Whew, I tried to take a break

There is just no getting away from the insanity.

My 4th of July peace & quiet was shattered, as was the nation’s by the Highland shooting. The other half got a BBC notification on their phone.

WTF? Of course the media jumped on it, gleefully rubbing their hands, “If it Bleeds it Leads,” and they were all practically salivating that the shooter was white and used a rifle.

I imagine the newsrooms all over the country were spinning up their white supremacist tropes. That fell apart pretty fast as more came out about the shooter. But the media still got their licks in about guns being a problem in this country.

Then someone remembered that Illinois has very restrictive gun laws. RED Flag Laws, State issued licensing to purchase a gun, certain weapons banned, etc. You know, kind of like the law Biden just signed…

As more information poured in, it turns out that the shooter wasn’t listed as a RED FLAG, even though he should have been. The shooter had threatened to kill his family and the police had removed his collection of knives from his home.

That didn’t stop him from getting his Illinois issued FOID permit which allowed him to purchase guns legally. It appears that he’d even purchased his guns in the state of Illinois. OOOPs there goes the gun show, and the out of state or straw purchase narrative.

As the week progressed, we heard that his mental health was questionable. That was kinda of a “Duh,” right from the start. Now folks are asking some of the right questions. “Why wasn’t he RED FLAGGED?”, “Why wasn’t he getting some kind of help?”, “What made his so very angry?”

These are all good questions and there are no easy answers. But it’s good that the questions are being asked.

President Doofus wasted no time telling America that this is the reason that we need stricter gun control. Again he shot his mouth off without having all the information. If I’m recalling it correctly he opened his pie hole before the police had even brought Robert E. Crimo III, age 21 to heel.

But this is what we’ve come to expect from this President.


Remember the Border patrol officers accused of whipping Haitian migrants illegally crossing the border?

U.S. Customs and Border Protection mounted officers attempt to contain migrants as they cross the Rio Grande from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, into Del Rio, Texas, Sunday, Sept. 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Biden said, “To see people treated like they did, horses barely running over, people being strapped — it’s outrageous,” Biden told reporters, making a whipping motion with his hand. “I promise you, those people will pay. There will be an investigation underway now and there will be consequences. There will be consequences.

At the time I wrote a blog post saying what the CBP jackasses have now also said in their copious report about the incident. The Head of CBP has said, “no evidence” that Border Patrol struck Haitian migrants with their reins or used whips in Del Rio, Texas, last year”

I’m not much of a horseman, I’ve been astride horses many times in my life, I like horses and would enjoy having enough space and money to own one, implicit in that would be getting to be a better horseman.

I’ve enjoyed rodeos, and seen a variety of reins and saddles. Mostly, I have experience with mucking out stalls that horses occupy when they’re not being ridden or wandering around a corral.

That being said, as inexperienced as I am, I knew looking at the pictures that CBP agents weren’t whipping migrants.

The thing is, CBP is still going to punish the officers, for other infractions. One of which is using harsh language. Harsh Language? Get the fuck out of town!

The entire article is here. It’s from Fox News it popped up in my Apple News Feed.

One thing that struck me as I read the article was that the agents appear to be at fault for having insufficient training for the situation. To which I say, “WHAT THE FUCK?

Our government placed these agents in the situation. Then is holding them responsible because they didn’t have the right training to deal with the untenable situation the government placed them in?

The agents wouldn’t have been in the situation if President dipshit hadn’t opened the damn border in the first place.

Talk about a no win situation. That kind of thinking isn’t going to have the Border patrol’s recruiting office overflowing now is it?

Sure you’re going to have this job but you’ll be constantly under scrutiny from assholes who have no idea what the job entails and they’ll throw you under the bus at a moment’s notice for their own political gain. Oh, and by the way, if one of these politicians demands punishment you’re totally fucked. Even if you did everything by the book.

Welcome to CBP. Have a great career.

People wonder why we’re losing Law Enforcement personnel at unheard of rates? Why the military isn’t going to meet its recruitment goals? Why Border patrol is woefully understaffed?

None of these factors are making any of us more safe. Our politicians don’t see the problems they’re causing…

But it is driving record gun sales.

Long ago folks realized that if they could rely upon police to be present, to arrive in a timely fashion, and take care of crime, that it was better to allow the police to deal with problems.

It was easier that having to explain, and dispose of, the body of a criminal from your living room, or on your lawn, or why you dropped a piece of shit in the middle of town.

Now, with the police stretched so thin, and neutered by conflicting laws, people are coming to the conclusion that their only option is to be armed. Where I live, the sheriffs are 30 minutes away on a good day.

That’s provided they don’t have some jurisdictional conflict about whether the sheriff, or the Highway patrol is supposed to deal with an issue. For that layer of confusion I thank politicians, and lawyers. The officers, even though they want to help, are constrained by those jackasses.

Why does it take years to deal with a drug house, or a house of prostitution operating in a neighborhood? What about a person that routinely assaults their neighbors for no apparent reason?

The reason is that average “normal” folks are expected to put up with the shit. Not just expected, but constrained by rules, regulations, jurisdictional rivalries, lawyers, politicians, boards of supervisors, interpretations, and all the bullshit that gets in the way of a simple question.

Was a crime committed?

If the answer is “Yes”, then the perpetrator is hauled off.

If the answer is “No” then folks will have to deal with it.


Then there were the shrieking harridan protesters who thought it was their right to make everyone uncomfortable at a Mortons Steakhouse because Justice Kavanaugh decided to have a meal there.

This was another What the Fuck moment for me.

I walked out of a StarBucks once when some protestors walked in raising hell. (I forget what the hell nonsense they were protesting about,) all I remember is that one of two things was going to happen. Either I left without my damn coffee, or I was going to incite a riot by saying something.

I also knew that none of the morons in the Starbucks were going to have my back but they’d film me getting my ass kicked.

I haven’t been to that Starbucks since. It was near a college. We all know how the college crowd is about whatever the liberal bullshit of the day is.

Shortly after, Starbucks in California started saying cops couldn’t come in if they had their guns. That was the beginning of the end of my relationship with Starbucks.

Anyhow, Mortons released a statement that made me want to go spend money with them.

They said, “Honorable Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh and all of our other patrons at the restaurant were unduly harassed by unruly protesters while eating dinner at our Morton’s restaurant,”

I get that the protesters were outside, on the sidewalk. The police couldn’t do anything about it since they weren’t trespassing. Okay. They’re exercising their first amendment right.

But, in these situations I always ask what about all the other people’s rights that these protestors trample on? The right to peace and quiet? The right to a nice dinner with family or friends?

There are reports that the protestors were calling the restaurant demanding that Justice Kavanaugh not be served.

What about the months of protests outside Kavanaugh’s home? The protestors are raising a ruckus in front of his house, but the whole fucking neighborhood has to suffer, what about their rights to privacy, to peace & quiet, to live their lives without fear or inability to get into or out of their homes?

The White House was taken to task by Peter Doocy and got a completely bullshit answer from Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. The article is linked here.

There was another article that mentioned a twitter account offering to pay cash for information about the conservative Justices movements within D.C.

Rebooted my brain…

That’s beyond the definition of stalking. The Folks in D.C. don’t seem to have a problem with it. BUT THEY WOULD, if a similar account was set up. That followed Pelosi, or AOC, or Harris, or Schiff. Then it would be 24/7 OMG how is this allowed?

Imagine what the response would be if any of the people I mentioned above couldn’t go into a restaurant without being hounded by angry conservatives standing outside on a sidewalk screaming at them for running the country into the ground.

What if their neighborhoods were turned into protest zones 24/7?

We’d never hear the end of it.


The LA Times reported that the LA County Supervisors want the ability to remove the LA County Sheriff (In case Villaragosa wins his election). They’re not interested in any of the other eight elected positions, only the Sheriff.

Hmmm that sounds vaguely familiar. Wasn’t there something similar in Washington D.C. on January 6th 2021? I can’t quite recall…


The thing is, if the erosion of law, and indeed human decency and respect continues we’ll have anarchy.

I’ve thought for years that our country is a powder keg and the polarization,” us against them” mentality espoused from the highest levels in our government isn’t helping.

What happens when average, “normal” people decide they’ve had enough and decide to take matters into their own hands?

What happens when the people say they no longer agree with the first paragraphs of The Declaration of Independence, saying, “NO! We The People withdraw our consent to be governed.”

Where will we be then?

Starts to look a lot like Mad Max, doesn’t it?

Conservatives, It’s not enough…

It’s not enough to whinge and complain.

The question is, how will we address the issues we’re complaining about?

It’s not enough to sit behind keyboards making nasty comments about liberals or Democrats.

In doing this we’re no better than the liberals or Democrats that do the same on Twitter.

It’s not enough to boycott this company, or that.

Are we brave enough, to not only boycott the company who’s offended, but to boycott their parent company? Are we strong enough to boycott the other companies who share board members with the company we’re boycotting?

It’s not enough to say the election was stolen, or Trump 2024 or DeSantis 2024.

Have we actually done the research to validate the assertion or political choice, or simply repeating what we’ve been told, casting votes for the person the Republican Party says to?

It’s not enough to watch conservative curated snippets of the Jan 6th hearing.

Watching curated snippets that cast the hearing in a negative light, is no different than those watching the hearing and swallowing the snippets the committee has curated and says is true.

I think for myself. I’ve looked at the available information and made choices. They weren’t always the correct choices, or even the best choices. But I own them. For better or worse, they’re mine.

I look at the time and effort spent endlessly commenting on Twitter, Gab, Truth Social, Facebook, News articles, American Thinker, Breitbart, and the myriad other conservative outlets, and I have to ask.

Is this all we’ve got?

An upvote?
A snarky comment?
A meme?
An online argument?
A ‘share’ with followers?

Really?

Obviously we all have computers. How about spending all that energy, time and resource to figure a way out of this mess?

If, as so many of you say, the ship is sinking, it’s no matter who’s right and who’s wrong. The water is rising, we’ll all drown. Whatever differences we had will be settled in silence.

Will we go the route of Melville:

To the last, I grapple with thee; From Hell’s heart, I stab at thee; For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee.

Or will we put aside our differences, bridge the gap, and demonstrate what we’ve said we stand for.

Work!

Doing what needs to be done, because it needs doing.

Not for fame, not for riches, or clicks, or accolades. But because the survival of our country is in our best interest. Implicitly demonstrating that Capitalism is what ultimately drives societies forward to better futures.

So what if there will be those whose asses undeservedly get pulled from the water?

They, will stand as witnesses to the abject failure of marxism, socialism, or communism. Their survival and shame will haunt them all the days of their wretched lives. Because they will know they live by our largess, not by the sweat of their brow or the work of their own hand.

So Conservatives, and our more middle of the road friends…

Let’s get to work.

Put the phone down, push back from your keyboards, stop feeding the beast of the media, and self indulgent click bait.

Assess your skills and knowledge then direct it at the problems at hand.

How do we get this country’s supply chain moving?

Retired Truckers, Longshoremen, material handlers, shippers, planners? It’s time for you to take the stage.

How do we stop more and more people climbing onto a sinking lifeboat?

Retired diplomats, ambassadors, immigration professionals, Any thoughts?

What do we have to do to be energy independent?

Retired oil producers, roughnecks, drilling crews, coal miners, power plant workers, Nuclear engineers, This is your bailiwick.

How do we peacefully, yet undeniably make our voices heard in the halls of power?

Children of the ’50s, ’60s, 70’s 80’s. We were really good at making Washington listen. It’s time for us to decorate our walkers, dust off our signs, create easily remembered slogans, songs, and present clear and unified messages. It’s time to march once again.

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

I know us old farts wanted to leave the issues to the young. We wanted to go fishing, put our feet up, watch the sunset, and pass peacefully from this mortal coil.

Unfortunately, our Nation, our Home isn’t done with us yet. “Once more into the breach dear friends…”

It sucks! But it is what it is.

Perhaps we can enjoy fishing and the sunset for a while after we help set things right.

Oh… This is getting So out of hand.

The other half got a haircut yesterday.

You’d think something as mundane as that wouldn’t be fraught with controversy…

You’d be wrong

We live in a mad mad world.

The stylist was talking with another stylist about a customer she’d had the day before.

The customer in question, was apparently transitioning from one gender to the other. “Okay, this is probably going to go off the rails,” I think.

As the story unfolds, apparently the stylist referred to the customer as a “She”. OMG! The horror!

The customer corrected the stylist’s use of pronoun defiantly proclaiming the proper pronoun was “IT”.

At this point in the story I’ve got my “What The Fuck” face on. The other half ignored me and continued the story.

The stylist, of course apologized explaining that she meant no offense. This wasn’t good enough for the mortally aggrieved customer. (He/She/It… whatever) Continued to manufacture outrage over this insignificant incident, turning everyone’s trip to the hair place into a crazed social justice nightmare.

A) How was the stylist to know “It” was the preferred pronoun?
B) The Stylist did the professional thing by apologizing.
C) The aggrieved customer had all the social decorum of a turd in a punchbowl.

The other half was laughing and said to me, “All I could picture as this story was being told was YOU sitting in a chair during the actual incident.

Good Point!

I wouldn’t have been able to let it pass. I hate shitty behavior and the shitty people exhibiting it.

The first thing that popped into my head was that since “IT” didn’t have their pronoun tattooed on ITS forehead how was anyone to know? I’m sure that my expressing that thought would have added fuel to the fire.

The second thing that popped into my head is that “IT” usually refers to an object. Then I remembered being a boy in the Deep South.

The first word I ever learned to describe a Black person was the “N-Word”. But the context was that one went to get the “N-Word” to clean up a mess.

For Example: “Bill, please go get the broom to sweep up this mess on the floor.”

My childhood memory has the statement from my Grandfather telling me, “Hey boy, go get the “N-word” to clean up that mess.”

In my experience the “N-Word” was used to reduce a kind thoughtful human being, (Eddie would tell me jokes and ride me around on his shoulders and we’d laugh the whole time,) to nothing more than an object on par with a mop or broom. (For the sake of clarity, Eddie was an employee of my Grandfather, and I probably wasn’t more than 5.)

As I thought about the implications of a human being demanding to be called “IT” I couldn’t help but notice the similarity.

What completely astounds me, is that any human being would willingly demean & diminish their own humanity in this way.

People like the aforementioned customer, would loose their shit if I, a white CIS male, were to refer to an African American as “IT”. They’d be saying I was racist or any number of other ugly things. (Then again, most of the ugly words they’d call me have lost much of their former impact and meanings.)

Then they’d turn around and make a spectacle of themselves in a public place demanding to be called “IT”.

All the while annoying the rest of us “normal” people who use pronouns based in history and languages dating back 5 thousand years or more.

The other half is right…

It’s a good thing I wasn’t there for the incident itself.

Depending on how screeching they were, I could easily see myself leading off with,

“Nobody gives a fuck about your pronouns! Now sit the fuck down and shut the hell up. There are actual humans in this business, trust me they do not consider themselves the equivalent of a dildo or pocket pussy. Both of which, by the way, are ITS.”

No, I don’t think it would have ended well at all…