Monopoly

This is another recycled story from 2013, and yes, it is just as applicable today as it was seven years ago.  In case you missed it, here it is.  Please enjoy.

The Pony Express just after 
Nancy Pelosi retired

The eastern American colonies had a mail system established by the Continental Congress in 1775 but, its ability to move mail was limited.  It was in 1860 that an answer to the problem of sending communications across our country was solved with the birth of the Pony Express.  This solution helped people correspond with one another, cross-country, prior to the invention of the telegraph.  Although freight was readily moved east to west, those trips took a while and moving personal mail was less than timely.

 

Several businessmen joined forces and established the quick mail delivery system charging an astronomical $5 per half ounce of mail – the equivalent of $20 by today’s standards.  It was a dangerous and elaborate maze of routes and riders that included William Cody, otherwise known as “Buffalo Bill.”

 

A series of corporate buy-outs and government contracts eventually morphed the Pony Express into the United States Postal Service (USPS).  By nearly anyone’s standards, 238 years should be enough time to financially break even.  But, nearly everyone would be wrong.

 

The good news today is the USPS lost $1,300,000,000 in the last quarter of 2012.  That’s considered good news because it was far less than the $3,300,000,000 in the comparable quarter the previous fiscal year.

 

To offset these ‘lost’ dollars, the USPS decided to do what any competent business would – raise prices.  The newest price increase was to stamps in the amount of who-knows-what.  It really doesn’t matter to the USPS in as much as they have no competition, by law.  They can – and do – charge whatever they want because they are a monopoly when it comes to letters.

 

Price increases are regular activities for the USPS with few Americans sure of what the current rate is or even was.  I can tell you all that junk mail you receive each day costs the sender only pennies, and presorted mail costs seven cents to annoy its recipients.

 

The USPS now seems to feel that they need to cut back to save monies ill spent for the past decades.  These cash-saving efforts include eliminating mail delivery on Saturday.  They promise to keep parcel delivery for that day, for the time being.  This is really good news for me as my mail carrier cannot get my mail to me Monday through Friday.  He seems to be dyslexic, delivering my junk mail to all my neighbors who kindly bring it to me, expecting a beer as a reward, thereafter.

 

It must be borne in mind that in many places the USPS used to deliver mail twice daily until the 1960’s.

 

One should also consider that Fedex and UPS run head-to-head competition with the USPS for packages.  This is allowed because they don’t compete with letters.  USPS advertises “overnight delivery” of letters.  This is just some sort of advertising scheme because their “overnight delivery” is not overnight; it could be two days or more but, what the heck.  By the way, both Fedex and UPS are doing very well with their package delivery.  The USPS, not so much.

 

This is a prime example of a government operation and its lack competence.  People crying for more government involvement in every iota of life should think about the USPS morons who conjure up these hare-brained ideas before they so willingly turn over important, major segments of society to government dolts.  I’m just saying…

 

A Boycott to be Proud of

 

 

The easily offended among us have arisen since the death of George Floyd.  I’m going to gloss over this ugly death, but will address the social fruit it has borne. 

 

Privileged white kids slid into peaceful protests to firebomb, loot, and disrupt America’s great society to alter our nation’s direction.  Under the guise of “systemic racism,” a number of major cities have fallen prey to these ne’er-do-wells.

 

These pukes hate America and loyal, patriotic Americans because their teachers and mentally defective parents and friends deluded them into believing our nation is terrible.  It is not.  Hint: Think Zimbabwe and Venezuela.

 

Opportunists quickly seized on the chaos of a world-wide corona virus pandemic to wreak havoc upon already terrified American citizens, filling their heads with fear of potential violence and financial ruin.

 

Since this mayhem began more than a month ago, inanimate objects have been subject to destruction similar to the burning of a Macy’s store in NYC, and the wholesale destruction of a cupcake boutique in Minneapolis.

 

Media types and other liars pooh-poohed this unconscionable ruination as peaceful, and expressions of love.  They were nothing of the sort; a better description would be temper tantrums from communist anarchists, which is what they really are.

 

Of course this unpalatable behavior is tolerated with a wink and a nod from the Democrat mayors and governors ruling the areas in which these activities are being conducted.  Turning a blind eye to the great loss of merchandise, buildings, precious personal belongings, and incalculable hard work, amounts to giving true Americans the big middle finger.

 

In retrospect, this really began in 2016, with the antics of a lame quarterback named Colin Kaepernick.  Kaepernick was a so-so football player who thought of himself as mo’-betta than he really was.

 

Sitting on the bench for the San Francisco 49ers, Kaepernick felt the need to protest police brutality.  During the National Anthem, he sat rather than stand, in objection to being a “team player” in a team sport.

 

Other weak-minded playmates sat in the coming weeks, and that sitting eventually became kneeling during the National Anthem in many sports.  News agencies and sports reporting applauded this effort to spotlight the plight of – well, we’re not quite sure.

 

Kaepernick is the product of a white mother and a father of color who gave him up for adoption as a small child.  A two-parent white couple adopted him and apparently gave him a good life.  He attended college where he played football, providing him the springboard to his NFL career.

 

Reading varying accounts of his life, Kaepernick’s biography is sufficiently vague when it comes to whether he was subject to police brutality, himself, or is just mentally deficient in search of national attention.

 

On July 4^th, 2020, Kaepernick, in a Tweet, said he rejected the 4^th of July, as it is racist, of course. He claims slavery and lynching bother him and resulted in his posting of a video saying as much.  Always the uniter, Kaepernick refuses to be “terrorized by America” and rejects “celebration of white supremacy.”  Good work, you systemic racists Mom and Dad!

 

He now wants another job as a quarterback in the NFL, to sit or kneel for more pre-game drama I’m guessing.  Yeah!

 

In any case, school children, professional athletes, and even non-athletes began to kneel out of protest against police brutality, or cow flatulence, or black lives.

 

During the recent women’s soccer championship, a lesbian player felt it necessary to kneel to protest something bothering her, too.

 

This form of rebellion has become fashionable among the masses because the target of their ire is invisible and indefinable.  Unfortunately the recipients are the fans whose noses are being rubbed in it, much like a misbehaving Cocker Spaniel.

 

We’ll never quite get to the finish line to declare, “Mission accomplished!”  They will only continue to poke the patriotic among us until they are summarily fired for disrespecting paying patrons of their respective sports.

 

I dare say Americans are tired of riots, looting, awareness, permitting bad behavior, whining about flags, complaining about the National Anthem and malcontents in general.  I suggest true Americans boycott all these losers and take your self pride back before it’s too late.

Just the Facts

“We need non-violence.  But I would say, let’s start by abolishing the military and disarming the police.”

That quote is pretty powerful stuff, and nearly coherent, from avowed Marxist and professor emeritus at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Angela Davis.  And no, it is not a new idea created by 2020 looters and rioters to call attention to the “systemic racism” dog whistle.

Davis is a rabble-rouser has-been who seems obsessed with the fact she is black, writing for decades about white oppression, white racism, and Marxist feminism – whatever that is – likely to justify her hate for anything non-black.

I’ve never met Davis, but have heard about her shenanigans throughout the years, as well as her legal woes, surrounding her political bent.  She was a member of the Communist Party, U.S.A., and is not shy about her close affiliation therewith.  In fact, she ran as a vice-presidential candidate on the CPUSA ticket, twice.

The good news is that Davis won the Soviet Union’s Lenin Peace Prize, and has gained acclaim for her work on American Leftist causes.  Yea!

Still, she remained affiliated with UCSC, shaping heads full of adolescent mush with vicious, hateful propaganda about Americans and America.  Not an insignificant goal that leads us to today’s inane slogans being grasped by politicians and businesses, alike.  But I digress.

Speaking of which, Congressman Bobby Lee Rush, a black Democrat from Illinois, just crawled out from under his rock to offer his take on America’s current racial situation.

Bobby Lee Rush, professional whiner

Rush began his sordid public life in the original Black Panther Party.  For your information, the original Black Panther Party was much more than a social club for black people to play canasta.  It was an organization that attempted to control local jurisdictions with fear and violence.

Rush is still a racist who publicly stated President Donald Trump, “wants to instigate a race war.”  For punctuation, he added that President Trump was doing this so he could say he was the “grand wizard of the Klu Klux Klan [sic].”

Of course this is because President Trump wants to stop the localized violence in Seattle, Portland, St. Louis, and Chicago, but don’t tell Bobby.

By making such a statement only confirms how mentally underprovided Rep. Rush is.  In case you missed it, Rush is a Congressman in the Democratic Party.  The Democrat Party is the same party to which Virginia Governor Ralph Northam belongs.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Governor Northam’s light-hearted photo showing him and a buddy wearing black face and a Ku Klux Klan outfit.  He apologized, which is enough for erasure of his systemic racism.

The bad news is that the rest of white America is still on the hook for slavery, mistreatment of blacks, reparations, selective workforce placement, and educational failures.

But this is where the curious part begins.

Rush, and Northam, are determined to make a point of punishing white people for being white.  Sure, Northam is white, but he is paving the future vision of our country with ultra-restrictive laws and policies that favor the mission of The Left.

Lessons in schools, bloviating politicians, and fabricated “news” stories, have perpetuated untruths about the United States, its people, and its history.

Sanitized versions of the backgrounds of Rush, and Northam, in concert with the media, fail to mention the Democratic Party’s sordid history.  Although self-righteous in 2020, the Democratic Party has its roots in the cesspool of racism it is now desperately trying hide.

After the Civil War, the domestic conflict that pitted brother against brother, the Democratic Party “sought to overthrow the Republican state governments in the South, especially by using voter intimidation and targeted violence against African-American leaders,” according to Wikipedia.  (It was the Republican Party that freed the slaves.)

In case you missed it, the Democratic Party was staunchly against Republicans and blacks.  How blacks arrived at the notion the Democratic Party’s aim was to help them is simply baffling.  Perhaps it was the lies; perhaps it was the empty promises.

In any case, Democratic municipal leaders are currently pointing their crooked little fingers and vilifying Republicans who are trying to empower blacks, blaming them for anything incendiary that could preclude the President from being re-elected, while making those out-of-control cities safe from everyone.

Those are the facts.  Use your heads.

Manufactured Anguish

For over six decades I have been personally hearing about how hateful the United States of America is.  My formative years began in the 1960’s just about the time integration became a reality.

My parochial elementary school began filling the seats with a modest number of black kids.  We learned lessons, recited poetry, prayed, played, and acted in school plays, together.

We were not black and white kids, rather we were kids.

Our parents worked together at the local factories, shopped together at area stores, and drove similar cars.

But all was not without controversy.

Today’s headlines scream racism from every angle and place white people squarely in its crosshairs.

Just a month ago I discovered I was suffering from something some nitwit ginned-up called “systemic racism.”

According to news reports, systemic racism is an element derived from the amount of melatonin in ones body.  If you’re black, you’re okay; if you’re white, there’s no hope for repentance.

Over those six previously mentioned decades I played ball, worked, socialized, and admired blacks – not because they were black, but because they were friends and colleagues.

Because a dirty cop in Minneapolis, Minnesota, killed an unarmed black man, black and white members of society joined together to condemn the hate while resurrecting systemic racism.

Once again, whites, including myself, were labeled racist without a shred of evidence other than self-imposed grandiosity and years of fictional cultural lore passed down from generation to generation about how bad whites are.

In the name of “justice,” over-exuberant malcontents took to the streets to stand side-by-side the protestors, in a Trojan Horse-type scenario.

A peek into Minneapolis' Summer of Love

Anarchistic white thugs along with greedy black thugs looted and rioted major cities across America, making demands and requiring atonement for decades of oppression towards blacks.

A case of perpetual slavery again reared its ugly head and began pointing at everyone and everything not black.

Dumpster fires were commonplace as were broken windows and burned-out vehicles.  Cupcake shops were vandalized for some inane reason that only makes sense to the puny-minded miscreants among us.

Running out of ways to impose that “shock factor” on society, these hooligans turned to statues.  Inanimate relics of a time gone by, history to remind us of the past, needed to be destroyed in the name of that bogus systemic racism.

Monuments to our Founding Fathers, Christopher Columbus, varying Presidents, and even abolitionists, were unceremoniously torn down – with some being decapitated and set afire, with others tossed into ponds – to make a point.  Alas there was none to be found.

This senseless vandalism and destruction of history, although criminal, is not seen as a big deal to affected governors and mayors and city council members.  According to one mediocre mayor, this is viewed by her as a beginning to the “summer of love.”  Sure.

But the true deep thinking is arising to the surface to demonstrate how intelligent or ignorant these angry protestors really are.

Every action’s excuse is connected somehow – much like the seven degrees of separation of Kevin Bacon – to racism.

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and even Matthias Baldwin, an outspoken abolitionist, statues were destroyed because of some sort of link to racism and slavery.

These weak minded, destructive clowns are using white America as a target for their heinous, ill-directed attempt as “justice,” while forcing white society into silence.

I have yet to hear about any mosques burned, looted, or otherwise vandalized.  These studious anarchists should have learned that a religious leader named Muhammad took slaves after he moved to Medina in what is now Saudi Arabia.

Go ahead and poke your grubby little fingers in the eye of Islamists rather than passive Americans.  See how many acts of violence you’ll be able to get away with.

Wink, wink.

Unemployment Line

This story from 2018 is being recycled because of its direct relation to pre-election time 2020.  I added some extra thoughts, but it remains applicable to November 3, 2020.  

My retired life is quickly approaching its ten year mark.  Before you give me the finger, remember that I had worked for 41-years, in many capacities.

And during those two score, I had plenty of bosses – most of whom were mediocre, at best.

They so badly wanted to impress their bosses that they felt compelled to make us do something – anything – to give the impression of productivity; the end product was actually less efficiency.  Allow me to explain.

 

I once had a boss named Eddie who was always the smartest guy in the room, if only in his mind.  Eddie was a numbers fellow who loved to see statistics, and he often used them in an attempt to impress his boss.

Eddie didn’t care about what his boss thought because he was too smart to listen to da man.  So he inundated the upper echelon with countless, useless charts, graphs, and summaries.

His boss thought those stats were nonsense; nonetheless Eddie wanted and thought he needed them to justify his existence.  Eddie’s employees were not important to Eddie; only Eddie was important to Eddie.

And so life went for many, many years.

All this brings us to the cusp of elections in the United States and the crux of today’s blog.

In November, we will be offered an opportunity to make our selections for representatives at the local, state, and federal levels.

We will be inundated with smarmy ads and cardboard signs and countless robo-calls to make our decisions of whom should be sent to work in the government on our behalf.

Some of us will do our due diligence to make an informed decision about who may be trustworthy and who will not, that will treat my tax money as if it was their own, and who will likely take my concerns to heart instead of deep-pocketed special interest donors.

Others will simply look at the candidates and vote for the woman, or minority, or transgender, or lesbian, or Muslim, because those voters are simply shallow.

Calls will be issued to “get out the vote!” and enter the voting booths with little, or no, information and direction.  This is the feel-good bunch of our society that has no plan or clue about what the future should hold.  Alas.

But the most important issue in any election is not if the candidate wears beautiful suits, wants to punish success, is related to a former office holder, or is even plain inspirational.  The most important issue is will our candidate heed our wishes and wants.

Just as with Eddie, no one else mattered.  Decisions as how to realize our goals and missions were irrelevant, although we as rank-and-file employees with institutional knowledge and historic information were more mentally prepared to achieve significant accomplishments, Eddie was the boss.  Amen.

So many failures were the result of these poorly executed plans instituted by arrogant incompetence.

That is why our stable of politicians should do their jobs.  And their jobs are the execution of their voter’s desires, since they are our employees.  They work for us.

They receive our money in the form of paychecks and should listen to their constituents.

Rarely ought the absolute independence of their votes trump my desires.

Once again, they work for us.  Make them do their jobs or send them to the unemployment office.

Now, more than ever, constituent’s wishes should be paramount, but they’re not.  It is plain to see how out-of-control select cities have become, most of which are being led by self-centered mayors. 

I’m certain there are residents in those mayhem zones that are terrified of having their homes burned or becoming victims of physical violence.  All the while their duly elected officials are dithering over not being re-elected by the miscreants making trouble for all.

Don’t forget this irresponsible behavior lest you want to be the next victim by political Eddies.

You Must Ask Permission

My sainted wife often uses the phrase, “He has to build you a watch to tell you the time.”  Those special words are used by her to describe me.

A simple “verbose” or “long-winded” would suffice, but not to her.  This way she can make a point and underline it with a stout, permanent Magic Marker. 

With that being said, let’s get started with today’s watch-building exercise.

I’m currently in the process of replacing a modest garage of questionable stability – not unlike the current Speaker of the House – with a new, larger one.  The old garage consisted of board-and-batten construction, and was constructed roughly 90-years ago.

Termites and destructive salt air have taken their toll; the only things holding it up were termite poop and good luck.

To eliminate any chance of injuring local thieves who might break in and steal rusty yard equipment I tore it down after deciding to rebuild anew.  It wasn’t difficult.

I diligently visited my county seat-of-government to obtain a permit.  The nice man at the desk patiently listened to my plight before offering a resounding “NO!”

Easy summer reading material

It seems as though the old garage, which stood in its original location for nearly a century – without bothering anyone – was now too close to the property line.  It hadn’t moved since its original construction, but it was too close and needed to be moved 3 ½ feet further from the property line.  Amen.

Seven trees worth of paperwork, a building permit fee, application for a variance, and $460, got me inches closer to rectifying my situation.

Of course this vital information was necessary before publication in the local newspaper for weeks before the zoning appeals meeting.  This whole process took five months before I was called to the meeting.

Armed with photos, documentation on distances, health department maps, and positive letters from neighbors, my sainted wife and I trudged our way to the seat-of-government.

There, we pled our case and after a few minutes, we were granted the variance to build a larger, safer structure the same distance from the property line.  Problem solved.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 virus struck with a vengeance and the entire Milky Way was subject to house arrest, shortly thereafter.

Between the arrival of inclement winter weather and the WuFlu, my new garage project sat idle for a few months before I called for a foundation inspection from the county.  Alas, my permit had expired, and I needed to begin this entire process anew.

Several strategically placed phone calls quickly rectified this manufactured crisis, but not before a thorough dose of antacids and a few hours of yelling at Smokey the Cat (just because he was handy.)

It was at this time I became reflective about where we are as a society, and how we got here.

We regularly hear how we live in the land of “freedom.”  We don’t.  We live in the land of “NO!” generated by the powers-that-be who are drunk with authority.  Allow me to explain.

In 1890, 130-years ago, America was recovering from the War Between the States, aka.: the Civil War.  Rebuilding its infrastructure was paramount to survival, and ushering in the industrial era was key to productivity, blazing the way to the most productive society in the world.

But those 13-decades helped usher in more and more regulations that quietly eroded our nation’s freedoms.

As you can see I needed a permit to build a garage. But you may also need a permit to do the following things in today’s progressive America:

• Collect rain water
• Protest
• Own a gun
• Cut hair
• Go fishing
• Start a business
• Sell products
• Own property
• Marry
• Build a house
• Hunt

We have gone from deciding our directions in our lives to ceding our rights to the government.  And while some of these permits are required in the name of safety, others are merely revenue-generating exercises.

And the time is now for you to keep these freedom-robbing regulations in mind when casting your ballot for elected officials at any and all levels of government, my dear sainted wife.

Mirror Image

If we look in the rearview mirror we can still see Independence Day of 2020.  Independence Day, otherwise known as Fourth of July, celebrates a new country’s birth after its departure from the rule of England.

Adam Schiff's mentor, King George III

This exodus was due to many factors including religious and speech freedoms denied by England’s King George III.  Through the Revolutionary War, America rose from a far away land to the greatest nation on Earth.

Ten men, now called the Founding Fathers, gathered to write a set of rules for this new nation that began with Ten Amendments; those are now called the Bill of Rights, and pave the way for the entire Constitution of The United States of America.

Each year we celebrate this separation from England on July 4^th, Independence Day.

Those Founding Fathers were men with true vision.  According to several sources, the average age was about 40-years, with some in their 20’s.  Alas, those sources were a bit thin on who was what age.

In any event, these ten men put their heads together and eventually created a document so thorough that is has outlasted the charter of any nation in the world by roughly 224 years.

You read that right.  According to The Heritage Foundation, “the average constitution lasts less than 20 years.”  That’s a mighty impressive achievement.

Fast forward to 2020, when much has changed in the world. 

 In May 2020, a fellow named George Floyd was killed by a dirty cop in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  The facts are still nebulous, but Floyd was wrestled during an encounter with police.  After a struggle ensued he was taken to the ground and was subjected to a “choke hold” by a cop.

Floyd died.  The cop was fired and arrested.  Protests began.  Looting occurred.  Fires were set.  Missiles were thrown at police.  The Minneapolis mayor lied about the mayhem.  And the media were happy to be complicit.

False narratives about the protests-turned-riots peppered the print and electronic media, with mayors from Minneapolis, New York City, Portland, Atlanta, and Seattle, all providing jaded accounts of the destruction occurring in their jurisdictions.

Using phrases such as “experiment in life,” and “Summer of Love,” were merely remains on a stable floor from equines eating their oats, of which both media and elected officials felt compelled to brag about – all dispensed by Democrat mayors and governors.

And those Leftist mayors and governors desperately tried to antagonize President Trump at the cost of law-abiding citizenry, to no avail.

Then, geniuses in Seattle who were not content with protesting and rioting decided to take over a six-block area of Seattle, Washington.

The Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan thought it would be sporting to poke President Donald Trump in the eye.  She publicly mocked him and his suggestion to send in federal troops to restore a sense of normalcy and public safety.  She told him to hide in his White House bunker.

It wasn’t long before this group of childish malcontents decided to pick a name for their newly established area (which they stole from – much like they insist the white man stole America from the Indians.)

Their thoughtful name was CHAZ, Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.  An agog media splashed that acronym proudly across newspaper headlines and on TV news screen crawls.  Still, they had no official leader.

A few short weeks later, CHAZ was changed to CHOP, Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, likely because “autonomous” was too difficult to spell.

These anarchistic nitwits realized they needed food to sustain their existence, so they raked up a small patch in a public park and planted some seeds.  Evidently they thought this was what Michael Bloomberg was referring to when he mocked farmers and farming.

Mayor Durkan’s Summer of Love fest soon turned deadly with several shootings and at least two murders and one rape, and with love rapidly draining from CHOP, only inane demands leaked from its proverbial sinking ship.

All this made me think about Independence Day and how we arrived at the greatest nation on Earth.

The miscreants in Seattle never came up with a Constitution, although they were about the same age as our Founding Fathers.  They failed to select a leader.  They had difficulty even naming their stolen property. 

In fact, the only things they did well were demonstrate their poor gardening skills and their collective low intelligence.

God Bless America!