I’ve been on this rock circling the sun more than 25,880 times.
I’ve been to war.
I’ve been wounded emotionally, physically, and spiritually.
I’ve loved and lost.
I’ve seen death, and I’ve witnessed the miracle of birth.
I’ve made mistakes, but I’d like to think I’ve learned from them.
I have very few regrets.
My view is from ground level. ~ Cogito, ergo sum. What?

Are you so high up on your mountain that you can’t see through the clouds?

So high up that details are indistinguishable, and the landscape looks like a multi-colored cut-pile carpet?

Are we pieces on the chessboard of your soaring aspirations? Continue reading →

In 1966 an experimental musician named Frank Zappa recorded Freak Out, the first of many albums. This recording contains a cut called – The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet. It’s here – if you dare sample it. Like I said – experimental.

The recording (below) has nothing to do with this post, except I realized a variation of the title would make an excellent post when I awoke this morning. Only a few old-fart musicians will appreciate the simile.

Another Cold War is just what America needs right now… Continue reading →

Many, many years ago, I dated a Cajun woman, a fiery green-eyed red-head with an astounding skill to turn a colloquial phrase.

Maybe it was the translation from Creole French to English and the idiomatic nuances involved. It’s a subtlety I’ve noticed when the verb precedes the subject in other languages.

It initially sounded backward, but then, I never misunderstood or lost the intent. I derived today’s title from her comment when referring to the past.

She’d say – “it used to was.”

I appreciate the expressive economy in this style of phrasing. There is no confusion between the insect or the state of existence.

I’ve co-opted this phrase to mean – Has Been, as in, “a used to was.” Continue reading →

We have met the enemy, and it is us…

We are isolated from the world by a government that controls our information. We don’t know what’s happening at home or globally, we don’t see how this country really works, and we don’t understand how it all interrelates. It’s all filtered and groomed to present the appropriate messages. We don’t know, and we don’t seem to care if it’s real or if it’s Memorex as long as it sounds good.

Even a casual scan of the news will tell you everything they deem necessary, nothing superfluous. Headlines and stories are carefully filtered and craftily worded to send the right message – the message they want us to hear, delivered by their messenger of choice, the politically partisan press. Continue reading →

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” ~ Albert Einstein

It’s been too good for too long.

We’ve grown complacent, lazy, and fat – societally and physically.

It’s how we treat the remains of what we once had. Continue reading →

Ideas for my writing projects come from the strangest places. I’ve been considering a multitude of topics for several days. This idea snuck in with my first sip of coffee this morning.

I’d been considering a myriad of titles for this piece, but none of them seemed to convey the inanity. Dystopian authors don’t even stretch the limits of neglect and shortsightedness that we have in America. Continue reading →

In 1940 Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart wrote “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” for a Broadway play titled Pal Joey, and although the lyric doesn’t track my sentiment for this post, the title of this fantastic song hits the target dead center.

The prose is about unrequited love and resulting melancholy. This post is about my incredulity: I’m bothered and bewildered – America is bewitched! Continue reading →

Since the end of the War of Northern Aggression, American’s have been conflicted. When this nation armed itself to proclaim that ‘might makes right,’ even at home, we entered a perpetual battle for our country. The actors change, but not the stakes. This civil war fractured this country irreparably. Just as then, the ultimate goal is control, and the DemoSocs are about to have it all. Continue reading →

What luck for rules that men do not think.

“The man who has no sense of history, is like a man who has no ears or eyes.”

The introductory quotes are from Uncle Adolph, who most people despise, but I admire his ability to bend everyone to his way of thinking. I agree that he was a monster, but brilliant nonetheless. I chose these quotes for a reason I hope will become clear as you read.

I consider Hitler the progenitor of our modern politically partisan press – our lame-stream media. He also pioneered the most powerful mass-marketing process with his Landsmann Heir Goebbels. Together they crafted a diabolically professional and efficient propaganda machine that rationalized the murdered over eleven million Jews and ethnic misfits to further his ‘unification’ programs.

Before us today, we have a few instances that raise my YGBSM meter past Eleven. All of last year’s debacles are trivial in comparison. This all leads us to the inevitable fact that our government is not just morally bankrupt but wiping its feet on the constitution by intentionally disregarding our laws. All because they are inconvenient and impede their progress to further their unification agenda. Continue reading →

China vs. America – A not-so social media post quoting Bill Maher made me consider our leadership style in America. I include a transcript of Mr. Maher’s program below – without permission – for context and clarity.

I find Mr. Bill Maher snarky and smarmy, but he makes perfect sense from time to time.

I believe the following transcript is one of his best monologues.

Why are Americans sleeping? We aren’t sleeping; we are spending our time enabling little boys to become little girls!!! We have the Sec of Defense, responding to an order from the ‘commander in chief,’ designing stylish new uniforms for pregnant ‘soldiers’ and developing racial and gender equity programs. Continue reading →

I’m calling this article “Chicken & Waffles,” which seems appropriate since no one has the chutzpah to take control of this situation and because of the flip-flops on a Wuhan course of action. The America I love would not allow this to continue, but alas, that America is gone.

My alternate title is “The Bipolar Boogie” because of the nearly solid rhythmic frequency of the releases and reversals about the Wuhan pandemic. But we’re all groovin’ to the same lie.

America and the world are in flux – constantly changing and still held hostage by this lie. We struggle to break free, to find a way out, but a new variant pops up, and we’re back in the gulag.

Strange how that continues to happen… Boogie On! Continue reading →

Once upon a time, in the 16th Century, a French apothecary called Nostradamus used a strange process to predict the future. He’d enter a trance-like state and transcribe his visions – prophecies – into a bazaar four-line prose. Most folks found it unintelligible, but what they could decipher was usually wrong.

His record – 11 hits for 942 predictions.

Forecasting the future is a brutal way to make a living because the fulfillment of your prophecies isn’t revealed for years, decades, and sometimes centuries. Fortunately, like another seer in this commentary, Nostradamus was a very wealthy man. Continue reading →

SASSOFERRATO, Baroque painter, 1609-1685

Leadership by example has been drilled into me since I was a small child. My father instilled this in us, so I learned to do what I say. People follow a leader they can believe. Dad was a career Marine Drill Instructor at Camp Le Jeune until he retired. He died in 2016; I’m glad he never saw what we’ve done to our country.

A cursory examination of religious leaders and their teachings embodies this ethic as a central tenet. They all espouse the leadership by example principles following the precedent set by a central figure. Until recently, America extolled the merits of example-based leadership, although elected leaders of the past few decades are the antithesis of the practice and principle. Continue reading →

Too much of our lives are spent worrying and precious little doing. We are concerned about the future and things over which we have absolutely no control, but that doesn’t stop our need to kibitz and become involved in other people’s or countries’ problems. We’ll invest trillions of words, hours, and dollars fretting about stuff.

There are, however, things that require our total concentration and concerted efforts. Things here in America demand our immediate attention. If we ever hope to influence the world, we must do it through our leadership – by example – not dictates or demands.

You know how I feel about the media if you’ve followed my posts. Their parasitic, self-perpetuating relationship with misinformation, disinformation, and deception makes them the entourage and champions of corruption. As long as there are problems and crises, they can feed their corporate coffers. Continue reading →

Never before have I seen a president so willing to abandon, no – fuck an entire country to follow his deluded crusade to secure his legacy. His Don Quixotesque quest to correct Mother Nature borders on lunacy and religious zealotry. He is a danger to himself and America. He should be confined.

In January of 2021, someone appointed Bungles the Clown and Giggles to front for the cabal. The Bungles the Clown and Giggles shit-show began entertaining America and the world eleven months ago with their ludicrous political decisions and idiotic ideas.

Even though expectations for the duo were dizzying, their performances so far leave the world and America wondering, WTF? Their pairing would be perfect if not for their narcissism, but that describes nearly everyone in the DC Swamp. Continue reading →

When someone mentions plantations, what comes to mind? And when you hear the words white privilege, white supremacy, or racism, do they conjure similar images?

The plantation analogy occurred to me after I received a White Privilege Card from a friend. Of course, it was a joke, and I had a good belly laugh, but it did cause me to wonder about the concept of white privilege and plantation life.

Historians and economists argue that the plantation system ended with FDR’s New Deal in the 1930s.

I’m not convinced. Continue reading →

I am a genuinely pissed-off patriot.

The Joe-Ker

I volunteered to serve during the Vietnam Conflict. I experienced things that no human should ever see, yet I stayed for multiple tours and never grumbled, complained, whined, or expected special treatment, and I still don’t. I’m not a hero, unlike so many others.

I lost friends and comrades. I saw patriots leave on missions, never to return. Every military branch proudly served with distinction and honor despite the politics involved. I deserve better from my America.

When I returned to America from my deployments, I was subjected to vicious verbal attacks, taunted, spat upon, and physically assaulted by anti-war protesters. After ten years, I saw the loss of respect and discipline and decided not to pursue military service as a career. Even though I believed in America, I knew this was morally and ethically unjust. Continue reading →

A most excellent friend, Kastle, frequently sends me thought-provoking articles like this one by Lew Rockwell: “Where is the Executive Order?“

Mr. Rockwell’s post tackles the tender topic of Executive Orders (EO), opening the curtain a little more; precisely why we take time to write articles like these.

The EO for the General Covid Vaccine Mandate is missing from the Federal Register. You know, the part that requires businesses to fire unvaccinated workers and demand that all Americans be vaccinated. Neither of us can find any legal or legislative basis for the edict to vaccinate the country. It seems a bit capricious to me. Continue reading →

“It is a quite special secret pleasure how the people around us fail to realize what is really happening to them.” ~ Adolph Hitler

I don’t often open my posts with quotes from the most hated despot in modern history, but there is a method and reason.

You must understand that I consider Hitler a monster, but his leadership tactics are genius. You must also recognize that his tactics are millennia old and mere adaptations but are being successfully employed today.

History does not discriminate, for each prominent figure has much to teach us, especially autocrats like Chancellor Hitler and comrades.

Der Fuhrer, Hitler’s königreich, began with a few simple principles and grew to a world power in ten short years under the gaze of a battered and defeated German people. WWI broke the Weimar republic and forced Germany to concede. They were left to languish as a disinterested and dispassionate Europe and its Allies watched. Continue reading →

“Free Speech is probably the most dangerous weapon ever wielded, especially in the hands of those who don’t understand its power.” ~ Author

It’s Sunday morning, September 12th, the day after the twentieth anniversary of our reintroduction to the real world. Many people miss that point. It didn’t stop the self-flagellation; rather than becoming active participants in that reality, we wrench facts to accommodate our narrative.

Yes, this incident was tragic, and yes, the loss of life was atrocious, but it could have been prevented.

Hindsight is 20/20, so they say, which shouldn’t stop us from applying history’s lessons looking forward, or at least to avoid repeating the same irresponsible blunders. We are either that audacious or that stupid.

“If we’d only known,” is our lamentation… Continue reading →