A Wordy Post About Stuff

Posted on 16/10/2022 by Grumpa Joe

One problem with writing a post everyday is finding themes. In that regard I admire Daniel Greenfield who writes for his blog called Sultan of Knish. He posts several times a week and each time it is an academic essay on some aspect of politics or world affairs. His posts are between 1200 and 3200 words each time. On the other hand, when I am in good form I will post about three times a week and average about 600 words. Lately, my posts are about four times a month, and I am having difficulty thinking of stuff to write about.

I wouldn’t be surprised if someone labels me racist again, because when Obama was president he did so many things I disagreed with that I couldn’t stop writing negatively about him. When Trump was president, I didn’t want to fan the fires of those who were against him because the press didn’t need any help from me. Biden on the other hand hasn’t done anything I like, and I believe he is destroying the country. Biden is making Obama look like an amateur when it comes to stupid policies and stupid governance. I don’t want to waste my time repeating what the daily news is already doing. Besides sleepy Joe is an old timer like me, and I won’t pick on someone who can’t help himself because his brain has stopped functioning. There is nothing sadder in life than watching a person who was a fireball while younger, and who has lost it to Alzheimer’s. I saw what happened with my wife, and it is truly saddening that so many people end their time on earth by slowly losing their memory to the point where they forget how to breath.

One memory invoked by Sleepy Joe is the era of Jimmy Carter when inflation kept rising and the Federal Reserve couldn’t do anything but raise interest rates to 16%. It was a great time for people with cash who could buy Certificates of Deposit earning a 16% return for a five year period. They advanced the size of their savings dramatically. The high interest rate eventually worked, and the economy adjusted so the rates began to drop, and about the time the 16% CD’s matured the rates were back to a paltry 3%. So for anyone looking at how long this pain will last history says it will be at least five years after the current rates rise to 16%.

For the past twelve years we have enjoyed an economy that was operating on free money. Loans were down to the low 3.0% range and that allowed many people to buy the house of their dreams. Those who had cash in the bank were sadly only making 0.1 % on their savings. Most people invested in stocks to make decent money. My retirement has been happy because of the earnings I have received, but I’m not so sure I will be happy moving forward as the economy begins to falter. My advisor continues to admonish me to look at the long run, and not the short term. Excuse me, but just how much longer do I have? Ten minutes, ten days, ten months, ten years? I worry that my paltry portfolio will not be strong enough to keep me going for the duration.

Last week I went into a McAllister’s deli for a sandwich($20 for a cup of soup and a six inch sandwich), and I swear the lady who took my order was older than me. I had a vision of me behind the counter making sandwiches, and that is not appealing. I’d rather spend my time standing in the middle of busy intersection dodging traffic with a bucket in my shaky hand collecting money for my Lions club.

In the good old days everyone was a farmer who worked until he died. It was only after the industrial revolution, and the Great Depression that people began looking at work as a forty-five year duration. Pensions, vacation, and medical insurance all became perks for workers. These benefits were being offered by companies desperate for help. With Trump’s economy we saw a huge shortage of help, but I didn’t see anyone offering huge new benefits to lure workers to their factories. About the most extreme benefit I saw was the work from home model which came because of Covid. Let’s hope things get better sooner than later.

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Filed under: Aging, Conservative, economy, Government, Memories, Seniors | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Trial By Television

Posted on 20/11/2021 by Grumpa Joe

I didn’t watch the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, but I did read a few headlines about it and of course now I am in overload listening to and reading headlines about this so called unfair trial. The only reason it was unfair is because the people who on the spot proclaimed this young man guilty wanted to see him hang. By their demonstrations they telegraph a message to America that they do not believe our system of justice works. They do not believe the jury was being fair, because they are all racist. I don’t even know if any of the people that were killed in the protest that caused this ruckus were of color. The people protesting don’t believe that this system based on a jury of your peers works. Neither do they believe that the jury must make their decision on the basis of two things, the law, and the evidence presented. The jury cannot make a decision based on a video shown on NBC news or CNN, they can’t make their decision based on news reports published in news papers. They must adhere to that which is presented by lawyers to the jury during the trial, and that the lawyers must adhere to very strict rules in how they can present their case. The judge is there as a referee to make sure every one plays by the rules.

Our unifying president who swore upon his mother’s grave to bring unity to the country has not moved one millimeter towards unifying the country. Instead he prefers to add fuel to the fire. At another time and with another unifying president I remember an incident when a white policeman was ridiculed by President Obama because he did his job and challenged a black college professor that the cop caught breaking into a house. It turned out to be the professor’s home and he had locked himself out. In a move to unify the country Obama reacted by making an insulting comment about the white cops racist action. Eventually, all the facts came out, and we learned that the cop did not know it was the man’s house, the cop did not know the man he caught was a college professor, the cop knew only that he was called to check out a break in. The newspapers had a field day crucifying the policeman and covering for Obama’s too quick reactionary response. The whole thing was papered over by the cop sitting down with Obama over a beer, but only after the news media went over board decrying that America is a racist country.

As long as there are many races of different colors racism will be an issue. It would be nice if we could as a country have a do-over on the matter of slavery. It might be a little bit easier. As it is, leveling out the race issue will take at least two more centuries.

Filed under: Government, LIBERAL | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

Day 10- Quarantine-Dredging the Pond

Posted on 26/03/2020 by Grumpa Joe

This morning was perfect for a day in the garden. The temperature was mild and the wind was calm. After of winter of catching wind blown leaves it was time to clean the pond. Where in the world these leaves come from is a mystery. Each fall I hire Mexicans to clear my garden of leaves, but I pulled oak, maple, ginkgo, pear, apple, and poplar from around the yard this spring. Pond cleaning is a job I dread for a couple of reasons: one, it tires me out too fast, and two, because it is a super-dirty, and smelly task. All the while I raked through the water with my fifty-year old leaf rake I kept wondering if I would awaken a new COVID-19. There are so many pathogens released from decaying matter it is entirely possible. One year, I had a pond filled with Ichthyophthirius multifiliis protozoan more commonly referred to as “ich”. The cure was not easy, but effective.

Two years ago in June, my Son-in-law gifted me with some fish, two Koi, and a dozen comet goldfish; one Koi was white the other gold, they were two inches long, the comets were one inch, and their color varied from solid gold, and some had variations of white and black. By the end of that first summer they had tripled in size and I took special care to maintain them over the winter, and happily they survived. This is the first batch of fish to have done so in over five years. The trick I used was to keep my pump running through the winter which kept the water moving and aerated. The pump failed this January, and the fish were dead by February. It was sad because last summer these fish experienced explosive growth. The two Koi grew to over twelve inches long and the comets were easily six inches. It helped that I fed them all season. Oh well, so much for my attempt to sustain life in the pond.

 

Needless to say, I didn’t see, or come near any living people to catch or to spread the COVID-19 virus. I listened to the Mayor of Chicago chastising the population for not heeding her warning to stay in place. Too many people are out running, walking, skating, skate boarding along the lake front bike path. She fired a shot over our heads and threatened to fine people who don’t heed the advice.

On the Federal level, the scare is wearing down. I can tell by the amount political finger-pointing going on between the parties. Political badminton disappeared for the last couple of weeks and now it is returning. If President Trump  could cure everyone that is sick, raise those who died, restored the economy to its pre-virus status, and eradicate the virus the Never-Trumpers and Democrats would accuse him of some wrong doing. In my history of listening to politics through the terms of thirteen presidents I have never witnessed anything as bad as the hate and resentment against Trump. The country is clearly divided and has been for twenty years. There is no more partisanship where the parties debate and vote for what is right. In today’s world they don’t debate but rather denigrate each other, and vote along party lines. It has become a “them versus us” system whichever party has the most representatives in office are the winners. Thank God the framers were genius in setting up the system with checks and balances. We all cringe when nothing gets done because of the constant blocking of legislation by one party or another, but the system is working as designed.

I was not a fan of President Obama. In my eyes he was a communist whose goal was to destroy America. When he asked for stimulus packages of a trillion dollars I was his biggest critic and voiced my opinion on this blog daily with sarcastic essays and cartoons to make my point. It didn’t matter. Today, when I see them arguing over how to spend two trillion dollars to save the economy I cringe again. How in the hell will we pay that bill? We don’t need Bernie Sanders to steal the Treasury to attempt to pay for his communist policies we are stealing his thunder by doing it in the name of “saving the economy.”

I don’t know how I would handle things if I were in Trump’s shoes, but I believe in the man and his performance so far. Therefore, I will play the game and be a good soldier to save my fellow citizens.

Filed under: Biography, Conservative, family, Fish, Garden, Government, politics, Pond | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

190626-Political Rant

Posted on 26/06/2019 by Grumpa Joe

 

I have to get this off my chest. For what ever reason I watched a round table discussion with Democrat Presidential Candidate Julian Castro.

Mr. Castro got my ire up but good. I truly believe he is the son or bastard of one Fidel Castro, and is determined to make this country as communist as Cuba. Julian was hired by Obama to serve as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Somehow I don’t remember him for anything outstanding. Now that I’ve listened to his political campaign bullshit I know why. This guy isn’t capable of finding his way out of a paper bag open at the end. He answered each question with an annoying “thank you for your question,” and then proceeded to demean President Trump without ever addressing the question. His biggest mistake was in describing conditions at the border and the handling of children as unacceptable. Well, Julian, President Trump is following the policy laid out by your former boss, and upheld by all your progressive judges..

Any one who is interested in voting for this man as our next leader should do the following: put a gun to your head and pull the trigger. The result will be much better than that of having this clown as our leader.

Filed under: Conservative, Election, politics, Sarcasm | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Lest We Forget

Posted on 04/06/2019 by Grumpa Joe

All I hear these days is how we must impeach President Trump for the very act of defending himself against attempts to bring him down. They call it obstruction of justice. I call it defending yourself from the savages. If anybody deserved impeachment it was President Obama. In order to make my case I submit the following list of Obama’s accomplishments. I remind you that these accomplishments are the basis of many Left Wing Americans citing “that’s not who we are” as a nation when arguing about President Trump’s actions.  If we want to be known as a lying, cheating, Constitutional trashing Nation, then we hold Obama’s accomplishments dear.

Here’s a list of President Obama’s accomplishments:

1. First President to be photographed smoking a joint

2. First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner. (Impeachable)

3. First President to have a social security number from a state he hasnever lived in. (Impeachable)

4. First President to preside over a cut to the credit-rating of the United States.

5. First President to violate the War Powers Act. (Impeachable)

6. First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

7. First President to require all Americans to purchase a product (health insurance) from a third party. (impeachable)

 8. First President to spend nearly a trillion dollars on “shovel-ready”jobs (and then he literally joked “well I guess they weren’t so shovel-ready” about it (18 months later)

9. First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of companies to his union supporters. (Impeachable)

10. First President to bypass Congress and implement the Dream Act through executive fiat. (Impeachable)

11. First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the deportation of illegal immigrants across the U.S., including those

with criminal convictions.

12. First President to demand a company hand-over $20 billion to one of his political appointees.

13. First President to tell a CEO of a major corporation (Rick Wagoner of GM) to resign.

14. First President to terminate America’s ability to put a man in space.

15. First President to cancel the National Day of Prayer and to say that America is no longer a Christian nation.

16. First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.

17. First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law (Defense of Marriage Act) unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it. (Impeachable)

18. First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly spoke out on the reasons for their rate increases.

19. First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state t is allowed to locate a factory.

20. First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath to protect (AZ, WI, OH, IN).

21. First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had beenproperly issued years ago.

22. First President to actively try to bankrupt an American industry (coal).

23. First President to fire an inspector general of Ameri-Corps for catching one of his friends in a corruption case. (Impeachable)

24. First President to appoint 45 czars to replace elected officials in his office.

25. First President to surround himself with radical left-wing anarchists.

26. First President to hide his birth, medical, educational and travel records.

27. First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing nothing to earnit (he was President for only 7.5 months).

28. First President to go on multiple “global apology tours” and concurrent “insult our friends” tours

29. First President to have twenty personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.

30. First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000 a year at taxpayer expense.

31. First President to fly in a personal trainer from Chicago weekly at taxpayer expense.

32. First President to repeat the Quran and tell us the early morning call of the Azan (Islamic call to worship) is the most beautiful sound on earth.

33. First President to side with a foreign nation over one of the American50 states (Mexico vs Arizona). (Impeachable)

34. First President to tell the military men and women that they should pay for their own private insurance because they “volunteered to go to war and knew the consequences.”

35. Then he was the First President to tell the members of the military that they were unpatriotic for balking at the last suggestion.

36. First President to sell guns to Mexican drug cartels in the hopes of abolishing our Second Amendment gun ownership rights. (Impeachable)

37. First President to abandon a US Ambassador to fight off a terrorist attack by himself. (Impeachable)

38. First President to approve the sale of US Uranium reserves to our Russian enemy. (Impeachable)

39. First President to knowingly abet a coup against a sitting US President because his party’s candidate lost the election. (Treason)

40. First President to pardon a traitorous US military man who defected to the enemy.

 

Filed under: Conservative, Government, politics | Tagged: , , | Leave a comment »

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