Intelligence Quotient?

I think it was the Pandemic that did it.  The Chinese Wuhan Killer Pandemic.  That one...

Prior to that I was heading into Old Age in the (mistaken) belief that we were all okay.  That our society was humming along nicely.  And that our kids were being well educated, especially given the enormous property taxes we're all paying.  Especially in Big Blue states like New York.  And New Jersey.  And Conneticutt.   

That our Veterans were being well served.  That our military was strong, well armed and ready for whatever comes along.

And then the Pandemic hit.  Like a ton of bricks.  We were all ordered to go home, lock our doors behind us, pull down the shades, and start ordering take-out from DoorDash.  Or Uber.  Or whichever company could accomodate you.  Making a burger and fries cost like a steak at Gordon Ramsey's.  

And then there was nothing left for us to do except spend our time watching the Hallmark Channel.  Or cruising Social Media on our phones and laptops.  And it was then we were all forced to reckon with the hard truth; the average American is way dummmer than a bag of rocks.

Unfortunately.

I was in training to become a clinical psychologist.  Viet Nam got in the way, but I offer up my education as my bona fides.  I was trained that I.Q., or "Intelligence Quotient," was designed to acquaint us with the various levels of our smarts.  

A French psychologist named Alfred Binet came up with the I. Q. test back in 1904.  He decided we should divide our mental ages by our physical ages, and then multiply by 100.  That would enable us to ascribe a number to our smarts.  Or lack of same.  And that's when the trouble began...

Elon is a genius, with an I.Q. of 160, most likely.  The average guy or gal who delivers your mail or takes away your trash is likely less than that.  Maybe 100.  Which is, we were told by Binet, as our "average."  And then the Pandemic was visited upon us.  

We were forced to view hundreds of videos on Facebook.  And YouTube.  And Instagram.  And we learned the awful truth; an inordinate number of Americans are just plain dumb.  Oh, there are a few bright lights out there, but not so many.  I'd say the average I.Q. is more like 78.  Maybe 85, max.  Certainly nowhere near 100.  

Just too dammmm dumb.  

It leaves me speechless.  Even Harvard has been forced to offer remedial math and spelling classes to its incoming freshman.  Imagine that: Pay $90,000 a year to learn how to do simple math.  And to hate Jews.  I'll bet their daddies are proud of them.  

I'm not.

Our children lost a couple of years of education because our Gubmint thought it was a good idea to close our schools.  For years.  What were they thinking?  What were they smoking?

So I'll croak one day soon having learned that our society has devolved precipitously.  And I didn't have to check with the Net to spell that word correctly.  And I didn't go to Harvard.  Because I can do simple math.  And I most assuredly don't hate Jews.  

Probably because I didn't go to Harvard... 

The Arc of America.

Those who read this should either do their best to avoid me and my offerings, like the plague, or sit at my feet and lap up my comments like pearls of wisdom from a hoary old graybeard.  One who knows the answers to every question, but very few choose to ask.  

I'm okay either way.

But here's one to which I know the answer.  I was born during the midst of the Second World War.  I watched my parents collect Gubmint stamps to be traded for sugar, and coffee, and flour, and new tires for the car.  Because everything was being used by our boys, "over there."

My Mom used lemon juice to stain her legs tan, because silk was being used for parachutes.

As I've written before, with awe, the Ford Motor Company was putting out a brand-new B-25 Mitchell Bomber every HOUR!   We built 8,079 of them!

It's been reported more than 55% of our entire Gross National Product was tied up in winning that War.  So it was no surprise that those who fought it, our dads and moms, and brothers and sisters, and our grandparents, were lauded when they came back home.  

They were our Greatest Generation!

They helped raise us up.  They came back to the store, or the family farm, or the manufacturing plant, and proceeded to contribute to the greatest economic (and baby) boom ever seen.  I got to see it all unfold.  I didn't know it at the time but it was a fine time to be alive.  And it's a damn shame our kids, and their kids, don't get the chance to live it like we did.  If they had, we wouldn't have the problems we're having today.  

You may not know it, but America has participated in more than 100 military wars and actions in our history.  Some 12 of them "major."  Like World Wars One and Two.  And the Mexican-American War.  And the War of 1812.  Lesser ones include the military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.  And the Korean Police Action.  And the assaults on Grenada and Panama.  

And with exception of that 1812 War, we won every one of them.  Up until Viet Nam.  At which point we let the Media do the winning or losing.  We were subjected to a nightly "body bag" count to disspirit our citizenry.  We let the Corporate Media turn us against our Military.  Providing us with proof just how Left-wing our Media really was.  We never lost a battle.  But we lost the war.  And our soldiers, including me, were forced to skulk home quietly, with our heads down.  

That day the last helicopter took off from the top floor of the tallest office building in Saigon, was the fulcrum  we may now use to balance our Country's future successes or failures.  And we failed on that mission.  And we've failed on nearly every mission since.

Russia doesn't fear us.  China doesn't fear us.  North Korea doesn't fear us.  Yet they should all be made to fear us unless we desire a future confrontation.  Sun Tzu taught us in the "Art of War" that nations should either be made to love us or fear us.  Those nations I mentioned do not love us.  And they so far don't fear us.  That's a prescription for an upcoming military involvement.

Like so very many before it.

I suggest we get our sh*t together.  I suggest we spend what we have to spend to make these nations crawl back in their respective holes and leave us the Hell alone.  Reagan outspent the Soviet Union and it faded into obscurity.  We could do that again.  We should do that again.  Be advised, we'll be spending more blood and treasure if we don't...     

No More SCREAMING!

It might surprise you to learn that among a whole bunch of other stuff, I, The Chuckmeister, was an Army drill sergeant.

Yep, for a time I had a major additional duty (that's what they called it) of being an Army Company Drill Sergeant.

That means when we were all commanded to hit the batalion drill field, company by company, there were guys like me along side each company to call cadence.  To force 50+ soldiers to move as one.  "Hup, hup hup!"  Here's an example of one cadence:

     "Ain't no use of lookin' down.  Ain't no discharge on the ground.  Ain't no use of lookin' back, Jody's got your Cadillac.  Sound off.  Sound off!  Sound off one two three four, one two!"

I liked doing it.  I enjoyed maneuvering a company of men like an orchestra conductor.  With exactitude.  On the beat.  I guess I liked to hear myself yell.  And I liked to show off my ability to do this job, like every other job, very well. 

Which brings us to today's humble posting.  I just read that "military.com" put up an opinion that the Army's drill sergeants should no longer yell at their newbies.  Their raw recruits.  Who know squat about the military and need a daddy figure to whip them into shape.  Who hate being yelled at, but being yelled and screamed at is sometimes the only way to get through.  That was the case with me several decades ago.  And it was the case with tens of thousands of other basic training recruits.  

Remember the movie "Full Metal Jacket?"  Sergeant R. Lee Ermey's harangue of his troops was exactly as I remember it.  Loud and obnoxious and unnecessary.  Now you know.

(BTW, Ermey was an actual retired drill sergeant)    

But times have changed.  Unfortunately.  Apparently our GenZ recruits are too lily-livered to be set straight harshly.  They apparently need to be "managed."  "...more like a football coach."  Wha...?  We're training men to potentially go into battle, and maybe die, but we're not permitted to yell at them to effect change?  

Are you shi*ing me?

I personlly hated basic.  It's 8 weeks of Hell.  On purpose.  The Army takes away your identity and gives you a number.  They then mold you into a warrior.  And they only have so much time to do it.  And worrying about hurting somebody's feelings is #385 on a drill sergeant's list.  

The toughest, hardest, meanest, nastiest, most obnoxious and ill-tempered bastards on the planet are basic training company drill sergeants.  Not by accident, on purpose.  They're that way to teach folks how to break things and kill people.  As a unit.  And they're that way to make sure our Nation stays Free.

I don't know who's running "military.com," but I'm betting they're all ex-Biden Administration staffers.  All soft and fluffy and pussified.    

You'd have to be that way to wish for such ignorant and foolish and dangerous changes, to a system that's worked for more than two centuries.    

Remembering Our Fallen.

You might be surprised to learn that America has been involved in more than 200 military actions since its official Declaration of Independence.

Twelve of those actions were major, with 5 declared Wars; The War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, The Spanish-American War, and World Wars One and Two.

You might also be surprised to know that other major military actions were not declared wars.  They include the Korean "War," the VietNam Police Action, our Grenada and Panama incursions, and 20 years of Iraq and Afghanistan invasions and occupations.  

You should also know that America has lost more than 1,000,000 of its citizens in military actions since our founding.  The American Civil War was the deadliest, with more than 620,000 killed in action.  Another 53,000 were killed in WW1, with 63,114 additional deaths due to accidents and disease.  

We lost 405,399 in World War Two.  36,516 were lost in the Korean Police Action.  Again, it was not a war.  Nor was VietNam, where we lost another 58,209 of our best and brightest.  The so-called "War on Terror" in Iraq and Afghanistan, although undeclared, cost us another 7,078 of our soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen.  

The Memorial Day holiday we're all celebrating today is in remembrance of these men and women who have fallen in combat.  They died so that we could live in peace and freedom.  They shed their blood so that we could go on living.  Pursuing the American Dream.    

You might also be surprised to learn there are now more than 1,700,000 of our veterans of these military actions who've come home.  To their parents, their grandparents, their wives and husbands, and their children.  They're your neighbors.  They've come home to resume their lives, likely filled with a healthy dose of Patriotism.  Which they then share with their families and friends.

I grew up in a Country filled with Patriotism.  Because nearly everyone I knew had either just come home from the Big War, or knew someone who did.  We've lost that feeling.  We need to regain it, desperately.  37 countries now require their young citizens serve in their militaries.  Like Israel, and Switzerland, and the Netherlands, and South Korea.  We do not.  

We should.  

As you celebrate Memorial Day today, please take a moment and remember all those who laid down their lives so that you could enjoy yours.  And take a moment and thank God you won the Population Lottery.  

You're among the 5% of the Earth's population who were born and live in the Greatest Country on Earth. 

Driving This Weekend?

AAA tells us that 48,000,000 Americans will be driving 50 miles or more this Memorial Day weekend.

One big reason is because our Nation's average gasoline prices are at a 15 year low, at $3.179 a gallon.

But Californians likely won't be among those 48 million.  They simply cannot afford it.  

That's because our gas prices average $5.883 a gallon.  Or, close to TWICE as much.  BTW, gas costs upwards of $7.584 a gallon in San Bernardino County, and more than $8.00 up north. 

A big part of that enormous difference is California's decision to charge $0.69 cents a gallon in State taxes.  The very HIGHEST in the entire Nation.  BTW, gas taxes are $0.10 cents a gallon in Mississippi.  And CA's decision to add on another $0.65 cents a gallon in the near future will surely cause even more pain.  

I guess the State needs the money more than we do.

And we're also told that 2 of our 9 gasoline refinery plants will be shut down in the near future.  Addinig as much as $1.00 a gallon more.  Valero will be ceasing operations at its Benecia location, just north of San Francisco.  It noticed us that it may also be shutting down its Wilmington plant in response to CA's untenable anti-energy policies.

(You WILL buy an electric car!)  

And Phillips said it will cease operations at its enormous Los Angeles plant during the 4th Quarter of 2025.   

Apparently our BoyGuv ("Hairgod") Newsom figured he could continue beating up on our refineries and they wouldn't do anything about it.

He was wrong. 

Now he's pulling out all the stops in an effort to try and convince our refiners to forgive and forget.  They won't, and they aren't. 

You should know that 75% of CA's petroleum is coming in from Canada and other countries.  That's because CA refuses to permit extraction of its own gas and oil from either the San Joaquin or the Monterey Basins.  The GIS Survey tells us they both contain more than enough reserves to supply the entire State well into the future.  And that's not counting our 12 large natural gas reserves.  

If we were permitted to use them.

There are some 41,000,000 souls in California.  Not counting all the millions of illegal aliens.  They all have cars, and they all have to buy gas.  And nobody can afford to pay $100.00 to gas up their cars.   

That's why so many are choosing to vacate the State for greener pastures.  And almost any pastures are greener.  More than 1,000,000 of our citizens have elected to move.  With the highest income taxes in the Nation, and the highest property prices in the Nation, and the highest gas prices in the Nation, our pretty weather is no longer enough to keep many of our people here.

After all, what's weather worth?

Enjoy your Memorial Day vacations, America!  BTW, gas prices in Mississsippi are now at $1.99 a gallon...      

Let's Rewire Our Whole System.

We've been sold a bill of goods!

This whole idea of getting born, going to school, buying an education, finding a job, and then working for 50 years, and then retiring to play golf, is just so much crap!

I know, I'm one of those who should be playing golf.  If I wanted to play golf, that is.  I don't.  Golf sucks.  I use the hated term metaphorically.  But I would like to race cars, or shoot professional pool, or display my incredible acumen at competitive target shooting for all to see.

Buuuuut, since I can no longer walk, and nearly every corpuscle in my body hurts, my days are filled with doctors' appointments.  And visits to the lab.  And the X-ray center.  For an unending number of C-scans, and MRI's, and Pet-scans, and bone densitometry exams.  And anything else to keep those offices humming along, full of us retirees.  

We retire, then we fall apart.  Our knees, which were never good, just quit working.  New knees on the horizon.  And hips.  What's with hips?  At least one, maybe both.  And the stent to hopefully prevent a heart attack.  And neuropathy, which hurts like Hell.  Everybody's got neuropathy, it seems!  And weight loss drugs.  Those diabetes meds being prescribed "off label" that cost $thousands.  And leave you unable to control your bowels.  Making you wonder if you should have just eaten less and exercized more.  

And God help us if we need a referral to a specialist!  You've got this rash, see.  And so you get referred by your primary to a dermatologist.  Or a cardiologist.  Or a rheumatologist.  Or any other "gist."  Try getting an appointment!  They make sure you can pay your bill before they grant you an appointment.  One that won't appear on your calendar for at least 6 months.  Face it, America, we've become Canada!  Socialized medicine has arrived!  

The doctors don't like it, the nurses don't like it, and I don't like it!  And yes, I enjoy using exclamation points!

(For those who don't know, I spent 50 years in the medical arena.  Along with my wonderful R.N. wife, owning and managing an emergency acute dialysis and plasmapheresis service.  Helping the save the lives of more than 10,000 of your neighbors.  So, as I mentioned to a dear friend the other day, opinions are like assholes.  Everybody's got one.  And so do I.  And in this case, mine's worth more than that of the average dude on the street.)    

But back to the point.  I'd suggest we completely rewire our whole system.  Instead of racing through a needless college system designed to inflate your loan debt, and then begging for a "career" job that will always pay you not quite enough, I'd suggest we backpack through Europe.  And then play professional pickleball.  Or pro fishing.  Or professional horseshoes.  Or join the Army.  Or Navy.  And let them send you to college.  Or just become a bum.  Get born, go to a trade school, learn to wire buildings, or plumb them, or maybe shoe horses (average pay, $250.00 an hour).  Once you've got a skill, work as little as possible for the next 50 years.

Play for 50 years, then get a job.  And work until you drop.  You'll still need all the medical help, but you'll be employed by some faceless corporation, and have the health insurance to pay for it.  

Like I said, we all have opinions...  

"Speed Trap Cities"

We, you and me, have hired, trained, fielded, and hopefully managed, some 889,500 LEO's here in 'Murica.  That means sworn Law Enforcement Officers.  Uniformed and armed personnel dedicated to maintaining the peace.  

One hopes.

Or, perhaps a substantial portion of them are dedicated only to thanking the Lord for their immunity and covering their own ass, first, last and always.  While maximizing the revenue they collect for their states/cities/towns/villages.  

Which is abhorrent in the extreme.

Which brings me to one of my primary bugaboos.  That means something that really pisses me off.  And that would be "Speed Trap" cities.  The ones that make their nut* on the backs of motorists who make the mistake of driving through.  And if you hadn't thought about the subject, a recent poll conducted by Google indicates there are more than 8,900 of them.  If you find that hard to believe, here's an example of several:

     -  Peninsula, OH:  Using only hand-held cameras, the police there issued more than 8,000 traffic tickets in only 5 months this year.  Screwing the public out of more than $1,300,000 in fines.  That's more than 16 tickets per resident in this tiny town of 536 people.  

This village collected another $400,000 in fines via their speed cameras.  And the company that supplied those cameras took more than $250,000 of that total.

Worse yet, the Village requires those wishing to contest their tickets must first post a non-refundable deposit of $100.  With no guarantee they'll win their case if they choose to appear.  And if they appear, the Village demands another $100 to do so before a judge.  Last year a judge ordered them to suspend that demand.    

BTW, the Village's annual budget is only $1,000,000.  Somebody's living large off this town.

     -  Brookside, AL:  This town of only 1,200 residents saw its revenue increase 640% in only 2 years.  Once their police started an "aggressive" traffic ticket campaign, fines now make up more than half of their budget.      

      -  Coffee, TX:  Here's a town with 250 residents.  It hired more than 50 police officers.  One for every 5 residents.  They wrote 5,000 tickets last year, bringing in more than $1 Million in fines.  I tried to find something worse than Peninsula and Brookside.  Let me know if I did. 

Like I said, there's almost 9,000 of them.  But let me end with one I found most aggregious.  

     -  Haverford College, Pennsylvania:  Here's a college that's a town.  Of nearly 50,000 presumably nice students and citizens.  But not the city council.  They enacted a law back in 1965 "to maintain a speed trap on Lawson Avenue with a maximum speed of 13 miles per hour.  Thirteen Friggin' Miles Per Hour?  Yes, 13.  And they write an average of 15 speeding tickets a day.  

Turns out being a town can bring in the Big Bucks!  And I haven't even mentioned another 100-plus places I have in my "Most Hated" files.  And I'll close with this: the average ticket in Taxifornia is $685.00.  A weeks' pay for a large number of our citizens.  Just stolen from their pockets, without even a thanks.

They ought to at least get a kiss and dinner with that screw job... 

*    "Making the nut" is a term first used in the 1,800's.  When the circus came to town they might lack the money to feed and support their employees for the week.  The stores' owners would take the hand-made nut from the axle of their wagons.  So they wouldn't escape town after their last performance without first paying their bill and "making the nut."   

    

57 Genders.

Mark Twain once famously told us that there were two things in life we could not avoid:  Death and Taxes.  I'll have to now add a third.

                     57 Genders.

The political leaders of Taxifornia have told us there are now 57 genders.  With a straight face.  

We used to have two:  Male and Female.  And if we couldn't tell the difference between the two (even with an Ivy League diploma and several glasses of vintage Pinot Noir), we could always test their DNA.  X's and Y's and all that.

Now?  We have LGBTQAA2I-ASS+, not counting all those who've yet to decide just where they land on the gender spectrum.  There's even a singer from New Zealand who says she's a female on most days, and a man on the others.  However she feels on a given day.  She just wakes up and decides.  

(I'm sort of the same way.  Except so many parts of me hurt, I wake up every morning knowing it will never get any worse than that.  And then I wake up the next morning.  But I digress...

We don't need no stinkin' X's and Y's, lemme' tell you!  We have FEELINGS!  We permit people to simply state that they "FEEL" like a woman to participate in womens' sports.  Like the two "men" who beat the stuffing out of three women in Paris a couple of months back.  Men boxing women in actual bouts, and pantywaist Liberal dweebs clapping politely.  While looking at each other for approval. 

It makes me, a True Patriot, want to puke!

And even though Trump has proclaimed in an Executive Order that we have only two sexes, men and women, and that Fed $Bucks will be withheld from those who don't comply, the states of Talifornia, Illinoway, New Yawk and Maine still believe there are many more.  57 in the case of Taxifornia.  An official proclamation said so.  From our HHS Director.  With a straight face.

Just imagine how terribly unserious Taxifornia is with an official policy like that?

CA's BoyGuv has so far refused to overturn that proclamation.  And refused to comply with "47's" E.O.  So have the other named states.  They've chosen this hill to die on even though more than 80% of their populations don't go along with those policies.  Normally politicians are quick to embrace "80 - 20" issues, but not this one.  For some strange reason.  Maybe they're just dummmasses, and are among those who can't learn and can't be trained.  

The Democrats are now the Party of criminal illegal aliens, transgenders and sanctuary cities.  And defending abuse, fraud and waste in our Gubmint, coupled with burning Teslas for sport.  20% of our population thinks that's just peachy.  Keep it up,  we say.  The other 80% will be deciding for which policies to vote come November, 2026...    

Time to Decentralize...

America's General George Washington hired French General Charles L'Enfant to design and build our New Federal City.

Or, Washington, D.C., as it was (and is) called.  Or, "The Swamp," as we suffering Taxpayers tend to call it.  

L'Enfant (his friends called him "Chuck," no doubt...no relation) brought to bear all the newest and best architectural trends in the design of our New City.  Broad boulevards, converging avenues, convenient alleyways.  And all this planning would prove necessary, they thought, as they were bringing all the levers of power together in one place for the very first time.  All the Departments, all the Agencies, all the Branches.

And this was so even though Washington only started D.C. with 4 Departments; Himself, State, War, and the Treasury.  Even though he knew it would grow like Topsy, putting it all together was simply The Thing To Do.

It had taken as much as a week to get orders to and from our far-flung enterprizes.  Washington and his Merry Men wanted folks to be able to literally "walk across the street" to talk with and deliver orders to the leaders of our new-found Gubmint.  So they designed the New Federal City to enable rapid communication between the Executive and the Legislative/Judicial Branches.  

And it worked.  For more than two centuries.  But then technology permitted rapid communication between Departments no matter where the parties are located.  To the extent some 80% of our Federal employees are now sitting in their Barcaloungers watching Jerry Springer reruns.  Or worse, delivering Uber-Food while double-dipping.

And like Ahhhnel Swartenwhoozits, we've porked up since the Beginning.  We've grown from 4 to 26 Cabinet members.  That includes the V.P. and 15 Executive Departments, and 10 Cabinet-Level Officials, such as the White House Chief of Staff.  

But I believe you'll agree there's no reason why a Secretariat should be located in Washington, D.C., if its constituents are located in Fargo, North Dakota.  Or Salina, Kansas.  Or Rifle, Colorado.  

In short, they shouldn't.

So I'm about fixing things before they get all "F-d" up, or even after they're all "F-d" up.  And, as they say, something has to be done.  Since we can all get together on Zoom, I suggest it's time to decentralize our Federal Gubmint.  Move these various Departments out into the hinterland.  Out to where their constituents are located.  With exception of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the Attorney General, who should stay in D.C., here's where we might send the others:  

     -  We shhould move the Department of Agriculture to Omaha, Nebraska.  The food is grown near there.  The beef is raised near there.  Should be able to get more and better employees who actually know what they're doing, near there.  

     -  The Department of the Interior should be moved to Fargo, North Dakota.  That's because it's the nearest city to the Geographic Center of the Nation (20 miles North, near Belle Forche).  Thus, the "Interior."  Ditto with its employees.  The average D.C. Federal employee makes $127,000 a year.  The average worker in K.C. makes $65,000 a year.  Point made.

     -  Health & Human Services should be moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Those who survive its frequest gunfire are just about the healthiest folks around.  Plus, all the heart valve companies are located there.  Sickeningly healthy people.  They get H&HS.

     -  The Department of Commerce should be moved to Atlanta, Georgia. "Etlanna" is full of bizznessmen/women/other, so this should aid recruitment.  Plus, save a bundle over D.C.'s payroll.

     -  The Department of Energy should be moved to Dallas, Texas.  Dallas sits on top of the Biggest Pool of Oil in 'Murica.  And they know how to get it.  Well, and chaply.  Enuff said.

     -  The Secretary of Labor should be moved to Detroit, Michigan.  We all know the Mafia controls Labor, and they live in Detroit, so we might as well admit it.  Second, it might go a long way toward helping Detroit rebuild.  It's a wasteland compared to a century ago.  It's lost half its population since.  Maybe this would help it come back.

     -  The Secretary of Defense should relocate to San Diego.  The Navy's already there, with the Marines just a few miles up I-5.  The weather's great, as we all know.  Maybe this could help turn California away from socialism and toward capitalism.  Couldn't hurt.

     -  The Secretary of Homeland Security should be moved to Chicago, Illinoway.  Put it on the South Side somewhere.  Perhaps with a military and security contingent large enough to guard the Secretary, we could shoot all the Bad Guys and save all the Citizens.  Finally.  Sort of a secondary benefit, doncha' know.

These are only a few of our Political Hotshot Departments.  There are more, but these will do for now.  Just think of how much of our Tax money we cuould save if we did this?  And how much more efficient.  This is just my little missive to let you know that Big Things can happen from such a humble start as this Blog Posting.  Pass it along.  

Who knows?  Might work...    

    

     

Homes For Our Heroes.

Depending upon whom you believe, we, the American People, have sent Ukraine somewhere between $155 Billion (O'Biden's number) and $350 Billion (Trump's estimate).  

And I'm of the opinion that if we, the American People, can finance a far-off war, we should be able to pay off the mortgages of those we sent to fight it.

There.  My point made.  You can go back to work or play or sleep.  Or, you can let me flesh out the point a tad.  "Tunnels 2 Towers Foundation," a 501(c)3 tax-exempt corporation, has built just over 600 "smart" homes to house our fallen heroes.  Those who have died in the service of our Country, or state, or city, or county.  Or those permanently disabled.  To the extent they can no longer work.  

For free.

And "T2T.org" has paid off the mortgages of more than 200 other families whose breadwinners have been severely wounded in our service.  Not just soldiers and airmen and Marines, but cops, and firemen, and sheriff's deputies.  They took in just over $370 million in donations last year, up from $307 million in 2023, to help continue their work.  Thousands of Americans donate to this charity every month.  And they should know that more than 93% of its income goes to services.  

And it should be known, Ralph Stiller, its CEO, takes no salary.  His brother was killed in the September 11th attack, which incentivized him to create this wonderful charity.

But I have a question.  A really good question, I think.  Why do we have to rely on a charitable corporations to pay off our heroes' mortgages, when we have enough money to send saddlebags of it to Ukraine?  Aren't these our obligations?  As a People?  Shouldn't our Government have to do this for our soldiers, at least?  Are our priorities so out of whack we don't accept this responsibility?

Stiller's a prince.  He should be sainted (hopefully not for awhile yet).  But Trump ought to peel off a $Billion or two and take on this challenge himself.  Send him a email and let him know what you think.  Let Stiller take some time off now that he's gotten the ball rolling.  In fact, how about making Stiller the Czar over the whole project?

Wouldn't that be a good idea?     

"Cattle Rustling is Not Dead in Missouri."

The Powers That Be had decided that thousands of us should be drafted, provided with a modicum of training, issued a firearm, and sent off to a sh*thole 8,000 miles away.  

To be shot at.  

Shot at by a guy who'd probably been hanging in a tree, just waiting for me to get off the plane.  

I was playing pool professionally by this time.  But "playing pool" was an insufficient reason to get the Army off my butt.  Only the "2-A" Deferment would save me.  That's where you keep going to school and the Army leaves you alone.

For awhile.

They gave me 5 and 1/2 years to graduate.  But in my case, that would require me actually attending class and studying.  I didn't.  Do either.  So I got kicked out of a succession of colleges for failing to do what I should have done.  To the extent I was in a last-ditch little parochial school in the Midwest.  I had to make good there or my deferment would be withdrawn and I'd be dressed in green and living (or dying) in a far-off land.

This new school demanded all us students go to chapel.  Every Thursday morning we were all to present ourselves at their church and pretend to be interested.  Oh, and sign-in.  Because if you missed 3 of these little chapel attendances in a semester, you were shown the door.  I, not wishing to be told what to do by anyone, missed the first two Thursdays.  Me and a couple of buds, together with a case of Buds, were all lamenting our actions and our fate on one particular Wednesday evening.  Trying to come up with a plan, through the haze of mass quantities of beer, to avoid attending chapel that next morning.  And therein lay the parts and pieces of this little drama...

Our frat house was located right across the road from a cattle farm.  Ah hah!  We would sneak across the road, we thought, grab us a cow, and lead Old Bossy right into the chapel.  And then we'd tie her up to the organ.  So when everybody arrived the next morning she'd be there, mooing away.  They'd have to cancel chapel until they could do away with the cow and we'd get away with another absense.

Good plan, yes?  Exceppppt, Old Bossy had eaten red clover.  Red clover is poisonous to cattle.  Old bossy up and died.  Tits up, she was,right there in front of God and the organ and everybody.  

Welllll!  That didn't work according to plan.  They had to bring in a butcher, and a chain saw, and cut Bossy into several pieces.  Blood everywhere.  They had to close the chapel for weeks.  They even had to change the carpet.  And the cops by this time had already figured out who were the culprits.  One of my buds had spilled the beans and we were all hooked up and taken to the hoosegow.  By late afternoon I'd bailed myself out and the school had sent me packing.  I holed up with some buddies for a couple of days until I worked up the courage to go home.  And as I arrived, my Dad was watching the evening news.

Walter Cronkite was the anchor of the CBS Evening News.  As I walked into my folks' home, Walter ended his telecast in his usual way.  He'd select some little vignette of life across America and fit it in at the end.  And this day was no different.  He started with, "Cattle rustling is not dead in Missouri."  He went on to describe our little escapade and just how stupid we all were.  And how lucky we weren't charged with a felony.  For rustling cows is, in fact, a felony in Missouri.  He ended with his famous, "And that's the way it is..."  

I looked at my Dad.  He looked at me.  He was not pleased.  Nor was my Mother.  My 2-S Deferment was yanked and I wound up working at an auto parts store until the Gubmint called.  

I was fitted for fatigues, sent to one of our three Basic Training Units, and off I went to protect America.  The charges were dropped when I enlisted, thankfully.  So this little story should remind you just how lucky you all were you didn't have a kid like me.  In fact, I'm lucky I didn't have a kid like me!  But damn, it sure was fun!

Epilogue:  My Army career was exemplary and mucho praise was heaped upon me.  Lots of medals and certificates of accomplishment.  So much so my little college let me back in.  I took the 44 semester hours I needed in 12 months, all straight "A's," and finally got my ticket to ride.  

I learned my lesson.  Thankfully.  And the rest, as they say, is history...

      

Just Another Reason to Get Drunk.

I would say most folks out celebrating today actually believe that Cinco de Mayo was the day of independence for Meheeeko.

It wasn't.

It's actually a day rich in history for quite another reason.  And here it is...

Meheeeko had been ruled by foreign powers, including Spain, for decades.  Until the Mexican-American War, that is.  And many countries had finanaced that War against us, including Britain, France and Germany.  

Following Meheeeeko's defeat against the "gringos," the Frogs, the Limeys and the Krauts wanted their money back.  The money they had lent Meheeeeko to fight us, good ol' 'Murica.  

And when they weren't getting it back, Napoleon Bonaparte, the Emperor of France, thought it would be a peachy time to invade Meheeeko and set up a satellite gubmint in the Americas.  So they attacked the city of Puebla de Los Angeles on May 5th, 1862.  

The French arrived at Veracruz that day and headed off to Meheeeeeeeko City.  But they had to travel through Puebla.  Turns out there was a mucho smaller force of Meheeekan soldiers in the State of Pueblo waiting for them.  Even so, the Meheeekans kicked France's arse.  Sent them packing back to Europe, they did.  And the Meheeeekans have been celebrating, quietly, that victory ever since.

Not widely, it should be known.  Only in the State of Pueblo do they celebrate, and then only with moderation.  Where Cinco The Fifth is celebrated is right here, in good ol' 'Murica.  And for some really good reasons.  It's because Meheeeko makes some really fine Tequila.  And a bar in Tiajowanna had invented the Margarita, which combined with Tequila, and a dash of lime, makes a super delish cocktail.  I, The Chuckmeister, consider the Margarita Meheeeko's primary reason for continuing as a country.  

That, and pinatas.  Birthday parties, doncha' know.

So Cinco de 5th celebrates Meheeeeko's only military victory in history.  After all, we kicked their enormous arses in the War, enabling us to grab everything north of the Rio (not so) Grande.  That included everything up through California to San Franpoopco, over past Nevada and Colorado, down through a bit of Oklahoma, and nearly all of Texas.  That includes what would become Arizona and New Meheeeeko, too.  Big chunk of real estate they blew, even though as the victors, we could have taken the entire country.  But they've been doing their best to take it back, one illegal birth on U. S. soil at a time, ever since.  Trump is trying to do something about that right now.

But until then there will be millions of thirsty 'Muricans out celebrating Meheeeekan Independence Day today, even though it isn't.  But what the Hell, these days who needs a reason to get drunk?  Certainly not me.  Go ahead, wet your beaks, 'Murica!  The Meheeekan economy depends on it...

Montana: The New Alcatraz.

America has 674 District Court Judges.  And it seems a bunch of them would rather be President.  Having tried to stifile Trump's Executive Orders with an unreal 87 nationwide injunctions, they're sure acting like it.  

And there are 584 "Santuary" cities, and counties, and states, and townships and villages in America.  Which means they have very conciously decided to selectively honor or ignore Federal Law.  Picking and choosing like from a Chinese restaurant menu.

BTW, how can the State of California expect me to obey its laws if they don't obey Federal laws?  After decades of exemplary citizenship, during which I've never been arrested, perhaps it's time for me to show my "bad streak."  And boy do I have one, yet to be unfurled!

Joe R. O'Biden opened our borders and allowed 11 or 15 or 21 Million Illegal Aliens to just walk right in.  Or in some cases he was nice enough to fly them in.  Some 300,000 from Venezuela, El Salvador and Nicaragua.  On our dime.  Or rather, our Millions of Dollars.

But now that D. J. Trump is POTUS, and he wishes to turn them all around and send them home, Democrats have gone "judge shopping" for district court judges who'll enjoin Trump's efforts to deport them.  To the extent that he's been stopped, Nationwide, from doing much of anything.  The Democrats have even adopted an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker and accused wife beater (the "Maryland Man"), who we've already deported twice.  Following 17 different immigration hearings.  Making him the new face of their Party.  If they can somehow get him back from El Salvador, maybe they can run him for Mayor of San Francisco.

Oh yeah, his wife has formally accused him of domestic battery and attempted murder.  Twice.    

So I say if we can't deport them, let's make it very uncomfortable for them to stay.  We should first make sure they're getting zero Federal benefits.  No rental assist, no food stamps, no nothing.  And then we should start imposing a fine of say $25,000 per illegal that we can prove any person hired.  For any job.  And a fine of $25,000 to anyone assisting an illegal to obtain a SSA#, or work permit approval, from the big corporations to the Hamptons couple who hire an illegal nanny.  

And lastly, I'd say we should consider making Montana our go-to prison for illegals.  There's only some 587,000 Montanans there anyway, so there's plenty of room to build the World's Largest Outdoor Prison.  And we can hire Montanans to be prison guards!  After all, Montana is Number 3 in size right behind California and Texas, so there's plenty of room.  

We build electrified fences around a few hundred square miles of its territory, then fill it with illegals.  Put a guard tower every hundred yards or so, with orders to shoot to kill just in case anybody tries to get out.  Think of an outdoor, all-weather Alcatraz.  If anybody does escape, they'll freeze to death in short order.  They had their chance, right?  They broke into our Country, so it's time to get some payback.  Say 5 years for a first timer.  10 for anyone who comes back twice (the fools!).  I'm guessing illegal immigration would stop.  Macht schnell!

BTW, it's gets awfully cold in Montana in the wintertime.  Perhaps some of those bleeding-heart Lib NGO's could donate winter coats.  Or not.

Maybe these activist judges will come to their senses when they find out the extent to which we can make these criminals' lives miserable.