Cashing checks with no money to back them up...

"Bottom line? Enjoy the two-year party. If after two years none of their promises are kept, the next bloodbath with be in 2028. And that bloodbath will be known as a Red Wave. Remember that old saying in politics - nothing lasts forever, nothing ever will."

  

Well, the long-awaited election is finally over. Surprised? Not really. Disappointed? Totally. All I heard last night from the victors, were checks being written with no cash to back them up. These promises by the socialists were not only full of grandeur, but they also eclipsed the old "two chickens in every pot" promise. In fact, there was so much BS being spewed by my TV last night, I had to clean out the filter - twice. But - in all fairness, one of the victors did speak truth. Newly minted Speaker Jefferies summed it all up in two words - "lawyer up". 

Now the blame game begins. Soul searching starts in earnest. The forensics will look in every nook and cranny to figure out who or whom on our side was asleep at the wheel. The fact that this is somewhat normal to get a beating during the midterms of the ruling party, will be un-noticed. For Donald Trump to say the only reason we lost is because he was not on the ballot is maybe partially true. Then what was the real reason?

Promises made, promises kept is always a good platform to have going into any type of election. But - promises made and not kept - is a killer. Was Trump responsible for the price of gas and diesel being sky high when he promised inflation would be rock bottom? Maybe a little bit for not finishing off Iran in February. Back then, we could have done it. We had support from much of the country. Midnight Hammer was historic, and to finish the job after that would have been wonderful. But for some reason, we took our boot off of Iran's neck. Tried to deal with them. And all of a sudden, we are in a forever Middle East war, and food prices and gas prices are sky high. 

The war, the tariffs (which most people did not understand), and pure hatred for Donald Trump are a big reason for much of last night's outcome. That coupled with the fact we ran both sides of Congress, and all Congress accomplished (after the BBB was passed), was lots of time away from Washington. We squandered having all the levers of power in government. Consequently, many in our base sat this one out. They were either pissed or discouraged. The Democrats, however, could smell blood in the water, and came out in droves.

Come January, the new Congress will be in power, and the lame duck Congress will go home to lick their wounds. With the new Congress will come the new fights. Not between the red team and the blue team - the new fight will be between the traditional Democrats and the DSA types. Why? The DSA types have made promises which cannot be kept. Bills they can't afford. That is where the real fight will be. 

Bottom line? Enjoy the two-year party. If after two years none of their promises are kept, the next bloodbath with be in 2028. And that bloodbath will be known as a Red Wave. Remember that old saying in politics - nothing lasts forever, nothing ever will.  

Maybe now, it is time for that national divorce

                                                  

                                            

"We tried being married to each other, and that did not work. Each day was like a page out of Shakespeare's, Taming of the Shrew. Now it is time for some well-deserved peace and harmony. Will this national divorce bring peace back to the shire? We can only hope so." 

My wife and I have been married for over 50 years. And after all that time of living with a cantankerous old cuss like me, our daily discourse is still fairly civil. We made a commitment for life, so the word "divorce" has never left our lips (as it pertains to us). That being said, if my wife and I got along like the left and right get along in this country, we would have been divorced decades ago. Full stop.

I have addressed this issue before. Many times. This country is a mess, and if DSA gets a foothold in some of our elected offices, it will be even messier. The antipathy which exists for the other side is palpable. Short of turning into the Hatfields and McCoys, it is a wonder how we have survived this long - two countries living on the same piece of land. But things can get worse - much worse. How so? Just look across the pond over in many of the Euro countries - especially France. France is about a whisker away from all out civil war. 

Now, I am not a quitter. But I am ready to throw in the towel. I see no light in the tunnel going forward. My solution? Let's negotiate some kind of split in our land, and wherever your political leanings go, that is where you can live. Simple as that. Will there still be some disagreements between people of like minds? Sure - but not the acrimonious and acidic vernacular we have now between the blue folks and the red folks. No, I have tried to get along with the progressives, liberals and socialists. It is not working for me. The common ground between the two camps is small than anything made with nanotechnology.

No violence, no warfare is required in this divorce. Just a civil (if possible) good-bye and good luck. We can still talk, visit and phone the other side. It would be good to keep up any common interests which may still be in effect. But each of us would be citizens of the country we fit in with. At the end of the day, that is where we will each of us live. That is where each of us belong.

We tried being married to each other, and that did not work. Each day was like a page out of Shakespeare's, Taming of the Shrew. Now it is time for some well-deserved peace and harmony. Will this national divorce bring peace back to the shire? We can only hope so. 

Decoy Dan and other dastardly deeds!

 

"Tomorrow is the day. Will we be cowed with more schemes like Decoy Dan? Or will be celebrating a free and fair election (for a change). In about 48 hours we should know the tale of the tape. Will the result spell freedom and liberty for my kids and grandies, or will it start a slippery slide into the cauldron, and imprisonment, of socialism."    

Introducing Dan Sullivan. He is kind of like the real Dan Sullivan who is running for the Senate up in Alaska. The "kind of like" is his name only - sans some middle initials. He is a retired schoolteacher and was recruited to run for the Senate up in Alaska for obfuscation purposes only. His job was to take legit votes away from the Republican Dan Sullivan. What was this? Dirty tricks? An October surprise? In any event schoolteacher Dan Sullivan has been outed and now is in hiding. Was this his fifteen minutes of fame or was there something much more sinister at play here?

I was going to name this article something like, "This election is for my kids and grandkids more than it is about my generation." But voter integrity (also called voter suppression by the left) is a huge issue going forward and should be for the generations that follow us. Fair and honest elections are supposed to be just that - not some trick play like you would see in a football game. One person, one vote. Not a dead person, not a dead dog - a real live person. And that person must be a citizen on this country. That is it. It really is that simple. 

But many Democrats are like the former Al Davis of the Oakland Raiders - their motto is "just win baby -win! Or in other vernacular, win at any cost, using any means necessary. If it means using dastardly deeds, so be it. If it means marrying your brother (like Omar is alleged to have done) - so, be it. If it means letting 10 to 20 million illegals into the country just so they could vote blue - fine with the DNC. To put it simply, winning is putting party over country. ALL. THE. TIME.

Right now, our country has an overabundance of cheaters and fraudsters. The cheaters continue to cheat, and the fraudsters are slowly (very slowly) being caught and rounded up. But here is the thing - the fraudsters did not operate in the dark of night - they perpetrated their craft in the light of day - right under the noses of the cheaters and elected officials who were running our government. Did the overseers care about the billions of tax dollars which were stolen by the fraudsters? Sure did - once the fraudsters got caught and the lax governance and stewardship of this state was exposed. If the fraudsters had not been caught, the fraud would still be going on - maybe even growing.

Tomorrow is the day. Will we be cowed with more schemes like Decoy Dan? Or will be celebrating a free and fair election (for a change). In about 48 hours we should know the tale of the tape. Will the result spell freedom and liberty for my kids and grandies, or will it start a slippery slide into the cauldron, and imprisonment, of socialism.    

  

DST? White man's folly!

"No, I am in the growing class of people who don't care. I don't care if we are DST all year long, or standard time all year long. Just as long as we don't need to change our clocks twice a year. Maybe the folks in AZ have had it right all along. No changing clocks - ever." 

Many have heard this old tale when it comes to changing our clocks twice a year for no reason whatsoever. (As the fable goes), and old Indian Chief was asked his opinion on DST. His answer? "Only a foolish white man would cut a foot off the bottom of a blanket and then sew it on the top of the blanket and think he had a longer blanket." BINGO! Thank you chief, for exposing this nonsense for what it is (and was). There is a reason why Donald Trump wanted to get rid of this crap. And I am firmly in his camp on that one!

With all the other fall things I need to get done today between church and the noon kickoff for the Vikings, I need to change clocks. A lot of clocks. Sure, some change automatically - but most don't. Maybe I should start being more like my oldest daughter, whose wall clocks sure don't show any CST or DST that registers in Minnesota. Her clocks remind me of that old saying, "My clocks are not broken - they tell the right time twice a day..."

And then there is the sleep thing. My wife thought we should stay up later last night so we could sleep in later. Good plan for young people. But I get tired at night. For me, 9pm is the new midnight. In fact, these days in the darkness, making it to 9pm is a big deal for me. Thus, I went to bed when I was tired and got up at my usual time. Which because of going back to CDT, was 4:30 instead of 5:30. And because of that early rising, I just might doze off in church this morning!

I know, I know - it might be screwing with that whole circadian rhythm thing. I had to fight that issue every time I flew over one of the ponds and went through multiple time zones. No matter what I did, I always ended up with some kind of jet lag. I remember hearing some sleep doctor many years ago explaining that every time we go from normal to DST or back again, our body responds with a small dose of jet lag. Imagine that! Getting jet lag from no going anywhere! Give me a break!

No, I am in the growing class of people who don't care. I don't care if we are DST all year long, or standard time all year long. Just as long as we don't need to change our clocks twice a year. Maybe the folks in AZ have had it right all along. No changing clocks - ever. 

Help is (not) on the way...

"We have been warned about this type of event for decades. EMP, natural or not, can bring our society to a standstill. We knew how much it would cost to fix our grid to make it robust and smart. We chose to do nothing. Why? Not very glamorous, like building a bridge or something. If something bad happens, and we are looking somebody to blame, we only need look in a mirror."

There sure is a lot of noise right now on the internet about something bad just being over the horizon. Something which could knock out power so completely, that each and every household would be an island unto itself. And the prepping required to make it through this unknowing issue, ranges from three days to as much as ninety days. But what does all of this really mean?

If the power goes out for three days, for most of us it would be a walk in the park. True, most would want their power back on. But other than that, it might just be chalked up as an adventure to some. But as the days add up, much of what is in our refrigerator or freezer might need to be tossed once the power comes back on.

As the days tick off without power, from three to ninety, things start to get very serious. It is true we need one gallon of water per day per person to survive. But what about water to flush your toilet? To take a shower with? Laundry? Do dishes with? And people who did not prep enough with long term food, it would not take long for their pantries to start looking like Mother Hubbard's Cupboard - in other words - empty. 

After about a week of no electricity, no water, no heat, no internet, no garbage pickup - that sickening feeling will start to well up in the pit of your gut - help is not coming. All those government services which we have grown up with, which we are used to (maybe addicted to) - are not coming. And after a week or two, when some in the community have nothing, and nothing to lose, neighbors might become advisories. Our sense of community might devolve into primal tribalism. Survival of the fittest.

There is no scenario which one can imagine which shows any upside to losing power. In fact, it would be about the worst thing one could imagine. And if a power outage was caused by some EMP event, you can take transportation off your bingo card also. Not only would going to the store be useless (as stores would be empty), but your car would also not work to get you there. And even if it did, and you needed gas to fill it up, not of the gas stations could pump without power. Get sick? Need medical help? You know the answer to that one. Even if you are on meds, and your meds run out, what do you do? No power means one bad thing after another. 

Here is the part with some know, but many do not. We have been warned about this type of event for decades. EMP, natural or not, can bring our society to a standstill. We knew how much it would cost to fix our grid to make it robust and smart. We chose to do nothing. Why? Not very glamorous, like building a bridge or something.

If something bad happens, and we are looking somebody to blame, we only need look in a mirror. Sad but true.  

 

Is it possible for morons and idiots to vote?

 

"No - this is not a Halloween prank. Many on my side of the street feel the same way. Raise the voting age; raise the IQ requirement. Sound drastic? The alternative is worse. A ruptured country. Why do you think the government is telling everybody to bunker up? Bad things might be in the offing."   

We need to raise the voting age to at least 40. Come to think of it, we should also raise the IQ requirement to be something higher than a rock. Why - is there a problem? Well, if you hear some of the young ones talk about politics, it will make you dizzy in a New York minute. A very large portion of our voting block does not know a dit from a DUH when it comes to pulling the election lever the correct way. How so? They will vote for the lowest common denominator. Why? Many are not just underinformed, some are totally uninformed. 

A few days ago, some young person was asked who he or she was voting for. The Democrat running for senate or governor was a member of DSA. And that to this young person - was a big draw! This person said a vote for the Democrat was the right choice, as living under socialism would be kind of cool. How in the world could somebody who has gone through our fine education system think that socialism is "cool"? There is the question and answer in the same sentence. It is BECAUSE of our education system our young ones don't know why socialism is bad.

Why are so many of our young people screwed up these days? Thank our teacher's union. They don't care about educating our kids - they don't care if the test scores go in the toilet - they don't care if truants are sky high - they just don't care. Maybe this is all by design. The socialists who populate the teacher's union, maybe they want this outcome. Underinformed or uninformed voters. If that was the plan - it is working.

If the uninformed have their way, we will deep six our republic and trade it in for a failed socialist state. And then that old axiom might once again come true - be careful of what you wish for, because you just might get it. And then once the country is more screwed up than Hogan's Goat, the young voting block will blame - Donald Trump. They will take no ownership about not being able to afford (affordable) health insurance once they get "Medicare for all" passed. With that, the regrets really start to pile up. 

But because the school districts have done such a bang-up job in creating Frankenstein's Monster, the "normals" will be outvoted. They will be sucked into the vortex and forced to live with the bad choices made by others. What can we do about this? Not much - the die is cast. The teacher's union is way too strong and has too many fools cowed. 

No - this is not a Halloween prank. Many on my side of the street feel the same way. Raise the voting age; raise the IQ requirement. Sound drastic? The alternative is worse. A ruptured country. Why do you think the government is telling everybody to bunker up? Bad things might be in the offing.   

What's up with all this 90-day prep stuff?

 

Think about that (and this) before you scoff too much. Cub Foods only has one or two days' supply of food on hand before they are out. Even if you could make it to Cub, all you would find is a locked door and empty shelves. Again, make your home your store, even for a short period of time. 

Anybody see the new directive from Pete Hegseth to all our military bases? He wants every base to have enough food, water and energy to last for ninety days in the event of an emergency of some sort. In other words, he does not want to have any dependency on the outside civilian world. Why? Good question - it is as if something is up and he is not telling. But that is not all - in the UK, the government has advised all citizens to bunker up with food and water. How much? Enough to last ninety days.

Here is the issue if that is the case and we all need to bunker up for at least ninety days. Over the years, I have asked many a friend how much potable water they have in the house. The most common answer - "Not much". When I tell them they need one gallon per day per person living in that household, the most common question in response is - "Who has room for all that water??"

My response to those who think we don't need to do any bunkering, is a simple one. "Do you remember Katrina? Do you remember how the government did not help in time?" I have said this before in many years of addressing bunkering - in an emergency, your home will not only be your refuge, but it will also be your store. If all power is out, and stores are closed or totally out of stock, what you have in your house is what you will get. Period. Full stop.

But this article is not about how to prep, how to bunker. It is this - why now? What is the urgency? Is something in the wind that NATO governments know and we don't? That our government knows and we don't? Is this some kind of Iranian terror cell issue? Russians? Aliens? Asteroid? What is it? I spent too many years with a high-level clearance knowing stuff that never made the newspaper. And I have told friends and family over the years that knowing stuff which is classified is not always self-satisfying - at times it is downright scary! 

But even if this is based on a nothing burger, it is always a good idea to have at least a week of food and potable water on hand. Why? If we lose all power and services, even for a short period of time, we will not be living in 2026 - we will be living in 1826. Remember Texas in the winter of 2021. We will have to fend for ourselves, just like the pioneers did two hundred years ago.

Think about that (and this) before you scoff too much. Cub Foods only has one or two days supply of food on hand before they are out. Even if you could make it to Cub, all you would find is a locked door and empty shelves. Again, make your home your store, even for a short period of time.