What's the problem? What's going on? I mean what's the deal here, huh?

I am watching the congress critters going stark staring ape$hit over Elon Musk's audit of USAID. I'm getting all sort of reports of expenses that don't make sense or are an outright fraudulent expenditure.

It doesn't take much of a brain to know that $40 million to Iran to spread diversity in Sesame Street in Iran sounds kind of fishy. Diversity includes LGBTQ+ and Iran takes a rather dim view on gay activity. It's punishable by death in many instances.

The President of Ukraine says he doesn't know where over 50% of the money sent there has gone to. There's a nice Charlie Chan mystery maybe he can solve that one.

Years ago a friend was incensed when he heard congress had appropriated $250K for a study of why little kids fall off of bicycles. That was a crummy quarter mil. Now we're talking billions.

The thing I would like to know is why so many congress critters are protesting Elon Musk digging around and auditing things. It makes me think that if if Musk keeps digging he's going to ruin their gravy trains.

The left can scream all they want to but there is one thing they can't deny. We, the people have a right to know where and how our tax money is being spent.

Keep going, Elon! Dig deep and follow the money down to the last person that got any.

 

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If I managed and office situation downtown

I do believe that instead of having people work 9-5 like they have done for years I would try running 6-2 instead.

It would make life a lot easier as far as dealing with traffic goes. Anyone that has ever driven through the city between 5 and 6 am knows that it's a ghost town and the traffic isn't too bad at 2pm, either.

I'd try it for 6 months because that's probably how long it would take for everybody to get used to it.

Being able to be home by, say, 3pm would make it easier for people to shop, too.

Still, there are only 24 hours in a day and we have to manage them.

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I think I am going to stop trolling people over Donald Trump

because it's just plain too damned easy. It's like picking on a toddler.

It really is. All I have to do is say "Donald Trump just signed and executive order saying (Fill in some absurd $hit here)

The one that brought this to a halt was when I went into a convenience store I am at a regular at and said to the clerk "Donald Trump just signed an executive order that in all unisex bathrooms that women have to put the seat up after they use it."

The clerk knows me. He laughed like hell unlike the person behind me that screeched "He can't do that" and went off on a wonderful meltdown. 

Working at a convenience store needs a little help now and then and I am glad to help out. They know I'm just trying to make their day a little more tolerable. Some jobs sometimes need a little help.

Today when I went into the store the clerk asked me what Trump was up to and I said, "I'm not trolling with Trump anymore."

"Oh? Why is that?" he asked. 

"Because it makes me feel like I sucker punched a retard," I answered.

He laughed like hell and commented that I certainly have my pride and said, "I understand completely."

It really is like sucker punching a some poor disabled kid. It just ain't right.

People are stupid. Many believe whatever they hear. 

When Trump froze the overseas money the other day I saw more people freak out that Grandma was going to get thrown off a cliff.

When I heard it I just looked into it and quickly found out that no payments to Americans were being interrupted. 

We are living in an age of hysteria.

We have information at our fingertips and STILL too many people believe whatever they hear and/or what they want to hear.

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To find the leaks turn off the faucet.

Which is what Trump did when he froze overseas funds. 

It didn't take long for a rather large number of people to balk and try to undermine him. Most of them are currently 'on leave' pending investigation, meaning after the investigations they will likely be fired.

Trump was smart enough to know not to fire them outright and have them take him to court to get their jobs back. He's going to fire them the correct way. Possibly during the investigation one or more may sing and drag a few more along with them. What's also a likely scenario is they will be paid off to keep quiet. This will be interesting to watch.

Someone mentioned it as being an old plumber's trick I have used before. To find the leaks you simply turn off the faucet. The leaks become obvious. Well played, Mr. President.

Now let's take a look at RFKjr dealing with Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, both of who have taken a LOT of money from Big Pharma.

It was hilarious. Both of them wanted to know about if he'd take money from Big Pharma and he threw it right back in their faces. It was hilarious watching both of them get indignant and lose it when RFKjr pointed out that both of them had taken large sums of money from Big Pharma. Neither of them could squirm out of it. Both of them got really indignant and ranted and raved. I laughed.

Both of the really lost their minds and ranted and raved about the money they had received from Big Pharma. Bernie screaming he had never been given money from a CEO. I suppose in a way that's probably right. The CEO didn't come and personally hand him a check.

Bernie and Pocahontas both made themselves look really stupid.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

What would also be hilarious is a Senator that lives only on his $174,000 salary and health benefits, period. Camping in a cramped 1 BR apartment and driving a jalopy back and forth to work. No free haircuts and massages, no nothing. After taxes he'd have $122K to live on. That ain't much in DC. Likely he would shop at Goodwill for suits to wear to work and part time at a convenience store during recesses.

As for reporting gifts there would be one. "I helped some guy get his car started so he gave me a bottle of Jim Beam."

Of course he'd be able to have certain legitimate office and travel expenses paid, which is more than fair. 

He'd be the most hated person in Congress.

 

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Ronald Reagan was the Great Communicator. Trump is not.

I do believe he could get a lot more support if he'd communicate what he is doing for us instead of just doing it and having it all taken out of context and twisted by the left.

He took us out of the WHO and saved us $500 million. WHO has offered to take us back for $39 million. Nobody seems to know that. Trump said he'd think it over. If we DO return to the WHO at $39 million than Trump has saved us $461 million bucks. That's a pretty good chunk of change.

Not a whole lot of people know this because the media has been silent and Trump hasn't found a way to explain that to the people yet. He has to address the nation far more often than anyone else in recent years because he has been making more changes than anyone in recent years. He's tackling projects that previous presidents have kicked the can further down the street. 

Financially we're in trouble. We have to lower federal spending a lot. Someone opined that it has to drop by at least a third or the whole country is going to collapse under debt before long. I believe him.

What we're hearing all over on both the MSM and on social media all sorts of lies, half-truths and misinformation being spread. Much of this is hysteria because people don't know what's going on. This can easily be overcome by keeping people posted. 

Educating the people with what's going on won't eliminate malicious $hit stirring but it will reduce it very considerably.

It would also serve to make his job easier because it would likely reduce things he faces like malicious compliance among employees.

Trump has to communicate better.

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I see where Oklahoma

has added a new requirement to get a teaching certificate.

They have to be able to pass the test given to people that are being naturalized in order to be awarded their certificates.

Personally I think that's not enough. I think that they should have a GOOD course in civics under their belts so they understand how the system works.

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I see where federal funds have been frozen and the ensuing panic is causing epic meltdowns and panics of losing SS, Medicare, and all sorts of benefits. 

When I first heard it it didn't sound right to me so I dug around for a few minutes and read the official proclamation. I was right. It doesn't effect government services that people need. It's about fraud and waste. Various government and non government organizations are funneling vast amounts of money out of the treasury and into various places that are counterproductive and I'd bet heavily into a lot of personal pockets.

I have read that much of this is going to NGOs, non government organizations. Non government organizations probably should not be funded by the government to begin with. 

When the freeze is lifted it will be interesting to see how much money we will save. It will probably be in the billions if I am right, and I am not always right. Still, my prediction is it will be a LOT.

UPDATE: The freeze has been put on hold.

This is an interesting time for our nation. I think we're going to see a lot of things get cleaned up. It's pretty exciting.

One thing Trump, Hegseth and a few others have to do to get things started is lop off a few heads. Someone shut down the Medicare website and that instilled panic. It's back up and running. Whoever did that should be canned. The instructions were clear.

In the Air Force someone took the parts the 332nd (Red Tails) and the WASPs contributed during WW2 out of the syllabus for Air Force basic training. Pete fixed that instantly. Whoever did that is probably going to face charges  of malicious compliance. 

Right now when I hear something that doesn't sound right I try and chase down the official source. It saves a lot of time, effort, and panic. Generally there's a good reason for what goes on.

 

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The recently pardoned J 6ers are starting to speak out

and it ain't pretty.

One person has reported that the trials were conducted by kangaroo courts, the people overcharged and over sentenced. 

A seven year sentence and 3 felonies is a little stiff for someone that did no violence and damaged no property. 

He said the DC jail was hideous but when he got sent to the federal prison the guards were polite and professional.

Seven years for what is simple trespass tells me he was sentenced not for what he did, but what he thought.

More J6ers will likely pop up and start speaking out. It should prove to be interesting. 

When it was discovered the J6 Committee in Congress destroyed evidence the whole push of the J6ers should have been released immediately. That was CLEARLY a case of evidence tampering.

The wrong J6ers went to jail. It should have been the whole J6 Committee.

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It just dawned on me

I read the WHO has offered to let us back in for $39 million.

We were paying the WHO $500 million/year. That's $461 million less than we were paying. Trump said he'd think about it.

It just occurred to me that it looks to me like Trump is treating our money like it's coming out of his pocket unlike the rest of the politicians that don't give it a second thought because it's just someone else's money. The peasants are just there to cough up whatever they feel like taking from them. I think that as a non political businessman Trump realizes this.

 When I realized that a lot of things fell into place. Trump is Trump and really isn't the most presidential president we have ever had. He's pretty rough about the edges. However he is both an opportunist and one hell of a dealmaker. 

He's not a cheapskate by any stretch of the imagination. He'll pay good for an good product but it had better be a good product and the price has to be reasonable. 

Right now he's in the process of doing what he does best, negotiating. Colombia refused to take illegals back and refused to accept our flights. Whap! 25% tariff! 

Colombia then backpedaled and agreed to take them and bam! No tariff. Done deal.

I see where many Mexicans are self-deporting and I have a feeling that (hopefully) those that are will be going to the head of the line for work visas so they can return. Fair enough! They're sure welcome back to work and live here...after they've been vetted properly. We can use the help.

Anyway, it's going to be interesting to watch Donald Trump wheel and deal for the next 4 years. 

 

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When is the last time you asked a poor person for a job?

I'm sick and tired of Bernie Sanders screeching about billionaires.

He used to scream about millionaires until he became one. So then he brought it up a notch and started in on billionaires.

One thing people seem to forget about getting rich and that's that you don't do it alone. You take people up with you and enrich their lives.

Sure Bill Gates made more money that God but in doing so he created a lot of wealth for a lot of people. The list of people that got ahead because of Gates is endless. It ranges from the creation of millionaires all the way down to the guy sweeping the floor at Microsoft. They were all better off for having had Gates create operating systems that enabled the computer age to enter.

What Gates has done with his wealth is a different subject. Still, it's his money and while it may be argued he has moral responsibility to use it for the betterment of mankind, he has no real responsibility to do so.

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Abraham Lincoln said not to believe everything you see on the internet

Some 20 something told me something fantastic that Donald Trump was supposed to do. I he said that Project 2025 was going to make women put the toilet seat up after they use it. I had seen that one earlier today. It was a spoof.

Of course I knew I had a live one on my hands so I replied, "Abraham Lincoln said not to believe everything you see on the internet just because there's a picture with a caption under it."

"How do you know that?" he demanded.

"It's on his Facebook page," I answered.

"Really?" he asked and whipped out his phone.

I turned to walk off and get the hell out of there before I got a blast of $hit for being a smartass and heard, "Hey! He does have a "Facebook page!

"Of course he has a Facebook page," I said over my shoulder as I walked off.

Anyway I went home and looked. There is Abraham Lincoln's Facebook page but it's private so I couldn't cruise through it. It's probably been created by some admirer of Honest Abe.

I'll add that one to my personal bag of bull$hit.

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Some people try and label me as anti immigration

which is par golf. I also get labeled as racist of which I am neither.

While I support Trump chasing illegals out of the country, I am a supporter of legal immigration. I also like the idea of H1B visas to fill the ranks of people we can use in this country. We can skim the best and brightest off the top and use them here. For one thing we have a serious shortage of engineers and medical people.

As far as racism goes, DEI and other bull$hit programs have to go.

I stand by opening up anything to anyone who is qualified, regardless of race, sex, whatever...BUT YA GOTTA BE QUALIFIED. 

You don't eliminate racism by replacing it with another type of racism. You eliminate it altogether. Everybody has a shot at it.

For example, there is one single standard for Ranger school and you have to be able to meet it to graduate. As of now there are 143 woman that have graduated from that school. Inside sources have said that they graduated fair and square. They met the requirements.

It's not racist to demand equality for everyone. 

One thing that gets overlooked by DEI advocates is that DEI programs have a dark side, too.

A nurse has told me that more than once she's had blacks asking specifically for a white doctor. Our guess on that one is that they probably think that medical schools have permitted substandard blacks to graduate. (To my knowledge they have not done this.)

Guess who gets hurt by that? Answer. Competent minority people that have busted their asses, worked hard, and have honestly jumped through the hoops and become noted in their field. They get put down by perceptions that they only got hired because of their minority status. 

When you look at it, DEI is nothing more than a major insult to an entire class of people. It sounds too much like Rudyard Kipling's 'Take up white man's burden'. We must take care of our poor brown brothers. What horse$hit!  What a white supremist attitude! It's saying that minorities are incapable of taking care of themselves when it's obvious they can.

Is there still racism? Sure. It's never going to go away completely. There's no shortage of ignoramuses and I don't see one in the future. Actually when you look around there's a lot of racism directed at whites. 

Whatever. Eliminate DEI and make everything open to those that qualify. No excuses, no bull$hit. Total equality.

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Do we owe California aid relief?

Absolutely. We should cough up funds to help out our fellow citizens.

HOWEVER we should not give them one dime without a full accounting of where every penny was spent.

I have nothing against paying money for things. I do it practically daily like everyone else. I have nothing whatsoever against a person in business making an honest profit.

OTOH, I make sure I know what I am getting and that I'm paying a fair and reasonable price for it.

I just don't want to see the money we give them squandered on stupid social programs and have it stolen by the usual gang of lawyers, politicians and other thieves instead of having it go where it should, to the people that lost their homes in the fires.

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Looks like the last week of the month

it is going to warm up a bit. Thank God for small miracles.

I have eye surgery next month so I don't see myself going anywhere and besides it's pretty damned cold in Florida so there's no point other than visiting relatives. Of course that's a pretty good reason in itself but I just don't want to until my eye surgery is behind me. 

I guess someone wasn't too happy when I told them that on his first day in office Donald Trump had fixed global warming. No sense of humor, I guess.

=======================================

Which reminds me about to difference between climate and temperature.

Climate change as advertised is a crock. On the other hand, climate change is very real. It takes place over a long period of time and it has occurred and is still occurring on the planet. The Ice Age is an example. It lasted 2.5 million years before it morphed into what we have today. The Ice Age ended 11,700 years ago. Homo Sapiens have been here since about 300,000 years ago so people lived here during it the last part of it.

Still, climate change is an incredibly slow process.

As for the advertised climate change?

It is currently one of the leading excuses for poor forestry management, unsatisfactory fire prevention policies, incompetent leadership, and corruption in the United States today.

It is also currently used to scare the hell out of gullible members of the general public to get them to open public and private purse strings to finance various so-called green projects and other meaningless liberal causes.

Weather is fairly cyclic, for example Florida has years where they are hit by hurricanes seemingly constantly and years when there are few hurricanes.

Right now, after a few mild winters we're getting record lows. It might happen again next year or it may not. The weather is basically what happens to YOU.

 

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Releasing the J 6ers.

Trump signed an EO pardoning the J6 protesters.

Done deal.

A couple of judges, the mayor of DC and a warden or two refused to release them. Yeah, I know it's now settled but (Scenes we'd like to see) it's too bad Federal marshals didn't drag the foot draggers into their own prison, lock them up with a few J6ers and tell them to settle it among themselves.

Second place is lock them up in the same prison and tell them they're not getting out until the last prisoner is released.

I don't care if you like the pardons or not, an EO has been signed.

Some of those people have been there for four long years and not even had a trial yet. Heads should roll over that one.

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Just think of all of the assorted crap the First Family gets.

I just heard someone in the background give Melania Trump a vase of some sort and I thought to myself how much just plain stuff they accumulate. I would imagine the vase is fairly expensive.

After the fire I pitched a lot of accumulated junk and filled up two huge construction dumpsters chockablock full. That's just the stuff the wife and I have accumulated and we're basically nobodies.

What do you do with all that stuff? I'll bet the amount of crap they get is astounding. Maybe there's a big giant hidden government warehouse tucked away somewhere full of all sorts of gifts that the Presidents and First Ladies got that they had no room for when they left the White House. Who knows?

If there's not then maybe Melania and Barron can host the first Presidential yard sale on the White House lawn when the President's term is over. That would probably be the mother of all yard sales.

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One day in the Pacific Northwest it was a glorious day.

I was probably 28 at the time and my running partner was about 25 or 26. I was dating a 33 year old at the time.

We were doing a carpentry gig south of Seattle and we were close to running out of work and planning on heading north to Alaska in a few days. I was driving my rusty 1962 Dodge half-ton stepside with a brand new salvaged Slant Six under the hood. The truck was in shape for another Alaska Highway run, having been recently shod with brand new wrecking yard tires.

Anyway, I forgot where we were headed but it was a three lane section of road and I knew I was going to make a left up ahead at the intersection. I was paying attention to my driving.

My running partner was paying attention to 4 teenage girls in a convertible that were running alongside us. I had gotten a glance at them and wasn't interested. They were far too young for my tastes. 

The light at the intersection was red and I slowed down and the convertible slowed down to stay alongside us. I wondered why my pard was wasting his time fooling around with kid until I realized he was just being himself. He'd likely done the same to a carload of octogenarians on their way to a sewing circle meeting. He had them smiling and laughing.

I was going pretty slow when the left turn green arrow lit so I started to speed up and about the time I started my left turn I heard the screech of metal being twisted and torn and a loud scream. I knew what happened and a quick glance confirmed it. The driver hadn't been paying attention and had rammed into the rear end of the car stopped at the light.

Instinctively I knew the way that one would go down. Even though I had done nothing wrong the blame game would begin so I sped up and knew they were too shook up to get my tag number. I simply kept going and checked with my pard for an injury report. He said they were probably uninjured but pretty shook up. We kept moving and cleared the AO as quickly as I could.

I remembered that it wasn't likely they could chase us down easily because I remembered that the address on my registration was some kind of a flophouse in Sedro-Woolley that I have never set foot in.

Upon further though, there was no way we could be blamed for anything. The teenaged driver was simply not paying attention to her driving, plain and simple. Had she tried to blame it on my pard it would have a been an admission of guilt on her part.

We drove staring straight ahead for about a mile and I pulled into a parking lot and the pair of us stared at each other and burst into complete and total laughter. We were both incapacitated with laughter and sat there laughing ourselves sore for several minutes. 

I think the laughter was mental relief. After we settled down I grilled him for a damage report and he said it looked to him like car damage but no real injuries. Cars can be replaced and suffer no pain.

The following day was another rare Pacific Northwest beautiful day and I said to my pard, "Yesterday was funny as hell. Let's do it again." He gave me a sheepish look. Then the laughter started all over again. He asked me how she was going to explain that to the police and her parents. More laughter.

Hopefully the teenager learned to pay attention that day.

Still, almost 50 years later I got a call out of nowhere from my old running partner and the subject came up and we were again paralyzed with laughter. The reason I wrote this post is because he asked me to when we spoke.

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Deportation time.

And of course the usual 'who will work in the fields or roof houses?' crowd claim it will crash the economy. There's an answer to that that makes sense to me.

Work visas. You apply at the border and get issued a visa to enter the country and work. It's that simple.

Of course the visa can be taken away if one does not behave themselves of if the jobs dry up. Still, it would be a good way to deal with the problems we have with illegal immigration.

Of course you would have to return to where you came from or at least leave the country to apply for a work visa so the .gov can run a background and health check on the applicant. Then you're back in the country and back to work doing whatever it is that you do.

As for the illegals here that haven't got visas, it's adios. Bye. See ya and if you return again illegally it's a year or two in one of those tent jails like the Arizona sheriff ran a few years back in the middle of the desert. Strike three means you get deported on a trebuchet over the wall. 

We get a good source of willing labor that's been vetted and we maintain some semblance of control.  

Of course we still permit legal immigration and even encourage useful people to immigrate. We have a shortage of doctors, nurses, engineers and other people with useful skills.

We should have mass deportations of illegals and as far as things go, and any state or local whatever that interferes goes to jail

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Minimum wage is minimum wage and

with minimum wage money you can buy minimum wage things.

Raising the minimum wage will raise prices and to a certain extent will not help the guy working for minimum wage except for the first couple of months while everything readjusts itself.

In fact what is likely to happen is they will find themselves in a higher tax bracket and will wind up with less real money to spend.

The last person that said to me the minimum wage should go up I asked, "Why do you hate poor people?"

I got a bunch of the usual yada yada yada about wanting to help people. Then they asked me what I'd do.

I said I'd try to open more apprenticeships and community college programs that teach useful skills so they could have skills to find better jobs.

I don't want to give people a handout. I want to give them a hand UP.

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I've seen footage of the left's protest in DC.

All sorts of vandalism and the place looks like a complete and total $hithouse.

Before they issue a permit for any Democratic protests as a requirement they should insist that all protesters bring their mothers along to clean up after them.

 

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I'm thinkin' of going down to DC tomorrow night.

Why the hell not?

I ain't never seen an inauguration before and here's my chance.

AOC, Michelle Obama and Nancy Pelosi ain't coming so I supposed I can take one of their seats.

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I'm beginning to not like the sound of the way things are going in DC right about now. Too many people are leaving town and the shifting around of things is making me a little nervous.

I'm beginning to think that Trump ought to just not show up and sneak into a Waffle House and get sworn in there by a justice of the peace or someone. Calvin Coolidge was sworn in by his father who was a notary public and a justice of the peace.

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Moaning, wailing, and gnashing of teeth in California (and other hellhole liberal places)

because stores are leaving them citing the usual reasons.

They can't make any money because of shoplifting, theft and robberies. Why am I not surprised?

Of course the minute they close the locals scream that there are no stores where they can purchase things. The have to travel out of the area to get a prescription filled or to buy food. We're heard about 'food deserts' and it's a fairly common lament of people in bad neighborhoods. 

Actually the very people that moan and wail about it are the very people that are responsible for it. That's because they tolerate it. They elect officials that don't do their job to make things safer and they don't help the officials, either.

The people elected officials that outright permit and even encourage shoplifting by not prosecuting those that steal under a fixed amount like about $1000. The do it by handing out meaningless punishments, suspended sentences and small fines. 

Why these people elect officials like that is beyond my ability to comprehend. 

Needless to say, everyone has to eat and the people that have just ruined their own neighborhoods start shopping out of their neighborhoods and start stealing where they end up. This means increased prices for everyone until they can't make any money and the cycle goes on.

Of course the situation can be fixed but as usual the regular gang of bleeding hearts will cry us an ocean and we'll have to learn to live on boats but it can be done.

You rigorously enforce the laws on the books and start handing out stiff sentences. Make theft hurt. No exceptions, no excuses. Make examples out of thieves.

Know that nice teenage girl that lifted a CD or something at Walmart on a dare? Or the clean-cut captain of the football team, the All American boy that lifted a baseball glove from Dicks? BAM! Jail!

And don't let ANYBODY off. No backroom deals, nothing. Sending a congress critters kid to jail sends a pretty good message to the rest of those considering larceny. Make if HURT.

Jail. Straight to jail. Do not pass 'Go'. Do not collect $200. Six months first offense sounds about right. Following offenses increase exponentially.   

That will stop it and stop it fast and then maybe when supermarkets and drugstores can make money they'll return to the inner cities and make life easier for the people living there.

It will also make life better for the rest of us regardless of where we live because theft isn't restricted to inner cities. Those of us in the burbs and rural areas pay increased prices from theft and shoplifting.

0000000000000000000000000000000000000

Gnus update.

Elon Mush has offered to help with Starlink and Karen Bass has refused his help because she doesn't like Musk.

At first I thought Bass should be tarred and feathered and run out of LA on a rail but decided 'Why bother?' because the minute she's gone Los Angelinos will vote someone else in that's just like her. 

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For the first 10 years I was in the business I was in a union shop.

which, looking back on it sucked.

Ten years into the business I went to work for a nonunion company and things got immediately better and pretty much stayed that way.

The new employer wanted to keep his company nonunion and knew just how to do it. He paid us a little more than union scale and gave a benefit package a little better than we were getting from the union.

It's been my experience that most people don't want to be in a union. They don't like the politics, the dues and the aggravation.

I've always figured that unions come from employers not valuing their employees. They should because they are the people that make the money for them.

I always considered my job in the big picture to make money for my employer. If I make him money I am valuable. If I don't, I am dead wood. 

Of course I am not stupid, either. I think there should be a reasonable balance between what I am getting and what I am making for the company. During my career I think I got a fair shake and maybe even a little more. 

In my entire career I suffered no layoffs and the truth is they kept me on the payroll when there was really nothing profitable to do. I've sat out a number of three week tours and done nothing but small maintenance jobs and eaten well. In fact had I lived within an hour of the company pier I could have simply stayed home and collected.

On the other hand, I have had tours where out of the 42 watches of a 21 day tour I have worked them all. I suppose in the big picture it all came out in the wash.

We had no reason whatsoever to unionize. We had it too good. In fact at one time a couple of union bosses I ran into told me outright that they couldn't match what we were getting.

What made me write this is someone on the tube in the background brought up the subject of coal company script and how one kept getting deeper and deeper into debt to the company. No wonder those poor bastards unionized!

Still, I do think the unions do the working stiff good because they set the pace as far as wages and benefits go. It gave the place I worked with a benchmark to beat.

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Another day in the life.

I just watched a secondhand store truck haul off a whole pile of stuff from a neighbor's house. 

It was mildly surprising how much stuff they got rid of until I gave it a little thought.

The amount of just plain STUFF we accumulate in a typical suburban house is totally incredible. 

After the fire the wife and I filled two huge construction dumpsters chockablock full and I still have a lot of stuff in the house.

 

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Stop sending money as overseas aid.

It gets stolen, misappropriated, mismanaged and is the most expensive way to help someone.

Send goods instead. 

If a friendly nation needs help sent them food, weapons, uniforms and the needed military equipment. 

Of the billions we have sent to Ukraine I really wonder how much of it was spent on issuing Ukrainian soldiers the needed equipment they needed. My uneducated guess is it was an awful lot less than we sent them.

 

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Ahh, yes. California is madder than hell about strings attached to relief money.

Why? Do they plan on taking relief money from the fed and misappropriating it to give away to illegals and waste of more typical Californian DEI plans and other meaningless social experiments?

(Not counting what they plan on stealing and funneling off to their little buddy-pals.)

That's why there should be strings attached. We want a strict accounting of where the money is being spent.

The California record stinks to high heaven because of the record of misappropriation of the funds they have already had raised by California taxation that have been pissed away. They have misappropriated the monies raised for a reservoir that was supposed to have been built years ago that hasn't because they did something else with the funds, probably stupid social justice plans or some damned thing or another and who knows who's pockets the money wound up in. (Not mine, for sure)

There's a lot of other mysteries, too about where funds went that were earmarked for forestry and fire prevention.

In short before we send California one single dime we want a plan to insure that the funds will be used to aid those that have lost everything (even though most of the people in CA are somewhat responsible for their headaches because they voted those incompetents into office) Still, They're Americans, too and they should not all suffer for the misdeeds and stupidity of their elected officials.

There is no reason whatsoever that the rest of us Americans should be sending California our hard earned tax dollars only to find that the elected officials are not getting the funds to where they should be arriving and instead are handed out to illegal immigrants and/or wasted on meaningless social engineering programs that do absolutely nothing.

I suppose if you made me dictator I'd add another condition to sending California aid. I'd have Californians clean house by any means they feel fit and install some competent leadership.

==================================

As far as sending aid goes to a lot of the Appalachian dwellers in NC, a lot of those mountain people are pretty self sufficient and would likely benefit by getting building materials delivered to their land instead of a check.

This is not a slight, but if you did that those hillbillies would probably team up, trade skills and inside of a year all have better places to live than they did before the flooding.

They're a pretty amazing sort. 

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On defunding NPR

Big Bird is over 55 years old and it's time for him to move out of mom's basement and get a job and take care of himself like an adult.

Of course when the subject of defunding NPR comes up there is the inevitable screech of mothers over losing Sesame Street and so on.

Truth of the matter is that NPR does nothing that can't be done by commercial radio and TV stations. However, by law it can't accept commercial advertising and as a result relies on donations and grants.

It's also politically slanted which is patently wrong. It's supposed to be neutral.

What should change here is that they should be defunded and permitted to accept commercial advertising and become self-supporting. 

I'm sure that the instant it becomes commercial there will be advertisers lining up at their doors. I would imagine there would be an army of toymakers wanting to advertise on Sesame Street.

I'd be willing to let them keep the current equipment to let them get started. Of course it will probably require a new management team because they have never had to turn a profit which will be new to them.

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I remember the time someone threatened to quit

and the Big Boss told him to go ahead and he caved in. It was in the parking lot and I overheard it.

I turned to the Big Boss and said to him, "If I ever say that I will mean it. I'll just pack my bags, shake your hand and leave. I don't like the new policy either but it's not worth leaving over."

He grinned and said to me, "I would expect nothing less of you. In fact I like to hear you're looking for a better deal."

"Everybody looks for a better deal," I replied.

I think that was the day we shared mutual respect. We were open and frank and for the rest of the time we worked together we got along fine. He was a straight shooter and that's good for a LOT.

Some time later we got an extra piece of equipment added to the boat and we were responsible to run it. Both crews figured we should get a raise for the added responsibility and we approached him over it.

He agreed we were accepting more responsibility and said he'd look into it, saying he'd see if the money was there.

Shortly afterwards he went out of his way to meet both crews at once with a folder and sat down and 'opened the books'. The company wasn't getting any more money for the piece of equipment, it had been installed by the customer we had the contract with and we were not getting any extra for having it aboard. We took it on just to continue having the boat on contract for the next two years.

The company was generous with things like that as a whole. Had they gotten extra for it I'm sure we would have gotten a piece of the pie. We asked him for time for a quick conference that just took a couple of minutes. To a man we decided that being the only crew in the company we'd get job security for being able to run said piece of equipment and another thing to add to our resumes. We agreed with him.

It actually proved profitable because of two things. We mysteriously discovered that our paychecks got a few bucks in it under 'misc' and eventually when a downturn came and there were layoffs we were not laid off. We had increased our value by knowing how to run the inert gas machine. Over the next year or two we got tossed a few choice bones we would likely have not gotten.

As far as quitting went, until the day I retired I still considered it as an option but never really considered it because I looked at the big picture. There's more to a job than a daily pay rate.

I probably could have made more money in my check but the expenses entailed with working elsewhere would have eaten whatever pay differential I would have made with stupid petty stuff like looking for a place to park and a million other small things that add up.

Then there were the working conditions and the general company generosity. When you throw in the fact that I got along pretty well with almost everyone it was actually a fairly profitable and comfortable workplace as a whole.

I always respected the Big Boss because he was a straight shooter and was always fair and reasonable. That says a lot for him and the company.

 

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Wow that was fast!

I am already beginning to hear stories about contractors and developers planning to build apartment buildings in the LA area that was hit with the fires.

The more I hear the more I am inclined to think that there's a lot of shady things going on. 

When the governor pleas to the POTUS to stop the disinformation then you seriously begin to wonder. Usually disinformation is squelched by bringing the truth forward.

All I can say is it looks to me like either malice and/or incompetence.

One thing I noticed were fire statistics and it appears that the homeless are responsible for about half of the fires in the LA area which is interesting and to me 100% believable. When you look at many of the homeless they are not rowing with both oars in the water. 

As to be expected, looting is appearing and Newsom claims they will not tolerate it and looters will be arrested. That remains to be seen and my guess is that any that are actually apprehended will have the charges dropped or reduced so the perps pay a $50 fine or something ridiculous by a liberal DA.

There was a time in this country where looters were shot out of hand and that was that. 

Then you have the climate change people trying to blame the whole mess on climate change. Maybe they are onto something.

After all, climate change leads to poor forestry practices which leads to poor fire prevention practices, including not keeping emergency reservoirs full and that sort of thing. This, of course, leads to racist DEI hires in important positions of authority and the whole thing caves in.

I guess we can blame the entire thing on climate change and as the root cause for the LA fire. 

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One of the things trade schools do right

is to teach the business aspect of the trade.

When I graduated from the college prep program back in 1969 I didn't even know how to write a check. 

Granted, it wasn't difficult for me to figure out how to run a checking account but it was never addressed at school. A guy that graduated with my class but had gone through the local Vo-Tech school had learned enough in school so as to enable him to open his own business three years after he graduated and his peers were still in college.

As I look back on life I see that my so-called education didn't prepare me for life at all. To a certain extent I followed the herd. I worked and played and managed to live long enough to collect SS and while I did set up a couple of retirement accounts they were pretty much fire 'em and forget 'em. I could have done considerably better had I paid attention to them.

The one thing I did do was back in '08 when I got tipped off that the bottom was going to fall out of the market was to pull out of the market and put everything into cash and then when the market hit rock bottom I bought back into it again. Still, that was not my idea. A friend in finance tipped me off to do that.

While I've always lived a fairly low key frugal lifestyle and now have no wants I wonder what would have happened had I known a little more and paid more attention to things. Yeah, I know. Coulda woulda shoulda.

Actually life is good and I have nothing to complain about because I have more than what I really need. I never really bothered to amass a huge fortune. Nevertheless, I am now curious as to what I could have done had I paid more attention to the financial end of things.

I imaging that had I amassed a few million I would still be driving around in a 16 year old pickup. 

Now that I think about it a little bit maybe I did make the right choice because I suppose if I spent my life trying to amass a fortune I would not have been able to have as much fun as I did going through life. Maybe I just instinctively picked a happy medium. Who knows?

Still, I think school systems have gotten worse over the years and I have not heard of any finance based classes added to the curriculum. They really should. It would replace the DEI and other crap quite nicely.

 

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The more I see of the California fire the more I see

the possibility of California turning red.

There are a lot of disgusted pissed off people there now and a LOT of questions are being raised challenging the people currently in high places.

Questions are being asked of where monies were spent that were earmarked for various fire prevention expenditures and people are challenging the DEI policies that appear to have put people in positions of power based on their minority status instead of their competence. 

Accusations of the fire department giving large amounts of equipment to Ukraine are surfacing. Reservoirs were not being kept full and numerous other accusations are being made. 

People are finally finding out what happens if you hire DEI people instead of based on simple merit.

People are rightfully angry and it will be interesting to see if California turns red or they simply double down and vote for a different bunch of Democrats.

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Did you ever bother to read the book?

OMG! Trump's off his rocker! He hasn't ruled out a military takeover of the Panama Canal or invading Greenland! He's CRAZY!

My reply was, "Go to the library and get a copy of 'The Art of the Deal' and read it sometime. you might learn something. It's FREE at the local library. You might learn something and not sound so stupid."

"But he's going to seize the Panama Canal!" he shot back. "He said he'd take if back by force! He said that using the military is an option!"

"It IS an option and he has it as the President of the United States," I replied. "It doesn't say he's going to use that option. My guess is he doesn't want the damned canal. He just wants the Panamanians to give us a fair deal."

"But he said,"

I interrupted him. "Get the book. Read it."

"But Donald Trump wrote that book!" was his wide eyed answer.

"Correct. Now read the book and figure out how the man works," I replied. "He knows how to negotiate. Learn something so you sound so stupid."

My favorite Donald Trump story. Negotiating from a position of power.

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Soon Trump will become a convicted felon until his case gets overturned.

Which it probably will.

Hell, the instructions the judge gave to the jury are enough to insure that he was running a kangaroo court.

Speaking of kangaroos, here's a map here regarding ownership of the animals in the United States. Click on the map to see the whole thing.

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An accounting of the fire money I was given.

After the fire a couple of years ago one of the guys offered to set up a Go Fund Me. I was insured and said I didn't need it but he pointed out that insurance doesn't cover everything. I finally gave him the OK and was floored with the results.

It came to a little over $3000 and got to me before the insurance money started flowing in.

I took the part that was over the $3000 and bought myself a steak dinner and a bottle of good scotch and earmarked the $3000 for things that would come up. I desperately needed something like this for morale purposes. I was holed up in a small hotel room with the cat who miraculously survived, thank God.

FYI I didn't swill the scotch down. It lasted me as I was sparing with it. It was my end of the day treat.

A month or so I found out about someone with 3 kids in dire straits and sent them $1000. I won't explain who/what/why here other than they, too, were a fire victim and it hit them a lot harder than I was hit.

I've always had a part part of it forward attitude on windfalls and for sake of argument considered this a windfall. Over the years I've had a few small windfalls and I generally shared them with people.

The one that first comes to mind was when I was broke and found a $100 bill. I instantly took a fellow fisherman that was as broke as I was at the time out with me to eat a decent meal.

That left me with $2000 and I put that aside because I saw a wall coming up in front of me somewhere along the line.

Later after I blasted all the paint off the basement and garage walls it was time for repainting and I hit a wall of sorts. Just looking at the wall depressed me and I decided to sub it out even though I could have done it myself.

The kid down the street was home from college and I knew he'd be interested in making a few bucks so I gave him a call. He's an Aerospace Engineering major and meticulous. I hired him to do the painting and paint he did.

He did one hell of a good job, better than I would have. He wasn't fast, he was meticulous and did a damned good job. I was glad I had subbed it to him. Afterwards he did some more painting upstairs for me and I paid him the $2000 I had put aside to him. It was a total win/win.

Anyway, that's what I did with the money the guys on my favorite website raised for me.

Thanks, guys! 

(And you guys thought I blew it on hookers and blow)

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Social Security should become voluntary.

because a sharp operator can do more than the Social Security Administration can do if they deposited the same amount of money into their own investments.

But there's a catch. You're on your own for retirement. Fail and it's on you. No bailouts with taxpayer money.

I've never been one for forcing people into a program they don't want.

Your call.

What I think will happen over time is many will be successful and it will lead others to follow and Social Security will diminish down to a manageable level.

It won't happen overnight, though.

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Embrace the suck

I was at the eye doctors the other day and he was putting eye drops into my eyes and told me it was going to sting a bit.

I took a quick breath, exhaled leaned back and he put the drops in and it stung. I took in a deep breath and as I exhaled I softly said, "Embrace the suck."

The doctor asked me what that was all about.

I explained that a lot of things suck. Some should be avoided, some embraced. The sucks that will end up making things better in the long run are to be embraced.

My eyes were going to sting for a minute or so and afterwards he'd be able to take good measurements for my upcoming eye surgery and that would bring me closer to having my eyes fixed.

It was a cheap price to pay.

Anyway, he thought about that a minute and liked it and said he wished he had more patients that thought that way.

Historically I have always told medicos I have faith in to feel free to poke, pinch, wiggle, whatever they need to do.

 

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The pizza guy showed up last night.

and when I heard the knock on the door I got up ready to either invite a friend or neighbor in or chase someone off. When I got to the door it was someone I didn't recognize. Then I saw he was carrying a couple of pizzas in the insulated pizza delivery whatever you call that damned thing.

I had not ordered a pizza so I figured the poor bastard was lost. I opened the door and he beat me to the punch. "Sir, are you 653?" he asked.

I deflated in an instant. There's no way in hell I could be angry at some poor guy trying to make a living. I pointed across the street diagonally. "Over there," I said. "It's not your fault they don't have a number on their house. Maybe he's hiding from the mob because he got mistaken for the guy that got their crack house shut down or maybe he's hiding from the law because he's wanted for a murder he didn't commit. Who knows?"

He grinned, "Thanks. I'm sorry for the disturbance," he said.

'Don't be," I said. "It's not your fault. You're just trying to make an honest living. I respect you for that."

He left and wandered across the street, returned to his car and drove off. 

The entire thing was a non event.

There's no way in hell I can slight some poor soul trying to make ends meet. 

I went back to my movie, Beau Geste, the original silent movie.

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There are three movies named 'Beau Geste', four if you count the Marty Feldman 'Last remake'.

The first one was with Ronald Coleman. It's a silent movie and pretty good, all things considered. It came out in 1926.

The next one came out in 1939 and starred Gary Cooper. It's the best one of the three.

In 1966 Guy Stockwell, Doug McClure and Telly Sevalas rolled around in the desert for the third make of it. It kinda sucked.

 

 

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