking, etc.

Buzz
Guest
Buzz
3 years ago
Reply to  Mountain Man

Fuck that! I’ll fuckin donate 2x much to keep that option open per Ms. Kemp’s discretion! I don’t gripe or whine about What or how she edits this site, cuz guess what???
It’s HERS.
Thank you Kym, yer a fuckin BOSS and a legend.
Goddess Bless

Phineas Homestone
Guest
Phineas Homestone
3 years ago

Thanks for all you do Kym! I have found setting up a monthly payment of $10 is the most convenient. For those fortunate enough to be able to contribute on a regular basis I encourage doing so. I check Blackbelt every morning, with particular attention to winter road conditions and summer fire conditions.

Good points others have made about the commenters. I have trained myself to skip over the garbage comments in search of the many helpful insights and reactions that help me make sense of stuff.

Kym: I applaud your patience and grace when dealing with hateful, rude commenters. You do a far better job than I can image.

-Fin

Willow Creeker
Guest
Willow Creeker
3 years ago

Yes I agree fin. Well said.

Green Shirt
Guest
Green Shirt
3 years ago

Yes, that’s definitely the easiest way to do it. You don’t even notice the missing $10 a month, it adds up over the course of the year, and it’s steady income that Ms. Kemp can count on.

I wish I was financially secure enough to add you to my monthly donation list and will do my best to toss some more change in your tip jar this year, Ms. Kemp.

I don’t comment often and rarely make effortful posts, but I do appreciate the fact that there is a “comments” section; my understanding is that all news blogs have their share of trolls and misinformation, just as Reddit does and just as the more popular social networking sites like Facebook and whatever “MySpace 2020” actually is do.

It’s probably better for my blood pressure to skip the comments, but during this time of social isolation, I don’t because I need the human contact. Maybe some of them make me angry, but they also prepare me for the world that awaits me outside of these four walls. I think that being familiar with dissenting opinions and the reasoning behind them makes me a better neighbour and less likely to vent my spleen in line at Winco’s or Costco.

Not that I’ve never vented my spleen inappropriately here, of course, lol.

Kym Kemp
Admin
3 years ago
Reply to  Green Shirt

Thanks, GS, for your cheerful, common sense posts.

cu2morrow
Guest
cu2morrow
3 years ago

Wonderful ! some gratitude for hard work and time spent doing it. This site has become a morning ritual with coffee in hand.

Judith Gilkey
Guest
3 years ago

I wish I could donate. I love this site as she is so good at keeping us all up to date here in our little piece of the USA. She often beats all the local tv news reports. she really cares about all of us. Keep up the good work KYM

HOJ in Training
Guest
HOJ in Training
3 years ago

Yo, Mr. Riley,

Mastercharge changed their name to Mastercard many DECADES ago, you know, back when the years started with “19.” (1979 to be exact)

Do you think it’s about time you caught up with the 21st Century?

Sooker
Guest
Sooker
3 years ago

Happy to donate, and I did. Came back that I donated to “1960”. Hope the funds arrive at intended destination.

Kym Kemp
Admin
3 years ago
Reply to  Sooker

Thank you! That’s the right place. I just made a mistake when I made the account and have had to live with it ever since.

Chuck U
Guest
Chuck U
3 years ago

Thank you Kym!

Kym Kemp
Admin
3 years ago
Reply to  Chuck U

So glad things went well for you and the family!