There is nothing like a great morning of telling people to go piss up a rope.

The other evening I got in from sea dog tired, had two beers and laid down on the couch with the cat. It is good having a cat because the cat will let you sleep when you crash out like that.

Wives make you wake up, take a shower and go and sleep in a real bed. Old school sailors like me can sleep just about anywhere and feel just as rested as if I had slept at the Ritz.

In fact, I sleep on a couch better than at the Ritz because I hate starched sheets. I hit the couch with a warm, fuzzy blanket which works. Truth is I can sleep like a baby nude covered with a wool GI blanket. It don’t mean NOTHIN’.

I woke up greasy and my second need was a shower, my first was coffee. I got up and instead of brewing a pot hopped into the pickup and rolled off to the local convenience store.

As I got out of the truck someone walked up to me and demanded to know why there is a ‘minister’ sticker in my window.

Most of you know I am an ordained Universal Life Minister for reasons I have previously explained. Instead of asking politely this clown was demanding. He pushed, I pushed back.

“Because I’m a f***ing ordained minister, A$$hole!” I answered.

He decided that it would be smart to drop the issue and wandered off in shock. I felt pretty smug about myself and started to hum a tune as I wandered into the store.

I spotted a cop from the next town over that I had met before and nodded. He returned the nod with a nod and a smile. I had entertained him before several years ago. It was a classic and the story still pops up every so often.

Anyway, some woman whacked out on mood elevators heard me humming. I took one look at her and cringed. She was nosy and I knew it. She proved me right a second or two later.

“My! You are awful cheerful today! What are you so cheerful about?”

I plugged in my ‘Jersey thug/Blues Brothers module and replied, “Cause I just got outta da joint!”

The poor cop snarfed. I felt bad. He was probably going to have to run home and change his uniform. But he wasn’t angry. This was a big plus. Instead he put his coffee down and watched to see where this was going. He was smirking.

You would think that anyone with half a brain would have dropped it then and there but this woman didn’t have half of a brain.

“What were you in prison for?” she asked.

“Ah, some dumb brawd stahted askin’ me a buncha nosy questions so I stuck her inna ear wit an ice pick,” I replied.

The cop had to put his hand over his mouth to keep from busting up and the clerk did the same thing. The woman looked indignant and quietly paid for her stuff and fled. I wandered over to the coffee station, grabbed a cup and started toward the register.

“That coffee is on me,” said the very amused clerk.

The cop with the ruined uniform came up to me.

“Pic, when I saw you come in I knew I should have put my coffee down,” he said. “This mess is my own damned fault. I should have known better.”

Not a bad way the start the day.

I put two idiots in their place, made a couple people laugh and got a free cup of Joe.

Twenty minutes later I was in the shower and started coming around from a long, hard tour.

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A lot of people do not understand what-not who, but what- Donald Trump is.

The candidacy of Donald Trump is nothing more or less than an American revolution that has been needed for an awful long time.

The entire Trump thing is nothing more or less than the working stiffs telling BOTH parties that they are sick and tired of business as usual politics. The working stiff is tired of being robbed and pushed around.

We’re tired of people named Clinton, we’re tired of people named Bush, we’re tired of a government being run by crooks, thieves and thugs. We’re tired of party elites making deals with our rights, freedoms and paychecks.

We’re sick and tired of the parties pandering to low-lifes and using the federal treasury to buy the votes of those that just drag us down deeper and deeper.

We’re sick and tired of things like Obamacare that was heralded as being able to save us money and allowing us to keep our doctors only to find in many cases that health insurance is now costing us more than our mortgages. All the while, we are paying for someone else’s health care that they are getting for free.

We’re tired of Big Pharma that has bought off our politicians in exchange for being able to rape us on the cost of prescription drugs.

We’re sick and tired of Congress Critters being allowed to do the kind of insider trading that got Martha Stewart thrown in jail. It’s really a pretty slick system. It sounds like a pretty slick system.

They buy stocks in some small company. Then they award it a juicy government contract. The stocks go up and they sell and laugh all the way to the bank. Meanwhile we, the people wind up paying for some useless pile of junk that sits in a warehouse for years and gets thrown out.

Of course, if one of US gets wind of this and buys and sells the stocks then we get to sit for a while in Martha Stewart’s old cell. Needless to say, the government didn’t let her decorate it, either. It’s probably still painted ‘guard house grey’ or some other government color.

We’re sick and tired of government trying to manage our lives for us. We’re tired of the gun grabbers, the people that want to regulate woman’s bodies, order us to wear seat belts, and make us pay inflated rates for health insurance.

We’re tired of a government dividing us racially and setting race relations back fifty years. The Obama administration has done this for the past 8 years. It really has nothing to do with fighting racism and everything to do with power. If they keep us divided and fighting with each other we’re easier to control.

We’re tired of career politicians that make their entire life’s work of pushing us around and stealing from us.

We’re just plain sick and tired of being sick and tired. We’re desperate. We want to see a positive change of some sort.

Donald Trump is arguably the biggest asshole the northeast part of the country has ever produced. Let’s call that a given. OK. He’s a big, egotistical asshole. He’s also richer that God. He’s made every dime of his money in the private sector and hasn’t stolen a dime from us.

He threw his hat into the ring. The people knew that he was a less than perfect candidate. In fact, he was a jerk but we decided that a jerk like him was better than anything EITHER party had to offer.

On the other hand he is what he is. More importantly he isn’t what he isn’t. He isn’t a “Daddy it’s my turn” Bush. He isn’t a crooked Clinton. He isn’t one of the sorry candidates the GOPe was offering, nor is he a part of the corrupt, rigged, fraudulent offering of the Democrats. He’s his own man.

In fact, over the years he has donated money to an awful lot of Congress Critters. Trump doesn’t owe them anything. The opposite is true. Many of them owe him!

I have often said here that I judge a man not by his friends, but by his enemies. Let’s take a look at the long list of who Trump has pissed off.

First of all the GOP elites are supporting Hillary. What this is all about is their last ditch attempt to control the party that they seem to have lost control over. The elites want to spank the rank and file and show them that they are adults and know what’s good for them.  If Hillary wins they will stand there and self-righteously say, “We know what’s good for you. You should have accepted the candidate WE wanted to put up against Hillary. That nice Jeb Bush would have won in a landslide.” (Who are they fooling? Not the average Joe. Take it to a taxidermist and stuff it.)

Of course, it goes without saying the Democrats hate him, especially Hillary. There is a damned good chance that if he wins then she goes to jail. Directly to jail, does not pass Go and does not collect $200.

Big money hates him with a purple passion. They know he’ll upset their apple cart. They stand to lose a lot of political power.

The media hates him. They are leftist anyway and run strictly by big money which goes without saying.  Big money controls the media and it has been decades since they were even remotely close to being unbiased and fair. The media controls most of the polls and recently a couple of the polls have been caught skewing the results in favor of Hillary to sway the vote. In truth the way things look now is anyone’s guess.

The way I see it, anyone that has the GOP elites, the Democrats, the media and big money hating him and working overtime to defeat him it’s a slam dunk that the average Joe support him. He seems to have all of the right people pissed off at him.

People have said that they are disgusted that Trump is the best candidate the Republicans could come up with. They also say the same thing about Hillary. In truth the Democrats could be sitting with about 75% of the total vote in their pocket right now had they played fair.

James Webb may have seen the writing on the wall when he dropped out early on. He knew he was going to go up against the corrupt Clinton machine and didn’t want any part of it. Maybe he has an aversion to suicide. Who knows?

Still, the fact remains that Trump ISN’T the candidate of the GOP, or at least the GOP elites. He’s the candidate of the rank and file. He is the candidate of pissed off plumbers, carpenters, pipefitters, policemen and a whole lot of working stiffs that are fed up with business as usual.

One thing Trump is not, is that he is not a Republican. Nor is he a Democrat. He’s nothing more or less than the duly elected candidate of the Desperately Pissed Off Working American party that just happened to take over the Republican party during the primary.

He is also the last hope of turning the Republic around and cleaning it up somewhat. As sad as it is, it is true.

I have, in my 64 years man and boy, never seen an opportunity like this put before the American people. It certainly is in disguise but there it is.

Donald Trump is the opportunity to have a bloodless American Revolution. It’s well past time for the average guy to take back his government and let the party bosses and big money guys know who is boss. While Trump is an unlikely candidate for this, the truth remains he is the only one we have. Sometimes ya gotta go with what ya got and it is as simple as that.

Interestingly enough, in a certain sense, Trump is closer to the kind of person the Founding Fathers envisioned as president. They did NOT envision career politicians. They did envision that some successful merchant, plantation owner or businessman would take a few years out of his career to ‘put back into the country that allowed his phenomenal successes’.

Trump is inarguably that. He has enough money so that he is self- financing a great deal of his own campaign. That’s an awful lot of money. He has done quite well for himself.

Right now this country is at a major crossroads. We have a few choices now.

We can vote in Hillary and succumb to tyranny and let the government go along its corrupt, merry way with things getting worse and worse until the whole thing collapses and a dictator emerges, possibly Hillary.

We can elect Hillary and put things off until the only way to recover our rights is by force of arms. Hillary knows this and is going to do her best to destroy the Constitutional safeguards (including and especially the Second Amendment) so as to give herself more power.

Taking it back by force of arms is going to be a serious blood bath and not too many people have the stomach for this. Most Americans will sit by with a Faciat Georgous (let George do it) attitude.

Or we can look at the opportunity we have to tell ALL of our elected officials to smarten up and fly right by electing Trump.

This is the only opportunity I have ever heard of to let every single Congress Critter that we are sick and tired of the old business as usual cycle that goes on as we get our pockets picked by a corrupt system.

Trump really isn’t the candidate we want, he’s the asshole we NEED to at least put a speed bump in the downward spiral the country is presently in.

Like it or not, this is going to be the only time we have to tell our leadership to straighten up and fly right. We have only one shot at this. This will never happen again. Let’s not blow it.

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Know who REALLY hates bad cops?

I'll tell you who hates bad cops more than the general public does.

Good cops hate rogue cops with a purple passion. It's just common sense.

Every time a cop does something criminal it reflects on the poor, decent cop that's trying to make things safe for us. It makes their job a LOT harder.




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A few interesting comments I have heard.

White Privilege - Being held accountable for the actions of your ancestors by people who don't take responsibility for the actions of their children.

The truth of the matter is that over the years most of the people I have heard use like terms live 'white privilege' are unsuccessful people to begin with.

I have noticed that there are an awful large number of liberals out there that are really lousy parents. They seem to think that it is everyone else's responsibility to raise their kids and as a result have really bratty kids. This is not a racial issue. It happens to both blacks and whites.

The next time some idiot tells me to check my white privilege they are going to get an earful. There IS no white privilege. I have to put on my pants and go to work like everyone else. In fact, if I have to go looking for a job, white males are at the bottom of the list when it comes to hiring. Many companies recruit minorities actively.

Let's get this straight. The truth isn't racist. The truth is the truth.

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I am sitting here thiinking about the laws I have broken recently.

Last night I made an illegal U-turn.

The road was empty so I endangered nobody whatsoever but fact is I broke the law. So what. Take me to jail. In fact, take me directly to jail. Do not let me pass 'Go'. Do not let me collect $200.

The truth of the matter is I acted responsibly and that's good enough for me. Had there been any traffic at all I would not have committed such a desperate crime.

Lawmakers really don't have a clue if you ask me.

They enact law after law after law and as is human nature, most people obey the laws that they want to. If they obeyed all of them we would not have any crime.

Yet lawmakers continue to spew forth all sorts of foolish rules and regulations and think that things will change.

I have thought of myself as a law abiding citizen but in fact, I am not. Not too many people are when you think about it. In  fact if you did deep enough, NOBODY is.

Yes, NOBODY. If you dig deep enough, Mother Teresa has probably broken a law or two somewhere along the line.

I think that I am going to stop referring to myself as a law abiding citizen and start calling myself a responsible citizen instead. It makes more sense when you think about it.

I get a kick out of what happened in Connecticut. 

Molloy and cohorts rammed an assault weapon ban and ordered the population there to turn these deadly weapons in. According to the state's own figures they got about a 15% compliance. 

I think that estimate was a bit high. I think it was closer to 5 or maybe 10%, if that.

In short, an awful lot of of residents there that decided not to be law-abiding citizens anymore. I won't call most of these people criminals because some probably are. I will refer to the majority of these people as  responsible citizens. While they are in a direct violation of the law, they are causing nobody any real problems save to make fools out of Connecticut lawmakers.

Actually in a sense I found the entire thing somewhat funny when Molloy discovered nobody was obeying the law. He got up and started making all sorts of threats and saying the State Police were going to do this and that.

What I found funny is I wonder how many State Policemen have one or more of these outlawed weapons in their personal collections. Probably more than you would think.

In short, when lawmakers try and get everyone to obey them they often get laughed at. It happens a lot more than you think.

Most people try and live responsibly and really don't need a whole lot of guidance. The irresponsible people don't pay attention to the laws, anyway.

The mark of a good representative or senator is not how many laws he enacts, but how many he repeals.









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I see where the feds have criticized the Cajun Navy

for a number of things.

The feds say that the people are not trained, and were not using the proper safety equipment and the usual crap.

In 1952 the rescue of the Pendleton crew by a Coast Guard small boat crew is considered to be the finest hour of the Coast Guard. The three man crew rescued a number of crewmen in rough conditions. When you look at it, the entire operation broke every safety rule I can imagine.

No life jackets, an overgrossed boat, government property was destroyed, poor communications and a disobedience of orders was pretty much the entire scenario of the Pendleton rescue.

It was a typical Old School operation. Someone was in trouble so the Coasties went out and fished them out of the drink.

The Cajun Navy was running an Old School operation and did a remarkable job. They saved lives and that is all that matters.

I saw a few pictures of the Coast Guard operations there and noticed that every single person on the Coastie boats was wearing a government issued personal flotation device.

It makes me wonder if they were leaving people stranded on rooftops because they didn't have enough PFDs to go around.

The Cajun Navy simply took their bass boats out and rescued people. It was really that simple. I have heard of nobody getting injured and only good things on their efforts. Yet as usual the feds are commenting on their actions because they don't have the proper training and equipment.

The truth is the feds are embarrassed. They didn't show up until it was too late. 

Actually the feds are upset because they were not in charge of the operation. They don't like it when private citizens show them they can take care of things without them because it makes them realize we really don't need them.

Those comments by the feds have nothing to do with public safety. They are about power.

****************************

President Obama made a comment insisting that the proper rescue efforts were made to not leave minorities stranded. From what I gather he acted like the Cajuns were going to be out there in Klan suits shouting "Black live's don't matter! Drown, bitch!" and leaving minorities in the water strangling or taking potshots at them.

I would love to see the figures of the rescued broken down by minority status. My guess (this is nothing more than a guess) is that proportionally more minorities were rescued than whites.

It would be funny to see the Cajun Navy people apologize to the president for rescuing too many minorities.

Dear Mr. President, We were over quota by 1274 blacks, 847 Hispanics, 72 Asians and a South Sea Islander. However, we saved these people simply because we just didn't have the heart to sit there and watch our friends and neighbors drown. Hope you are not too upset over this. Please accept out heartfelt apologies.








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Suicide hotline. Hold, please.

No. I am not going to jump off of a bridge, and no I am not going to shoot myself.


Every life has a beginning, a middle and an end. My beginning was long ago which puts me closer to the end than I was when I started.

Right now I am in the middle. 

I have been taking time out to prepare for the end and it gets people concerned. "Right now I am doing my will," I'll say.

Instantly people will ask me "What's wrong with you?"

Then they start jumping to conclusions and start offering to call someone they know that is a suicide counselor or a doctor or whatever. It makes me want to slap them and put some sense into them.

Every life has a beginning, a middle and an end. That is indisputable. 

The time to get your affairs in order is sometime during the middle so when you get to the end you don't have that to worry about.

Actually the big thing is that I worry about Kitty. Mrs. Pic is a human being and can likely take care of herself. Kitty is a house cat and can't. Kitty is dependent and therefore needs to be worried about. Mrs. Pic doesn't. However, I do have to make sure things transfer over to her smoothly.

I think I'm going to be around a while but it is good to know that I have things ready for the inevitable.

I just wish that people would stop jumping to conclusions when I mention it.

Then again, I guess it is human nature. The other day I asked Mrs. Pic to get me some foot powder and she immediately asked me, "Why? What's wrong with your feet?"

Nothing is wrong with my feet and I use foot powder to keep it that way.

  



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I remember and old episode

 of 'Car 54 where are you?" that still makes me laugh today when I think about it.

My memory on the details isn't 100% clear but the gist of it was that there was no crime in their beat to speak of and that they were going to transfer Gunther and Francis to anothe beat. They were also going to give them an award because the neighborhood was pretty crime free.

The people on the beat were up in arms about it and as usual the powers that be were all confused about things.

One of the locals told the precinct captain that the reason for no crime was that the locals handled it.

"Someone tried to rob my house wares store and Guiseppe the deli guy saw him and sneaked up behind him and whacked him on the head with a sausage. We dragged him six blocks away and dumped him in an alley. When someone else tried to rob Guiseppe I threw a sheet over his head and Guiseppe whacked him and we hauled him off. Cops have better things to do than this."

One woman added "When you're expecting they are always within shouting distance to take you to the hospital."

About half the neighborhood chimed in with something or another that Gunther and Francis did to make the neighborhood a nicer place to live. Much of it was what people would consider stupid stuff.

"Francis shares his wife's recipes with my wife. She sure knows how to make a good ham loaf! It's delicious and cheap, too."

Of course the flabberghasted precinct captain decided the best course of action was to leave things just as they were. After all, there was no trouble in the neighborhood and maybe the best thing to do was leave things alone.  

While the episode was probably quite unrealistic there really were a couple of points.

First, if something works, leave it alone.

Second, you can't beat grass roots efforts of people that are friends and neighbors.

Third, sometimes the right person for the right job comes aolng and while it may not make sense to you, it may very well make sense to a lot of other people...especially the people using the service.

Fourth they don't make things like that as funny as they used to.



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Donations.

One of the things I am starting to see is that while Americans are still generous with their money they are being smarter about who they give it to.

I'm on a couple of 'back channel' forums and I am seeing a lot more of this as time passes.

The question is generally something like  "Hey, I got a spare hundred bucks. Where can I send it that would do the most good?"

Of course, the United Way isn't on the list. Neither is the Red Cross.

A couple of the Louisiana locals know the score and seem to be doing a pretty good job of directing the small amounts of money to where it will do the most good.

"There's this old black preacher that's been putting people up in the church as best he can. He's swamped. I'll bet he can use some money to buy food with."

My guess is that he's an Old School type preacher that can probably figure out a way to feed people for about a buck or so per person per day. He'll pinch a nickel so hard the buffalo will scream. It's probably the best bang for the buck so he gets the recommendation.

Or "There's some woman down the next town over that's taking in a cartload of stray pets. She seems to be having good luck reuniting them with the owners. I brought her 100 pounds of dog and cat food the other day. She's swamped. Here's her address... Hey, send it to me instead. I'll also bring her over one of my wife's casseroles, too. She could probably use it."

This is a change from the usual business of sending a few bucks to the Red Cross. It seems to get the money to where it gets it directly to where it is needed. The middlemen and 'administrative costs' are pretty much eliminated.

It's pretty much grass roots and from what I see going on in Louisiana it's pretty damned cost effective.

I have always preached keeping things as far down the chain as possible. If you look at the efforts there of the Cajun Navy you will see that costs there are at a minimum.

A lot of this comes out of the individuals pocket and a lot of it seems to come from direct donations. One of the costs the Cajun Navy has is probably gasoline simply because boats run on the stuff.

I'm venturing that the Cajun Navy would readily accept a couple of drums of gas as readily as they would accept cash money. Actually it would be somewhat more efficient because if you gave them cash then someone would have to go out and buy gas with it.

I would not be surprised to find that fuel dealers would be willing to donate gas, either. So that makes it easier and more efficient.

The bottom line is that Americans are just as generous as they always have been. They're just getting a little more careful and making sure their donations get to where they will do the most good.

And that is a very good thing.




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The Cajun Navy deserves a post.

The flooding in Louisiana brought out the true spirit of what this country is supposed to be. A non-governmental guerrilla force emerged to rescue stranded people consisting of (gasp!) private citizens!

It was immediately dubbed the 'Cajun Navy' because a lot of them are Cajun.

With a group like this, who needs the feds? Most likely they are a lot more efficient and a damned sight cheaper. They just go in and get the job done.

I read where the locals decided after the feds took their own sweet time after Katrina and the boondoggle paperwork and territorial fighting that it's a whole lot easier and better to do it their selves.

Of course, Old Jug Ears sent a memo telling people to make sure the rescuing was done with proper respect to the race of the rescued.

(I often wonder about that. Blacks comprise something like 12.7% of us. I can hear it now. "Nope. Gotta let at least three more blacks drown to keep the numbers politically correct!")

He sent some big, long memo telling the people hate not to show discrimination with the rescue efforts. Needless to say, an awful lot of Louisianans of all races were outraged.

For what it's worth I have seen boatloads of blacks along with whites being rescued. I seriously doubt that there is a whole lot of predjudice in the hearts and minds of the rescuers. They just want to get people to safety and worry about the rest later.

What a moron! What was he thinking?

I suppose he thought that the Cajuns were going to show up wearing KKK sheets and screaming at some poor slob sitting on his roof,  "Black lives DON'T matter! Choke on it! Drown, Bitch!"

Not hardly. I'm reasonably certain they don't differentiate and probably don't care. I doubt most of them really care what color somebody is when they go to rescue them. They are just going out to help their friends and neighbors.

This just goes to tell you about how Old Jug Ears thinks. Everything to him is racial and/or political.

Incidentally most of the stuff in the way of gasoline, Gatorade for rescued, food, whatever is likely coming out of the individal Cajun sailor's own pocket.

Of course I do think that there will be racial complaints, though. Some fat, lazy, useless indolent black will be sitting high and dry and be upset that a Cajun boat is rescuing someone practically drowning nearby. He'll be angry because they won't take him to the Wiggly Piggly to buy a couple of 40s. He'll bitch and say it was becase he is black.

I have seen where a number of Cajun Navy boats are flying the Stars and Stripes which is, I suppose, a good thing.

Personally if I were there I would likely be flying the Southern Cross just to wipe the eye of Old Jug Ears. But that is just me.

Speaking of wiping someone's eye, who showed up? You guessed it. None other than Donald J. Trump. Old Jug Ears couldn't be bothered. He was golfing in Nantucket. Hillary couldn't be bothered, either. Maybe it was too hot for the refined delicate tastes of Crooked Hillary.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the feds are most likely fighting over responsibilities, territories and who is in charge of what assets. It has nothing to whatsoever to do with saving lives as it does with careers and politics.

Frankly I often think they ought to put the Salvation Army in charge of the whole mess... as dictators! Turn ALL assets over to them. They may find themselves in over their head but at least they would not be boondoggled with juristictional disputes. The 'Sally's' are not political either. They just want to get the job done. 

Still, I understand the Cajun Navy is fairly well organized and if someone doesn't now the area well enough they snag a sheriff's deputy as a ridealong. It makes sense.

Another interesting point is that I have heard the effort referred to as American Dunkirk. So named after the British Expeditionaly Force was rescued off of the Dunkirk beaches by the private boat owners of Britain during WW2. 

Of course, because the Cajun Navy doesn't fit into the Mainstream Media's political agenda and makes Obama look as foolish as he is. Do not expect to hear a whole lot about it.

That's why I posted it here.


$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Oh, yeah.

In another 'cover the boss' stunt. The Governor of Louisiana claimed he asked President Obama not to show up.

Yeah, right.

He's just covering for Zero so he doesn't have to interrupt his golf game in Nantucket.


We're not stupid.



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Here. Read the directions.

The directions

http://constitutioncenter.org/media/files/constitution.pdf

Every so often it is a pretty good idea to refresh one's self on the way this country is SUPPOSED to work.





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Go to the Southern Poverty Law Center's web page.

They say that Black Lives Matters is not a hate group.

Bullshit!

It is. Don't be fooled.
#####################

Someone gave the BLM people over 100 million bucks. Interesting.

So where is it all going? 

One place it is not going is Louisiana for flood relief. I don't see any boats down there with #BLM or Black Panthers on the side.

I suppose that doing legitimate relief work is just too good for the BLM and Panther types. They are probably afraid they might have to help someone out that's a different color.

Still, there is a fairly large black community down in that neck of the woods and I have heard a few of the smarter blacks speak up and say that their absence is duly noted.

Whatever.




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Do not self deploy!

With the flooding going on in Louisiana there has come a cry ham operators to help out and supply communications until things can becoem reestablished.

The ARRL has tweeted that volunteers are needed and has also added the caveat 'DO NOT SELF DEPLOY!' They have a number of the Louisana area coordinator posted and volunteers should call ahead and make arrangements before they head down there.

It makes sense because anyone arriving to help is another mouth to feed. They're also another person that has the potential for simply getting in the way or worse yet, needing rescue themselves.

I remember Sean Penn arriving at Katrina and getting in the way. He didn't even know enough to put the seacock in his boat before putting it in the water.

Being willing to help and being able to help are two different things. The people down there need people that are trained and not just a warm body.

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) people have a certain amount of training in emergency communications. The average ham does not. I don't.

There is a group of locals down there presently nicknamed the Coonass or Cajun Navy. These are locals that are manning their own personal boats and evacuating people. Reportedly they are doing a great job. 

While they don't really have a lot of formal training, they have they know their boats, the area and the people. That's generally better than any class.

On the other hand, the ham radio people are looking for people with background that are willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. That probably means cooking, cleaning, doing various repairs as well as running a radio.

I'd bet the area coordinator is doing his best to filter out the big ego types that think they'll just be doing 'cool' stuff like some of the people that showed up after Katrina. These types generally are more trouble than they are worth as they tend not to be able to cook and do the necessary paper work and housework that accompanies such an effort.

Incidentally on another board the self deployment subject came up and I pointed out that if I were to self-deploy -and I'm not going to- that I have the gear for one purpose.

I'd get the Cajun Navy to run me into an area that is unaccessible and drop me, my rig and a couple of cases of MREs off. I'd set up shop, check into the main net ONCE and let them know I'll posssibly be relaying any important messages and then just listen, listen and listen at scheduled times.

It would probably be uneventful but would serve to at least let the villagers know that help can be gotten if needed. It's not all cool stuff that's needed.



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Time to forget politics and stuff

for a little bit and tell a good old sea story about life on the river.

Today was a hot one and I recalled how on days like this I would go several miles upriver at high tide and hop in the river and swim out to the mouth, riding the current.

It was a fun way to enjoy a summer afternoon and just in general enjoy life.

One of the things I recall is the snow wing we used to tow behind powerboats. 

We tried a saucer but it didn't plane well and the boat wasn't powerful enough to get it to be a whoe lot of fun. However one of the guys supplied a Blazon Sno Wing. It was a lot more aerodynamic and planed well behind the boat.

I hopped on it and we took off. It was the first time and we had a few things to learn.

The kid running the boat took a turn and the line slacked a bit. When it fetched up it took me in a big arc and a huge moored boat came closer and closer. Just as I was beginning to bail out to keep from hitting the boat hard the line came taut and I shot off back on straight course back into safe water.

It was a wet, wild, fun ride.

Afterwards we ate.

Being young and hungry and seeing the tide was falling we grabbed the steel pail and dug about half a bucket of clams and built a fire. It didn't take long for the clams to steam and we ate like kings.

Hmm. As I sit here thinking, I recall one of my most memorable dates. It was an impromptu thing. I had just graduated high school and just pretty much dumped a date about an hour or so earlier. I went down to the hangout and met a pretty little thing.

She hopped in with me and commented that she had already heard about my date going sour and chastized me for being so stupid as to ask the twit out in the frst place.

Then she ran into the burger place, swiped a couple forks and retured and picked up the doggie bag I had from the dinner date and chowed down.

I asked her is she wanted clams and lobster he next day and she smiled. "Sounds good," she said.

"Good," I said. "Meet me at Damon's Point three hours before low tide tomorrow. Wear something you won't mind getting wet and dirty."

"Morning or afternoon tide?" she asked.

"Afternoon," I said.

"I'll figure it out," she said.

She was pretty sharp. I didn't have to tell her what time low tide was. She knew how to find out on her own. As I was pulling into the Point I saw a car ahead of me. It was her and she was right on time.

I had some beer in the car, a bucket and little else. When we arrived at the Point I dove off of the pier and swam out to a lobster boat, pulled up his 'keeper' and removed a couple nice sized lobsters and put a couple bucks in a jar, put it in the 'keeper' and lowered it back over the side.

I swam back to the pier with a lobster in each hand. She laughed. "You know that guy?" she asked.

"Yeah," I grinned. "He knows I'm the guy that steals lobsters from him and leaves a couple bucks. He thinks it's funny."

I parked the lobsters in the bucket in the back seat of my car for safe keeping. Then I opened the hach on the dock and grabbed the bucket, clam fork and two oars hidden there and put them in Walter Crossley's skiff. We hopped in and I rowed across the river. 

In short order we had a half bucket of nice steamers and we rowed back. When I replaced everything we went up ashore and I lit a fire and 'just happened' to find a couple of concrete blocks to rest the pail on.

We threw the lobsters in with the clams, put some seawater in the bottom of the pail and rested it on the blocks over the fire. I covered the pail with a loose fitting lid and waited. It didn't take long for things to start bubbling away.

I said this girl was sharp and she was. She produced a couple sticks of butter. I fished a can out of the trash and rinsed it out with seawater, dropped the butter into the can and put it near the fire to melt.  

When it was ready I produced a pair of pliers to serve as a nut cracker and split the body of the lobsters with an old trench knife and we ate the whole mess with our hands like animals. It was delicious and we washed it down with ice cold beer.

She was not very dainty. She dug in and marveled at the simplicity of it all. We wolfed it all down like animals.

When we were done we sat there for a few hours in the darkness and we looked at the stars and picked out the constillations.

Shortly after she left for college and I didn't see her again for years. Still, a few people told me she talked about the great time she had at an impromptu clambake with me.

About thirty years after the fact I ran into her and her husband. They had a couple of kids.

When she greeted me she turned to her husband. "Remember the time I told you about having a primitive clambake at Damon's Point? He's the guy."

As I sit here I marvel at how such a simple thing like that can be so memorable to both of us.

Looking back on things I do believe one of the biggest influences on my entire life was the North River. 


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So how come the recent riots have been over some poor old cop trying to defend himself?

 Blue lives matter, too.

Another cop shot a knife wielder and the BLM people are all upset because the cop didn't let the lunatic stab him to death. I wonder why?

The movement is called 'Black Lives Matter'. Well, I got news for you. I don't care what color you are but if you try and injure another human being without justification than as far as I can see your life does not matter.

I could give two whits about the thug that got shot in Milwaukee and that's the way it is. If he cared about his life he would not have pulled a pistol on a police officer.

One of the relatives of the thug has suggested not burning down the ghetto, but burning down the suburbs.

That won't go very far. 

Suburban cops are pretty loyal to their neighborhoods. They generally live among the people they serve. I have a neighborhood cop a couple doors down and he looks after my place when I am off making a living.

A suburban cop won't be defending some neighborhood he doesn't live in. He'll be defending his own.

That's only the police.

The burbs contain an awful lot of hunters and other people involved in the shooting sports. My county has an inordinite number of people licensed to carry firearms. 

What is interesting, too, is the number of women I see starting to learn to shoot.

I suppose the first couple of times the BLM types try and invade the suburbs they will be successful at burning down a few homes. 

What they don't understand is the backlash is going to effect practically all blacks. A car driven by a black on his way somewhere doesn't draw a glance. Nobody in the suburbs really cares what color a person is.

It won't take long before people start caring what color a person is and they will be keeping a serious eye on them. 

The good will suffer along with the bad. It isn't right but that's the way it will be. A lot of good people will suffer.

This will not go the way they think it will go. They're going to lose and lose big. They also forget that there are successful blacks that live in the suburbs, too.

But the biggest thing they will be up against is the money...and the success that made the money. There is an awful lot of money and power in the suburbs and when the people with clout that live there get scared they will pull out all the stops to defend what is theirs.

They will certainly have more access to things like the National Guard and a decent, well trained police force to deal with this. If push comes to shove they are not very likely to question the tactics the police use to defend them. Expect heavy casualties.

What is interesting is that the very liberals that have supported them will turn on them in a heartbeat if their neighborhoods are at risk. They are not going to lose what they have for a bunch of the malcontents in the BLM movement. They'll turn on you so fast your head will spin and demand the government that they seem to love run the entire BLM movement out of existince.

Of course, many of the liberals never did really love you to begin with. The reason they tell everyone they support various welfare and EBT programs is to lift you out of poverty. Don't believe it. A lot of liberals consider it a way of keeping you in your place and out of their neighborhoods. They really want you where you are. Many liberals are not your friend.

Fact is, the conservatives don't want you there sucking up government money. They want you to climb out of the inner cities and take care of yourselves and be successful. If you become successful they generally have nothing against having you as their friends and neighbors. Most conservative people I know don't give a damn about anyone's color.

Of course, the people that will suffer are the successful blacks because they won't be trusted anymore by anyone. When that happens they will turn on you out of anger for the trouble you have caused them. Most suburban blacks have worked hard for what property and reputation they have and don't want to lose it.

For the life of me I have not been able to figure out why the inner city black community has supported such thuggery and then gripe about where they live.

The truth is they do not have to live there. They have the same options everyone else has and that is the right to move and better themselves.

One of the things about this country is that someone can always go back to school and educate themselves. They can pick up a trade through a community college or get a degree one way or the other. In fact, minorities have an awful lot of opportunity if they look for it.

There really isn't a whole lot of excuse for living like that in this country.

Actually, in a way I do hope the BLM people try and bring ther violence into the suburbs. It will result in them being crushed in a heartbeat.

Maybe afterwards we can start to undo the damage that has been done in the area of race relations.


Let's wait until Obama is out of office, first, though. Let's also give Dr. King a little time to slow down a bit because he is spinning in his grave.



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This is yet ONE MORE reason I would make a lousy cop.

This is the kind of thing I would do if I were a beat cop. I certainly wouldn't want to see the poor little guy robbed on his way to buy bread, now, would I?

Truth is, it's funny, I don't care who you are. That's just plain funny.


Click on the picture to read the caption.



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I see where some people want to blame white America for the goings on in Milwaukee.

Nope. I'm not taking responsibility for it.

A black kid got shot after he pointed a pistol at a cop. The cop promptly put two in his ten-ring and ended the threat.

Too bad. Use your Obamaphone and call someone that cares. I don't.

Want to burn down your community? Go right ahead.

Maybe if government would stop rebuilding these communities and let people sleep in the ashes this crap aould stop.

Let's try this one out and see what happens.

If the rioters have to sleep in the ashes and rebuild themselves they'll think twice next time.

Incidentally when you hear the term 'food deserts' remember that this kind of thing creates them. Nobody wants to open a business that might get burned down.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&

I would like to extend a personal 'Thank you' to President Obama for inviting the BLM people to the White House and encouraging this behavior.

Race relations in the country have sure gone down the toilet since he was elected. Thanks a wino's drunken pant load, Mr. President.




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One of the big pride and joys of the Obama administration is that he saved General Motors and all of the jobs.

What he and Hillary won't tell you is that they want to destroy the entire firearm industry. Of course, they have no plan on replacing the job loss such a thing will create.

Let's look at a few things here.

A GM spokesman said GM employs 77,000 Americans. (Another figure puts GM as hiring 101,000 Americans) Obama busted his ass to save 77,000 (or 101,000) American jobs and heroically brags about it.

The American firearm industry employs 220,000 people. That's twice of what GM employs.  That's the tip of the iceberg.

This does not cover he revenue generated by hunters and sportsmen which in the billions and some of it really isn't calculable. 

For example, a hunter upgrades to a 4x4 truck he would not have bothered with if he didn't use the truck for hunting.

Hunters buy pretty big ticket items in pursuit of their game. They buy boats, and property and vehicles and a host of other things. 

The president called GM the pillar of the American economy. If that is so, what is the firearm industry?

National Shooting Sports Foundation eatimates that in New York the firearms industry contributed over $1.2 billion and about 8000 jobs to the local economy. 
However, since Cuomo signed the SAFE act there many of these jobs and a good part of the money are leaving New York. It would be interesting to find out how much revenue and how many jobs have left New York since Cuomo signed the SAFE act.

Remington opened their new factory in Alabama instead of New York.

In Maryland, Bereta has moved. Colorado lost Magpul when they moved to gun friendly Texas.

Of course, Obama and Hillary want the entire industry to disappear.

This is really the tip of the iceberg because the money lost by the collapse of the industry will cost all of us money when you look at it. People will not have money for things. They will not buy new cars, they will not vacation. They won't be able to aford nice things and the merchants will suffer.

The merchants will suffer and they won't have as much to spend. The round robin effect will hurt the entire economy.

As it stands now the economy probably can't absorb a hit like that. 

Yet the Obama/Hillary team wants this to happen. My guess is they are afraid of the little people having arms. After all, Mao once said that power pours from the mouth of a gun and he didn't want any of them pointed his way. It's all about them.

A while ago a liberal confronted me over gun control and I pointed out how many jobs the firearm industry created.

She said she didn't give a damn.

I shot the classic liberal answer back at her.

"Do it for the children," I said. It felt pretty good throwing that classic liberal line back at one. "Are you so cruel that you will let your hatred of firearms make all those jobs disappear? Think of the poor babies that won't have milk. Think of how many people will have to go on welfare? How many women will be forced to become strippers and prostitutes to fed their children just so you can feel morally superior? Are you really that cruel as to do that to your fellow Americans?"

She didn't know what to say. I decided to bring this one home. I let my mouth run away from me.

"Do you have children?" I asked.

"A boy and a girl," she said.

"Picture YOUR daughter--your darling, sweet daughter who was once working at a respectable sporting firearms maker being laid off in this economy. Out of work jobless and trying to raise your grandchild," I said.

"Now picture her," I continued. "Picture your darling daughter underneath a drunken pig of a sailor in a fleabag motel trying to make enough for rent and to provide your granddaughter with milk and cereal to have. Are you so cruel as to want that?"

Of course, she made an uppity comment that it wouldn't happen to HER daughter.

"No, but it will certainly happen so SOMEONE ELSE'S daughter, so it's OK, right? What happens so someone Else's kids is OK, right?"

She didn't stick around and started to leave. "Lady, I'm just telling you the truth. I can't help it if you don't want to believe it." I said as she turned around and left looking about ready to explode.

The truth of the matter is that Hillary is promising more jobs yet she is planning on eliminating an awful lot more.

The number of manufacturing jobs in his country has dropped like a stone over the past couple of decades. It has certainly caused quite a drop in the middle class and hurt the country dramatically.

Yet as I sit here I watch the Hillary/Obama team getting ready to destroy an entire industry. It makes no sense when you look at the big picture. Attacking the firearm industry will probably lead to more poverty and more crime.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Our freedoms are protected by four boxes. The soap box, the ballot box, the jury box and the cartridge box.

The government is probably getting pretty scared now because they want to take the cartridge box away from the little people.





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I do believe I am glad that Africa

 didn't get into my blood.

About the time I got out of the service I wanted to do something interesting with my life. I wrote to Rhodesia and asked about a possible job as a game warden or something along these lines.

I got a letter back stating offering me a job in the Rhodesian Army. I threw it in the trash as I had no desire to get killed in an African bush war. 

They say that Africa gets in your blood and I do think it does for some people. Many Europeans take a brief job there and never seem to return to Europe.

As a ham operator I have made contacts with a few European expats living there. After a brief contact QSL cards are swalled and I often email my contacts.

I have emailed a few expats there and the story is the same with all of them. They came to Africa on a short job and never looked back.

I can see how that is. It seems to be a simpler life and seeing how their paychecks seem to come from Europe it sounds like the best of both worlds.

Still,  I can't help thinking that if I had gone to Rhodesia back in the 70s that I would probably be pretty heartbroken by now.

It looks like almost the entire continent has slid downhill because of socialism, tribalism and out and out corruption.

Rhodesia used to be the breadbasket of Africa. Now because of socialism and corruption it is now Zimbabwe and is a sewer. That one would have been pretty hard to take.

Then again, I am pretty heartbroken with what has happened in this country. It has taken a serious turn for the worse because we grow more and more socialist by the day.



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I just read an interesting essay on how people are just too plain stupid to be allowed to govern themselves.

The article did hold a lot of water when I thought about it.

We see what is happening now and I believe the writer has several valid points.

One point he made that struck me as valid was where he said that there are an awful lot of people that should not be allowed to vote. He felt that voting should be restricted to those that actually contribute and have some skin in the game.

Years ago voting was restricted to landowners. These people had something to lose.

These days I believe it ought to be restricted to people that own land or pay income taxes. 

By that I mean people that actually cough up money on April 15th. Not the people that either get all of their money back, nor those that get money back they didn't pay in.

We're talking taxpayers that fill out the IRS forms and give money to the government.

One of the biggest problems we have here is people voting themselves a raise every year, either directly or indirectly.

When a politician offers to increase welfare payments or give out free phones who else are these people going to vote for? They may not have any money but the do have something in their head that resembles a brain. They know when they are getting something without working for it and will vote accordingly. After all, it isn't costing them anything.

“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy...” 
― Alexander Fraser Tytler

Tytler is dead on here and that is what is happening now. Here's another thing that is happening now.

“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.” 
― Alexis de Tocqueville

That is what is happening now. 

It's happening with EBT cards, Obamaphones, healthcare and a lot of other things.

We would ALL be a LOT better off if we had not let government into our lives.

Of course, people with skin in the game would not have let politicians into office that have supported these policies. The poor would have to make a choice to either be successful or do without.

Instead we have a string of non- contributors voting for any politician that comes down the line and bribes them with other people's money.

Any time you rob Peter to pay Paul you can be sure that Paul has no problem with that and that Peter isn't too enamored with the situation.

Our social programs are a case in point.

Restricting sufferage to those that actually contribute to society would have pretty much insured that we would be a lot better off than we are now.

This seems like something that is against a lot of what we stand for I know. But when you look at it in the light of cause and effect you can see that permitting everyone to vote is a mistake that the Founding Fathers made.

The truth of the matter is that most people will not put the country first and will vote for the person that promises them the most.

I am not surprised at how many people will sell their liberty so cheaply for trinkets like an Obamaphone or a couple of bucks on an EBT card.

Others like union members sell their liberties for petty little favors and political promises. They do what the union boss says even though they KNOW it is not for the good of the country.

This country as we know it is on the downhill slide and it is coming faster and faster. We can't handle the massive daily debt we incur for much longer without collapsing.

Incidentally when democracies collapse they are generally replaced with a dictatorship.

Sound like a certain female candidate running for office?




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