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?

Lately reading or watching the news feels like doom scrolling.

Doomscrolling or doomsurfing is the act of spending an excessive amount of screen time devoted to the absorption of negative news. – From Wikipedia

My Apple News application is configured to show me Science, Technology, and items related to mens health. I’ve blocked CNN, Breitbart, Mother Jones, MSNBC, Vanity Fair, The Rolling Stone, and a plethora of others.

Unfortunately, blocking these publications leaves a white square in my News feed telling me that I’ve blocked the publication and asking me if I’d like to read the article anyway.

Uh… Nope!

What I’d really like, is for the little white boxes to disappear too!

The actual publications that I read for news are more local publications from places that I’m interested in.

Think of it like reading the local news papers from various cities around the nation. The Idaho Statesman, The San Diego Times, The Lexington Herald, there are some Texas papers I’ll skim as well. (Before you ask, I can’t stomach the Los Angeles Times!)

I find that these publication are often a bit more hometown and they’re balanced between human interest stories, local events, and national news.

It’s nice to read about a community rallying behind their high school football team. Or that the local school baseball teams are having a car wash to raise money for a local charity.

I read one article about car washes, being coordinated so that for a period of six weekends, a patron could have their car washed by one of six local school teams and the proceeds would help a community center that had a fire.

It’s that kind of thing that makes the “Bad” news palatable.

It used to be that, only the most egregious faux pas of the D.C. elites would make it to these local papers.

The papers being local meant that the journalists writing for them, were interested in presenting the hard facts and then after the meat of the story perhaps they’d opine about how this, or that, might affect the local community.

I like that kind of reporting. The journalists know which side of their toast is buttered and aren’t necessarily attempting to grandstand to “Hit the big time”.

They’re locals, they’re interested in their town or state and their reporting reflects that.

The papers I mentioned weren’t generally bashing or praising former President Trump, nor have they been bashing or praising current President Biden. They are just reporting the facts. What did the President say, how might the policy affect their particular community.

I guess you’d call it “old school” journalism. Report the story, keep your bias to yourself, if you feel the need to express your opinion then do it on the Op Ed pages.

Lately though, it’s like all the news is just plain bad. Everywhere, (at least in all the papers I read or scan,) there’s almost nothing but bad news. Be it national events like Ukraine, gas prices, or baby formula. Or local reporting of shutdowns of businesses, construction sites, or oil drilling operations, the news is bad.

These local entities are still reporting how the various events are affecting the local community and they’re doing it in personal, first person interviews. Then they move on to the next story.

Stock Photo

The Father of 4 who lost his job because the business he worked at closed, and who said it didn’t really matter because he couldn’t afford the gas to get there anyway. There was a ray of light. He was interviewed in the process of roto-tilling what used to be his backyard and teaching his children to plant vegetables. His wife still had her job, he was staying home watching the kids, instead of paying for daycare. He’d decided that a productive family activity was to plant a vegetable garden. He was going to learn the art of canning later in the summer and fall.

The mother who drove 100 miles one way to stock up on baby formula. She brought light into the story because she shared what she had gotten with other mothers in town who were unable to find formula. She’d then started a formula bank at her church where she and other moms pooled their resources. She thanked the men in the community who were helping by buying a can of formula if they saw one during their daily commutes and dropping it by the church. She commented that many of the men helping out didn’t have children themselves.

The causes were the bad news, the balance was the journalist speaking with people in the community asking how they were adapting, then reporting that, as part of the human interest.

Yet even with the rays of light, the overall news is just bad.

On the one hand, I’d like to look away and just ignore it all. On the other hand I get curious about what’s happening outside my little mountain town.

So I open the News app, and alternately have my heart broken, or become enraged. Sometimes both at the same time.

I simply can’t reconcile that our leaders seem so out of touch, even when they must have the best information flooding into their ivory towers.

How can they apparently ignore the plight of so many who are struggling?

Why are the elites talking about “Taking Action” on issues that don’t directly address the issues that are first and foremost in people’s minds?

You know, minor things like;

Putting food on the table
Getting to and from work
Feeding the children and babies
Paying the mortgage

Right now, the vast majority of average folks don’t give a rats ass about trans-rights, gun control, racism, green energy, CRT, the latest Tic-Tok trend, Hollywood, or even COVID.

Notice, I said the majority… There will always be the few that are so narrowly focused on their cause, that they’ll refuse to see the bigger picture.

Average folks are focused on basic needs. Broadly speaking… A functioning economy.

That requires jobs, the ability to get to aforementioned job, and affordable basic staples in the store. Anything beyond that is un-necessary and complete bullshit.

The elites will no doubt be appalled to discover that all their grandiose “actions”, “plans”, or whatever don’t mean squat to folks just trying to get by.

I’ve got to stop looking at the news. It just makes me sad, and pisses me off!

Then there’s this…

I caught this yesterday in The Washington Post.

Police: Woman killed man who fired rifle into party crowd

In Charleston West Virgina, a guy armed with an AR-15 started shooting at a crowd celebrating at a graduation party. Things didn’t turn out as the shooter had planned. He ended up dead because he was shot by a woman armed with a pistol for self defense.

I’m sure that liberal heads will explode over this one. “But he had an AR-15, an Assault Rifle! How could it be that a woman with a pistol could stop a guy with an Assault Rifle?”

Well, it’s like this, an AR-15 is just a rifle. There’s nothing magical about it, clearly this lady kept her cool and had good aim. Mischief Managed! Or if you prefer, FAFO (Fuck Around and Find Out).

She stayed and cooperated with the police when they arrived. Had this lady not been there, had she not been armed it’s likely that there would have been a lot more bloodshed.


I caught a reference to this tweet on another site from Founding partner of Puck News Julia Ioffe yesterday as well. I was only able to track it back as far as a Fox News article, it looks like it’s being “disappeared” from other sites I saw in passing.

It almost made me wish I had a Twitter account so I could point out to this individual that she was an idiot.

She’s also a hypocrite. On the one hand she’s pushing for gun control because of 19 Children who were murdered on the other hand she’s Pro Abortion.

I’m not sure I would have tweeted this… But the thought that went through my mind was;

Ms. Ioffe, in fact you can perform retroactive abortions with an AR-15. What’s the difference if the child is left to die after being born, on a tray in a clinic, or torn to shreds with a suction device, or in gunfire from an AR-15? They’re still dead. Aren’t you Pro-Abortion?

I know that’s really brutal.

Ms. Ioffe received a hail of Tweets calling her out. She has since deleted her original Tweet.

She was trying to say that if AR-15s were used in abortions, then conservatives would demand a ban on AR-15s. She failed miserably.

I probably wouldn’t have fired off my comment. Not because I’m ashamed of it. I’d have typed it and then thought about it and decided that since I typed it in anger it’s one of those things that shouldn’t go out to the whole world.

My comment would have been very insensitive and inappropriate given that I’d have sent it as a reply to Ms Ioffe on the very day of the Robb Elementary School shooting.

Even today it’s raw and brutal. I put it here because my readership isn’t in the millions, and everyone here has been warned that I sometime say really off color things.

Had I fired that off in direct response to her Tweet, all of her followers would have been inadvertent recipients of my ire.

See, I do have some limits!