Paying Their "Fair Share."

It seems that every year or two the dimbulb Lefties are wont to trot out all the old rationales for finally, FINALLY forcing those neerdowell "millionaires and billionaires" to pay their "fair share" in taxes. 

FINALLY!

It also seems that no matter how many times you tell them they're full of kimchee, that the so-called "rich" are already paying in excess of their "fair share," they just will not get it.  They just cannot get it! 

Well, Pilgrim, I'm about to share with you and everyone else who deigns to read this pabulum the Bottom Line Facts:  

*  The "Tippy Top Earners" in our society, as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, (in)famous Native American member of the High Cheek Bones Tribe, and multi-millionaire several -multi's over, calls them, the "1%," pull down $428,713+ per annum.  

Now, that's certainly not chump change, but in places like NYC and SFO you won't be considered "rich."

*  These "rich" folks therefore earned 19.04% of all the buckaroos doled out as wages in America in 2017, the most recent year such statistics are available.

*  Yet, pay attention all you nascent socialists out there, including Bernie and Cory and the 29 year-old ex-bartender and Bronx Congressperson, they paid 37.80% of all the income taxes taken in by our Gummint in that same period of time!

*  Annnnd, considering that we should all know by now that the bottom 48% of all wage-earners pay no Federal income tax at all, the bottom 90% of all wage-earners paid a Grand Total of only 30.62% of income taxes collected. 

Soooo, in summation, if you're earning 19% of all income but paying 38% of all taxes, you're getting SCREWED!  Yet, not screwed hard enough or long enough for Liz and Cory and Bernie and A.O.C.  Not by a long shot!

It would seem to me these folks need either a 9% tax refund from the U. S. Treasury in order to get back to that "fair share," or a fully-fueled private jet prepped for a one-way trip to take them and their saddlebags full of cash to Belize or Panama.

If you know anyone who subscribes to the lunacy spewed by these poorly-informed fools, you might want to pass this little bit of information along...

"If We Could Just Save One Life..."

Remember a couple years back when the gun-control folks advised us that, "If we could just save one life by confiscating guns, it would surely be worth it, wouldn't it?"

That group would include the likes of Feinstein, Newsom, Pelosi, Schumer and Clinton.  

And Holder, Boxer, Biden, Booker, Harris, Sanders, Schumer and Obama, to name but a few.

Just one life?  Hmmmm...

Well, Pilgrim, so do I.  Well enough to want to mention that undertaking forced-confiscation of at least 325 million guns from 100+ million Americans would certainly be interesting to watch.  Kind of like trying to wrest a pork loin from the jaws of a hungry leopard, by yourself, blindfolded, and drunk, I would guess.

But then it struck me:  We all know by now that hundreds, even thousands of "economic migrants," you know, those uninvited but oh-so welcome visitors from a hundred-plus countries, lose their lives trying to cross our unforgiving southern border each and every year.  And many of them were pregnant.  It's also estimated by our own State Dept. that one in three females who make the trek north are raped during the trip.  

Well, Pilgrim, I'd like to ask these nice folks: "If we could save just one life by building an Impenetrable Border Containment and Migrant Protection System (i. e., "Wall"), it would surely be worth it, wouldn't it?" 

Of course it would!  We don't want those poor, wretched souls to die trying to make their way to the Promised Land, now do we?  Noooooo!  In fact, it would be worth whatever it cost to provide them with such much-needed assistance, wouldn't it?  You know, water, food, shelter, clothing and a nice comfortable life.  

And, since these wonderful-folks-just-seeking-a-new-life have no right to be here (ummm, it's illegal, after all), and since each and every lawful, adult, non-felon American has the absolute, inalienable, Supreme Court-affirmed, Constitutionally-guaranteed Right to "keep and bear arms," the way forward seems pretty clear to me: 

Construct the

Impenetrable Border Containment and

Migrant Protection System,

today!

Opioids and Older Folks...

Did you know that older folks experience more pain than the average American?    

Well, they do (DUH!).

And, I, The Chuckmeister, your Scribe-in-Residence and Proud American am a sterling example. 

And for this intractable pain I suffer, I'm prescribed opioids.  After four spinal fusions, I'm left with ongoing, 24/7 pain of such incredible intensity that it would surely knock a Clydesdale to its knees.  

And for it, I take opioids, religiously, four times a day.  

I used to take them six times a day, and then five times a day, but the Federal Government decided - without first consulting me, or any other sufferer - that I just didn't need that many doses.  And so they've been trying to wien me and millions of other seniors off the most effective pain-killer currently available.

Hmmmmm...

We've all found out why of late.  Turns out the boys in Big Pharma discovered that they could make a $Mint by producing these little jewels by the millions and turning their heads just a bit when the time came to pick distributors for their goods.  They always seemed to pick the ones which bought the most tonnage.  Funny...

And a few of them messed up the playpen for the rest of the pack.  I've read there's a town of only 3,000 in Kentucky whose 9 pharmacies ordered and distributed more than 9,000,000 doses of Hydrocodone and Oxycontin in just one year!  Ummm, yeah.  Do the math.  That's like, ummm, like quite a lot!    

So, the FDA and the DOJ and the HSA and the BSA and the CIA and the NBA and the AAA and the ASPCA and who knows who else lept into action!  They started tightening down on production, trying to squeeze down illegal distribution.  And in the process, forcing those in need of these vital painkillers to do with less.  First, six a day.  Then five.  And now,  four...

It's been tough.  It was tough for me with 6 a day.  But needless to say, I have no choice.  I have to adapt.  And I do, sort of, with the assistance of a lot of cabernet sauvignon, sangiovese and syrah.  And an occasional beer or two.  

And oh yeah, I thought I'd mention.  On my last visit to the pain doctor I was offered a stark choice: The Feds told them to tell me and everybody else that I could continue to get my Rx's for opioids, but only if I agreed to purchase and maintain on hand Narcan, the antidote to opioid overdose.  (!)  (!)  (!)

So I've been soothing my pain with opioids for 25 years, and there's NOW a chance I would overdose?

So I had to cough up more than $90.00 in co-pay as a bribe so that I could continue to receive my drugs. And if I hadn't, no meds.  I wonder if the Narcan folks had anything to do with that?  

Has life made me this cynical, or am I just cynical because...everyone with any sense is cynical?

So I go to sleep at night knowing that we're all safe and comfy because people who wouldn't want to waste vital painkillers by taking too many at one time, can now bring themselves back from a never-to-happen overdose...should it ever happen.

Which it won't.

P.S.  I keep the Narcan in my glovebox just in case I happen to come across a junkie on the side of the road somewhere who's overdosed, so I can leap into action, be a hero and bring them back to life, proving to one and all that my Eagle Scout badge was not earned in vain. 

But first, I'll be requiring up-front payment of my $90.00... 

Rain...

Ahhh, my friends, as I write this I'm in the midst of a most wonderful, beautiful, enjoyable, fantastic three-day rainstorm.

And I mean Storm!  It's coming down in the half-inch an hour range.  Which means to the folks out here, it's like a fearsome, historic, Biblical blizzard in New Hampshire.  

And the reason it's so very special is that we who live in the Peoples' Republic of California actually don't experience it all that much.  Maybe 9 - 12 inches a year crammed into six weeks in Jan/Feb.  And since I come from a great place whose weather was four distinct seasons; Winter, two weeks of Spring, Summer, two weeks of Fall, and back to Winter again. 

So a bit of variety in the weather is appreciated by yours truly.  And nearly everyone I've spoken with lately who came here from someplace else agrees with me.  And all the rest think it pretty much sucks.  

Oh well...

But back to the primary subject.  All of you out there who've bought into this whole "Global Warming, or "Climate Change," or "Climate Chaos," scam need to think about something, and think about it quick.

Our climate moves from west to east.  And the Earth rotates from east to west.  Sooooo, the rain we're experiencing right now will be in Chicago in two days.  And from the looks of it, it just might shut it down.  

And it will be in New York City in three days.  And it will experience four inches of snow, a Big Deal in the Big Apple.  

And the next storm that hits us will move on east to play hell with Chi-Town and Philly.  And on, and on, and on...

Soooooo, the weather in India will be in China in a week.  And the weather in China will be in the U. S. of A. in another week.  Between them, they contain almost HALF the world's population.  1.2 Billion in India, 1.7 in China.  And neither India, nor China, are engaged in any, ANY significant carbon pollution abatement, AT ALL!

And, oh yeah.  They each open a coal-fired electricity generation plant EVERY WEEK!

Soooooo, while the "Climate-Believers" are doing their best to shut down the remaining coal mines in Kentucky, other nations are rendering our efforts moot.  We're sort of like a gnat on an elephant's ass in terms of pollution generation.

Remember, we sport only 5% of the Earth's population.  And we've reduced our carbon footprint enormously over the past few years, while still maintaining a reasonably comfortable life.  You know, driving, flying, eating meat, etc.

We "Climate-Deniers" have been given that moniker by folks who sort of resemble the finger-pointers back in Salem, Massassasssuhchusettts, don't they?

Sooooooo, unless and until they build a 60,000 foot-tall Plexiglas wall between us and the Pacific Ocean, to keep out all that noxious pollution from China and India and the rest of the Earth, I'd rather keep my money in my pocket instead of giving it to the Gummint to "fix" the weather.  

Until then, I think I'll get back to watching this delightful rainstorm.  Good luck, Chillicothe, Missouri...

"Mr. Trump, Tear Down That Wall!"

It's taken me quite a long time to finally buy in to the whole left-wing approach to border security, but I have.  They just wore me down.  Plus, since they hold the levers of power here in the Peoples' Republic of California, I kind of have to go along to get along, doncha' know.  

I always thought securing the border was trying to keep folks who shouldn't be here...from coming here.  But no.  Now it's using drones and technology and x-rays and microwaves and radar and all sorts of other whiz-bang, hi-tech wizardry to try and keep "undocumented foreign visitors" from visiting.

So says newly-(re)christened Speaker of the House of Representatives San Fran Nan Pelosi.  And God knows, she's supremely prepared for her role.  I mean after all, as the daughter and the brother of the Mayors of Baltimore, having been chauffeured to and from pre-school in a limo, she came West loaded for the California bear.  She's been in Congress since The Flood, even just got her nephew voted in as the new Guvnor, and will surely be there long after anyone you know is still alive.

And she said, and I quote, "Walls are immoral, ineffective and expensive."  So, we have to believe her, right?  She wouldn't lie to us, would she?  

So, my friends, and are my friends, we have no other choice but to drop our quest for a border wall from sea to shining sea.  Or even another 232 miles of it, as The Donald and the Border Protection and ICE and Homeland Security folks are requesting.  We have 626 miles of border walls and and barriers right now, but that just must be torn down, right!  I mean, walls are immoral, right?  And we don't want to anger God, do we?

No-We-Do-Not!

So, we tear down all the walls we have now (we simply must!) and install $Billions in new hi-tech stuff to keep out illegals.  Boy, is Silicon Valley happy!  No walls, just whiz-bang.  And of course, lots of new border guards.

By my calculations, it will take about 33,000 new guards to protect the areas of the border not now fenced, plus the areas Homeland Security says we need to harden, not including the 300 or so miles of rocky, mountainous Texas terrain where the Rio Grande is too wide to wade.  

We have to put them, our loyal guards, about every 250 feet so that when the drone tells us an alien is breaking in, our folks can run right over and can keep him from doing so.  I mean, that's the point in a drone or x-rays or radar, isn't it?  To tell us when they're breaking in, right?  Why would we need to know from a drone or a laser that someone is violating our immigration laws unless we intend to do something about it, right?

But then, in the roughly 850 miles which need extra-special-attention, we need a guard about 50 feet.  And in the super-special areas, like San Diego, Otay Mesa and Juarez, we'll need a guard every 4 feet.  Shoulder to shoulder.  Arm-in-arm.  I mean, there's no wall now, so we'll need lots and lots of good ol' muscle. 

So then, I'm figuring we'll need a total of somewhere north of 200,000 border guards.  Only.  At about $100,000 in annual salary each, we're looking at only about another $20,000,000,000 ($20 Billion!) a year in personnel costs.  Not much if you say it quick...

Lots of newly-created jobs, plus, we'll be able to hold our heads high around the United Nations because we're treating El Salvadorans and Guatemalans and Hondurans with such empathy and dignity.  And who cares about increasing our Federal Debt because we can't afford it?  We can afford other stuff, right?  Why not this?  I mean, as brand-new NYC Representative Alexhanditover Occasional-Cortex just told us, all we have to do is just print more money! 

Of course, we could avoid all this sturm and drang by just building a wall, like China, and Israel, and Jordan.  But doing it this other way will make our Social Justice Warriors so very proud!

And I'm all for that, aren't you?  I mean, after all, making us all feel good is the whole point, right?

Just Because You Can do a Thing...

...doesn't mean you SHOULD do that thing...

What that means is one should step back and take a hard look at those "fork in the road" decisions we're all forced to face in life before we take 'em.  I've had 'em.  You've had 'em.  

Donald J. Trump had one you'll probably remember.

Having leveraged a "small" $1MM loan from daddy into $Billions, and having bedded nearly all the starlets and porn actresses in NYC, and having turned himself in a "brand" worth $Billions all over the world, he then decided to...wait for it...run for PRESIDENT!

Ummm, yeah.  That's not only turned into America's "As the Stomach Turns," it's also made a rather yuuuuuge dent in The Donald's bank account.

It was just reported today that Trump's worldwide hotel revenue has taken a big dump.  It's off more than $30 Million in annual revenue since his elevation to the POTUS-hood.  

And three of those hotels were forced to take down their big Trump signs and un-affiliate from The Donald's empire due to the extreme negative backlash from patrons and the steep decline in reservations.  

And the sale of his Trump-branded goods is off more than 31%.  Boom!

And Ivanka's stuff isn't selling well either.  

All in all, it's been calculated that Trump's fortune is off more than $One Billion Dollars since he chose to take a trip down that golden staircase.  

$One Billion Dollars!

That's quite a lot of money.  It seems he discovered what I learned long ago.  If you come out of the shadows and announce for office for either of the major parties, you'll automatically make enemies out of half the population!    

And he spent $60 Million of his own money to get elected.  

And every Democrat in the District of Columbia is trying to put him and everybody he ever met in jail.

And the so-called MainStreamMedia is up his ass every second of every day.  

And oh yeah, I forgot to mention that he's also working for nothing; he donates his $400,000 annual salary to a variety of charities.

Soooo, my friends, and you ARE my friends, if you find yourself relatively successful, "in the pink," so to speak, and you're thinking you might just run for office and share your almost limitless talent, experience and wisdom with the unanointed, unwashed and unappreciative masses, just remember Trump's Tale:   

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished!

(NOTE:  Those who STILL believe that Trump got into this thing to collude with the Russians to make a saddlebag full of cash, should possibly want to think again...)

"People of Color"

It used to be - and not all that long ago - that Black people were called Black.  Or "Colored."  Or even Negroes.  And sometimes worse.

No longer.

Now, they're universally referred to as "People of Color (PoC)"  At least they are by those on the Left, as in the Liberal-leaning, Progressives that spend most of their time trying to live other people's lives while trying to figure out how not to offend anyone.

That term, PoC, seems awfully stilted to me.  Way too formal.  Way too political in nature.  And that's true especially when you realize that, heretofore, they were commonly just called "colored people."  Just like White people were, and are, called "White people."  

It kind of seems like there's been an effort by the Leftists and the MainStreamMedia to elevate this sub-group of citizens into a "grievance class."  In fact, I seem to remember this effort starting back about the time one Mr. Obama was elected.  PoC are now being held up for all to see as those who deserve "special treatment" or consideration because of some real or imagined past transgression they suffered.     

Oh yeah, suffered most generally at the hands of "White people." 

Have you noticed that they don't include Asians or Hispanics into this exalted class?  And why do they call folks whose family tree includes an African or two, "African-Americans?"  Are they more African than American?  If not, why shouldn't they have that moniker reversed; American-Africans?"  

And here's a reeeely special question:  Why are half-Black, half-White folks always, ALWAYS referred to as "Black?"  Never White, just Black.

And shouldn't we ask why the Chinese aren't called "Chinese-Americans?"  Or "American-Chinese?"  Or why aren't half-Irish, half-English, all-Americans like me called Irish-English-Americans?  

And here's an even better question; If they're all citizens, why aren't they all just called "Americans?" 

They are, except when they're Black it seems...

It looks suspiciously like there's a nefarious effort at foot here by the Leftoids to use race as a weapon against those who don't share their particular brand of politics.  When you call somebody a racist, you stop all discussion and debate in its tracks.  And when used by an aggrieved minority, it carries even more potent portent.  

And it's all bulls**t. 

There are those who seek to divide, and those who seek to unite.  I ask, why not start fixing all this crap by simply dropping all the prefixes and suffixes and simple refer to one another as...Americans?

    

I Was Just Thinking...

Since 12 states have recently legalized or decriminalized Marijuana in the past few months, and some states are still putting folks in the Gray Bar Hotel for possessing a small, personal amount, it seems to me we're on the way to a slow-motion, legal train wreck of monumental proportions.

Watch any episode of "Cops" or "LivePD," or "Rocky Mountain Law," and you'll have a front-row seat for a never-ending succession of motorists caught up in the black hole of "pot politics."  A car is pulled over for a broken license plate light and before it's over, the cop has found a gram or two - and on occasion a kilo or two - of Maryjowanna and the guy is hooked up and headed for the slammer.

Now, it's true the perp shouldn't have been in possession of pot, nor any other illegal or controlled substances.  But they are.  And our jails are filled to overflowing with "shouldn't haves."  There are STILL inmates in Texas prisons appealing 40-year, hard-time sentences for personal amounts of pot.

Recent FBI stats tell us that fully one-half of our nearly two million imprisoned inmates are there because of drug convictions.  One half!  However, does it make any sense, fiscal or otherwise, to lock up those whose only offense is to consume a weed that the vast majority of our population considers to be no more hazardous than a Bud Light?  Especially when the stuff could be legal just across the state line? 

Now, I must mention that pot is considered illegal by  the Federal Government.  Right.  These dozen states have "legalized" it while the Feds keep it illegal.  And, as we know from the 10th Amendment, what the Fed says, goes.  Except when it doesn't, I guess...


So those who are flouting Federal law while staying within state law, run the risk of having their piggy bank broken at the whim of our Attorney General.  I don't think it will happen, however, given that these dozen states are realizing windfall profits from the taxes on sales of "devil weed."  

Hummmmm.  It's bad, until you find out it's good.  

But wait?  What about all those who were incarcerated while the tax collector was finding Jesus?  While we were learning that we've been lied to by our Gummint for the past six decades?  While we were in some cases unfairly targeting the "least among us" for prosecution.  

I recommend we get our collective s**t together and decide to make pot legal, from sea to shining sea, and to open the jails and the prisons and send all the petty pot perps home, or to make it a Class Twelve Felony and lock up everyone and throw away the key.  

What do you think?  If you agree with me, pass this along.  Maybe we can start some sort of citizens' movement...