No kidding…

And no real surprise over here…

The first six months of the Trump administration have not been kind to the experts and the degree-holding classes.

Almost daily during the tariff hysterias of March, we were told by university economists and most of the PhDs employed in investment and finance that the U.S. was headed toward a downward, if not recessionary, spiral.

Most economists lectured that trade deficits did not really matter. Or they insisted that the cures to reduce them were worse than the $1.1 trillion deficit itself.

They reminded us that free, rather than fair, trade alone ensured prosperity.

So, the result of Trump’s foolhardy tariff talk would be an impending recession. America would soon suffer rising joblessness, inflation–or rather a return to stagflation–and likely little, if any, increase in tariff revenue as trade volume declined.

Instead, recent data show increases in tariff revenue. Personal real income and savings were up. Job creation exceeded prognoses. There was no surge in inflation. The supposedly “crashed” stock market reached historic highs.

Full article, HERE from PJ Media.

This falls right in line with the loss of trust in the main stream media, and most of the politicians.

Personally, I think a LOT of this relates directly back to the whole WuFlu debacle. From the ‘experts’ who had no real idea of what to do, to those who suppressed data, to the power hungry who closed schools, businesses, etc. on the ‘whims’ of the elites, ad infinitum.

For many of us ‘peons’ it seemed that common sense solutions were immediately tossed to the winds, and we saw many instances of ‘not invented here’ syndrome. All of this caused many of us to do the cocked head look and go away mumbling to ourselves.

And I don’t think it’s getting any better…

Your thoughts?

Happy Independence Day!!!

Happy 249th birthday America!!!

Well, the big bill passed…

Congress has officially passed President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” on Thursday afternoon after back-to-back sleepless sessions for both the House and Senate.

The massive agenda bill now goes to Trump’s desk to be signed into law just in time for Republicans’ self-imposed Fourth of July deadline.

The bill – which advances Trump’s policies on tax, the border, defense, energy and the national debt – narrowly passed the House of Representatives in a mostly party-line vote. All but two Republicans, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., voted for the bill, which passed 218 – 214.

Full article, HERE from Fox News.

But we still got screwed…

What we ‘didn’t’ get that was promised, was SBR/Bs and suppressors were NOT removed from the NFA. Granted, the ‘tax’ has been reduced from $200 to 0, but we still have to jump through the ‘mother may I’ hoops… And the promise of no tax on Social Security got chopped too… Supposedly, we’ll get a ‘tax break’ of up to $6000 for 3 years… Whoop de do…

Now it’s time for all those 2A groups and NRA to step up and get what we were promised if they want our support in 2026!

And all of us old farts should be writing letters, calling, and calling out our congresscritters at those townhalls!

Both of these ‘should’ have been easy… Sigh…

Ummm…errrr…

Say whut???

On June 11, 1942, disease, and perhaps an increasing desire not to use one’s own hand to wipe one’s nether regions, drove Lt. Cmdr. James Coe of the submarine Skipjack to send an “urgent” message to the powers that be.

Since July 1, 1941, a requisition had been submitted for 150 rolls of toilet paper to replenish the dwindling supply aboard the Skipjack. However, as the boat patrolled the Pacific, no sign of the all-important bathroom item appeared — even as other war materiel came in.

In March 1942, according to the National WWII Museum, Coe took command of the Skipjack and learned of the dire, and no doubt malodorous, situation. To make matters worse, Coe received a canceled invoice for the TP alongside a stamped July 1941 message stating “cancelled-cannot identify.”

Full article, HERE from Military Times.

Actually, this doesn’t really surprise me…

The military is REALLY stupid sometimes, as anyone who has served knows. That is why every squadron I was in had at least one ‘good’ scrounger…

A good scrounger could come up with those supposedly unobtainable items. You just didn’t ask ‘where’ they came from, especially if you were an officer…

In talking to WWII vets, it was apparent there was a LOT of ‘trading’ equipment, either voluntarily or otherwise, among squadrons, ships, and submarines. When a unit got ready to deploy, the scroungers got a little list… And as long as the unit got out of town before the SPs came calling, it was all good.

I’m betting the Skipjack’s crew were pretty good scroungers, and knowing Pearl Harbor, I’m betting the clubs and officers quarters ‘mysteriously’ ended up short of toilet paper every month… 🙂

What do you Vets say???

PSA…

Killer bees in the US…

Officials in Alabama say they euthanized a feral swarm of Africanized honeybees, also known as “killer bees,” and precautions are now being made in an attempt to protect communities in the area and the local honeybee population.

The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries (ADIA) said on Monday that the swarm was found in Barbour County by local beekeepers, close to the Alabama-Georgia state line in the Southeast.

The ADIA said that as a precaution, targeted monitoring efforts are now underway to assess and contain the presence of Africanized honeybees. Those precautions include deploying traps within a 5-mile radius of where the killer bees were found to attempt any additional activity.

Full article, HERE from Fox News.

Last month, there was a bee attack west of Lubbock, TX that killed three horses HERE.

One of our Legion members is a bee keeper, and he’s had two encounters with Africanized swarms in the Itchy Paw Falls area, so far this year. He and his partner have killed both hives in an abundance of caution, in addition to reporting them to the state.

Folks, these things WILL chase you and kill you. NOT a joke! If you’re not sure, call a professional to come check the hive out. And yes, they can and will build a hive inside the walls of a house, including brand new houses! All they need is a way in, as long as it is ‘one’ bee wide, you can end up with 20-30000 bees in your wall!

With more people with allergies, it is incumbent on parents to be a little more careful about where your kids are playing, especially as the heat builds, because ‘that’ seems to set these suckers off.

As always, common sense dictates… Stay aware, and stay smart.

Posted in PSA

The weather…

She be weird yesterday…

Coming back from my eye appointment yesterday afternoon in Lawton, I saw a number of small, medium, and large cells moving west to east.  Rather than a contiguous line of cells, they were…broken…with gaps between them (unusual in itself).

Even more so was the rain pattern…

From left to right, you see a large cell, a medium cell, a small cell, and a supercell on the far right. Each one was dumping rain, but notice the gaps between them! And we drove into a fifth cell that rained for maybe a mile. Going further south, I saw two more small cells, probably 10-15 miles apart, merrily raining with the sun shining between them…

Then the whole ‘line’ turned ESE, and a hour later, turned back to the WSW, backing up on us from the East… Strange… To put it mildly.

And as usual, it pretty much split around Tiny Town. We got a few spritz of rain, and a bunch of lighting, including one that hit either a tree or a house just down the street.

By 2000, the whole mess turned again, and was going ENE… And supposed to trail through until 2300. Sigh…

Enough with the weird stuff already!!!

A little humor…

To start the week!!!

One day a man decided to retire…

He booked himself on a Caribbean cruise and proceeded to have the time of his life, that is, until the ship sank. He soon found himself on an island with no other people, no supplies, nothing, only bananas and coconuts. After about four months, he is lying on the beach one day when the most gorgeous woman he has ever seen rows up to the shore. In disbelief, he asks, “Where did you come from? How did you get here?”

She replies, “I rowed over from the other side of the island where I landed when my cruise ship sank.”

“Amazing,” he notes. “You were really lucky to have a row boat wash up with you.”

“Oh, this thing?” explains the woman.”I made the boat out of some raw material I found on the island. The oars were whittled from gum tree branches. I wove the bottom from palm tree branches, and the sides and stern came from a Eucalyptus tree.”

“But, where did you get the tools?”

“Oh, that was no problem,” replied the woman. “On the south side of the island, a very unusual stratum of alluvial rock is exposed. I found that if I fired it to a certain temperature in my kiln, it melted into ductile iron and I used that to make tools and used the tools to make the hardware.”

The guy is stunned.

“Let’s row over to my place,” she says “and I’ll give you a tour.” So, after a short time of rowing, she soon docks the boat at a small wharf.

As the man looks to shore, he nearly falls off the boat. Before him is a long stone walk leading to a cabin and tree house. While the woman ties up the rowboat with an expertly woven hemp rope, the man can only stare ahead, dumb struck.

As they walk into the house, she says casually, “It’s not much, but I call it home.  Please sit down. Would you like a drink?”

“No! No thank you,” the man blurts out, still dazed.
“I can’t take another drop of coconut juice.”

“Oh it’s not coconut juice,” winks the woman. “I have a still. How would you like a Tropical Spritz?”

Trying to hide his continued amazement, the man accepts, and they sit down on her couch to talk.  After they exchange their individual survival stories, the woman announces, “I’m going to slip into something more comfortable. Would you like to take a shower and shave? There’s a razor in the bathroom cabinet upstairs.”

No longer questioning anything, the man goes upstairs into the bathroom. There, in the cabinet is a razor made from a piece of tortoise bone. Two shells honed to a hollow ground edge are fastened on to its end inside a swivel mechanism. “This woman is amazing,” he muses. “What’s next?”

When he returns, she greets him wearing nothing but some small flowers on tiny vines, each strategically positioned, she smelled faintly of gardenias. She then beckons for him to sit down next to her. “Tell me,” she begins suggestively, slithering closer to him, “We’ve both been out here for many months. You must have been lonely. When was the last time you played around?” She stares into his eyes.

He can’t believe what he’s hearing. “You mean…” he swallows excitedly as tears start to form in his eyes, “You’ve built a Golf Course?”

Ohhhh…

That is gonna leave a mark…

The statement from Justice Amy Coney-Barrett on Justice Jackson will live forever as one of the most brutal smackdowns ever written into a Supreme Court decision. Yes, she was writing for the majority on nationwide injunctions!!!

Basically, Jackson wanted the court to be able to override the President…

At least this one was a win for the administration, as they lost to the Senate Parlimentarian who said removing short-barrel rifles, shotguns and suppressors from the National Firearms Act (NFA) would have to be scrubbed.

It’s time for us to start writing our Congresscritters to get this one back in the bill! And it’s time for 2AF, NRA, and all the other gun organizations to put their oars and political folks into action!!!

Grrr…

ROTFLMAO!!!

He’s NOT wrong…

Hey New Yorkers. I heard you’re probably going to get an outright communist as your mayor. Zohran Mamdani sounds like a real peach, and the fact that he won the Democrat Primary and is well on his way to the mayor’s office has made many of you fire up your Zillow account and start looking for homes out of state. 

I don’t blame you, but let me offer you some advice. You’re probably going to be tempted to come to Texas because so many companies have moved here, and you feel like you could easily land a job. I could see why you’d think that, but let me tell you about Texas. 

You really don’t want to move here. Texas is like Hell, only worse, because the living conditions here are so chaotic and difficult that the devil himself thinks it’s a bit much. 

Full article, HERE from RedState

Of course he’s a bit nicer than most of us, because the FIRST thing we’ll tell you is we do not want your attitudes or your ‘beliefs’ here. We believe in freedom of expression, honest conversations, and still do handshake deals for millions of dollars out here.

And just because folks live in a ‘rural’ area, doesn’t mean they are poor or dumb… A lot of the ‘little towns’ in Texas have major money management company offices in them, because people have money, serious money. And smart people… VERY smart people.

And those ‘dirty’ men and women you look down on are the ones that drill, pump, and process that oil you need to survive. And that old man in the overalls, broke down straw hat, and run down boots, sitting at the corner table in the local diner can buy and sell you…

Yep, the weather is ‘interesting’, but it keeps things lively… And you can see it coming! If you grew up surrounded by trees, or big buildings, you won’t like the ‘big sky’ out here!

Other than that, it’s a great place to live!!!

h/t Guy for the link

Oopsie…

Seems I missed my blogiversary… I blame it on my back and drugs… Dammit…

18 years ago I started with this post on May 7, 2007.

I’m new to this whole arena, but thought I’d give it a try. I guess I fall in the “silent majority” as we have been deemed, I’ve never sought publicity, sued anyone for spilling my coffee, sure as hell ain’t a movie star; well, you get the drift…

I’m mid-50’s have a decent job, two decent kids trying hard to make their own way in the world today, and a lot of frustration with what is happening to the US of A. Being from the South, I hunt, fish, and shoot guns; so that immediately makes me one of those “rabid rednecks” to quote some out there. I did have a pickup, but it’s hard to park it where I work, so I drive a Pontiac… sure do miss the truck though… sigh…

As a retired military type, it really hurts to see the crap we are putting the folks in service through today. I lived through that in Vietnam, and I take the time to thank every Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine for their service when I get the chance. Most of the kids (I’m Southern so I can say that) are doing the best they can with what they have. They believe in the job they and others are doing in the Sandbox, and are pretty upset by the media coverage they get.

Anyway, I’m going to try this for a while and see what happens… thanks for reading and commenting…

Old NFO

Right at 7000 posts, 97,800 comments, and something over 11 million views later, I’m STILL amazed y’all stick around for my brain drippings…

THANK YOU EACH AND EVERY ONE!

And yes, I’ve added a substack in the last year also, so I can be found there… oldnfo.substack.com

Love it!!!

Snerk… talk about the left melting down…

Florida is about to make a bold statement in the ongoing national debate over illegal immigration, and it’s not just talk — it’s action. 

The Sunshine State is rolling out a new approach that’s as tough as it is practical: setting up a string of detention centers specifically for illegal immigrants with criminal records. The centerpiece of this initiative is a facility tucked deep in the Everglades, built on the bones of an abandoned airfield, and already earning an unforgettable nickname from state officials: “Alligator Alcatraz.”

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier made it clear that this is no ordinary detention center. “There’s really nowhere to go. If you’re housed there, if you’re detained there, there’s no way in, no way out.” With the Everglades’ notorious swampy terrain, alligators, and invasive pythons, any thought of escape is as dangerous as it is futile. 

Full article, HERE from PJ Media.

That has all kinds of possibilities… and it’s easier than what ‘we’ were talking about…

And it would probably cost less than returning this place to a prison… sigh…

I can also see the lawyers having hissy fits about having to ‘visit’ Alligator Alcatraz. They would have to get on Blackhawks and would mess up their nice suits, much less not being able to travel in air conditioned comfort. 🙂

Of course I’m sure the left will find some judge somewhere to shut it down, or restrict it. Probably out of DC courts, or California…

But it’s still nice to think about them succeeding!