Private Eddie Slovik

 A couple of weeks before Christmas, I was working on sorting out my stock of military insignia and something caused me to think of Private Eddie Slovik. I went online and ordered a copy of the 1954 book titled, The Execution of Private Slovik. I didn't have to search for the title of the book, I had read it many times before. I just didn't have a copy on hand.

What had caused me to think of Eddie Slovik on that day? Before they executed Pvt. Eddie Slovik, eighty years ago this morning, they removed all United States insignia and markings from the uniform that he was wearing. Then he was tied to a post; his head was covered, and he was shot by a firing squad of twelve American soldiers. This carried out the sentence of "shot to death by musketry" that he had been given in a court-martial.

How did I learn about Private Slovik? In February of 1965, our family moved into a rambling home built in 1927 in Tampa Heights. It was a big old house. My brother and I lived in the two bedrooms that comprised the second story. Between the two bedrooms and down the hall from the bathroom was a large closet. At the back of that closet was a small door that was the access point for the attic above the living room and dining room. 

We had lived there almost 24 hours before my curiosity drove me to check out the attic. There was some stuff piled just inside the door in the attic. There were some old toys, some paperback books, one volume of the World Book encyclopedia and a child's printing press. I will cover the printing press in a future post. I looked through the paperback books and one caught my eye. It was The Execution of Private Slovik written by William Bradford Huie. I don't recall which was more impressive. Was it the title of the book or an author who used three names?

I took the book and spent the next couple of hours reading it. The next day, I read it again. For an eleven-year-old boy, it was a fascinating read. When I found the book and read it, the time was just a couple of weeks after the twentieth anniversary of the execution of Private Slovik. 

It was the story of a boy who got into trouble early in life and ended up in "reform school" and prison. He had been released and managed to get his life straightened out. He got a job and worked hard to advance. He got married and kept working hard to get the things that middle class Americans wanted to have. This was in the early years of World War 2. 

Eddie Slovik was classified as 4-F by the draft board due to his time in prison. He wasn't worried about getting drafted. But in November 1943 the Selective Service System changed his status to 1-A. His was not the only person who had their status changed. With the invasion of Europe coming, there was an enormous need for cannon fodder. So, they inducted a guy who was on probation into the US Army. Did they check with his parole officer before issuing him a rifle?

The guy they rated as 1-A had legs that were so bowed that he had an operation as a child where they broke his legs and tried to reshape them. His feet were so bad that in basic training they allowed him to wear lightweight shoes instead of the standard issue Army shoes. How was this 1-A?

Eddie reported for basic training in January 1944. He and his unit sailed from New York on August 7, 1944. On August 20th, he and his regiment arrived at Omaha Beach. Eddie and a buddy got separated from their regiment leaving Omaha Beach on August 25th.  They fell in with a group of Canadians from the 13th Provost Corps and spent the next several weeks with them. On October 8th they finally caught up with and reported to their regiment. That night Slovik left the regiment again. On October 9th he turned himself in and was put in the stockade. On October 19, charges of desertion were filed against him. They offered him a deal that if he would return to duty, they would drop the charges. 

He declined and went to trial on November 11th, Armistice Day. His trial started at 10:00 AM. At 11:40, they announced that he was guilty and had been sentenced to death. His crime was "desertion to avoid hazardous duty". An hour and forty minutes for a trial, jury deliberations and sentencing? That's some speedy justice!! Captain Edward Woods, the officer appointed by the court to be Slovik's counsel, was not even an attorney.  Nothing to see here, folks!

On November 27th, division commander, General Cota approved the death sentence. On December 23rd General Dwight D. Eisenhower confirmed the death penalty sentence. On January 23rd General Eisenhower ordered his execution. Eisenhower said that he thought the execution would serve as a "deterrent" for the surge in desertions during the Battle of the Bulge. 

On January 31st, Eddie Slovik was executed by a firing squad in St. Marie, France. The site chosen for the execution was the garden of a large home in the area, As Sgt. Frank McKendrick was tying Slovik's hands at the execution site, Slovik said "They're not shooting me for deserting the United States Army. Thousands of guys have done that. They're shooting me for bread and chewing gum that I stole when I was twelve years old." Eddie was executed at a few minutes after 10:00 AM, eighty years ago today.

Father Carl Cummings, a Catholic priest was ministering to Eddie that morning. Just before they put the hood over his head, Cummings told him, "Eddie when you get up there, say a little prayer for me." Slovik's last words were, "Okay Father. I'll pray that you don't follow me too soon." A couple of minutes later, twelve rifles fired. Slovik did not die immediately. They started reloading the rifles, but just as they finished, the doctor pronounced Slovik to be dead. Father Cummings would later say, "Slovik was the bravest man in that garden today."

This is where the government's entire motive starts to fall apart. The Army did not issue any communications to the troops to tell them that a deserter had been executed. It's hard for execution to be a deterrent if no one knows about it. The Army failed to notify his wife, Antoinette Slovik, that he had been executed. She received a message that he had been killed. When she inquired about pay and insurance, she was told that he had died "under dishonorable circumstances". It was eight years later before his wife found out how Eddie Slovik had died. She was told by William Bradford Huie when he met her. He told her what happened to Eddie and then paid her for her story. That story included letters that she had received from Eddie. There are many excerpts from his letters in the book.

She tried to get the government to pay her what she would have received if he had been killed in action. From 1954 to her death in 1979, she tried to clear her husband. She asked seven Presidents to pardon Eddie. Jimmy Carter asked Congress to give her a $70,000 settlement, but she died before Congress took any action.  

In 1974 a made for television movie was produced starring Martin Sheen as Eddie Slovik. It's still available on VHS. In one of those little nuggets that makes history interesting, at one point Frank Sinatra bought the movie rights to Slovik's story. He was going to make a movie about Slovik, but it was 1960 and he was supporting John F. Kennedy in his Presidential campaign. Other Kennedy supporters convinced Sinatra that this was not the time for that story to be told. Frank sold the rights to someone else.

In 1987 Bernard Calka, a World War 2 veteran, convinced President Ronald Reagan to return Slovik's remains to the United States. Calka raised over $5,000 to have Slovik's remains exhumed and brought home. He is buried next to his wife Antoinette, at Woodmere cemetery in Detroit.

Also, in 1987 American Heritage magazine published an article about Slovik. It was written by Dr. Benedict Kimmelman. In 1944 he was a captain in the US Army who served as a member of Slovik's court-martial. Dr. Kimmelman was not a front-line officer; he was a dentist. During the Battle of the Bulge, his medical unit was overrun, and he was captured. He spent five months in a POW camp in Germany. Kimmelman didn't find out that Slovik had been executed until the war was over. He was in a shop in Paris looking for a gift for his wife when a sergeant recognized him and said, "You know they shot Slovik!"

In his article in American Heritage, Mr. Kimmelman wrote that none of the officers were front line officers. He believes that combat soldiers should be judged by officers who have been in combat. This came after his experiences in a combat zone in the Battle of the Bulge where he saw many soldiers, including officers, who did worse than what Slovik had done. When Kimmelman was interviewed in 1953 by Huie he said that he would not have voted to convict Slovik if his own combat experience had come before Slovik's trial. 

Since 1864, millions of men have served in the United States armed forces. We have engaged in the Indian Wars, the Spanish-American War, World War 1, World War 2, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Desert Storm, the war in Afghanistan and a score of other smaller conflicts. Thousands of soldiers have deserted. In the European theater in WW2 alone, more than 2800 men were charged with desertion. Of those, 49 men were sentenced to death. Of those 49, only one, Eddie Slovik was executed. There are only two possibilities. He was either the unluckiest man in human history or our system of justice failed him. In retrospect, the system also failed the nation. 

To date, no President has pardoned Eddie Slovik. Our record of executing ONE deserter in the last 161 years needs to be erased. We can own up to having screwed up when we killed the poor little Polish kid from Detroit who should have never been in the Army. The world won't end if we admit to a mistake. It's time for President Trump to pardon Private Slovik. It's time for America to right this wrong.

Advice and Consent?

 Article II, section 2 of the United States Constitution provides that the president "shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for.” 

I hate to destroy any legal opinions here, but I don't believe that "slander and ridicule" should be a part of "advice and consent". It's time to end public hearings on nominees for posts in the federal government. Congressional hearings are just Jerry Springer reruns in an expensive taxpayer funded studio.

In 1987, the Democrats in the Senate tried to destroy the reputation of Robert Bork who had been nominated to the Supreme Court. They got his video rental history from a video store and examined it in the hearing. He had rented no R-rated or X-rated movies. Even if he had rented porn, you could bet he wasn't the only guy in that room who had done that. This guy was a Supreme Court nominee, what does his choice of movies have to do with his legal knowledge and opinions?

In 2018, Brett Kavanaugh was accused of sexual assault by a woman who lied about her ability to travel by air. They stretched out the hearing to accommodate her travel needs only to find that she flew in from California. It turned out that she wasn't traumatized enough to take the train or the Greyhound. She had exactly zero facts to corroborate her claims, but Democrats didn't let that slow down their character assassination of Kavanaugh. Dems raised plenty of money for her to soothe her emotional trauma. 

It was RFK Jr's turn in the stupid question arena yesterday. Ron Wyden, the Oregon Moron, spent all of his time with a personal attack on Kennedy. Frankly, a guy who represents a state where they have legalized almost every drug shouldn't be passing judgement on anyone. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Commie, brought in a pair of "onesies" to try to make his point. RFK refused to take the bait. His sidekick, the Massachusetts Maniac, Fauxcohontas Warren demonstrated that Wyden wasn't the dumbest person at the microphone yesterday.

The only thing that "Senate confirmation" hearings confirm is that our Senators are mindless, corrupt idiots. Why don't Senators just meet with nominees in a one-on-one situation in their offices? You could learn more in a fifteen-minute meeting in a quiet office that you can on the set of "America's Most Crooked Lawmakers". Of course. that wouldn't generate a "gotcha" highlight reel to use in a Senator's never ending fundraising campaign. We should give Senators 15 days (including Saturdays and Sundays) to meet with the nominee in their offices and then vote. I realize that it won't be as entertaining as the current calamity, but it might actually be effective. Not to mention fair and respectable.

If you insist on continuing this "shitshow", let's at least level the playing field. Let's give the nominee equal time to question each Senator. Let the nominee ask who is funding the Senator's attacks on him. Let's examine the backgrounds and motivations of those Senators who like to ask stupid questions. Give the nominee background checks on the Senators. Maybe we could hear questions like "What do senators think is the most important thing for the nominee to do in their new job?" 

Yesterday's hearings were a job interview. You can label it anything you like, but it was a job interview. I spent about fifty years hiring restaurant employees. I have interviewed thousands of applicants. In the real world, federal and state laws will not allow you to ask some of those questions that I heard yesterday. You would be sued for holding a job interview like the Senate held yesterday. That's probably mandated in some legislation that those same Senators passed. These clowns in the Senate need to find another way to massage their massive egos, this is a failed process. 

Last, but certainly not least, let's talk about vaccines. They were all ripping RFK for some of his views on vaccines. Let's go scientific for a moment. In every real scientific test or experiment, you must have a control group. The Amish vaccinate their children at a lower rate than the general population. Autism is almost unheard of among the Amish. Is there a connection? We will never know because the government has already made a decision, and they don't want any contrary evidence.

If vaccinations are so important, why didn't the Biden administration vaccinate all of those illegals who they allowed to enter the country? 

Wandering and Wondering on Wednesday

 If Donald Trump announces today that a cure has been found for cancer, Democrat Attorneys-General from 22 states will sue him for trying to put cancer doctors out of work. And some district judge in the People's Republic of California will order him to stop curing cancer.

I am having withdrawal pains. It has been more than a week since there was a breaking news story about Hunter Biden on the television news.

The CIA has finally admitted that the COVID virus was probably the result of a lab leak in China. I guess that Biden pardoned Dr. Fauci to keep thousands of people from seeking a warrant for his arrest for murder. Between the people who died from the disease and those who died from taking Fauci's vaccine for the disease, there is probably at least one person who wants him charged for murder.

At least the lab leak explanation for COVID has some kind of scientific credibility. The story that they were pushing about somebody biting a bat at some kind of market in China was pretty low on the believability scale. Dr. Fauci is such a huckster that he makes P.T. Barnum look like a Boy Scout. 

The Stupor Bowl is coming up in a little more than a week. I am not looking forward to the game but instead to the potato chips being on sale at the grocery store. 

Life was easier before all of this Gen Z and millennial crap. We used to just have old people, adults and kids. You need some kind of guide now just to figure out what to call people. My new neighbor and I were talking about age the other day and I found out that he's younger than my kids. I told him that I have shoes older than him.

This is Trump's tenth day in office, and he is being blamed for the high price of eggs. Biden's USDA killed 100 million chickens to stop the spread of some bird flu, but somehow it is Trump's fault that egg prices are high. Idiots online are demanding to know why egg prices aren't going down already. It appears that those from Gen Braindead don't know that eggs come from chickens and the chickens are dead.

So, based on the chicken flu handling plan from the Biden administration, was this Fauci's plan to handle COVID? I am only surprised that Hillary Clinton hasn't claimed that those chickens all committed suicide.

Democrats have a gift for understatement. Students who are setting fires, starting riots and taking over buildings are only "expressing frustration". They labeled people who died after getting the COVID vaccine as having an "adverse reaction".

Back at the Gen Z thing. My wife is in the Gen GI group. That means that she watched Gilligan's Island as a child. She's five years younger than me. We have been married for 45 years, and she has spent most of those years with waiters and waitresses asking her, "What does your father want to drink?"

People in the mountains of North Carolina are no closer to getting new homes than they were last month, but Governor Josh Stein is making sure that abortions are easy to get. I just can't believe that people living in cars and tents and trying to stay alive have the time to get pregnant. 

Here's a serious point for everyone to remember. We have spent the last four years being scammed by our own government. We had a demented old guy as President and no one in the government challenged that situation. People who spoke out were silenced. Let's go back to being the "land of the free"!!

 

DeepSeek this!!

 That Relaxium stuff must really work. Every time that one of their commercials come on the television screen, I start yawning. If the commercial were just a little longer, I would be asleep.

Dr. Phil went on a raid with the immigration enforcement guys. He interviewed some guy who had been arrested and ask him if he had been deported before. The guy responded, "Not really". Phil then asked how "not really" could be an actual answer. At that point, Tom Homan intervened to explain that the guy was charged with having sex with children. WOW!! Dr. Phil goes out on a raid and his first question goes to a Democrat politician. Who could have seen that one coming?

The news is so confusing. Based on their public statements, how can you tell the difference between the president of Colombia the country and the president of Columbia the university? Other than the spelling, of course. It's not like the United States government doesn't give both of them money and gets nothing in return. I am just assuming the guy in Colombia is also an Anti-Semite.

A cup of coffee at Starbucks is $10 and AOC is telling us that Trump's policies will cause the price of coffee to go up. What caused it to go to $10? When I started working at the Waffle House in 1971, coffee was 10 cents. I just discovered that there is no "cents" symbol on a computer keyboard.  But I don't drink coffee, so I don't really care about what it costs. It you can find a bumper crop of buffoons for $10 coffee; $12 coffee probably won't be a problem.

The Chinese are in the news again. DeepSeek, a Chinese AI company is shocking the world by being much cheaper than other AI systems. Apparently, the people who are surprised that a Chinese product would be cheaper have never been to Walmart or Dollar Tree. My brother, the family international relations expert, calls Walmart, "China-mart".

The big story in the media is that if you ask DeepSeek about the Chinese Communist Party, it has no answer. That's not a DeepSeek only feature. Search Google for "Random Moments of Lunacy" and see how many results for this blog come up. There's a better chance that you will get a link to the CCP than you will get a link to this swill.

Why don't we work on developing actual human intelligence? I realize that's not as glamorous as Artificial Intelligence, but it would actually help society.

I looked up "one-trick pony" and the only thing that came up was a picture of famed race-baiter Al Sharpton. At his age, one would think that the Reverend Sharpton would have more than one verse of one song to sing. Can't we find a magician to make him disappear?

Democrats are concerned that with Trump withdrawing from the World Health Organization, the WHO might collapse. I am trying to see the downside with this.

Every day we are learning more about why Sleepy Joe pardoned Dr. Fauci. Fauci is reportedly claiming that we imported COVID from China because it was cheaper than coming up with our own epidemic. He then mumbled something about "peasants and peons" before they dragged him away from the microphone. Check DeepSeek for details?

It's been a week since the changeover, but there has still been no Joe Biden obituary published. What is the appropriate length of time before they own up to him dying months ago? Are they waiting for his double to find another job?

We will actually know when Joe Biden passes away by watching for pictures of Jill Biden at the beach with Hunter. Before you get your panties into a wad, remember that Hunter is the guy who had an affair with his brother's widow. Hunter is doing a remake of the old "All in the Family" television series. This one starts when Archie/Joe dies.

Can we just go ahead and ditch the Roman numerals for the Super Bowl? Most of the fans can't count that high anyway. Since it is Super Bowl LIX, the average American is calling it "Super Bowl Licks". I can hardly wait for Super Bowl SUX.

Monday Morning Minutiae

 The Chicago Tribune reports this, "Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he was ready to “stand in the way” of federal authorities if they try to circumvent Illinois law while conducting raids to deport undocumented immigrants. "

First, the federal government does not need to "circumvent Illinois law". In anything regarding immigration, the federal laws are supreme. One would think that in the "Land of Lincoln", they could grasp that the federal government rules supreme in the area of immigration. In complete contrast to what the lard-ass Governor Pritzker claims, the state government has no legal basis in trying to pass laws that limit the federal government's ability to regulate and enforce immigration laws. 

This is just another case that proves we don't teach history anymore in this country. The South tried to frame the Civil War as a disagreement over States' rights vs. Federal Rights. The Yankees claimed it was all about slavery, despite Lincoln waiting two years to announce the half-hearted and often misinterpreted "Emancipation Proclamation". In today's United States, the same Yankee states that defeated the South have taken up the whole "states' rights" argument. They have waited 160 years to admit that the South may have had a legitimate argument about states' rights. It's too late, homey!

Trump should appear on television with a box of size 5 XL orange jumpsuits and announce that he is shipping those to the ICE agents in Illinois in case they have to arrest the Governor. They probably have plenty of those jumpsuits in the Chicago mayor's size. It's time to use them. 

I keep going back to the integration of the schools in Little Rock back in 1957. When the Arkansas Governor called out the National Guard to block integration, Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent the101st Airborne Division to Little Rock. This is what happens when states try to get involved in things that the federal government regulates. Governor Lard-ass of Illinois needs to go back to working on his budget and crime in the streets and let Trump and the federal government worry about the illegal aliens. If not, Trump should call the Gargantuan Gov and offer tips on booking photos.

The Kansas City Chiefs and their NFL officials are on their way to another championship. The string of officiating decisions that causes the Chiefs to win is incredible. If all of the breaks go your way, something is wrong. How hard can it be to develop a better system of spotting where the football is on the field?

The government of Brazil is complaining about the United States shipping deportees back to Brazil wearing handcuffs. How does Brazil restrain their criminals? String Bikinis?

Thanks to Vice President JD Vance for pointing out to the Catholic bishops that their organization gets about $100 million a year from the government for dealing with immigrants. I am going to hazard a guess that $100 million may influence your point of view.

It is long overdue, but Trump finally took action to correct the injustice involved in the treatment of 8,000 military members who lost their jobs for refusing the COVID vaccine. They will now get their jobs and back pay. We are beginning to understand why Biden gave Fauci a pardon.  

Let's just go ahead and give Israel whatever they need to wipe Hamas from the face of the earth.

Update on "The Big Time"

 I published a post this morning "I Have Made the Big Time". In it I mentioned that I found out that my blog is not being included on Google search results. 

I looked at the stats that Google furnishes for me this morning. My "ban" from Google search results may be a recent event. On the listing of URLs that have been to my site are two (2) visits from the Google Admin site. There are also several visits from Google, so it must be a recent event. These stats are for the last seven days. Inquiring minds want to know more?

See for yourself:

Top Referrering URLs

Entry Pageviews

https://www.google.com 9

https://t.co/ 5

http://www.randommomentsoflunacy.blogspot.com/?m=1 3

https://google-admin.corp.google.com/ 2

https://www.google.com/ 2

Other 804

I have made the Big Time!!

 July 7 will mark the twentieth anniversary of my first post on this blog. Blogger has hosted my blog for the entire twenty years. Blogger has been owned by Google since 2003. This is my 1340th post here. More than 120,000 visits have been logged here. That's enough statistics to start my story.

About once a year, I go to Google and search the name of my blog. I just want to see what people see if they search for "Random Moments of Lunacy". I have business cards with my blog address on them, but sometimes I don't have a card, and I just tell people to "Google" "Random Moments of Lunacy". Sometimes, folks decline a card and say, "I will just Google it." 

Today, when I did a Google search, nothing came up for my blog. There were only three or four things that did come up and other than one Doonesbury cartoon, they had no connection to my blog. 

I did searches on Yahoo, Bing and Dogpile and plenty of results came up for my blog. But on Google, which owns Blogger, the host of my blog, there was nothing. WOW!

I searched Google for "popular porn sites" and got more results than I could even imagine. I guess that "sex" outranks "sarcasm" at Google. 

The idea that large companies don't manipulate Internet search results just went down the crapper. The people who used to claim that they were champions of free speech are actually just championship quality liars.

The good news is that I have finally made the big time! Google disapproves of my thoughts enough to refuse to publicize them. This almost matches the time that I was interviewed on the CBS Evening News in 2002. The good news is that I haven't received any death threats about the blog.

In the last year, my view counts have actually increased a good bit. Maybe it is better to not be on Google? Or do fewer of my readers use Google?

So, what to do? I am going to explore using another site to host my blog. Then there is the do nothing and just see what happens alternative. Or I could just stop writing the blog and write that book that I keep trying to write. If I put the time into the book that I put into the blog, I would be at work on the encore to the book by now. 

For right now, I am going to eat a ham sandwich and then sort some crap that I bought in an auction. I picked up a 1974 issue Man's Flying Jacket Heavy with attached hood issued by the USAF. It's the first one of those that I have found. Feel free to "Google" that item. That ends the commercial message.

It's Saturday Morning Confusion

 This is not going to be as entertaining as Bobby Russell's song from many years ago. But it's better than reading the transcript of a Joe Biden speech. 

Pete Hegseth will be sworn in as Secretary of Defense later this morning. This came after Vice-President JD Vance went to the Capitol to cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate. 

The tie occurred when Senators Murkowski, Collins and McConnell all voted with the Democrats to block Hegseth's nomination. McConnell's vote came after he screamed at Pete, "Get off my lawn, kid!" Yes, McConnell is sliding down that ramp to where Joe Biden hangs out. Murkowski and Collins are not really Republicans. They are "Trans" Republicans. They don't actually vote Republican or agree with Republicans, but they have chosen to "identify" as Republicans.

Let's just stop referring to Collins and Murkowski as Republicans. Let's refer to Rand Paul as "the living Senator from Kentucky". McConnell's new moniker is "Little Joe".

The liberals are mad at Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina for supporting Hegseth. Why didn't Tillis oppose Hegseth? The answer is on the calendar. There's a primary coming up in North Carolina next spring and Tillis is up for re-election. Tillis always retreats to his conservative image when election time gets close. In 2020, he barely beat Cal Cunningham in the general election and Cunningham may have been a bigger dirtbag than Tillis. Several Republicans are eyeing Tillis' Senate seat. There's a good chance for Tillis to get primaried. The rumor is that former governor Roy Cooper will run for the Democratic nomination. That general election will be the Battle of the Dirtbags if it is Coooper vs. Tillis.

Trump demonstrated his mastery of political power yesterday in North Carolina when he turned the microphone over to several people who had their lives and properties destroyed by Hurricane Helene and have received no help from the government in the last four months. Franklin Graham and Samaritan's Purse have done much more for people that has FEMA. Trump praised Graham and mentioned that FEMA may need to be eliminated.

Greasy Gavin Newsome waited by himself at the bottom of the ramp to greet Trump when he arrived in California. There seemed to be some confusion about whether or not Trump expected him to be there. Greasy wanted to make sure that he got to speak to Trump.

Mayor Karen Bass is the dumbest politician in California. She decided to argue with Trump about what was happening to people wanting to return to their homes. What possessed her to argue with the guy who she was asking for help? I guess that only makes sense on the Planet California. Could she be a little dumber? Maybe she should have stayed home instead of going to Ghana and got a head start on reacting to the fires? 

Sticking with slamming Mayor Bass, you would think that someone who was elected mayor could "read the room". When Trump walked in, the firemen in the area chanted "USA" and then presented Trump with a fire helmet with "47" on it. She wasn't going to win an argument with Trump in that space. Shut up and move on!

Back to the Future??

 A Republican President has just been elected. Several states are challenging the legitimacy of his election. Some states are refusing to follow or enforce federal laws on people from other countries. Some people are ranting about tariffs. Others are talking about how we need cheap laborers from other countries. The President claims that he can straighten it all out and save the nation.

If all of this sounds familiar, it's because it is our second time as a nation watching the same show. The situation described above was in January of 1861. Now, one hundred and sixty-four years later, we are witnessing a repeat performance. Memo to morons: We have already seen how this one will end.

The irony in this situation is breathtaking. The states that support illegal immigrants are the same ones who most loudly opposed slavery. Look at the cast of the key characters in this rerun. The states that most support illegal immigrants are New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan and California. Those states were the core opponents of slavery in 1861. Today, they want to flood the nation with illegal immigrants. 

Supporters of illegal immigrants claim that we need the illegals to do the jobs that Americans will not do. Americans won't work at those jobs, because the government will pay them not to work. If we will stop paying people not to work, we can cut government spending and end the market for illegal immigrants.

 Nancy Pelosi said, "We need these people to pick our crops." Millions of Americans are unemployed, but she claims that we need immigrants to pick our crops. Really? Where is Pelosi's Plantation located? She is making the same claims that Southern slave owners made in 1861. The whole issue of illegal immigrants is just the slavery issue of 1861 repackaged for the 21st Century. The descendants of the men who allegedly fought against slavery now want to bring in illegal immigrants to fill the low level, menial jobs. We have seen this show before.

Several Protestant denominations split over the slavery issue. It took more than one hundred years for some of them to come back together, some still have not. On Tuesday morning, the Episcopal bishop at the National Cathedral lectured President Trump about illegal immigrants. I want to personally thank her for helping me make my case against liberal loons on this issue of illegal immigration. The bishop should pay attention to the denominations that are splitting over current events. 

 After her initial rant about how gay and transgender children fear for their lives, then she recited a list of jobs that illegals do. Here's the quote. "The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings; who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants; who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals."  Notice that she didn't mention people who program our computers, build our homes or teach our children. Immigrants perform those jobs as well, but that knowledge might confuse the bishop.

Note to Bishop Bitch: Americans aren't against immigration, we are opposed to illegal immigration. The cost of supporting illegal immigrants is bankrupting the country. We have enough native criminals; we don't need to import them from foreign countries. Liberals are trying to turn the United States into the world's largest holding cell for criminals. 

From the world's worst Bishop to Nancy Pelosi to Greasy Gavin Newsome, these people are all trying to convince us that we need an "under class" to do the menial jobs so that Americans won't have to do them. WOW!! The liberals all sound like Southern plantation owners more than 160 years ago. This whole acceptance and condoning of the illegal immigration movement is just putting slavery into a plain Brown wrapper for liberal consumption.

As a Southerner who is fascinated by history, I just love the complete role reversal and irony of this situation. We have spent the last 200 years or more, listening to Yankees tell us about how Southerners "used" black people only to now watch the Yankees do the same thing with illegal immigrants. Y'all need to take off the blinders and look around!!

Mid-Week Musings

 Why do people spend thousands of dollars on "off-road vehicles" only to drive them up and down the paved street? What part of "off-road" do they not understand?

Senate Democrats think that they are still the majority party. Chuck Schumer is criticizing the quality of Trump's nominees. This is the same guy who thought that Pete Butt-Gig was qualified to be the Trans Secretary. Pardon me, Secretary of Transportation. You would think that the nickname "Pothole Pete" might have been a subtle hint about Pete's level of performance.

Schumer doesn't like Pete Hegseth. He was a big supporter of Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense who didn't know how to call in sick. We will never know what would have happened if some country had attacked us while Lloyd was unconscious in the hospital and Joe Biden was unconscious in the US Virgin Islands. Maybe Trump should have just staged a coup while they were all out?

After four years at the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin is scheduled to be sold to the high bidder among defense contractors. Auction details to follow.

Just when you thought that it couldn't get any worse for the residents of Los Angeles, Kamala Harris has returned to her home there. The Secret Service is now trying to find agents with firefighting experience to be on her detail.

Traditional Protestant denominations are experiencing drops in membership. If you want to know why this is happening, watch the video of the "bishop" at the National Cathedral lecturing Donald Trump on Tuesday morning. For a little woman, she has a pretty big set of balls. Unfortunately, she failed to consider the rhetorical skills of Donald Trump. He let it simmer for a little while before he started firing off responses to her views. She hasn't heard the last of this.  

If you want to see what an "Oh, my God!" face looks like, watch the video when the bishop starts attacking Trump and JD Vance turns and says something to his wife. The look on JD's face is that "Oh shit!" look you get when you know the car is about to crash.

Trump is a much more tolerant man than me. If I had been in Trump's shoes at that service, I would have stood up and gathered my family and walked out of the service. But not quietly.

Long ago and far away, when I was in high school, our Sunday School teacher made a comment that offended and/or shocked everyone in my class. I just got up and walked out. I walked down to the pastor's office and suggested that he go down to the classroom and find out what happened. He said, "Why can't you tell me what happened?" I just told him, "I'm not coming back. Maybe you can keep some of the others from leaving."

I have more thoughts about the bishop's remarks and attitude that I will share in another post. The only thing about that broad's attitude that surprises me is that she's not a United Methodist bishop.

Last week, Gov. Josh Stein of North Carolina issued an executive order to protect abortions in North Carolina. Democrats keep claiming that they have to protect abortions from Donald Trump. I guess that Supreme Court ruling that the federal government has no power to regulate abortions hasn't been read. 

While Stein moves to protect abortions, North Carolinians are living in tents and travel trailers waiting for the government to help them after their homes were destroyed by the hurricane in September. However, the Democrat's biggest fear, the evil demon Trump, will be visiting there on Friday morning. I am hazarding a guess that between FEMA and the state of North Carolina, someone will be getting busy soon.

Maybe if someone told Jerkoff Josh Stein that an abortion clinic had been washed away in the floods, he would be up there checking on the situation?

If Trump wants to kick the Democrats into line, he should announce that he is going to release the names of Epstein's island visitors. Let's see those passenger lists on Air Epstein. We were told that they couldn't release that info until they finished the trial of his girlfriend. That was three years ago. What are we waiting for now?

The End of An Error

 It is less than four hours until Trump takes the nation's helm as I write this post. As predicted in this space, Joe Biden is going out in a blaze of pardons.

Just a few minutes ago, it was announced that Dr. Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley and all of the Congressmen and staff from the January 6 Committee have received pardons from the demented President Biden. If a reporter can find the balls to ask Biden later today why he pardoned these people, Biden will probably deny that he did that. Why does the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs need a pardon? Why does a Congressional committee need pardons? Is a bad toupee a reason to jail Dr. Fauci? 

All that Joe Biden did with this rash of pardons this morning is to prove that the "conspiracy theorists" were correct. Any chance of the term "credibility" being used in conjunction with the Biden Administration did this morning at the White House. 

Still expected before he leaves office are pardons for Biden's brother James and other family members who received money from China. Will he pardon Jill?

It is reported that Trump will remove the security clearances from the 51 "intelligence experts" who claimed that the Hunter Biden laptop was "Russian disinformation". Will Biden have time to pardon them also?

When the Democrats nominated a guy who had been a mediocre Senator from a small state for President it should have set off alarms. Joe's been on the take for years. It didn't start when he became President. 

Democrats have spent the last four years lying to the nation and the world about Joe's mental condition. Given the plethora of pardons coming out of the White House, they know that the nation is not believing what the Democrats are putting out.

There's a new world coming in a few hours. Let's hope that it is better than the last four years.

The Saturday Night before Inauguration

 It's Saturday night in North Carolina and we are all discussing which liberal is going to kill themself on Monday as Trump is sworn into office. A neighbor mentioned Joe Biden as his pick, but I pointed out that Joe may already be dead, and Jill just hasn't unplugged the life support machine.

In what could be the cherry on top of the Biden ice cream sundae that has been the past four years, I offer this thought. Once Biden finishes pardoning all of his family members on Monday morning, about 11:00 AM he should resign and turn the whole mess over to Kamala. Then she could pardon Joe and become the first woman President all in the space of an hour. This would also be the first economic stimulus that has actually worked for Dims as businesses would have to retool and make new Presidential merchandise for Trump, who would then be the 48th President. 

The "Resistance" was out at the Lincoln Memorial today protesting the election of Donald Trump. You have got to be quite the moron to want to resist an improving economy. They are afraid that if they have to get a job, it will cut into their protesting time.

Los Angeles continues to burn as Greasy Gavin tries to put the blame on Trump for the fires. They could improve their chances of putting out the fires if they had promoted their best leader to Fire Chief instead of promoting their best lesbian firefighter.

 California turned down help from New York City because they said that the New York firemen wouldn't know how to deal with the type of fires that are plaguing Los Angeles. I am pretty sure that the NYC guys have seen arson before.

More than 12,000 structures have been burned so far. It's a tragedy of unimaginable scale and still no politician will admit responsibility. 

With the Pacific Ocean right at the fire, the question has been asked about why didn't they use sea water to fight the fires. According to government sources, the salt in the sea water would cause corrosion and damage to the firefighting equipment. So, my question is how would the cost of replacing all of the fire trucks compare to the cost of replacing more than 12,000 buildings? If the buildings are all gone, what are you saving the trucks to do?

The FBI has reassigned the Lead Agent in New Orleans who announced that the attack that killed fifteen and injured more than thirty was not a terrorist attack. Unless they reassigned her to "unemployed", Trump has a job to finish.

We need to end the public hearings on Presidential nominees in the Senate. Allow time for them to meet privately with Senators and then just take a vote. I am tired of the live television confirmation that our elected representatives are dumbasses. Yeah, I'm talking about Bernie, Fauxchohontas, and Blumenthal (the Toys For Tots veteran). Of course, they can't hold a candle to Sheldon Whitehouse, the king of arrogance and asinine questions.

I would rather watch "The View" than another Senate hearing.

Pardona-palooza

 Pardon me miss, but I have never done this, with a real, live girl. Wait!! Wrong topic.

Scranton Joe, the Dean of Dementia, is burning up the copy machines at the White House with his flurry of last-minute pardons. A few hours ago, he commuted the sentences of about 2500 people charged with nonviolent drug crimes. No criteria were released about how "non-violent" was defined.

I called the White House earlier today and entered my name in the pardon lottery. I had a couple of speeding tickets in 1975 that I would like to have expunged. I talked to some woman named Jen. and she told me that they would circle back to me before noon on Monday. I told her that a pardon would help Dims get the fat old white guy vote in 2028. She sounded a little skeptical. Actually, she was almost decidedly unimpressed.

Who will Biden pardon next? There is talk of pre-emptive pardons for some political figures. Liz Cheney, Nancy Pelosi, Benny Thompson and every other Democrat in Congress will probably be pardoned. KJP, the chick with the Jiffy Pop hair is reportedly high on the pardon list. 

There are a few "locks" for a pardon. In this group are people like his brother James Biden, First Loser Jill Biden and all of his grandchildren who had a bank account filled with money from China. Hunter wants everyone who bought his "art" pardoned. That's two more people, at the most.

Will Hunter's Sugar Daddy, Kevin Morris be pardoned? He loaned Hunter more than $6.5 million and bought a lot of his artwork. There's got to be a crime involved somewhere in all of that.

Alejandro Mayorkas over at Homeland Security and all of his management team, Chris Wray, Merrick Garland and everyone on the staff at the Department of Injustice are also shoo-ins for the pardona-paloooza prize winner list. They have to pardon anyone from an FBI SWAT team who shot an innocent person.

Here's the favorite pardon recipient that Democrats will never mention. It's Lt. William Byrd who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt. Babbitt was the only person killed at the Capitol on January 6. All other claims are false. Biden will pardon Byrd.

Finally, Joe is going to pardon his dog, Major. Major was blamed for taking a shit on the White House carpet in a hall. Joe will finally admit that he took the shit on the carpet and blamed the dog. Major is reportedly pleased that he is receiving a pardon and will be allowed inside the house again. Jill is going to make Joe stay outside.

No Wit Wednesday

 I heard Biden's Farewell speech from the television set in the living room. I may have nodded off a couple of times, I am not sure. I don't recall anyone describing the speech as a spellbinder.

Biden, the President who allowed investors to run his term, talked about the evils of rich men. The guy who pardoned his son for shoveling millions of dollars of Chinese cash to the Biden family, has suddenly transformed into a guy who thinks that politicians can be bought. He gave no indications about his personal asking price.

Here's a guy who has taken payoffs, warning us about the dangers of "robber barons".  He would have been better off warning us about the dangers of dementia in Presidents named Joe.

The candidate that Biden endorsed raised more than $1.5 billion and still lost. She actually spent more than she raised and ended up having to bleed donors to balance the books after the race. She may have milked the "robber barons" dry.

Neither Bill Clinton nor Barack Obama had a pot to piss in before they were President and now, they are multi-millionaires. Why hasn't Hillary ever written about how she made record amounts in trading cattle futures when she was the Governor's wife? Do you even know someone who has read a book by Obama or Clinton, and can they tell you what it is about? 

In 100 years, will they write about what a great President Jill Biden was for America? 

Good News!! If you were worried about Big Mike Obama causing a scene at the inauguration, fear not. Mike is staying at home or in Hawaii or whatever poverty pocket where she and Barack are staying this week.

Adam Schitt is no better at being a Senator than he was at being at being a Representative. As the poster boy for "pencil necked geeks" he was outclassed today in his attempts to discredit Pam Bondi. 

I realize that members of both parties take turns trying to destroy the reputations of Presidential nominees. This is not a process that makes our elected representatives look good. Yesterday, female Democratic Senators all looked like they didn't get the rabies shot series after they were bitten by rabid dogs. A little ore foaming at the mouth and even the reporters would have left the room.

Massachusetts voters are either the dumbest in the land or they can't get anyone with more than a room temperature IQ to run for office. A state that elects both Ed Markey and "Fauxchohontas" Warren to the United States Senate is a state with a mental health crisis. It's either that or they are morons.

Top Tuesday Topics and Taunts

 With the City of Los Angeles actually on fire, the California legislature voted to spend $50 million dollars to fight Trump's efforts to deport illegal immigrants. If you want to stump a California legislator, ask them to define "priorities".

As suggested in my post "The Last Blast of 2024" on December 31, the Trump administration has announced that the famous Trump garbage truck will be in the Inaugural Parade. There's still time for McDonald's to announce they will be on hand giving away free fries.

I watched a couple of highlights from the Hegseth Senate Circus today. Only in America could a political party like the Dims have both their male and female members get their panties into a wad.

Tomorrow morning, I am sending a campaign contribution to Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma for bitch-slapping the Democrats back to the Clinton era. I realize that pointing out that politicians have a tendency towards hypocrisy is not like discovering a cure for stupidity. But with the folks with a "D" after their name, it's a great start.

The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same things and expecting different results. We keep putting retired generals in charge at the Pentagon and wonder why nothing gets any better. It's Washington, not West Virginia. Sometimes you need to date outside of your family. 

Carrie Underwood is getting attacked by the left after agreeing to perform at Trump's inaugural. They really do need to develop a vaccine for Trump Derangement Syndrome. I would write more about the intolerance of the left, but Kid Rock is also going to perform, and I am guessing that he will have something to tell the haters. 

Sixty-four years ago, Dwight Eisenhower warned us about the military-industrial complex. We need to compel the US Senate to read that warning. 

Why do we have more four-star generals now than we did at the peak of World War 2? We have fewer troops, but more generals. If that makes sense to you, give up your job in government immediately. 

I sent Elizabeth Warren a note about our surplus of supervisors. I phrased it in a way that I know that she could understand. I wrote "Too many chiefs, not enough Indians?" 

I have taken a few online courses from Hillsdale College. I am working on one now called "The World Wars". The main presenter is Victor Davis Hanson. It is really good. I am reluctant to admit this, but I am learning a lot from it. See for yourself, it's free.

California Dreaming??

 Warning: The following post may contain profanity. I don't believe that will surprise many, but I just wanted to let you know in advance.

California is where all of the people who couldn't afford to move to Communist China live. The current situation in southern California has just kicked me over the edge and I need to voice some thoughts.

Gavin Newsome, Greasy Gavin, Gruesome Newsome, you pick what you want to call him. This guy is a walking case to ban free elections in America. I have always known that the possibility that we would elect a useless piece of shit was there, but this is the worst example in history. We need to bring back literacy tests for voters.

Southern California is on fire. This is not a metaphor; the area is actually burning. I saw on the news that Greasy was on a video call with President Biden and her husband Joe in the Oval Office. Newsome was telling them about "disinformation" being a huge problem. Joe agreed with Greasy. That's why Jill was there.

 Memo to Greasy: Put out all of the fires, correct all of the situations that caused the fires, implement changes that will prevent fires, rebuild all of the homes and businesses that have burned down, set up a system that will prevent all of this from happening again, get the insurance situation straightened out and then maybe we can talk about disinformation. Until then, STFU!

Things are going so bad in Los Angeles that I saw a boatload of Mexicans leaving heading south. Fire departments in Mexico are sending you help and equipment. This is the worst case of role reversal that I have seen.

Democrats and disinformation is a localized problem.  It's not a problem for the rest of the nation, but of course, we aren't trying to bullshit the other 300 million people in the nation

In November of 2019, Greasy told President Trump on Twitter: "You don’t believe in climate change. You are excused from this conversation." Idiots talk about "climate change". The rest of the world calls it "the weather". How many homes and businesses have burned since then, Greasy? How many forest fires have you had?

As long as we are on "climate change", why did the Obamas, Barry and Big Mike, spend $12 million on a beach house at sea level? Does this mean that he doesn't believe in "climate change" and the seas rising? Or is he challenging you for the famed "Dumbest Dim" award? So, is Obama also excused from conversations about California's problems?

California doesn't practice a lot of the fire preventative measures that are practiced in forests across the country. Californians don't want to alter the environment, but they are okay with setting it all on fire. Call me confused.

California is the tail trying to wag the dog. California passes laws that create problems in other states. California passed a law mandating how hogs are grown in states that sell products in California. California is more concerned about how hogs live in Iowa than they are about how people live in Los Angeles. Just for the record, there's never been a hog robbed in Iowa. 

California wants to make the rest of us all drive electric vehicles. I still had hair the last time a power plant was opened in California. Where in the hell is all of the electricity to operate all of those cars going to come from? Politicians in California pass laws and then try to figure out how things will work. You've got the process backwards, dumbass!!

Greasy, I saw on the news that you had moved into a new house that cost more than nine million dollars. While I realize that in California you may have to spend that much to get one with a roof, it's still not a good look.  Who do you think you are, Obama?

You need some people who understand free enterprise in California. You limited the premiums that insurance companies can charge for fire insurance and then you wonder why no one can get fire insurance. Insurance companies are not non-profit organizations. If you limit how much they can charge, they stop selling fire insurance. That creates the situation that you have now.

If the companies do sell insurance at reduced rates, they have to spread the costs among their other customers. Speaking for the residents of North Carolina, we aren't the least bit interested in paying more for insurance so that you don't have to maintain your forests. I am not even going to start about the need for more and larger fire departments. If crime is a problem, you hire more cops. If your cities are burning, hire more firemen. Take that money that you are spending on illegal immigrants and hire firemen. Send the illegals back across the border, you can't afford them.

I always hear politicians bragging about California being a "sanctuary" state. Right now, it is a sanctuary for wildfires and arsonists. Are fires just a jobs program for looters??

The sad thing is that every year California has a problem with fires. Every year there is a problem with high winds. How can you keep being surprised? Write this down! Make a Plan!

You need water in southern California. You have water in norther California. Write this down! Build a pipeline. Just for the record, if the reservoirs are empty, there's a problem. You may be able to pay for all of this by selling smelt burgers. Give it a shot!

California needs new leadership. Resign and take that dumbass mayor of Los Angeles with you. Maybe she can go to another continent and visit friends, again. Whatever you decide, don't elect Kamala.

I was right, only a couple of profanities.

Friday Free-for-all

 The horrible wildfires in California have destroyed thousands of homes and cars, hundreds of businesses, scores of schools and the 2028 Presidential hopes of Greasy Gavin Newsome. 

These fires have demonstrated the complete failure of government in California. This is a level of negligence and incompetence that is more than sufficient to warrant criminal charges. Someone needs to go to jail for this level of incompetence. 

Greasy Gavin Newsome claims that "misinformation" is a big problem that the government needs to control. Los Angeles is burning and Greasy Gavin wants to stop people from saying bad things about him.  He said this during a video conference with the only guy who is more out of touch with reality than he is, Joe Biden.

The largest city in Newsome's state is on fire and Greasy Gavin is concerned that someone is sharing with the world the basic truth that Greasy Gavin is an idiot. 

Why do liberals all object to freedom of speech? I am so old that I remember when liberals were all protesting in support of unlimited freedom of speech. Now they want to censor everyone who disagrees with them. What happened? Oh, I forgot that Trump won, twice.

Mark Zuckerberg has suddenly become an activist for free speech after spending the last four years with his spine in the shop, unable to stand up to Biden, Garland and the rest of the Communists at the Department of Injustice. I guess that it is better late than never. 

Liberals don't understand anything about how the whole free enterprise system works. The State of California limited what insurance companies could charge for insurance and now are asking why insurance companies stopped writing fire insurance policies. It's like raising the minimum wage to $20 and then wondering why businesses are closing and/or laying off employees.

The high winds and dry conditions are not unusual in California.  They are like hurricanes in Florida and blizzards on the plains. If you don't have water to use water on fires, you better have a good plan B. California didn't and probably never will.

Today Sleepy Joe Biden told us that he or Kamala could have beaten Trump. Has Jill not told him about the election?

The California legislature is in a special session to "Trump proof" California. WOW!! Their largest city is on fire and their tax base is on the verge of collapse and they are fighting Trump, not fires. When we redefine "stupid", include the California legislature as an example.

Judge Juan Merchan should start the search for a good lawyer to represent him. He may regret telling Donald Trump, "Godspeed".

I guess the next week will feature smoke pouring out of the FBI and the DOJ buildings as they shred and burn documents before Trump's inauguration. I hear that they hired Hillary Clinton as a consultant on that data destruction process.

Holiday Thursday??

 President Slow Joe Biden declared today, January 9th, to be a day of mourning for the death of former President Jimmy Carter. Federal Employees had the day off to mourn. I doubt that 50% of federal employees can even tell you what years Carter was the President.

This day of mourning is actually for all of the money that Biden is blowing in his last few weeks in office.

I remember the Carter years vividly. My wife and I had a new house built and the mortgage rate was 16%. The cost was over my BankAmericard limit, or I would have just saved money and put it on the credit card. A couple of years into the Reagan era, we sold that house and moved to a lower rate.

What possessed Jimmy Carter to have Joe Biden deliver his eulogy? Was everybody else on the planet busy?

Joe claims to have been "the first national figure" to endorse Jimmy in his Presidential campaign. Joe was the junior senator from the smallest state and had been in office for less than three years when Jimmy started his campaign. Joe was no closer to being a "national figure" than I was while I was managing a Waffle House in Tampa. 

Everybody talks about what a great Christian Jimmy Carter was. Then why did he want "Imagine" played at his funeral? "Imagine there's no heaven?" Really? My wife promised that there would be no John Lennon songs at my checkout ceremony.

The scenes from the California fires are horrific. So, what possessed Joe Biden to start talking about the good news he had about his first great-grandchild being born? Joe did not fly to California to see the fire damage. He flew out there because he knew his great grandchild was being delivered by c-section. Do you think that anybody who lost their home in the fire even gives a shit about any Biden kids?

 Biden did a press conference with Newsome because Newsome wasn't smart enough to lie to Joe about when and where the press conference was being held.

Hunter is the baby's grandfather. I am going to omit the crack or hooker joke that you expected here.

If I order one of those Tommy Copper compression shirts, will I be able to throw people over my shoulder, appear in movies and shoot long shots in basketball like the guy in the commercials? Sorry, I have seen that commercial too many times. I just had to throw that in somewhere.

You have to love Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles. She has bigger balls than even Greasy Gavin Newsome. She declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles a few days ago and then got on a plane to Ghana. 

When asked about her trip, Bass responded, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going. I'm going to Ghana." Residents are reportedly unimpressed.

I see Republicans in California's political future.

If all of these things that Biden is doing in his last sixty days are so good, why didn't he do them in his first sixty days??

Sister Slug's Traveling Salvation Show

 The White House announced that VP Kameltoe Harris will travel to Bahrain, Germany and Singapore on a five-day trip from January 13-17. 

According to the White House, in a statement issued Tuesday, “Throughout her trip, the Vice President will discuss the accomplishments of the Biden-Harris Administration over the past four years in each region, the U.S. partnership with the respective nations, the contributions of U.S. military forces to regional and global security, and the enduring national security interests of the United States." WOW!!

She's traveling halfway around the world at taxpayer expense to try to do something that a hired writer could do in the 280 characters allowed to the free "X" users.  

She is taking Doug Emhof, the "Second Gentleman" with her on this trip. So, the taxpayers are on the hook for one last vacation for Kameltoe and Doug. I have to admit that the cost of that trip is trillions less than what her getting elected would have cost us. 

Couldn't she have just taken a vacation with some of the more than a billion dollars that they raised for her campaign? I'm sorry, I forgot that they actually spent more than they raised.

Somewhere in Singapore, there's some poor son of a bitch who works for the government, pulling out his English-Word Salad dictionary so that he can translate Kameltoe's remarks into some form of English that can be understood. They won't even waste their time and money bringing in someone to translate her remarks into sign language.

Is Kameltoe traveling to foreign countries because it isn't safe for her to travel to Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York or Washington DC? Will she be recycling some of her campaign speeches in those foreign countries? 

Is she going to those countries because they haven't heard her prattle on about "big yellow school busses"? Will those countries have to bus in paid spectators for her appearances? Will they have to build a set that looks like "The View" before she does an interview in Bahrain? Is she going to tell the "I want feedom" story in Singapore? Will she go shopping in Germany to restock her wine cellar at home? Or is she just spreading "The Incoherent Gospel of Joe Biden"?

There is talk about Harris running for Governor of California in a couple of years. If she wins, we just need to go ahead and cede California to Canada. Throw in Washington and Oregon just to make it contiguous. 

I have been to the mountain top!!

 Last night, I turned on the computer to check on the news and possibly scrawl out a blog post. As you are reading this post, I was obviously successful in that endeavor.

I saw a news story that confirmed my long-held belief that government is run by morons. But to be honest, I don't recall ever seeing a story that would contradict my belief. But last night was special. This was like winning a thousand dollars on a one-dollar scratch and lose ticket.

There was a news story from here in North Carolina. Yesterday was the deadline for paying property taxes in North Carolina counties. I always pay my property taxes between Christmas and New Year's to beat the crowd after New Year's Day. I would pay earlier, but there is no discount for paying early.

In Buncombe County, the county seat is Asheville. There was a lot of damage in that area from Hurricane Helene three months ago. Today, the Buncombe County Tax Office announced that there will be no waivers or adjustments for people who had their homes damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Helene. Taxes are due regardless of the condition or presence of your home. The Buncombe County Tax Office says that there is no provision for waivers or adjustments in North Carolina State Law.

Our new Governor Jerk-off Josh Stein visited Asheville last Thursday and talked about all that he was going to do to help the people who had suffered so much damage. Apparently, this does not include any relief on their property tax bills.

What are they going to do to people who watched their homes float away in the storm? Is the county going to recover their home and put it back onto the property? Are they going to track it down and seize it to sell? If you can't afford to get your home repaired, how can you afford to pay taxes on it? People have lost their homes and their jobs, but Buncombe County just doesn't care.

I will take a moment here to point out that Buncombe County and Asheville are the heart of the Democratic Party in western North Carolina. The counties surrounding it may vote Republican, but Buncombe never does. Obviously, Democrats aren't even interested in taking care of their own.

That the government waited until the last day to issue this public statement tells you everything that you need to know about government. Did anyone in Buncombe County government discuss this with Gov. Jerk-off Josh when he visited last week? They are all Democrats. Didn't anyone see this crisis coming before yesterday?

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, Buncombe County is a "sanctuary county". While they long to shelter illegal immigrants, they do nothing to help their residents who have lost their homes. You have to love the insanity of liberal priorities!!

Martin Luther King used to say that he had been to the mountaintop, and he had seen the Promised Land.  Well, I have been to the mountaintop, and I have seen the dumbest bastards in government. 

The Governor and the legislature need to start work on resolving this issue today. There is no time to waste. This is the kind of stupid shit from the government that pushes people over the edge. There's a mental health crisis brewing in Buncombe County. It's being caused by morons in government.  let's find a cure!!

Just a footnote, but if Trump has to ride to the rescue on this situation, the Dims can write off Buncombe County.

Right?? Again??

 There's nothing better than being right about something, unless you are debating with your spouse in which case, it's best not to be right. But this one is about the FBI and not my beloved, so I am free to celebrate.

Early Friday morning I published "Rants, Raves and Ruminations" in this space. In it, I wrote this, " A news report about the FBI searching the killer's Houston home mentioned that the door to his home was half torn off and left open after the FBI had finished. Leaving the door open gives others the opportunity to come in and see what the FBI missed. This is sloppy law enforcement. Are we to believe that there is no way the FBI overlooked anything? If they come back later, the entire scene has been tainted. Of course, the FBI doesn't worry about legal principles."

What happened? The FBI and Harris County officials returned to the home on Friday to collect more evidence. They returned to a home where they had left the front door half torn off and open. They had failed to secure the site before leaving on Thursday. Neighbors reported that people had been seen inside the home recording videos after the FBI left on Thursday. But ignoring all of this, the FBI returned on Friday to "collect more evidence".

Fox 26 television news in Houston had this in a story:

"The Harris County Sheriff's Office bomb squad along with four unmarked SUVs returned to the address with large evidence collection trucks to gather items and evidence, sources reported. Authorities are returning a day after Jabbar's home was left open and people were seen videoing inside the home and roaming around."

Is this how the nation's "premier law enforcement agency" works? The only good news is that the perpetrator is dead and won't have an attorney to challenge the FBI's results. Anything that comes out of this investigation is now subject to challenge. They left the crime scene open to people who just wanted to look around. Does it get any dumber than this?

Even worse, they brought the Harris County Bomb Squad with them on Friday. So, the FBI left open an investigative scene where they thought there might be a bomb or at the least, bomb making materials. This might belong on an old blog post called "Stupid Trooper Tricks".

In New Orleans, they left dead bodies in the street for several hours while they did an investigation of the murders. But in Houston, they couldn't board up a door or leave a policeman there to watch the mass murderer's house until they returned. What kind of sense does this make? 

This is the same FBI that has spent millions of man-hours pursuing people who committed a misdemeanor by walking through the Capitol on January 6, but didn't have the manpower to post a guard at an actual crime scene. Maybe they could have pulled someone off of a school board meeting or a Latin Mass at a Catholic church to cover the murderer's house? 

If the FBI could send a SWAT team to arrest a guy who prayed outside of an abortion clinic, surely, they could have posted a guard at the home of someone who killed fourteen people and injured more than thirty others. The vocabulary quiz to become an FBI agent should include the word "priorities".

At the end of the day, the nation's "premier" law enforcement agency failed to secure a site involved with one of the deadliest crimes in the country. This whole incident is just another reason that demonstrates that it is time to shut down the FBI and start over again. 

Carville the Clown??

 Just when you think that James Carville can't say anything that is measurably dumber than anything he has said before, the "Rajun Cajun" comes through with another gem.

Appearing on Anderson Cooper's show on CNN, Carville was discussing the two recent terror incidents and the two guys responsible for them. He mentioned that they had both been in the Army and should have known how to handle explosives. From that observation, Carville left the liberal reservation with this thought, “These people have some kind of sexual problem. I think that most of them are incels. I’ll be wrong 20%, I’ll say that, but I’m not going to be wrong much more than that, if you dig into it.”

I actually had to look up the meaning of "incel". It is shorthand for "involuntary celibate". The Anti-Defamation League defines "incels" as “heterosexual men who blame women and society for their lack of romantic success.”

So, liberals think that these guys are trying to cause mass deaths, including their own death, because they can't get laid. WOW!! This is a whole new perspective. Add this to the list of things for the FBI to check when we have the next terror incident. Based on this thought process, I was in high school with hundreds of potential terrorists. I must have slept through all of the mass shootings at high school. I was either asleep for three years or Carville's theory is bullshit, you pick.

I can't believe that Carville is advocating this theory after the New Orleans incident. I don't think that on a New Year's Eve in the French Quarter, in New Orleans, that there are a lot of people practicing celibacy. Call me cynical, but I just don't believe that is a reasonable idea. 

I think the bigger question here is why did they even run Carville's comments on Anderson Cooper's show? I have to ask because there are no actual "inquiring minds" at CNN.

By his own account, Carville's political experiences started when he was attending a Catholic high school in Louisiana. He tore down the political signs of an opponent. More than sixty years later, not much has changed.

Do You Believe in Magic?

 No, I am not talking about the Lovin' Spoonful song from the 1960's. I am talking about the vote yesterday in the House of Representatives to elect Mike Johnson as the Speaker of the House. I had mentioned in previous posts that I didn't have much faith in the ability of the House Republicans to come together and accomplish anything. So, I was stunned by the news that they had elected Mike Johnson as Speaker on the first ballot.

After a couple of votes were changed, Thomas Massie was the only Republican who didn't support Johnson. I am a contrarian by nature, but even I am trying to understand Massie's position. Sometimes, we have to put our feelings and our egos aside and do what is best for the country. Massie just couldn't do it.

I doubt that anyone who has a pulse thought that Johnson would win on the first ballot. I told someone that I thought that he might win on the second ballot, and they expressed the idea that I might be insane. Just call me crazy!

What did we learn from this election for Speaker of the House? We learned that Donald Trump may have unified Republicans in a way thought previously to be impossible. For the skeptics, this is certainly Donald Trump's Republican Party. The vote for Speaker proved that point.

 In the last nine years, Trump has dramatically altered the Republican Party. The Country Club Republicans have given way to the Home Depot Republicans. Somebody needs to go tell Mitch! We don't need to tell Mitt. He left on his own. Mitch needs to go ahead and leave before he just dies at his desk one day. I won't even ask "How will anyone know?"

Over in the Senate, Vice President Harris bungled the Pledge of Allegiance in the ceremony to swear in new members of the Senate. My thirteen-year-old grand-daughter can recite the Pledge of Allegiance. But the Vice-President of the United States cannot do that. Every time I see Kamala; the same thought runs through my mind. "We really dodged a bullet on that!"

I was reading an online article about the new senators who were being sworn into office. The writer mentioned that two of them had habitually mispronounced Kamala's name. Apparently, this is viewed by the left as some kind of sin. Memo to parents: When you make up a name for your child, there is a risk that no one will be able to either pronounce or spell it. Give it some more thought. 

Where do we get all of these names? Who decides how they are spelled? The prevailing theory goes like this. The hospital worker comes into the room where the mother is with the newborn child. The worker asks, "What do you want to name the child? I am filling out the birth certificate." The mother responds with the name. The worker asks, "How do you spell that?" The mother responds, "Just like it sounds." And that's where all of these names originate. Right?

My first name is Gilbert. It is English or French in origin. That depends on the nationality of whoever you are talking to about it. It is easy to pronounce. But over the last fifty years, I had several employees and customers mispronounce it. Many called me "Mista Gibbut". My maternal grandmother called me "Gib". I survived and so will Kamala. If you work for CNN or MSNBC, find something else to bitch about other than the pronunciation of Kamala. Or just call her Kam.

Once again, welcome to the new Republican Party.

Rants, Raves and Ruminations

 A guy who was a Green Beret in the army and on leave from his unit in Germany killed himself and tried to blow up a Tesla "truck" yesterday at the Trump International in Las Vegas. Experts have stated that his choice of blasting materials was consumer based and not really reflective of what a career soldier would choose. But they are sure that he did it all himself. I can't decide whether to advocate for more kooks or fewer experts. I would settle for some actual facts.

The Las Vegas loon shot himself in the head as his rental car/truck(?) caught fire. He didn't even break out a window in the hotel despite being parked just a few feet from the doors. His skill in the Army was not explosives. I have set bigger fires at home trying to burn leaves in the fall.

I am working on the theory that he didn't like Trump. Did the "suicide bomber" go to see Alvin Bragg before killing himself? If he did, Bragg will soon charge Trump with causing this loon's death. 

Still waiting for Phony Fani Willis to announce that she is charging the Las Vegas Police Department with a RICO charge for interfering with the guy trying to damage the Trump Hotel.

The House of Representatives will meet today to try and elect a Speaker of the House. I am not sure what time the cat herding exercise will begin, but I expect it to run well into the evening. As I mentioned the other day, several Republicans appear to be confused about how to succeed in anything. Mom said, "You aren't going to get everything you want in life. Get used to it!" I guess that is why she never ran for Congress. 

As children, several of the discontented Republican group must have threatened to hold their breath until they got their way. One of my sons did that as a child and caved in at about the thirty second mark as I headed to the bathroom to read the newspaper.

The superintendent of police in New Orleans told us that the killer had found a way around the vehicle blockades on Bourbon Street. That will be the biggest understatement of the year and there are 362 days left for someone to try and top it. They won't.

The FBI said that the News Orleans killer was working by himself and was not part of a group. This came a little more than 24 hours after the shooting. Do I believe them? Of course not. This is the same agency that hasn't told us the truth yet about what happened at Waco and that was 32 years ago. Those guys lie for a living. We won't even take up Ruby Ridge.

The FBI was so busy monitoring parents at school board meetings that they didn't have time to check on a former soldier who had gone over to the other side. If only Shamsud-Din Jabbar had become a Republican? Then they would have been all over him. If he had held a sign on a sidewalk outside an abortion clinic, he would have still been in prison instead of on Bourbon Street. 

A news report about the FBI searching the killer's Houston home mentioned that the door to his home was half torn off and left open after the FBI had finished. Leaving the door open gives others the opportunity to come in and see what the FBI missed. This is sloppy law enforcement. Are we to believe that there is no way the FBI overlooked anything? If they come back later, the entire scene has been tainted. Of course, the FBI doesn't worry about legal principles.

Did the FBI SWAT team take a female agent with them to search the killer's mobile home? I realize that it wasn't Melania's dresser at Mar-a-Lago but weren't they going to search the guy's underwear drawer? Isn't that standard Bureau procedure? 

I am fascinated by the fact that both of the killers rented EVs to use to commit their crimes. I guess that the EVs are quieter, and people don't have a noise warning them of your arrival before the murder or suicide. Is this a plot by Secretary of Trans Pete Buttgig to popularize EVs? 

At least now we know what kind of people rent EVs.

Liz Cheney was awarded the Presidential Citizen's Medal by senile Joe Biden. We have tried people who were more honorable than Liz for treason. I guess that her pardon will come next week. She and Bro Benny Thompson have to be protected from the Justice Department.

I haven't seen an announcement yet from the White House, but are the three cops who engaged in the shootout with the New Orleans killer going to get a Presidential Medal?

  

 

New Year, Same old Stuff

 Someone asked how I could have titled my last post of 2024,"The Last Blast of 2024" after the incidents in New Orleans yesterday. It was easy, I wrote it about 5:00 PM on New Years Eve. I am only sarcastic, not psychic.

The FBI has confirmed their position as a group needing a major overhaul by immediately denying that the New Orleans disaster was a "terrorist attack". They had to retract that later in the day. Maybe they should have checked the scene for ISIS flags before issuing their first statement? Did they even talk to the New Orleans Police Department before issuing a statement?

Was the Tesla truck explosion in front of the Trump Hotel another terrorist incident or just another dumbass liberal offering himself up as some kind of human sacrifice? Tell me again about how the conservatives are the violent ones.

I have covered this before, but it is time for a cultural transfusion at the FBI. It's so bad that Biden suggested that he would reappoint J. Edgar Hoover to the job of FBI Director before January 20. Biden claims that he and J. Edgar spoke yesterday after the New Orleans tragedy.

The FBI is our national joke. The only solution is to destroy the current culture at the FBI and start all over again. Fire everyone in leadership positions and burn the FBI headquarters in Washington to the ground. You will have to tear the entire organization of the FBI down to rebuild it. There's nothing there worth saving. Don't waste your breath telling me what a great agency that they used to be. Build a new headquarters somewhere in a small town in middle America and start again.

WAIT!! I was wrong. It's not just the FBI; it is the entire Department of Justice. Rest assured; the word "priorities" is not in the vocabulary at the Department of Justice. They demonstrate this on a daily basis for all of the world to see. Burn the DOJ headquarters as well. Move their headquarters to Nebraska or Kansas.

While Ma Garland has spent the last four years pursuing Donald Trump and anyone associated with him, it is obvious that "Justice" has not been the objective of the Department of Justice. I won't even bother mentioning Hunter Biden. It's time for the DOJ to look at itself in a mirror. Maybe Pogo was right. Maybe he was talking about the DOJ when he said, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

How much time and manpower has been spent pursuing the people who demonstrated at the Capitol on January 6? How many millions of man-hours have been used trying to jail those protestors for a host of misdemeanor charges? Now that the FBI has finally admitted that the New Orleans attack is a terrorist action, should they have spent those millions of man-hours investigating real terrorist groups instead of harassing those who have different political views?

Could the terrorist strike in New Orleans been averted if the FBI had spent more time investigating real terrorists and less time looking through Melania Trump's underwear drawer at Mar-a-Lago? If only Jack Smith, Chris Wray and Ma Garland had been more interested in real threats to our safety than harassing Donald Trump. January 20 can't come too soon.