One of the Very Best Existential Questions;

What if the archeologists are wrong?

Do you follow those TV shows that focus on the Egyptian pyramids and the tombs of the pharoahs?

The ones that tend to question how the pyramids were built and who built them, and when?  Showing the great size and complexity of them, and the difficulty of actually building them in the time we're told they used?

Especially the ones that tell us we couldn't build them today, even if we wanted to?  

Well, Fellow Patriot, me too.  I've been paying attention to them for decades.  Trying to convince myself that they were built when and how we're told.  And by whom we're told.  And I can tell you I'm not convinced at all.  Stone, as you know, cannot be carbon dated.  So we have no idea how old those stone blocks in the pyramids are.  They could be 4,500 years old, as the archeologists tell us, or 12,600 years old, as some others tell us.  Or, there's a guy named Charles Hathcock who has stated they're as much as 100,000 years old.  And he should know.  He's a Harvard-trained professor.  Whose book, "Earth's Shifting Crust," had the foreward written by Albert Einstein.  Who had his book open on his desk the day he died.  So believe what you will, we should at least pay attention to what Albert was thinking.  

The same with the Sphinx.  Dr. Robert Schock, Geologist at Boston University, has told us that the Sphinx was built at least 10,600 years B.C.  It has been weathered by centuries of rainfall, he said.  And the only rainfall of that magnitude fell in Northern Africa at least 7,000 or more years ago.  Back when that area of Egypt was in a moderately wet climate.  Greenbelts were situated across Northern Africa.  The area was saturated with moisture.  With lakes and rivers and streams.  For thousands of years.  Wet enough to have done to the Sphinx what Schock is professing.

And we all know that the pyramids of Giza were covered by Tura limestone, white as pearl and worked down smooth as glass.  It's been removed over the centuries and repurposed by those down through the centuries who wanted it for area mosques and cathedrals.  And with exception of what's left at the very top, leaving only the 2,400 million rough sandstone blocks underneath which we see today.

But there's something that should give us all pause.  Just 3 or 4 steps inside any of the Egyptian pyramids, or the more than 100 burial tombs in the Valley of the Kings 100 miles away, it's as dark as the inside of a cat.  And black, even.  Can't see your hand in front of your face.  And almost devoid of the oxygen necessary to permit a torch to burn and give off light.  Or humans to breathe.  And so we see no smudges on the ceilings of those tombs or pyramids.  And there's no firelight from torches necessary to paint those hieroglyphics we see so perfectly emplaced.

So how could they have seen to produce them?

Nor do we see any evidence of smudges on the ceilings of the pyramids the artists would need to have built?  Or the interior rooms and shafts?  Or the oxygen torches would have needed to light and shine?  So how would these ancient workmen build the Queen's Chamber in the Great Pyramid?  Or the King's Chamber?  Or the various tiny shafts leading outward and upward for hundreds of feet?  You should know that you must first go downward at a 30 degree angle for more than 300 feet as you enter, and then upward for several hundred feet, in order to enter the center of the Great Pyramid.  So how would those have been built without light?  

It sure seems to me they would have needed an artificial lighting source to build those features.  We see a hieroglyph in the Tomb of Hathor at Dendara just down the Nile a bit showing a rather large "light bulb."  With what seems to be a "power cord" running from it to provide the electrical power.  (Google Dendara Light Bulb).  And a stylistic snake to show what would have been the filament.  And what appears to be a power cord plugged into the wall.  See if you don't agree with me.

We know they also had what's been called the "Baghdad Battery."  (Google it).  Which our archeologists have called an early energy source.  Producing some 0.5 volt of electricity.  Which our archeologists surmise were used to electroplate jewelry with gold and silver.  So it's been proposed that a much larger battery of that type, using that technology, in a much larger vessel, could produce enough electricity to have powered that large Dendara lightbulb.  Or so they say.  

Were the pharonic Egyptians starting about 5,000 B.C. more technologically advanced than we've given them credit?  And could they have actually made the pyramids into giant power producing devices?  Such has also been proposed by engineer Christopher Dunn in his 1998 book, "The Giza Power Plant."  He proposes that mixing different chemicals produced hydrogen, which was used as a power source.  And even residual chemicals indicating he may be right.

There's no evidence that these pyramids were tombs of the pharoahs.  Not one single mummy has been found in any of the 103 pyramids we've discovered in Egypt.  Nor a single hieroglyph on the walls.  Yet, once again, we've found evidence of the chemicals used to produce the electricity we think they might have generated (Google it).    

As the genius Nikola Tesla once proposed, electricity could be sent through the air.  He thought the many obelisks were designed to do this.  And he wished to recreate them.  His Wardencliff Tower in New York (Google it) was built to prove that theory.  Except his funding source, the telephone's inventor, one Mr. Alexander G. Bell, was cut off.  Because Tesla wished to provide the power to the people for free.  And Bell was not so generous.  He saw it as a way to get even richer.  Leaving Tesla as poor as a church mouse when Bell pulled the plug.

NOTE:  Tesla died a pauper.  Unlike our Mr. Musk, whi has usurped his name for his cars.

Do I think this is what they were doing?  Perhaps.  I can tell you this: There's no reason to believe that the early pharonic Egyptians actually built the pyramids.  There's every reason to believe they found them already built.  

Just wandered by one day and, WHOOPSIE!  A bunch of pyramids.  Perhaps they were built by the escapees from Atlantis?  Or the Annunaki?  Built by some forgotten society which was long gone.  Just like the Incas found the pyramids in the Valley of Mexico, just north of Mexico City.  (The largest, Teotihuacan, is actually bigger than Giza's Great Pyramid!)  They found them in about the year 1,500, they have said, when what was left of them escaped the Spanish conquistadors in Central America.  Dragging what gold and silver that had yet to be stolen by the Spanish on their backs looking for a new home.  

One thing is certain:  more than 1,000 pyramids, on every continent, including both the Arctic and the Antarctic, we think, were all built at about the same time.  Under the tutelage of presumably the same teachers.  And how would that be possible?  Without them being able to converse with each other? One things' for sure:  They each contain the same basic shape and markings.  From thousands of miles away?

Would the ancient Egyptians have dedicated 20 years to assemble gigantic, nearly 500 foot tall pyramids in which to bury their pharoahs?  Expecially when we know they were burying them 100 miles away in the Valley of the Kings so they wouldn't be found?  After all, burying your Pharoah in a pyramid proclaims to all the grave robbers that the king and his goodies are in that really big thing RIGHT OVER THERE!  

They've found more than 100 tombs in the Valley of the Kings.  In which the great kings of Egypt were buried.  Besides Tutankhamun, Rameses 2 has a tomb there that's more than 300 feet underground.  And more than 4,000 sq. ft. in size.  With hieroglyphs from floor to ceiling, and across those ceilings.  Which presumably no one was supposed to ever see.  And again, there's no smudge marks to indicate they were built under the light of torches.  Isn't it reasonable to asssume they had some artificial light source?  

Wouldn't they have to?

Do yourself a favor.  Google these names and educate yourselves about the pyramids and the Valley of the Kings and Dendara and see what you think.  See if you don't agree with me that there's evidence of a forgotten race.  Or a highly advanced society which could have built these amazing monoliths.  Surely the Pharonic Egyptians couldn't have done so.  (And don't call me Shirley!).  They had no beasts of burden.  They didn't have the wheel.  They only had copper tools, with an MOS-scale hardness of "3," to shape rose granite blocks, which have an MOS-hardness of "8."  So they could not have shaped the gigantic blocks we're told they molded into their desired shapes.  And isn't it even reasonable to assume that the Great Pyramid of Giza was the template they used to try and create more pyramids?  

Instead of working up to the Great Pyramid, pyramid after pyramid, how about they saw it and tried to replacate it over and over?  Without success?

We've produced proof they couldn't have done what our archeologists are telling us they did.  But then we know that our archeologists are slow to change their opinions.  They told us society began in ancient Sumer in Mesopotamia some 6,000 years ago.  Yet, Gobekli Tepi in Southeastern Turkey, discovered 30 years ago, proves that society started 12,600 years ago.  Or perhaps even earlier.  The carbon dating proves it,  Archeologists are doing their best to ignore it, yet there it is.  We see it.  So should they.  But they routinely change the subject when asked.

The archeologists told us when we were in school that modern humans are no more than 30,000 years old.  Yet, we now have proof they're at least 300,000 years old!  And evidence just surfaced in sub-Saharan Africa of 456,000 year old wooden furniture.  And half-million year old hominids built it.  Were they humans?  We don't know.  And our archeologists are doing their best not to investigate it so we cannot find out for sure.

There's also evidence of advanced machining in the production of ancient statues, and buildings, and Earthenware.  Stone vessels made with the thinness of a few human hairs.  Stone, not clay.  Likely diamond drill bits were used.  And computerized controls.  Yet no evidence has been found of any such equipment.  Nor any hieroglyphs descirbing how they were built.  Nor how the pyramids were built!  Why would they keep that a secret?   So the archeologists once again ignore any such investigation.

That means there's time for several societies to have come and gone in our past.  We've only been a technologically advanced society for 200 years.  And we may yet destroy ourselves like others have presumably done in the past.  And we're told a society such as ours would leave no evidence of itself having existed after only about 10,000 years.  Nothing but a thin carbon layer left in the dirt.  Like the ones we're finding right now.  Just imagine how many America-type societies may have come and gone in a half-million years?

Or just imagine how many may be left?

Back to the original question:  Do you see evidence that the ancient Egyptians, or the Mayans, or the Incas, or the Indonesians, or the Indus Valley Indians, had a light source to aid their builders in producing interior artwork?  No?  Yet they did.  We've had smoke blown up our asses our entire lives.  So I believe we should now begin to question everything we've been taught about our past.  With the goal of learning the truth. 

Somebody has to...

Another Existential Question

Why do people call the AR-15 an "Automatic Rifle?"  Or a "Weapon of war?"  Or an "Assault rifle?"  When it is none of those things?

Well, Fellow Patriot, I'm here to answer that "Existential Question."  Read on... 

An engineer and firearms designer named Eugene Stoner was commissioned by the ArmaLite Rifle Company, Chicago, Illinois, to design a replacement for the Army's M-14.

Which was itself a lightened version of the M-1 battle rifle, so successfully used during the Second World War.  And the Korean Conflict.  And the beginning of that little kerfuffle in Viet Nam.  

The M-1 weighed 11 pounds.  A beast.  And was prone to rusting and jamming.  And used a round so large it was hard to carry very many of them.  The M-14, which I used while serving in the Army, weighed in at 9 pounds.  And was itself a slimmed down version of the M-1.  Still heavy and hard to manage.  And used the same bullet and round as the M-1.

And Stoner was told to create a new, lightened rifle that could be easily carried and used.  With a lighter round enabliing the soldier and airman to carry more of them, and easier.  His answer weighed only 7 pounds.  And was made of aluminum, plastic, and a composite fiberglass material, with the only steel used in its barrel and receiver.

It was patented on May 2, 1957 (SIXTY YEARS AGO).  It was called the AR-10.  After early trials by the Air Force, who commissioned it, it's name was changed to the M-16.  The Air Force approved it and ordered thousands.  ArmaLite could not produce such a large order.  So they sold its patent, design and materials "lock, stock and barrel," as the term is used, to the Colt Manufacturing Company.  Colt continued improving the rifle so that it perfomed better as a fully automatic, "weapon of war," then called the M-16.  That was in 1959. 

Colt began producing the new rifle for the military while also beginning to sell it to the public under the name "AR-15." While removing the fully automatic switch and making it "semi-automatic" (one trigger pull, a single bullet goes out the pointy end).    That was in the early 1960's.  And since then the public has embraced it beyond all expectations. 

This background is provided primarily for those who've thought the "AR" prefix in its name stood for "Automatic Rifle."  WRONG-O!  It stands for "ARmaLite".  It is not a "weapon of war" in the civilian version.  It does not stand for "automatic rifle."  It stands for ARmaLite.  It is not designed to kill people.  Rather, it was provided to the military with the much smaller .223 caliber, or the same as your granddad's .22 squirrel gun in the hall closet.  The .223 bullet weighs only 60 grains, versus the 150 grains used by the .30 caliber rifles it replaces.

It replaced the "M-1" and "M-14" series .30-'06.  The "30" stood for .30 caliber.  The '06 stood for the year that caliber was first designed and patented (One Hundred Twenty Years Ago!).  That caliber is still in wide usage by hunters for deer, bear, caribou, and moose.  The .223 caliber replacing it is designed to wound, so that it takes 2 soldiers to carry the wounded man off the battlefield.  Not to kill, to wound.  We're just that nice.  Let's congratulate ourselves.

The .223 is half the size of a .30 caliber round, and half the weight.  Thus, a soldier can easily carry 100 rounds of .223 versus only about 40 rounds of .30 caliber it replaces.  The "M" series can also be produced in .30 caliber, or about one-third of an inch in diameter.  The same caliber as the AK-47 Kalashnikov, so widely used in 3rd world countries.

For all these reasons, the AR-15 is now the fastest selling firearm in the entire world.  They are produced by more than 100 manufacturers.  More than 40 million of them have been sold and are in use.  

With the .223 caliber, they are the perfect gun for the target range.  And also for small game, like the woodchuck and squirrel.  When barreled for the .308 caliber, itself a smaller and lighter version of the .30-'06 round, they make the perfect deer, coyote and medium sized game rifle.  When fitted with the .500 Blackout barrel and receiver, they are perfect for moose, bear and any large game animal.  That's why they're so widely bought and used.  

They are all things to all users.

And regardless of caliber, they are the best weapon for self-defense.  Small, light, easy to load and use, plus being relatively inexpensive to acquire and shoot.  They are available worldwide starting at about $800.  If you don't already have one, this unassuming little blog posting should have convinced you by now to go out and buy one.  Right now, in fact, I think I'll buy another one this afternoon.

From now on, this collection of facts should have convinced you to never again let anyone around you use the term "Assault Rifle" when speaking of the AR-15.  Never let anyone call them "weapons of war," either.  Or "automatic rilfes," which they are not.  They are none of those things.  And if you'd like to see one, I have three of them here at the Fortress you can see and touch.  In three different calibers.  And each with a telescopic sight.  And by the time you get to Fortress Chuckmeister, I should have already purchased my fourth.  In another caliber.*

Oh yeah, I was trained as a certified gunsmith and ballistician.  I can build rifles and pistols, own a whole bunch of them, and know pretty much everything you need to know about them.  So take what I say to the bank.   More than 101 million of our households contain one or more of the 525 million firearms in service by Americans.**  The average 911 call to our police is answered in 29 minutes.  29 MINUTES!  Would your family still be alive by then?  You are in charge of your family's safety.  So join our other firearm owners and become capable of actually doing so... 

*     Like women and their shoes, men never have enough guns.

**   FBI statistics, 2021.

   

An Existential Question:

Have you ever asked yourself why today's kids seem to be so damn dumb?

More than 63% of them say they believe socialism is preferable to Capitalism, and would be happy to give it a try.  Despite gobs of evidence that socialism is the death of countries like ours.  They should have been taught that.  Yet they were taught the opposite.  Why Harvard, charging $90,000 a year, has to dedicate each Freshman year to remedial reading, writing and 'rithmatic so as to get their students up to speed to actually then learn at a university level.  And be ready for their next three years?  And there's evidence the other major colleges and universities do the same.

Why every time you see a kid today, they show us just how uneducated they seem to be?  Why they can't read or write, seem not to be able to communicate successfully, are more interested in video games than working, and believe socialism is "cool?"  

Well, Fellow Patriots, me too.  So I've decided to begin my new "Existential Questions" Series with this one.  And it's surely existential.  For if we get this one wrong as a society, we are over as a free Country.  We become another failed Cuba.  Or China.  Or Argentina.  And I hope I die before that occurs.  

So I decided to put my vaunted research hat on an learn the answer to this question.  Believing that if I didn't know the answer, you might not either.  And we can learn it together.  So here goes.

Did you know that the Los Angeles Unified School District, America's largest, routinely graduates only 56% of its seniors?  

378,500 students and just over half graduate?

And it has an annual budget of more than $20,600,000,000 (With a "B")?  With a shortfall this year of $1.6 Billion?  A shortfall?  $20 Billion isn't enough?  Have they "gone to school" on America and its $40 Trillion Dollar debt?  Knowing they can simply ask for more tax money to keep it going?  

And with 1,530 schools, it somehow (mis)manages to push through hundreds of thousands of students who cannot read or write?  Rendering those who cannot graduate ready to take their place in society as permanent members of street gangs?  As perhaps their only means of financial support.  If you live in Lost Angeles and have kids, you better consider home schooling or plan to move away real soon...

Oh yeah, Lost Angeles is now famous for more of its citizens moving away now that moving in.  L.A. has more exmigration than any other major city in America!  Those citizens have learned that staying in L.A. and sending their kids to school there is a recipe for failure.

Did you know that the NEA, our "National Education Association," has more than 3,000,000 members?  And Rebecca (Becky) Pringle, the NEA's President, has an annual salary of $365,708?  And with benefits added in, another $149,047, she brings home more than $514,000 a year?  In fact, the entire management staff of the NEA, and its Board, make more than $350,000 a year.  

So consider that with the annual dues of its members, which average only about $79,000 a year in salaries, is more than $160.00 each.  Taxation without representation!  

And the AFT, or "American Federation of Teachers," has more than One milion Eight Hundred Thousand members.  Each of whom are matching the nearly $160.00 a year of the NEA in dues.  Randi Weingarten, its President, makes $514,000 a year.  And so does all its Board and management staff.  You'd think these members would at least vote in a parent, right?  Wrong.  Randi has no kids.  Making one wonder what she's doing there.  Oh yeah, visit their website and you'll know exactly what she's doing there.  And it's not improving the education of our kids! 

You'd think these two enormous publicly-funded unions, the two largest in America, and the $Hundreds of Millions of our Tax Dollars we give them, guarantee us an excellent education for their students, right?  WRONG-O!  They have nothing to do with educating their students!  They only focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion!  On race hustling.  And LGBTQ2S++ issues.  And Transgender support.  And exclusively focusing on Liberal issues.  Never on Conservative ones.  In fact, 99% of all their political donations, both of them, go to the Democrat Party.  Almost none to Republicans.  And their websites proudly say so.  And it's no secret.  That's why they're there.  And ONLY why they're there!  

So the two largest publicly-funded unions in America have no interest in improving the education of our kids.  Only in getting Democrats elected.  And hoping that those Democrats they vote in are transgender Black gay dwarves who will only vote Democrat.  

And we as a Nation put up with that?  That's what we permit to happen?  Did you know that?

I started this blog entry with an Existential Question:  Why are today's kids so damn dumb?  We now know the answer.  A large percentage of those who teach them seem to have little or no interest in improving our kids' education!  With three-fourths of my daughters involved in teaching the young minds seated in their classrooms, I know it's not every teacher.  Maybe not even the majority of our teachers lean Liberal, or even socialist.  But far too many...DO!  

Who taught our teachers that Liberalism is the only way?  Who taught our teachers to be mad at America, and to pass it along to today's students?  Who taught our teachers that DEI and LGBTQyadayada and Transgenderism are the preferable way?  That they should proudly display the rainbow flag in their classrooms?  And who taught our teachers that they should wave the flag of socialism and Marxism and communism?  And who taught our teachers that they should teach our students to be as disaffected with our Country as they are?  

Far too many of the students going through school today are puked forth on our highways and byways every year unable to earn a living.  Not smart enough to get a job.  Not knowing what they need to know to become productive citizens and members of our society.  While the management of the teachers unions swim in the cash we Taxpayers provide.  They do not seem to give a good goddam about the sorry state of our education sysem!  They only seem to care about themselves.  And we are standing by and allowing it!  

What the Hell happened to my America?

So here's my closing Existential Question:  Now that you know the truth, what are you gonna' do about it?    

An Entertaining Little Scam

So I got a call from my credit card company the other day.  

Or, at least they said they were my credit card company.  They said my card number had been stolen and used in a series of crimes.  A whole lot of crimes.  A record number of crimes, as it turned out.

I was invited to call this particular number I was given to find out more.  Having had my card number stolen 4 times in the past 3 years (one guy ordered $187 worth of wings at Wing Stop!), and knowing just what a mess fixing it was, I had no reason to doubt the text at this time.  So I made the call...

The call was answered by a nice fellow who told me my card was used to rent a car in Texas.  Had I been in Texas recently?  No, I said.  And that the car had been used in a drug smuggling scheme involving 10 kilos of cocaine.  And they'd found the motel room the criminal had rented.  $100,000 in cash in a brown paper bag was found there. 

That certainly wasn't my motel room, BTW.  If I'd had $100,000 in cash, I was thinking, I'd have been driving a new Porsche.  This was getting interesting.

He said I was implicated in the crime and a warrant had been issued for my arrest.  But before they sent the Feds to scoop me up, he wanted to pass me off to the U. S. Marshal's office.  Did I mention this guy spoke with a Hispanic accent?  So he put in a call to the Marshal's service while I was on hold.  For less than a minute.

David Spencer answered the phone.  That's what he said his name was.  A U. S. Marshal, he said.  Spoken with a Hispanic accent, BTW.  He reiterated all that had been told to me before, plus the fact that human trafficking was involved.  In the car I'd rented.  Or had been rented in my name and wtih my credit card, he said.  It seems several illegal aliens were found in the trunk.  He asked me to hold on while he called in the Social Security Department (?).  A woman then answered the phone.  She said her name was Judith Smith.  Spoken with a Hispanic accent.

Hmmmm...  

She said my card had been used to open accounts at 10 different banks.  Not 2 not 5, a total of 10, she said!  She rattled off the names of the banks, which are every major bank you're familiar with.  And a couple I'd never heard of before.  I'm guessing you wouldn't have either.  

I asked if they had my card number.  She dodged the question by stating they had my phone number and name (As if that was enough to open an account.)  She continued.  She said that the Federal Government was set to put a hold on my bank accounts and then seize my money within the next 48 hours.  And then arrest me.  Was I guilty, she asked?  I told her no, I hadn't been to Texas in years, and, in fact, hadn't been anywhere in years.  I'm so lame I don't pick up anything off the floor smaller than a $20 bill, I told her.  She didn't laugh.  

I didn't think it was funny, either.

So she then asked where my local police station was.  I told her.  And the phone number?  I gave it to her.  Within seconds my phone rang.  The police were calling.  I answered.  It was my local police calling, a nice officer.  With a Hispanic accent, I might mention.

Funny how these permanent visitors from Down South get around, right?

So back to David Spencer, the "marshal."  He said my only chance to protect some of my money from being seized by the Feds for MONTHS was to go to my local Walgreens and buy 4 Apple gift cards (!).  In the amount of $500 each.  Why, I asked?  So that I'd have some money to spend after the Feds had seized my money.  Because they were going to freeze my account.  As if that was a good answer.  

I asked why Apple gift cards?  Rather than simply using my debit card and taking out the cash?  He got pissed at me for asking.  Like he'd never been asked that question before.  He said only Apple gift cards would do.  He'd done this before, he said, and knew the system that would work for me.  And to help catch the "perp."  So don't ask anymore dumb questions.  Funny how that sounds with a Hispanic accent.

He said that Social Security would turn the Apple cards into cash as a part of catching the criminals involved in this crime.  I kept listening.  There was nothing else on TV at this time and I was short on entertainment.  This was more entertainment than I'd had in months, I thought to myself.

I knew that the Social Security Department would never call.  Only respond when you call it.  Presumably the 4 Hispanics calling me didn't know I knew this.  The guy said I should get in my car and drive to Walgreens and buy those cards.  Right now.  That he'd stay with me on the phone, advising me as it occurred.  And that if they wouldn't sell me 4 cards at $500, I should buy 3 cards instead.  Or two.  I then cracked my knuckles, cleared my throat, and asked why they wouldn't sell me the 4 cards.  He said it had happened in the past and some wouldn't play nice with the Government.  They were "antiamerican," he said.  

He had this all figured out, I thought.  

I didn't wait for the next obvious stage of this scam, which would be for me to wait for 4 Hispanics in a low rider with 14" gold wheels to stop by and pick up the Apple cards.  Leaving a receipt, no doubt, which Social Security would turn into cash in a day or two. Or 5.  Or never.

I asked the "Marshal" if the cards were good for cash, or only Apple gifts.  He said I shouldn't ask such questions, as the Social Security lady would get mad at me.  I asked the guy if the warrant on me was Federal.  He said it was.  I asked him the name of the Federal judge who signed it.  There was this long silence.  Painfully long.  And then he said his partner had it, so it wasn't available.  

I then let the guy know that I wanted no part of Apple, as I had no Apple procucts in my life.  No Apple phones, no Apple watches, no Apple music.  I told him I'd been scared by an apple pie when I was very young and I'd prefer to simply get cash.  He then hung up on me.

Click!!!

I tried to call him back, to escoriate him for being so rude, but the phone number, from Georgia, was no good.  Not only not answered, the phone compnay said it was not a real number.  What a surprise!

What a well coordinated attempted scam!  Four people, one at a time, each with a good story, and all sounding important.  And in a hurry.  We had to act now, they said, so as to capture the mean, nasty folks who were using my identity and possibly causing me to get arrested and my miniscule money seized.  My only suggestion for this scam to work better would be to include somebody speaking with other than a Hispanic accent.  Polish, maybe.  Or German.  Otherwise, the whole thing was well produced.  

How many aged folks out of 100 would have fallen for this?  Like 80, perhaps?  $2,000 worth of Apple products, each to be sold at the swap meet this weekend at a really low price.  Turned into cash.  Maybe they could run this scam 4 or 5 times a day.  Profitable.  Easy to do.  For 4 people sitting at home and eating bon bons while making B.S. calls.  And low enough in amount so as to not cause too much suspicion on the part of older folks.  All trying to help their Gubmint.  And save themselves from being arrested.  And their retirement account seized.

And many of them could even have some Apple products.  

I reported this to the cops immediately.  And was especially interested in how they managed to ghost the police phone number in the chain of folks wno called.  The lady investigator who called me said they've figured out how to use the cops' phone number as if they're calling me.  They couldn't do anything, she said, which I'd already surmised, but thanked me for the info.

I happened to be at the local Walgreens later that week.  I spoke with the manager, told him about my call, and asked if they see this scam unfolding at their store.  The guy said they won't sell Apple cards to the elderly in any amount larger than $250.00, and only one of them.  To help prevent just such a scam being run.  They even require the purchasers to sign a waiver agreeing not to sue.  He sees this scam several times a week, he said.  

Tell your parents.  Tell your aunts and uncles.  Anyone who's up there in age, (or even the very young) and who just might be open to such a scam.  These people are good.  And they know how to make it all sound reasonable.  You have to be mentally together to avoid being a target for this.  I wasn't a good target.  Like I told the lady cop, I've been to two county fairs, a state fair and a goat roaping contest.  I've seen it all, I told her.  I was born at night, but not last night.  But if I wasn't informed, I could have been scammed, too.  Others might be.  

There's a lot of Bad Guys out there.  Pass it along...

A Replacement Key for $13,500?

So let's say you're the poor guy on the block.  Forced to live beside folks who make much more money than you do.

While you're driving a 1986 Honda Prelude, with 198,000 miles on the clock, everybody else is driving new cars.  New SUV's inhabit the driveways of all your neighbors.  New Tahoes, and Escalades, and Tremors, and RAV4's.  All shiny and new.  And you have to drive past them to get to your job as a high school teacher.  You just go to sleep praying that one day you win the lottery and can buy yourself a new buggy.  And show your ass to all those people who're looking down their snooty noses at you.  Feeling happy their daughters didn't marry you.

And one day you do!

So you decide to spring for the ultimate ride.  The car that will show the world just how rich you are.  Just how much better off financially you are than your neighbors.  So you can drive past their crappy bungaloes reeeel slow every morning.  While they have to watch.  Their heads hung low, second-guessing their every decision in life.

You decide to buy Bugatti Chiron.  One of the most expensive cars in the world.  And one of the fastest.  They have been clocked at 252 miles per hour!  That fast!  Your neighbors' Toyotas won't go that fast!  They want to ask you for a ride.  But they're hesitant.  Because you're now so rich.

But then you learn the $3,200,000 the Bugatti costs is just the beginning.  The cost of keeping it running is truly breathtaking!  Somebody should have told you!  Let me list just how costly maintaining this beast will actually be:

     The annual maintenance cost of the Bugatti Chiron is, ya' ready for it? $25,000.  That covers the inspection and an oil change.  But this W-16 cylinder, quad-turbocharged wonder* has to be taken apart over a 27-hour period, the whole front end removed, to access the oil tank drain plugs. 

     And God help you if you need a brake job.  A complete brake replacement will set you back $116,000.  The individual rotors cost $18,300 each.

     If you've been a bad boy and left a lot of rubber past your neighbors houses, it may be time for some new tires.  The specialized Michelin tires cost $30,000 a set.  And should you desire Pilot Sports, that'll be $49,400 a set.  No less often than every 10,000 miles.  And Bugatti recommends replacing the wonderful, superlight, composite wheels every 10,000.  At an extra cost of $40,000!  

     And if that isn't enough, Bugatti requires the fuel tank to be replaced every 4 years.  That assumes you haven't killed yourself by now.  That cost will be a certified check for...$40,000!

     And just to round out the possible costs, a broken tailight costs $9,500.  A replacement key costs $13,500!  And if you blow up the transmission, prepare to pay $185,000.  

Oh yeah, the warranty on this Bugatti is 4 years.  You've seen those TV ads offering extended warranties, right?  Usually a couple of $Grand buys you that warranty.  Not with Bugatti.  Another 4 years on your Bugatti is, ready for it?  $91.600!  

     You should make it a point not to crater the engine.  Should you do so, get a 2nd mortgage on your mini-mansion and get ready to write a check for, (GULP!) $856,406.98.  Or just a bit more than the average cost of a house in Garden Grove, California.

     Oh yeah, and if you happen to live between the coasts, where immediate service isn't available, like the plains of Kansas, prepare to deliver your car to a major nearby airport.  Where it will be flown via air freight, at your cost, to Molsheim, France.  Where these jewels are made.  For maintenance and repair.  Imagine having to fly your car to a foreign country and pay $25,000 for an oil change!

You'll never look at the menu of charges at your local Hundai dealer the same way again, now will you?

It just might be that you can be rich enough to buy a $3,000,000 car, and yet be so poor you cannot afford to maintain it.  That's what our newly rich friend decided, as he awoke in a pile of sweat from his fever dream.  Maybe it's not worth all that outlay to hike up his nose as he drives by his neighbors.  With his middle finger proudly displayed.  Maybe a simple Land Rover Discovery would be enough.  They break all the time, cost an arm and a leg, their value falls like a stone once you drive it out of the dealership, they're surely not worth their inflated cost, but they're viewed as cool by those who don't know what they don't know.  That should be enough to make his neighbors jealous and feel bad for all the times they talked smack behind his back.  But then again, maybe not.

Yeah, that's what he'll do.  And he'll give the neighbors a ride in it if they ask him real nice...

*    The W-16 engine in the Bugatti Chiron is truly a wonder.  It's actually two narrow-angle V-8 Volkswagen motors "glued" together at the crankshaft.  With 4, count 'em, FOUR turbochargers added for an emphasis.  Creating a 1,500 horsepower piece of high-tech monster.  Enabling the Bugatti to hit 0-60 miles per hour in 0.08 seconds.  And 0-100 in 3.7 seconds.  Permitting you to drive past your SUV-driving neighbors in less than one breath out of your uber-rich body.  If you own this thing, you are truly blessed.  If you can somehow keep it maintained you are one of the very few.  It's kind of like a boat.  I don't want to own one.  I can't afford to own one.  I just want to know somebody who owns one.  So I can go for a ride every now and then...   

The Arc of America.

"Democracy never lasts long.  It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself.  There was never a democracy yet that did not commits suicide."

                                              - John Adams, 2nd President, U.S.

It took America more than a century and a half to grow up.  To go from an outback collection of underpopulated states, to a collection equaling a Union.  A collection equaling power.  And of importance.

To go from the original 13 colonies and the  Revolutionary War that granted us freedom, to a Civil War that resulted in the death of more than 605,000 of our people.  It was fought to end slavery.  To free our slaves.  And insure equality for us all.  

Has it?  

It went from 13 original colonies to the Louisiana Purchase.  At 3 cents per acre.  More than doubling America's size.  Signifying we had grown in both size and in world power.

To fully expanding America's reach with the purchase of Alaska from Russia.  For an incredible 2 cents per acre.  For an area twice the size of Texas.  About which I'm sure Russia is still smarting.

And to the the "growing" of America through the Oklahoma 'Sooners,' and their lust for a plot of land to call their own.  That day when the gunfire started the rush by connestoga wagons from Kansas to the open Oklahoma prarie is etched in our memory.

To the stitching America together by way of the Intercontinental Railroad finally joining together the East with the West.  The "Golden Spike" finally created a United States.  And from the telegraph to the telephone, enabling those from everywhere to call anyone, anywhere.  

To the Gold Rush and the hundred thousand who went West to seek riches, to the "Wagons Ho" of the 1850's through '90's bringing the settlers from Missouri's Westport Village further West via the Oregon Trail.

Manifest Destiny helped to make us a Nation.  And laid the seeds for the Mexican-American War.  Which we won handily in 1848 ending with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.  Enabling us to take the entire Southwest, from California through Nevada, and Arizona and New Mexico, and Colorado and Oklahoma, and a bit of Texas.  But we could have taken all of Mexico itself.  Some say we should have done so.  Some say they're now taking it back one illegal birth at a time.

Thus we had America, from sea to shining sea.  One Nation, dedicated to Freedom.  And to worshipping your God any way you choose.  This was the Nation Americans sought.  And this was the Nation Americans were willing to fight to build.

I was born during the midst of the Second World War.  I watched my parents collect the Government stamps they needed to buy coffee and flour and meat and gasoline and potatoes.  And tires for the family car.  For all our collective efforts were engaged in winning the Big War.  That War "Over There."  It would never end, they said.  And yet, it did.  And we won.  After 5 years.  We succeeded in defeating the world.  Which was poised against us.  

The War caused by Dictators who united the Germany and Italy and Spain who believed they were wronged by the outcome of WW1.  The War that caused the death of millions and the waste of trillions of dollars.  Alongside the Japanese who thought we were unfairly squeeziing them over oil.  But resulting in uniting all Americans into defeating our common enemies.  After they attacked us at Pearl Harbor.  And putting 55% of America's Gross National Product in play during that War toward accomplishing that effort.  While resulting in the death of thousands of Americans. 

And watching those hundreds of thousands of men and women, soldiers and sailors and Marines, return home from both East and West, to help build America.  To seek an education.  To attend specialized training and join the trades.  To compete for elective office.  To feed us via their farms. To become Boy Scout leaders.  To get married and have children and raise their families.  To teach us at our schools.  To become a part of the Country in which they wanted to live.  And so did we.

Those men and women who returned home from the War had an indelible effect on me.  There were no Liberals and Conservatives.  And if there were they were in hiding.  There were only Americans, dedicated to making America great.  To building it the way it needed to be built.  And they did.  One by one they worked to help make us the Greatest Country on Earth.

And everyone grew rich together.  Even the blue collar, hourly workers could afford to buy a home and a car.  And a cabin by a lake.  With a boat.  As was said, a "rising tide lifts all boats," even those owned by the common workers.  And it did.

But then we found ourselves in a succession of internecine squabbels.  We had forgotten the War that brought us all together.  Race riots consumed us.  Drug usage grew in volume and intensity.  Then Viet Nam happened.  We couldn't learn by the results of France's losses in Viet Nam's Dien Bien Phu, we had to prove it to ourselves we could make the Vietnamese heel to our wishes.  That our flying half way around the world to fight perceived communism resulted in the loss of 55+ thousand of our young men and women.  And causing an internal rift among us, old and young, Black and White, that's yet to heal.  

To this day.

To our heights as a Republic with the landing on the Moon in 1969, which I watched live from an Army dayroom in Germany, to its depths as a Chinook helicopter loaded with our leaders took off from the top of a 13-story office building in downtown Saigon in 1975.  Rescuing the last of our soldiers from a failed effort.  I could argue these were the events we could signal as among the most important in our history.  The fulcrum upon which America teetered.  With us at our height, and then at our all time low.  Us at our best and us at our worst.  

The results of that military action was to end conscription.  No more would we draft our young from everywhere, making sure the responsibility for our defense and safety was felt by all.  We would staff our military from among only those who volunteered.  They turned out to be older.  And smarter.  And wiser.  And better educated.  But not representative of your neighbors and mine.  They were the 1% who protected us, but not chosen from among the other 99%.  And thus no longer who we needed them to be.  

I was a part of that War.  I was drafted into the military to fight and maybe die.  I was lucky.  I got through it relatively unscathed.  I contributed to our effort.  And was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for my efforts.  But was forever changed in how I viewed those who could so easily send other peoples' sons and daughters, and me, to a far off war to fight and perhaps die.  

We went from a society where everyone decides how to live his or her life, to the one where we face a crossroads at high school graduation.  The classic story of being born and going to school and borrowing tens of thousands to finance a college education to qualify for a high-paying job, or choosing (or having it chosen for us) to work in the trades as a laborer.  This further divided us.  Some could achieve, others couldn't.  Building the wall between us even taller.  We had half our society who drove trucks and delivered our mail, to half who sat behind a desk.  The "Makers" were thus hated by the "Takers."  Those who had that chance at life were forever hated by those who reached for the Brass Ring but failed to grasp it.  A contention which continues to this day.

I lived to see us go from driving a car or station wagon or a convertible, each redesigned every year, to a 6,000 pound, SUV.  Ugly, expensive vehicles getting 10 mph while we bitch about gas mileage.  With no institutional memory of how it used to be just a few short years ago.

And I lived to see a society that loved the sound of big V-8's to electric vehicles making no sound at all.  Costing more and in my opinion, delivering less.  And some of us paying $thousands extra for computer software that drove for them instead of driving for themselves.  

Representative in its meaning of our society as a whole, I'm thinking.  

I was forced to see a President murdered.  And his brother murdered.  And another President almost murdered.  And a prominent preacher murdered.  And another President almost murdered.  And then another President almost murdered.  4 times.  It seems that murdering those with whom you disagree is a sport around these parts.  We know that upwards of 3% of everybody we come in contact with are mentally challenged.  Psychotic, even.  Or drunks.  Or drug addicts.  Perhaps we should do a better job of checking out those who are permitted to purchase weapons.  While letting those who harbor no ill will buy whatever weapons they choose.  As is demanded by our 2nd Amendment to the Constitution.  Which half our states disavow.  While the other half proudly permit. 

I lived to see 19 Arabs learn to take off in passenger jets but not learn to land them.  Apparently raising no suspicion among those who were doing the training.  Resulting in them flying into our tallest buildings and killing 2,900+ of our people.  Starting another 20 year war and killing another 4,000 of our young people.  The fact that we were surprised is alarming.  From unfettered immigration and overstayed visas of those who vehemently hate us and want to kill us, to actually doing so, should be on our tombstone.  Perhaps it will someday.

I've lived to see us now forced to live in an information overloaded Internet society.  To one-half hour of national news each day way back when, happening just before we sat down as a family to dinner, to one where endless news is crammed into our tired brains.  Resulting in our noses being stuck in a cell phone 20 hours a day.  Slowly losing our socialism skills.  Being sold somebody else's idea of how to dress.  How to date.  How to eat, and how to live.  Dramatically increasing the rates of both mental illness and suicide.  And dramatically decreasing our ability to interact with our fellow citizens. 

I've lived to see young men and women refuse to follow time-tested methods of dating, hoping to find a mate, forever changed, by that damned computer they seem to prefer instead.

I've lived to see the average price of a new car go from $3,000 to $50,000.  A car loaded down with electronic gadgets we didn't ask for and do not need.  A car with a button you push to push a button you don't need pushed.  A car made from heavy gauge steel to one conjured together out of plastic and rubber and aluminum.  But that we have to buy and have to pay in gas mileage to tote around.

I was forced to witness America's hard-core leftists import 20 or 30 or 40 million illegal aliens.  No one knows the number for sure.  Diluting what makes America, America.  Turning us from a cohesive society of freedom lovers into a hodgepodge of various nationalities.  Trying to garner the votes of those who even want us to become socialists.   While Conservatives watch      

I've been forced to grow up in a society where our Government has been stealing from us by overspeading, resulting in rampant inflation.  Deflating the value of the $Dollar we worked so hard to earn.  Theft by legislative fiat.  Who cannot wait to earn what they want.  Resulting in our retired having the value of their savings shrink.  

Why don't we hear more about this?

I recall paying 19 cents a gallon for gas during the late '60's.  And then having one of our least capable presidents cause a gas war with Saudi Arabia back in the early '70's, forcing us to buy gasoline only every other day.  While we sit on top of more oil than any other country on Earth.  But the envirowhackos refuse to drill for it.        

And now I see the socialists and the communists coming out of the closet.  Buoyed by the dissatisfaction of the many whose dollars don't buy enough any more.  Rearing their ugly heads.  Seemingly having nothing to say when Biden was in office, to complaining daily now that Trump is running things.  Gaining followers among those who believe the American Dream for them no longer exists.  

We've always had them, these socialists and Marxists and communists.  They've just been outweighed by those who believe in the Constitution and the American Way.  But now they say they no longer believe in Capitalism.  And the easily led are promising to vote for those who promise to give them everything.  For free.  That siren song.  So often played by those who wish to turn us into automatons, following brainlessly in lockstep toward a socialist paradise.

As President Reagan said, "We are never more than one generation away from socialism."  And then communism.  And if we don't start educating our young about the differences between our way of life and theirs, we just might lose everything that makes America, America.

Those are the ones who can no longer buy that home in their 20's.  They're forced to wait until their 30's or 40's.  Living in their parent's basement, mad as Hell.  Quietly steaming.  Angry at life, and themselves.  But more at the nameless, faceless "successful" who have "stolen" their Dream.  Who have taken their piece of the pie.  Even though the pieces are endless and enough for everyone if they know how to take it.  By following the time-tested, Capitalistic method that's worked for us for two hundred and fifty years.  To grow that pie so everyone can have a piece.

Ask yourself; did Steve Jobs make the pie larger when he invented the cell phone, or did he take everyone's else's piece of the pie?  Those who complain that Elon Musk is worth near $One Trillion Dollars, are not considering that he now has 160,000 employees.  Who are sharing his success.  He created an ever larger "pie."

We now go from a society which is proud to tip our helpers for their extra effort when it's freely given to one expected to tip for everything.  Not 10% or 15% but 20% or 30% or 50%, even.  Tipping those who are doing nothing more than their jobs.  For which they're drawing a paycheck.  Starbucks baristas expecting a tip for pouring a cup of coffee.  And told to do so by a laptop, thus taking the human factor out of the equation.  Making it harder to say no. 

I was also forced to see California go from a Center-Right society to a Hard-Left State.  From two terms of Wilson, and two of Deukmajian, and two terms of Reagan, and two more for Swartzenhoozits, to Davis and Brown and now Newsom,  15 painful years in a row of socialist Democrat so-called "Leadership."  

From a State that had it all to one with the highest rate of unemployment, and the highest tax rate, and highest miminum wage, to a State with one-third of America's homeless, the highest gas prices, and the most expensive housing.  Well on its way to socialism.  With more people moving out than moving in.  And taking their high paying jobs and tax contributions with them.  It would be hard to do more to ruin this State than has been done by the Democrats, yet they don't even seem to know it.  Or if they do, they try and hide it, assuming their voters are too stupid to recognize reality.

And perhaps they are right.

And I've seen us go from a society where everyone owns a firearm, to a Country where everyone in the Blue States are deathly afraid of them.  Having been born here makes them unaware of what living in our "normal" states is like.  I'm pretty sure the only thing that would correct this situation is a nice little war, causing everyone to work together to fight off an enemy.  Like we were when 9/11 occurred.  A war that made everyone join forces.  It's been 80 years since we were in danger of losing our freedom, and our lives.  Where we needed to band together, regardless of political beliefs, and become One as a Nation again.  

We need another event such as that to reunite us.     

I don't know how the Mid-Term Elections will turn out.  But over the past few weeks an alarming number of newly-minted Democrat Socialist Party candidates have won the Democrat Party's nomination.  A Party to which they don't even belong.  They've been Mesmerized by those who've promised them the Moon without explaining to them that they can never have it.  Bringing to mind the throngs who put Hitler and Moussalini in office 8 decades ago.  Somebody should tell them about North Korea, and Cuba, and China, and all the other socialist and communist "paradises" that have crashed and burned.  

Those who are pissed are easily hipmotizzzed.  And those who are pissed are easily led.  And those who are pissed are easily manipulated.  And they have been.  And are.  As we watch.

I have lived during the Arc of America.  From its beginning, through it to its heights, and now through to its rapid descent.  I have seen it at its best.  And I now see it at perhaps its worst.  I foresee a major stock market correction as the polls begin to foretell our future.  The Market's success is based entirely upon expectations.  And even though the basics of our economy are sound, a recession is not out of the question.  

My expectations are pretty damn sour about now, and so are those of nearly everyone I talk to.  Our political system has lived longer than the Roman Empire.  Which itself was a democracy.  Except there's was based upon half the vote, plus one.  Ours is a Representative Republic.  We elect those to speak and vote for us.  It used to be we'd send off a representative to spend a term or two and then he or she would come back to the farm.  Or the bank.  Or the lumber yard.  Or the pharmacy.  Now?  We have permanent legislators, a succession of Pelosis, who go to Wasington and grow rich, while representing only themseves.  

You'll forgive me for saying, but I suspect the next 525 citizens who walk into South Coast Plaza shopping mall today would be better senators and representatives than the ones who presently inhabit our Halls of Congress.  At least they'd be more likely to represent the wishes of those who sent them there.    

I don't know how we'll turn out.  Will we fight off the inclination of the masses to turn away from Capitalism?  Or will we succumb to that siren song and take the easy way out?  The next few weeks will tell us everything we need to know.  Gird your loins.  And prepare for both the best and the worst.  I'll be watching.  As I always do.  

This is my 1,755th posting at Chuckmeisterunleashed.  Over an 18 year period.  A good friend suggested I begin this blog after we suffered a hard loss to one B. Hussein Obama some years ago.  I was seriously bummed.  And so I did and have never looked back.  I may not have all the answers, or none of them.  But I will always shoot straight with you, Fellow Patriots, spelling out the facts as I see them.  Whatever the future holds, should God permit, I'll be here to report on it for some time to come.  

P.S.  A blog is a wonderful way to purge your spleen.  My spleen happens to be far larger than most.  So a lot of purging over the years has proven necessary.  It also keeps me sane, and mentally aware.  Sidestepping the mental challenges that aflicts so many of our aged.  Thanks for staying with me as I continue to purge away... 

"REFORGER 1"

I've advised you before that I was rescued from the Army's basic training requirement back in 1966 and sent to Intelligence, instead.  And please, no jokes about Army Intelligence.  Not since I was sent there, anyway.

I was sent to Fort Belvoir, Virginia and trained to be a "spook."  A spy.  No, not the James Bond type of spy, with a license to kill and all that, but more like an analyst.  A guy whose job it was to try and do it to the Russkies before they did it to us.  For this was back in the late 1960's and I was a soldier.  During the Cold War.  Stationed in West Germany.

You may not know it but the Fulda River divides Germany East from West.  And it runs through a deep gorge called the "Fulda Gap."  Everything back then on the east of this River valley was called "East Germany."  And everything west of this River was called "West Germany."  It seems simple, but that's the way it was.  

The Soviets had their T-150 tanks lined up cheek by jowl, from north to south, all pointed across the Fulda Gap at us.  And we had our old Sherman and much newer Abrams tanks lined up cheek by jowl, north to south, all pointed at them.  This was in the Grafenwoer region, where little towns dotted the map.  This was one of the worst places to be stationed.  It was mud up to your knees next to the River.  Cold, gray, misty, rainy, nasty, and crappy.  Our soldiers were miserable.  Serving as our first line of defense against a Soviet attack was hard, thankless work.  

A nice little war would have been a welcome relief to these soldiers.

Now, my team wasn't there.  Our soldiers were.  They lived in their tents.  These soldiers would get a weekend off once a month and head into the nearest town.  Their tanks would roll into town and the natives would hide under their beds.  Our guys would get drunk and get in fights and wind up in jail.  Massive grief.  You didn't want any part of it.  I certainly didn't, and thankfully never had to deal with it personally.  I was located in a HQ operation about 70 miles away.  And one day was asked to find an answer to a nagging question.  

For purposes of background, if you've been following the news lately, you know that Prez. Trump has theatened to punish NATO for their incalcitrance by moving some of our 32,000 troops out of Gemany.  We had some 63,000 soldiers in West Germany when I was there.  They were costing us Big Bucks, each and every month, as our troops are now.  For their pay, food, clothing, housing, safety and operations.  

Our arrangement with the Germans was then as it is now.  We were there as a liberating, but victorious force, having kicked their ass durng WW2.  Stationed as a backstop in the event the Soviets decided to launch an attack.  But Army Intelligence was tasked with somehow reducing the number of troops there, even while facing down our enemy.  

The Army had even come up with an answer of sorts with "REFORGER."  That stood for "RE(turn) of FOR (forces) to GER(Germany)."  We'd been doing it for a couple of years, filling up smallish C-141 Starlifter cargo planes with combat ready troops.  We even declared we'd return 5,000 troops over a weekend in 1968 to show those Russkies we were ready for them.  And we did.  What a joke!  Several Starlifter flights, from Fort Riley, Kansas, each with 70 troops, flew into Frankfurt and Furstenfeldbruek (Munich) over a 72 hour period.  To be united with our forces in Grafenwoer, as a part of "Operation Carbide Ice."  The troops we flew in, for that weekend, plus the ones already there.  It worked.  We had a bunch of troops there.  Everyone celebrated with a brass band.  Literally. 

Whoopie!

I don't want to demean that accomplishment, but it was sort of meaningless, given we'd declared our goal of reducing our troop footprint in Germany.  From 63,000 to more like 32,000, or what it is now.  And we needed a more meaty display of our capabilities to show those pesky Russians.  After all, it's not like they weren't watching all this unfold.  They could read the newspapers, too.  And the Powers That Be decided to develop that answer.

The Army gave the job to Army Intelligence.  Each higher-up gave this hot potato to a junior officer.  And each continued handing it down the line.  Until it came to me.  "Here, Cassity, make this happen!"   For whatever reason they decided I could do it.

So I did.

I'd actually been paying attention to this matter for some time.  I was stationed at Germersheim Army Depot (GAD), just outside Heidelberg, where all the wheeled vehicles were stored, so I could guage our capability to wage war once we got all the soldiers on the ground.  But how to get them here?  See if you like my suggested solution.

We had some 31 C-5A Galaxy air frieghters in our inventory back then (1969) (many more today).  Each of these giant planes* could easily hold 273 combat-ready soldiers in the main body of the aircraft down below, and another 76 in the area up above.  For a total of 349 soliders fully loaded.  And if we were willing to make them uncomfortable, we could stretch the payload to 400.  And they could travel at 570 mph all day and all night.  

And we had hundreds of thousands of active duty soldiers and National Guardsmen stationed in the United States.  Many of whom were located at or within 100 miles of three main forts:  Fort Riley, Kansas, in the center, Fort Dix, New Jersey, in the East, and Fort Lewis, Washington out West.  So I asked myself, self?  How quickly could our fighting men and women get themselves to each of these forts after receiving orders to do so?  After kissing their significant others goodbye, how quickly could they be at the nearest fort, ready to fly?  

And my answer to myself was 12 hours.

So if we provided orders to soldiers to make it to these Army forts, how quickly could we move 100,000 soldiers to Stuttgart, West Germany, to replace those we were contemplating moving back home?  How quickly could we be at full wartime readiness after moving thousands of troops back to the German theater of operations from which they'd just been removed?  

The Fort located nearest to Stuttgart was (GAD), the location of all the Army's rolling stock and where I was stationed.  Its tanks, tank retrievers, Duece-and-a-halfs (2 and 1/2 ton trucks), jeeps and other wheeled vehicles were oiled up and gassed up and ready.  Maintained for just such an occasion.  Alongside millions of gallons of fuel.  These war machines were stored at GAD only 70 miles from Stuttgart, and waiting to be needed.  All the stuff for an Army to be ready to defend Germany and Europe.  The troops would fly into Stuttgart, then travel to GAD for their tanks and trucks, then go kick Russia's ass.  And the answer?

If we had those C-5's "hot-lapping," or the 7 to 11 hour flights on a quick turnaround status, (fly, fuel up, return, load up, and fly again), and the planes were all full of soldiers, we could transport the 100,000 to Stuttgart, move them to GAD, and have them battle-ready in less than 4 days.  Or, a long weeked.  

My Readiness Plan Analysis was accepted by the generals as offered.  It was used as the answer to the Department of the Army's challenge.  And we started reducing our "footprint" in W. Germany soon thereafter.  From the 63,000 down to only about 40,000 even back then.  And, as I have said, since the Soviet Union fell, a total of only 32,000 today.  And President Trump just ordered a further 5,000 reduction recently.  Although those troops may be ordered to either Poland or perhaps Serbia.  But removed from Germany, nonetheless.  

The Germans are pissed about this.  Just imagine how much of a positive impact on their economy 5,000 soldiers' paychecks have every month?  They've been taking advantage of us for decades, asking us to protect them at our expense, while they've used the savings from not spending on war readiness and defense on other social programs.  And its time to finally force them to pay for their own defense.

(You can verify all of this by Googleing the "Stars and Stripes" newspaper of January, 1969, under "Operation Carbide Ice" and "REFORGER 1").  The Good News is that we won the Cold War and were able to reduce the tensions over the Fulda Gap without resorting to my Readiness Plan.  Thereafter, W. and E. Germany were reunited, the Soviet wall came down in '89, and now it's just called "Germany."  But the Russians continue to represent a threat, forcing us to maintain troop levels, even though the Soviet Union was disbanded.)

This Plan was considered Top Secret for more than 50 years.   I don't know why, but it was.  It's not like the Russians were unaware.  It isn't now.  But interestingly, it was actually used by our civilian air transport executives at all the major airlines as the basis for their "Hub and Spoke" air movements used starting in the 1980's.  Previous to which, planes to and from smaller regional airports, like Springfield, Missouri, to Springfield, Ohio, would go to and from these cities, back and forth, several times a day.  Whether the planes had passengers to fly or not.  Representing a significant cost and loss of revenue. 

Now?  They transport passengers in smaller planes to larger area airports, like Chicago's O'Hare and Ohio's Cleveland or Cinncinnati, then on in larger planes to their destinations from those airports.  Even if they had to fly back over their home city to reach their final location (example:  You would fly from Jefferson City, Missouri, east to St. Louis, Missouri, and hop onto a larger plane to your destination flying west to Kansas City, Missouri.  Flying back over Jefferson City on the way).   Saving the airlines $Millions every year.  Many of us don't even realize we're being forced to use that plan, as it's been in place for nearly 40 years.  Or if they do, they don't know who to blame.  So blame me, if you wish.  Although it's represented Billions in savings from a reduced troop footprint in Gemany, as well as from reduced ticket prices. 

It's amazing how much authority and responsibility the Army will give a young man just because it thinks he can handle it (and because they don't want it).  And it's amazing the things you can accomplish once you put your mind to it.  And it was enjoyable to have the freedom and flexibility to put it all together.**

BTW, I received an Army Commendation Medal for my efforts on this exercize.  This ARCOM is not freely given, especially to a one-term draftee soldier, so I'm proud of its receipt.  I'll be happy to show it off the next time you visit me here at Fort Chuckmeister.

*     The C5-A (now "M") has a fully loaded take-off weight of 790,000 pounds.  More, even, than the A-380, which can carry up to 700 people.  It makes a 747 look tiny.  It's wingspan is 270 feet, almost as big as a football field and longer than the Wright Brothers' original flight.  Its landing gear has 10 tires, each 10 feet tall.  You can stand by a tire and not be able to reach the top of it.  It makes our fleet of C-17 cargo planes, the replacement for the Starlifters, look like Piper Cubs by comarison.  They have more than 4,000 sq. ft. of useful interior space.  They are gigantic and I love them.  Check them out and you will too.

**    Want to grow your kids up real fast?  This is my primary reason for recommending you send your kids off to the military before you send them off to college.  They'll be older, wiser, smarter, and better able to deal with the challenges of life when they get back home.  It worked for me.  It might actually work for you and your kids, too...