I see where ICE has turned the tables on the idiots that follow them around.

They run their plate numbers and get the registered owner's address and drive them to what  is often the followers own home.

Actually they don't take it far enough. They should stop there, get out of their car and knock on the door.

If someone answers simply say to them "We know who you are and where you live." and then turn around and leave. If the door answerer is a spouse hen someone is likely to get a real ear beating when they get home. 

What's likely to happen is the car owner will see it and out himself by charging up to the officers and try to raise hell with them. With any luck the car owner will talk his way to jail.

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

I've seen a few videos of police officers breaking the windows of people that refuse to open them.  In just about every one of them it's pretty funny watching the driver go into shock as the entire window shatters into tiny pieces and falls out in under a second.

What they also need is a seatbelt cutter because when someone refuses to get out the seat belt seems to be the big problem. The officer has to unbuckle it.

Just shatter the window, cut the seat belt and then just jerk the person out of the car and onto the pavement where they can easily be cuffed.

Oh yeah, the police should report this to a central website so that when the owner tries to report it as vandalism or something to get it fixed the insurance company can tell them to pay for it themselves.

I don't believe that insurance companies will pay for damage like that that is caused by idiots.

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I guess the kid got his driver's license and actually listened to me.

I think it was last spring when one of the neighborhood kids was tooling around on some sort of pretty fast electric bike. He was speeding and fooling around on it and I know he blew a stop sign completely off.

The next time I saw him I flagged him down and told him the next time he had a few minutes I wanted to talk to him and give him a couple of tips and pointers. He said he had a few minutes then and there.

I told him I had been a professional criminal and had smuggled guns, drugs, stolen goods, untaxed gasoline and God knows what else and had gotten away with it for my entire life and had never even gotten a ticket.

When he asked how I managed never to get caught I explained to him that over 87% of all felony busts were the result of traffic stops. 

I told him that some I'd teach him how to drive drunk and not get busted.

Anyway, he slowed the electric bike down and seemed to act a little more responsible. 

Today he passed by driving at a reasonable speed in a car.

Maybe he's just doing it here but that's fine by me.

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The average fool doesn't understand the rest of the story of our Venezuelan raid.

Most people think it the raid and removal of Madero was all about oil as in cheap gas prices here in the States. That's a small part of it if you look at the bigger picture. we now have cheap gas and domestic drilling appears to be on the rise.

It's also about oil from another respect. We're keeping China and Russia pretty much out of the Venezuela oil patch. This is in line with the Monroe Doctrine and the policy of keeping the rest of the world out of the Americas.

President Carlos Perez nationalized the Venezuelan oil industry in 1976 and started edging the American companies out. They were completely out by 2007 and American oil companies lost a metric $hit ton of money because there was no reimbursement for contractual losses.

This hodgepodge wound up in world court and Venezuela was stuck with a debt to the US. No US presidents stepped up to the plate to make an effort to collect the debt.

Enter businessman President Trump that ordered certain vessels leaving Venezuela containing Venezuelan crude to be seized causing a certain outcry from the usual suspects Stateside. 

The whole thing is a pretty complicated deal but basically booting Madero out puts us in the driver's seat to cut off oil to China and Russia to an extent which slows up their war machines. 

There's a LOT more to it than providing cheap gas to American pumps.

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I am getting sick and tired of health lectures and nagging.

Just about every family has two members, an Uncle Simon that drank a quart of whiskey and smoked three packs of Luckies a day and died in his sleep at 98 years old. The family consnsus is he got nagged to death.

Then there's Cousin Jamie that was a natural born athlete that was the high school champion of football, baseball, track and field and basketball that went onto college and graduated after having sports scholarships and being the best athlete of his entire graduating class that six months after graduation dropped dead of a heart attack.

I didn't put someone's kid brother on the list. He got hit on the head by a meteorite one day when he was eleven.

It is what it is.

I'm sick and tired of people nagging at me to change my ways.

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In other news 

I am beginning to like RFKjr more and more because he has started to upset a few apple carts about health issues that we have believed for decades.

He recently tipped the long standing food pyramid upside down and it seems to make more sense.

A lot of myths about what's good for you have been created by various marketing groups to sell products. 

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day (breakfast food makers)

An apple a day keeps the doctor away (apple growers)

And so on.

RFKjr seems to be challenging a lot of what we've heard. 

Anymore my old age cynicism simply says follow the money.

As someone else said, I tried to follow the science and got nowhere so I followed the money and found the science.

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Will someone please explain this to me.

Trump did something.

Before the election my tank could hold $100 worth of gas.

Now it can only hold $60 worth of gas.

That bastard!

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One of the things lawmakers never seem to think about is the

likelihood of an enacted law to actually be obeyed by Joe Citizen.

I'm old enough to remember the 70s and the 55 mph national speed limit. It was a joke.

Almost immediately after it started every good citizen that could scare up $39.95 and two specially marked box tops headed straight down to the local Western Auto and bought a CB radio and the show began.

Anyone that couldn't afford a a CB could still play the game. All you had to do was drive 55 in the travel lane until a semi came roaring past you. If you could see a CB antenna on the truck you simply fell in behind him and kept a reasonably safe distance so when he slowed down to pass a speed trap you wouldn't eat his tail and hammered on.

Often impromptu convoys would form that could stretch out for quite a distance, sometimes at speeds close to 80. Etiquette to join a convoy was to continue driving in the travel lane until the last car passed you and then fall in at the rear. It was interesting seeing who was passing you in the convoy. It was a typical slice of Americana.

I actually believe I saw a couple of nuns hauling ass in the middle of one convoy I joined. While they were not in the official penguin suits, they were wearing nun headgear which was common then. Needless to say, I found that comical.

Later when I snagged a CB I entered the fray, passing along speed trap information and listening to things in general. Most of it was just people beating their gums but some of it was pretty good entertainment.

Things really got out of hand to the point where movies were being made over speeders. The one that comes to mind is Smokey and the Bandit that was an exceptionally high grossing movie in 1977.

By 1987 I think the feds gave up and let some rural states raise the limit to 65 and in 1995 it was applied to all states. It took a while but I think the feds knew when they were beat. Americans don't have time to dawdle. Even if they're in a hurry go somewhere to do nothing.

Other laws that's likely to be pretty much ignored are gun laws. 

At last count 'assault rifle' bans have been running single digit compliance in states with the bans. In fact New Jersey reported an increase on finding fully automatic weapons being found involved criminal activity. 

I think that bans are likely to make things worse.

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Sometimes you have to bull your life through

I pretty much play by the rules. 

Depending on the airlines and the circumstances, I generally travel with a carry-on, a personal item AND a CPAP. The carry-on and personal item is mandated by the airline and their policy. The CPAP is mandated by federal law. The CPAP doesn't count as an item. It doesn't have to be checked, either which is to keep it from being lost by rampers.

One time I was getting ready to board a plane with my 3 units of baggage and someone and someone said something snotty to me about having 3 bags.

I told him I was in total compliance with all of the airline policies and applicable federal regulations. He snidely said he hoped there would not be room for my luggage.

That's when I told him I had paid extra for early boarding to insure my gear was secured with me so as to insure I didn't have to screw around with recovering my luggage in the jetway and possibly missing my connection. He looked dismayed. "That's what money is for," I said. "If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em."

Truth is I did pay extra for early boarding and have done so since a flight with a connection into MSP in the middle of the winter. They did gate check my carry on and when I went to get off in MSP the side door on the jetway was frozen shut and they had to bust a lot of ice to get it to open. It took forever to get my bag and I damned near missed my connection.

The door was closing and I shouted and they reopened it. I made an Indiana Jones jump, boarded it, the door closed instantly. The aircrew then grabbed my luggage and stuffed it in a nook somewhere. Almost everyone was seated, only a couple of people in the rear of the aircraft were still sitting down so I grabbed the first empty seat and buckled up.

Later I found the seat was some kind of business class and was a little bigger than the seats I was used to. Nobody said anything about it. when we landed the attendant was sharp and had my stuff ready for me to snag on the way out. I didn't have to hold anyone up. It was grab and go.

That MSP connection was what changed me. I was sick and tired of the cheap seats the company bought and shortly after I arrived in SFO I made it a point to sit down with my port captain and talk about flight arrangements. I was surprised to find out he was responsible to choose my flight and run it through the travel people who would OK the chosen flight. He told me to choose my own flight and email it to him. I could upgrade it by going directly to the airline's web site. If my name matched the ticket and my credit card I was free to alter to my flight comforts.

An occasional $25 here, $30 there and things became civilized. I didn't mind it because I realized I could easily afford the creature comforts. 

Gone were the tight connections and long layovers and other of life's little indignities. I could get a better seat if I wanted one and sometimes I upgraded. My days of the last row next to the toilet and smelling that lovely aroma for an entire flight were now over. 

I also made it a point to look out for the company a little more carefully. When I sent my port captain for the last ticket home I chose Southwest out of Oakland. I had been reassigned to another vessel on the East Coast and had to take everything I owned with me. It accumulated to a lot of stuff like bulky cold weather clothing etc. Everything fit into a pair of large plastic footlockers that I had purchased carefully. The L+W+H had to add up to 62 inches. My pair of Contico footlockers came to 61 and 7/8 inches. Each one of them counted as a single suitcase. Southwest at the time allowed 2 checked suitcases to fly for free. You can cram a lot of stuff into a Contico footlocker.

When I sent the information in to my port captain I also wrote, "This flight is costing me an extra hour connection but that's OK. The reason I chose it is because my 2 footlockers fly free. That's a $70 savings. How about you get the travel people to bounce for the crummy $25 to get me an Earlybird check-in? Oh yeah, I'm also saving you on cab fare.

He fixed it and my carry-on was my CPAP and a folding 2 wheeled dolly to move both footlockers. IIRC I was the second or third person on the plane.

Three weeks later I reported to my newly assigned vessel and a few months later I retired. Of course I had a different port captain but when I told him about the deal I had regarding flights and he told me to continue doing it and running it through him.

A few months later I retired and put in for a First Class ticket for my final flight home. I told him I'd trade it for my (nonexistent) gold watch. He laughed and said he doubted they'd allow it.

When my ticket arrived I laughed like hell. It was a first Class ticket along with a note telling me he had to pawn my gold watch to get it for me.

The spend a little extra for comfort has stayed with me into retirement as my expenses are low and I can afford a few bucks here and there. The few bucks spent help me bull my way through make  things a little easier.

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I see where some women are shaving their heads over Renee Good.

Which is a pretty good deal for the young guys that are dating.

You will be able to spot the moonbats from a greater distance now.

This should save you younger guys a few bucks on coffee dates and stuff like that.

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The older I get the more I think responsibilities should be pushed down the line.

I see where BLM is running off at the mouth about setting fire to Minneapolis. Fine. Do it. Burn it to the ground.

When the city fathers ask for federal money to rebuild Uncle Sam should refuse and not give them a dime telling them, "You let it burn, you fix it". 

This should apply to all man made disasters. Man made stuff can be controlled. Natural disasters can't.

If you make that policy then their whole attitude will change. They will start refunding the police in a heartbeat to protect what they have.

States and cities should take responsibility for more instead of expecting Uncle Sam to pay for the failures of state and local leadership.

When sticking their hand out to Uncle Sam no longer becomes an option they will straighten up and start enforcing laws, rules and regulations.

People tend to be a bit cavalier with someone else's money and damned frugal with their own.

Same hold true in the public sector to a certain degree.

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Another thing about business is that business will only stay open so long as they are making a profit. When they find themselves robbed and vandalized they close their doors and either fold or move somewhere else.

Walmart and others have closed stores in a number of rough urban areas because of this. As to be expected, residents complain of having to travel great distances to purchase thing, including food and prescription drugs. residents claim to have a right to accessibility of these things as well as a lot of other stuff.

Surprise! You don't. It's on you to get your own stuff no matter where it is. You can't force someone to open a store in a bad crime ridden neighborhood just to suit you. It's well past time you organized and stood up and cleaned house.

The Mayor of Seattle has declared she is not going to allow food stores to close. How is she going to do such a thing?

What's she going to do if grocers decide to lock their doors and leave? Her authority ends at the Seattle city line. 

If a grocer leaves and sets up shop in nearby Renton she can't do anything but jump up and down and screech.

While not likely to happen, it would be pretty funny to see an entire major American city turn into a huge food desert and make people have to leave town to buy a can of beans.

Then close the gas stations so people have to walk.

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For decades I have been against payroll deduction of income taxes because you don't really get the message and it is a painless and sneaky way to get the  taxpayer to part with his money.

When you have, say a grand a month taken out of your check you get used to it and don't really complain too much.

When you have to sit down at the kitchen table every April and write a check for the whole 12 grand it changes things. You suddenly become aware of what's going on. It serves as a big eye opener.

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If Donald Trump asks me to come to the White House to sing for him I'm not going.

which I consider a courtesy to the President because I can't carry a tune in a bucket. He certainly doesn't want to hear me try to sing.

I WON'T sing in the Trump/JFK center because I don't want to get pelted with rotten tomatoes.

One of the things I seem to have noticed about the celebs that have gone on record to say that is that none of them are likely to be invited in the first place.

I'm sure the President has no interest in hearing from any of them. When they do this a few of their fans have a 'That'll fix him!' attitude.

Fix what? He's not the least bit interested in your little singing and dancing idol.

People like Cher and Taylor Swift really think that they are going to hurt the president's feelings which is a joke. I'm certain that the President doesn't care even a little tiny bit because he has better thing to do than listen to some trained monkey.

I sure don't. I'm sick and tired of celebrities.

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PA is 9th in money spent per student. Why?

and 39th in education nationwide. Something doesn't add up. 

I don't see where Pennsylvanians are getting their money's worth. 

If PA was in the top 20% things would make sense.

I don't think that cost per student means as much as some people think it does. Still, it does cost money to educate kids. Still it appears we are not getting enough bang for the buck. Why? We should be getting better results.

Of course taxpayer money is involved here so it might be worth looking into to see why this is. I'm SURE we can find a few bucks that are being misused.

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I see where the temporary protected status of a large number of Venezuelans has been lifted.

Which actually makes sense. 

Since Maduro got taken to jail there has been a regime change in Venezuela and it's safe for them to return. They should be returned to Venezuela.

If any of them want to return to the States and immigrate they should be given the opportunity to do so assuming they have behaved well during their stay in the States.

They should apply like anyone else and if they have proven to be useful during their stay be permitted to return and work toward  citizenship through the proper and legal path. I would  have no problem with them being fast tracked a bit.

When I say 'useful' that doesn't restrict them to being college degree types. We certainly have use for those skilled in the trades.

The reason they were allowed here in the first place was for protection from a crappy regime. With regime change the danger has disappeared and it's time to go home and try and fix things there.

That was the purpose of the temporary protected status and it seems to have worked.

Of course it you don't leave and get thrown out you can't ever return.

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Why were Civil War battles fought in National parks?

AOC wants to know.

Maybe she didn't ask that question but the fact is I would not be surprised if she did.

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I gotta clean up my act a bit.

Since retirement I have dressed strictly for comfort with no real regard to my personal appearance. 

While I do shower and shave almost daily I dress like a ragamuffin and should probably dress a little nicer.

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Update.

I just threw out a pair of comfortable jeans because they have a little paint on them and replaced them with a couple of pairs of Levi 501s that just seemed to jump into my life. I found a couple of pairs at a garage sale that were brand new with the tags still on them (NWT) for $10/pair, total $20.

On top of that at the same sale I snagged a NWT still in the box pair of Timberlanders for $10. Not a bad haul when you think about it.

While things like this don't happen on a daily basis, it is truly astonishing what shows up for sale in affluent neighborhoods.

Years ago when I was a wanderer I was randomly picked by some roving reporter that was doing a piece on the homeless. He said he almost passed me by because I didn't look beat up enough.

I remember explaining to him that I was able to travel around unemployed doing odd jobs simply because because I was able to do damned well by living off of the leavings and castoffs of an affluent society.

It's true, especially in affluent neighborhoods. People throw away and awful lot of perfectly good stuff. It's amazing.

I paid my mortgage off in ten years on a 30 year note. Admittedly a small inheritance made the last payment but only really accelerated things by about a year. But the fact remains is that it sure would not have happened as quickly had I gotten a new vehicle every few years and dressed in the latest style. 

The habits have stayed with me. My current ride just turned 17 this year and spins like a top so I see no need to replace it in the near future. If/when I do I will pay cash. I may even buy used from a state like Arizona or maybe Florida. Cars don't rust out there.

I generally buy high quality items and take care of them because it's generally the most inexpensive way to do things. Buy once, cry once.

Much of my furniture I made with my hands because it was fun and satisfying. What's another thing is I managed to get the mahogany needed for many projects simply for a carton of cigarettes in a trade with a specialty lumber sawmill.

Incidentally it's not all garage sales that give good deals. Retailers sometimes spin things off. My favorite deal came right after the fire when I needed a new lawn mower. Lowe's had a Honda on the curb listed for $25 with a tag that said 'won't start'. I examined it and put the tag in my shirt pocket so as to establish dibs on the machine. 

Then I simply opened the fuel shut-off, waited a minute and gave the cord a yank and the machine lit right up. A few weeks later the  insurance company delivered a replacement for the one that burned up so I put the one I got from Lowe's on Craigslist and got $400 for it. 

Anyway, back to cleaning up my act. It didn't take a whole lot and now I won't be mistaken for being homeless.

There are two side to this because occasionally it's fun being mistaken for being homeless.

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I see celebrities saying they won't perform in the Trump/JFK performing arts center.

Thank God.

That place should be a place where totally unheard of performers should be booked. Things like the East Nowhere Kansas theater group does a play or a bluegrass band that is local entertainment in Hilltop Kentucky. A New Orleans local talent jazz band hidden away in Nebraska.

NOT some big shot celebrities but little people. The people that act, sing and play music for the love of it and not some big money paycheck. The band doing the local bar circuit, the bluegrass band that meets at Gilbert's house Tuesday nights after dinner. Little guys that nobody even knows exists.

Anonymous Americans with a passion for what they do.

This country has an incredible amount of unknown home grown talent that should be surfaced.

I want to see the fat ladies with their opera glasses outraged because the evening gig is a family bluegrass band or some theater group doing a rendition of West Side Story or Mary Poppins or Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and she's sitting next to a guy in jeans and a -shirt.

Not slick, polished Hollywood type stuff, but what Americana has to offer. An awful lot of these little performances are far more entertaining than what Hollywood has to offer.

And, oh yeah. A place where anyone that goes there with ANY kind of political agenda gets thrown on on their ass and bounced down the stairs on the way out.

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More on the Minnesota shooting.

The more I dig into things the more I see t case where the deceased not only brought it on herself but actually had no business being there in the first place. She's a mother of three and a mother's first duty is to her children and she has no business gallivanting around indulging in risky behavior when she should be home taking care of her children.

OK, Ok, she had a legal right to protest ICE but she had no business and no right interfering with Law enforcement agents. None.

She parked her kids with her husband and went. Note the term her husband. Interesting. I have noticed that a large percentage of people with sexual identity issues have serious emotional problems. It makes me wonder if she was rowing with both oars in the water.

Seconds ago I saw on X an unconfirmed report that Renee's girlfriend abused her children with burning cigarettes. True or not, numerous things are being brought to the surface about her.

As of now I think she was an emotional mess and as such freaked out and drove at the ICE agent. Recently released body camera reveals she did in fact hit the cop.

Did she deserve to be killed? Probably not but the more things that come up about her she brought about her own demise.

I feel bad for her kids.

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Ahhh, yes. The Minnesota shooting.

The entire cause of the woman's shooting was stupidity, plain and simple. The woman was being stupid, plain and simple. 

Stupid hurts. In fact it probably should hurt. 

Anyone that interferes with a law enforcement agent of any kind and gets hurt, killed or arrested has only themself to blame for being stupid. The place to settle it with LE is in court.

I'm not going to get into the conduct of the officer that did the shooting. (even though I believe he acted in self-defense) I'm going straight to the root cause. 

Peaceful protest is one thing. It's a God given right. 

You don't have the right to interfere with a cop, plain and simple. Good cop, bad cop, crooked cop, any cop. If you don't like what they are doing then by all means file a lawsuit. It's that simple. People have sued the police successfully. It happens rather often. Policemen have been jailed and plaintiffs have gotten settlements. Some people have hit the jackpot.

If you interfere with a LEO acting in the line of duty and something bad happens to you then you have done it to yourself by being stupid.

Incidentally I'm mad at the shooting victim because she just left a young child without a mother.

Fact is she was a mother of three and her FIRST responsibility was to her children and she shirked that responsibility by farming her kids out and she should have been with her children instead of indulging in risky behavior and hassling law enforcement agents in what she had to know beforehand would be in a chaotic atmosphere.

Although she had every legal right to be there to protest she had no business being there. She should have been taking care of her children.

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One of the things we have to do with Venezuela is give them a fair shake.

It's all well and good that we arrested the dictator and carted him off for trial but now that we're going to get involved there we have to give them a fair shake.

One just does not go in there and cart the oil off and hand them two cents a barrel and bleed them dry. It's not only a rotten thing to do it's long term unprofitable.

We should treat the Venezuelans generously and help them rebuild their shattered economy so they can have better lives and create wealth. Allow them to start being able to spend more and maybe start purchasing American made products and turning it into a win/win situation.

It wasn't too long ago that Venezuela was really cooking. It was a wonderful place to live. Then socialism arrived and the usual dictatorship and the whole place went to hell to the point where the average Venezuelan lost 19 pounds of body weight.

The whole place went straight down the toilet. Now it at least has a chance. 

One of the things I have noticed about the deals Trump made in New York was the number of win/win deals he managed to make. The trick to making a good deal is to end it with a win/win situation. 

I recall a deal Trump made with someone in over his head in a real estate deal. Trump offered him a fair price to get the guy out from under crushing debt but left him with a few bucks on top of that. There were no losers, they both won.

Trump knew that and realized he might want to do business with the man again. You don't sweat the small stuff.

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We ought to help rejuvenate the Venezuelan coffee industry that was suffering under the past couple of regimes. The could restart operations, make a few bucks and give Colombia a good run for their money.

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Congress Democrats are bellyaching because Trump didn't notify them about the Caracas raid.

That's because he wanted the raid to be successful.

Had he told Congress any number of Congress  critters would have tipped Maduro off and he would have gotten away and our troops would have flown into a bloodbath.

There are three pretty reliable forms of communication we still use today, telephone, telegraph and tell Congress. Congress critters will go STRAIGHT to the nearest reporter. 

It makes me wonder if the current POTUS could send disinformation to Congress to get them to out themselves. I have no doubt that we have assets that could arrange this. It would provide endless entertainment to see something like this happen and see a number Congress Critters of both parties carted off to serve long sentences for treason.

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In 1943, Congressman Andrew J. May of Kentucky, a member of the House Military Affairs Committee, revealed at a press conference that Japanese depth charges were set too shallow to effectively hit deep-diving U.S. submarines, a breach of security that reportedly allowed the Japanese to adjust their tactics, leading to the estimated loss of 10 U.S. submarines and 800 sailors, according to Vice 

 Admiral Charles Lockwood, though some question the direct link between his comments and subsequent losses

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I have seen unconfirmed reports that Hakeem Jeffries tried to warn Maduro but was too late because they already had him on board Iwo Jima. 

While I doubt Jeffries is competent enough to get through to a head of state I would not be surprised to find out that he tried. 

If in fact he did try he should hang.

People like him would cheerfully get a couple of divisions of out GIs slaughtered if it would inconvenience or embarrass Trump in the least. 

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Someone asked me how the military managed to grab Maduro. 

Now how in the hell am I supposed to know that?

I told him that Trump ordered him on Amazon and because he has Amazon Prime he got overnight delivery.

 

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The Great Movie Star and big shot executive shortage of 1975

Curiosity got the best of me and I wondered why so many nail salons are Asian run so I did a little surface digging.

Prior to the 80s nail salons were few and far between and expensive. Manicurists were few and far between and were generally used by movie stars and big shot executives.

In 1975 there was a Vietnamese refugee camp it California and for some reason Tippi Hedren actress of 'The Birds' fame visited it. Tippi was somewhat of an activist of the type we could probably use a few more of. She was involved in the plight of certain African animals and set up relief programs post natural disaster. 

During her visit to the refugee came a number of women were admiring her nails and she got a brainstorm. She realized that many of these people could easily become nail technicians. The cost of the tools needed was fairly low, the language barrier could be overcome over time and that if the number of technicians grew it would likely make manicures more affordable to the non movie star public.

She had her manicurist start teaching some of the Vietnamese woman and the whole thing took off. Today 80% of the nail salons in California are Vietnamese run and nationwide it's about 50%.

My relationship with a nail salon began a few months ago as an old man. My shipmate had recommended getting a pedicure after a tour as a treat. Of course I balked. As long as Revlon made nail clippers I was good to go. I would take care of my own feet.

A couple of months ago I woke up somewhat sore and stiff and realizes that my toenails were probably getting ready to slice up my bedding. When I was up I looked at my feet and decided that maybe a trip to some kind of blacksmith was in order because trying to be a contortionist was not any fun anymore.

Then I recalled my shipmate and decided that at the ripe old age of 74 that a trip to the salon for a pedicure was in order and off I went.

My shipmate was 100% correct. I should have done this after every tour. It's affordable. I could have easily bounced for a pedicure after every tour and in retirement I can still afford it although I'll reserve it for every couple of months when the toenails get too long.

Beats going to the blacksmith.

 

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WHO is going to arrest ICE agents?

It's pretty much a given that any cop that arrests an ICE agent during the performance of his duty is going to be able to go home after his shift only to be arrested in front of his wife and kids and carted off to a federal jail of some sort.

Cops know this and if they can cloud a mirror with their nose they will refuse. I would. This is a no brainer.

So because the state/local police chief/commissioner/whatever threatens to fire the officer a working cop who will win the jackpot if he refuses and gets fired because he can sue the department and it will hold up. The state loses.

In fact the fired cop can sue the state in federal court which makes it easier yet to get a nice jackpot.

Typical CA mentality. Lose/lose.

.........................................................................................

I suppose every department has a sucker department kiss-ass that will do anything the chief wants. He'll be promised all sorts of legal aid and so on and so forth. Actually they will give him a SWAT team of attorneys but if it's a cut and dried case he's going to jail and there's nothing that can be done about it. He's just going to sit in the stir for a while stammering and stuttering "But...but the Chief told me...the Chief told me..."

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I have an urge to ask someone out to lunch.

He's the Vietnamese born owner of the nail shop I occasionally go for a pedicure. I have a real desire to take him for lunch, coffee, anything. 

What's interesting is that he was born near Hanoi and came here. I chatted with him briefly. I like his business and he's definitely an American. 

I see the real irony of an old man sitting with a young man that has a grandfather that 55 years ago I was training to kill and enjoying the young man's company.

I think that would be very satisfying for me in my old age.

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Update. the above part was written some time ago and has not been posted.

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Today I got up my nerve and jumped in the pickup and headed to his shop. He was there. Language was not a problem. His English is excellent for an immigrant. Total vocabulary and very slight accent.

"Do you remember me from about a month ago when we talked about you coming to the States from Hanoi?" I asked. 

He had.

Do you understand what it means for something to go full circle?  Kind of go around and you end up close to where you started?" I asked. I think he was wondering where this was going so I blurted it out.

"Over fifty years ago I was about your age wearing a United States Army uniform training hard to learn to kill people like your grandfather. I would love to come full circle and enjoy a meal, coffee, anything with one of their grandchildren. Could I take you to lunch sometime?" I asked.

I could have knocked him over with a feather but he recovered and hugged me like a bride that had been proposed to. 

I now have a lunch planned with the young man.

I'm honored.

I love things that go full circle.

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An interesting take stolen from someplace else.

"It is useless, useless, said the Philosopher. Life is useless, all useless. You spend your life working, labouring, and what do you have to show for it? 

Generations come and generations go, but the world stays just the same. The sun still rises, and it still goes down, going wearily back to where it must start all over again. The wind blows south, the wind blows north — round and round and back again. Every river flows into the sea, but the sea is not yet full. The water returns to where the rivers began, and starts all over again. Everything leads to weariness — a weariness too great for words. 

Our eyes can never see enough to be satisfied; our ears can never hear enough. What has happened before will happen again. What has been done before will be done again. There is nothing new in the whole world. “Look,” they say, “here is something new!” But no, it has all happened before, long before we were born."

-The Smartest man to ever f**king live.

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Speaking of Jews and pork

I believe I have posted that I've never had a Jew hassle me about eating pork. I haven't.

However I did have a Jew tell me I shouldn't eat a specific batch of pork. Under the circumstances his reasoning made perfect sense based on what little he knew under the circumstances. I think he was afraid of trichinosis.

He was a fairly new captain assigned to battalion and was OK. We'd crossed paths several times and done each other a couple of small favors.

I had been assigned to help him with some damned thing or another and there were maybe 5 or 6 of us. It was during a field problem and took us well past chow time. 

When we got to the chow truck the cooks were exactly where they were supposed to be. They were sleeping and resting up for another day of feeding about 200 hungry GIs.

Thoughtfully they had left a couple if insulated Mermite cans of chow out for people like us. One held a bunch of fried pork chops. There was also a case of C-rations beside the cans.

On top of that, because the usual trash cans of heated water were not available to clean mess kits. The water was cold. Not to worry. we'd wipe them out as best we could and sterilize them in the morning.

Anyway the good captain opened the can containing the pork chops and said, dubiously, "That's pork. It's been out there a while. Pork can be some pretty bad $hit. You probably shouldn't eat it." He grabbed a box of C-rations, dismissed us and went back to Battalion.

When he was out of sight someone asked me what I thought and I asked JC Middle. Middle was from SC had no name, only the initials JC and knew pork as only a Southern boy could. He picked a chop out of the can, took a bite and pronounced it good so we ate. It was OK and still a little bit warm thanks to the Mermite can.

After we ate one of the guys accused the captain of pushing his religious beliefs on us. He didn't get far.

"The captain doesn't care if we eat pork or not. He's just another misinformed officer trying his best to take care of us. He just doesn't want us to get sick," I said. "He's a big city New York City Jew and doesn't know squat about pork. What do you expect?  He was only going with what he had learned. Give him a break. Besides if he doesn't eat it that means more for us."

That pretty much ended it.

As a kid I had been trained to avoid trichinosis by cooking pork well. I was never served pork unless it was well done. The disease is rare these days.

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PERFECT assimilation.

We often talk about the inability of certain groups to assimilate. 

I'm trying to find the video I saw of an argument between an Asian immigrant nail salon owner and a woman trying to get her nails done and pay with an EBT card. It was a pretty heated argument.

The woman snapped 'Go back to your own country'.

The Asian snapped back "I'm in my own country."

The heated fight continued, he held his ground and the woman eventually stormed out when he reached for his phone.

The salon owner had stood his ground and didn't budge.

Most of us have seen the videos like this. What made it was the first comment.

"Perfect assimilation."      

I admit I laughed like hell at that comment because it was true. That Asian immigrant had simply become one of us. He truly belongs here.  

Now I am listening to the mayor (or some other asshole) in Dearborn announcing that the rest of us are going to have to change to cater to Muslims. People like that should be deported if they can be. Out! Begone!

It incenses me to think that someone is going to try and make me change my way of life to suit him. If you can't assimilate properly in the required five years you ought to be sent back to your home of record.

Someone asked me what had set me off once and I told them it was some Muslim raising hell about a place selling a pretty good pulled pork sandwich and demanding the restaurant owner stop selling pork.

"Jews don't eat pork," he countered.

"Yeah, but Jews don't care if anyone else eats it," I shot right back. "They're more than welcome."

Actually I don't think too highly of people that throw bacon at mosques. For one thing it's a terrible waste of God's food. The proper thing to throw is a nasty old freezer burned pork chop or something.

If I can find the video I will post it. It was truly epic. Actually the first comment was precious.

    

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Three American Treasures.

Mel Brooks

Slim Pickens

Senator John Kennedy.

There are others but thee three came off the top of my head.

Happy New Year.

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