I DEMAND!

Oh. You demand. 

I see. You demand.

Oh.

Nine times out of ten when someone demands something they are basically admitting that they are negotiating from a position where they have no power other than to just spout off. It means less than nothing.

When you have a cocked pistol against someone's nose you don't demand, you order.

When they have a cocked pistol against your nose they do the ordering. You can demand they lower the pistol but expect to be treated like a demander. They will laugh at you. 

I have been watching governor and mayors demand things of the federal government and they always look lame and pathetic when they do.

A governor or mayor has no business demanding anything from the federal government. what are they going to do when their demands are not met? Hold their breath until they turn blue?

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I just watched the Governor of MA demand ICE leave them alone and stay out of churches, schools, courthouses etc.

If I ran ICE (and it's probably a good thing I don't) I would have agents target these places specifically. I'd also start jailing people that hide and hire illegals. Or governors and mayors that declare their city or state to be a sanctuary.

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Muslim cab driver in NYC a few years back.

I don't remember the details of where we were going but I certainly remembered the ride. It was about an hour and a half if pretty much silence. Wait a minute...the ride was from Brooklyn to Bridgeport, CT.

I've always been cheerful and generous to cabbies over the years. I've bought numerous snacks and meals for them over the years and I tip generously. 

The cab arrived and the driver looked at me with a bored sullen look. I got in the back seat and we started off. I tried to be polite and make conversation but he had an attitude so I just rode along in silence.

We were about halfway there when I felt hungry and offered to buy him lunch. He snapped angrily back at me that it was Ramadan and he was fasting. So much for that. I really didn't want to start an argument with the guy so we rode along in silence. 

I texted the person I was relieving and found out he didn't plan on returning to Brooklyn. His car was in Philly and he'd catch the train and ride in style. He said he'd catch a local cab to the airport.

I texted back have a lunch containing pork ready for me. He texted back LOL.

We arrived at the terminal and the driver didn't have a TWIC card so he couldn't enter the terminal. No problem. Security would show up in a few minutes and give me a ride to the boat.

Needless to say, he tried fishing for a tip.

"I'll give you a tip, alright. Assimilate or go back to where you came from. You could have been halfway decent and taken the high road when I offered to feed you. when I got into this damned cab I saw a simple human being and out of kindness and compassion offered to break bread with you. I had no idea you're a Muslim and if you had politely refused my offer with a civil explanation I certainly understood."

I continued. "Last Christmas I wished another person a Merry Christmas. He said Merry Christmas back and told me that although he's a Hindu he loves it when Christians offer to share their holiday. Now assimilate or go back to where you came from. By the way I have a ham sandwich waiting for me when I board the boat."

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How do you spell IMTT?

There was and still is a liquid storage facility called IMTT. IMTT stands for International Matex Tank Terminals and I frequently loaded and discharged there during my career. It is in Bayonne, NJ.

During the middle of the first third of my career the company sent a memo to all tank barges regarding spelling in the various reports we had to send in. The memo was accompanied with a dictionary.

At first I was insulted until I thought about it. We had (and likely still do) have a lot of people in the industry that don't have a lot of formal education. Maybe some of the the rednecks can't spell but I sure learned a lot from them. I guess the way they issued the dictionaries left a bad taste in my mouth because it felt like another little indignity. The office was good for little indignities. (The place I spent the last part of my career was great. They treated us like gold.)

Still I felt the need to get my licks in with the office over that one and decided to bide my time and wait for a really good shot back.

This was before the age of cell phones and computers. Most (but not all) of our communication was through VHF radio and repeaters.

My opportunity came faster than I had figured. We got word via VHF we were being sent to IMTT Bayonne NJ to pick up a load.

I played dumb with the dispatcher who was not known for being quick on the uptake.

"IMTT, huh?" I asked an a voice so innocently and humble that it could not possibly carry any guile. "I know we've had a lot of bad spelling on the paperwork and I want to get this right. Would you please spell the loading port for me?"

"Eye period, em period, tee period, tee period." he replied. 

"Thank you," I said in a voice just dripping with sarcasm. "I just wanted to get it right on the paperwork."

Of course the entire on watch fleet heard the exchange. The airwaves shut down for several seconds. Then returned back to business. I had expected hoots and jeers but there was nothing for a while but dead air.

Almost immediately back channel messages got to me for the rest of the tour. Most people thought it was the funniest thing they had ever heard. A handful thought it was a pretty cruel thing to do to the dispatcher and a smaller handful said, "Wow! Dat Piccolo is a ig-rent sumbitch! Why he can't even spell IMTT!"

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The man eating chicken story from the barber shop.

This same thing happened at Camp Perry a year or two later.

A few years back I was getting my locks shorn at the local barber shop. IIRC it was a Saturday morning when the 9-5ers were there for haircuts and a couple of old school farmers were there for their weekly shaves.

I had gotten a seat across from a father and son. dad looked like he was preoccupied, the kid looked like he was paying attention and possibly had a brain of some sort. I let things fall into place and looked at the kid and addressed him.

"Hey, Kid," I asked. "Have you ever in your life seen a man eating chicken?" His father took note of the situation instantly. 

The kid thought for a second or two and replied, "Yes I have."

The father looked at his son and demanded, "Where have you ever seen a man eating chicken?"

"I see it almost every time we eat at KFC," said the kid.

"What do you mean?" the father demanded of his son. "There are no man eating chickens at KFC!" 

"A lot of men eat chicken at KFC," answered the boy.

Dad turned beet red when he figured it out.

Over the years I have come to the conclusion that a lot of kids actually raise themselves. I keep thinking that the people that say that parents should have a license to reproduce have the right idea and I used to agree with them until I realized that if it became a worldwide requirement the human face would become extinct in a few generations.

I guess some thing are better left the way they are.

Let Darwin sort it out. 

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Wow! DST just hit me....again.

My sleep patterns will me screwed up for a few days and now I have to reconfigure one of my atomic clocks. No major undertaking but sometimes I wonder if it's worth the effort.

Sometimes I think we ought to stick with one or the other.

It made sense back in the day when we had to watch television by candle light but now we have electricity.

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8 March!

A beautiful day. 

I've been sluggish all winter so it felt damned good to get  out and take a nice walk..

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I am completely pissed off at the left now. Draft Barron in a pig's ass!

There seems to be a big 'Draft Barron Trump' movement which is nothing more than the most mean spirited thing I have ever heard of.

First of all presidential families have always been off limits. Period. 

I could only imagine the screeching and epic personal attacks had anyone said anything about one of Obama's children...even if it was true. 

While it is true the fact that Hunter Biden was discharged from the Navy as an ensign for popping hot on a drug test and was given an administrative discharge, he was in fact 43 years old when he went in and 44 when he was separated from the service. Still, that one went away fast in the media even though he was a middle aged man at the time. 

Barron Trump has already paid his dues in spades. Since November 2015 when Donald Trump became president-elect his childhood as we know it came to a screeching halt. From then on he could no longer grab a can of worms and a fishing pole and wander down to the pond and go fishing. He couldn't go skateboarding with his pals. taking Marylou to the corner drugstore for a malt was definitely out of the question. In short he was totally robbed of his childhood.  

It's kind of hard to get your sweetie into the back seat of the family '57 Chevy with you at the drive-in when there are a trio of Secret Service agents occupying it.

He grew up with a big target painted on his back and spent most of his childhood living in a huge fish bowl. 

Much to the credit of the young man he hasn't seemed to have gotten into any mischief which speaks VERY highly of him. I say that because if he was walking through an abandoned apple orchard and helped himself to an apple the media screeching would be epic. He'd be called a criminal and a thief and we'd never hear the end of it.

Currently he's being robbed of his early adulthood because he's in college and doesn't even get to go to the bathroom unattended by Secret Service agents.

All of this hate has nothing to do with Barron. They are just trying to get at his father by making the son a target. It's patently wrong. They are trying to use him as a pawn. It's disgraceful and anyone that has half of a brain knows that.

As far as I am concerned Barron has already paid his dues. Leave him alone. He has had nothing to do with anything that would make a normal person dislike him. 

Besides this isn't 1942 anymore. While James Roosevelt went ashore with the 2nd Marine Raiders the Japanese had no way of knowing that FDRs son was with them. Today whatever unit a president's child is in can be found fairly easily on line. A president's child would be a feather in the cap of the enemy unit that either captured or killed them. It would also bring undue stress to the rest of the GIs in the unit they're assigned to. I know if a president's kid was assigned to the same hemisphere I'm on I'd instantly put in for a transfer. I'd want no part of that. Maybe during 1942 things were different.

Besides he'd probably make a crummy soldier because he's too damned tall. He's 6'9" tall (the limit is 6'8") As for asking for a waiver, why should he have to? To make some whiny Karen happy? Not his job. 

Besides there is no draft. 

The thing that really angers me is that if Barron was killed or taken prisoner most of these people would gloat and say the President deserved it which is outright sick. 

The kid has my respect.

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There was a Facebook thread about drafting Barron. It was mainly a bunch of Karens.

My reply was that they ought grab all of you nasty mean spirited old broads and ship the whole push of you off to the infantry.

There were penalty markers thrown for that one.

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I'm getting ready to go on a trip soon and

when I pack I make sure to pack my worst worn out undershorts because instead of washing them I can simply throw them out.

I was going through my stuff and found a fugitive from the law of averages. It was a really worn out pair of skids that as a best guess came out of my footlocker from work that I had not gone through since I retired. They very well might have gotten into the footlocker as a prank someone pulled with battery acid.

Anyway I had a visitor and was emptying the dryer when we were yakking. I was inspecting my shorts as they came out of the dryer looking for likely candidates as throwaways for my next trip to visit family. That pair popped up.

It was nothing but a really torn up elastic and holes defined by a few threads. My pal looked at them wide-eyed and asked me, "You're not actually going to wear those, Are you?"

I casually replied, "Why not? They're my favorite pair. I've had them since high school."

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I just heard Jasmine Crockett lost

which is great because after the mid terms we won't have to listen to her ghettospeak any more.

She's blaming it on the Republicans voter fraud which is hilarious. 

Maybe we can get the Democrats to support the SAVE act and clean things up so things like this never happen again.

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The President or maybe Pete Hegseth ought to make a tweet.

Platoon Sergeant Joe Blow Third Platoon A Company 1/327th Infantry (pick a real name and outfit at random)

I've heard about you and your platoon and I want to remind you of the rules of engagement. You may kill as many enemy combatants but you may not eat any of them unless they have been inspected by the USDA. I don't want you or any of your guys getting sick. Thank you for your attention in this matter.

The screeching would be epic and I'm sure the enemy would wonder if word got back to them.

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