Social Insecurity?

 The news is filled with stories about the great Debt Ceiling debate in which only the House Republicans are actually discussing the issue. The Senate is already home for the Memorial Day holiday break and the President is unaware of everything. So, I just have a few questions for those in authority, whether or not they are on the job this week.

Every time there is a crisis involving federal government budgets, the first thing said is "Social Security recipients may not get checks". Why don't they ever say, "Food stamp recipients may not get paid"? How about "Federal employees may not get paid"?  Has anyone threatened to cut off funding a losing war in the Ukraine? How about suggesting that people who borrowed money for college pay it back, so we don't have to pay it? Can we stop the State Department from funding drag queen shows in other nations? Can we stop tearing down "racist highways"? In short, it may be time to quit pissing away our money in other places.

Here's a novel thought. If you are going to run a trillion-dollar budget deficit. why don't we work out the financing arrangements before we start spending? The Democrats controlled both houses in the last term, passed a huge budget and then failed to arrange the financing. I am sure that the Republicans have probably done the same before. Why does Congress they do this? Do they go buy a car and then try to work out financing six months later? 

So back to Social Insecurity. The government always threatens to shut down one of the few programs where recipients have actually paid into the system. We are sending billions of dollars to the Ukraine. Other than bribes to the Biden family, have they invested anything in our government?  Not just no, but hell no!! The United States is so desperate for approval that we are having to buy our friends. It's like looking for love and settling for a hooker.

What's the moral of this story? More empires have been destroyed by bad economies than by foreign invasions. 

"Emergency Boy" Roy?

 A few days ago, Governor Roy Cooper declared a "State of emergency in public education" in North Carolina. What prompted this emergency declaration? Cooper is afraid that the legislature will pass a budget that does not give teachers a huge raise in pay.

The State Senate wants to give teachers a small raise of a few hundred dollars. The State House of Representatives wants to give teachers a little more than a 10% raise over the next two years. Roy wants to give the teachers a raise of more than 18% over the next two years. While I think the Senate bill is unreasonable, I think that the House bill is more than fair. 

Roy is just trying to buy votes with an 18% raise over two years. Either that or he is sleeping with some teachers. How many people in the private sector are going to get an 18% raise over the next two years?  My wife works at a large company and most raises there are between 3% and 4% a year. That's a far cry from 18% over two years.

First, from an economy point of view, excessive pay increases fuel inflation. Beyond that, aren't increases usually based on performance of the individual and the business? Yes, the public school system is a business. It sucks cash from the state treasury and produces a product, educated students. But what about the quality of the product?

After the COVID panic slowed, private and parochial schools reopened and returned to educating students. The public schools remained closed with their efforts based on "remote learning". The main thing to know about "remote learning" is that the chances are remote that children are going to learn. Public schools were slow to reopen. They were aided by Roy Boy who kept his "COVID" emergency in place for 888 days. Roy Boy is just a little power hungry.

Roy's record on education is at best dismal. Did Roy declare a "State of Emergency" when standardized test scores fell? As reading and math proficiency levels have dropped, has Roy declared an "Emergency"? When "remote learning" resulted in huge learning gaps, did Roy declare an "Emergency"? The schools are inundated with rising discipline issues. Has Roy declared a "School Behavior Emergency". I have spoken to teachers who talk about having to tolerate bad behavior from students because the administrators don't want to offend minorities by suspending them.  Has Roy declared an emergency about "Minority student behavior"? You can bet your ass that he will NEVER do that. But afraid that the NC legislature won't give teachers an 18% raise, Roy whips out his "emergency" kit.

Roy wants teachers to make a lot more money. Why? Is their product improving by 18%? Hell, no. I have spent the last fifty years hiring employees who were public school products. The quality of their education has declined over the years. In 1969, every kid in America over ten years old could tell you who the first man on the moon was and that we were fighting a war in Vietnam. A ten-year-old today only knows what he read on social media in the last 15 minutes. 

The hard truth for Roy and the other leftists is that there is no correlation between funds expended and educational excellence. Parochial schools and other private schools produce educated students at a much lower cost than public schools. There are a lot of teachers who will work for less if that are actually teaching students and not babysitting kids in need of discipline and structure at home and school. In the old days, we had "reform schools" for these cases. Political correctness has destroyed public education. Afraid to offend some people, we are instead dragging everyone into the gutter. 

For centuries, we educated children through home schooling, private schools and church schools. Public education is not the standard, public education is the "experiment". It's an experiment that has peaked and is now failing miserably. We either need to reform it or shut it down. Maybe the public schools could all shift to "remote learning". In ten years, Tik Tok Tech would be the major alma mater for America students.

Here's everything that you need to know about this whole situation. Roy sent his child to private school. 

Fifteen Fast Facts

1. Russia and Doanld Trump did not collude on anything.

2. The Obama White House, the FBI, the Department of Justice and Hillary Clinton did collude to attack Donald Trump and tried to prevent his election.

3. The FBI did falsify the information that it gave the FISA court.

4. Richard Nixon resigned after presiding over less serious crimes than those listed above.

5. At his pro-abortion rally on the day before Mother's Day, Gov. Roy Cooper told his followers that he "has a plan " in case his veto was overridden. 

6. As Governor of the State of North Carolina, Roy Cooper has a constitutional duty to carry out and enforce the laws of the state, not just the ones that he likes.

7. Despite the similarities of their mental conditions, John Fetterman is NOT the love child of Joe Biden and Diane Feinstein. At least, there is currently no evidence.

8. The "Domino theory" that all of the supporters of our squandering billions of dollars in Ukraine are advocating didn't prove true the last time it was used during the Vietnam war. It isn't true in Ukraine either.

9. Karine Jean-Pierre is a lesbian because the first time that a boy asked her for sex, she told him that she would have to check her binder for an answer. He's still waiting.

10. The four words that grocery store shoppers cannot read are "Fire Lane No Parking."

11. As an economic system, Communism has either failed or they have had 104 straight years of bad weather. You know this, I know this, Bernie Sanders does not know this.

12. I can't believe that Democrats support unlimited abortions. Abortion is just a way to limit the number of Democrats.

13. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina makes me glad that I am from North Carolina.

14. "Gender-affirming care" is how liberals pronounce "genital mutilation". The doctors who perform these surgeries make Josef Mengele look like Marcus Welby, MD.

15. Biden was wrong, again. The biggest threat to our democracy and our nation is "liberal supremacy".

History is Circular

 The title of this post is certainly confusing to anyone currently enrolled in a public school. Since they are learning neither history nor math, they don't understand the title. Let me explain.

I have a lifelong love affair with history. History was always my best subject in school. It is also the subject of most of the books that I have read and/or own. Yeah, I am a history geek!

What's the best thing about being a student of history or a history geek? The best thing about knowing what happened in the past is that it allows you to usually know what is going to happen in the future. Again, history is circular. For those of you who failed math, stop and Google "circular". 

I love old books and magazines. In my "Stuff For Sale" business, I sell old books and magazines. My favorite and leading seller is old issues of "Life" magazine. I have issues of Life ranging from 1937 to 1972. I usually have 200 to 250 issues with me at an event. I actually have more than 600 copies of Life in my inventory, but that's too many to tote to an antique sale. I also have for sale some old copies of Popular Mechanics, Saturday Evening Post, Look, Progressive Farmer, and Playboy. For those of you old guys whose pulse quickened when you saw Playboy on the list, Life is still the best seller, and it sells for a higher price. 

What do I like most about old magazines? The secret to the future is in knowing the past. In habitually chanting, "We have traveled this road before" on this blog, I am telling people that we have faced this situation before and here's what happened in that case.

I picked up some old Look magazines a couple of weeks ago. One was dated February 23, 1971.  In that magazine there was a three-page story about one of the leading, if not the leading cause of inflation in 1971. While the Biden Administration tries to avoid this by redefining their entire vocabulary, anyone who has been to a grocery store or gas station knows that we are experiencing near-record inflation. What's causing this inflation?

In this article from 1971, it blames the inflation rate on rising pay rates for workers. Before scoffing about this as some kind of conservative extremism, you should know that the article had been reprinted from the New York Times Sunday magazine. The writer blames the higher cost of labor as fueling the growth of inflation.

So, what's happened in America in the last couple of years? Liberals have campaigned on raising minimum wage to $15 an hour. That's more than a 100% increase for those of you who are mathematically challenged. The reality in the world of privately employed people is that someone who makes $10 an hour over minimum wage expects to make $10 an hour over minimum wage, no matter what minimum wage is. 

What does the increasing cost of labor mean to consumers? It means that your $5 lunch at Bojangles or Hardees or Arby or McDonalds is now $10 to $12. If you don't believe me, go eat lunch and see. Spoiler alert!! Take lots of cash or a high limit credit card. 

One of the qualities of inflation is that you have too many dollars chasing too few products. There are still lots of empty spaces on the grocery store shelves. Some store brand products are still impossible to find. 

The Biden Administration likes to lie to us about inflation. Go to the gas station. The gas that was $1.80 at the start of 2020 is now about $3.50 a gallon here in high gas tax North Carolina. Go to the Dollar Tree. The products that were $1 when Biden took office are now $1.25. That's a 25% increase in two years. Exactly what products are measured in the government's inflation index? Do they ever publish an item-by-item breakdown?

Liberals tell people that they are getting them raises. They just don't finish the story and tell them that everything is going to cost more. The people who were making $8 an hour two years ago can't buy any more with what they make today.

If only someone in the Biden administration had stopped at my Stuff For Sale space at the Liberty Antique Show and bought that Look magazine. What's my point in this lengthy rant? "The future is revealed in the history of the past."
WRITE IT DOWN!!

Gov. Roy Cooper, Jackass at Large

 Roy Cooper held a rally in Raleigh on Saturday with a few hundred of his dumbest supporters. Roy was there to drum up support for his veto of the abortion bill that the NC State Legislature had passed. 

Only in the wildest of Republican dreams would a Democrat veto a law restricting abortions on the day before Mother's Day.  Looking a gift horse straight in the mouth, I didn't hear a single Republican point out the irony of this veto's timing. I even called a couple and pointed this out. I had forgotten that not all Republicans want to stop the Demoncrats.

Maybe some Republicans did say something, and I just missed it. Why didn't any Republicans point out that if Roy's mother, Mrs. Cooper, had believed in abortion and acted on it, she would have saved the state of North Carolina a lot of money and trouble. 

Reagan was right, all of those who support abortion have already been born. 

Democrats are always talking about equity. Do they build abortion clinics in the same neighborhoods as the country clubs and golf courses? Of course not. There's almost always a bus stop near an abortion clinic. There's a bus stop right in front of a local Planned Parenthood clinic.

Why do they call it Planned Parenthood? Isn't it really Planned UnParenthood? Like everything else that liberals are pushing, it's a lie.

Liberals wanted everybody in the country to get the COVID vaccine and the booster shots. Why don't they get as demanding about women taking birth control pills? I'm sorry, I forgot they can't define "woman".  To be fair, it's not all the women's fault. We control the deer population by killing the bucks. I am not advocating killing males, but a bunch of guys having a couple of quick snips could save us a lot of money. That sounds a lot better than funding a supply line of fetuses for lab purposes.

Roy Cooper just wants to keep that supply line flowing. He didn't lockdown any abortion clinics during COVID. Only ten people could gather for worship at one time, no limit on lines at abortion clinics. Roy knows his supporters. 

Friday Morning Fever

 Geraldo Rivera is criticizing Republicans for their news briefing about the "Biden Crime Family". He told them that it is "Time to put up or shut up". These words from the man who brought us "The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults". Call me when you are serious, Geraldo!!

Maybe Geraldo should do a sequel, "The Mystery of Joe Biden's Brain"?? Spoiler alert!! There was more in Al's vaults than there is in Biden's brain. You won't need two hours to figure it out.

Gov. Roy Cooper is touring the state doing roundtable discussions about the new NC abortion law before he vetoes it over the weekend. He's doing a rally on Saturday. The irony of Cooper vetoing a bill limiting abortion on Mother's Day weekend is just more than I can stand. Does anyone on this idiot's staff have a calendar? 

A divided Supreme Court ruled that California could set standards for how hogs are raised in other states for sale in California. Maybe next the Supreme Court can tell California to treat their homeless people as well as farmers in Iowa treat their hogs.

I watched the CNN Town Hall that they called off after 70 minutes instead of the scheduled 90 minutes. I have seen boxing matches where a fighter didn't take the verbal beating that Donald Trump put on the woman interviewing him. I prefer DeSantis, but Trump was at the top of his game on that show.

Diane Feinstein returned to work in Washington this week. She complimented Sen. Tim Scott thinking that he was someone else. Scott just played along with it. Scott has had plenty of practice dealing with Biden.

The news media still refuses to admit that Joe Biden is the biggest liar to ever live at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. In dealing with addictions, we call this "enabling". 

Lying Biden, Ma Garland and Chuck "The Schmuck" Schumer are the new Three Stooges. In case they falter, the Demoncrats have Chris Wray, Adam Schiff and Cameltoe Harris waiting in the wings. Harris is so dumb that she failed a urine test last week.

The FBI is a low-grade Gestapo for the Democrats. It's time to cut our losses and dissolve the FBI. At one time, the FBI was a premier law enforcement agency. At one time, I had a head full of hair and was thin. At least when J. Edgar Hoover or "Mary" ran the place the FBI was a little more balanced. Hoover was blackmailing all of the politicians. He was a non-partisan crook.

Have you noticed that Bernie Sanders never talks about jobs he had before getting into government? That's because he didn't have any. 

Word out of Washington is that descendants of Union Army soldiers are asking for reparations for their sacrifices in freeing the slaves. Kind of reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw that read, "If I had known this, I would have picked my own cotton."

The other night at my history club meeting, I delivered a program on Abe Lincoln. No one in that group will ever look at Lincoln the same way they did before the meeting.

Democrats and Dollars

 Washington is awash with rumors of the federal government defaulting on our financial obligations. This is merely a scare tactic being used by liberals in conjunction with their "fake news" spreading media allies.

The Biden misadministration is spreading a story that Joe Biden may invoke the 14th Amendment to keep from defaulting. The 14th Amendment was written about obligations of various governments after the Civil War. Biden would be best served if one of his lackeys would read him the article in the Constitution where it clearly says that only Congress has the power to borrow money.

My favorite piece of asinine info is the story that Biden could have the mint make a "trillion-dollar coin" and deposit that in the Federal Reserve to avert the crisis. First, that would demonstrate to Americans that our money is worthless and has no actual value. Toilet tissue would be replaced by rolls of ten-dollar bills. (Is it time to put Obama on the ten spot?)  Beyond the reality of devaluing the currency and actually causing a financial disaster, someone should really get Biden a copy of the Constitution to read. Media "experts" should also be given reading lessons.

Allow me to direct the news media and Democrats (which may be redundant) to the US Constitution.  In Article 1 Section 8, it reads, "Powers of Congress":

"To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;"

"To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;" 

"To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;"

I don't see where Biden has the power to have a penny coined, much less a trillion-dollar coin. Hunter wants Joe to do the trillion-dollar coin so that they can add "counterfeiter" to their resume. Of course, he will need a new laptop for that resume.

The loons at MSNBC and other alleged "news networks" are saying that the debt limit ceiling is unconstitutional. Congress passed that bill in 1960 and is free to revoke it at any time. It has been okay for the last 63 years, but suddenly it is unconstitutional. Really? 

What has the liberals upset is that Republicans want to cut some programs that Democrats passed under the absurd name of the "Inflation Reduction Act". They want to prevent Biden from buying votes by forgiving student loan debt. The insanity of the student loan debt forgiveness plan is that Biden wants us to allow people to avoid paying their debt so that the Federal government can go further into debt. If this idea makes sense, go ahead and check into some kind of rehab center for leftists. 

The Republicans want to cutback the massive handouts that are sending us spiraling into even deeper debt. Spending billions of dollars that we don't have to get things we don't need is not inflation reduction, it is inflation enhancement. This is the high cost of politicians from both parties buying votes with our money.

People are upset that their pet projects will not get funded and finished. It's not like the federal government has never cut spending before. It has just been a while. The nation is littered with unfinished federal and state projects. What's a few more?

Our Founding Fathers were wise enough to have the House of Representatives run for election every two years. Theoretically, this should keep the flow of fresh ideas and viewpoints moving forward in the federal government. It may be time to revisit that term limits idea. 

Hats off to Tommy T. !!

 Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is claiming that the U.S. military is facing "unprecedented and unnecessary risk" from Senator Tommy Tuberville's hold on confirmations of general and flag officer promotions. 

Senator Tuberville placed the hold in February due to the Pentagon policy allowing people seeking abortions to take leave and receive travel allowances to go to other states to get abortions if they are based in a state, that does not allow them to get an abortion. 

He has offered to remove the hold if Austin will rescind or suspend the order. Austin has refused to do either. So, to be honest here, Austin could end this whole problem in a matter of minutes. Instead, as an appointed official, he has chosen to get into a pissing contest with a Senator from Alabama who was elected by the people of his state. Nobody elected Austin to office. He serves at the pleasure of a senile old liar. 

Traditionally, people at military bases obey the laws of the state where they are based. But killing the unborn is so critical to Democrats that Austin must make an exception. How long before the
"paid abortions and travel" benefit shows up in military recruiting ads? 

Has Congress voted on including the costs of these abortions in the military spending bills? If not, why not?

Maybe Austin could get the problem solved with a new piece of equipment. He could get some of those electric tactical vehicles that the military claims are their top priority and combine them with a mobile abortion unit. Problem solved? Or you could just station women only in states that allow abortions. But that would require defining "woman". That's not on the vocab test for liberals.

Lloyd, let me give you a pointer on politics. I have been to Alabama. Working with a leftist bitch like Elizabeth Warren to try and bully a Republican Senator and Auburn football coach probably won't work. Just call it a hunch. I wrongly assumed that a guy who operated at the top of the Army food chain would know that. WOW!! I was wrong.

It is still possible for all of these promotions to get approved even with Tuberville's hold. It will just take a lot more work than the Senate wants to do. That might push them to a 40-hour week. 

Last, but certainly not least, the military is not meeting their recruiting goals, even after lowering their standards. The need for more general officers is not nearly as large as the need for common soldiers, marines and sailors. 

Send in the Clowns

 I love to hear people bitching about other people wearing fur coats or leather coats. I tried to point out to a young woman one day that if her ancestors had not worn animal skins to stay warm, she would not be here to whine about it today. She didn't understand, I wasn't surprised.

Donald Trump has been found liable in regard to an event that nobody knows when it happened. I just don't think that anyone can get a fair trial in New York City. The average juror IQ in NYC is obviously in single digits. A woman claimed that her life was destroyed by an event that she cannot even remember the exact year it happened. The last real trial in New York City was in "Miracle on 34th Street".

Predictably, there was no real news out of the meeting of the clowns at the White House today. The Democrats refuse to do anything unless the Republicans vote to raise the debt ceiling and then blame the Republicans for not being willing to negotiate.

The Democrats in 2022 passed a huge spending bill that they knew would add to the national debt. Since they had the votes to spend the money, why didn't they just go ahead and raise the debt ceiling knowing that they were overspending??  Better to wait and blame someone else. 

I may be becoming an independent. I saw both Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell speak today about the debt ceiling and found myself equally repulsed by the pair. I guess that is the Uniparty in action?

In the 1920's Germany was buried by debt and inflation was rampant. They needed a wheelbarrow full of marks to buy a loaf of bread. This was the economic environment that brought Hitler to power. Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

The Pentagon is telling us that their highest priority is to develop an electric tactical vehicle. The highest priority of the Pentagon should be the defense of the United States. Obviously, that goal is being ignored by liberal idiots. Point Two on Germany, Hitler came to power vowing to rebuild Germany's military might. 

Every politician needs someone to blame for the problems that the world is having. Biden blames everything on "MAGA Republicans". Lincoln blamed the South. Hitler blamed the Jews. Can you spot the trend here?

Just in case you haven't purchased that card and/or gift by now, Sunday is Mother's Day. 

I have been stricken with my annual case of poison ivy. The only good thing is that when I went to the Urgent Care, the doctor was not Dr. Fauci. Thank God it wasn't Fauci. I don't want to be his first real patient.

Friday Bonus Post

 I saw this picture online and couldn't wait to share it.

While Thoroughly Modern Milley is appropriate, I prefer my label of Gen. Milli Vanilli. He only lip synchs his job.

Deep-Fried Friday

 Today in Little Mexico, formerly known as the United States of America, we are celebrating Cinco de Mayo. It's more celebrated here than it actually is in Mexico. 

Yesterday was National Star Wars Day. It is celebrated on May 4 with the slogan "May the Fourth be with you." As Cinco de Mayo is celebrated with the drinking of copious amounts of alcohol, I am left to believe that the Cinco de Mayo slogan is "May the Fifth be with you!"

I will not tell you that this is some kind of "holiday come lately", but I will point out that in Florida forty-five years ago, none of us at Taco Bell had ever heard of Cinco de Mayo. There were no specials on May 5.

I am fascinated that Americans would celebrate a victory by the Mexican Army over the French Army. It's not like it ended a war or anything. Do the Mexicans celebrate the Battle of Gettysburg? Of course not. So why do we celebrate Cinco de Mayo? "May the fifth be with you?"

Why do Americans celebrate a Mexican holiday? Why can't American leaders define "woman"?  If ignorance is bliss, we are on our way to becoming the happiest nation on earth. We may have to make an exception for Ukraine where they still think that they are "winning" a war.

I have a great idea! Let's celebrate October 19 in the United States. Why celebrate October 19?  As you try to open a tab to go to Google, let me save you the keystrokes. On October 19, 1781, the British General Lord Cornwallis surrendered to the Americans and the French at Yorktown, Virginia. 

Does anyone invite you to go out for burgers and fries on October 19? Maybe if we called it 19 de Octubre? I don't think that would bring in the Mexicans. 

I am a marketing guy, maybe if we tied it in with Oktoberfest? Beers and Brats with the Brits? Work with me on this! Help me understand why we celebrate a minor event that happened in another nation but not the event that set the groundwork for our own nation.

Watch your mail later this year for an October 19 celebration. I will just go ahead and warn you, if I am sponsoring it, alcohol will not be involved. That should cut attendance by about 50 per cent. 

Tuesday Taunts, Topics, Teasers,

 E. Jean Carrol is unable to cite the year that Donald Trump assaulted her. She also claims that she was assaulted by another celebrity whose name escapes my memory at this moment. Of course, E. Jean cannot remember when she was assaulted, so I guess that I can forget the name of assailant. I would think a situation that traumatic would be etched in her mind. Of course, I am not a scorned woman with a book to sell. Who would have guessed that she was that hot? E. Jean, I am sorry about being a sexist pig. I just gotta be me, Babe!!

Democrats want the Republicans to raise the debt ceiling so that they can keep handing out money that we don't have. Why didn't the Democrats authorize raising the debt ceiling when they passed the Inflation Reduction Act last year? At the Jones house, we don't decide to buy a new car and then act surprised when the bill arrives. You need to line up the financing BEFORE you go on the family vacation. Actually, now it is necessary to line up financing before you go to the grocery store. I'm looking for terms on a chuck roast.

The liberals are rewriting the dictionary to keep from telling the truth about anything. They keep telling us that we are not experiencing real inflation. Memo to libs and liars: I stopped at McDonalds yesterday for a chicken sandwich meal. I left with $11.57 less in my wallet. That is way more than a 50% increase in the cost of the sandwich. How much would inflation be?

Hunter Biden arrived at the court in Arkansas yesterday in a five-car motorcade. What does he need that much protection from? More subpoenas? More baby mammas? Art critics who aren't liberals?

From Washington comes the news that President Biden works a thirty-hour week. That's a lot of damage caused by a part-time leader of the free world. Thank God he isn't working sixty hours a week.

Democrats want Mitch McConnell to get involved in efforts to raise the debt ceiling. That tells us more about Mitch than it tells us about Democrats. The Uniparty is going to their bench to solve this one.

What's the worst that will happen if the government has to cut back their spending? Will we be stuck with racist highways? Will the Ukraine have to arm themselves with their own money? Will Hunter have to get a job? Will drag queens have to get real jobs? Will college students have to pay their own tuition to not learn anything? Will the homeless have to buy their own drugs? Wow! Maybe that debt ceiling does have a use.

Mindless Monday