From a sidebar…

Posted on by November 14, 2025

Conversation we’ve been having in a little discussion group about Socialists/Communists…

Anyone who has studied Russian or Chinese history knows this…

And Seattle went the same way NYC did… They now have a socialist mayor, Katie Wilson, who has NO experience. Her speech is HERE, and if you go six minutes in, she starts talking about her ‘agenda’. And it’s truly scary…

Redistribution of ‘wealth’, food for all, housing for all, progressive tax options, new taxes on businesses making over $7M a year, etc. But some of the specifics echo what Mandami has said, like control of grocery stores (90 days notice to close one and ‘preventing’ closure of ones that are poor performers), among other things.

I’m just glad I’m not living out there…

I want to share what EL said in our chat about the differences between capitalism and socialism…

What these effete, moronic savants fail to understand is that wealth is a collective figment of human imagination driven by our innate avarice.  Scarcity does not make something valuable; desire, however, makes something scarce expensive.  Our collective desire makes something easily produced common and relatively inexpensive while also making the producers wealthy.  People say they will kill for a morning cup of coffee, but it’s only $3.95 at Starbucks (medium roast Pike Place).  The Starbucks market capitalization is $98.23 billion.

What is ironic is that the atheistic Marxist has a Biblical view of wealth: they believe the total amount of wealth in the world is fixed, and that the evil wealthy stole it. But the fixed wealth proposition is an easily exposed lie: at its peak around 150 AD, the approximately 70 million people in the Roman Empire were worth about $43.4 billion dollars  (2008 analysis by economists Walter Scheidel and Steven J. Friese).  Yet according to the renown scholar, Google, the 450.4 million people in the European Union, roughly the same land as the Roman Empire, are worth $80 trillion.  And the Romans didn’t have coffee.

Because wealth is a figment of the imagination, it cannot be redistributed; but it can be destroyed by crushing dreams and aspirations.  What can be distributed, however, is knowledge: the knowledge of how to recognize opportunities, of how to develop and manufacture products; and of building businesses to market and distribute products.   But the Marxist decree capitalism to be inhumane and reject learning and teaching its principles, means, and methods.  Then, in their utopian dreams and worldly ignorance, they propose seizing the means of production and placing it under state control.  Bureaucrats, however, get paid whether something is produced and put on the shelf or not, and the dream-denied populace, reduced to state controlled serfdom with worthless ration cards, starve in dark, cold, dingy state provided cells called apartments.

Capitalism exploits human desires, dreams, inventiveness, and energy to create a robust economy.  It’s potential excesses are tempered by another human, innate trait: altruism. 
Marxism, with what amounts to the economic paradigm of ant or bee colonies, rejects and crushes human instinct, with predictable and inevitable results.  Forcing an oversize square peg into a round hole leaves neither a square peg nor a round hole; both are irreparably damaged.

This in a nutshell is pretty much the genesis of the quote, you can vote yourself into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out of it.

What happens next in both places is yet to be seen…

The untold cost…

Posted on by November 13, 2025

Of a major city failing…

An iconic mall foreclosed for a fraction of the billion-dollar valuation it once commanded as Covid shutdowns and out-of-control crime left the seven-story behemoth a shell of its former self. 

Valued at $1.2 billion nearly a decade ago, the San Francisco Centre Mall, previously known as the Westfield Emporium, was sold at an auction on Wednesday to lenders Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase. 

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the mall served as a shopping hub in San Francisco, with residents and tourists flocking to its vibrant energy and big-name brands.

An appraisal at the end of 2022 valued the property at only $290 million, a 76 percent drop from its height before the pandemic.

Full article, HERE from the Daily Mail. h/t Stretch

I can remember when it first opened in the late 80s, and people flocked to the Nordstrom and Bloomingdales stores. We went down there just to wander around, not that we could afford anything they had…sigh…

This really hasn’t been covered by the US media, probably for a lot of reasons. NYC, DC, Seattle, and Portland are following similar trends, mostly with office buildings going for cheap prices as companies downsize, or move elsewhere.

The other thing that happens is the loss of tax revenue, which is critical to these cities maintaining services. As those services go away, the downward spiral just escalates. And what happens with those ‘service’ workers??? Where do they go, how do they afford to live?

I know in the DC area, most people in the service side of things couldn’t/didn’t live anywhere close to their work, because they could not afford it, unless they went into the really bad areas or racked and stacked way too many people in a house or apartment.

And don’t get me started on parking (lack of), or the cost of parking (through the roof)!

Friends in Philly don’t even own a car. They have no place to park one where they live in the Italian section, They either walk to shopping, or take the bus or transit if they need to get somewhere else in Philly. When they go on vacation, they rent a car for the vacation! They also told me about a friend who paid over $100,000 for a parking space in NYC! For a @#$%@! parking space!!!

I know SFO, Seattle, DC, LA, and Philly all suck for parking. BTDT… sigh

What happens next? Do they become the next Detroit? Or Cleveland? Or do they clean up their mess and reverse the losses? I don’t have any idea.

Your thoughts?

Stuff…

Posted on by November 12, 2025

Welp, it appears the House Dems caved too… Ironically, it appears 8 of them voted for the Pubs house bill. So the President signed it last night in the Oval, putting the government back to work, at least until January.

And he placed the blame squarely on the Dems for the shutdown, and they accomplished basically nothing, as far as I can see. Other than cutting off pay for a bunch of folks, and SNAP benefits. The President estimated the cost of the shutdown at over $1 TRILLION dollars… sigh

No, flights won’t be back to ‘normal’ anytime soon. The FAA has to get controllers back in towers and enroute agencies, and then the airlines have to rejigger schedules to get planes and crews where they need to be. I will be surprised if this occurs before Thanksgiving. OBTW, it appears the airlines lost appx $100M a day during the shutdown.

And as usual, Michael Ramirez hits it out of the park with his latest editorial cartoon!

He’s definitely NOT wrong!!!

I do have a question though. Why is Bernie Sanders considered a ‘leader’ of the Dems if he is an Independent? That makes NO sense.

Coming soon…

Posted on by November 12, 2025

To a state near you???

Mismanagement, corruption, and just plain stupidity have brought the nation of Iran to the doorstep of utter catastrophe. This, according to an extensive report by the Middle East Forum on Iran’s “terminal” water crisis.

“Thirst of a Nation: Iran’s Water-Driven Trajectory Toward State Failure and a Blueprint for Recovery” details more than 40 years of mismanagement and corruption by Iran’s clerical elites that have led to Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian calling for relocating the nation’s capital city, Tehran, due to the municipality approaching “Day Zero” water conditions. 

“The foundational condition is one of ‘water bankruptcy’—a permanent, structural deficit where national water demand far outstrips renewable supply,” write the authors of the report, Guy Goldstein and Rebecca Bar-Sef. 

Full article, HERE from PJ Media. Text of the report, HERE.

Even worse, the lack of water is impacting the hydro electric production, causing brownouts and blackouts nationwide. And this also impacts pumping stations that are supposed to move the water.

Israel, on the other hand, achieves water security through desalination and recycling, and a LOT less corruption. The Saudis are also working a water security plan similar to Israel’s with a goal of water security by 2030.

We’re starting, or I should say ‘continuing’ to hear about shortages of water here in the US too…

A subdivision in Arizona that is basically abandoned because they can’t get water. Wells in the Central Valley of California that cost $50,000 and up with no guarantee they will find water at any depth.

The battles over the Colorado River water. Either Arizona or New Mexico is supposedly ‘buying’ salt water from Mexico and pumping it into their state. And the aquifers are down, and not refilling quickly due to farm/city/subdivision use exceeding the aquifer’s capabilities.

And then there is Lake Mead… It is declining again after a temporary increase in 2023. Projections indicate that the lake is likely to reach its lowest recorded levels by 2027 due to ongoing drought and water usage.

Mono Lake is another California debacle, it is 350 miles from LA, but they take ALL of the feeders that feed the lake for LA.

It is ‘supposed’ to be maintained at 6392 feet, but as of 1 Nov it was at 6382.2 feet. The cutoff for LA is at 6380 feet, so it is estimated they will get there by April 2026 if not before, forcing LA to stop sucking off the feeders. So LA will probably have a ‘water shortage’ next year…

If you’re planning on moving to the Southwest or West, you need to take a hard look at the water availability where you’re looking at moving…just sayin…

On the eleventh hour…

Posted on by November 10, 2025

Of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the guns fell silent… And we remember.


Recording from the Imperial War Museum.

Words that bring a chill to anyone who studies history… 9,000,000 overall war dead, 21,000,000 wounded, 117,000 Americans dead and 5,700,000 civilians estimated dead…

At 5 a.m. that morning, November 11th, 1918, Germany, out of manpower and supplies and faced with imminent invasion, signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside Compiégne, France. The decision was made to hold the notification of the signing until 1100 to provide the symmetry that we know today.

A little history…

It all started on June 28, 1914, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, was shot to death with his wife by Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

It led to trench warfare, biowarfare, with the gassing of troops on both sides, and battles across Europe and the Mediterranean, including the infamous Battle of Gallipoli, searing that name for every in the history of Australia and New Zealand, HERE.

Germany, France, Britain, and other countries lost pretty much an entire generation of young men, and scars from WWI still mar the landscape in Europe. Supposedly the war to end all wars, sadly became merely a prelude to WWII, around 20 years later.

My dad, born in 1896, served in WWI as a rifle instructor at Camp Beauregard in Louisiana, because he was an expert with rifle prior to joining the Army. He also suffered from Influenza during the time, and that may have contributed to his early death in 1959.

The first unknowns were selected from among the British, French, and American war dead.

Following the custom inaugurated by other allied countries in World War I the Congress on March 4, 1921, approved a Resolution providing for the burial in Arlington National Cemetery Memorial Amphitheater on Armistice Day 1921 of an unknown and unidentified American soldier of World War I. The Secretary of War delegated to the Quartermaster Corps the duty of selecting the Unknown Soldier and accordingly the Quartermaster General directed the Chief, American Graves Registration Service in Europe to select from among the burials of America’s Unknown Dead the bodies of four who fell in the combat area in order that one from among them could be anonymously designated as the one for burial in accordance with the provisions of the Resolution. Four bodies of Unknown Soldiers were selected, one from each of the following cemeteries Aisne-Marne, Meuse-Argonne, Somme and St. Mihiel–and brought to Chalons where they were placed in the Hotel de Ville. The fact that the bodies selected were those of Americans was determined by the location of place of death, original burial and uniforms. The utmost care was taken to see that there was no evidence of identification on the bodies selected and no indication that their identity could ever be established.

After the four bodies were arranged in the Hotel de Ville, the next step was the matter of selecting the one from among them to represent all the Unknown American Dead. This ceremony though simple was most impressive. In view of his outstanding service,  Sergeant Edward Younger, on duty with the American Forces in Germany, was given the honor of making the final selection. On Monday morning, October 24, 1921, at 10 :00 A.M. in the presence of The Quartermaster General, the Commanding General of the American Forces in Germany, the Mayor of Chalons-sur-Marne, high officers of the French Army, distinguished French citizens and eminent American and French civilians the selection was made. While a French military band played an appropriate air, Sergeant Younger slowly entered the room where the four caskets were placed. Passing between two lines formed by the officials he silently advanced to the caskets, circled them three times and placed a spray of white roses on the third casket from the left. He then faced the body, stood at attention, and saluted. He was immediately followed by officers of the French Army who saluted in the name of the French people.

The rest of that story is HERE.

TODAY is the day to thank those veterans, and say a prayer for those currently serving in the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard. To my fellow veterans, I would propose the toast, “Absent Comrades.”

And to the families- No one says thank you for your sacrifice. So let me say thank you to all of the significant others that hold the fort down while we go on long deployments. Thank you for putting up with all the moves. Thanks to all of the dependents who step up and do the extra chores around the house. When the veteran is deployed the budget has to be stretched. The significant other becomes the banker. Thanks to all of the families that hope for only good news. Thank you families for your service.

And to my shipmates in the P-3 all those years, and those onstation today, and my brothers and sisters from the other services… We did our jobs! And too many of us didn’t come home. But today is for us, those who survived. We remember those who did not survive.

Sadly, we still are losing 20+ veterans a day to suicide. Reach out! You might be the one person that saves a shipmate.

A little humor…

Posted on by November 9, 2025

To start your week! This one is a few years old, but…

A Texan’s answer to welfare…

Put me in charge . . .

Put me in charge of food stamps. I’d get rid of Lone Star cards; no cash for
Ding Dongs or Ho Ho’s, just money for 50-pound bags of rice and beans,
blocks of cheese and all the powdered milk you can haul away. If you want
steak and frozen pizza, then get a job.

Put me in charge of Medicaid. The first thing I’d do is to get women
Norplant birth control implants or tubal ligations. Then, we’ll test
recipients for drugs, alcohol, and nicotine and document all tattoos and
piercings. If you want to reproduce or use drugs, alcohol, smoke or get
tats and piercings, then get a job.

Put me in charge of government housing. Ever live in a military barracks?
You will maintain our property in a clean and good state of repair. Your
“home” will be subject to inspections anytime and possessions will be
inventoried. If you want a plasma TV or Xbox 360, then get a job and your
own place.

In addition, you will either present a check stub from a job each week or
you will report to a “government” job. It may be cleaning the roadways of
trash, painting and repairing public housing, whatever we find for you. We
will sell your 22 inch rims and low profile tires and your blasting stereo
and speakers and put that money toward the common good.

Before you write that I’ve violated someone’s rights, realize that all of
the above is voluntary. If you want our money, accept our rules.. Before
you say that this would be “demeaning” and ruin their “self-esteem,”
consider that it wasn’t that long ago that taking someone else’s money for
doing absolutely nothing was demeaning and lowered self-esteem.

If we are expected to pay for other people’s mistakes we should at least
attempt to make them learn from their bad choices. The current system
rewards them for continuing to make bad choices.

AND While you are on government subsistence, you no longer can VOTE! Yes, that is correct. For you to vote would be a conflict of interest. You will voluntarily remove yourself from voting while you are receiving a government welfare check. If you want to vote, then get a job.

I’m getting old…

Posted on by November 8, 2025

Out too late with old friends from out of town.

So no post for you. Go read the folks on the sidebar, I’ll be back to posting tomorrow.

Book promo…

Posted on by November 7, 2025

It’s ladies day!!!

First up is Cedar Sanderson with another in her Groundskeeper series, Have a Dead Night

As always, click the cover for the Amazon link!

The blurb-

As the cold rain falls on Belleview cemetery, Apprentice mediator Chloe Brandt is shifting from raking fallen leaves to solving mysteries for the living and the dead. If it’s not one thing, it’s another as a fallen tree, a new case, and an unexpected result all collide with a summons from a colleague. Now Chloe and her boss Mr. Cruor are headed for the deep hollers of Appalachia, to attempt the unraveling of a fifty-year-old tragedy, and they are walking right into an ambush. One wrong step, and the dead stay restless forever.

Next up is Pam Uphoff with a new series Machine World, and the first book in it, Dumas

The blurb-

Dumas house Zeller. A Servants bastard who was caught using Mentalist Powers and chipped. Still brilliant, but without Power, with speech issues, sold . . . But he’s got a Grand Plan . . .

A small part of the Baranov Family has been kicked out of Baranov House after their son is accused of improprieties with the Family Head’s daughter. Retreating to their old hunting lodge on a low population World, with their old servants and a couple of new ones, they’re going to find themselves right on the spot when the Machines arrive.

Last but certainly not least, Alma TC Boykin with another in the Familiar Generation Series, Land Magic and Shadows

The blurb-

How far will a seeker go to find an answer?

Thomas A. “Art” Chan struggles to balance his duties as university faculty with those of husband and Hunter. Toss in a tenure committee with members who insist on putting new obstacles in his way, and Art begins to contemplate a job in retail, almost.

Meanwhile, a professor searches for items in a place best left undisturbed. A place where darkness looks back. Darkness with an interest in careless magic workers.

Which is more dangerous: academics with grudges, or an irritated earth power? Or a third force, one that combines the worst of Art’s worlds?

I can highly recommend all three!!!

I’ve been off all week…

Posted on by November 6, 2025

I was going to post this yesterday for TBT, and forgot… And I don’t feel like doing politics today.

Back in the day, the P-3A/B aircraft had a radio operator. Yes, he operated the HF and secure radios and TTY (teletype) and morse code. And he was also a forward observer, depending on what we were doing.

The problem was, due to ‘limited’ space, the radio operator didn’t get a nice hardened TTY. According to what I was told, the unit was ‘originally’ meant to be used by secretaries/shore operators in the comm center. Soooo, they gave a ‘fragile’ TTY to a bunch of ham fisted guys bouncing around in an airplane…

Amazingly, a lot of the folks made them work anyway!

And this pic has been floating around for years…

These were the six operational squadrons flying out of NAS JAX in the 70s-80s under Commander, Patrol Wing Eleven. This was when we had 24 active squadrons between the four bases, plus the 13 reserve squadrons during the Cold War. The picture was taken in 1985, one of the few times we had birds from every squadron in town. Usually, at least one of the squadrons was deployed.

And yes, if you were there, the other squadron was VP-30, but it was a training (RAG) squadron, not operational, plus VP-62, the reserve squadron.

And we deployed all over the world with them.

Well…

Posted on by November 5, 2025

I don’t think any of us were really surprised at what happened with the various state and city elections yesterday…

New York city got what they deserve. A Soros funded democrat/communist for mayor. And he’s also a jihadist, just to add a little spice in addition to never actually holding a job

. NYC will go even further in the toilet than it already is. And some of the ‘smart’ folks have already bailed to Florida, Texas, and other southern states. Of interest, the FDNY Chief resigned last night when the election was final (he’s Jewish, so he knew he was going to be gone). Money people are already moving to Dallas, so now it’s a question how long the NY Stock Exchange will last.

New Jersey and Virginia the dems voted for dems. No surprise there either… But, I was kinda stunned to hear that the VA NAACP actually promoted a white woman (DEI) over a black woman, immigrant, and veteran for state office. And they elected an AG who wanted to kill is opponent’s children! Yeah, he’s just the guy you want as the head law enforcement officer…

And Commiefornia passed Prop 50, which guarantees there will be no more Republican representation from that state… They are planning to redraw the map to make sure the Pubs can’t muster enough votes in any district, especially with ranked choice voting.

And now the Dem senators are apparently planning on continuing the .gov shutdown, even as airports start restricting flights to prevent accidents. And wonder who is going to pay folks to work, pay the military, and SNAP since they money doesn’t exist to extend the benefits again.

Now we get to watch and see what happens…