A sign of our times...

"How valuable is freedom? People who have had to live without it can answer that question. It is worth living for, and as we remember every Memorial Day weekend, sometimes worth dying for. Happy birthday America - we love you more and more every year." 

In less than a month, we will have hit our milestone. Our national birthday. 250 years young. Now I am feeling old. Shortly after my wife and I were married, we went up to a friend's cabin with others, to celebrate our nation's 200th birthday. Since we were young and foolish, somebody had the bright idea that between all of us, we needed to drink 200 beers on that weekend. We played cards, did other games, talked and shot off fireworks. We had beer for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Did we make it? Nope - but had fun trying to.

This year, fifty years after that 200th anniversary beer bust, my family will celebrate a different way. We will gather up at our RV (in the park where it is located), and have a fun, yet much more sober yet not more of a somber time. There will be grilling, golf cart rides, mini golf to be played, and maybe even some pool time. But at the bottom of all that fun comes once immutable fact - why we can do all of that. Why is that? Because we live in the freest, most liberty loving nation on Earth. And on the 4th of July next month, we will enjoy that fact which defines being an American - freedom.

250 years old. That is a quarter of a millennium. In other words, a long time. But compared to other great countries from the past, as well as some which exist today, 250 years is nothing. We are still young. Still trying to understand the how and why of this freedom thing. And in our journey to understanding, we have picked up some nicks and cuts along the way. Yes, we still have bumps and bruises from doing the wrong thing when we should have been doing the right thing. And hopefully, we learned a thing or two along that path.

But one thing we learned from the four years between POTUS 45 and POTUS 47. We learned a lesson when the doors to our nation were left wide open. We did not have millions trying to leave because living here was untenable. On the contrary, we had people from all over the world trying to get into our country. Why? For many, it was the sweet smell of freedom. For that, many risked life and limb to get here. For many who did get here, they found out the hard way that cutting line did not work. We have legal process in how to get to America. In fact, legal immigration is how many of our great grandparents got here in the first place.

I wonder what our Framers would think, if they could see us now. Big and brash and covered with the vivid colors of red, white and blue. Most of us are proud to be Americans. It is an honor and a privilege to be living in this great land. Wearing the uniform of this great country was even more of an honor. It is an honor I will never forget.

The great celebration is coming and coming soon. Years in the planning, it is really going to be something. What is the sign of our times? What it has been since 1776. Freedom. Pure and simple freedom. How valuable is freedom? People who have had to live without freedom can answer that question. But we do know this much. It is worth living for, and as we remember on every Memorial Day weekend, sometimes worth dying for.

Happy birthday America - we love you more and more every year. 

 

A good man; a fine man - but is he electable?

 

Coming up in the primary, MNGOP will have a black man with zero government experience (yet great military and business experience), going up against a black woman with very good government experience (Speaker of the House in MN), and a white guy who through his business (My Pillow) has a ton of name recognition. That is it. Unless somebody drops out, the stage is set.

I pen this article this morning will malice towards none - it is just my observation from my perch at 30,000 feet. Kendall Qualls is the endorsed candidate of MNGOP to run for governor. If he makes it past the primary (and there are some seeds of doubt which have been sown about that outcome), Mr. Qualls will meet Hot Dish Amy in the general election. And based on recent history, the chances of ANYBODY winning a state office in this twisted state - is nebulous at best. 

I have never met Kendall Qualls. Never talked to him on the phone. So, most of what I am posting this morning is either anecdotal or my observations from afar. One of the wraps I have heard from some about Kendall is his toughness. Is he tough enough to enter this arena. We know he is physically tough as he served as a Field Artillery Officer (holding a TS clearance) for some years in the United States Army. We know he is intellectually tough enough, as in business he worked in the healthcare industry and rose through the ranks to become a global vice president of a business unit. But the question remains - is he tough enough to survive the rigors and slings of a primary (with fellow Republicans no less), and then on to the real arena, a cage match with Amy Klobuchar in the general election.

Then comes the real bug-a-boo. I have addressed this before. Amy has been around for just short of forever. Her dad was around even longer. Klobuchar is a well-known (maybe not respected but well known) name. And because of that, not only the legions of Yellow Dog Democrats will come out to vote, as well as scores of uninformed and underinformed voters that turn out to vote every other year, and you have a tough hill for Kendall Qualls to climb. That is why some in the primary are leaning towards a vote for Lisa Demuth, endorsed or not.

If I were on Kendall's campaign team (I was on Jeff Johnson's team twice), I would advise him to go on a blizzard of radio and TV appearances. BE SPECIFIC on how or what he will do to make things better in this state. Amy has already been out there not only promising two chickens in every pot, but also to build 100,000 new houses in Minnesota. Where is the money coming from to do that? Maybe some claw back money from Somalia.

Coming up in the primary, MNGOP will have a black man with zero government experience (yet great military and business experience), going up against a black woman with very good government experience (Speaker of the House in MN), and a white guy who through his business (My Pillow) has a ton of name recognition. That is it. Unless somebody drops out, the stage is set.

If I were a betting man, I would say if the primary were held tomorrow, Lisa might have the edge. Why? It is about time we had a woman (and a strong one at that) run for governor on the red side. And many of the 2A folks love her for standing strong against the gun grabbers during the last session. As far as Kendall is concerned, he needs to get known and show some true grit before August. And as most of us Minnesotans know, time goes fast, as summer does fly by. 

     

Graham Platner - the "me too" iconoclast

"But wait - didn't you hear Platner say he did not know it was a Nazi tattoo because he got it one night when he was drunk? Yes, I did. And I also believe that pigs fly."

Well, he did it. Graham Platner won the Maine primary by a sizable margin. Now for a moment of truthful disclosure. I lived up in northern Maine in 1971-1972. Why? I was stationed up there, at an outpost station called Winter Harbor. I lived off base in a very rural town called Steuben. Since I was living in the community, I got to know many of the "Mainers" (please don't call them "Maniacs" - they hate that nickname).

Living in the community in my off hours, I got to know the locals quite well. Socialized with them, played cards with them, shot guns with them. Good folks. Many were in the timber trade, lobstermen, blood worm diggers and so forth. Not a well to do area of Maine, but the folks were rock solid. Why bring this up? I NEVER met ANYBODY even one percent similar to Graham Platner. If anything, they were the polar opposite of Platner.

How in the world, in this day in age, did a guy with a very checkered past, carry the entire state of Maine for the Democrats? And here is the strangest part. The way he treats (or treated) women. Wait - what? Where is the Democrat "me too" movement? Remember Brett Kavanaugh? Hello? "Always believe the woman" has morphed into NEVER believe the woman - that is, with Maine Democrats. 

I loved watching certain feminist Democrats being questioned about why (or how) they could support a guy like Platner. Oh - did I mention his Nazi tattoo? I guess that kills all the jargon the left uses against the MAGA crowd. Can't call them Nazis of Gestapo anymore since their senate candidate has a now concealed Nazi tattoo on his chest. But wait - didn't you hear Platner say he did not know it was a Nazi tattoo because he got it one night when he was drunk? Yes, I did. And I also believe that pigs fly.

Many thought Susan Collins was a "dead senator walking" coming into this election. Even though she is a very unreliable vote for many Republican bills, she is at least kind of red. In any event, now that Platner is running against her, and even though the Democrats love his chances of beating her, the odds are that Collins will stomp on him in the general. Why? Not all "Mainers" are crazy. Only the ones who vote blue. 

Living on the edge of tomorrow...

"Is tomorrow going to be better? Or are we going to stumble into 2027 in worse shape than ever? Oh yes - 2027 is the year many Pentagon planners think that China is going to invade Taiwan. That will be thing one for the day AFTER tomorrow's musings."

"When tomorrow comes, things will look better." Will they? Really? How many times have we heard that old saying when we were growing up? Especially when we are having a bad day. "When tomorrow comes" - really? Here we are, living on the edge of tomorrow. I mean, we can see part of tomorrow already. We have messed up today, so maybe we should look to see how the table is set for tomorrow:

Disclosure Day - The long-awaited film by the semi-retired Steven Spielberg. Spielberg thinks that when his truth is told in this story, it will shake the foundations of many of the world's religions - even Christianity. However, those deep in the Christian faith know that this film might be part of the "great deception". In other words - beware. In any event, the film breaks to the public this week, so buckle up and hold on tight.

Iran - "Another two weeks, another two weeks, another two weeks - the deal is almost done!" More and more people think that Iran is playing us like a fiddle. Even General Jack Keane thinks we should unleash our dogs of war on them again. Finish the job. Meanwhile, the Strait remains closed, and now the Houthis have announced they will start to control entry and exit to the Red Sea. Israel keeps getting hit by Hezbollah with rockets out of Lebanon, and when Israel hits Lebanon back, the US and Israel bicker about it. Where are we? Nowhere.

Fraud - On my - where to start on this one. The DOJ has announced that they are going after Walz and Ellison for failure to act on the well-known fraud which has been plaguing MN for at least six years. But it is not just Minnesota - the fraud bug is all over the country. In California, their elections are highly suspect of voter fraud. Just look at the recent vote count in LA - more votes than people. In fact, many states are seeing symptoms of voter fraud. Whereas the Save America Act would help fix this issue, the Senate can't seem to get this commonsense act over the finish line. Bottom line? This Fraud-O-Rama will continue into the midterms as well as many of the federal and state programs. Maybe we do need the aliens to land and help us fix this. We sure can't.

National Discourse - Our motto, which many of us grew up with, was "I am my brother's keeper." That has been replaced with STFU or worse. For reasons which escape me, we (collectively) have so much pent-up anger, we can't even celebrate a sports victory without acting like hooligans. And where does this anger really manifest itself? Politics. The art of getting along has been supplanted by the ugliest of all language and behavior. Whereas hate was once considered toxic and rare, it is now part of our culture, and our language towards others is filled with vile slurs and invectives. 

Is tomorrow going to be better? Or are we going to stumble into 2027 in worse shape than ever? Oh yes - 2027 is the year many Pentagon planners think that China is going to invade Taiwan. That will be thing one for the day AFTER tomorrow's musings. Until then, may we all do better and be better. Why? We are better than how we are now. Trust me, we are.   

 

"Cutting off his nose to spite his face..."

"Can we ever be friends with Canada and the UK again? In their minds, as soon as we are done with Trump, and have somebody like Biden in charge again. In our minds, as soon as the UK is done with Starmer and they have somebody like Lady Thatcher again. Or with Canada, with Carney is gone and Canada has somebody like Brian Mulroney again." 

Recognize these two guys? They are the head of two countries which at one time, were out closest allies. In fact, our history is loaded with good things to say about the UK and Canada. That is, once we got the War of 1812 behind us. No, for the most part, the UK and Canada have been good friends, good allies, and good trading partners. That is - until both of those countries started tilting left, and the United States hired a businessman to be our POTUS, who could see through their *bleep*.

Both the UK and Canada are in a world of hurt right now, and don't even realize it. Trump has tried to reason with them, tease them, and even threaten them. But they are right and we are wrong. After seeing how much they helped us in the Iran War (they did not do buttkiss), that was about the last straw. Now don't get me wrong - most people in this country (included myself) love Canada and the UK. It is the leadership which has gone astray. Really, really astray.

Trump is still so miffed that Starmer would not allow our bombers to use Diego Garcia during the war, Trump is looking at buying all of the Chagos Islands, including Diego Garcia. Why? Trump sees the strategic value in having a base in that part of the Indian Ocean which he could use whenever we needed to. If that means buying the entire island chain - so, be it. It is like why we want to buy Greenland. Strategic vision. Europe does not understand that. They did at one time - but no more.

Can we ever be friends with Canada and the UK again? In their minds, as soon as we are done with Trump, and have somebody like Biden in charge again. In our minds, as soon as the UK is done with Starmer and they have somebody like Lady Thatcher again. Or with Canada, with Carney is gone and Canada has somebody like Brian Mulroney again. 

Until then, I guess we will need to play nice with these two bed wetter types. If the UK and Canada can hold on, better days might be in the offing. Or not. As for us, it is MAGA all the way. Our stock market is proof that MAGA is not a better way, it is the best way.    

The high price of open borders

My biggest fear is that after Trump, we will elect another clone of Obama or Biden. Then all the idiocy that we practiced during the Obama and Biden years will return. Up is down, right is left, and evil is good. Here we will go again. That is my fear, and I pray it will never happen again.

To the people who hate ICE today, but did not hate ICE during our yesteryears, hear this out. ICE is the same organization with the same charter it always was. They are now and have been enforcing the same laws that Congress has had on the books. Then why in the world is ICE villainized today by the secular humanists who protest just about everything? Why? Because, for four long years, our borders were wide open. With millions pouring in, unvetted and unchecked, ICE now has to clean up that mess. And often times, it is not pretty.

But now, thanks in a large part to fraud (and our growing awareness of it), we are finding out that open borders may have only been the tip of the iceberg. Meaning what? There seems to be a cottage industry in both China and India of making fraudulent credentials for people who wanted to get a work visa to come to the states. And it has worked very well. In fact, many of the females who received fraudulent documents came here just to have a baby. Why? Our birthright citizenship. Result? An instant citizen who should have never been born here in the first place. 

The more I hear about the way our borders and visa system were twisted, the more I realize just how important our Border Control and ICE agencies are, and how much we need them. The money we spend while going after people who snuck into this country as well as rooting out the fraud which let illegals come here under false documents, is staggering. All that money, which could have been spent on bettering life for our citizens, is used instead for remedy purposes. We need to remedy the malice and misuse which was visited upon our country by not only the fraudsters, but also by Biden, Mayorkas, and Garland.

I don't know how much we pay ICE officers, but it is not nearly enough. All they are doing is enforcing the laws on the books which Congress (made up of many Democrats) - passed. They are part of the cadre of federal LEOs in our country. But the way = the way they are treated by the mutts in many of the big, blue city is less than awful. Result? Because of our toxic media, we villainize the federal LEOs and lionize the anarchists. Like it was foretold, in the final days good will look evil and evil will look good.

My biggest fear is that after Trump, we will elect another clone of Obama or Biden. Then all the idiocy that we practiced during the Obama and Biden years will return. Up is down, right is left, and evil is good. Here we will go again. That is my fear, and I pray it will never happen again. 

  

Time for another holiday - a gas tax holiday

"High prices or not, summer is summer and time is a wasting. If you close your eyes just for a second, it seems like another month in the summer has slipped by. What am I going to do about it? In about two hours or so, we will head north to our camper. Why? Time is flying by. Time to enjoy what little summer we have in this state."

Had to fill up my truck the other day. Went to the cheapest gas station in the area. And even with that, my durable old Chevy truck took almost $100 to fill it up. I know, I know - it is nobody's fault but the Iranians for giving the Strait of Hormuz a stopper. Meanwhile, gas in the states averages about $4/gal, and in Europe it is much worse. Short of turning Iran into a sheet of glass, is there not anything that we can do to lower our gas prices this summer? 

Actually, there is. Donald Trump first floated this idea. How about a tax holiday from paying the federally mandated 18.4 cents per gallon on gasoline? I know - a drop in the bucket, but it would help. But - Trump would need the help of Congress on this one, and since the TDS and vile hatred is so strong in Washington, that would never happen. How do I know? Just look at the Save America Act, which is a 90-10 piece of legislation. Should have been a slam dunk in the Senate. But it failed. Something that 90% of Americans would favor -- failed due to four RINOs and every single Democrat. Thus, a tax holiday would stand the same chance as a snowball in you know where.

Okay, okay. How about in Minnesota? Surely, we could do a tax holiday here. We are after all, paying a sky-high rate of 31.8 cents a gallon. Whoops - I misspoke. The Democrats raised our gas tax to an even higher rate of 32.6 cents a gallon. Between federal and state, people in Minnesota are paying over 50 cents a gallon in tax! Ouch!

Would Taxing Timmy ever consider giving his residence a break on their gas tax? When pigs fly is my answer. All he cares about is fixing up George Floyd square and getting ICE out of Minnesota. Other than that, with his terminal TDS, he cares not about the pain and suffering his political party has hoisted upon Minnesota's citizens (subjects). Meanwhile, trips up north to the cabin or camping have gotten to be very expensive - very expensive indeed.

High prices or not, summer is summer and time is a wasting. If you close your eyes just for a second, it seems like another month in the summer has slipped by. What am I going to do about it? In about two hours or so, head north to our camper. Why? Time is flying by. Time to enjoy what little summer we have in this state.