"Duh-bate," Part Deux...

Holy Crap!

I just watched the latest Democrat debate for POTUS 2020.  I'm sorry to say.  

To call it a TRAIN-WRECK is to unfairly shame trains.  

And wrecks.

To call it a FOOD FIGHT is to unfairly discredit food.  

And fighting.

To call it a WWE Wrestling Match is to unfairly disavow wrestling.  

And matches.  

It was truly mind-numbingly, Earth-shatteringly, skin-crawlingly awful, to be sure.  Everybody was screaming at each other, hands uplifted, waving for attention from the feckless moderators like kindergardeners, who'd lost complete control.  It was "Animal House" minus the animals.  In short, it was six aging wannabe POTUS-Es-es, and one who was manufactured in a laboratory in South Bend, who were each exuding from every pore the palpable fear of an impending loss.  And haranguing everyone within earshot for a win.  In front of the entire nation.  The memory of this event banged around in my aged brain like a BB in a boxcar for days.  

And days...  

In fact, I had to let some time pass before even attempting to memorialize my opinions using ones and zeros, lest I'd have a PTSD-style reaction.  And we do not want that.  No, no.  We do not want that.   

But the main reason for attempting to digitally-scribble this posting is that the debate caused me to come face to face with a stark reality:  

Joe Biden and I are almost the same age!

Upon realizing that Good Ol' Joe and I are, ummm, "up there," and what age has done to this crusty old professional politician, I felt the need to call some of my family and friends to ask if they thought I was beset by the same "difficulty" that has surely befallen Joe.  I wanted to know if I'd begun talking and acting like him, slurring my speech, interrupting myself, stuttering, having my train of thought derailed over and over.  I was sooooo hoping they'd say "NO."  And they did.  Thank God!  They reassured me that I'm in (more or less) full control of my mental faculties, or at least the ones they can witness.  I was reassured.  I feel soooo much better! 

But as for Joe, I fear there's no hope.  This fast-talking Delaware lawyer who won a Senate seat in the last century at the unheard of age of 29 is no more; his ship has sailed.  His horse has left the barn.  In fact, it's painful to watch him search for words and phrases to express himself, especially when under duress.  Like when he's asked complex questions in front of the TV cameras.  He just folds his tent.  And yet, a third of the Democrat Party wants this guy to carry the Nuclear Football.  To be in charge of America.  To negotiate with Iran.  To take over from The Donald and become President.  

What a hoot!

Biden recently stated that he was running for the United States Senate, and he asked the crowd "to be sure and look him over" before voting.  Yes, he really did.  

He stated that he'd gotten arrested trying to see Nelson Mandela in Soweto, South Africa, way back when.  Except that Mandela was in a prison on Robbins Island some 900 miles from Joe at the time.  And then he announced today that he wasn't really "arrested," just sort of detained for a few minutes.  That's more or less the same thing, right?  You'll have to decide...

He said in the debate that guns have killed more than 150 million Americans, or about half the population, since 2007.  And that on "day one" he'd issue an Executive Order banning all "assault weapons," and "semi-automatic" guns (that's 74% of all American weapons available on the market), and those awful magazines that hold more than 10 "clips."  It might be nice if one of his highly-paid minions would actually school him on guns a bit so he stops making a fool of himself.  Like I said, painful to watch.

Hmmm...

And just yesterday he told an almost entirely Black audience that he'll "appoint" a Black woman to the Senate if he's elected.  Uhhh, yeah.  I guess he's unaware about that whole "election" thing would-be senators engage in.  Like he did six times...

And later today (he's just a bottomless pit of gaffes!) he bragged that he'd "become a teacher, a professor" after leaving the V.P. office in 2017.  Yes, he was appointed to a ceremonial chair by the Univ. of Pennsylvania, but was never expected to teach a class, nor did he ever.  

Hmmmmm, again.

In short, whatever Joe says is provably wrong, and usually delivered all garbled up, as if he has a mouth full of marbles.  Yet, he has numerous followers, each of him would prefer to have him in the Oval Office to The Donald.  And so would I, if it were a choice between him and a socialist.  Simply stated, I'd prefer an aging octogenarian with dementia to an aging commie without it.  I fear the latter would do far more damage to America than an old guy wandering around the Rose Garden, trying his best to remember all the wonderful things he'd done in his storied career.  

So here's a Party that hates White People, and Rich People, and Old People, getting ready to anoint a White, Rich, old person.  By the end of 2020 there will be no more Democrat Party.  It will devolve into a "Balkanized" amalgamation of its previous iteration, all fractionalized into little competing "tribes," each warring with the others.  Sort of like you see when watching England's Parliament in action; just yelling and screaming and shouting, with nothing getting accomplished.  

Look at what the House of Representatives, under complete Democrat control, has accomplished over the past two years if you doubt me...

And yet, with all this happening, it just might be that the net result come November is that the Republicans under Trump, potentially with the Full Monty of the House, the Senate and the White House, once again, start finally kicking arse and taking names.  

One can only hope...

(UPDATE:  Joe just stated today that he hoped he wins "big" in "New North South Carolina."  Ummmm, yeah.  I guess I'll just stop now...)   

You Won't Believe Our Climate Today!

I think you all know that I, The Chuckmeister, live in Southern California.

And no matter how hard the Lefoids try, they haven't yet managed to ruin our climate.  In fact, our climate is wonderful!  It was wonderful, it is wonderful, and I'm pretty sure our climate shall always remain wonderful.

Assuming Alexandria Too-Many-Names is wrong, that is.  Otherwise, we're all doomed to roast in a fiery Hell and we might as well go on a ten-year bender.  Blow it all!  Get drunk!  Gamble!  Race cars!  Jump out of perfectly good airplanes!  Cavort shamelessly with those of questionable reputation and character!  The whole thing!  

Like that.

Anyway, back to the point.  The climate here is great.  I went outside to check it out today, like I do most days.  But today was just super.  For February 27th, 82 degrees and bright sunshine is just too much for normal carbon-based lifeforms to expect.  Yes, I'm sorry for those folks I left back there in Missouri.  I apologize, guys.  Had to do it...

Missouri has a unique climate as well.  It has four distinct seasons.  Winter, 2 weeks of spring, summer, 2 weeks of fall, and back to the harshest, slushiest, wettest, nastiest, and most mind-numbingly cold winters once again.  I recall a month way back in the early '70s.  For 30 straight days the temperature did not rise above zero.  Now that's cold.  

So cold, in fact, I decided quite early in my storied life to boogie to warmer climes at the earliest opportunity.  And when it did, I sprung.  I got off the airplane at LAX on January 6th, 1974.  It was 76 degrees, 3 - 5 miles per hour off-shore breeze, palm trees waving in the distance, with an uber-pleasant 30 percent relative humidity.  I'd left St. Louis and its 5 degrees, 6 foot show drifts, freezing rain and black ice behind at 6:30 a.m.  By 11:00 a.m. Left Coast Time, I was home.  And no matter how much those fools in Sacrataxyou screw with us, the climate here...still keeps some of us here.  

At least those of us who have so far chosen not to move to Texas, where the climate's pretty damn good and the taxes are pretty damn zero.  Or Utah, or Nevada, or Tennennennesseee, or Florida, or Idaho, or, or, or...  

So I'd say the climate here is just fine.  And from what I see on the telly, the climate in other parts of the Country is just fine as well.  Oh, it's winter, so the parts of America that get cold in the winter, are, ummm, cold.  That's to be expected, I'd say.  They can predict that their climate will deliver to them the same sort of stuff it always has.  Cold in the winter, for most of us, and then hot in the summer.  No big changes there, or here.  Or just about anywhere.  

But I'd like to say in passing that for our great climate here in Taxifornia there's a serious load of trade-offs.  What are they, you might ask?

  *     For these 82 degree winter days we Taxifornians get to pay at least $1.00 more per gallon of gas than all but a few other states.    

  *     For these 82 degree winter days we have three bathrooms from which to choose:  Men, Women, and those who just cannot quite make up their minds.

  *     For these 82 degree days we don't get any more straws or plastic cups, but we can take a s**t on the Streets of San Francisco and no one will notice.  Or care.

  *     For these 82 degree days we're forced to pay the very highest income taxes in the nation.

  *     For these 82 degree days our newby Governor has decided the prisons need to be emptied and we need to be disarmed.

  *     For these 82 degree days we can now shoplift anything of value up to $950.00.  Now THAT'S a real benefit!  It's just caused a whole new approach to making ends meet:  "Live Better For Less. Shoplift!"

  *     For these 82 degree days we can get arrested for nearly anything short of murder and be back on the streets in the same day.

  *     For the oh-so-balmy 82 degree winter days we Taxifornians will be getting a shiny new, multi-$billion dollar, way past-due, "train to nowhere."  Maybe.  Someday.

So there it is.  There is no free lunch, just as there is no free climate.  You pay for it one way or another.  And oh, by the way, the climate here is exactly the same as the day I arrived some 45 years ago.  The air is free of SMOG (smoke and fog) most days now, due to multi-decade, hyper-expensive cleanup efforts, which is very nice.  But the climate is the same.  And that's great, else wise there'd be nobody left here but sign twirlers and Starbucks baristas...  

(BTW, I substituted "climate" for "weather" throughout this amazing and enlightening, sure to be award-winning blog posting.  And that's because most of the time they are pretty much indistinguishable.  And don't let anyone tell you any different...)

America's Foremost Underachiever...

Is America a Great Country, or what?

Just imagine, only in America can a socialist underachiever like Bernie Sanders run for his Party's nomination for President, and threaten to win it!  Of course, it isn't his Party (he's a committed, dedicated socialist), so there's that.

And there's little chance the Democrats will permit Bernie to actually WIN that nomination, given that they're Democrats and he's not.  And that he's bound and determined to disassemble their Party once elected and then remake it in the mold of the Soviet Union he loved so much.  He's said so.  They believe him.  So there's also that...

Ahhh, Bernie.  Here's a guy who was born a middle-class Jew in Brooklyn.  He got a full ride to the U. of Chicago back when it was owned and operated by socialists (remember Obama buddies and domestic terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn were professors there!).  I think it still is.  

He then returned to Vermont and tried to earn a living as a part-time carpenter and an author of rape fantasies (!).  Google it if you doubt me.  

He got married and honeymooned in the Soviet Union.  He's on video back then in one of their pubs, sloshing back the wodka, and proclaiming their communist system mucho superior to our own.  He then moved his wife into his dirt floor shack, with no electricity, or running water (true!).  She grew tired of that "lifestyle" and left him for greener pastures.  And almost any pastures were greener.

Bernie didn't earn his first full-time weekly paycheck until he was elected Mayor of Burlington, Vermont at the age of 53.  From there he ran for and was elected a U. S. Representative in 1990.  He served in that capacity for 16 years before running for the Senate and winning back in 2006.  He's been a Senator for 16 years.  And I'm sure you're interested in learning all about his many accomplishments at having supped at the public trough for lo, these nearly 30 years.  Here they are:  He's successfully sponsored legislation to name two post offices.  That's it...

So I would offer up that Bernie is America's Foremost Underachiever.  78 years old, committed socialist, 30 years in office, $Millions in the bank, 3 houses, 1 Audi R8 $150,000 sports car, loves Cuba and two post offices.  Just about sums it up...

So now he's running for POTUS for the second time.  There's no doubt that the Democrat National Committee, then under the control of Hillary loyalists, royally screwed him out of the nomination back in 2016.  But he's persevered and has brought his "Bernie Bro's" back for Round Two.  And, having won three early primary contests soundly, it's apparent he's the Democrat Party's front-runner.  Oh, they've tried to foil him again, but so far he's outsmarted them.  Or, they've just screwed up royally.  And if you have to ask why the Democrat National Committee is running scared from a Bernie nomination, consider this: he'll destroy the Dem Party and remake it in the Soviet image.  That's not an opinion.  It's his promise...

So the days of a historically center-Left Party, the Democrats, battling furiously with a center-Right Party, the Republicans, are over.  Definitely OVER!  We now have a Republican Party that mirrors the populist predelections of previously-Democrat The Donald, and a Democrat Party that mirrors the populist, redistributionist, collectivist, authoritarian predelections of a committed socialist.  Think Cuba, if you need an example.

And as he just said, Cuba was terrific because Castro taught his people how to read.  Of course, he was killing them wholesale, but at least they could read...  

So political junkies like me are salivating at what could happen next: I predict that the Dem candidates arrive in Milwaukee with none having a majority of the delegates.  Their nominating process almost guarantees that.  

And then on the second ballot the Super Delegates will raise their ugly heads.  Yes, the Super Delegates are back.  And I predict that they'll vote for either Bernie's most predominant competitor at that moment, or look outside for a nominee they think can beat The Donald.  And I predict you'll see Hillary Clinton stick her face into the mess and try to wrest the nomination out of Bernie's commie grasp.

Oh, Lordy!  

Join with me, fellow Patriots, in hoping for such engaging (and free) television entertainment...

************

(Update:  Since posting this soon-to-be award-winning gift to enlightened Americans everywhere, I just learned that Sen. Sander's plans to remake our Great Country will cost us a whopping $97 Trillion Dollars over ten years.  Now, it should be considered that the sum total of all the wealth in America, including all cash, real estate, precious metals, jewelry, yachts, paintings, fancy cars and zoomie little private jet planes, is...ready for it?...$98 Trillion Dollars.  I guess after having all of the wealth in America confiscated by the New Democrat Socialist Party by then, it would leave Sanders $1 Trillion left over to pay for some other sorely needed welfare program...)

Duh-bate...

I watched the Democrat 2020 debate for candidate for President of the United States on TV the other night.

Yes, I really, really did.

I must say that doing so was gut-wrenching.  This docudrama was produced and directed by a make-believe cable news channel called MSNBC, and their used-to-be actual broadcast news channel NBC.  It's actually 24/7 hate-Trump forevah non-stop that some people actually watch.  And, believe it or not, believe...

On the stage tonight was, ummm, no...flags.  No American flags.  No flags from any country.  No flags. This is America.  We ALWAYS display our pride in America by displaying our flag.  I find that strange.  And disconcerting.  Do you as well?  

Also, my fellow Patriots, I must opine in my usual snarkiness that this "Jerry Springer" of a "news" channel did an absolute asinine job of conducting the debate.  It seemed that the panelists were awkward in the way they conducted the questioning, and certainly the candidates were awkward in the way they responded.  And within seconds it devolved into a shouting match that lasted two hours.  In short, it was five people who were afraid time was running out, and a new guy with more money than God who was there to enforce that notion.

My observances, right to left, stream-of-conciousness:

Amy Klobuchar:  Mary Tyler Moore not only showed up for the debate, she's from the same town (Minnneeeappullous).  She's the only one who has a semblance of "moderation" in the crowd, such as it is, which will likely assure her impending defeat.  Which will be also blamed upon sexism.

Pete Bootygagg:  Howdy Doody came to debate.  Or Mad Magazine's "Alfred E. Neuman," as The Donald prefers.  He's smarter than you, better educated than you, better looking than you, more holy than you, and even gayer than you.  And he'll be proud to tell you about it all day long.  So there...

Joe Biden:  Could this guy be stretched any tighter?  His last face lift left him unable to connect his mind with his mouth, apparently.  He kept interrupting himself, stumbling and  mumbling, spewing out incomprehensible nonsense, reminding me of crazy old Uncle Fred who we pray doesn't show up for Thanksgiving dinner, but unfortunately does.  Somebody ought to tell him to go on home, mix a highball and hit the Barcalounger...

Bernie Sanders:  Good ol' Bernie was on fire the other night!  He's gonna' take all the rich folks' money and spread it liberally (liberally, get it?) all around in exchange for your vote.  Well, not YOUR vote, because you know better.  But the votes of those who want everything for nothing.  Ummm, Bernie, that would be a quid-pro-quo, wouldn't it?

Elizabeth Warren:  This redskin was on the warpath!  She was pissed at everyone, and let them all know it!  She barked and scowled and hissed and moaned!  Man, it was fun to watch!  She was so afraid she's losing that she's going to take everybody down with her, starting with the Mini Mogul!  This was everyone's prissy 8th grade teacher who continually bitched at you for not trying hard enough in school...

Mike Bloomberg:  America's 8th richest man and America's only Republican, and Democrat, and Independent Mayor of New York City in history, all wrapped into one very small package.  But now he's sunk some $500 Million Dollars into trying to also become POTUS.  Based on his laughably poor showing at the debate, he should just go ahead and fire his financial advisor before he gets in too much deeper...

So there you have it, fine friends and fellow Patriots.  This was by far the best of the 39 debates the Democrats have conducted thus far, if only because we knew they really disliked each other, deep down, and now they've finally proven it.  And we learned also something we already knew; they, the Democrats, apparently cannot decide between socialism and capitalism, and they unanimously hate Trump.  I'm guessing that the internecine war unfolding between the various factions of this fractured Party may well send it into a contested convention this summer.  

And I, for one, cannot wait...

Choosing Not to Participate...

Did you know that China is by far the world's largest atmospheric polluter?  By Far? 

Well, it is.  

Did you know that China's 1.7 Billion People spew out more than 41% of all the world's atmospheric pollutants?

Well, they do.

And did you know that China produces more atmospheric pollutants than the United States and the European Union's 27 countries, all put together?

You can count on it. 

And did you know that China and India together produce more than 48% of all greenhouse gasses?  Just these two countries? 

Sad, but true. 

For shame!  Did you know that?  Why hasn't the so-called "MainStreamMedia" told you that?

Yet, don't you also find it interesting that nobody, NOBODY is protesting, or parading, or waving signs, or stopping traffic, over China's flagrant, non-stop polluting?  They're opening an average of two coal-fired electricity generation plants a week, and none of our "celebrities" (cough, cough) are stamping their little Jimmy Choo's and Manolo Blahnik's over China's seeming willingness to end life as we know it due to their incessant polluting?  Isn't it interesting that none of our college professors or elected officials or blow-dried MSMedia-types or D. C. lobbyists or pampered Hollywood "stars" are the least bit interested in protesting China's flagrant disregard of the world's atmospheric health?

None?

The reason?  China doesn't much care about your "global warming" or "climate change" fears and concerns, and intend to continue operating coal-fired power plants and burning their garbage and dumping crap in the ocean forever, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it!  And seemingly because of that fact, our feckless MSMedia has decided not to engage them.   

Did you know that America is responsible for only 13% of the world's atmospheric pollution?  And did you know that America's pollution index continues to go down year after year as we develop newer and better ways, through enlightened capitalism, to reduce our carbon footprint?  

How far down?  The U.S. was just named by the U.N. Panel on Climate Change as the Country with the greatest rate of reduction in atmospheric pollutants in the entire world!   
  
It's true.  And BTW, I wonder once again why that same "Dinosaur Media" hasn't chosen to report that fact?  Isn't it something they think we need to know?  Or is it something the Democrat National Committee would prefer we not know?  

So why, I ask, rhetorically, do our environmental activists focus their anti-global warming protesting and marching and parading and screaming and shouting efforts solely against the United States?  Why are they blaming the U.S. alone for all this global warming hysteria?  Why don't they ever, EVER place any blame at all on either China or India?  Or Russia or Cuba or Spain or Venezuela or North Korea or Ukraine, or any other country that is failing to reduce its carbon production?  

Which, BTW, like I said, is every other country.  

I would say its either of two reasons:  

  -   First, it simply could be that the youth of today, most oft credited (or blamed) with the lion's share of global warming hysterics, are simply under-educated or mis-educated or -informed on the subject.  After all, its kind of hard to get all this teaching in when the kids are being given days off to march against "global warming," when they really should be learning the truth about actual climate "science" in the classroom.  

  -   Or second, perhaps they've been taught by both their teachers (and perhaps their parents) to blame America for all the world's ills.  Perhaps they are blaming our Great Country for their own personal failings.  And I'm including in this grouping some teachers who have shown themselves to have a distinct propensity toward blaming America.  You can find many of them at Bernie Sanders rallies...

Day after day we hear the noxious bleating of schoolkids and celebs and politicians and lobbyists and activists that "global warming" (or "climate change," their new go-to moniker) will kill us all.  And they've even put a date on when we're all gonna' die.  12 years they tell us.  We have but 12 years to stop doing all the things that make modern day life livable (flying in planes, riding in cars, cooling and heating our homes, etc.) or else we'll all roast in a fiery Hell.  And some of the more "enlightened" activists, the AOC's of the crowd, for example (cough, cough), say it's only 10 years.  And maybe it's as little as 8!  They believe we're all gonna' die in 8 years?  Really?

Now, we know that this is nothing but an attempt to create fears and foment instability in an effort to disassemble and remake America in a socialist mold.  The people behind this effort are full-on socialists, and perhaps even communists (there's not a lot of difference).  They hate America and everything for which it stands.  And they hate everyone who has more than they do; more money, more houses, more cars, more education, anything.  And they're doing their very best to destroy our Country any way they can.

However, I'd like to pass along some good news.  Mr. Jeff Bezos, the Richest Man in the World, just earmarked $10 Billion Dollars to fight that dratted "climate change."  Yeah, that oughta' fix it!  I just cannot wait to find out exactly how Jeff's $Billions will lower the Earth's temperature.  Hey Jeff!  China's not participating in your little fantasy!  Better find another hobby...   

So let's cut to the chase and 'fess up here, okay?  The whole "global warming" scare is nothing but a ruse.  A scam.  Nothing but a scheme to put the Government in charge of your job, your travel, your food, your life.  In short, the Government wants to be in complete control of your life, and it will if you let it.    

So you'll forgive me if I chuckle at the Left's little "global warming" gambit.  So long as they're buying beachfront houses, like Obama just did, and flying their asses around in Gulfstream 5's, like every celebrity you can name, I'll continue to believe that it's nothing more than their very expensive, Lefty wet dream.  

And you'll pardon me also if I choose not to participate...

Anonymity...

Did I miss something?

I've been looking high and low (mostly "high") and still haven't found the answer to my simple little question: how is that Donald J. Trump was not permitted to confront his accuser?

Now, we know from our civics class in high school (unless you were born more recently, and then you had Transgender Studies, instead) that the Constitution of these here United States says that we are guaranteed via the 6th Amendment the Right to confront our accuser in a criminal trial.  In fact, it's referred to as the "Confrontation Clause," to this guarantee.  We Americans are guaranteed the Right to not only confront our accuser, but to also cross-examine him or her (or it...gotta' remember Taxifornia, doncha' know).   

But wait!  It seems that this little requirement was ignored in the recently concluded impeachment trial of one D. J. Trump.  His accuser was a "whistleblower."  One whose identity we're told we may not learn.  Hmmm.  Why, I wonder?

The "Federal Whistleblower Statute" was designed to protect such folks against retaliation.  As in, "...firing, demotion, malicious reassignment, etc."  But the whistleblower in Trump's case, reputedly one Eric Ciamarella, is fearing none of those actions.  From what we've learned, in fact, our whistleblower is a career CIA analyst on loan to the National Security Agency.  The same place our Lt. Col. Vindman, key prosecution witness against Trump, and his twin civilian brother, were assigned.  

In fact, we're told off the record that this registered Democrat and Vindman conspired together to bring down Trump in a failed "soft coup" attempt, presumably aided and abetted by the House Judiciary Committee and its Chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff.

You remember Schiff, right?  He's the guy who told us everyday for two full years that he had absolute, incontrovertible proof that Trump conspired with Russia's Prez Putin to steal the 2016 election.  And that he was going to present that evidence at the "right time."  

Apparently, that "right time" never came.  

It seems Vindman and the Whistleblower didn't much like Trump's attitude toward Ukraine and its new Prez, so they decided to do something about it.  And the impeachment trial just concluded was the result...

There is nothing in the whistleblower protection statutes that call for anonymity.  Every single whistleblower yet has been called upon to testify in open court.  A few may have been looked after via the "Witness Protection Program" following their testimony, but the Constitutional protections demanding that a defendant has a Right to confront his accuser always trumps (pun intended).  

I am astounded that Trump's legal defense team did not make this assertion.  

Maybe because I'm not a lawyer.  Maybe that's why I don't understand the reason(s) why the whistleblower wasn't required to plant his ass in the witness chair and testify, under oath.  Maybe there's a really good reason.  But if there is, I say the law is an ass (as Shakespeare used to say).  And it should be changed.  

Again, I'm not a lawyer.  For which I say, thank you God!  I dislike myself enough on occasion.  I don't want to hate myself all of the time...

The Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Were you watching the recent State of the Union address?  You know, the one where our Presidential Medal of Freedom was presented by our First Lady to Rush Limbaugh?  

If you were, then you were quite possibly filled with pride and admiration and appreciation for a true pioneer of the radio arts who's now fighting Stage 4 lung cancer.  A guy who's been sharing his vision of truth whilst seated in front of the "Golden Microphone" for 3 hours a day, without guests, for more than 30 years.  A guy who virtually invented "talk radio," and has been a mentor for dozens of other such practitioners ever since.  A gentleman who has been named a recognized leader of the conservative movement here in America.  And a professional who deserves the recognition that Trump accorded him in front of the entire Nation.

Or you could be a hyper-partisan, Left-wing Democrat (or "Progressive" or socialist or communist), in which case you likely hate the ground upon which Mr. Limbaugh walks.  You probably believe that he should not have been so recognized, or ever recognized, nor should Trump have done so in such a crass, political and public way.  In fact, you probably believe that all of Limbaugh's advertisers should abandon him, as you've attempted to foment for years, and thus force him off our airwaves.  The truth is you deplore Limbaugh, as well as Trump, and everything for which they stand, and wish they both would just go away.  

Far, far away.

But I thought it might prove helpful to provide a partial listing of some of the nice folks ex-POTUS Obama gifted with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  Okay?  Here goes...  

  *     Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
  *     Ellen Degeneres
  *     Robert De Niro
  *     Tom Hanks
  *     Michael Jordan
  *     Steven Spielberg
  *     Lorne Michaels
  *     Robert Redford
  *     Diana Ross
  *     Bruce Springsteen
  *     Cicely Tyson
  *     Barbra Streisand
  *     James Taylor
  *     Stevie Wonder
  *     Meryl Streep
  *     Loretta Lynn
  *     Dean Smith
  *     Oprah Winfrey
  *     Bob Dylan
  *     Billie Jean King  

So those who believe Trump should not have given Rush Limbaugh his Medal must also believe that none of the above listed Democrats should have received theirs either, right?

Not...

More Free Entertainment, Please!

Old folks are often a little bit short in the wallet.  They might not always have the cash they need to pay for all sorts of cable upgrades and high-priced streaming services so they can enjoy a little TV now and then.  They may need less costly forms of entertainment to fill their often boring days.  And they've had that in spades of late.

Yes, my fellow Pilgrims, we've been treated to the most delicious array of TV programming over the past couple of years.  We've been witnesses to a high-level pissing contest between those that won the White House and kept the Senate in 2016, and those who wish they had and thought they did.  And the winners have been dodging the slings and arrows of outrageous and continuous accusations and threats from the losers ever since... 

Trump wins.  Hillary loses.  The Democrats go absolutely nuts!  Trump passes all sorts of new laws and issues all manner of Executive Orders and everything turns rosy in America!  Unemployment goes down and wages go up and the stock market goes through the roof!  

And the Democrats go absolutely nuts!  

So, operating on the assumption that "He" will get reelected in November unless they dirty him up a little, the Democrats play the impeachment card.  That's the one you're never supposed to play.  Ever.  Especially unless you really have the goods on somebody.  

But they did anyway, and The Donald was acquitted.  And the Democrats went absolutely nuts, again!  And we, the taxpaying public, were permitted to witness this extremely expensive miscarriage of justice from beginning to end, playing out live on cable TV, all day, every day, from the comfort of our armchairs, right in front of God and everybody!

Now, I dunno' about you, but as for me, I watched every single minute of this drama play out live every day for the past two years.  It's been a history lesson, a passion play, a docudrama, a daytime soap opera, a cringe-worthy carnival of unseemliness, and a rip in the fabric of our nation, replete with highly-paid and very well dressed lawyers and lobbyists and blow-dried media types.  

And just like the movie "Titanic," we knew how it ended lonnnnnnggg before the opening credits.  But we watched it anyway.  

Some of us were hoping it would result with The Donald found guilty and frog-marched from the White House.  The rest of us - the ones who are operating with a full deck - knew full well that it was nothing but a complete and foolish waste of time, effort, energy and money.  But it happened anyway.  And it ended with a thud.  A sad, sorry, predictable and ridiculous waste of our American pride and prestige was broadcast on national television for all the world to see.  

Shameful.

So I say, gimme' more!  Impeach him again (they most likely will...they have nothing else to offer).  Us old folks need more free entertainment!  And I'd say this is just about the best entertainment you can get, now that the "Jerry Springer Show" is off the air...

Socialism for Fun and (No) Profit...

I was having a beer with an old chum the other day when the subject of socialism came up.  He was wondering just how this socialist guy Bernie was going to be able to pay for all the stuff he was promising his future voters.  I decided to tell him...

"Socialism," I explained to him, is where the means of manufacturing, production, distribution, sale and delivery are all under the complete and total control of the State.  That's unlike "communism," where the means of production and distribution, et al, are owned by the State.  (In practical application, there's no real difference.)      

Of late we've had a gentleman emerge upon the political scene, I went on to say, who calls himself a "Democratic Socialist."  Now, since the two terms are mutually-exclusive by their very nature, I presume that his definition has to do with perhaps the "election" of those from within the chosen socialist few who might be entrusted with the authority to manage this new "Utopian" sort of existence he envisioned.

Sort of like Fidel kept getting elected year after year.  And Mao.  And Kim Jung the Un.  Like that...

And that's simply because there's never been a time in human history that a socialist country has succeeded.  The Soviet Union couldn't do it.  North Korea hasn't done it.  Neither has Cuba.  Or most spectacularly, Venezuela.  That country was among the ten richest on Earth as recently as 50 years ago.  Now?  They're eating their zoo animals.

And don't give me Sweden and Norway.  Neither are socialistic.  Both are capitalistic.  They've just voted themselves yuuuge public benefits in exchange for sky-high taxes.  Income taxes there begin 48%.  They get six weeks vacation each year, but they don't have any money to go anywhere.  It's absolutely true that there's still no free lunch.

Socialism's indelible built-in failure mechanism is that the folks who are tapped to manage these public efforts are either corrupt now, or they soon will be.  With all the money and power flowing through an entire country, few can resist the temptation thus offered.  So far, none have in all of recorded history.  And I would suggest that such a future would befall America were we to start down the slippery slope of socialism.  Many of our elected leaders have already figured out how game the system and become millionaires.  Bill and Hillary Clinton are stellar examples.  They "managed" to turn a $35,000 a year Arkansas Secretary of State job a few decades ago into a $150 Million Dollar personal fortune.  One can only imagine how much more egregious it would become under socialism.  

Ask yourself, is not every single ruler of every single socialistic country on Earth a billionaire many times over?  Good.  Made my case...

So here comes Bernie telling us that only 3 people now have more wealth than half the Country.  Okay.  Alright.  And that we need to somehow "get it" from them, redistributing it according to his Master Plan, I'm assuming.  And then we need to offer Medicare for all, and free college for everybody, and $15.00 an hour minimum wage, and open borders, and The Green New Deal, and a whole lot more.  All such programs are estimated to cost some $97 Trillion Dollars in new spending over ten years, with 50% of everybody working for the Government.  By the way, at our current anticipated rate of income and growth, we're estimated to take in only $43.5 Trillion Dollars in that same period.  So Bernie's little ideas would cost us just about twice what we're likely to bring in.  

Are you terrified yet? 

Now, let me start by saying that I don't give a rat's ass who has a billion dollars, or a mansion on the hill, or a fancy little private jet.  I just tend to worry only about those things within my personal control.  And I see no benefit in blaming Warren Buffett or Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates because I don't have a new Corvette.  It's not their fault I don't, it's mine.  In America, if you want it bad enough, you have the FREEDOM to go out and get it.

(BTW, I don't want a new Corvette.  I was just using that as a literary construct.  Of course, you knew that.  I'm pretty sure I could get into one, but I'm absolutely certain I couldn't get out.  What I'd really like is a new Audi R8 supercar, in a nice shiny white, at only $150,000.  Just like the one Bernie Sanders has.  Which capitalism got for him.  Along with his 3 beachfront houses.  Just sayin'...)   

Capitalism rewards effort, you see.  And inspiration.  And sweat equity.  And investing in good ideas.  And working overtime.  And unionization.  And self-deprivation.  And supply-demand economics.    

Socialism rewards sitting on your ass, waiting for your neighbor to grow some food and bring it to you.  But it won't be long before your neighbor's sitting on his ass as well, awaiting your delivery of his lunch.  

Which do you prefer?

On my rhetorical way out the door, I'd like to add one simple truism:  "You vote your way in to socialism.  But you have to shoot your way out..."

(Oh yeah, I'm a graduate economist.  And in this single, solitary instance, I actually know what the Hell I'm talking about...)

A Meteor Strike? Really?

Now here's a good one, fellow Pilgrims!

Since you pay me (psychically) to search high and low (and left and right...mostly right) for stuff to give you pause (and maybe paws?), I conducted that exhaustive search, and have hit upon a story that will stop you in your tracks.

I've heard of "Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS)," but this is ridiculous.  According to a poll just released by the University of Massassassachusetttts at Lowell, 64% of all voters there would "...rather see a giant meteor strike the Earth, extinguishing all human life," than to see Donald Trump reelected.  

The poll, conducted over the period January 28 - 31, also shows about half of all Independent voters would say the exactly same extreme thing.  

Now, I dunno' about you, but that's really, really TDS!  People up there in the Far North would rather die than have four more years of steady "winning."  Maybe, as The Donald says, they're just tired of that incessant winning.  Or, maybe these Democrats are just dumber than a bag of rocks.

But I repeat myself.  What would one expect?

So, as you would expect of me, I've decided to offer up a series of other questions the U of Mass could ask the next time it decides to conduct another poll.  Here goes...

  -     "Would you rather have a dozen leatherback sea turtles nibble on your feet for an hour, followed by a few killer whales dismembering you one appendage at a time, or vote for Donald Trump?"

  -     "Would you prefer to have a herd of thirsty Bactrian camels trample you to death on their way to the oasis, or vote for Donald Trump?"

  -     "Would you rather be forced to sit and listen to Whoopie and Joy sing old Hank Williams songs for an hour, off key, while you're tied to a chair and forced to listen, or vote for Donald Trump?"

  -     "Would you rather be attacked by a band of roving Gypsies and held ransom for a year, while living in a cave, devoid of sunlight, subsisting only on bread and a nice vitamin-fortified, designer water, or vote for Donald Trump."

  -     "Would you rather sit and watch San Fran Nan Pelosi pick her teeth for an hour and mumble to herself, or vote for Donald Trump?"

  -     "Would you prefer to be forced to listen to Jessuh Smollettttt explain to you in explicit detail why it really wasn't a hoax, really, for an entire week, non stop, or vote for Donald Trump."

  -     "Would you rather be forced to pick up human waste and discarded needles off the Streets of San Francisco for a week, with your bare hands, or vote for Donald Trump?"

  -     "Would you rather see Rush Limbaugh's cancer cured, or vote for Donald Trump."

  -     "Would you prefer to go broke, have your house repossessed, be divorced from your spouse, have your dog die and your car's engine throw a rod, or vote for Donald Trump?" 

  -     "Would you rather have the Supreme Court judge the 2nd Amendment sacrosanct, and then order AR-15's issued to every American over 21, or vote for Donald Trump?"

  -     "Would you prefer to have to hunt to find food to eat, using only a slingshot, at night, while blindfolded, or vote for Donald Trump?"

  -      And finally, "Would you rather have your Tesla filled to the brim with chocolate syrup, and then sanded with a garden rake, or vote for Donald Trump?"

You don't have to thank me, U of Mass, I do this in the spirit of congeniality and mutual respect.  And I hope goes swimmingly for you nice folks up there in the Granite State while awaiting that "meteor strike."

A Super Bowl!

Like most of our fellow citizens, I attended a Super Bowl party last Sunday.

It was a fine party.  Full of family and friends and neighbors, a little booze, some good food and splendiferous jocularity.  But what it mostly meant to me was that the last time I watched the Kansas City Chiefs in a Super Bowl was exactly 50 years ago.

That's when they met the Minnesota Vikings In Super Bowl 4.  When my fellow party-goers learned that fact, I was asked what I'd paid for my ticket.  The amount was $112.00.  Annnd, I was seated four rows up from the field and about 30 feet from the 50 yard-line.  Oh yeah, and Bill Boyd, the original Hopalong Cassidy, famed black and white western TV star, was seated directly behind me.  Behind ME! 

That amount compares very favorably with the average cost of a ticket to this year's Super Bowl; $7,134.00!  And that would have probably gotten you seated so far back in nose bleed alley you'd need oxygen, and probably be better off watching the game in the bar.

Oh yeah, and speaking of the bar, the cost of a 16 oz. bottle of beer at this year's game was...ready for it?...$15.00.  A 16 oz. soft drink?  $14.00.  A pretzel?  $10.00!  The cheapest thing on the concession stand menu was an extra cup of cheese sauce for that pretzel at $3.00.  As I recall, a Coke at Super Bowl 4 was $1.00.  And I pissed and moaned all day long about that.  

But as I recall I got free parking.  Miami last Sunday?  Private parking a half-mile from the Hard Rock Stadium was going out for a cool $120.00!  As I'm fond of saying, I already bought my car; I don't want to have to buy it again...

I stopped complaining about prices back then when Lenny Dawson, famed Chiefs Hall-of-Fame quarterback, set the-then NFL record in that game for passes completed in a row at 16!  And Jan Stenerud, Hall-of-Fame field goal kicker helped him outscore the Vikes 24 - 7.  BTW, they were a 13-point underdog.

Oh yeah, a bit later I applied for a loan at a K.C. bank and my loan officer was...Jan Stenerud.  Second careers were the norm back then, as NFL retirement packages were not nearly so rich as today.  Nor were the salaries... 

Anyway, I was supreeeeemely happy with this year's game results.  I got my money's worth.  Which was, ummm, zero.  But the folks who bought their way into Miami and the SB shenanigans over the weekend dropped a bundle!  And it seems to me that this very factoid proves that America is in a good place.  If people can redistribute their own wealth in such a manner it seems to me we don't need help from a Bernie or a Liz or a Joe telling us how.  Or forcing us to do so in a way they deem appropriate.  

According to the NBA Commissioner, he expected more than $1 Billion Dollars to be spent on Sunday's game.  I can see how that might be true.  That's a $Billion Dollars willingly redistributed from the "haves" to the "have not's."  (Or more likely, to other "haves.")

On my way out the figurative door, it struck me that at least the San Fran 49ers got to avoid dodging piles of human excrement for a week.  The Streets of Miami are a lot cleaner than the Streets of San Francisco...

What Polling Can Tell Us...

We are inundated with polls every day.

Most of them we just ignore, as we should.  Just ignore them.  Because they mostly mean nothing to us.    Perhaps except for this one...

Quinnipiac University, one of our oldest, largest and most respected pollsters, just published a nationwide poll you might find of interest.*  I certainly did.  Here is the question asked of the respondents:    

     "Should the Senate vote to remove

    the President from office?"

Here are the responses in brief:

             Total:     Republican:     Democrat:     Independent:

Yes:        47%            2%                  92%                44%

 No:        48%           97%                   4%                48%

D.K.:        5%             -                        4%                  8%

Some of these numbers are pretty alarming.  First, almost all Democrats think The Donald should be removed from office.  Handcuffed, hog-tied and frog-marched out of the White House.  

And almost all Republicans think The Donald should be left alone to continue doing his job, with the knowledge that we citizens can remove him at the ballot box in 9 months, should we wish to do so at that time.

And finally, half the Independents agree with the Democrats, and the other half agree with Republicans.  I guess that's why they're called Independents.  They simply cannot make up their minds...

And, as always, 5% (Don't Know) have no idea what the Hell is going on.  Where they are, what day it is, like that.

But what I find both interesting and enlightening in the above poll result is the 47% who want Trump removed.  Isn't it interesting that exactly 47% of our population, the very same percentage, pay absolutely zero income taxes?  None?  And that's according to the Treasury Department.  

So it would seem that those who are working and producing and paying their "fair share," as the Dems are fond of bleating at every opportunity, are the very same ones who want the POTUS left alone to continue doing his job.  And the ones who are free-riding on our society, paying nothing toward the military and education and the environment and infrastructure and highway maintenance and defense and health care and everything else, want him booted and replaced with a Bernie-type socialist who promises to give them even more free stuff than they're now getting.  Which is quite a lot, BTW.  

Can you think of a more telling example of what's wrong with our society today?  

*  Conducted 1/22 - 27/20, +/- 2.9% error variance.