Happy Place

  

These are amazing times.  For what seems like a lifetime, the world has been placed on lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

But way back in 1996, Adam Sandler, a comedian and actor, played the title character in a movie entitled Happy Gilmore.  The gist of that film was a lighthearted romantic film about Happy Gilmore who would find his mental and emotional “happy place” to help him cope with daily life.

 

Happy Gilmore golfing

Each one of us has our own little “happy place” in which we immerse ourselves.  Some people enjoy reading, others seek amusement in watching movies, many watch sports, and still others find solace in work.

 

During this COVID-19 pandemic, many of us have been forced to abandon – at least temporarily – our most comforting happy places.  Governors, mayors, local officials, federal employees, medical professionals, and neighbors, all have suddenly found their voices demanding we conform to their thoughts and ideas: their happy places.

 

Gyms, libraries, many businesses, restaurants, and other “non-essential” enterprises, have been subjected to mandatory shut-downs and subsequent controls placed upon them by people who never held a job that didn’t contain the words “civil servant.”

 

That means the aforementioned civil servants held jobs paid for by hard working folks’ taxes.  Not having had to ever turn a profit because the financial well never runs dry due to tax increases, they now suddenly have foresight to tell entrepreneurs how to earn a dollar.

 

Phonies are now making policy out of whole cloth, saying stuff like masks help prevent the spread of COVID-19, when in the beginning of this catastrophe we were chided for wearing masks because, we were told by doctors, masks didn’t work.  Let me repeat, masks didn’t work.

 

Suddenly, everyone with an opinion is an expert as to how to stem the spread of this pandemic.  And, those opinions are all still tenuous.

 

In an effort to attempt to get America back to semi-normal, those aforementioned experts have been trying to revive sports events.  Sports are not only entertaining, they are revenue generating – with ticket sales, TV broadcasts, uniform merchandise, and salaries – but also with sports betting.

 

It’s the wagering part that really moves money about the sports world.  And simply put: if there are no sports, there is no gambling.  March Madness, the annual NCAA basketball tournament, was cancelled this year (2020).  Gambling losses on this tournament alone was estimated at $140,000,000.

 

Just recently, college sports have been anguishing over their football season and upcoming basketball season.  Remember, players use these games as springboards to professional careers, so they are truly meaningful to many collegians. 

 

But what happens to these go-getters once they make it into the “big show,” professional sports, is up for debate.

 

Two American soccer teams played one-another in a contest in front of a live fan audience.  I’m too ashamed to name them, but you can look them up if you’re really interested.

 

It seems that after having fans clamoring for more live, in-person sports, they got what they asked for.  Almost.

 

During the National Anthem, all players, coaches, water carriers, coaches, and referees, knelt down.  The paying fans booed this example of disrespect to the country and flag and the fans themselves.

 

Afterward, players badmouthed the fans because they expressed discontent over this childish display of arrogance and self-importance.

 

It seems as though it is time to let all athletes – amateur and professional alike – feel the pain of a proverbial spanking for bad behavior.  If they want to kneel, these socially conscious clowns should get a website and kneel on it for whoever wants to watch.  They should also relinquish their nose-bleed salaries to fan-pleasers.

 

But I’ll wager not many people would log on to see sports figures kneeling because that’s not a happy place for many people.

 

Free tip to all you social warriors:  Get over yourself.  You’re not that important.

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.