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!