11/28/2020 Corners Without Exits

Immediately after the election I wrote that I recognized Trump's chances were slim. I still feel the same. Right now I still hope Trump's legal team will show the court ample evidence of fraud and corruption in enough of the states of Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania to get the phony election results tossed, and I do believe they're phony, but for several reasons, I don't think the efforts will succeed.

1. The first reason is simple: there isn't enough time. The Electoral College is December 14th. An investigation into some, any, or all of the questionable occurrences in these states leading up to the election in changing their rules, often in ways not provided for in their state's constitution and election laws: the actual execution of the election itself by absentee, mail, early in person voting, and day of election in person voting, election infrastructure (especially the machines and software for collecting, storing, counting, and transmitting vote totals), and post-election decisions and actions, to be done right will simply take longer than till Dec 14th. So time is the first and biggest hurdle.
2. Democrats have home field advantage in most of the states under contest. Most of these governors, secretaries of state, state judiciaries, and election officials are partisans who won't support a real and thorough investigation, and frankly, it's likely in some cases because they're the ones who bent rules, thumbed the scales, or perhaps downright committed the fraud themselves.
3. Republicans can be divided into three categories: Never-Trumpers who are glad to see him moved out and who may have been co-conspirators in any schemes. Many of these are the "uni-party" types who are Republican in name only, but in reality they're just cashing in on power. Then you've got the chicken-shit Republicans. These chicken-shits have a lot of Democrats in their districts and are afraid to speak up for fear of losing the next election. And lastly, the Trumplicans, like myself. The problem with us Trumplicans is, we're the majority of the party, let there be no doubt, but because we're a new phenomena, the never-Trumpers and chicken-shits in most cases are the office holders in the states in question, and they don't recognize us as their primary constituency, if indeed they recognize us as constituents at all.
4. Judges will be loathe to take an action and ensure the election is policed and ensure electoral integrity. No matter what they rule, they'll be pilloried for involving themselves. And besides, considering the time constraints I discussed in the first paragraph, many of the corrupt acts will still fall short of evidentiary rules lacking the time consuming, full and thorough investigation that would be required to toss the result.

 

So, based on all the aforementioned, what do I think? Should Trump concede? No. Should he continue to fight? Yes. And we MUST concentrate on both challenging the corruption AND winning the Senatorial runoffs in Georgia, too. Should we leave the GOP and form a new party, the Great America Party or the American Greatness Party, the Patriot Party, or the America First Party? I think so. Not until after January 2021, but long the before 2022 Mid-Terms. This party should appeal to all the Trumplicans, all Democrats who aren't radical leftists, and especially to minorities who want opportunity, and to not be used to win Democrats and election and then set aside until the next campaign rolls around, and who don't want to be sold out by fat cats by both parties in favor of cheap overseas labor and corporate profits rather than their own financial well being. And this party would also favor and end to endless wars, something Democrats and Republicans alike seem to love more than our country itself.

I feel like both the election of 2020 and the future of the two party system equate to corners without exits. It's as if it's untenable to stay where we are, but within the framework of the system as it is now, there's no way out. It's time to rebuild it, and when we do, to install exits from thess corners.

11/23/2020 Why Did Trump's Legal Team Distance Itself From Sidney Powell?

 

Attorney Sidney Powell

Yesterday President Trump's legal team issued a statement that lawyer Sidney Powell was NOT acting as part of President Trump's legal team. "Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own. She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity," said a statement from Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis. This statement sent some waves among both supporters and opponents of Trump's legal challenges and objections to events surrounding the 2020 General Election Nov. 3rd. What is going on here? What about "The Kracken"?

This morning, Powell, through various spokespersons, stated the following:

"I agree with the campaign's statement that I am not part of the campaign's legal team. I never signed a retainer agreement or sent the President or the campaign a bill for my expenses or fees. 
 
My intent has always been to expose all the fraud I could find and let the chips fall where they may--whether it be upon Republicans or Democrats. 
 
The evidence I'm compiling is overwhelming that this software tool was used to shift millions of votes from President Trump and other Republican candidates to Biden and other Democrat candidates.  We are proceeding to prepare our lawsuit and plan to file it this week.  It will be epic. 
 
We will not allow this great Republic to be stolen by communists from without and within or our votes altered or manipulated by foreign actors in Hong Kong, Iran, Venezuela, or Serbia, for example, who have neither regard for human life nor the people who are the engine of this exceptional country. 
 
#WeThePeople elected Donald Trump and other Republican candidates to restore the vision of America as a place of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.   
 
You may assist this effort by making a non tax-deductible contribution to www.DefendingTheRepublic.org.  #KrakenOnSteroids"
 
Sidney Powell"

There are some relatively simple explanations, although exactly which, or what combination of them is the real reason, I'm not privy. But here goes:

1. Sidney's statements have just been too outrageous and Trump and or his legal team decided it was better to have some degree of separation from her at this point. "Releasing the Kraken", etc., forced Trump to create political space between Powell and his own team's work.
2. Trump's team and Powell are taking a divide and conquer approach, where his team will focus on certain aspects of the challenge, and Powell on other, different aspects.
3. Powell is raising money to support her efforts, via the link in her statement, above, and this creates legal technicality as far as Trump's standing as POTUS and financial disclosure and restriction laws.
4. There are certain things that in his standing as POTUS, Donald Trump can't challenge in court legally, but if Powell, acting independently as a representative of other concerned and aggrieved citizens can.
5. Powell is gunning for corrupt Democrats AND Republicans, and the fallout of her work could have far reaching implications that traverse the aisle AND transcend 2020, going back maybe as far as 15 or 20 years. She alleges, among other things, that Bernie Sanders was cheated in 2016, knows he was, and that his silence was bought off.
   

Whatever is is, whether she's simply gone off the deep end, or that there are legal technicalities that require the separation, or political ramifications that require same, of all the people I've followed in the Washington D.C. political and current events scene, I trust Sidney Powell more than 99% of everybody else. She indicates she will stir up a legal and political shit-storm with a filing most likely this week. I can't wait to see what that is.

A closing note: I don't know precisely what it is that Sidney Powell will allege this week, nor do I know specifically against whom the allegations will be brought forward. But I don't care what political party, country, state, city, or branch of government those allegations may be brought against. If they're accurate and these people are as corrupt as it appears she will say, then I hope she nails every one of the dirty bastards.

11/20/2020 - 1 Unpopular, Alternate Take, a National Embarrassment

The kinds of ballot and election fraud and incompetence we are seeing in jurisdiction after jurisdiction: "oops, look, here's 2500 more ballots!" "ballots were wheeled in in the dark of night through the back door", "dead guys still voting", "nursing home ballot roundup campaigns", "Gift cards for voting? Nothing to see here.", etc., have been going on forever. Likely more of a factor in a lot of local and statewide races, let there be no doubt, political operatives, community activists, and election officials have put their thumb on the scale many, many times in elections across our country, going back further than any of us would even hazard to guess, and right on up to 2018 and 2020.

So what was different in 2020? Two things: 1) Trump was the target of most of these mom and pop up to larger organized efforts to take the presidency, and the bastard unexpectedly and inexplicably 9from their perspective) got so many votes that extraordinary measures were necessary. And in doing so, they got sloppy. 2) Trump is assembling all these reports, an avalanche or reports, many of them in isolation either weakly explainable on their own, but even if not, small enough to be dismissively brushed aside as not impacting the larger outcome. He's also assembled a team of aggressive lawyers who WILL fight the corrupt system and it's good old boys and girls who normally pull this kind of shit with impunity. And in ones and twos, looked at in isolation, apologists look at each of these goings on, as they happened in other years, and conveniently say, "No big deal. There's no significant election fraud or ballot fraud in the U.S."

If you ask me, this stuff's been dirty from the get-go, not just this go-round. But it's been their swept out of sight, their 'dirty little secret'. In 2020, a dirty little secret wasn't going to beat 73 million (or more) votes, so they had to take far more drastic action, AND Donald J. Trump isn't going to let people pull that stuff, even if it turns out it doesn't make the difference in the election, and go down without throwing the people who did this to him a full on shit grenade.

Even if Trump's challenges aren't successful, I presently only give him a 15-20% chance maximum, I hope at a minimum the end result is ample election reform that eliminates all the dirty little secrets that apologists tell us didn't really matter for once and for all. Because the way we do this is an embarrassment. A full-on, undeniable, total, national embarrassment.

11/20/2020 On the New CCP Virus Restrictions

After seeing some comments on a post I made about the virus yesterday, there were some replies I didn't get back to. I want to clarify and amplify my discomfort with recent mandates by governors.

California Governor Newsome

 

To begin with, I know that the number of cases is on the rise. This was expected and predicted last spring. I remember clearly Dr. Fauci saying we were likely to see this. I do believe the accuracy of the numbers we've been told, i.e. cases, hospitalizations, ICU availability, and fatalities, are dubious at best. But that being the case, there is surely a surge in case numbers, regardless of how inflated they may be. And I do, to the extent I think is appropriate, respect the seriousness of this disease, especially as it threatens elderly and people with co-morbidities like my parents, etc. I'm not in denial about any of that, so throwing a chart showing me a sharp upward curve as a response to my objection, in this case to Minnesota's restriction to having visitors in a household who don't live there doesn't sway me much.

Minnesota Governor Walz

 

Further, I am not even saying that government mandated restrictions: closures, numerical limits on get-togethers, or restrictions on out of household visitors, curfews, venue capacity limits, social distancing requirements, mask wearing, and hand washing aren't helpful.

 

Illinois Governor Pritzker

 

I am saying that SOME of these restrictions and requirements, in coming in the form of government mandates, make me uncomfortable and leave me questioning if one size fits all mandates are in everyone's overall best interest. For example on the get-together restriction which set me off, here's perspective. Let's say that grandpa and grandma are quite elderly. They have some greatly shrunken and finite number of Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays left in their lives. In such a situation, where catching the virus at Christmas, for example, is not a certainty, but a possibility, and where the Christmas gathering can, with some effort, be done in a way to minimize that possibility, why would we deny them the family time when we all know good and well that any and every Christmas moving forward, including this one, might very well be their last?

Here come the closures!

 

I also believe that mandated closure of businesses: salons, gyms, restaurants, bars, shops, etc., while presumably in the overall best interest of the health of the community at large, encumbers the community at large, in this case represented by the same government that is mandating the closure, to protect and compensate businesses and workers in the same breath that puts them out of work. Not that I am advocating such a closure, but I am saying if Governor so and so mandates a closure, those affected by it need to be protected financially.

 

Detroit, April 2020

 

I do not deny the virus is a concern and warrants being addressed. But the solutions have adverse impacts, too. Financially individuals are hurt. Businesses which perhaps operated on the borderline of profitability are being and will continue to be lost forever. Teachers may be doing their best with remote learning, but kids ARE losing out academically, socially, in every way that being at school benefits kids. Elderly in nursing homes and shut-ins going without visitors are suffering horribly in being deprived of family contact. People with depression and other mental illnesses are suffering doubly in all this. Alcoholism and addiction has to be increasingly problematic, as are suicides.

So my objection is to "one size fits all" mandates, because one size doesn't fit all and we all know it. One size fits most? Maybe. One size fits some? Surely. One size fits none? No, I wouldn't say that at all. The bottom line is that I know some people can manage through this very well by following recommendations and guidelines. Other people are stupid, inconsiderate, and irresponsible. I don't know exactly where the line of demarcation should be in terms of the government mandating these things. But I do know I will continue to ask questions and to object when it seems a mandate might just as well serve the public if it was a recommendation or guideline and some personal responsibility were expected of us as opposed to punitive measures, the effectiveness of some which is dubious at best, for example mandating mask wearing out of doors in a park, or closing a place of business at 10:00, as if 9:59 p.m. is not so risky, but 10:01 p.m. is.

My last thought: I am responsible, considerate, and cognizant of how my own behavior might put me or people I love at risk, and I try to act accordingly. But neither am I in the Marines anymore, and your governor is not my commanding officer.

11/19/2020 Why I Shudder at the Thought of a Joe Biden Presidency

Joe Biden, likely to be our 46th President

I shudder at the thought of a Joe Biden presidency, which I concede appears to likely be what is in store for my beloved country. Here are a few reasons why I feel that way:

Kamala Harris - This despicable woman could be President of the United States. I am ready for a woman of color to be our Chief Executive and Commander in Chief, but Senator Kamala Harris isn't her. She's too liberal and too dishonest for me. At a time when our country needs racial healing, she advocates for a racial crime hoaxer like Jussie Smollett and raised money for Black Lives Matter criminals and terrorists in Minneapolis. She's a big NO from me and a big reason Joe scares me.

Our Economy - I see Joe heading right back down the same paths Donald Trump was rescuing us from: excessive regulation and red tape to stifle businesses and economic growth. Business will again be seen as an evil to be addressed rather than the engine that can improve all American's lives. I foresee Joe re-entering the Paris climate accord. I also see him allowing predatory trade practices and trade deals with our competitors overseas, especially China. I don't know that Joe will totally tank the economy, but I have no doubts he will stifle it and it will be on nothing that resembles the trajectory Donald Trump had it on prior to the pandemic.

My 401K and Retirement Savings - I played by the rules and saved aggressively for today. I'm thankful for my blessings, but also proud that I saved for today. Between the economic impacts cited in the preceding paragraph, and the mentality of much of the left toward investment and Wall Street in general, I am afraid of the impact on my savings and my future.

Amendment 2A the Right to Bear Arms - Joe has said he would levy a tax on each gun we own, and ban online gun and ammunition sales. At the same time he holds hands with the same fucking morons who want to defund the police and look the other way or even support and advocate for the violent, criminal terrorists Antifa and Black Lives Matter.

Intrusive Government - If you look at the difference in strategy to deal with the CCP Virus between right and left, the fundamental difference boils down to the government's role. And while this concern is highlighted by differences in how this virus is addressed, it's not a concern I would limit to the one issue. Joe and the left see a government that is much more active and involved in everyday lives as a necessity. I am not saying I don't see a role for government, but there does not seem to be a fair trade-off where government fiat and mandate end and personal responsibility begin. We need more guidance and guidelines and less mandate. The Governor of Minnesota yesterday prohibited all social gatherings, even in our own homes, even when those with whom we would gather can social distance. The left is all for this kind of intrusive government involvement in our lives. When the government mandates businesses close or infringes on our rights, it is incumbent on the government to do everything it can to make those impacted by their mandate whole somehow.

Race Relations - Democrats focus on race in ways that don't help black people (or any other people). Policies supposedly intended to make race relations better instead interject race and racial tensions into everything. I am not saying that it isn't well intentioned, I am saying it doesn't work and makes things worse, not better. Joe, as would any Democrat more than likely, will march to the beat of that same drum. Among the things Democrats, including Joe, need to do, is to stop calling those of us who disagree with many of their pet policies and desires to address race as being racist just for having the audacity to disagree with them.

The Green New Deal - I concede that many aspects of the deal are well-intended, but those same policies, regardless of intent, will destroy people's lives and destroy our economy. Just like with the pandemic, if the government is going to impose rules that decimate the coal, oil, auto, and other industries, then it becomes the government's responsibility to make those adversely affected by the government mandate whole again somehow. I am not saying I support such mandates as the Green New Deal would impose, but I am saying that if those mandates are imposed, the government can't leave coal, oil, auto, and other workers flounder in an economy in which they're no longer welcomed to participate. Walmart only needs so many greeters, and that sort of work is great for a segment of the working class, but doesn't replace blue collar production work economically.

China, Russia, Ukraine, etc. - Joe and Hunter made deals. I can't bring myself to believe Joe isn't beholden to some foreign governments and entities. Not good.

Do I need to go on? Probably not. Suffice it to say, if Joe is sworn in in January, I will be looking as open-mindedly but as critically as I can at his Cabinet appointments, his various agency appointments, judicial appointments, his initiatives and programs, and Executive Orders. While I will try in each case to see where each is well-intended, I will also look at how each impacts me, my family, and our nation. If something looks like a positive to me, I will be honest and say so. If it doesn't, I'll say that also... if Twitter and Facebook will let me. I'm only being slightly facetious.

11/16/2020 Ballots - Legal, Illegal, Tainted

 

What would make a ballot illegal?

• The ballot was cast by a person who is not eligible to vote, i.e. not a citizen, not registered, etc.
  
• The ballot was cast by someone who is not a resident in the precinct or jurisdiction where they cast it.
• The person who cast the vote is someone other than the registered voter.
• A ballot cast by a person registered in multiple jurisdictions who votes more than once.
• A ballot that was cast AFTER the polls close. This does not include ballots cast by persons who were in line at their polling place before the polls closed who waited there until they could cast their votes, nor does it include people who voted by mail whose ballot was mailed and postmarked prior to the voting deadline.
  

What would make a ballot tainted?

• Election officials or judges changing voting rules or timelines in a manner contrary to the US or relevant state constitution, or contrary to local election law.
• Election officials disregarding processes designed to eliminate illegal ballots and mixing ballots which were not validated in accordance with legality safeguards required by statute, i.e. chain of custody, signature or identification verification, or time of postmark, and mixing those ballots with legally cast ballots. This taints the entire batch.

If every illegal and tainted ballot in the 2020 General Election was thrown out, I do not know if President Trump would have won Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, or Georgia. But if I thought that every ballot cast was subjected to scrutiny to ensure legality by poll workers, and ballot handlers and counters AND former VP Joe Biden came out on top, I would disappointingly accept that unfortunate outcome. So far NOTHING has been said or done that gives me confidence that election officials in any of the aforementioned states, possibly other states, handled things by the books. Starting in the months leading up to Election Day we saw rules changes, bent, and disregarded, ostensibly to make voting easier during a pandemic. Many of those changes made illegal voting, ballot fraud easier, and cause, in my opinion, the tainting of many otherwise legally cast ballots.

Here are some things I'd like to understand better:

• How is it that Joe Biden outperformed President Obama and former First Lady Hillary Clinton by such large margins? Twelve million more votes than Obama in 2012?
  
• Why did election officials in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and other jurisdictions suddenly stop counting votes on election night?
• Why did Joe Biden perform so well in Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Pittsburgh in comparison to his performance in other cities?
• What explains the massive number of Biden votes with no other votes down ballot? Was there a similar number or percentage of Trump only votes?
• It seems illogical that the GOP won back quite a few seats in the House of Representatives, seems to have held its own in the Senate, and lost the White House. What explains the disconnect?

If you ask me this whole damned election is tainted. Maybe it's not so, but nothing gives me confidence that that's the case. Nothing.

 

11/14/2020 Distrust, Distrust, and More Distrust

 

Distrust

The breaking story yesterday, about how military officials lied to, or euphemistically 'misled' the President on troop levels and kept our troops in Syria, knowing full well it was against his orders infuriates me. Here's a link to the NY Post version: nypost 11/13/2020 And out of my fury, came not so much a realization, but a reality.

I no longer trust our military officials at the highest levels. This includes, but is certainly not limited to former high level USMC generals who I formerly revered and respected.

I absolutely distrust nearly the entirety of the US intelligence community. For five years these bastards have tried and in many cases succeeded in undermining the President of the United States.

I do no trust the US Dept. of State, especially career bureaucrats who think they make and manage foreign policy with authority that supersedes the President's.

I do not trust our FBI or Department of Justice personnel at the highest levels. None of them. I had hopes that AG Barr and various US Attorneys he supposedly had investigating corruption would right the wrongs of the Rosenstein, Comey, and McCabe era, but clearly I was wrong.

The only Democrat in office I trust is Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, unfortunately I don't agree with her politics enough to support her, but she seems the only one with a single iota of integrity. The rest I assume are lying whenever they speak 100% of the time.

I don't trust establishment Republicans. I don't trust the Republican Party as an entity.

I generally don't trust lawyers in politics, and I don't trust most Senators. I trust Senators who are lawyers least of all.

I don't trust corrupt elections officials. I don't know that Trump would have won, but from September, maybe before, they were doing everything they could to stack the deck.

I don't trust the result of the 2020 election. I believe there was cheating, we are being lied to, and accomplices in government and the media will swear to ANY lie they need to to advance their agenda and objectives.

I don't trust major television news on ANY of the big channels. They're far more political operative and propagandists than they are arbiters of true and accurate information.

I don't trust most political pollsters, especially those associated with aforementioned news propaganda organizations. But add in the political think tank and academia run pollsters, too. They knowingly lie and distort to put forward the narrative that best supports the political wants of their corporate and campus masters.

I don't trust big tech - Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. I don't know that this needs a lot of explanation.

I don't trust MOST of what we've been told about the CCP Virus. Yes, the virus is real. Yes, there are valid concerns and it is a real threat. But the extent of the threat and almost all the data we've been fed is inaccurate, narrative shaping bullshit.

I remember I used to wonder why it was some people liked to live in remote places in Idaho and Montana and the like, far from people and far from the reach of all of the above. The realization, or should I say the reality of that sentiment makes perfect sense to me now.

11/10/2020 -1 Happy Birthday Marines!

November 10th, 1775. To Marines, and to those who know us well, the anniversary of that historic day is celebrated every year by Marines, young and old alike. We recognize and celebrate November 10th as the USMC birthday.

It's no small thing, the Marine Corps birthday. At least to us it's not. For a 63 year old guy like me, looking back 30 years now since I last wore my USMC blues, it may have more meaning to me now than it did even then, if that's possible.

To all the Marines who came before me,

To all the Marines with whom I served,

To all the 2, 3, and 4 year Marines who do their time and serve our Corps,

To the career Marines, the Senior Staff NCOs and Officers,

To woman Marines,

To light green, drak green and Marines all colors in between,

To grunts, and supply, support, and airwing Marines,

New recruits, and ancient retired Marines,

Happy 245th birthday!

God bless America, and may God bless our beloved Marine Corps!

Ooh Rah!

11/10/2020 A Clusterf*ck of Their Own Making

Right now there are a number of reported and alleged improprieties related to the 2020 General Election. Most of them seem to emanate from Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. And while I'll get back to my feelings on that stuff in a second, first I will add that it seems incredulous to me that Arizona has taken this long to count their votes, not just mail-in, which it makes sense to me could take a while, but they've taken a week to sort out their vote, including in person and provisional ballots. It also seems crazy to me that Alaska's vote still isn't tabulated. And finally, that North Carolina came out and said that they needed 12 days to tally theirs. YGBSM!

But back to WI, MI, PA, and GA. Of the many reports of impropriety, some will turn out to have perfectly reasonable explanations, even if not sound, still reasonable. Some other reports, and contrary to the "without evidence" nonsense anti-Trumpers always claim, there are sworn affidavits, so there is evidence. Whether a sworn affidavit is ample evidence to gain a conviction is another question, but they is evidence. So don't give me that bullshit. And of those things alleged in the affidavits, some of them are going to be found valid concerns.

Were the computer systems hacked and votes changed? I don't know. I am NOT asserting they were, but neither would I affirm I'm confident they weren't. There were numerous reports of numbers fluctuating right before people's eyes into the wee hours on Election Day night.

 

Were votes cast for dead people, people who moved, and or for infrequent voters who the cheaters presumed would not vote? I would say absolutely, yes there were votes cast for those people. How many, and how would it have affected the results? I don't know, but I would like to.

Was there systemic abuse of the fraud in the paragraph immediately above this one by political operatives in an organized attempt to swing the election? Based on what I read in an affidavit, it is certainly alleged that THOUSANDS of ballots were dumped into the mix via a back door in Michigan and the ballot counter who is making the allegation said votes for the presidential election were the only votes on those ballots, and all of them that this person counted went to Joe Biden.

 

I don't know if any of the things people saw will be proven to be valid. But I do believe in "The Iceberg Theory". The Iceberg Theory, put simply, says that for all the problems you see and that are reported, there is a lot more that you can't see, hiding below the surface. I believe, starting with the Russia Collusion Hoax, the Mueller Scam, the Scam Impeachment, that Democratic Party operatives and bureaucrats inside our government agencies have tried everything and anything within and outside the law to undermine and unseat President Trump. And I also remember that every single time Trump challenged the bullshit that was being perpetrated on him, and by extension, on those of us who voted for and supported him, the media and the left in unison claimed it was "without evidence". So when I hear you saying "without evidence" now, it rings hollow in my ears.

Do I know there was malfeasance at least by individuals in the 2020 election? Yes, there was some. Do I believe every one of the claims of fraud and malfeasance being made out there? No, some of it is surely speculation grown into conspiracy theory. The only way to get to the bottom if it is to look into it, and we should be looking into it right now, as AG Barr is reported to be doing. If you're a Democrat and you're pissed that Trump is raining on Joe's parade, get over it. For four f*cking years your party and its operatives have been raining down bullshit and hoax after hoax on the Trump candidacy, transition, and presidency. It's a clusterf*ck of Democrats own making. They made the bed, now they can lie in it. If you think miraculously we're supposed to accept that you motherf*ckers are acting with integrity and honesty after all that, you can f*cking forget about it. Fuggedaboudit.

Some legitimate questions:

• Did nonresidents vote?
• Was there double voting?
• Did dead people vote?
• Did illegal aliens vote?
• Was there ballot harvesting?
• Were spoiled ballots improperly counted?
• Was ballot tracking software used to harvest ballots?

11/9/2020 A Mail In Ballot Fact of Life

Just a quick hitter this morning about the use of mail-in ballots on a massive scale. Set aside the whole debate and all the legal action going on about mail-in voting in the 2020 General Election. I'm not claiming those things didn't happen, or that none of it will be proven, but I'm skeptical that President Trump's legal challenges will change the outcome. And for all the talk bout mail in and absentee ballots, there is very little about an aspect of it I believe to be a nearly undeniable truth.

President Trump's supporters, in pre-election poll after poll expressed more enthusiasm for voting for President Trump than did Joe Biden's. In a normal election year without the virus, it's likely that a percentage, probably small but significant of those less enthusiastic voters might not have made it to the polls. But absentee voting is easy, especially when your state doesn't need you to expend the minimal effort it would take to request an absentee ballot. You simply check your mailbox one day and a ballot is there. After filling in a few bubbles with a black or blue ball point pen, you put it into the postage pre-paid envelope provided, sign it on the flap, seal it closed, then put it back out for your mail carrier to pick up. Voila! You just voted. Or maybe your adult children living at home weren't inclined to vote. A household that would have yielded 2 votes at the polls yields 3 or 4 with just a small bit of parental encouragement with the mail-in system.

Again, putting aside concerns about fraud or ballot box stuffing, Democrats were genius for pushing everyone to mail-in voting in the year of Covid-19. Nobody should disregard the impact on the election of getting ballots back from a large number of (slightly?) less enthusiastic voters had on the outcome. And if mail-in voting becomes a norm in our country, then campaigns and candidate marketing strategies have to either find means of appealing to these voters, or be left holding the bag at traditional polling places.  President Trump and Republicans made a case against mail-in that had "Vote at the polls on Election Day" as its punchline. It probably didn't change their final tally much. Democrats encouraged voters to vote by mail from the very beginning, switching only to encourage people to go to the polls for early voting or on Election Day only AFTER cultivating a significant mail-in response. The record turnout was in part due to voter enthusiasm, either for or against Trump, and due to Democrats, mostly, executing an effective mail-in strategy during the pandemic.

GOP: the future is here. Mail-in isn't going away. Get on board or be left behind sulking. Your choice.

11/8/2020 Election Reforms - If not Now, Never? Unacceptable!

 

What is going on in my country right now, in OUR country, and you should be embarrassed, too, is an embarrassment. It is an embarrassment, and it is unacceptable. It is time for some reasonable, minimum set of standards to be adopted nationwide for federal elections, i.e. for the House, the Senate, and for President and Vice President.

1. Registered voter lists need to be kept up to date. Whether a voter changes party affiliation, moves to a different part of their state, to a different state, is convicted of a felony and loses eligibility, or becomes deceased, with today's available technology, there's no excuse for the kind of stuff we saw in many states this year: mail in ballots for 10 and 15 different people who no longer reside there sent to addresses, etc. While there are some people who don't file one, I suggest that somehow the information on our tax returns is a good starting point for ensuring our voter registration is up to date and more importantly, that our local, state, and federal registration rolls are accurate.

2. We ought to have a national standard for, and a requirement to have a voter identification card. Absentee and vote by mail voters can use whatever identification number is on the card to certify it's their vote.

3. There was never a time I wouldn't have said vote by mail is an invitation to fraud. I don't like it at all, but I suppose it's here to stay. A postmark should be required, and the postmark deadline should be several days before Election Day, enough time so that ballots, with perhaps some exceptions in very limited cases wouldn't create the post Election Day counting nightmare we see this morning. There is no reason whatsoever that justifies counting only Election Day votes, and saving mail in and absentee votes (or vice versa) for counting afterward. Election Day is Election Day. If you want to mail it in, then mail it in time to arrive BEFORE Election Day to be counted on or by Election Day. The 12 days bullshit going on this cycle in North Carolina is an embarrassment and unacceptable.

4. Speaking of counting nightmares, there ought to be a better method for counting ballots and allowing access to observers than fighting in court over who can and can't observe, and where they can and can't observe from. I don't know how exactly to fix this, but it's broken.

5. Could we make Election Day last for 24, 48, or 72 hours and close all the polls in all the states at the same time? And let's consider either making Election Day a national holiday, or moving it to the weekend. A 48 hour period on the first Saturday and Sunday in November would be ideal.

Look, the fact that we are still counting many votes for the first time, not a recount, but the first count, is ridiculous. It's an embarrassment. And now that we're 5 days past Election Day, every hour that passes creates new opportunities for chicanery: Malarkey, as the senile man is known to call it.

A note while closing: my recently adopted home state, Florida (our home state since 2016), was an embarrassment and fiasco in 2000 during the famous Bush-Gore race with it's recounting, hanging chads, and post-Election Day legal wrangling. In the 20 years since, Florida has mostly figured it out. Perfect? No. Room for improvement still? Probably so. But as bad as all that was, all the votes got counted on Election Day and over the course of that night. For Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina to still as of this writing NOT have an initial, comprehensive tally of votes is an embarrassment. Election officials in thos states ought to be ashamed.

Now stop reading and get back to counting!

11/7/2020 Getting it Off My Chest - The Joe Biden Edition

 

First off, there is NOTHING you can tell me that will convince me there wasn't widespread cheating in the election. So don't even fucking try. What I don't know is how much cheating was there, and how significantly did it change the race? Maybe Joe would've won anyway. But if you want to argue that things were all on the up and up, shove "things were on the up and up" up your ass. It'll be more productive than trying, at this juncture, to convince me, without evidence, that there was no corruption in it. And when you come up with evidence there was no corruption that comes from the same lying bastards who were part, either overt or covert, of the resistance and opposition operations the last 4 years, you're just going to piss me off. So don't. Just fucking don't. Leave well enough alone. I'm far less likely to tell you to eat shit and die if we don't talk about it and you're not going to convince me, anyway.

I've already seen prominent Democrats talk about making lists of Trump supporters and Trump defenders so that they can make sure that they pay a price. Are you fucking kidding me? You lying pieces of shit said Joe was the guy who was going to unify us. He was the centrist who could bring us together. Well how about this? Shut the motherfuckers who want to start a civil war by seeking retribution (FOR FUCKING WHAT ASSHOLES!?!?!?) the fuck up, that ain't going to bring us together. Same goes for going after Trump now to punish him. I fully expect it and it ain't going to be pretty. Joe needs to step up here and be the unifier he said he would be. Going full social justice cancel culture warrior after Trump and Trump supporters ain't what we need, and if it's pursued and you don't speak up loudly and clearly in opposition to same (looking at you and Joe, liberal friends), then you vindictive pieces of shit can fuck off and get out of my life. And Joe, if you think going after Trump with more bogus allegations now that you can put the corrupt criminals you and Obama had in place BACK in place is going to unify us, it's not.

Joe is talking about eliminating online gun and ammo sales, and taxing us on our legal guns. This election didn't overturn the Constitution. No. Don't fucking do it, Joe. Don't fucking do it.

Joe's immigration policies to me sound like a full embrace of illegal immigration, putting out the welcome mat for all illegal comers at US taxpayer's expense. Do you know what would keep kids out of cages, Joe? A fucking wall would, Joe. A fucking wall. You want to fix immigration? I'm in. Then fix immigration with real reforms, common sense reforms.

Hey, Joe. Show me how, exactly and specifically, you're going to eliminate the Trump tax cuts AND not increase taxes on anyone making under $400,000 a year. Because that tax cut was a tax cut for me. If you eliminate it, my taxes go up. It was just another election lie, wasn't it, Joe? I know, that's what you do and that's how it works.

I'm not 100% sure if Joe was actively complicit in any of the many Hunter Biden pay for access and influence corruptions, or if he's just been covering for his criminal son. But Hunter's criminal selling of influence is a vulnerability for Joe, make no mistake about it.

Joe picked an extremely liberal running mate. Of 535 Senators and Congresspersons, she's among the last 15 or 20 who I'd like to see rise to be our chief executive. We're one heartbeat away from a simply awful person as president. She prostituted herself to gain a foot in the door of California politics, and she'll be prostituting America if she ever becomes President. It crosses my mind sometimes that Joe picked her because he knew we'd be reluctant to impeach him because she'd be the outcome. She's not a unifier, Joe.

Don't pack the court, Joe. Just don't. You wouldn't answer the question during the campaign. Nor would you name who you'd consider for a future Supreme Court vacancy. Funny how the press let you slide on that. Trump gave us a list and was forthright with court appointments. You were too much of a pussy to take a fucking stand on even this.

Critical race theory, stamping out (bogus) white privilege, blaming everything bad that happens on white supremacists (some of whom are blacks and Hispanics), and the slavery reparations nonsense isn't going to unify us Joe. Blaming everything people don't like on "systemic racism" isn't unifying, either, Joe.

Hey Joe, guess what we do need? We need election reforms. We need certain standardized rules and processes. I realize since I'm the enemy and I'm probably on your targeted list of people to be punished, you don't give a shit about me or my opinion, but election reform would be good for our nation. Having partisan political operatives (I have one FB friend who called them bi-partisan, ha ha, laughable) shield observers from oversight, those same partisans counting ballots in private, and having different rules, systems, deadlines, etc. not only in different states, but often in different jurisdictions within a state, is a recipe for distrust and disaster. This time it worked in your favor. Regardless, it needs to be fixed, Joe.

Measure twice and cut once. Figure out all the implications of the Green New Deal, make the long list of losers, and make goddamned sure those of us who will be adversely impacted, either our jobs, or our investments of retirement funds in US companies that aren't green enough for your activist friends are looked after appropriately. Hint: most of the people who will be punished hardest by the green new deal aren't going to learn to be computer programmers or repair guys, they're NOT going to become barristers at Starbuck's, and they're not going to move to China to chase manufacturing jobs there. So figure out who's going to get fucked royally by the Green New Deal and figure out how to un-fuck them in advance before you shove a 2 x 4 up their ass sideways. I know most of your East Coast, West Coast, and urban elites absolutely hate these people, you know how they really feel about the uneducated, uncouth blue collar working stiffs. But even though your elitist constituents hate them and their livelihoods, you're going to be their President. Fucking them all over and asking everyone to thank you for being such a wonderful President for the environment isn't very unifying, Joe. $4 to $8 dollar a gallon gas is going to cost a lot of working stiffs, Joe. Some of them don't have mass transit to get to work, to the grocery, to the doctor, etc. Will you measure all that, or will you look the other way?

Measure twice, cut once. You and President Obama were so fucking clever with Obamacare. You can keep your doctor. You can keep your insurance. Some of us, myself included, lost their doctors. Some lost their insurance. Yeah they did. For example, every UPS working spouse was forced off the rolls of UPS' insurance plan. Seemed like a good idea, but many people who were happy with what they had, and paying what they had to to get it, got screwed as a direct consequence of a plan that supposedly wasn't going to cause us to lose out. Shit, some people lost their doctor AND their insurance. I'm not saying it wasn't well-intended, I'm saying that for all the people it helped, a lot of people got screwed, too. And the payoff, that prices would go down? Nobody's fucking costs went down, Joe. So now you're coming back in and your progressives are going to be hot to trot to do this again. Well, how about you guys look at how moving further in this direction affects EVERYONE, and take care of the people who are going to get screwed?

Hey, Joe. Other than that, congratulations. I wish you all the luck in the world.

11/5/2020 My Weber Genesis E330

 

Yesterday in the aftermath of Election Day, I was in a sleep deprived state of consciousness. I wrote a short blog post, and I even took a nap. My productivity level wasn't very high. But I did spend an hour or so cleaning up our grill. The grill is a Weber Genesis E330, and it's a little over 4 years old. I couldn't be happier with it. These grills are pricey, but worth it. I'd say unequivocally that I got my money's worth out of this grill, but I didn't. It was a gift to me, a cherished gift from the amazing people I worked with in UPS Flight Operations on the occasion of my retirement, more than 4 years ago now. The friends who put in for this unexpected and still deeply appreciated gift, they're the ones who got their money's worth!

 

 

 

You may not be able to see it too well from the pictures I took yesterday, but on the right side, the E330 has the side burner. Side burners are interesting. People either use them and feel they're an absolute necessity, or they don't and find them a waste of money. I'm a side burner guy. My favorite use for the burner is to saute the peppers and onions for my "last meal request", sausages with peppers and onions. The sauteed garlic, peppers and onions done just right are incredible, but they can stink up a kitchen for a long time, but by cooking them outside, that problem is solved. I also like the side burner for making bacon. It keeps the spatter out of the kitchen. So you grillers, are you a side burner person, or a no side burner person?

 

And by the way, I deep clean the grill a couple of times a year. That's all it really takes. I clean the stainless steel exterior, which does get a little dirty each time I use it and needs the cleanings, with baking soda and white vinegar. It's amazing on stainless steel and makes it look almost new. The grates I clean with the citrus grill cleaning stuff you can get at Walmart, Home Depot, or Lowe's. And down in the inside, I use a 1-1/2" plastic putty knife and push all the grease and charred stuff and ash down into the bottom and then into the drip pan. A clean grill cooks better and food tastes better from it.

 

Aren't you glad I didn't write about the election?

 

Have a great day, friends! God bless.

11/4/2020 The GOP and Me, What I Am, Am Not, and What They Ain't, Neither

 

I know, I know. It ain't over till it's over. I get it. But whether Trump wins or loses, I'm going to go in a different direction, and spell out my beefs with the GOP before and during the Trump Presidency and his two presidential campaigns.

1) The GOP Senate is a bunch of weak sauce, useless, establishment good ol' boys. During SpyGate, Mueller, the impeachment, and now into the Trump re-election campaign, other than approving judges, they've been nothing more than a little hot air that's far too weak to call a warm breeze. How many times did we see a strong letter but no follow through? Lindsay Graham's been getting to the bottom of all this corruption for years and hasn't gotten to the bottom of jack shit. During SpyGate and later during the impeachment, I wrote several letters to my senator from Florida, Marco Rubio. It was a total waste of my time and effort. Rubio did eventually respond to me, but with cookie cutter form letter responses that made it clear to me nobody who mattered had read or even taken my concerns seriously. Again, judges aside, the Senate has been a huge disappointment and has done very little to help Trump make America great.

2) Over the years Democrats have initiated a number of changes to increase or gain an advantage at the polls: one example was the 1993 "Motor Voter" law, which required states to offer voter registration when citizens apply for a driver's license. In recent years there has been a shift toward both early voting, and this year especially, mail-in voting. And famously in California in 2018, was legislation allowing "ballot harvesting" in California. Whether it was Motor Voter, early, mail-in, or harvesting ballots, there is one common element. Republicans spent all their time and effort resisting and fighting against such initiatives, when they ought/could have been leveraging them to their own advantage. Democrats went door to door in California and collected enough ballots after Election Day to flip several seats in the House of Representatives? How many ballots did the GOP harvest? None. They stood on the sidelines complaining about it, rather than getting their own asses out to collect as many of their own as they could. 

Motor Voter? Instead of fighting it, why didn't the GOP push to expand it: you can check a box on your W-4 when you get a new job to be registered as a voter.  Or when you pay your property tax, get a concealed carry permit, file a change of address at the post office, etc. Play the same damned game and play to win.

This year, at least early on, the GOP resisted mail-in voting, ostensibly due to fears of voter fraud. Sort of late in the game, at least here in Florida, they seem to have realized they were getting terribly behind the voting curve and changed to encourage us to get and use an absentee ballot, but their earlier resonant message that had traction and overrode the new advice, was to vote in person on election day. Democrats cultivated many votes by otherwise less than likely voters by making voting easier for them. I realize that there was, and still is, great concern of ballot tampering and fraud and that's why the GOP at first resisted mail in. A more effective strategy would have been to fully embrace mail in voting and to take decisive actions to add safeguards where possible AND to exponentially increase the number of GOP votes mailed in through a grassroots campaign to get mail in ballots into GOP and independents who lean to the GOP's hands sent back in to be counted. I am not advocating, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em", I am advocating, "beat them at their own game." I haven't seen that from the GOP, who seem to be more than satisfied to stand on the sidelines pointing at and complaining about what Democrats are doing.

3) The GOP, prior to Trump, talked about budget deficits and smaller government during election and re-election campaigns, but rarely executed plans and programs to follow through on those things once in office. All talk and no action is the way I see it.

4) The GOP has done a shitty job of making outreach to black and other minority communities. Trump is the first one I can remember in my lifetime who sincerely reached out and said, "I want to be the guy who changes black lives for the better." And he, unlike most of the GOP, made significant efforts to reach out to African-American leaders and the African-American community. The things he tried to accomplish with and for the black community were despite being unfairly and wrongly and incessantly portrayed as a racist, incredible.

5) This paragraph is for "all the other stuff": GOP = military industrial complex and endless wars. I'm for a strong military, but I object to endless wars. Free trade = the total sellout of American working class people of ALL races. These and any number of other GOP norms, Donald Trump tried to change the GOP's alignment. Most of the GOP in the Senate, House, and throughout the Executive bureaucracy resisted and thwarted Trump at every turn.

Day after day after day during the Trump presidency, the rest of the GOP proved to me that I may be a Republican, but I am NOT their kind of Republican. I'm a Trumplican, a new kind of Republican who, like Trump, sees the failings and shortcomings of the GOP before, during, and after the Trump presidency and who WILL NOT support a return to GOP ways of the last 30 years. Reaganism, with President Reagan's famous working relationship with Democratic Speaker of the House Tip O'Neil? Yes, although in today's environment, Nancy Pelosi is surely no Tip O'Neil and surely demonstrates that she and they, the Democrats, need a critically introspective look and to change just as I advocate here that the Republicans do, too. And I do not see myself ever abandoning "Trumpism", either. Just as I still feel a connection to certain aspects of Reaganism, so too do I see myself clinging to aspects you may or may not like about Trumpism: rejection of political correctness, willingness to take the heat to do the things we're saying we'll do, unlike traditional politician's all talk and no action. And most of all, Trumpism to me means a love of the United States of America and of ALL Americans, putting America and America first in all things.

One final note: I'm here complaining about the GOP. I think there is much the GOP, elected and bureaucrat alike, could have done to make the Trump presidency even more successful. But let there be no doubt, I am NOT a Democrat. I can't think of a single issue which their views are more in line with my own than the GOP's are. I only add this note because if you read this and it makes you think, "Gee, Matty, there's a place for you in the Democratic Party," you're out of your fucking mind.

11/2/2020 Why I Voted for Trump, and Why You Should, Too.

 I voted early on in the General Election this year. And I voted for Donald Trump. My vote was as much against the globalist, establishment, entrenched, corrupt, career politician class that characterizes most of the elected and un-elected bureaucrats in our Washington Federal Government and most of our state capitals, too. Specifically, here's why I voted for Trump:

Judges. I believe our founders had it right when they established three branches of government, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. We have seen the Legislative Branch continuously and repeatedly fail to do its job and allow the President through Executive Order and Judicial via judicial fiat do their jobs for them. Trump has nominated the kind of judges we need, judges who will push things back to the legislature where they belong.

Economy. Trump has cut red tape and taxes. His economic policies are good for EVERYBODY. Wealthy people. Working stiffs. Retirees like me. The saying, "an incoming tide raises all boats in the harbor together" is exactly right as it relates to the Trump economy. Before the pandemic just about everybody was doing better then ever before. Women, black, Hispanic, Asian, whites, we were ALL doing better than ever.

Trade. Closely related to Economy, above, trade is definitely on my list. Previous administrations, from both parties, have sold American workers out again and again. Trump has tried hard against tremendous resistance to make sure our trade deals are in the best interest of our workers and farmers and tried to push us back to a production economy rather than a service economy. The worst example of the pre-Trump trade problem was China, to whom we allowed ourselves to be dependent for food, technology, medical, and military supplies and goods. Unacceptable.

Energy independence. Whose fucking bright idea was it to allow foreign countries to control our energy markets? Nope. Trump was 100% right to free US energy companies from many of the shackles previous administrations had weighed it down with.

Ending endless wars. Nearly 20 years in, and with no definable plan for victory, or success even, Trump is pulling us from places like Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Finally. Has he solved the problems there? No. Are they solvable by US military force? No. So there.

Foreign policy. The US State Dept and diplomatic corps seems to me to be a perfect example of "because that's how we've always done things". Trump has challenged diplomatic norms. No new wars, and peace deals in the Middle East the Bushes, Clintons, and Obama nor Biden would have ever even attempted. Bravo.

Right to bear arms, 2A. Just yesterday Joe was tweeting about gun controls he'd put in place. He didn't say shit about taking guns from bad guys, only about "common sense" reforms to disarm law abiding citizens and reduce our chances to defend ourselves. Joe and his buddies on the left plan to infringe on 2A and impose taxes on gun ownership. Which other of our constitutional rights is taxed? He wants to ban online gun and ammunition sales, too. Nope. Not for me. Let me know your plan to disarm and control bad guys before you try to disarm us good guys.

Law and Order. Antifa. BLM. Riots. Destruction. Big liberal cities. Coming to the rest of the USA via a Biden presidency where the same liberal mindset is imposed from Washington? No.

Racism and racial equality. For all the talk about us Trump supporters being the bad people, it seems to me only one party is obsessed with race and it ain't us. Blaming white people as a group for anything is no different than blaming black people or gay people or anyone else. I reject it. And a Biden or Harris presidency would surely push more of the same, and push it hard. No.

Deep State corruption and the coup d'état. The bastards that tried to steal and overturn the election and undermine the President still haven't been brought to justice. The swamp isn't nearly drained and it needs to be. I hope President Trump, win or lose, fires Wray and Halspel on Wednesday.

Corona virus. He did a better job than he got credit for. Perfect? No. But blaming him for it or for deaths is fucking ridiculous. I can't imagine the economic devastation if a Democrat was in the Oval Office this past year, and you can't convince me we'd be any better off than we are now. I'm sure some are convinced I'm wrong on that. I say it's unprovable.

Joe Biden. He's mentally failing and he's corrupt.

Kamala Harris. She's an extreme liberal and Joe is just a Trojan horse candidate to get her installed as President. No fucking way.

Yes, Donald J Trump is and can be an asshole. For all the reasons above, and maybe some others my brain isn't conjuring on Election Day eve, he's my choice, and he's the right one for our country. If you haven't already, vote for Trump for President of the United States tomorrow. We have a lot riding on it, as in EVERYTHING.