It's DeSantis/Haley!!!

I am one of them there whatcha' call 'em, "pundits."  

Those are the folks that look at all aspects of the political comings and goings, and then proceed to prognosticate.  That means guess, I guess.  Guess about how things are going to turn out in Washington, D. C. and its environs.  Guess about the direction of the economy.  And inflation.  Guess about how good or bad various political folks are doing, and will do.  Basically, just be a "graybeard," and let others sit at your feet and bask in your reflected glow...

Anyway, I'm one of those folks.  Except, very few people know it.  Because I prefer to remain pretty much anonymous.  I'm an "anonymous pundit."  I like my anonymity.  Except for you folks, of course.  You and I are, you know, simpatico.  Together, marching to the same tune.  So, that's why I'm giving you the early line on the 2024 General Election.  And here it is:

I'm saying it will be Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and ex-Virginia Governor Nicky Haley for GOP Prez, Vice Prez in 2024.  Bet on it.  

Why?  Because he's been running Disneyland while O'Biden's been running Detroit.  Or Baltimore.  Or Newark.  DeSantis is all bright and hopeful and cheery, and gives every appearance of knowing what he's doing, while O'Biden's all dark and dingy and dour, and demonstrably incompetent.  Plus, DeSantis is young and full of vigor, while O'Biden's older than dirt.  And acts like it.  Come to think of it, that's the difference between the Republicans and the Democrats; happy and cheerful and hopeful for the future, or scared and trembling and all pessimistic. 

You know, I can see O'Biden doing Depends ads after all this is over.  And I think we'd all be happier...    

There you have it, Mr. and Mrs. America.  Remember, you read about it here first.  And if I prove to be correct in my prognostication, I shall forever remind you about this potentially Earth-shaking ticket.  The particulars of which sent fondly to you and yours from The Chuckmeister, on January 28th, 2022.  

Henceforth I shall be known as, "Your Friendly (Unknown) Pundit..." 

"...Transforming," Part Drei...

My third, and hopefully last, such retrospective is hereby sent your way, humble Patriot.  I hope you enjoyed my previous two.  However, there are a couple or three things remaining yet to be said.  And I'm saying them, right here, right now... 

     -  I'm guessing most of you didn't know 18 months ago that our so-called "MainStreamMedia" is nothing more nor less than the the publicity arm of the Democrat National Committee.  And it acts like it.  The Washington Press Corps happily admitted that 95% of their members voted Democrat in the last Election, so there you are.  You also might not know that our "MSM" is the only profession enumerated by our Constitution.  We needed, and need, a vibrant, knowledgeable and free-thinking journalistic corps.  With a few notable exceptions, our "MSM" has proven we don't have one.  And guess what, "MSM?"  Our public knows it!  They know that the CNN's and MSNBC's and ABC's and NBC's and CBS's and NPR's and PBS's of the world spew almost nothing but biased "disinformatia."  Look at Fox' ratings compared to CNN's and MSNBC's, if you need some proof*...

     -  And now, to our schools.  While we were working our asses off to pay our outacontrol property taxes, which are primarily needed to pay for our schools, some of the folks in those same schools have apparently decided to teach "Critical Race Theory" and other decidedly socialistic subjects.  When parents found this out, and began to complain at school board meetings, loudly, the Fit Hit The Shan!  Parents started to get involved in their kids' education, demanding that "Critical Race Theory" and other divisive subjects be removed from the curricula.  One could say that the incoming Republican governor of Virginia was elected over this singular issue.  And I would predict it will take a front-row seat in our upcoming Mid-Term Elections in 2022.  A few parents, looking over their kids' shoulders while they were Zooming from home, ferreted out "CRT" and brought it from the shadows to mainstream thought.  It seems we dodged a bullet, America...

     -  And lastly, I'd bet that the vast majority of you out there in InternetLand actually believed that your Government worked for YOU, and was on YOUR side.  And I'd bet that the vast majority of you now have come to believe that our Federal Government is steeped through to the core with career Leftist bureaucrats who could give a sh*t about America.  I've lived in D. C.  I know for a fact there's a "swamp," if you will, of very powerful, unelected politicians and lobbyists who actually control both the policies and the debate.  I believe they care only about seizing power, and then retaining it.  They've seized it.  They now sense they're about to lose it, Big Time.  And they're screaming like stuck hogs!  Sen. Mansion poked a hole in their boat with his refusal to go along with "Bill's Back's Better."  Watch out, America.  They will suffer an ignominious defeat next November, and just might have to be dragged kicking and screaming from power...

So there you are.  I know, I know.  I sound like a grumpy old fart who has nothing but bad stuff to report, and even worse stuff to predict.  Yeah, well, I didn't vote for the mangy old pri*k in the White House.  Those who did are responsible for this mess.  Don't shoot me.  I'm just the messenger...

The Chuckmeister...

*     CNN began 2021 near the top of cable TV ratings.  Now, as 2021 closes, Fox is rated Number One, and CNN is rated number 25.  Just behind the Home and Garden Channel.  Yeah.  That just about says it all...

...A Mr. Pelosi...

As we stumble headlong into the holidays, bereft of the leadership we as a nation so desperately need in order to feel safe and secure and on the right track, which is why we have a Federal Government, I remind my readership that I, The Chuckmeister, am an inveterate optimist.

No matter how bad things get, and trust me, they are bad, I was trained back in the good ol' U. S. Army that they can surely get worse, and likely will.  In fact, the Army often made things that way, but that's another story.  "Embrace the suck," as they call it.  And adopting that mentality enables one to smile when our National Train has run off the tracks.  When there's hole in our collective balloon.  When the twirley thing stops twirling and the plane starts pointing down.  And I'm smiling, fellow Patriot, because I know there's not a damn thing I can do about it.  Except continue to shout from the (figurative) rooftops that there's a feckless bozo supposedly running things back there in D. C., but I'm pretty sure this is really the Third Term of Barry Hussein Obama.

But as we rumble, waddle, careen and stumble into the Holidays, I'd just like to remind you that it could be worse.  Oh yes, children, far worse.  Yes, even though a few links have fallen out of our supply chain, and inflation is sky-high, and criminals are doing "smash and grabs" throughout the Nation, and our southern border is wide open, and gas prices are through the roof, and our international partners are laughing at us, and O'Biden has turned off our oil and gas tap, and the Wuhan Virus is running rampant, and our store shelves are bare, and even though the White House Dog is biting people, I have to remind you that things could certainly get worse.  

Yes, much worse.  You could be Alexandria Occasional-Cortex' boyfriend.

You could be Maxine Water's husband.

You could be Ilhan Omar's brother...

Or you could be Billy Jeff (Blue Dress) Clinton.  Need I say more?

So pat yourselves on the back, fellow Pilgrims, you somehow made it through the Very First Year of American Socialism.  Or, the Fifth Year of the Obama Presidency, whichever you prefer.  And if you can keep your powder dry, we just might make it through to next November.  That's when the next Federal Election just might turn the Democrat Party into a mere shadow of its former, would-be communist self.  

So, as I sign off, I'd like to wish each of you who put up with me throughout 2021 a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Congratulate yourselves, fellow Pilgrims!  You're lucky!  

Somewhere out there is a Mr. Pelosi...  

"Fundamentally Transforming," Part Deux...

The response to my last blog posting, a true "then vs. now" comparison, has been truly remarkable!  

I must have hit a nerve, as my tens and tens of rabid followers latched on to that bit of linguistic legerdemain to an extent not recently seen.  They want more, they say.  They want even more retrospective as to how things were "b.c." (that's "Before Obama"), versus how they are now, which is "p.o." (that's post Obama).  That's why I add the "O" in front of his name when talking about our current feckless POTUS.  And I, The Chuckmeister, with a capitol "T" to go along with the "C," because if "The Donald" can do it, so can I.  Let's go:  

     -  Ex-POTUS Billy Jeff (Blue Dress) Clinton said abortion should be "safe, legal and rare."  Now, two decades later, about half our "bluest" states believe abortion for the little darlings up until the start of pre-school should be a-okay.

     -  Back in 2009 our schools mostly taught the "3-R's."  Readin," writin," and 'rithmatic.  Now?  It seems they're teaching our kids White people are the Devil and Black people need to be held by the hand in order to successfully navigate the rigors of life.  

     -  Police were "first responders!"  Life-saving heroes in our time of need.  The folks who protect and serve.  Remember them?  Those folks?  The ones we threw flowers at their feet in gratitude for risking their lives amid a pandemic.  Now?  Our big-blue cities have declared war on cops, blaming them for all the ills their decades of failed leadership have wrought.  They've defunded them, removed their immunity and then taken away their crime-fighting tools.  Many of those cops have taken the hint and run for the hills.  And then they wonder aloud on the Left-leaning cable news channels why they now have an out-of-control crime wave!  There's a thing in life called "cause-and-effect."  Except Liberals' brains lack the gene to either recognize that "thing," or even discuss it...

     -  Obama abandoned Iraq to the Islamic caliphate, and with it an untold number of our citizens and interpreters and allies.  Trump had to go back in and fix the mess Obama made.  Yet, O'Biden just abandoned hundreds of our citizens and up to 30,000 of our allies and interpreters when he bolted from Afghanistan.  It seems that doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, all while they're getting the same terrible results, is proof of their insanity...

     -  District Attorneys in "Big-Blue Cities" used to prosecute the crimes their police brought to them.  No more.  Now?  George Soros has bought and paid for the installation of uber-far-Left D.A's. across the fruited plain.  Perps break the law, cops arrest them, they're out on the street before lunch.  And the resultant crime wave has shocked the nation.  Funny, all the very best plans to remanufacture America conjured up in the Yale faculty lounge all go down in flames when put to the test.  Don't believe me?  Look at Venezuela...

     -  When Barry was POTUS we were importing 70% of our oil from those Middle-Eastern maggots who drive gold-plated Rolls-Royces, which we paid for.  Then, until just recently, we had drilled and fracked and scooped our way until we were producing more than 100% of our oil needs.  More than any other country on Earth, as a matter of fat.  And even exporting it as a way of competing with communist countries.  What's not to like?  Success, apparently, as our "climate warrior" Joe O'Biden declared war on America's hydrocarbon self-sufficiency.  All while begging our Middle-Eastern OPEC enemies to produce more to bail out his flagging poll numbers.  Can you say hypocrite?  I just knew that you could... 

     -  Men peed in the men's room when Obama was first elected, and women peed in the women's room.  Now?  Men pee wherever the Hell they want to, and will find a lawyer to sue you if you object, and usually just after winning a women's swimming meet...

     -  Shoplifting was a crime back then.  A crime that got you prosecuted, especially if the amount stolen was over a state's magic $ number to make it a felony.  Now?  Get your shopping basket, and your calculator, and go to any store in any "Big-Blue" state and start stealing!  Up to $950.00 here in Taxifornia!  You just turn around and walk out!  And they can't stop you, for fear of getting sued civilly.  We call it, "Live Better for Less; Shoplift!"  Gotta' tell you, that "five finger discount" sure does help offset the awful inflation we're experiencing.  And God, is it a help to retirees on Social Security!  

So there's a few more.  If you need me to keep on observing, and commenting, just let me know.  Just like your local pusher, I'll provide you with a fix... 

"Fundamentally Transform America"

On January 15th, 2009, one Barack Hussein Obama delivered a short speech to his throng of followers, and many more reporters, at an airport in Chicago.  He ended his comments with these words:

     "America is the greatest country on Earth!  Join with me now as I begin to fundamentally transform it!"

Now, one would have assumed that a reporter or two in the crowd might have asked the incoming President what he meant by that.  But they were too caught up in his web.  He had hipppmotizzzed them, and they could not bring themselves to journalist.  They danced to whatever tune he was playing, and it hasn't stopped since.

Was Obama successful in his quest?  Well let us take a look at the "then versus now" and decide for ourselves if his transformations were good for America:

     -  Men may now decide which fitting room to use when shopping in their local target.

     -  Owing a gun in about half the country labels one as a beer-swilling, pickup driving, flag-waving, inbred Troglodyte, unfit to participate in a polite society, like the one they so dearly envision.

     -  The so-called "minimum wage" has been eradicated.  Obama was successful in hijacking it so that SEIU and others could force hotel maids and janitors to unionize.  Now, there's no place for little Johnnie or Suzie to get an after school and on Saturday job to earn enough to put gas in the family truckster.  That job has been taken by a 30 year-old guy with two kids, and it now pays $18.50 an hour.

BTW, the starting wage for a new U. A. Army recruit is $30,000 a year.  That's $15.00 an hour...

     -  And from an annual, predictable trickle of illegal aliens breaking into America across our southern border, Obama has succeeded in opening it up to a torrent of humanity - millions of illegal aliens - from every country on Earth.  All while half our Country is "willfully blind" to it, because their favored news sources refuse to cover it.  

     -  Legions of sheeple are now riding their bicycles while wearing masks, while "Karens" and "Kens" scream at each other in parking lots about their use.  

     -  And 6 foot-tall men self-describing as women are breaking every conceivable track and swimming record, leaving biological women in their wake.  The people who are sanctioning this madness are "woke" to a point of dumbnitude.  

That's a word I made up for those who need to be taken out and shot.

So, fellow Pilgrims, that's my take on where we are versus where we were.  Maybe I'm just a grumpy old guy yelling "Get off my lawn!," but men are now peeing women's rest rooms.  Right?

Right?

Ending "Smash and Grab"

 No doubt you've heard about the recent scourge of "smash and grab" robberies in Lost Angeles and San Franpoopco and New Yawk and Chicago.  And in so many other "Big Blue" cities.

This is where 10 or 30 or 80 of our finest black-clad goons swoop in and empty a Louis Vuitton's or a Bloomingdale's or a Nordstrom's.  Or even a Home Depot or a Lamborghini dealership.  They come bearing crowbars and knives and clubs to intimidate the clientele until they've emptied out the place.  And all of this while the clerks watch in horror and the cops are nowhere to be seen.

Because they're nowhere, at all.

Our elected "leaders" seem to have no answer for this scary trend.  They seem willing to let it run its course.  At a tremendous cost to our society.  I wouldn't...

My prescription to end "smash and grab?"  Sure.  Here goes:

The very next time a mob of thieves swarms a store, the owner should simply whip out his trusty firearm and blow two or three of them right out of their socks!  Preferably using "double-tap."  That's one in the midsection and one right between the eyes.  That's what we learned in the military, and it still works today.  Kill them.  Dead.  With lots and lots of blood flowing all over the floor.  The local TV cameras would lap that up, so to speak... 

What, you mean the owners and employees of L.A. and SFO and NYC stores don't have firearms?  You mean the state in which they operate has successfully disarmed them?  To the extent that even the thought of having a firearm would likely give these store owners the vapors!  

Yes, fellow Patriots, the sad truth is that the states in which the majority of these robberies are occurring have done their very best to enable the thieves; lax bail laws, lax prosecution, overly restrictive gun control laws and defunded police.  The politicians in L.A. and SFO and NYC have set the table for crime, so to speak.  They are reaping the whirlwind of their own creation, and I am loving it.

And getting a concealed carry permit in one of the counties where this crime is happening?  Fuggggettabout it...

Yet, even so, I'd say one of the many pissed off store owners in CA or NY or IL should buy and gun and prepare to use it the next time a swarm of looters shows up.  I'm pretty sure "smash and grab" would come to a screeching halt nation wide if three or four of these miscreants were met by Mr. Smith & Mr. Wesson...

Remember, it's better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6...

From Halloween...'til April Fool's Day...

I was drafted into the United States Army on Halloween, 1966, and was discharged, honorably I might add, on April Fools Day, 1970.

If that bit of history doesn't get your attention, nothing will.  But I thought a short intro into my time as a soldier way back when might prove entertaining in light of the events of the day.  It sure was to me.  

Sort of...

The Continental Trailways bus transporting me and a dozen or so other new recruits to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, that cold, COLD* late October evening, arrived just before dusk.  We departed with our carry stuff in our hands and a short little guy wearing a smoky-the-bear hat began immediately screaming at us.  At the top of his lungs.

In some sort of language approximating English, with a heavy tinge of what sounded like Tagalog, just for seasoning.

As it happens I was at the very end of the line of guys this scary little fellow was ordering around.  And, because I was the tallest, I think, he happened to pick on me to establish his authority.  He stepped in front of me, poking his little Filipino nose directly into my sternum.  His smoky hat was bumping into my chest as he screamed.  And I was looking directly down to the top of it.  The spittle from his drill sergeant mouth was flitting all about as he cursed at us.  (Short Note:  This was back in the Viet Nam Unpleasantness days so treating new recruits with dignity was, ummm, apparently unnecessary.)  

Now, I didn't know about those other guys, but I had no Earthly idea what this guy was saying.  Or, attempting to say.  As he was screaming at my breastbone.  Fortunately, there was another guy there whose job I guess was to translate for his tiny superior.  He told us to grab our s**t and follow him.  We did.  With a case of universally tight butt cheeks, I might add.

We were assigned a bunk that night, and a bed roll, given a baloney sandwich, and told to get some sleep, as the next day would be the beginning of "Hell Week."  He said that with a chuckle.  That's the period, we were soon to learn, during which they issue you your clothing and gear and prepare you for your (potentially) short life as a soldier.  And that was to include...horror of horrors...

                      "Shot Day."      

The inoculations which were to be "given" this day was truly something to behold.  I was a ballet in green.  A symphony during which they were to vaccinate more than 200 recruits in less than 30 minutes.  They had emptied out a barracks where a company of 50 or so normally slept and equipped it with medics to inoculate their new conscripts against any and every imaginable ailment they might contract.  Oh yeah, you couldn't refuse them.  I don't think anyone even considered trying.  Or even raising an objection at the time.  

Just like I can't believe it now.  

When you're in the military, you do as the military tells you.  For the military owns your butt from the time you hold up your right hand and get sworn, until you receive your final discharge.  Or, like the very balmy Lt. Col. Schiller recently found out when he decided to go very, VERY public (social media) with his refusal to accede to shot mandates from above, you get tossed in the brig, and then bounced out of the Marine Corps, without your pension.

It's a good idea in the military...and in life...to pick which hill to die on.  This wasn't his...

Anyway, the next morning arrived overcast and dark.  And very cold.  And the medics were ready for us with their saddlebags of medicine hanging over their shoulders, with long rubber tubes attached to guns, GUNS, that shot drugs into your skin, using high velocity air instead of needles!  

So you can imagine the bruising that occurs when you get high velocity shots between the pores of your skin with a paint ball gun.  And in our case, at least, there were about 27 of them in total.  27 different shots!  We were then protected against any and every damn thing!  

Except "lead poisoning" from the Viet Cong, of course, but that's another story.

Glory of glories!  We were given the next day off!  And we soon found out why.  Waking up the next morning was pure agony!  We were so sick by the time we were all shot up that most of us just laid down on the bare metal springs of an empty bunk and prayed the ache would soon subside.  But every single fiber of my being throbbed in pain that next morning!  Every muscle!  Every sinew!  Every nerve and vein and hair on my head hurt like I'd been run over by a Mack truck!  I felt like I'd been dragged through a knothole!

I needed to pee so bad I had to get up, I recall, but was forced to crawl to the latrine 'cause I could not walk.  I guess this was one of those, "You had to be there moments..."

We soldiers all lived through "Shot Day," back then, and all the other indecencies they threw at us.  Because we were men.  Men with a job to do.  You do what you have to do to get to where you need to be.  For that's the American way.  And because that's what men do.  

Then, at least.

A short note to those who have blanched at getting the vaccine for any of a number of reasons:  Even though it's being mandated by a silly old puke who I'm confident has no idea which direction is up, the vaccine is good for you.  Take it.  I suggest those of you who have yet to avail yourself of the vaccine because you fear its side effects (almost infinitesimally small), or you hate Joe O'Biden (who doesn't?), or you think Fauci is a major-league prick (but what would Sunday morning be without him?), go ahead and do it anyway.  It could be a matter of life and death.

Yours...

* There is no cold like Fort Leonard Wood cold.  I recall many winter days there praying for the thermometer to reach zero.  It basically sucked.  "Basically," get it?  Ft. Wood was one of the Army's three main training centers back then (the others were Ft. Dix, NJ and Ft. Lewis, WA).  I have low-crawled over every single inch of Ft. Wood's forlorn, rock-strewn landscape, approximating that of the moon, and I do not recommend it to others.  No way, no how...   

"Willful-Blindness"

Do you recall a certain blowout of a certain Deepwater Horizon oil well back in April, 2010?

The one that released a reported 200 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico before they could get it plugged?  And killed 11, plus wounding another 13?

The very same one that was branded the largest natural disaster in world history?

That one?

Well, I've got a question.  What, I'm asking, would have happened if our Administration, the one in Washington, D. C., the one we trust to "run things," had decided back then to simply ignore the blowout?  To ignore the oil flowing into the Gulf?  To ignore the natural disaster unfolding in front of them as if it simply was not happening?  What, I'm asking, would have happened?

I'm guessing that the "natural disaster" Deepwater Horizon represented to America would have been much worse had we, America, not martialed all our resources to get it plugged, just as quickly as humanly possible.  It would have gotten worse, and worse...and worse.

Now, let me take you on a little verbal trip to our Southern Border.  Since Sleepy Ol' Joe wobbled into the White House, he's deconstructed our Border Patrol and permitted an unfettered flow of illegal aliens to rush across unimpeded ever since.  We're up to more than 1,600,000 known, and another 640,000 "gotaways."  That last bunch is just as it sounds.  They're the criminals and rapists and murderers and gangbangers from upwards of 150 countries who would prefer to avoid capture.

Those folks.  Including hundreds, HUNDREDS of previously-deported felons.  And yet, only two or three cable TV and broadcast news networks are choosing to cover it.  The others just utilize "willful blindness."  Like Scarlett Ohara at the very end of "Gone With The Wind," "I won't think about that today.  I'll think about that tomorrow..."

Is that what you want America?  Is that what you want FOR your America?  Your Government has imported the population of Kansas City and Denver and Salt Lake City while you weren't paying attention!  And near as I can tell, there's no reason to assume this will stop any time soon.  Think about it: the only folks entering America without a COVID test result are the millions of illegal aliens pouring over our Southern Border.  Do they really expect us to continue putting up with this illegal, immoral, unethical, and unconstitutional crap?

The short answer appears to be "Yes."

Going Off "Half Cocked."

You may have witnessed some or all of the recent ABC-TV interview of Alec Baldwin.

If so, you have my condolences.

By the carefully-staged music and soft lighting and dramatic camera angles, I'm guessing this interview  by ABC-TV's Stuffleawfulness, was intended to "rehabilitate" Baldwin's reputation.  Which has taken a rather major hit of late.  

Why?  If you hadn't heard, if you've been living under that proverbial dumpster behind the local Wal-Mart, he shot and killed his little movie's cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, on a movie set.  While playing with a firearm.  Which we all should know not to do.  

Not to do, ever.  

So far as we now know, these are the facts:  

The firearm was not a "prop" gun, as some have reported.  It was a real, "knock-off" copy of a Colt 1873, Single-Action Army model, .45 caliber Long Colt "Peacemaker" revolver, manufactured by one of the many Italian firearm reproduction companies (Pieta).  

To make this type of revolver "work" requires its hammer to be fully cocked, and then the trigger pulled.  It will not, let me repeat, IT WILL NOT fire by pulling the hammer back and letting it go, without the benefit of a trigger pull.  All single-action-type revolvers manufactured in America since 1915 must have employed a hammer block or a transfer bar to prevent accidental discharge.  A "feature" of single-action weapons not desired by their owners. 

In fact, that's where the term "going off half-cocked" came from.  Got it? 

We're reminded of just how dangerous these original Colt models really were.  Our buddy Wild Bill Hickock was playing poker in the "One-Eyed Jacks" saloon in Wichita one night back in 1876 when he rocked his chair just a little bit too far back.  His Colt Navy Model fell out of its holster and on to the floor, hammer first.  It went off with a fiery bang, blowing a hole in Bill's coat, narrowly-missing his armpit.  

This is why working cowboys never carried a live round under the hammer.  And this is why our Gummint later legislated the use of hammer bars to prevent this weapon's accident discharge.  And this is why we know for a fact Baldwin's a bald-faced liar.       

So, let's summarize, shall we?  Baldwin's tears won't sway any firearms expert called upon to testify in a trial.  His "clean up on aisle nine" didn't work.  I'm thinking maybe ABC is a production deal with Baldwin and need him out of jail and his reputation dry-cleaned.  In fact, he may have stepped in it with this interview to the tune of opening himself up to criminal charges for contributory negligence or even manslaughter.  Some folks just don't know when to keep their mouths shut...

This Baldwin brother has been calling for a ban on guns for years.  Loudly.  While earning a fat living playing a badass with a gun in the movies.  Unfortunately, a poor woman needlessly died to show the world what a stupid fool this Upper East Side jackass really is.  A free NRA Firearms Safety course would have taught him what every thinking - and responsible - man and woman already knows:

     -  You never point a firearm at something you don't intend to kill.

     -  You never put your finger on the trigger until you're ready to shoot.

     -  You never load your firearm until you're ready to shoot it.

     -  All firearms are to be safely stored and awayu from children when not in use.  

Simple, huh?  Apparently not simple enough for lying Alec Baldwin.  Me thinks he just may have gone off "half cocked..."

No "Flash Mobs" in Dallas?

You may have heard that Taxifornia and New Yawk and Illinoway, and so many other "Big Blue" cities, are having what they call a "flash mob" problem.  That's where 10 or 30 or 80 nice young folks all get together, via Facebook, thank you, dress themselves all in black, and proceed to empty out a neighborhood Louis Vuitton's.  Or a Nordstrom's.  Or Tiffany's.  Or a Home Depot, for God's sake!  

A Home Depot?

They arm themselves with crowbars, or more recently, with guns, and steal everything that's not nailed down.  Often $Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars worth of pricey handbags, and scarves, and perfumes.  And watches and computers, and lawn mowers from Home Depot, I guess.  Just what every pandemic-suffering, economically-challenged gang-banger needs.  No, not food, but a $900 Hermes scarf.  Or a lawn mower.  Which will be sold before dark on FB for 10% of its retail price.  Everybody gets over.  Except the merchant.  And his/her/its customers.  And society as a whole.

All this lawlessness, blithely ignored, at a yuuuuge cost, by these Social Media Oligarchs.  And the Democrats who are all beset with "willful blindness."  The inability to actually see what's going on in their own cities.    

What's fueled all this recent anarchy?  Here in Taxifornia it's "Proposition 47," a citizen initiative we were told would cause crime to end (LOL).  And a scad of "Progressive" D.A.'s, who've been installed in office via George Soros' money, who wish to deconstruct and remake our American Society into a Socialist Utopia.  

Prop. 47 made $950.00 the new goalpost for turning a misdemeanor into a felony here in Taxifornia!  And then defunding the police has left CA with about 20% fewer cops than a year ago.  400 fewer in SFO, 300 fewer in LAX and 200 fewer in OAK.  And these police forces were already down on personnel when all of this started 18 months ago.

So the results of Prop. 47 has been any crook arrested for a burglary, or arson, or breaking and entering, or felony domestic violence, would be booked...and then immediately released.

To reoffend.  Like the guy who ran over his girlfriend with his red SUV.  And then upon his release - with only a $1,000 bail - used that same vehicle to kill and maim in Waukesha, Wisconsin, just a few days later.

Because forcing felons to pay a reasonable bail to get out of jail is somehow...racist?  Wha...? 

And recently, this leniency has resulted in the "flash mobs" outlined above.  But you'll notice something: they're occurring only in "Big Blue" cities.  Those with "Progressive" district attorneys.  Cities like San Franpoopco and Lost Angeles.  Notice it's not occurring in cities where these gangs of criminals might meet resistance.  

As in, GUNS.  

Florida boasts more than 21 million residents.  And more than 1.3 million of them own concealed firearm carry licenses.  Almost 7%.  In Texas?  There they just carry openly.  Plus concealed.  In Tennessee?  The same.  And in OK, and KS, and MI, and AL, and AK, and so many other states.  26 of our states readily offer CCL permits, or open carry, or both.  Only the "Big Blues" try to keep their citizens unarmed...and unsafe.

I guess they figure it's easier to enforce their draconian and authoritarian rules on us if we're unarmed, I guess...

So I ask:  Are there any "flash mobs" in Dallas?  Or in any other state south of the Mason-Dixon line?  No, fellow Patriots, there aren't.  For if there were, the poor black-clad fools would be blown out of their socks before they could open their foul mouths.  If a couple of these "mobs" were to be left wounded and bleeding and dying on a Home Depot floor, I have a feeling this whole retail crime thing just might end...

And that, fellow Patriots, is the difference between the "Red" and the "Blue" states...

A thought to leave you with:  

If only 5% of the ducks were armed, do you think anyone would go duck hunting?

The Chuckmeister's $949.00 Tour!

Hey there, fellow Patriots!  I'm here to announce The Chuckmeister's new "Five Finger Discount" Tour of San Francisco and Lost Angeles!

No more need you climb aboard a yuuuuge boat to float around in the ocean, maybe even contracting Legionnaire's Disease.  No, no, fellow citizens!  Here's a Tour you can profit from!

As you may have heard, unless you get your news from Yahoo, Google, or any of the "Alphabets" or most of cable, looting is on the rise here in Taxifornia!  And as we all know, all fads start here, so you might as well get in on the action without having to wait for it to come to a city near you!

Good old Prop. 47, which passed here by popular vote, moved the goalpost for felony shoplifting to $950.00!  What a great idea!  No longer is it $50.00, like in most precincts.  It was at $450.00, which apparently wasn't enough to entice "flash mobs."  So, with George Soros' $Millions, "Progressive" D.A.'s were installed in all the far-left enclaves.  All the Big Blue Cities like New York, and Portland, and Seattle, and San Franpoopco, and, once again, Lost Angeles.  So when a perp appears at booking, if the charge is for a burglary, or a petty theft, or a holdup, or even domestic violence, and the amount taken is less than $950.00, then the Bad Guy goes Scot Freeeeee!  

Is Taxifornia a Great Big Dumbass State, or what?

So I, The Chuckmeister, have put together a truly exciting Tour.  We meet you at the airport, give you a bottle of water and a cheese sandwich, and take you straight to Nordstrom's.  Or Louis Vuitton.  Or maybe a Macy's, if that's nearby.  We'll let our Tour Group decide!  And then we'll provide you with a tour guide who will keep track of your "acquisitions."  That's what we call what our guests "light finger."  And when they near the "magic number" of $950.00, we'll alert you to stop and we'll head off to the next store too damn dumb to leave Taxifornia.  And so on, and so on...

Like it's been here now for years.  And why so many once-loyal Californians now call Texas, and Arizona, and Florida, and so many other states, their new home.

And you need not fear the police.  There aren't any.  They've all been sent to the showers by these "Progressive" cities.  They've been defunded to the max!  And even if one of the few remaining cops happens to stray by, and even dare to write you a ticket (buy a lotto ticket if that happens!), it will be for a misdemeanor, which they won't even bother to book.  Just don't plan on killing anybody while on Tour and you'll be just fine.   

The Good News!  We guarantee you'll get back the full $949.00 tour price the very first day!  Probably even the first hour!  What a deal!  Tell all your friends and let's get started!  Remember, if the District Attorney doesn't give a sh*t about their businesses and their residents and their tax base and their reputation, why should you?  And why should any other Taxifornia resident?

I sure as Hell don't!

In fact, I don't know why all the residents of this failed State don't get started with their own little Campaign of Looting at the local specialty store!   

Or, as it's sometimes say, "Live better for less.  Shoplift."

Help! "____" SUV's are Murdering Paradegoers!

                NEWS FLASH!

"___" SUV's are running down and killing people!  

One "___" colored SUV did that at a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin the other day.  We put the color of the murdering SUV in "quotes," because it's also the color of a particular First Occupant Native-Dweller Original Indigenous Personage Race of Folks Far Better Than Us, so we don't list it here.  

To be politically correct, doncha' know...

Yes, this murdering, errant, out-of-control SUV by all reports sped up and intentionally ran down paradegoers, killing six, including one little 8 year-old boy. 

The bastard! 

The SUV was taken into custody following a short attempt to flee.  

We've heard the Department of Justice has been contacted and a formal complaint lodged, claiming that the manufacturer of the SUV is complicit in these deaths.  And quite possibly E. I. Dupont-Nemours, Inc. for creating and widely circulating the pigment used.  

But the manufacturer is also complicit, if only for just painting its vehicles that certain "color."  No complaint has yet been lodged against the manufacturer of the tires, however with our rather raging excess of lawyers running loose here in America, nothing of that nature would surprise us.  

You'll be pleased to learn the poor unsuspecting Person-of-Color who just happened to be sitting behind the steering wheel at the time was not injured in the melee.  He was checked out by the medics, and then invited to stay at the County long-term accommodations until his health - and reputation - improves... 

Off-put by the accuracy and fairness of the foregoing reportage?  All of the "Alphabet" networks, ala ABC/CBS/NBC/PBS and NPR, plus all cable news channels except Fox, NEWSMAX and OAN, reported the news almost exactly as it appears above.  They made no, or only a passing mention, that a murderous Black Islamic jihadist felon was behind the wheel that day, intentionally running down and killing six innocents.  

He did so because, as he stated loudly on his social media posts, he hated White people and wanted to kill them.  Kill them all.  

Ahhhh, but this narrative doesn't fit that of the commie pinko dumbass Liberal looney Left!  

He should have been White.  And a White Nationalist with Nazi tattoos all over himself.  Driving a pickup truck.  And with a picture of him holding one of those AR-15's on his Facebook page.  Or -16's.  Or whatever you call them.  

Some people think SUV's should now even be added to that classification which includes GUNS!  You know, that group of inantimate object that wake up in the morning, wash their little metallic faces, load themselves up with armor-piercing ammo and go out looking for an innocent schoolchild to murder.  Maybe we should add SUV's into that group of societal pitfalls.  After all, this one must have decided all by its lonesome to intentionally run down a bunch of folks just trying to have a good time!  Damn SUV!  

But it coulda' been a White Nationalist!  Maybe THEN it would have gotten some "MSMedia" attention.  Maybe.  And Joe O'Biden wouldn't have flown right over Waukesha to go to Minnesota for a speech on Bill's Back's Better, or something like that.  He would have gone there.  And conveyed the Nation's grief, with these poor families.  Black families.  Only.  But he couldn't do that.  

Didn't fit the narrative...  

Then vs. Now...

Sit back, relax, grab a cool adult beverage.  This one will take awhile...

                   \\\\\\  +++  //////

I was just thinking.  We came from "Our Greatest Generation," we were told.  That's the one that saved us and the entire world from the horrors of Nazism and Marxism and communism.  Our generation proved to the world that we had bought and paid for our Freedom.  The Freedom some of us still hold so very dear.  The one I fought for.  The one so many of my fellow veterans fought for.  That one.    

So how, I wondered, would today's generation answer such a call?  A future call of such monumental import?  Would they save our bacon?  Again?  Or would they fold like a cheap suit?    

                          Then:

Just imagine.  It was early in the morning of April 14th, 1945.

Members of the 445th Bomb Group were all quietly assembled to receive their briefing prior to their mission.  The single most important mission of our military up to that time.  

8,000 bombers, in fact, were assembled that morning into the very largest bombing raid in history.  Bomb groups from the U. S. and Canada and Poland and the United Kingdom were focused on destroying the factory that built the Messerschmidt ME-262, the German's jet fighter "doomsday" weapon.

The ME-262 was revolutionary.  It flew at more than 500 mph with a service ceiling of 35,000 feet, when the best we had was propeller-driven and more than 100 mph slower.  It scared the crap out of the allies, hence that morning's bombing raid.  Featuring the B-24 "Liberator," my favorite bomber.

The B-24 was 74 feet long, 18 feet high, and with a wingspan of 100'.  It could fly at more than 300 mph and higher than 30,000 feet.  It could also carry 8,000 lbs. of bombs and fly for 3,000 miles without refueling.  It was so essential to our war effort that Ford Motor Company dedicated a one mile-long assembly plant in Dearborn, MI, to build them.  A phony city with hundreds of empty houses was built nearby to fool any spies that might peek in.  And they covered it with netting, like you use to keep out birds, to try and hide the plant from the air.  Toward the end of the War, Ford Motor (Get a Load of This!) was turning out a brand-new B-24 every 56 minutes!

They, along with other companies, made more than 18,000 of these bombers during the War.  It carried a crew of 10, including a nose gunner, two waist gunners, the ball turret gunner and the famous tail gunner.  They each had a .50 caliber machine gun and lots of ammo.  

BTW, there was almost no way out in the event the bomber was shot down.  Sort of "clarifies the mind," as they say.  That certainly served as incentive to shoot straight.  Very straight.

Each of the 10 men chosen for that morning's mission climbed into their Liberators and lumbered off into destiny.  None of them knew if, and/or when they would return.  They were tasked with destroying the Waffendorf Air Base in Eastern Germany, some 1,500 miles away, where the ME-262 was being manufactured.  They succeeded.  The base was completely destroyed and the "doomsday" weapon was defanged.  

All 265 of the 262's undergoing manufacture were destroyed in the raid that day, paving the way for the Allies ultimate victory.  But three of our Liberators, and their crews, were shot down.  Brave young souls, averaging only 20 years old, gave their lives that day so that we could live free.  They volunteered.  Volunteered to save us, and all who come after us, from tyranny.  We pray for their souls.  

                           Now:

Harvard University just dedicated what they call a "Cleansing Space" for all those who were "triggered" by the verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial.  They were horrified that so many Black people had to die, and that a White nationalist murderer got to go free.  Of course, you know that all of the wounded and dead, all of the participants in fact, were White!  See what happens when you actually pay attention to the Left-wing cable news channels?*  When the world does?  They wind up dumber...

Oh yeah, and Levi Strauss has provided its pansy sheeple with a "Fireside Chat," to be lead by their own "Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer," Elizabeth Morrison.  (The fact that there's a "Chief" indicates, BTW, that there's got to be more than one of them, right?  Perhaps there's too much profit in a pair of Levi's jeans.)  That's worrisome in and of itself... 

A Clinical Psychologist" who specializes in these things (what things?) will be along for the ride as they "Zoom" their little "Chat" out to their triggered masses.  Most likely cowering in fear behind tightly-closed blinds.  

And so you don't think Taxifornia escaped this public display of idiocy, humiliation and self-flagellation, Long Beach State is hosting a "Debriefing" for all their students, teachers and faculty having a tough time over the Rittenhouse verdict, wherein "counseling and psychological services" staff will be present.  They didn't indicate it, but I'm sure crying towels will be provided as well...    

What do you think would happen if that metaphorical "balloon" were to go up today?  That "world-ending" balloon?  What if one of our many enemies decides to test our mettle, once again?  And the current generation's families and friends - and maybe kids - are on the line?  And what if those now sucking their thumbs over Kyle Rittenhouse going free and "global warming" killing us all and the "rich" not paying their "fair share" were called upon to now rise up and defend us and our Nation?  Like we did, and our forebears did before us?  How do you think they'll respond?  

Sorry to maybe poke a hole in your "balloon."

*  Among the most horrifying bits of news out the past year was the results of a Pew Poll, where some 62% of the American public stated they received "all, or substantially all" of their news from Yahoo and Google.  Silicon Valley fiefdoms dedicated to destroying Conservatism, both.  And, considering these outfits have admitted to censoring the news they deign to share with their sheeple, or even disappearing it entirely (no Hunter Biden laptop, no open southern border, no XL-Pipeline closure, etc., etc., etc.), perhaps the only thing surprising is that the half of America that relies on these socialists for information get as much of it as they actually do!

Hating on our Jury System...

What follows is a partial list of the famous (and some clearly infamous!) who have come out publicly, stating that they do not agree with, or believe in, our jury system.

The one that's served us well for more than 240 years.  That same one.

It appears the following folks have come by that opinion because one Kyle Rittenhouse, a now-18 year-old kid, was found not guilty by a jury of his peers of defending himself against a mob of felons and criminals and perverts who had threatened to kill him.  Something that used to be not only legal, but encouraged!  Like it's supposed to be.

Ready?  Here goes...

     -  Joe O'Biden, POTUS, for awhile Yet.  He said "The jury has spoken."  Until his handlers got ahold of him.  You know, the puppeteers behind the curtain who trot him out when their wishes need to be conveyed.  He then said he was "...angry and concerned."  Crusty old wimp.  Bag of bones.  Vacuous twit.

     -  Carmala Harris, Vice President, for awhile yet.  She's the one who donated to a fund to bail last summer's rioters out of jail.  Following the Rittenhouse verdict, she, an ex-D.A., offered up the following about our jury system, "There's a lot of work to do yet."

     -  Bill de Blasio (nee Warren Wilhelm, Jr.), aka "Big Bird," aka "Tallest Pile of Puke on Earth," and "Ex-Worst Mayor in the History of these United States."  Also the dumbest.

     -  Keith Olbermann, used-to-be sportscaster, before he became a rabid Leftist loudmouth, hateful dumbass.

     -  Joy(less) Reid, famous for being Black and pissed off.  And also for hating White people.  CNN race-baiter of the 1st Magnitude.  This woman graduated from Harvard, thus severely eroding the value of a Harvard degree.  I've heard they've asked her to stop telling people they had anything at all do with her.

     -  Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), used to be really, really fat, REALLY FAT, lost most of it somewhere, but hasn't bought any new shirts.  He now looks like a circus clown.  Talks like one, too.  

(BTW, what happens to fat when you lose it?  Fat's energy, right?  And you can't destroy energy, right?  We were told that in science class, right?  So it must go somewhere.  My guess is that somebody on the other side of the Earth must gain the weight Fat Jerry lost.  For which I'm guessing they thank him.  Unless it was from his face...)

     -  Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-GA), confused older Black fellow who seems lost most of the time.  Asks the "Congressional Black Caucus" how to vote.  BTW, where's the "Congressional White Caucus?"

     -  Susanna Arquette, used-to-be actress, I think.  I think she also invented "pussy" hats.  Given her acting, I'm pretty sure she'll be known for that most of all.  

     -  LeVar Burton, "C" actor looking for attention.  Used to be Kunta Kente until he changed his name.

     -  Whoopi Goldberg, famous Black woman who spews venom on a TV program called "The View," which I'm told a few folks still watch, offered up that she simply did not care what the jury in the Rittenhouse trial had to say.  "I'm sorry.  The White boy is still guilty of murder!"  With a name like Whoopi, you'd think she'd be happier, wouldn't you?    

     -  And lastly, there's that smarmy little late night host of one of the many TV talk shows polluting our airwaves.  You know the one.  The one who mispronounces his last name because he thinks it's funny.  He stated about Rittenhouse, "If he didn't break the law, then the law needs to be changed."  Spoken like a true "Progressive."  If it doesn't fit your worldview, change it.  That's the same thinking that's resulted in statues of General Lee and Jefferson to be torn down; revisionist history is the history "Progressives" love the best.  'Cause then they get to change it to match their perverted thinking...   

Well now, I'm sure you and the rest of 'Murica are happy to learn the opinions of so many fine folks who didn't bother to watch the trial, or learn why Rittenhouse was not guilty of all the charges.  I did.  Every minute of it.  Being retired, and also an expert on firearms, I had the luxury of focusing intently on the facts.  Those things our loudmouth celebrities seem averse to considering.  Oh wait... 

NEWS FLASH!  

This just in!  Eleven White people and one lovely Black soul, the jury in a well-publicized trial down south, just found the three White men who hunted down and executed Armaud Arbery...guilty.  Of all charges.  Starting with Malice and Felony Murder.  The three will never breathe a free breath again.  As it should be.  Yes, I watched every available moment of that trial as well.  Something that surely cannot be said about all of those (in)famous folks who will now choose to opine.  And I'm sure there must be many.  

In view of the Arbery trial findings, here's a list of all the celebrities who have now come out against our jury system:

     (Crickets...)

(I'd like every thinking American who believes we still have a chance in Hell as a Country to line up on the left.  All you others who think we're just too far gone, on the right.  Hmmmm.  Thought so.  We may be toast...)

   

       

"Wild Bill" Hickok...

It was the evening of July 20th, 1865.

"Wild Bill" Hickok was playing poker with a number of the regulars at a local saloon in Springfield, Missouri.

Springfield, as you may know, was just about the last true frontier town at the very end of what's come to be known as the "Old West."  That's the period from 1850 - 1895.  And I, The Chuckmeister, happen to be a generally-recognized expert thereon.  

Hey, we all have to be expert in something, don't we?

And so I thought I'd pass along one of the more colorful, and I trust thought-provoking, stories that springs forth from that time.   

One of the folks "Wild Bill" was playing poker with that night was a guy named Davis Tutt.  He and Bill were old acquaintances, if not actually friends.  They certainly knew one another well, Bill having "knocked up" Davis' sister, and Davis having secretly been courting Bill's girlfriend, a fact not withheld from the public.  

Being "cuckolded" back then was a big deal.  Ahem.

Anyway, Davis and Bill were playing poker.  Bill was disputing a $20 debt he supposedly owed Davis, and Davis wouldn't leave it alone.  And Bill by that time was flat broke and unable to pay this old debt.  Davis continued to carp about it until Bill gave him his prized pocket watch as collateral until the next morning, when Bill told Tutt he could get him the cash.

The next morning came.  Bill, through an emissary, sent Davis his $20.  Davis, through his spokesperson, refused to accept it, demanding an additional $10 as a "fine."  Bill, not surprisingly, took umbrage at this demand.  He sent word back to Davis that he'd meet him at the Town Square (yes, that was - and is - its name) if he didn't change his mind.  By this time Tutt couldn't back down.  Saving face was a Big Deal back then, just as it is today.  Except today it's couched as receiving "respect." 

So the die was cast.  The last "high noon-style" gunfight was set into motion (and the template for the Movie of the same name).  Wild Bill, the aging ex-sheriff and Army scout and Indian fighter and buffalo hunter and cattle drover, was about to burnish his already-rich legend.  And it was quite a legend, to be sure.

I've heard, but cannot confirm, that upon arising each day Bill would exit his dwelling and proceed to empty his matched set of .36 caliber Colt Navy revolvers at a handy nearby target.  And I gather there would usually be a crowd gathered to witness this bit of showmanship (he was famous by this time due to the plethora of "dime novels" about the Old West).  

His pistols, you see, were of the "cap and ball" variety, meaning one had to pour a measure of powder into each of their six cylinders before seating a round lead bullet on top.  The bullets would keep the powder from leaking out, but the moisture in the air might make the powder unable to fire after several hours.  Thus, Bill would shoot, and then reload, his guns every morning to make sure they were at the ready whenever needed.  

And they were needed that evening in Springfield, Missouri.

It was 6:00 p.m.  Bill walked onto the East end of the Town Square.  He called out, "Davis, here I am."  Davis slowly moved onto the Square from the West, toward Bill.  As soon as he stopped walking, he pulled his pistol and shot at Bill.  Bill saw him draw and pulled his pistol and shot, almost simultaneously.  The bullet from Tutt's gun whizzed over Bill's head.  Bill's bullet entered Davis Tutt's body between his 5th and 7th ribs, right through his heart.  He crawled a few steps toward the nearby saloon and uttered with his last breath, "Boys, I'm killed."

Wild Bill Hickock shot Davis Tutt from a distance of just over 75 yards!  That' 225 feet!  With a Colt Navy revolver!  Among the least accurate weapons one could choose at that distance.  Unless one was a true professional gunfighter.

There's a moral to this story, and one I'm happy to pass along.  In fact, I'll use one of my midwestern colloquialiasms (pardon the language) to help drive home the point.  Goes like this:

     "You F*** With The Bull,

         You Get The Horn."

I might pass along a word of warning to the O'Biden Administration.  The main difference between the United States and let's say Venezuela, or Cuba, or even Germany, Australia or Austria these days, places where their citizens' weapons have been seized by their governments, and the wildly authoritarian stances they've taken of late, is that some 100,000,000 of us still own just over 475 Million Guns here in America.  

And just might be incented to use them.  

A small indication of which might be the number of hunters who submitted requests for deer tags in the State of Wisconsin 2019.  Just this one state as an example.  That would be 600,000.  Or, if all assembled together, the 4th Largest Standing Army in the world.  It's true.  Google it.  And that's just one of our states.  Just imagine if ALL of those whose citizens are still armed got together and decided our Gubmint needed to be brought into check.  Which is why the 2nd Amendment was written.  Remember, 475 Million Guns.  And if we're forced to use them to remind our Gubmint who they work for, like a guy named Thomas Jefferson* warned us we just might, I'm pretty sure they just might...  

As the old adage goes, "A word to the wise should be sufficient." 

*  "The tree of liberty needs to be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Ever Get the "Itch" to Buy an Electric Car?

Then do yourself a favor; don't "scratch" it.

Have you ever wondered why an inordinate number of TV commercials these days are for electric cars?  Not hybrids, the plug-in, all-electric variety.  Well, so did I, The Chuckmeister.  Especially since less than 2% of all our fleet of more than 210,000,000 automobiles are electric, and less than 2.1% of all new car sales are for electric vehicles, one would just have to wonder why?  Is there some "special" reason why our auto makers are so upbeat on electrics?  Why they are dedicating the majority of their R&D resources to electric?  

A resounding "Yes," fellow Patriots, there is!  And here are but a few...

To start with, new electric cars contain only about 20% of the parts of automobiles with conventional, internal combustion engines.  No carburetor, no pistons, no crankshaft, no radiator, no transmission, no nothing.  Almost no moving parts, in fact.  Just a reeeely big battery, a tightly-wound electric motor, and a constant-velocity, single-speed transmission to get you on down the road.  Sooooo, the manufacturers don't have to buy - or pay union rates to install - those other parts and pieces.  Those thousands of separate and distinct parts and pieces.  They just collect a few thousand AAA-style batteries and lash them together into a reeeely big battery pack, usually weighing 1,000 pounds or more, and attach them to a tightly-wound electric motor and a constant-velocity transmission.  

So, to sum up:  80% fewer parts to buy and pay some union thug to assemble at inflated hourly rates.  Anybody for some coffee and a danish?

Oh yeah, it gets better.  Mucho better.  These self-same manufacturers then tout the difficulty and research associated with putting out these magnificent brutes, by increasing their price!    

We're talking a brand-new, all-electric, super-shiny Mercedes-Benz "ELS," going out the door right now, today, just introduced to the yawning public, for "only" $119,989.  Right now.  Today.

And the "regular" M-B model?  The one with a crankshaft and pistons?  The one with all the moving parts?  $47,894.00 less.  

And once you've bought your overpriced, inflated golf cart, you can then concern yourself with where do you go to charge it?  Most electric car buyers install about $2,500 worth of 220 v. stuff in their garage so they can charge their cars in six hours or so.  If they don't, plan on 12 hours or more.  Usually an overnight charge works just fine.  

But God help you if you want to charge less or drive more than your car's "range."  And you won't really know what that range is until you reach it.  That's called "range anxiety," BTW.  And you know if it's been given a name, then it's a problem for most folks.  

Oh, the manufacturer will guess your car's range for you, but you'll have to find out in the Real World, where you live.  And the temperature outside can help determine that range.  When it gets cold outside electric cars can lose as much as 20% of their efficiency and range.  You didn't know that, did you?  They don't tell you that, do they?

And where do you charge when you're out and about?  You'll have to figure that out for yourself, Grasshopper.  And sometimes the chargers you need to keep on going on will be busy.  Or the opposite.  I was in Sedona recently and saw a bank of 20 or so Tesla charging units, with one lonely Tesla needing a boost.  That means somebody waaaay overguessed as to charger need (Musk?), or the public is buying far fewer Teslas than was projected...  

And then it can get comical.  I've seen, actually SEEN, a portable gasoline battery charger charging a Tesla alongside the freeway.  I chuckled.  Mightily.  Dwell on that mental picture for awhile...

And Teslas, our most popular and most expensive electrics, are at the bottom of Consumer Report's Reliability Index, due to their poor build quality.  Hmmm.  $100,000 for a slapped-together piece of crap?  Don't think so!  

Oh yeah, and electric cars depreciate faster than regular old cars like the 200,000,000 or so of them we're driving right now.  Do they tell you than only 2.1% of all new cars sold these days are plug-in electric?  No?  Would it help you to decide if you knew?

And then there's the little factoid that electric cars make no noise.  No "vroom!" "vroom!"  No nice, warm, utterly lovely analog mechanical sound that we performance car lovers just love to love.  There's simply nothing quite like the idle of a warmed-over small block Chevy motor heard through a nice set of mandrel-bent headers.  Or the wail of a Porsche as it nears the top of the tach.  Or that "ripping canvas" sound of a Ferrari.  You don't get that with an electric.  They make the sound your dining room rheostat makes when you turn up the lights...

(Crickets)  

And for those who are really in it to save money, a new Toyota Yaris will return 47 mpg for $15,600, out the door.  So there.  I just removed that objection...

And lastly, don't get into a big crack-up with an electric car.  These beasts ride on 1,000 pounds or more of electric batteries.  Half a ton.  That's why they corner so well.  Low center of gravity and all.  But don't ask the local paramedics to use their Jaws of Life to pry you out when you're in a blazing fire.  One of the many that have started all by themselves in Teslas, BTW.  Because they just might get electrocuted.  

Paramedics are funny like that...

Of course, if you buy an all-electric you'll be saving the planet.  There's that to consider (cough, cough).  Especially since we rely on natural gas for nearly 41% and coal for more than 20% of our electric power grid.  

And did CNN and MSNBC tell you that China plans to open some 3,500 new coal-fired electric plants in the next 10 years?  No?  Yeah, they just announced that, while we were patting ourselves on the back for closing our own.  And considering that China and India are together responsible for more than 51% of the planet's total carbon emissions, and we're way down there at 25%, one wonders exactly why we're punishing ourselves when we're not the problem. 

And see all those windmills clotting up the scenery?  Yeah, less than 3% of our electric power.  In the summer.  And the wind doesn't blow so good in the winter.  Funny, huh?  And not in a good way?

So do with all of this what you will.  We went away from electric cars and on to gasoline more than 100 years ago because fossil fuels are so energy efficient.  Perhaps that's why 98% of us see no reason to go back...            

Supply Chain Issues? Blame O'Biden...

Fellow Patriots, I, The Chuckmeister, am here to deliver some truly Great News!

You now have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to slap inflation right in the kisser and save a boatload of money on Christmas, at the very same time, by simply refusing to spend any money. 

Any money at all. 

Annnnnd, fellow Patriot, you can get away with it by blaming it all on our rickety old President-for-Awhile-Yet, Mr. Joe O'Biden.  

How?  Well, sit back, grab a cool adult beverage, put your feet up, put your blaster on "stun," and lemme' tell ya' how...

You've heard of this whole "supply chain" problem, right?  That's the pickle we get into when too many dollars are chasing too few goods.  Like the normal flow of goods and services which might be expected to occur as we're coming out of your basic pandemic.  Exceppppt, if the whole Magilla is interrupted when your Friendly Gubmint prints up $8.7 Trillion Dollars which we don't have, thus reducing the value of the dollars you do have, and ships it out the door.  

That's called inflation.  And one of the many side effects of this sort of inflationary pressure (BTW, I'm an actual graduate economist, meaning in this one rare instance, I know whereof I speak) is a few dozen massive container ships lounging around off Long Beach Harbor, where they've never, ever been before, waiting to find somebody to unload them.  Isn't it funny when a really super plan to turn America into Cuba, cooked up in the Yale faculty lounge, is put into motion...and then goes over like a turd in a punchbowl?  

And guess what?  Those container ships contain the little "Boobie Jessie" doll Suzie wants, and the "Mad Scientist" nuclear-capable laboratory set that your dear little Johnny wants.  The unnecessary crap you would have been forced to buy, but didn't want to.  

Anyhoo, so it's Christmas morning, and there's no doll for Suzie or chemistry set for little Johnny under the tree!  And when they start to cry those reeely big tears, you play the "Dumb Card;" you blame it all on creepy Joe O'Biden.  It's all his fault, you say!  You would have bought them, you say, with a straight face, but Joe got in the way!  You would have paid double, you say, just to get them for your little treasures!  But it's not your fault!  You were thwarted in your efforts by the elite, effete snobs in the White House!  Their kids no doubt got their goddam dolls and chemistry sets, you say!  Notice you got the goddam Christmas presents you wanted when Big Bad Orange Man was in orifice, right kiddies? 

Right?  

Now?  Those $95 dolls and $110 blow-up-the-world lab sets?  Sorry, kiddies!  Your President took them away from you...

(Heh, heh...)

And you?  You've got an extra $Few Hundred in your pocket you thought you'd have to spend.  Which helps to make up for the extra $Buck-fifty a gallon good ol' Joe is stealing from us.  He's peeled our finances like a grape.  Here's our chance to shift the blame, back to where it belongs.  And not have to listen to the damn doll moan "mommy" over and over.  Or fear that your home will be blown up by little Johnny.  Annnnd, save a few bucks in the process!

You don't get chances like these very often, fellow Patriots.  Let's all take advantage now, while we have the chance.  Remember, when the kids start to whimper and moan, all together now, it's all Joe's fault!  

Maybe they'll remember this and vote the right way when the time comes around...

Let's All Feel Sorry for the Rich...

                       "Don't tax you,

                         don't tax me,

             tax the man behind the tree."           

The author of the above quote has been lost to history.  But the sentiment behind it remains all too common, even today.  

I may be the only one, but I'm feeling kind of sorry for our really wealthy friends out there.  You know, the relatively few who start all the companies and hire all the workers and buy all the private jets and yachts and really big houses that somebody has to build and spread their money around so the rest of us can enjoy it.  

Those folks.

They're being demonized like never before by the Democrats who wish to take an ever-increasing chunk of their money (and their hide?).  To pay for their ever-more loopy little projects.  Little multi-$Trillion Dollar Projects.  Like "fixing" the weather.  

We already know from the Treasury Dept. that the Tippy Top One Percent of our society earns 29% of all our income while paying some 41% of all our income taxes.  That, BTW, is not a "fayah shayuh" according to multi-millionaire, 3 house-owning Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-NH) and multi-millionaire, 3 house-owning Joe O'Biden (POTUS...for awhile yet).  He thinks 110% would be "fayuh," I'm guessing.  So having to witness these Democrats arguing every day in Congress about which of your bones they're going to pick clean must seem like a hollow reward after all their striving and struggling, and finally winning.  Can't have that, now can we?  

"Democracy is two wolves and a sheep fighting over what to have for dinner."                               -  Benjamin Franklin

Regardless of how many companies you start and jobs you create and taxes you pay, or avoid paying, using Congress' own laws and rules, which they could change but they don't, it's never enough for these folks.  No matter how much you pay, the ideal arrangement according to these Democrats is to simply sign over your paycheck. And, oh yeah, the deed to your house. And your farm.  And your business.  'Cause they're gonna' get it with their confiscatory "Death Taxes" anyway.  

I bring your attention to the most recent tax-grab legislation the House just passed.  A day or two ago.  Good ol' Joe said no tax increase for those earning less than $400 Grand a year.  The Congressional Budget Office just scored the Bill at costing everyone earning over $50,000 a year a tax increase, while handing a tax decrease of $47 Billion Dollars to our Wealthiest Few!

I thought highway robbery was illegal!

I dunno' about you, but if I were uber-rich I'd be checking out the real estate in Costa Rica and Belize and Panama and anywhere else they speak English and value freedom.  Like we used to...

Here's my prescription to avoid all this nonsense.  Quit work.  Buy a six-pack of Colt-45 Malt Liquor, go home, sit on the couch and wait for the next check from the Gubmint.  And the food stamps.  And Aid to Families With Dependent Children.  Even if you don't have any children.  And Supplemental Rental Assistance.  And Who The Hell Knows What Else?  For it will come.  As long as the Democrats are in charge...it will come.

God help us...it will come...  

The Democrats get voted out?  Go back to work.  Start remembering that whole "Life, Liberty and the PURSUIT of Happiness," thing.  Start generating wealth for yourself, for your family...and unfortunately, for every commie pinko dumbass Liberal weenie Tax Grab Expert in Congress.  Who will conjure up new and inventive ways to separate us from our money.  Have I about got it?  

Ahhhhh yes, Chuckmeister, I believe you've got it!