Monday, April 29, 2024

Black, Gay, and an Immigrant.

I've been to two county fairs, a state fair, a goat-roping contest and a buzzard fu*k, and I've never in my life seen anyone as sinfully, painfully, awkwardly dumb as Karine Jean-Pierre (KJP).

(NOTE:  Real journalism about to occur.  Prepare yourselves...)

So I feel compelled, Fellow Patriots, to finally purge my XXL spleen over this Major League burr under my figurative saddle blanket.

Those familiar with the best-selling book "The Peter Principle" know, simply stated, that "we all excel until we reach our own level of incompetence."  And then we tend to stay there until we're fired, retire, are voted out, or die.  I would offer up our own "Mumbler-in-Chief" as a sterling example proving this truism.  But I thought I'd feature another example fully worthy of my scathing retribution, who's reached that pinnacle earlier in life.  Here goes...

We all know that Rachel Maddow jumped ship directly from serving as O'Biden's Press Secretary to a one-night-a-week "talking head show" on his fave channel, MSPMS.  For the $20,000,000 (with an "M") they're paying her to show up for an hour on Friday evenings.  Must be a really shi*ty environment over there if you have to pay that kind of dough to get people to come to work.  But the woman they replaced her at the podium is why I'm offering up this particular rant.    

That burr under my saddle blanket is one Karine Jean-Pierre (KJP, as she's "affectionately/derisively" known).  She, as you most likely know, is Joe O'Biden's White House Press Secretary.  It's her job to report to the Press Corps what's happening in America's world.  Maybe somebody forgot to tell her that.  Because she's famous, as she said breathlessly upon mounting the podium for the very first time, for the following:

"I'm proud to say I'm the very first Black, Gay and illegal immigrant to ever become Press Secretary!"

I'd like to start my load of legendary vitriol by saying this woman (she is a woman, right?) understands the "Chuckmeister Rule of Leftoid Acceptance."  Check as many boxes on the  "Weird-a*s List" as humanly possible.  KJP could only be better for this job if she were also a Midget, a Gypsy, be part Indian (errr, Indigenous Personage?), or even a  real Indian, like our own Karmala Harris, claim Palestinian DNA, and be suffering from the Heartbreak of Psoriasis.  

You got to tick those boxes to keep the far-Left activists happy, ya' know?

And so she does.  She's married to some other female (she's a female, I think) Federal trough-slurper.  Don't know whether she's the husband or the wife, but I digress.  All this Black and gay and immigrant thing would be sort of both cute, and TMI, if this babe were just, how can I say it?  Also, ummm, well...  

                               SMART?

But she's not.  She's actually dumber than a bag of rocks.  Her thoughts, the scant few of them that there are, bang around in her dreds-quaffed noggin like BB's in a boxcar.  We know that's true because she reads all answers to all questions from a briefing binder.  Nothing original, all canned.  In fact, I believe she's callow, shallow and crude.  She is naive, uncouth and oblivious.  She's insensitive, obtuse, dense and birdbrained.  And also imbecilic, moronic, unwitting and confused.  Not to mention being tragically unaware, ridiculous and dare I say, stupid.

Oh, I'm sorry.  You're ignorant when you're unknowing.  You're stupid when you simply cannot learn.  Perhaps I'm being pejorative by saying she's "stupid" without knowing for sure whether she's unable to learn.  But I believe we can all say she sure as Hell hasn't shown any increased knowledge or ability to do the job she's been given in the two painful years she's had it!  In fact, I believe she was accurate when she outlined her only qualifications:  

She's a., Black; b., gay; and c., an immigrant.     

This woman perfectly represents the Joe O'Biden Administration.  She's pathetic and almost insufferably cringe-producing.  And one can rely on Mzzzzz. KJP to always screw it up.  She does not know how to say "I don't know."  She just makes up an answer, that includes accusing Trump of something.  Want an example?  Here's an example...

In a rambling speech the other day in his new home of Pennsylvania (without their votes he might go to jail), O'Biden happened to go off-script once again and stuff his platform tennis shoe into his mumbling mouth.  

He stated, unequivocally, that his uncle "Bosey" was a pilot in WW2.  And that he went down on an island in the pacific, was chased down and eaten by cannibals!  Which the Department of the Army quickly, ummm, "corrected."  As in, he told us another lie.  Like so many other lies O'Biden tells (he told us last weekend he also used to drive an 18-wheeler!).  

The DofA stated the plane "Bosey" was in ran out of fuel and ditched in the Ocean.  Only 1 of the crew of 4 survived.  The others drowned.  Including Uncle Bosey.  And there were no cannibals roasting and consuming flyboys at that time in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  Something about fire and water, doncha' know...

But what sounds better if you're a crochety old coot who just loves to make everything about him and his?  Run out of gas, ditch and drown, or be eaten by cannibals on some far off island?  To O'Biden, 

              it's cannibals every day...    

So Fox News' reporter Peter Doocy asked KJP the question no other reporter would dare ask: "Why did O'Biden say his uncle had been eaten by cannibals," he asked, "when it was so obviously untrue?"  

KJP proceeded to take more than two cringe-worthy minutes dodging the question and explaining why Trump hates veterans.  

Doocy then repeated his question.  KJP once again deflected, neither directly addressing the subject matter nor providing any useful information whatsoever.  Except to slam Trump.  The very opposite of what a Press Secretary is there to do.  A complete and total waste of time, effort, energy and loads and loads of money.   

So the only question is, where will MSPMS put KJP on their schedule?  Before, or after Mzzzzzz. Maddow?   

Thank God KJP is cute, has perfect teeth and a nice hairdo, or she'd have no redeeming virtues at all.  Except, as I mentioned, for being Black, gay and an immigrant... 

P.S.  If any of this offends you, you're part of the problem...  


Saturday, April 27, 2024

The Quiet Emergency!

The major reason I chose this subject for today's rant (although I never really need a reason!) is that I just got back from my favorite discount grocery store.

So discount they only take cash.  No credit cards allowed.  That much discount.    

So I loaded up, like usual, except this time management was waiting near the entrance to so I could arrange for a 2nd Mortgage on my house.  But I convinced them to take an arm instead.  I had a nice long convo with the checkout babe about their prices, even though theirs are the lowest around.  I held up an 11 oz. bag of shredded, mixed-green lettuce, for an example.  I commented to her that it was $0.89 a couple of years ago, and had been for as long as I could remember.  And it's now $2.59.  That, I said, is INFLATION!*  

She agreed, and shared some of her own war stories, most particularly about customers having to take stuff back 'cause they couldn't afford to pay for everything in their carts.  Sad.

So I did a little research on the subject.  I checked out the prices of various staples back in 2022, and what they cost now in 2024:

     -  Coffee:  Up 47%

     -  Eggs:  Up 101%

     -  Bread:  Up 39%

     -  Cereal:  Up 48%

     -  Orange Juice:  Up 87%

     -  Bacon:  Up 76%

     -  Hamburger:  Up 49%

     -  Home Insurance:  Up 29%  

     -  Gasoline:  Up 67%

     -  Electricity:  Up 123%

And I remind those of my fellow citizens who chose the current Administration, you voted for this... 

This caused me to ask myself, I wonder how many folks are living on Social Security and having to decide what not to eat these days?  So I checked.  And here's the answer...

About half our population aged 65 and above live in households that receive at least 50% of their family's income solely from Social Security.  That's 62 Million Citizens!  Or, 18% of our population is hyper-subject to inflationary pressures.  With no way at their age to counteract the negative effects.

Consider also that the average Social Security monthly paycheck is only 1,717,49!  How in the Holy Hell is somebody supposed to live on $1,700 a month?  Or a family, in many cases?  And this is for people who worked all their lives, and paid into the SSA Fund every payday for their entire lives.  And yet, there are those who want to talk about lowering their payments.  Or letting their Fund go broke entirely.

As they're slowing down, the cost of everything is running away from them!

Add this to $5.89 a gallon near me, and up to $7.59 near San Franpoopco, and you can now understand why more than 1.2 Million citizens have fled California in the past two years.  And more will be leaving as soon as their kid graduates from high school, or they retire, or they can sell their $500,000 house that's now priced at $1.200,000!  Not "worth" $1.2 Million, just "priced" at that figure.  Showing the enormous discrepancy between asking price and value. 

But finding someone to buy their house is the key!  In Joe O'Biden's America home mortgage rates are 8% and more.  Making home ownership out of the question for most Americans for the first time since Jimmy Carter's Recession! 

Oh yeah, and car insurance has doubled in the past three years.  And auto maintenance is up 38%.  Making automobile ownership no longer possible for an alarming percentage of our older folks.  Those who have already paid their dues, and just wish to live a quiet, comfortable retirement.  

But they no longer can.  The O'Biden Administration's rabid socialist ideology has seen to that.  

Retired folks who can no longer afford their homes, and can no longer afford their cars, and can no longer afford to eat, is our Quiet Emergency!  

These 62 Million of your fellow citizens have no voice.  Almost one in five of your neighbors are in real trouble!  They have no way of getting out the message; they can no longer afford to live in O'Biden's America!  So I'm lending what voice I have in an effort to help.  By asking that you pass along this message, or its essense, to your friends and neighbors.  It's important.  

And Hey, Washington!  Hey, Sacrascrewyou!  Get with it!  People are gonna' die if you don't get off your ass and do what we're paying you for!

*    Once again, the definition of inflation is too many dollars chasing too few goods.  With the O'Biden Administration having spent $9,000,000,000,000 (with a "T") more than we took in since being immaculated just 3 short years ago, the Country's awash in money!  So goods and services are being bid up from raw materials, through manufacturing, and distribution, through sales.  Only the Federal Gubmint reigning in its Gargantuan spending habit by a change of Administrations will return us to de-inflated prices.  Otherwise, the $15.00 hamburger will be the norm.  And our Senior Citizens will be starving...


Thursday, April 25, 2024

Alexis de Toqueville.

One of my favorite people ever was a guy named Alexis de Toqueville.  That's because he loved America.  And so do I.

de Toqueville (1805 - 1859) was a French historian, philosopher, author, economist and statesman.  Plus, a great friend of America.  The then-world's newest nascent democracy.

And since I studied economics, I studied de Toqueville.  This man grew to love America as it was just evolving into the world's foremost (small "d") democracy.  Before it was created as a Representative Republic.  And if you'll recall, France was unseating its monarchy at about that same time, upending 1,000 years of serfdom for its people, so issues of freedom and democracy were uppermost in his thinking.

After studying our Constitution, de Toqueville offered his opinion that America would become so strong that it could only fail if its politicians learned how to buy votes with other voters' money.  And Fellow Patriots... 

...we're there.

Joe O'Biden attempted last year to take $430,000,000,000 of student loan debt off the backs of 43 Million of the folks who borrowed it, and on to the backs of Taxpayers.   

He tried to give $10,000 in debt relief to those making $125,000 or less.  In other words, giving $10k in cash to those who didn't earn it.  He was sued, and the Supreme Court smacked him down.

SCOTUS said O'Biden couldn't just give away money, as that's the purview of our Legislative Branch.  Only the Congress, SCOTUS said, could spend our Taxpayers' cash.  "Separation of Powers" and all that.

Look it up if your education didn't include it...  

But he didn't stop with that illegal, immoral and unconstitutional effort to circumvent the Supreme Court...and our Constitution.  He just authorized the giveaway of $430 Billion (that's with a "B") to 30 million doctors and lawyers and college professors.  Those who promised contractually to pay back the loans they took out to go to med school.  And to law school.  And to journalism school, fergodssake!  While a majority of our taxpayers  didn't.  

They either couldn't afford it, or chose not to afford it.  But now our cranky old POTUS who's yet to find a law he cannot violate, is trying to buy the votes of 30 million elites by saddling other Taxpayers with the $20,000 they had agreed to pay!  

That's not debt forgiveness, that's debt transference!

And, O'Biden also stated he's not through yet!   He says he plans to give away all the rest of it!

The Federal Gubmint, YOUR Federal Gubmint, currently guarantees some $1,600,000,000,000 (that's with a "T") in student loan debt.  One Point Six Trillion Dollars!  And the Mumbler-in-Chief plans to make you and me pay it back.

de Toqueville was right.  He warned us more than two centuries ago, and yet we somehow permitted these thieves to rip us off.  Right here in front of God and everybody.  While our "State Media" refuses to report it.  The very same "Media" our Constitution imbued with special powers.  So they could make sure "We the People" stayed informed.  And to be forewarned against highway robbers stealing money from some of us to give to others of us.  They were chosen to protect us against an abuses such as this.  And yet, they've thrown in with the abusers.  

It just makes me want to puke.

And de Toqueville would want to puke right alongside me.  We've just had our pockets picked, in public.  Rome lasted a long time.  We've lasted even longer.  But how much longer we last, if we last, remains to be seen...


Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Looking for Some Jews, With BALLS...

Has anyone stopped to think what would happen if the Jews fought back?

I'd like to start by saying the Nationwide marches and protests and sign-waving and flag burning against the Jews and in support of HAMASSSS and the quote-unquote "Palestinians"is pissing me off!  As in,  

        REALLY PISSING ME OFF!

It seems the rich in this Country have sent their kids off to pricey institutions of higher learning, to learn...to hate the Jews?  Did they know that when they wrote those Big Checks to Haaavid, and Yale, and Princeton, and Dartmouth?  And especially, Columbia?  $90,000 a year?  Really?  For what?  For this?

As one of the more than 1.7 Million Veterans who's worn the uniform and carried a gun in defense of this Country and its citizens, I can tell you that if I were near someone who tried to burn our Flag I would smack the sh*t out of them!  However old and crochety I may be, I wield a pretty fair cane!  And trust me, you don't want a caning from The Chuckmeister!

What these ritzy colleges and universities are permitting could unravel America.  It could literally cause a civil war.  A civil war these ignorant fools can never win.  Because we true Americans own all the guns.  Another thing they haven't thought through.  And I'm going to try and prevent that from happening, right here, right now...

According to my research, there are approximately 7.5 Million Jews in America.

Of those, 5.8 Million are adults, and 1.7 Million are children.

We can assume, therefore, that about half that 5.8 Million adults are men, and half are women.  Roughly 2.9 Million Jewish men, unencumbered by a law or M.D. degree, are therefore roaming around the U. S. of A.  Working just like normal folks doing normal things.  And getting royally pissed off just like I am...  

Now then, I don't have the time, effort or energy to count up all the Jewish doctors, and lawyers, and college/university professors there are out there, but I'm guessing it's a big number.  Let's say fully half that 2.9 Million Jewish men are emasculated by virtue of their profession.  Jewish doctors and lawyers probably wouldn't fight all that well or make good snipers, for example.

(My buddy Sam is a Veteran, so I'm excluding him).

I'm wondering whether there's a few hundred thousand Jewish men out there with enough BALLS to defend their faith, their race, their God-given spiritual Fatherland and the concept of America itself?  I know Jewish truck drivers.  I know Jewish electricians.  I know a number of Jewish entrepreneurs.  I even know a Jewish farrier (horseshoer).  They exist.  But I'm wondering whether there's enough Jewish men to take up arms and defend their faith?  Men with real, honest-to-God... 

...balls? 

Annnnd, I might mention there's a few of us other Veterans who'd be willing to Stand Up with our Jewish friends and neighbors.  A few hundred thousand of us, at the very least.  Because they're Americans.  And we're Americans.  And that's what Americans do.

Can you imagine what 500,000 pro-Israeli, pro-Jewish counter-protesters would do to these pantywaist Ivy League students?  

We need these Jews to step up and fight, and protest, to march, to wave signs and banners, and to burn "Palestinian" flags!  To get pissed off!  And to show up in such formidable numbers that you scare the crap out of them!  They're just a bunch of bullies anyway, and we can rub their noses in it!  We'll scare them off the battlefield.  And back into their classrooms.  Where they can learn some more pricey stuff that obviously doesn't matter.  And the same with their Anti-American and Anti-Jewish professors.  Before it becomes a battlefield.    

And BTW, that situation is not far away...

I see the privileged youth of all the very rich out on the streets yelling vile slogans against their former friends.  "From the river to the sea," calls for the extermination of Israel.  That's the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.  That's like the "N" Word to our Black friends!  Did you know that?  These students have been urged on by TikTok to hate the Jews.  With the strings being pulled by China, no less.  Teaching those who view TikTok that the Jews are the oppressors and the "Palestinians" are the oppressed.  Why?  Because Jews are "White?"  Are our privileged students really that simple?  Yes, it appears they are.

Do they remember when Israel gave the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to the "Palestinians" 25 years ago so that the violence would stop?  To finally buy some peace?  After 50 years of constant war?

The "Palestinians" were given this land so they could build their own state.  Did they teach them that in school?  And so that the "Palestinians" would stop blowing up their pizza parlors and knifing citizens standing at bus stops?  Did they teach them that in school?  And then these same "Palestinians" took the hundreds of $Millions of dollars given them by the countries of the world, including America, and dug tunnels.  And bought rockets.  And hand grenades.  And prepared for war. 

Hey Ivy League students, did they teach you that in school? 

HAMASSSSS says they say they will ultimately win this war.  No matter how long it takes.  And if given the opportunity, they say they'll repeat their atrocities of October 7th over and over again.  Forever.  For they do not want a two-state solution.  They want a "one-state" solution.  They want to push the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea.  That same "Sea" our students are now chanting about.  And our students are their willing stooges.  

Nice.

The Jews need to learn RIGHT NOW that the war has started, whether they like it or not, and that they are in it.  And that our most prestigious colleges and universities have been co-opted; they've so indoctrinated their students, our children, that we cannot count on them to defend our Jewish friends in the future.  And they'd better start fighting it before it becomes the next Pogrom.  Or even worse, another Holocaust.  And with our current Administration bowing from the ankles to its hard-Left "Progressives," it could happen.  

They could allow it to happen, just to try and win the upcoming Election.

Such is the price of having 500,000 "Palestinians" and  Somalians in Dearborn, Michigan.  Maybe we should have thought about that before we flew Rashita Tlaib and Illhan Omar out of their squalor in the Middle East and into Dearborn.  And then bought them a college education.  With taxpayer money.  So they could be elected to Congress and ruin all our lives.  

I'm sorry to say that one of the reasons the Jews have suffered such horrible treatment down through the eons is because they're such good victims.  They don't fight back much.  Like my best friend told me after October 7th, "It's just another chapter in a 5,000 year old book."  Maybe it's time they write the final chapter in that book.  Maybe it's time their enemies learned the meaning of fear...   

Take up arms!  Teach these ignorant as*holes a lesson!  Make them know there's a price for marching and protesting and hating the Jews.  And burning my FLAG!  And that price should be dear.

This can only happen if the Jews have big enough balls to Stand and Deliver.  And I for one will do anything I can to help them succeed.**

*   There are no "Palestinians."  God gave the land called Judea to the Jews in Genesis 1:13.  He did not give any land to the "Palestinians."  In fact, the "Palestinians" were simply Jordanian Hashemite Arabs that King Hussein kicked out following the partition by the United Nations back in 1948.  The partition that gave Israel back to the Jews.  And immediately ignited a war.  One that's never stopped.  And you know the rest...

**  I'll be happy to train a soldier, a squad, a company, a battalion or a regiment.  If you need to know how to wage a war, call somebody who's helped wage one. Call upon the Chuckmeister... 


Sunday, April 21, 2024

The Cybertruck "Pipedream."

As a self-described near-expert on all things automotive,* I just had to write to you, my Fellow Patriots, about this new rolling outrage called the "Cybertruck."

Perhaps I should start by reminding you about P. T. Barnum's famous quote, "There's a sucker born every minute."  And I would offer that 3,818 of them, so far, have bought a Cybertruck from "Elon the Rich."

I've heard Mr. Musk designed the Cybertruck on the back of a napkin.  Most likely whilst engaged in a drug-induced pipedream.  It looks like it, doncha' think?  A comic book caricature of what a pickup truck should look like.  And be.  And in sheet stainless steel, no less!  Almost impossible to form, as sheet stainless steel has innate memory.  It wants to "spring back" into its original shape.  Unless it's smashed by a 120 ton press, that is!  And there's only three of them in all of North America, as it turns out.  A time-consuming, expensive process.

And here's a question: why is it necessarily made out of stainless steel, again?  Unless just to be different for the sake of being different?  Oh, because it needs to be bulletproof.  Ummm, okay!  

And bulletproof glass windows?  Really?  What farmer or rancher or builder or carpenter or welder or working man who heads on down to his truck dealer for a new pickup needs bulletproof glass?  Didn't we already incarcerate El Chapo?  Who needs that?  Maybe only a smoked-up $Multi-Zillionaire?  Sorta' makes one lust for a nice, simple F-150, now don't it? 

And however toy-like it looks from a distance, this thing is YUUUGE!  It is almost 19 feet long, almost 6' tall, and nearly 7 and 1/2 feet  wide!  And it weighs more than 6,600 pounds in its cheapest guise!  And well over 7,000 pounds in the two-motor model!  That is the weight of TWO modern compact gas powered sedans!  Saving the planet?  Pullleeeeezzz!

Oh yeah, it accelerates from 0 - 60 in...ready for it?  2.6 seconds!  That's quicker than a Corvette Z-06!  That's wonderful, for a sports car!  But for a...truck?  It will make your gums bleed in a drag race, but how about bringing some hay bales out to the calves in the back 40?  Ummm, not so much...

And did I mention this beast will chew up a set of $1,200 tires every 6,000 miles?  Did I mention that?  Because it weighs more than 3 Tons!  Oh yeah, I did.  It also plays hell with your highways and byways, for the very same reason.  Buuut, because it doesn't need gas, no gas taxes are paid to rebuild the highways it chews up.  Hmmmm...

Yeah, and seeing out of a vehicle is usually very important.  Nice to see what's coming and going, doncha' think?  Not in a Cybertruck, it seems.  Looking out the front windshield is nearly impossible due to its seating position and the windshield's rake.  And it has no rearview mirrors, just cameras.  Forcing one to look down and to the right to see what's happening out the side window and to the left.  Counterintuitive, much?  So in driving this tank I guess its owners assume that everyone else will just get the Hell out of the way...

And they just recalled every one of them every built, including hundreds of those already made and sold but not shipped, because its accelerator pedal cover can fall off and cause it to go FULL THROTTLE!  And you could be at 60 mph and buy the local convenience store before you could say, "Oh Helllll No!!!"

And then there's the proud new owner who decided to go through the local car wash.  And even though there's a "Car Wash Mode" button on the screen, his now-shiny new Cybertruck didn't like it much.  It decided to shut down entirely and turn its control screen black.  For five hours.  And since that screen controls every feature in the vehicle, his doors were locked and he couldn't get out.  For five hours.  Yeah.

And then let's talk "range."  As in, how far will this sucker go after a full charge?  Well, Fellow Patriots, the answer is 224 miles!  Only!  Want to take a trip from L.A. to Vegas?  Yeah, on that 275 miles trip you'd make it just past Baker, and then you'd be toast.  Dead on the side of the freeway.  Clearly, this thing is nothing but a plaything for rich commuters.  Who don't have far to go, or much to do when they get there...

This thing is a flat-out abomination.  And it costs more than $80,000!  Well over $100k with all the bells and whistles.  And they've been traded at auctions so far for more than $150 Large!!!  Because some of our richer "must have now" folks just cannot wait for Elon to build them one. 

Barnum should have been sainted!  And may I say it's a real shame $money can sometimes attach itself to the simplest, most ignorant, dumbest, most foolish and...may I say stupid buttholes in the neighborhood.  The ones who can sing and dance and act, and maybe trade stocks and hit baseballs better than average, for it's likely they are the only folks buying this rolling joke...

Yes I may.    

*   I'm a car nut.  I've read every word I could find about them since I was about 15.  And I've owned 127 of them.  Including Porsches and Corvettes and Mercedes-Benzes and Cadillacs and 5 VW Beetles and a Rolls-Royce.  I even raced AHRA and SCCA for many years, and even spent a summer on the Alfa-Romeo Formula 1 pit crew.  So I form my opinion about one car or truck over another advisedly.  And my opinion about the Cybertruck is carefully formed.  In short, it's an overpriced joke, doodled up by an eccentric $Billionaire to answer a question nobody is asking, and pushed out the door to an over-monied audience before it was ready for Prime Time... 

Friday, April 19, 2024

"Peace In Our Time"

It was the Fall of 1938.  

Hitler was banging the war drums and the world was getting nervous.  Especially England.  It knew war could be on the horizon.  And it was not ready for that war...

Hitler demanded that Czechoslovakia cede the "Sudentenland" to Germany.  The Sudentenland had belonged to Germany but was taken by the United Nations as reparations in the aftermath of World War One.  And Germany, although flattened by the War, had been required to pay back all the costs incurred by England and America and all the Allied Powers from prosecuting that War.  It was demanded they reimburse us and all the other Allies, when their economy was in tatters.  Their inflation rate at the time was over 100%.  They were dead broke, shamed on the world stage, distrusted by everyone, and rightfully so, and looking for a leader to rescue them from the results of their own excesses.

Enter Adolph Hitler.

Hitler gave Germany hope in WW1's aftermath.  And the feeling that when they got on their feet there'd be Hell to pay by us for so mistreating the Fatherland.  And he was just the guy to handle that task.  To deliver retribution.  So behind the scenes Hitler began building up his military (Germany was prohibited from doing that, but just like with Iran today, no one was paying attention).  He started building war planes.  And submarines.  Hundreds of them.  And war ships.  Chief among them, the world's largest battleship, the Bismarck.  All done in secret (no satellites in those days).  So Germany was just about ready to exact its revenge.  On a world that had pressed them just a little bit too hard...

So Winston Churchill, England's Prime Minister, sent Neville Chamberlain, his diplomatic envoy, to visit Hitler.  To convince him to play nice with his neighbors and stop rattling sabers.  It was September 19, 1938, and Chamberlain went to Berchtesgaden.  To the foot of the Alps.  And then up the winding road to "Eagles Nest," as it was called.*  Hitler had the top of a mountain chopped off so he could build his meeting place away from prying eyes and ears.   

In fact, Churchill sent Chamberlain to visit Hitler 3 times that September, trying to stem the tide of war.  After numerous meetings, Chamberlain believed he had hammered out a deal with Hitler.  Hitler would not invade, he said.  And Chamberlain believed him.

So Chamberlain flew back to England, briefed Churchill, and called a press conference.  He spoke of his meetings will Hitler and did his best to calm the nervous Brits.  And he ended that conference with these fateful words:

         "We will have peace in our time."

As the German philosopher George Santayana once said, "Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it."  And it appears from a look back at history that we are repeating Chamberlain's errors.  Our Secretary of State Blinken has flitted back and forth to the Middle East a dozen times since HAMMASSS killed 1,200 Israelis.  O'Biden was behind Israel all the way at first.  Until he learned that somebody had let 500,000 Palestinian and Somalian Muslims into Dearborn, Michigan.  And that these America haters were going to vote against O'Biden come November unless he stops supporting our oldest and dearest ally.  And that there's a bunch of these same Palestinian lovers in Wisconsin.  So now O'Biden's new "Two State Solution" is Michigan and Wisconsin...

Funny what happens when you don't think things through...

O'Biden's been trying to appease these murderous thugs for 6 months now.  Notice there's nary a mention of our American hostages currently held by HAMASSSS in any address he gives.  Nor the other 100 or so hostages, either.  Only that Bebe should capitulate.  Drop his trousers, and bend over and grab his ankles.  And let HAMMASSSSS break it off in his a*s.  

I somehow doubt that will happen.  Israel just proved last night it can and will exact a toll on Iran any time it wants, and with or without our help.  And I'll support him every step of the way.  Then, the only question will be, "How big are Iran's balls?"

Our POTUS has been trying to convince us that the Jews should just roll over and except the outrage visited upon them.  And it seems a very loud chunk of the Democrat Party is now overtly antisemitic.  And the explosion of Jewish hatred on our elite college and university campuses is dramatic!  And alarming!  Maybe these $90,000 a year institutes of "higher learning" always were antisemitic, and have just been doing their best to hide it.  I'm frankly shocked that they are, but more importantly, that they're dumb enough to publicly exhibit it.

And now that the Iranians have directly attacked Israel, from Iranian territory, O'Biden and his mouthpieces are declaring that we, America, will not support Israel when they respond.  So they responded all by themselves.  Proving that they can and will take care of business, thankyou.  

And proving something else:  If you have a friend like O'Biden, you don't need any enemies...  

*  BTW, I was stationed in Germany, and I visited "Eagles Nest" before they declared it off limits (rock slides, they say).  It's a 2,300 square foot house with no bedrooms, perched atop the tallest Alp in the area, and designed and used entirely for political and military get togethers.  There's an elevator right in the middle of the building, it's only access.  And that elevator is lined in sheet copper and leather and golden light fixtures.   And the 110' tunnel to the elevator was made of curved and polished granite.  I was told they did this so they could spray machine gun fire from the elevator all over in the event the Allies breached their security and tried to invade the tunnel.  Shame it's no longer available to visit.  It's a piece of history, and a reminder that despots should be kept in check.  Like the Ahh-ha-tollah of Iran.  And our own budding despot, one Mr. O'Biden...   

Wednesday, April 17, 2024

I Just Accomplished Nothing.

Did you know that 36 of our 50 largest cities are run by Democrats?  And 4 are Independent and vote Democrat!  Dayummm, are those folks doing some bang-up job, or what?  

And we all know that it was these Democrats who screamed in unison back in 2020, "Defund The Police!!!"  

Yeah, that's it!  The thing we need the most, and have the least of to spare, we'll just send packing!  We'll just up and fire them!  And make the "Progressives" all happy like.  'Cause they make up the majority of their constituency (NOT!). 

And we all know that since they've now seen Jesus (or to Whomever they pray, assuming that they pray), and tried to blame the whole thing on Trump (isn't everything his fault?), are now trying their best to make nice with their police departments.  

What's left of them.  

Because even though they hate the cops, they need the cops to help them out of this crime crisis they've created for themselves.  As in, when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

I mean, getting rid of their cops should have caused all the crooks to stop crooking, and all the crimes to stop crime-ing.  Right?  No?  I guess human nature tends to show itself when given the chance.  And people revert to anti-social animals if you allow it.  And they're allowing it...      

Crimes have a tendency to tamp down voter turnout, doncha' know.  The folks running these failed cities fear an actual job might be in their future if they don't get their act together...

They don't care for their residents either, I believe, for if they did they wouldn't have let their warped ideology get in the way of good governance.  

We wish...

But even though I think these ludicrous bozos should be left hoisted on their own petards, I can't help but try and help their citizens.  Who are dying...

So here goes.

There were 798,876 police personnel on active duty in America on January 1st, 2020.  The day Trump left office.  

There are only 709,001 on active duty as of the end of October, 2023.  They are down 15%.    

Example:  New York City has 35,887 cops on duty as of right now.  It had 37,668 on the day O'Biden took office.

Another:  Lost Angeles has 8,882 cops on duty as of right now, the lowest number since 1990.  It had 9,499 in 2020, the day L.A.'s city council "defunded" their police.  

So while the city councils of America's Biggest and Bluest Cities permitted crime to spike to untold levels, they were simultaneously taking $Millions out of their police budgets.  To fund dummmass projects searching for votes from the loudest small sliver of their constituents.  

And their cops were bolting to the suburbs.  Where they'd be paid better, loved more, and be safer.  Far fewer were left in those Big Blue Cities to catch Bad Guys.  So rapes, burglaries, molestations, robberies, shoplifting and murders are at an all time high. 

And oh by the way, it was the youngest and arguably the most dedicated cops who fled with that "defunding."  And there's no guarantee that the cops who remained, the ones closest to retirement, aren't the ones most likely to abuse their authority and their badges.      

Vote Democrat and fear for your lives!  

And wouldn't you know it?  While this was going on, O'Biden kept a campaign promise and permitted 12,000,000 unvetted illegal aliens, from 159 countries, so far, to enter our Nation.  Unmolested.  While we travelers are forced to remove our shoes while being felt up by TSA agents.    

Name me another country, on Earth, that would permit such a travesty?

I suggest cities like ChicaGO and New Yawk City and San Franpoopco and Lost Angeles appoint a carefully-vetted and well-regulated militia.  To work with and augment the actions and duties of their sheriff's patrols.  Not cops, sheriffs (they are elected by the people, cops are appointed).  

And they could draw these citizens from the ranks of our retired military.  There are 1,700,000 retired Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Space Force and Coast Guard retirees in America.  Plus more than 600,000 retired police officers.  And 100,000 from the FBI and CIA and NSA and Federal Marshals and other governmental agencies connected to law enforcement.  And each of them have been trained in the use of firearms of all sizes and types.  And they've all been vetted, completely, repeatedly for years.  Decades, even!  

They are our resource!

And these citizens militias should have Concealed Carry Firearms licenses to mount and deploy.  Under the control of the Sheriff of their respective counties.  NOT police.  Instantly, these cities could double or even triple their policing forces, by adding a cadre of trained, law-abiding, and well-motivated citizens.  

Sort of like the Red Berets of New Yawk City, except multiplied several-fold and packing heat.  

I doubt they'd even have to be paid, or paid much, given that they're likely citizens of the cities they're trying to protect.  And I'm guessing they, too, desire a return to safe streets.  In fact, I'll bet if these cities would spring for the vests and the tasers and the ammo and all the necessary gear, they'd be overrun with applications.

Oh wait!  I'm sorry, I just woke up from my revery!  I thought that the weenies who run my State of Taxifornia, and the other Big Blue States, might welcome volunteers to help reduce crime.  But the truth is, they don't want civilians to carry guns.  They don't even want cops to carry guns!  'Cause they're a bunch of ideological fools!

Great ideas that fall upon deaf ears accomplish nothing.  Those in power are deaf.  I guess I just accomplished nothing...


Monday, April 15, 2024

"The Streets of San Francisco"

 Lemme' start by saying I could really use an extra $1,200 a month!  

That might bring me to just about where I was when Joe O'Biden was immaculated.  I figure just about $1,200 a month has been scalped from my bank account every month since my dunce cap friends and neighbors voted to make that cranky old Mumbler-in-Chief our POTUS.  What with a yuuuge increase in my electric bill, and my house insurance, and gas for my car, plus the hosing I get when I go grocery shopping, I'm out at least $1,200 a month.  And there's a bunch of dummies up there in San Franpoopco trying to replace it for me...  

And me wanting that extra $1,200 has nothing at all to do with the fact that I identify as a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and Person of Color), and a Gypsy, plus a Palestinian Jew with PTSD who suffers from the Heartbreak of Psoriasis.  Plus,  I also identify as TITE (Transgender In The Extreme!).  If that's even an acronym.  If not, I just made it up.  Just so you know.  

And we're all aware the only thing these folks care about is "identifying."  And that's what I'm doing.  I even identify as living in San Franpoopco, even though I'm 500 miles away!  And trust me, living 500 miles away is certainly preferable, as you could get shot, or knifed, or carjacked, or mugged, or step in a pile of human feces up there!  

They don't even take police reports for broken auto windows.  They're up to 60 a day now.  Since they don't have the cops to catch the thieves ("Defund the Police!"), they've set up a fund to pay the victims using public taxpayer money.  Think about that...    

So if you're wondering why The Chuckmeister should be writing to you about $1,200 a month, here's why.  The "G.I.F.T." Act just opened up in SFO.  The "Trans District" of San Franpoopco (they have their own District!) plus the "Lyon-Martin Community Health Services," in partnership with the "City of San Franpoopco" (Whew!), all got together, pooled their dwindling cash, and decided to give it to some really strange folks.  The ones living out there on their streets.  

"The Streets of San Francisco."  

I'm guessing they're doing this just to see what happens.  Like watching lab rats in a "Skinner Box."  Just to see how the drug dealers and addicts and pimps and whores and carjackers and rapists react.  A tool I used in my formal training to become a clinical psychologist.  But that's just me. 

Anyway, recipients must exhibit Transgender, Non-Binary, Gender Non-Conforming and Intersex (TGI) tendencies (whatever all that means), but I'm sure I qualify 'cause I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.  And be Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color (BIPOC) (I identify as all three!); experience homelessness; or be disabled, clinically-ill or be a monolingual Spanish speaker.  Good news!  I'm disabled, clinically-ill and identify as a Spanish speaker, even though my vocabulary in that language is severely limited!  Ole!

So to sum it up, as near as I can tell, if you only speak Spanish, just got to San Fran, have no place to go, feeling sort of gay and tranny and disabled-like, or could feel that way for an extra $1,200 a Month; Plus Intersex-y and sorta' non-binary-ish, meaning "any port in a storm," I guess (heh, heh); Whatever all that means, if you got it going for you, you just might glom onto an extra $1,200 a month.

Congratulate me!  One of my longest sentences!  But since I only know how to write like I talk, I specialize in long-ish sentences!  

Well, like me, what if you're nearly all of the above?  Except for the homeless part, which I will be very soon unless O'Biden stops trying to destroy America.  Now, in the meantime, I'm still not sure what my gender has to do with "conforming," but I've never been accused of being a conformist, so I've got that going for me.  I think.  But it's all so confusing.  

It's always confusing, I guess, when a bunch of presumably well-meaning but brain-addled folks, all try and influence aberrant human sexual activity using somebody else's money.  

But I did take a class in college one time entitled...

"Let's Talk Sex (#101):  All you have to do is come." 


Saturday, April 13, 2024

Pssst! Our Gas Prices Suck!

Those of us unfortunates who are still incarcerated in the Peoples Republic of Taxifornia are laughing out loud at the teeth-gnashing going on in our "State Media" about the increase in the "national" price of gasoline.  

They're getting worried that the "facts" about "Bidenflation" will leak out and their boy O'Biden will lose to Big Orange in November.  Because it was just reported that the price of gas is up to $3.63 a gallon today, up from $3.58 a week ago.  And $3.39 a month ago.  

Well HELLLLLLOOOOOOOO!!!

If this "Letter From the Resistance" somehow manages to make its way out of this has-been, once-Golden State, possibly on the back of a carrier pigeon, and therefore influence voters' minds, please be advised the price of gas here is an arm, and quite often a leg.

Gen-Z'ers are bitching about not being able to afford a house in the Mumbler-in-Chief's economy.  Could be they soon won't be able to fuel their 20 year-old Honda Civics enough to get to their jobs at McDonalds!

Actually, not to be dramatic, but the price of a gallon of this now precious fluid down the block from me is $5.89.  And nearer to San Franpoopco I've heard it's well over $7.00.  And upwards of $8.00 and even $9.00 a gallon in the mountains. 

Does our so-called "MainStreamMedia" report that?  Do the ABC's and the NBC's and the CBS's inform their viewers that on a nightly basis?  That fully 15% of our citizenry (plus maybe100 million illegal aliens) held hostage in Taxifornia is paying TWICE AS MUCH FOR GAS as the other 49 states?  And how about the "State Media" cable channels?  Do they report the prices Taxifornians routinely pay for gas?  

NOOOOOOOO!!!  

Now think about this:  We are sitting on a river of oil.  The "Kern River Basin" provides enough oil and gas to fuel CA well into the future.  And when our other four gigantic oil basins are factored in,* we Americans have enough gas and oil to last at least 200 years! (courtesy U. S. Geological Survey).  In fact, we have more oil and gas reserves than every other country on Earth!  Did you know that?  

Has our "State Media" informed you of that fact?

So why are we spending Four Times as much to build windmills as it costs to recover our oil and gas?  When wind doesn't blow all the time?  And why are we investing so much in solar?  When the sun doesn't shine all the time?  And even if it did, we don't have the battery storage capacity to keep all that saved-energy for the times when it's most needed!  

And we're told these "leaders" some of us elected are choosing these options because of "Climate Change."  But the last time I checked, the sun comes up in the East and goes down in the West.  And the "Climate" blows steadily from West to East, counter-clockwise to the rotation of the Earth.  So the "Climate" our BoyGuv is using our tax money to clean, will be in Shanghai by next Tuesday.  And the Chinese would like to thank us for cleaning up their air.  And oh by the way, we just closed our last coal mine in the Northeast.  And China just opened is 1,200th Coal Mine!

Are our leaders CPDLW's,** or what?

Yes, yes they are...

*    Permian Basin (W. TX, E. NM), Eagle Ford Basin, (W. TX), Marcellus Shale (Appalachians, S. PA), Utica Shale, (S. NY, E. PA).

**   Commie, Pinko, Dummmmass, Liberal Weenies.  

Thursday, April 11, 2024

Josef Goebbels Would Be So Proud!

Imagine if Adolph Hitler had managed to get his citizens to willingly submit, actually self-select, the propaganda he was spewing their way?  The beliefs he needed them to adopt in order for him to turn Deutschland from a nascent, post-War democracy and into a fascist dictatorship?  In less than a decade?     

All I can say is, Josef Goebbels would be proud!

I think you know that I, The Chuckmeister, your Scribe Without Portfolio, am the guy who's dedicated to bringing you the unfiltered facts on any subject worth unfiltering.  And one of those facts is the news we as a society decide to consume.  And we decide, since nobody's holding a gun our heads.

Yet.

Back in the 1930's, Hitler instructed his Minister of Information, one Herr Josef Goebbels, to use disinformation to convince the public that life sucked under their then Chancellor.  And that guns were bad and folks should willingly give them to the state.  And that all the ills they were suffering were the fault of the Jews.  And that they should welcome him as the Second Coming.

So what has changed, again?*

And once the public was disarmed, he threatened to shoot them if they didn't buy in to his continuing propaganda.  Like they do in Cuba.  And China.  And in North Korea.  Because their socialist/Marxist/communist governments had taken away their guns, and they could no longer fight back.  

We're not quite there yet, but if people keep self-selecting the socialist propaganda the Democrat Party keeps shoveling their way at the ballot box, we soon will. 

And I have to believe it's those self-same people who are choosing to watch our most Liberal TV channels.  Only!  The MSNBC's and the CNN's and the PBS's and the NPR's.  And of course the ABC's and the CBS's and the NBC's.  Guaranteed to give you one side of every issue, every day all day long. 

Imagine being so damn dumb as to Choose to limit themselves to only one side of every issue!  

And of course the New York Times and the Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune and the Lost Angeles Times.  All marinating their Liberal viewers and readers in a mixture of socialism, Marxism and full-on communism.  All day, and all night. 

Only the very most Liberal, and even "Progressive" side of every issue will be reported, or presented.  Remember, there are errors of "OMISSION," not reporting an "inconvenient" story, one that might help Trump, for instance, as well as "COMMISSION," by presenting factually inaccurate information (lying).

Would they do that?  Yes they would.  

On any given evening, just over 1,000,000 of your fellow citizens will choose to watch MSNBC.  During so-called "peak" hours, the 25 - 54 demographic so in vogue these days.  That's the demographic advertisers are seeking.  The ones who pay Big Bucks to advertise their dog food and their pharmaceuticals and their cars and their their shampoo. 

Ahhhh, but some 2,600,000 folks just like you are watching Fox News on an average evening (about 38% of them are Democrats, BTW!).  More than twice as many.  Seeking to be educated by Fox' professional journalists.  And their contributors.  Where you can expect every subject with more than one side will always be represented by an expert, on each side.  And although Fox is branded as leaning Right, there will always be someone representing the Left in any debate.  Like one would expect real journalism to include. 

And then you, Mr. and Mrs. and Mzzz. America, can decide for yourself what to think and what to believe.  What a concept! 

(Can't do that on MSPMS.  They shut off his feed when Big Orange begins to offer a differing perspective.  Or even his nomination acceptance speech.  Oh, the humanity!)

And lastly, CNN brought in a miniscule 605,000 viewers.  Half as many as their ideological sister channel, MSNBC.  And less than the Home and Garden Channel, BTW.  Or the History channel.  Or A&E.  Or the Outdoor Channel.  This must weigh heavily on the tiny minds of its "leaders!"  The ones who come and go, making stupid decisions which blow up in their micro-abrased and Botox-relaxed faces.  

I can't get the image of 1,000,000 sad folks plunked down in front of their TV's, slavishly consuming the one-sided blather dished their way from the likes of MSNBC and CNN and PBS 24 hours-per-day.  At least the Microsoft folks, the "MS" in MSNBC, learned early on that the NBC folks were waaay out in left field and ran like bandits to distance themselves.  Leaving any effort toward moderation left aside by this admittedly Liberal channel. 

I think I can sum it up this way:  Listeners to NPR wouldn't know Hunter Biden had a laptop.  Viewers of MSNBC were told the laptop was "Russian disinformation."  CNN's viewers were told there was a laptop, but Hunter's now clean and sober, so it no longer matters.  All while an alarming percentage of our electorate chooses to consume this socialist tripe.  They vote, and they breed.  Josef Goebbels would be so proud...

*   Lemme' see here:  Everything the National Socialists (NAZIS) were for...the Democrat Party is for!  Hmmmm...


Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Face it, Cars Are Ugly!

Are you old enough to remember when cars were beautiful?  No?

When they were works of art?  Remodeled from stem to stern every single year?  As in, unrecognizable one year to the next?  Can you remember that?

If not, you're the poorer for it.  There was a time, several decades ago, when automobiles were designed to be lovely to look at, as well as to drive.  And early every September they unmasked a new edition.  And each year was advertised as being lower, and wider, and longer, and more powerful.  And quicker and slicker and neater and cuter!  

I can recall peeking through a tear in the butcher paper covering the floor-to-ceiling windows at my local Chevy dealer's for an early view of the new 1957's.  Because how cars looked back then made a big difference as to how they sold.  We were just coming off a Big War and hungry for newer and bigger and better.  And the car makers were providing it.

I ask you to think back to the 1957 Chrysler 300C, if you can.  And the '60 300F and '61 300G.   Created by the famed designer Virgil Exner.  All stunning!  Think the '57 Plymouth Sport Fury (Christine!).  And the 1960 DeSoto Adventurer.  A rolling work of art.  And the '64 Imperial Le Baron.  Plus the '67 Dodge Charger.  Unique!    

And how about the "Tri-Fives," the '55, '56, and '57 Chevy Bel Airs so coveted today?  And the freakily gorgeous '59 Impala?  I'd love to own one now.  And there are the cars designed by the famous Harley Earle back in the '60's.  How about the famous '61 Impala "bubbletop?"  Just beautiful!  Or GM's '64 Oldsmobile Starfire?  And the 1960 and '61 Pontiac Venturas and Bonnevilles?  Stopped traffic.  And the gorgeous '72 Buick (boattail) Riviera?  How did this make it past accounting?  And the '68 and especially '69 Chevelles, perhaps the most iconic auto design ever (think Bumblebee)?  

And Ford's beautiful '60 and '61 Starliners?  And the Ford (Shelby) Cobras?  And the '55 - '57 Thunderbird?  And it's '55/'56 Lincoln Continental?  And the iconic '70 - '71 429 cu. in. Mustangs?  And the weird but wonderful '58 Mercury Park Lane?  (I'm not a Ford fan so I've already stretched to say something complementary).*

These are but a very few of the gorgeous cars I grew up coveting.  I wanted them all!  And wound up owning 127 of them, BTW.  In both the U.S. and Europe.  Turns out shooting pool for big money in dirty dark dens of iniquity paid well enough to finance my love of cars.  And women, too, but that's another story.

When my love of cars began a 2-door hardtop was cool.  A convertible was even cooler.  A station wagon could possibly be cool, depending upon who was driving it.  A pickup was not cool, 'cause they were for work.  And a four-door sedan was the absolute un-coolest thing you could possibly drive.  And you hid your face when you did.  

Which is what we've got now. 

And to convince you that style was important, Ford's "Edsel" ('58 - '60) proves it.  The Edsel was ugly.  And it failed.  Ford released it in '58 and it went down in flames.  It was laughed off the market and cost Ford more than $One Billion Dollars.  Back when a $Billion was real money.

And then Detroit looked to Europe and discovered that they didn't actually need to change the way cars looked every single year.  So they started stretching out redesigns to 4 - 5 years, and even as much as a decade to save money.  Even more in some cases.  Chrysler's "300" series was unveiled in 2004.  They just killed in 2023.  

(Some say Chrysler was so tardy because they didn't have any money for such niceties as "looks.")

Go outside.  Take a look around.  With the exception of Porsches and Corvettes, I'll bet you dollars to donuts you cannot tell one make from another from 50 feet away.  Especially from a side view.  Most of them are now "SUV's," which stands for "Sport Utility Vehicle," BTW.  That means they're pickup trucks with a different suit of clothes.  They poll-tested various combinations of words until they found something that made trucks sound good.  

You take a $25,000 Chevy pickup, you see, you remove the bed, and then you add a "station wagon," six- or nine-seat body.  And then you market it as something else entirely.  

Example:  The Cadillac Escalade is the $60,000 Chevrolet Suburban with a bit nicer leather seating and carpeting.  For an extra $40,000.  But people buy them.  Proving the truth in P. T. Barnum's admonition, "A sucker is born every minute."  

I would offer that cars ceased being beautiful and started being ugly just about 1980.  They were "three-box" square, and ugly as sin.  That's when the Gubmint stuck its gigantic maw into the car bizz and started mandating all sorts of safety measures.  5 mph bumpers and 18 air bags and crush-resistant bodies.  And in doing so all the designers were sent packing.  While our cars went from an average weight of 2,800 pounds in the '60's to 4,200 pounds today.  And as much as 6,000 pounds for (ugly) SUV's!  And another 2,000 pounds if one chooses a battery-electric!  

We Americans have been conditioned to believe that cars don't have to look good.  They just have to cart the family to and from grandma's, and the soccer team to and from the games.  All while their price went from a few $Thousand to $One Hundred Thousand!  We used to park under a shade tree, pile under the hood and install a bigger carburetor.  Now, there's a big metal shield under the hood preventing you from even seeing the engine upon which you're making Big Payments.  

And you only have to wash it along with the change in seasons.  Because there's no more pride of ownership!

Pffftttooooeeee!

I have owned a glorious '60 Chrysler Saratoga hardtop.  And a '60 Chevy Impala convertible.  And a bubble-top '61 Impala.  And a '62 409-409 while the song was on the charts ($3,802.76).  And a '66 427 Corvette, with all four off-road options ($6,674.20), worth $500k today.  And a '66 Porsche 911.  And a '53 Rolls-Royce.  And a '64 Porsche 356 (bathtub).  And a '61 Pontiac Ventura, 348 hp, 4-sp.  And a Mercedes-Benz 300d Cabriolet (gangster wagon).  And a '57 Bel-Air Sedan Delivery (one of 55).  And more than 100 other cars.  

           AND NONE OF THEM WERE UGLY!

I've lost sleep over not being able to keep a few of these treasures.  After all, it would take a warehouse to keep them, and a full-time mechanic to look after them.  None of which I happen to have.  So like everyone else, I bought them, and used them up, and traded them in for the next ride.  They were disposable as well as beautiful.  Like toasters back then.  Cars were traded in every 2 and 1/2 years back then.  Unlike now, which is 10 or more.  Seldom did they make it to 80,000 miles.  Their build quality was uniformly terrible so we traded them often.  Or just left them by the side of the road.  Buy 'em, trash 'em, send 'em right to the junk yard.  

Dayyummm, would I like to have a few of them back!

But those days are gone.  I'll exult in the memories of laying down 200 yards of rubber in front of City Hall back in my rebellious days (they never left).  While driving with a light right foot now to try and defend against $6.00 gas.

BTW, I'd advise anyone too young to recall the joy of living in this by-gone era, please Google these cars and others of their time, and bask in their beauty.  Then go to your local bar and try and drown your sorrow for having been born too late...

*   I'll add to this list the mid-'60's Ferrari 330 GTC's and 250 GTO's and 365 GTC Daytonas, and the '61 - '74 Jaguar E-Type, and the '68 - '70 Lamborghini Miura P400's, and the 1955 - '58 M-B 300 SL's.  But they were from Europe, cost a $Bundle even then, were almost unobtainable, and were - and are - moving works of art.  Plus, they're now worth $Millions. 


Sunday, April 7, 2024

Tax The Rich!!!

There's are certain things that we poor citizens hear on a continuing basis from our Democrat politicians.  They are, "Ban assault weapons!"  And "Abortion until the very second of birth!"  And, "Buy electric cars!"  And, "The economy is wonderful!"  And "Transgenders built our Country!"  And, "Gas is cheap!"  And also, 

                   tax the rich."

Those interminable bleatings would cause one to believe that our "rich" are undertaxed.  As in, they're keeping too much of our money.  Do you believe that?  If so, I'm guessing you sit on your hands and knees in front of your Telly and watch MSNBC all day and all night.  Or perhaps CNN.  And PBS and NPR and the "Alphabets."  Those channels make it a point to avoid telling you some inconvenient facts (OMISSION), while continually misleading you about others (COMISSION).

Let's talk a bit about those evil "rich" people we're supposedly under-taxing.  First, the Top 1% of our wage-earners here in 'Murica pay 29% of all taxes collected.  Did you know that?   

The Top 2%?  Sure.  It's 37%.  The Top 5% pays 41%.  And the Top 10%?  Yep, Fellow Patriots, the Top 10% pays fully 45% of all our taxes.  One in ten...pays half our taxes.  And Joe O'Biden, our Mumbler-in-Chief, believes they don't pay enough.  

So the next time you see your lawyer or doctor or banker drive by in his shiny new $100,000 Regina Juggernaut, just remember he's paying your freight.  

And get this:  49.5% of all Americans avoid paying income taxes...at all!  "Free riders," they're called.  While we've been driving the bus, they've been riding in it...for free!  And they get to vote just like we taxpayers do!  Like childless couples trying to tell us parents how to raise our kids!

Wait a minute.  Do I hear somebody out there in InternetLand who disbelieves my pronunciamentos?  Really?  Don't you know that I scrupulously research every statistic I offer you, my Fellow Patriots?  And in more than 15 years writing this unassuming little blog, I've never been found wanting.  Just thought I'd pass that along.

So in furtherance of the unfairness of our current "Progressive" tax system,* let's assume for a moment you've just designed the newest and best video game, ever.  So you get hired by a game company at $1,500,000 a year.  One Point Five Million!  A bundle of dough, yes?  You're now rich, yes?  And even though you've voted Democrat all your young life, and believe that every Republican is evil, you'll now get to breathe rarified air.  Like those filthy Republicans.  

Oh but wait!  You live in Taxifornia and you're about to learn why it's earned that name.  From your $1,500,000, here are your current deductions:

       -  $513,164 - Federal Income Taxes

       -  $184,557 - CA State Income Taxes

       -      $9,114 - Social Security 

       -    $33,450 - Medicare

       -      $1,604 - State Disability 

          $741,886 - Total CA Taxes

So you make a $Million Five and you get to keep less than half that.  Because you live in the State with the very highest taxes, and in a Country run by incompetent politicians.  Still think the "rich" don't pay their "fair share?"  

And on the way out the Digital Door, the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) has apparently won the war it's waged against McDonalds and all the other big franchisors.  It spent more than $60 Million of its Members' union dues over the past 12 years to try and break the franchisor/franchisee model.  When it couldn't, it learned all it had to do was give our BoyGuv Newsom a suitcase full of campaign cash.    

Now, beginning workers at chain stores are earning $41,600 a year!  $20 an hour!  Ain't that grand!  Now those same employees, who qualified for all sorts of Federal, state and local aid before their 25% windfall, will now be forced to pay union dues!  And oh yeah, State and Federal income taxes!  And the rent and free food and childcare assistance previously enjoyed.  Which will leave them looking at their pay stubs the same way our video gamer looks at his; they'll get screwed just like he did.

A stark realization will come when these tens of thousands of newly-"rich" employees learn they'll be keeping less.  All while their employers are laying off staff, shortening operating hours, investing in automation, losing customers due to necessary price increases, or just giving up and going home...

*   Our Federal tax codes are anything but "Progressive."  They are regressive in every sense.  Think about it:  We are systematically punishing success by fining those who attain it!  And the better they do the deeper we reach in their pockets.  We should leave their money with these winners so they'll hire more employees and generate more taxes.  Get it?

BTW, thanks a lot for reading the drivel I put forth.  I know it's a one-way conversation, but you can and should talk back.  Let me know your opinions about my opinions.  Good or bad.  I assure you, I'm grizzled enough to take it...