Simply Observers...

I'd like to remind my tens and tens of Patriotic readers that they are likely among those of us who've sat by in rapt attention over the past couple of years, and watched in horror on 24/7 cable TV as the Looney Left tried to tear America apart.

Break it.  Destroy it.  Set fire to it.  Burn it down.  And to then hopefully rebuild it in their Utopian vision?  Someday, maybe?  

One can only surmise.

It unfolded nightly, on our big screen TV's, night after night.  Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, Portland, Seattle, Rochester, Minneapolis.  And the reportage depended upon which channel you were turned to.  Fox showed it all.  MSNBC said it was all due to racism.  CNN's reporter stated it was a "mostly peaceful protest" whilst standing in front of a burning courthouse.

We've been nothing more nor less than observers; if we don't live in the 50 or so Big Blue Cities "up  north,", where Democrats reign, that is.  It's there where the "War" has unfolded.  It's there where those in charge elected to sit back and watch as members of Antifa and Black Lives Matter set a torch to pretty much everything north of I-70.  And it was there that anything worth tearing down, was torn down.  

53 cities, actually.  In which more than $1.5 Billion Dollars in damages was done.  More than 1,300 cops wounded.  13 were murdered!  Up there, up north, while we watched.

From down here.  In relative safety.  

So it's kind of important to remember that although those of us who live in the Sun Belt share no blame for this monumental fiasco, we've been paying a terribly steep price.  I mean, have you seen the gas prices here in Taxifornia?  And we'd like them to get back to normal just as soon as possible.  Once they've cleaned up their streets and rounded up all their criminals and deported all the illegal aliens and restored good order, that is.

Oh, I'm sorry.  I must have had a brain fart...

But while they set about cleaning up the nest in which they have shat, if they ever do (we won't hold our collective breath), we'll just keep on keeping on.  Getting up, going to work, paying our taxes.  After all, somebody has to!

Some Unsolicited Advice...

I was wading hip-deep to a tall Indian* through that bane-of-our-existence we call the Internet the other day, and came upon a bit about Kanye and Kim West's kids:

     -  Saint

     -  North

     -  Chicago

     -  Psalm

Not that I routinely give a goodgoddam about them or their spoiled kids, you understand.  Just sayin'

Seems they chose to name their children by randomly opening a dictionary and randomly picking out a word.  I'm sure I must have glanced at one or more of their names before, whilst meandering through a supermarket check out line most likely, but I never saw them all grouped up tight together like that before.  I kept thinking to myself about the burden on them it must be to carry these names throughout their lives.  About what these kids are going to do every time they try and introduce themselves!  Or make a plane reservation!  I mean, "Hello, this is Chicago West?"  Or, "Hi, my name is North West."    

Really?  

So I thought to myself.  Now that Kanye and Kim have separated, and she's found a guy with something "else" to offer, or so I hear, they likely won't need anymore new kids' names.  But if they get back together, they just might.  And hey, if "Kan" and Kim (let's call them "KanKim," shall we?) ever reconcile, they'll need some outside help, 'cause their efforts so far really suck.  So, fellow Patriots, here's some kids' names in case KanKim get back together:

     -  Curdle

     -  Ditch

     -  Bile

     -  Lawn

     -  Newark

     -  Flotsam/Jetsam (in case they are twins)

     -  Burgle

     -  Fluff

     -  Tomato

     -  Pasta

     -  Mucous

     -  Lettuce  

     -  (and for good measure, Smegma**)

My loyal Patriot readers know they can count on me to rise up and offer help to my suffering compatriots.  You didn't know I had a degree in Psychology?  No?  Yeah, well, I can offer advice and counsel in just such circumstances as this.  Like KanKim.  So, as always, The Chuckmeister's here for you, kids!  Just call.  Anytime.  Baby.  Boobie...

*     (Native American Indigenous Personage) 

**   (Look it up)

The Making of a Conservative...

In an convo with one of my lovely daughters the other night, she asked me how I came by my rather "loud" and shall we say, rigid, political leanings.  I said I'd try to bring her up to speed.  

I grew up in a home ran by two professionals, I told her.  Both of my parents were real estate brokers, and insurance brokers.  We lived well.  Because my parents worked their asses off.  So I came to know what comes from an eternal struggle.  End of story.

So you can also understand I came by many of my beliefs at an early age.  So when I finished up my military service, and college, and then paid my dues working for a succession of yuuuge corporations, I started my own company.  Of course I did.  As I once described it during a lecture I gave to a class of MBA candidates at Pepperdine University, "entrepreneurism is a disease for which there is no cure."  I was fully prepared for what was to come.  As prepared as anyone could have been.  But I knew going in that there was a class of folks who'd be hiding in the bushes, trying to take from me any success I might enjoy.  Instead of trying to achieve their own, I might add.  So I had my hand on my wallet going in.  Even so, God, was I ever surprised...

There was not a single day, in those entire 37 and one-half years my wife and I ran our company, that someone, somewhere, wasn't trying to put their hand in my pocket.  Deeply.    

And most often that "somebody" was the gubmint.  Usually the State, but the Feds wanted their pound of flesh also.  It was a near-Herculean effort for my wife an me to try and hold on to some of what I earned.  I spent ten of $Thousands on accountants, each of whom was charged with protecting me from a rapacious Gubmint.  A gubmint that wanted to peel me like a grape.  I even had to buy a piece of the Oakland Convention Center as a tax dodge.  

Those who don't start and run their own companies, the 97% or so, have no idea what it's like to try and be an entrepreneur in the more socialist states.  States like California.  The one in which I unfortunately live...

This experience made me believe the best form of government, as I informed my gorgeous daughter (one of four!), is the one that stays out of your speech, out of your wallet, out of your educational choices, out of your church, out of your gun cabinet, and out of your bedroom.  Yet here's the reality: I pay taxes.  A lot of taxes.  A bit less than half of America pays taxes.  But half of America...doesn't.  And yet, that half wants some of my hard-earned money.  I told my daughter that's reality.  That's the windmill against which I am tilting.  And have forever been tilting.  

Ever since I chose to become enlightened and choose Conservatism...

I think my daughter has begun to finally understand.  As the saying goes, the first step is for the scales to be removed from one's eyes...

Your Tesla Runs on Coal...

Those of you who've succumbed to the siren song of "free" motive power wrapped in a shiny, stylish new sedan that will "go a long way" toward saving the planet, you might like to know your Tesla runs on coal.

And so do all the other plug-in electric vehicles their manufacturers are foisting on an unsuspecting public.  

A bit brash?  I'll defend my research.  And you just might be surprised...

60.8%?

Yeah, that's the total percentage of electricity currently produced here in America using oil and gas.  60.8%.  That's waaay over half, doncha' know.  Not quite 20% comes from "renewables" these days, including wind and solar, so the energy under our feet will continue to power our cars well into the future.  No matter what John "Lurch" Kerry has to say.  So while you're paying a fortune for a Tesla so you can "save the planet," or just show your ass to your wasteful neighbors, I'm sorry to have to focus your attention on that number stated before:  60.8%.  Why?

Because the little college kid that O'Biden tapped to be Transportation Secretary, the one who's spitting image of the "Who Me?" guy on Mad Magazine, the one who wears his "gayness" like the Red Badge of Courage, the one who took his first year in office off because of a "paternity leave," but that's just me, sniffed recently that if we really want to save money on gas, we should buy electric cars.  Yeah.  Buy cars that cost an average of $60,000, or more, often much more, when a normal, internal combustion car priced at $30,000, barely half as much, can produce nearly the same fuel economy and not foul the Earth.  

Yeah, I know.  Longish sentences.  

Here's a little bit of info for you.  To "fast charge" a Tesla up to 80% of battery capacity at one of those roadside chargers can take as little as 45 minutes.  That's the good news.  You'll pay $0.35 cents a kilowatt hour to transfer that energy from the power plant, which may be fueled by hydrocarbons, to your car.  That works out to about $6.00 a gallon.  That's the bad news.  Or, you can wait 8 hours and pay only $0.13 cents per Kw by charging it at home.  Or beside the road.  Your choice.  A choice between negatives, I'd say.  Or, you could fill up that half-price Toyota at the gas station next door and drive away.

Just remember, you're saving the planet...

Oh yeah, in spite of the fact that every single commercial you see on TV is for electric cars, I thought I'd also pass along another statistic of interest:  Total 2020 Plug-In Hybrid Electrics (PHEV's), not including the fully hybrid Prius-types, like my good friend Geoff West drives, equated to less than 1.8% of total auto sales last year.  The good news for this category, I guess, is that it's up from 1.4% in 2020.  Surprised?  Yeah, the entire category is still less than 10% of total auto sales.  So why are they advertising so furiously?  Because electric cars are cheaper to make!  There's not much to them.  They're all just fluff and pretty sheet metal, fancy Nappa leather seating areas, and a ton of batteries under your feet.

Batteries filled with rare earth minerals, like cobalt.  This stuff is harvested in the dirtiest way imaginable, and from the most repressive places on Earth.  Like China.  Not America, China!  And oh by the way, when that expensive, one-ton battery pack winds down, it may not be placed in landfills or recycled.  They must be buried, deep down, like nuclear waste.  Oh, and they're known to spontaneously combust.  Causing both vehicle and structure fires.   

Feel better about your purchase?  

Would you like to know what's in that battery box down there, under your feet?  Panasonic is currently selling Tesla its "Cylindrical" Series rechargeable batteries to make their little grown-up golf carts go.  They retail for $7.80 each.  The latest Tesla Model S uses 7,800 of them.  Wired in a series.  And then funneled through some Elon magic to an electric motor which drives the wheels. 

I'm pretty sure Tesla gets a volume discount from Panasonic on its batteries.  At least there's that... 

So before you fork over $100k for a shiny new Tesla, or any other electric vehicle, ask yourself this:  Where's all that electricity going to come from if the power plants can't get oil and gas?  Unicorn farts?  And then how much is it likely to cost to connect that grown-up golf cart to the wall with the meter spinning wildly? 

Face it:  Your Tesla currently runs on coal. 

So go forth into the remainder of your day knowing this: The Chuckmeister, your Scribe Without Portfolio, is always on the job.  And like that joke of a newspaper back in the Swamp, the one owned by Laura Sanchez' bald boyfriend, I conduct Fact Checks.  

And this is one they will not like very much, at all...    

The Angel of Death...

I've remarked before in this inauspicious little blog that those who don't pay attention to history are doomed to repeat it.  Russia's pariah dictator Putin might want to pay attention to that old bit of advice...

Have you ever heard of the "Angel of Death?"  No?  Well, I'm guessing Mr. Putin has.  That's because the woman who earned that fearsome moniker was Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko.  She was a fourth-year university student in Kyiv when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.  She immediately joined the Army and insisted upon the infantry.  Even though she was already a trained nurse, she wished to employ her citizen marksmanship training in support of her country.  She'd been a sharpshooter all her life, but soon graduated to becoming a sniper.  And not just any sniper.  Possibly the most famous sniper in the world.

She was from Odesa.  That's in Ukraine.  Ukraine was a free country until gobbled up by the U.S.S.R.  But she fought for it anyway.  And boy was she good with a rifle.  She's credited with 309 confirmed kills.  And likely twice that number, if truth be told.  A full 37 of those confirmed kills were enemy German snipers!  She became so famous she was pulled from the front lines and sent abroad to raise funds for the war.  Think about that for a minute: a Russian sniper - a Ukrainian sniper - toured Canada and the U.S. of A. to raise money for their war.  She was given a medal by Eleanor Roosevelt and a shiny new Colt pistol as a part of our honorarium.

She went home, finished her studies after the war, became an army major, and lectured against authoritarianism until the end of her life.  

I wonder if Mr. Putin is growing his own "Angel of Death" with his illegal invasion of a sovereign country?  Or maybe several of them.  After all, Putin's trying to take Odesa, Lyudmila's home town.  And Ukraine is fighting back, for it's life, against Russian invasion.

Is this some major-league irony, or what?

This little history lesson has been brought to you by The Chuckmeister.  We'd better be happy we have an ocean on either side of us, or we just might have to grow our own "Angels" some day as well...  

A Few Factoids...

I, The Chuckmeister, am intensely interested in the things going on about me.  Interested enough that I do research on those topics that captivate me.  I assume others do so as well.

But for those too busy to worry about such stuff, like you maybe, here are a few factoids you can use to unpack recent events occurring in our perilous world:

     -  Russia is a big country.  Reeely big.  So big it's 12 and 1/2 times the size of Ukraine.  Which is the size of Texas.  Now that's BIG!  

     -  Did you know that Russia inhabits fully 11.7% of all the habitable land area on Earth.  More than twice as much as Country Number Two (Canada)?  Didn't know that, didja?  

     -  Russia is so big (how big is it?), it has nine time zones.  NINE!  Yet, more than 85% of its citizens live within 120 miles of Ukraine.  That's in the far, far western part of Russia.  Everybody in the East herds yaks and fishes for a living.  Moscow, Minsk and St. Petersburg, where the Russians mainly live, are all within a short car ride of Ukraine.   

     -  You might like to know that Kyiv, Ukraine's capitol city, was founded in the year 815 a.d.  Some 1,200 years ago.  Moscow, on the other hand, was a tent city trading village on the Volga River at that time.  Russia, remember, is in Asia.  Ukraine is in Europe.  Kinda' pokes a hole in that Putin proclamation, "Ukraine is part of Russia!"    

     -  Russia's main export, in fact it's main source of income, is oil.  It has lots and lots of oil.  It is, as missed-by-some John McCain once derisively noted, "A gas station masquerading as a country."  So the higher the price of oil, the more foreign income Russia earns.  Did you know that Russia's economy is 1/20th the size of the U.S?  That's 5%!  These guys rattle sabers pretty well.  The result of which is:  Stability = low oil prices.  Turmoil = high oil prices.  Get it?

     -  Yeah.  The more turmoil it can cause in the world, you may have noted, the higher Russia can force the price of oil.  Conservatives know this innately.  Democrats don't know this, and have a defect in their DNA that prevents them from ever learning.

    - Thus, when they assume power, our Country goes straight to Hell.   

     -  Russia is also 4 times the size of China in land mass.  And up to recently, has been an enemy.  Biden's so mucked up the scene that they are now Best Friends for Life.  You see what an old buzzard who has no idea which direction's up can do to a world when you let him drive the Ship of State? 

     -  Did you know that Russia has 120,000,000 people, and Ukraine has 44,000,000?  One-third the population in one-twelfth the land mass?  We know that Russia's "replacement rate" is upside down.  It's down to 1.4 to one.  Unsustainable as a society.  Maybe Putin is trying to recruit a bunch of new citizens to rule, at the point of a gun?  

     -  Oh yeah, and China has some 1.7 Billion residents.  So many it can't feed them all.  That's why it used to buy food from us.  And Ukraine  China bought more than HALF its grain from Ukraine up until Xi's best-friend-for-life invaded a sovereign country.  Grain has yet to be planted in Ukraine.  No plantee, no grow-ee.  That's Chinese for "starve."     

     -  Ukraine was a nascent democracy.  Not perfect yet, but trying hard.  Russia is a repressive autocracy, rapidly degenerating into a full-blown dictatorship.  To Putin having a thriving democracy on its borders is a threat to its soviet-style existence.  When your serfs can watch TV from across the border and see folks living The Dream, you can't keep 'em down on the farm.  But he's sure as Hell trying...    

     -  Russia is a "cancer" on the countries of the world.  Of which, 141 just voted to give Russia the finger.  That leaves only  6 which didn't.  We could now reasonably call them the "New Axis of Evil."  They are:  China (duh!), Saudi Arabia (what, not enough gold-plated Rolls Royces?), Cuba (commies gotta' stick together), North Korea (Hermit Kingdom heard from), South Africa ( Wha?  They're blaming NATO and the U. S. for the shi*storm in Ukraine), and India.  

     -  South Africa?  Isn't S.A. a democracy?  Well, used to be, but now that's questionable.  The repatriation of White-owned land, companies and farms currently underway are worrisome.  And India?  India!!! Isn't India a democracy?  A successful democracy of more than One Billion People?  Shouldn't a democracy vote with the rest of the free world in condemning Russia?  Yeah, well, it should.  Exceppppt, if you'll take a look at the map, you'll notice that India is located smack right up next to Russia.  Like, sharing several hundred miles of border.  And I'm guessing they've adopted the old philosophy of "discretion is the better part of valor."  And valor seems to be in short supply in freedom's used-to-be best friend, India...

     -  Perhaps having a wild man on your border, thrashing about and breaking things and killing people, like India has with Russia, and 8 other countries now have as well, one might think it would have an effect on how one views the current World View.  Like maybe trying your best to sidestep the kerfuffle.  Just sayin'

     -  Russia is threatening us with nuclear warfare if we support Ukraine with offensive military weapons.  And they've got some 4,000 nukes on hand in their inventory.  We've only got 1,200.  Only!  Now then, boys and girls, each of our nukes is located either in a land-based ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) site, or located deep in the heart of a nuclear submarine.  Each of these missiles feature ten "MIRV's," or Multiple, Independently-targeted, Re-entry Vehicles, which are fancy words for nuclear bombs.  And each of these nukes is just about 10 megatons is size.  That's about 1,000 times the nuclear force of the bombs we dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.  And they wiped out some 6 square miles and 100,000 citizens each.  Imagine what 1,000 times that much can do?  Times ten?  Times 1,200?  Point being, it would take about 7 nukes to destroy Russia and 4 to wipe-out America.  Buh bye, Russia.  Buh bye world... 

     -  So then, to summarize (my opinion):  We have to ask ourselves, is Putin crazy, in addition to being evil?  For if he is, he'll risk nuclear war.  And any nuke he sets off will be met with what we euphemistically call, "Mutually-Assured Destruction."  That means he sets off one, we set off 100.  Our missiles will cross paths with each other in the air, waving as they go by, and proceed to then wipe out all civilization, everywhere.  Then resulting in "Nuclear Winter," covering the Earth in a deep-freeze from which it would take the Earth at least 1,000 years to recover sufficiently to sustain life once again.**  So, if Putin's evil but not crazy, he'll never risk nuclear warfare.  And we should box his ears back with extreme prejudice starting right now, today.  

     -  I'm on the side of making Putin afraid of us, instead of the other way around.  Unfortunately, our disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan rendered that impossible.  I hope we don't have to wait for a Republican Administration to turn that around.  And if so, I hope there's something left to protect.  It's nice to be loved.  But in this case, dealing with a murdering dictator, it's far, far better to be feared... 

*     The archeologists tell us that our Earth, some 4 billion years old, has seen at least three civilizations rise from the ashes, resulting in vast, technonologically-advanced societies, and then destroyed themselves in nuclear warfare.  Looks like we could well repeat history.........

I'm Getting Into Commodities!!!

Hello there, faithful Patriots!

It's your friend and mine, me, The Chuckmeister, bringing you some great new economic news!  Yes, even in this time of turmoil and strife, there's still a port in our collective storm.  You knew I was a graduate economist, didn't you?  Well, I am.  Among other things.  Like being a ferrier, a nascent crypto-paleozoologist, a philatelist and an ecdysiast (look it up). 

Anyway, I'm sorry to say I missed the run up in Bitcoin.  Imagine that!  Totally made-up money selling to $tens of thousands of dollars.  I'd bet you could even sell people cars out of a vending machine!

And in real estate, too.  Missed that one.  And collector cars.  Collector cars!  Cars I owned new and didn't like!  In fact, I'm usually a day late and a dollar short on most investments.  But I think I'm on to a winner now, friends and neighbors!  And I'm going to open it up to you, too!  

    I'm going to get into commodities!  

You know, like they sell on the Chicago Board of Trade.  Like wheat, and pork bellies, and cattle futures.  Oh yeah, and like ENERGY!

Have you noticed the rapid, astronomic, Earth-shattering recent increase in the price of oil?  And how that's impacted the price of gasoline at the pump?  Of course you have, Pilgrim, because you're a Pilgrim!  And you can see beyond the end of your nose, unlike those who are making policy back there in the Swamp.  The dimbulb weenies conjuring up new and novel ways to implement full-on socialism.  Those guys.  So you've seen the price of Biden Gas double since he took charge.  It's past $7.00 a gallon here in Taxifornia!  I even saw a photo of a Sacramento pump displaying $9.00 a gallon !!!  And it keeps going up every day.  Day by day, up and up...and UP!

So, hey, I've got an idea!  I'm now filling up my car on Monday, parking it, sitting my ass down in front of one of those really good old movies (there hasn't been a really good NEW movie made in years!), opening an adult beverage, and waiting for Friday.  Come Friday I'll offer to let folks siphon out my gas on E-bay, top offer gets the juice!  The motion lotion!  You know, that most compact source of energy man has ever discovered.  And they'll have to bid fast, 'cause who knows, I might just decide to keep my car parked and sit on my investment for the long term... 

After all, I can't afford to drive it!

Or maybe I'll buy another old car with a reeeely big gas tank and start my business expansion.  I remember when Jimmuh Carter was screwing up America.  It got so bad back then that Arabian oil tankers were parked off our East coast, refusing to offload their crude.  Carter pissed the sheiks off so much they cut off our oil!  We could only buy gas on alternate odd-even days according to our license plates.  Gas lines out past the horizon!  It was awful!  Sort of like the life we're beginning to lead, once again.  

So what did I, The Chuckmeister do back then?  You just knew I'd have come up with something devious, right?  I bought a 1973 Dodge Polara at the time.  It was my fifth or sixth car, as I recall.  It was yuuuuge!  It was the size of Des Moines and had rats living under the back seat.  It used to be white with a tan vinyl top.  I say "used to be," because there was scant evidence remaining of either.  

To wash it would have been an affront to water.  

It was about 20' long and required two parking spaces.  It was also on its last legs, huffing and puffing and blowing blue smoke out the tailpipe as it groaned down the street.  I think I paid $200 for it.  So why did I buy it?  It had a 26 gallon gas tank.  And I'd fill it up, to the brim, when my day to buy gas came up, and then siphon it whenever I ran out of Jimmy Gas.  It was brilliant.  I was EVERYBODY's best friend!  

Business plan, you know.  Got to have a business plan.  It's the bane of entrepreneurs like me.  I can see some real possibilities with this one here, folks.  I chose not to make a profit on my neat little idea back then, but I just might now.  Maybe we can buy some old cars, you and me, off Craig's List, or Whomever's List, and start making some real money!  If you're interested in getting together with me and creating a new "fuel-remarketing empire," let me know.  Franchising is a slam dunk!  

Anyone got any old, barely-running cars with big gas tanks laying around?

Laying Siege...

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

                                                                                         George Santayana, 1905

Putin intends to lay siege to Kyiv.

Every move he's making, and has made, signals that intent.

He intends to kill every living soul there until or unless Zelenskyy surrenders.  And I doubt he'll surrender.  That means Putin will bomb the sh*t out of Kyiv until it's rubble.

If he does, it may well signal the beginning of the end of the world.  Because we cannot, and simply WILL not, permit Putin or anyone to starve Kyiv into submission, we'll be forced to intervene.  NATO will be forced to intervene.  At a time when it's less to our advantage.  At a time when we could have, and should have, intervened.

Can't our "leaders" look two weeks into the future, when the Ukrainians have already told us they'd be out of food and fuel and medicine, and know that we'll have to intervene?

But anyone with any sense already knows that.  Sorry...

It'll be less to our advantage...the world's advantage...than it was when the Poles offered up their Mig-29's to Ukraine, if we'd just let them fly them to Ramstein Air Base, in Germany, they said.  Sort of like the Poles washing their hands in public.  Shifting blame to us, if we'd just take it.  

We should have taken it.  We're supposed to be the Leader of the Free World.  Supposed to be...

Our boy wonder Secretary of State Tony Blinken initially said sure, absolutely, we'd be happy to take them, how about right now?  And then, good ol' Joe wimped out.  It was reported he felt that might prove "escalatory."  Where do they get these friggin' words, anyhow?  

Of course, state-of-the-art Javelin missiles, and Patriot rocket systems...aren't.  Somehow.  These deadly rockets kill pilots, and Mig's kill pilots, they sort of both kill pilots, so...  

Do these folks have sh*t for brains, or what?

We're either going to help the Ukrainians fight and win their own war, RIGHT NOW, or we're going to have to engage our NATO brethren in putting together a "sky bridge" like we did for post-WW 2 Berlin, later.  To bring them the food and fuel and medicine and ammunition they're going to need to survive.  Which would require we put our airplanes in Ukrainian skies, parachuting supplies 'til the skies darken.  Skies currently patrolled by Russkie jets.  So, we'd just HAVE to protect our cargo planes with attack fighters, right?  RIGHT?  Which just might put them into a fight - or flight - scenario, right?  And cause the very same World War we're working so hard to currently avoid.

Do we have sh*t for brains, or what?

I'm not absolutely sure, but I'm guessing there's about 20 million older folks like me who are so goddam pissed they are ready to puke.  Pissed at the way the bozos in Swampland wimp out.  It shouldn't be left up to a dictating despotic killer like Putin, or anyone else, to dictate to us, the United Friggin' States of America!  Don't they remember when the USSR's Stalin starved more than four million Ukrainians to death?  Don't they remember when we won two World Wars?  They are a bunch of pus*ies!!!

The moral of the story is, if a fight is inevitable, it's almost always preferable to fight it now, versus later.  When your enemy will have time to better arm, and better prepare.  Sun Tzu again.  The "Art of War."  Might be nice of our "leaders" in the Swamp would read it.  I have.  A word to wise should be sufficient...

Of Note:  I used to be stationed near there, and actually trusted to do some of that "military intelligence" stuff you read about...   

A Bald-Faced Lie...

I know that I, the Chuckmeister, have believed in the past that those I elect would never choose to look me in the face and lie to me outright.

I no longer believe that.

Our President, one Mr. Joe O'Biden, delivered unto us on TV the other morning a speech.  In this speech he stated that we, America, are producing more oil and gas now than at any time in our history.  More even, he told us, than when he assumed the Throne.  And that it's not HIS fault if we're not producing more.  Yeah, I think that's called gaslighting.

So, thinking that good ol' Joe might be blowing smoke up our collective arses, I did a little checking.  I Googled it.  I know, I know, it didn't take much.  But Joe could have done so as well.  In the darkness of his Rehoboth Beach mansion he could have Googled for an answer and one would have magically appeared.  And you can do it too.  And I soon learned, and now you will have learned, that America's total oil and gas production breaks out as follows:

     Oil Production, 2019:            Oil Production, 2021:

12.9 Million Barrels/Day    11.4 Million Barrels/Day

Clearly, even those with rudimentary math skills like my own can finger out that we're at a 1.5 Million Barrel/Day shortfall, right now, as we speak.  That's because Joe shut down the Keystone XL-Pipeline on Day One, which would have produced more than 500,000 Barrels/Day by now.  And he ended all oil and gas leases on Federal land that same morning.  While greenlighting Russia's Nord Stream 2 Pipeline, from Russia to Germany, guaranteeing their long-term fealty to that country.

And then went on a telephonic World Tour to try and convince our enemies, long-term sponsors of terrorism, to please produce more oil so we can give Putin the finger.  He looks past the Permian Basin and the Bakken Oil Deposits here at home, which make America the owner of more proven oil deposits than any other country on Earth, to beg Venezuela and Saudi Arabia and Iran to produce more. 

What a disgrace! 

So he cannot have it both ways.  He cannot do everything to signal his war on energy, and then look us in the face and mumble through another speech, filled with falsehoods, written by some pimply-faced, recent college graduate in "Climate Awareness" with a hard-on for the oil companies.  And then shuffle back to his lair, primped and coddled and kept in an information cocoon, bereft of the facts, and primed for the next time his handlers need to trot him out and tell another lie to the American People.   

You don't see it all that often, but you suspect it all the time.  This is a time when you have the proof.  Your President looked you in the face and lied to you.  And his Press Secretary, Peppermint Patty, did the same thing in a press conference the day before yesterday.  And whether he did it while knowing he was doing so, or by permitting those around him to lie through him to you and me, it matters not.  He lied.  

So to all those of you who chose to throw in with this bozo, You see what you did?  You like $7.00 a gallon gas?  You like world wars?  

VOTE BETTER NEXT TIME!!!  

A Wake...

I'm sorry to report that we'll be hosting a wake here at Fortress Chuckmeister next Saturday, March 12th.

Yes, my friends, there's been multiple deaths in our automotive family.  The "Felicity Ace," a 650' foot long, 60,000 ton container ship on its way to the freedom of America from Bremerhaven, Germany, I'm sorry to say, just sank.  Oh, the humanity!  And although that would be a tragedy, the ship was filled with expensive automobiles. 

And not just ANY automobiles.  No, fellow gearheads, the "Felicity Ace" held some 1,100 Porches, averaging about $100,000 each, 187 Bentleys, my personal favorites, going for about $150 - $200,000 a copy, and assorted other Audis and Volkswagens.  1,000 Porches.  My heart is heavy, and I know yours is as well.  And that includes a bevy of GT-3's and custom GT-2's, no longer in production, ordered by its dealers no doubt for their personal collections.  Some models have even been discontinued, elevating their value tremendously.  In fact, it's been reported the value of the autos lost in this devastating wreck is some $487,000,000.  

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that there were a few dozen new Audi electric autos deep down in the ship's hold, which are currently receiving the blame for the fire.  That's because they believe their batteries may have spontaneously combusted.

They do that, doncha' know.

So we will gather at the Fortress next Saturday to express our grief at the loss of cars we've always wanted, but could never afford.  And now some of them have even been tossed overboard, like so much extra trash, into the deep.  

So all you folks with electric cars out there, sleep with one eye open from now on; your car my set your garage on fire...  

"Hangin' in a Tree..."

Those words are banging around in my gnarly old noggin like a BB in a boxcar these days.  

Sergeant Bob Rosenau, one of the guys chosen to train a bunch of us enough to keep us from dying in Viet Nam, famously said to us all one bright Fort Leonard Wood day: 

"There's a guy who's strapped himself high up in a tree, just waiting for you to come a' lookin' for him.  And when you do, unless you listen up to me right here and right now, he'll blow your ass off.  'Cause it's HIS country.  And he'll be fighting for it.  And he'll probably win.  So just remember, keep your heads down when you get off that plane, 'cause he'll be hangin' in a tree..."

Rosenau had been among the first 100 "MAG-V (Military Advisory Group - VietNam) trainers who'd been sent there to teach the regular army of VietNam how to fight its own wars.  That was 1963.  He was tough as nails.  I was told he'd crawled up the side of a burning 10 story brick building to save a family one day.  I personally watched him do 1,500 pushups one afternoon.  Yeah, think about that.  

Anyway, by the time he was training me up in the, shall we say, finer aspects of killing people, it was 1966, and we had 500,000 of our best draftees, like me, fighting - and dying - in the jungles of Viet Nam.  You see how a little skirmish can grow into a full-blown war?  Into which professional pool players like me, guys who just wanted to race cars and chase girls could have been drawn?  And he was preparing us for the house-to-house, village-to-village fighting we would surely face.  A fight with the cards stacked against us.  Because it was their country.  Their village.  Their back yard.  And we'd be trying to take it from them...

You see any parallels to the war Russia's waging against Ukraine?  Putin expected, I'm assuming, to waltz right in to Ukraine and be welcomed as a liberator.  I guess that's what his generals have been telling him, because that's what he wanted to hear.  But this has been the single most monumental military miscalculation in the history of the world, I'm guessing.  Any student of the "Art of War" by Sun Tzu would tell you Putin has blundered without equal.  There will be Ukrainians "hangin' in a tree" during what I predict will be the most punishing and costly occupation any country has ever attempted.  He doesn't have the forces.  They don't have the supplies.  

Putin has done the very same thing Hitler did when it attacked Russia during World War II.  It outstretched its supply lines.  Armies run on food, and fuel, and ammunition. 

And I predict it will be out of all three in just about a month.

Oh yeah, and they also run on morale.  Morale is at all all-time high in Ukraine, fueled by its intense hatred of Putin.  And morale among Russia's military, now 95% committed to the fight, will go nowhere but south.

It took us more than two decades to cut our losses and seek an exit from Viet Nam.  It took Russia more than two decades to seek an exit from Afghanistan.  One can only wonder how long it will take Russia to seek an exit from this war-of-it's-choice which has turned it into a pariah, almost completely isolated nation.

The "friends for life" Chinese and Russians have formed the new "Soviet-style" bloc.  The new cold war has begun.  And, perhaps so has World War III.  The battle lines are now drawn.  It's good versus evil.  As Sun Tzu said, "In times of peace, prepare for war."  I'd like to think our Americans would react as have the Ukrainians were the situations reversed. 

I'd like to think that, but I just can't...

SOTU...

Those of you fortunate enough to have avoided witnessing President Joe O'Biden's traincrash of a SOTU (State of the Ukraine) speech the other night, I, The Chuckmeister, your Scribe Without Portfolio, your Journalist Without Agenda, will hereby summarize it for you:

The first one-third of the speech was all about Ukraine and how we're with them, and how much we're with them, and here, let me show you a couple of people from there, and we're really, really with them, and like that.  Yeah, I know I write funny.  I talk like that too...

Then he spewed out a completely disjointed word salad of obviously poll-tested one-liners designed to gather applause.  And to be used later this year in Democrat reelection campaign commercials.  He rambled around like a BB in a boxcar, flitting from one topic to another, never fully explaining a position.  Dana Perino, famous ex-White House correspondent, quipped, "It was like he tripped and fell on the way to the lectern, and then picked them up in no particular order and started reading."

Poorly.

An example?  Sure.  At one point he blurted out, "Don't defund the police, FUND the police!"  Okay, nice.  But where did that come from?  No rhetorical segue.  No explanation.  No apology.  Especially after his Party has done its very best to bleed our police dry.  But that was it.  Nothing else about it.  And then he careened off on another tangent.  

The very best part, however, was the chance to witness our own poll-selected Vice President Kamala Harris and the Speaker of the House San Fran Nan Pelosi put on a show behind good ol' Joe.  They literally vibrated with glee at each of his mumbles.  They clapped furiously and jumped to their feet repeatedly.  But the best was when Nancy stood up and rubbed her knuckles together manically while readjusting her dentures that got me.  You had to see it.  It was pure theater.

But he ended with a promise, fellow Patriots.  You gotta' listen up America, 'cause he's promised to accomplish the following:

     *  Beat the Coronavirus.

     *  Treat mental health.

     *  Support our veterans.

     *  And, of course, cure cancer.

He made no mention of solving global warming, or curing worldwide hunger, or somehow convincing the Chicago gangs to stop shooting at each other.  Or making electric cars run on fairy farts.  Or welcoming a Bigfoot or three to the White House.

Or talking Vlad (The New Impaler) Putin into putting down his weapons and playing nice.

A poll taken the day after O'Biden's speech gave us the public's stark reaction: now just 35% of us support what he's doing.  That's an all-time low.  Oh yeah, and only 25% of the Independents.  That's the folks who are responsible for electing Congressweenies and Presidents.  And they're not happy with this one.

But hey, Joe, you be sure to keep it up!  Just like our boy Putin, you're like a mushroom.  Kept in the dark, and covered over with somebody else's s**t... 

"Biden's War."

There's a concept in the law called "but for."*

The short definition goes something like this: "but for" this or that happening, then that other thing likely wouldn't have.  Or, if you hadn't have done so and so, then such and such wouldn't have happened.  Or if little Johnnie hadn't thrown the ball at Mrs. Brown's house, then Mrs. Brown's window wouldn't be in pieces.  It helps to assign blame, as well as legal liability.  And it's worked for first England, and then us, since the Magna Carta.  More than 500 years.  

Okay then, fellow Patriots, leaning on that concept, I'm saying that the blame for the tragedy ongoing in Ukraine is just as much the responsibility of our Joe O'Biden as it is Vlad Putin.  Why?  Goes like this:

     -    But For Joe O'Biden's having shut down the Keystone-XL Pipeline on the morning of his first day in office; and...

     - ...But For his having "green-lighted" an extension of the Strategic Arms Agreement between us and Russia, early in his first year in office, without first having demanded necessary changes; and...

     -  ...But For his having killed all drilling in Alaska's ANWR, good for more than 500,000 barrels a day, finally open after more then two decades of our trying; and...

     -  ...But For his having issued an Executive Order killing all future oil and gas leases on our public lands, which comprise more than 85% of our Country, BTW; and...

     -  ...But For his having approved - without any negotiations at all - the continuation and utilization of Russia's Nord Stream 2, a pipeline running straight THROUGH Ukraine, directly to Germany; and finally...

     -  ...But For feckless, barely-there Joe O'Biden having personally engineered and overseen our disastrous abandonment of Afghanistan, leading to the senseless loss of 13 of our best warriors as we withdrew, perhaps the very worst and most humiliating defeat America has ever suffered; 

Then I say Vlad Putin, Russia's very own dictator, witnessing all of this, and being on record for more than two decades as having said the very worst geopolitical disaster Russia ever experienced was the fall of the Soviet Union, picked exactly this time to exert his will over the world and tried to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

So yes, it's Putin's fault.  Of course.  He's a cold-blooded ex-KGB operative, with (up to now) firm control over Russia, with a big yacht and a big house and $20 Billion in the bank.  And he wants in the worst way to make Ukraine knuckle under to his will.  To permit him to re-install a puppet regime, like he had before Zelensky and the popular revolt of 2014.  And it seems he doing it in the very worst way.

But notice, all you prospective haters out there, Putin didn't attack for the entire four years of the Trump Administration.  Nor the Geoge W. Administration.  I think he knew better.  But he took the Republic of Georgia in 2008 during the Olympics while Joe O'Biden was Obama's Vice President.  And he took Crimea while Joe O'Biden was Obama's Vice President.  See a pattern here?  Joe had a ring-side seat for what was to occur.

And so did all of those who voted for him...

*     Two little add-ons: Yes, I write long sentences.  I have long thoughts.  And second, I was trained by the Army to figure stuff out before it happens.  And to then prepare for it so it doesn't interfere with the mission.  And if it does, to "eliminate" it.  Maybe the White House could use a few folks with that training to help get their tit out of this wringer.  The wringer they put it in...