Fox poll: 49% say their neighbor supports Trump

A recent poll from Fox indicates that of all respondents, 49% thought their neighbors were voting for Trump, and 38% thought their neighbors were Biden supporters.  If these poll numbers hold up, Donald Trump could register a landslide re-election on November 3rd. 

I don't put a lot of faith in polls, especially polls sponsored by left-leaning pollsters such as Quinnipiac,  ABC, NBC, CNN, etc.  They all were indicating a Hillary Clinton landslide in 2016 virtually up to election day, and all of these guys are still saying that the Dems will kick butt in a few weeks.  

We shall see.  If the polls stick to their guns and predict a huge Biden win, and then Trump rolls to an electoral college landslide, their credibility will drop to virtually the same as a steaming pile of dog excrement. 

 

"Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation" - why bother?

 I've watched several episodes of "Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation," The main characters of the show, Luis Elizondo, Christopher Mellon, John Podesta and others, have convincing evidence that there are indeed unexplained craft in our skies that can accelerate to body pulping G's in fractions of seconds, perhaps in excess of 30,000 mph, and dive into the ocean without so much as a splash.  Sonar has tracked one of these craft doing in excess of 70 nautical mph underwater - twice the speed of anything current technology allows.  

OK.  I'm convinced.  This does not seem to be the goal of these guys, however, to convince some tin foil hat guy in Illinois such as myself that they really exist.  These UFO's have technology far beyond what has been achieved by the best military scientists in the world.  We have chased them, tracked them, and videotaped them.  What I don't understand is that the staff of this show seemed to be intent on making aware to everyone watching and in positions of power that these craft are a threat to national security.  They move with impunity, and have the technology to completely evade our efforts to intercept them, nor do we have any capability to limit their movements within our defense perimeters. 

What exactly do the guys on this show want their audience to do about any of these things?  We couldn't possibly shoot them down or destroy them, no way.  Yet there they are, year in and year out, with military pilots and intel types having encounters year in and year out with these bogies since the 1950's, or probably even earlier than that.  Luis, Christopher and the boys on this show are still asking the question "what if they are hostile?  We need to be doing something to mount a defense against this threat, why are we doing nothing?"

The answer clearly is "duh."  There is NOTHING we can do about these craft.  And they are clearly NOT hostile, and haven't blown up any aircraft or naval vessels, although the odds are very high that they could wipe out a carrier strike group with the push of a button by an alien finger. Or tentacle, or whatever kind of creature that pilot these craft engage their technology with.  Maybe even just thought waves.  Nobody knows, and if you ask this tin foil hat guy, nobody really needs to care.

If they wanted to wipe us out, they have the technology to wipe us out.  Why bother giving any more thought to it?  These UFO's have proven so far that they are benign actors, they go out of their way to avoid contact with our military, and mounting a trillion dollar effort to develop weapons that can be brought to bear on these things will certainly amount to not much more than a BB striking the hull of a battleship.

Simply go out and buy a roll of Reynolds Wrap tin foil, fabricate a hat, put it on and you are good to go.  No need to spend any more time pondering any of this.  

You Democrats voted for this, now live with it

We have now passed the 6 month mark of the introduction of the COVID-19 virus into the U.S., and are approaching 200,000 deaths as a result.  Mind you, these numbers are suspect as quite a few observations have documented that many deaths that have been attributed to the virus are in fact due to other factors.  One recent observation was a young man who was diagnosed as having COVID-19, was asymptomatic and subsequently got into a motorcycle accident and died: the official cause of death? COVID-19.  Yes, these numbers are as reliable as the sworn oath of a sumo wrestler to lay off of the all-you-can-eat buffet at Golden Corral.

Our response to 'flatten the curve', in order to keep the plague from overwhelming our hospitals was to shut down the economy.  That worked, as far as any reasonable observation can attest.  OK.  The curve was flattened.  Success. Now, politics rears its ugly head, and we now see a red state versus blue state continuation of government intervention of the Wuhan virus.

Red state politicians see the devastation to our once record setting economy that the shutdown has caused, and are easing restrictions, with cautions put forward.  Blue state policies?  Continue with crushing shutdowns of businesses that are simply wiping out once thriving businesses in their own communities.  Red states are opening up, blue states are closing down.  It is clear to see that the blue state governors and mayors of Democrat controlled cities see political advantage to keeping people from making a living: apparently, they seem to think that these poor downtrodden constituents will blame their woes on Republicans and particularly Donald Trump in the up coming elections.

News flash for all of you Democrat voters out there who voted in these tyrants who are now telling you that you can't make a living: it's YOUR fault that you are broke if you live in a blue state, county or Democrat controlled large city.  The plurality of you and your liberal neighbors who put these power hungry ogres into office deserve the government you elect.

You elected these guys who are now killing your businesses, not your Republican neighbors who were in the minority.  Now live with it.

I suspect that come November, there will be a backlash against the political interests of Democrat governors such as Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), Andrew Cuomo (D-NY), J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) and Gavin Newsome (D-CA).  Their once cobalt-blue unassailable majorities may see some cracks.  

Universal mail-in ballots a guaranteed dumpster fire

 With any luck, President Trump will prevail in discouraging this dumb idea of a universal mail-in voting scam.  The Democrats are licking their chops at the prospect of this, however, as the opportunity for fraud, malfeasance and skulduggery are enormous.

Almost no state has a thoroughly scrubbed and up-to-date voter registration roll, and to simply mail everybody on this list a ballot is a lead pipe cinch to have ballots wind up in the wrong hands.  There are dead people, cats, dogs and goldfish that are on these lists.  And you can bet your bottom dollar, you can bet the farm, you can bet your life savings that these ballots will be harvested by Democrats.

Once harvested and in the hands of Democrat hucksters, they are opened and screened for exactly how the voter/corpse/cat/dog/goldfish voted: if they voted Republican, they go right into the trash.  If, however, these ballots have the right boxes checked, namely votes for Democrats, then they are submitted.  If a ballot is undeliverable, that would also be a Democrat vote.  See how all of this works?

Once these universal mailings of ballots go out, and come back to be counted, you can be fairly certain that every dead person/dog/cat that got a ballot is voting for a Democrat.  As the old joke goes, grampa was always a staunch conservative, and voted for Republicans all of his long life.  At age 92, grampa was called home to Jesus, and he has been voting Democrat ever since.

Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are going to push this mail-in ballot scheme as hard as they possibly can: millions and millions of Democrat votes hang in the balance.  And zero Republican votes.

A complete dumpster fire, if you ask me.

"The Assistant" - a critical review

I just finished watching Hulu's proprietary film "The Assistant," featuring Julia Garner as Jane, an aspiring film producer early in her career following her graduation from Northwestern University and a few paying interships within the industry.

The film follows Jane (no last name), a lower level assistant to a powerful entertainment figure who is never shown or identified other than "he", "him" and "his" throughout a stressful day in their Manhattan office building.  As a low level assistant, Jane's job consisted of answering phones, taking messages, making coffee, fetching lunch, cleaning up the crumbs on people's desks after lunch, and other menial jobs associated with being on the bottom of the corporate ladder.

The writer and director of this film, Kitty Green, obviously based this entire plot upon the malfeasance that Harvey Weinstein oozed while sliming his way through the entertainment industry via his company Miramax.   

Jane's day was jam packed full of degrading moments: all the elevator scenes (of which there were many) always had the important stiffs get on and off the elevator first, of which most were men.  Courtesy of course suggests that women are allowed this, but not in Kitty Green's world.  Nope, the pig beastly men just treat poor Jane like a baby treats a diaper.  When a gorgeous model shows up for an audition, Jane is asked to show them into the audition, and the good looker jams her coat into Jane's arms, much like Meryl Streeps ' character Miranda does to her underling in"The Devil Wears Prada," and Jane is expected to wash the dishes and coffee cups of her superiors while they jibber jabber about all things movie-related as they pretend she is not there.

Essentially focusing on the endless little indignities that Jane suffers throughout this never ending day, the big shot executive has the gall to hire a cute little waitress from Boise Idaho, without a lick of movie industry experience or a high falutin' Ivy league college degree, to help Jane work the phones.  During the course of her initial hiring, this former waitress from Boise is put up in a luxury hotel, and later on Jane learns that her pig of a boss also books himself into this hotel later on that evening.  The office chatter confirms that this happens all the time, no big deal.

Jane's tolerance for these never ending insults is just too much for her, and she approaches the human resources guy with her concerns about the situation.  To her frustration, the HR guy sums up her complaint as 'bullshit,' crumbles up the notes he took and tells her on her way out, "don't worry, you're not his type."  And then he promptly calls her boss and tells him about their conversation.

Her day ends up in silent despair, as she walks back to  her apartment in the closing scene.  What?  The boss doesn't get his come-uppence?  No satisfaction for the way Jane is treated throughout the day?  The movie ends leaving the viewer thinking "what, that's it?" 

Kitty Green suggests without putting it out there that such is the life of virtually all young women in the workplace: they are abused, mistreated and maligned by male jerk bosses, and nothing is ever done about it.  And Kitty Green would be right: although only in a sliver of our society: the entertainment industry, which she works as a writer/director.  Everybody in the country knows that this industry is the filthiest, slimiest, dirtiest most corrupt businesses in the United States.  The casting couch as been around for at least a hundred years or more.  And the downfall of Harvey Weinstein has not caused all of those casting couches to disappear.  Hardly.  More of them spring up every day.  

Kitty Green sees, like we all see, the human condition.  People are not perfect, and some are downright evil.  And pretty people, or talented people who have been doted on by everybody from their kindergarten teacher all the way through their high school football coaches or beauty pageant officials, think of themselves as above everyone else, and often treat everybody like crap.  It is the human condition.  

But more so in Hollywood than anywhere else.  It has been said that the measure of a person's character can be seen by how they treat somebody who cannot possibly improve their position or help them, such as waiters, bellhops, cashiers and others in the service industry.  

Kitty Green's "The Assistant" is not an expose on life in the corporate world.  Far from it.  Watching this movie just reaffirms that people are flawed, and that life is not fair.  Or, in the words of President John F. Kennedy: "loif, loif's not fay-uh."

And to that I would say, 'duh.'

 

What makes a 'bad cook?' Let me count the ways....

Some of the worst cooks I know think they are 'good cooks,'  my Aunt Sally leading that list.  She thinks some of her fare should be in the "Joy of Cooking" or a Betty Crocker cookbook.  She really does.

Sad to say, Aunt Sally does everything wrong in the kitchen.  Absolutely everything, to include:

1.  The worst transgression a cook can make is to serve food that is supposed to be hot cold.  A juicy steak is no good cold.  Nor are french fries, pizza or any number of other hot dishes.  Aunt Sally figures that just cooking it is good enough, put it aside and wait for the other stuff on the stove to get done, then serve it all up the same time.  No.  Don't do that.  Timing is a crucial part of good cooking.  Pay attention to the cooking time on the dishes you plan to serve, and time them to come off the stove or out of the oven simultaneously.  To do otherwise makes you a bad cook.

2.  Substitutions of ingredients on a proven recipe, never a good idea.  Cooking is nothing more or less than chemistry; all the ingredients interact together chemically to produce the desired effect.  To change anything, and I mean ANYTHING to include ingredients or quantity of ingredients in a proven recipe is to ruin it.  Margarine is NOT a substitute for butter.  It may look the same, but chemically it is nowhere near butter.  Splenda, or other sugar free products are NOT a substitute for real sugar, and skim or soy milk is nothing like whole milk.  Not the same stuff at all, and these different ingredients act completely different when heated.  They are NOT interchangeable.  But you can't tell Aunt Sally that.  

3.  Fresh ingredients are critically important to good cooking: it really matters when you use fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and breads.  Frozen green beans are NOT a reasonable substitute for fresh green beans.  And canned green beans should be outlawed in any recipe, they are complete junk.  Frozen leftovers should never be used in a proven recipe, but don't tell Aunt Sally that, her world will be turned upside down.  She actually thinks that previously cooked (well done) and then frozen sirloin steaks are a good idea to serve to guests when re-heated in the microwave oven.  No, no that is certainly not a good idea.  I know this to be true from personal experience.

4.   Cookware and stove tops can make or break the difference between good and bad cooks.  Having some good quality non-stick pots and pans in inventory is a good start.  Aunt Sally has no such equipment; all her cookware was purchased at some point during the Reagan administration.  Some of it was at one point Teflon non-stick, but all of that has since been scrubbed off: well, almost all of it.  There are still a few flakes of the stuff in every mouthful of her fare.  To make matters worse, she has an electric stove top.  Controlling the temperature of these electric elements is virtually impossible, and to suggest she pop for a gas stove top is akin to waving a crucifix at Dracula, or telling a sumo wrestler that he can only eat at the salad bar at Golden Coral. Let's just say words will be exchanged, heated words.  She's going to be buried with that decrepit old electric stove top, as she will never willingly part with it.

If you want the stuff you cook to be edible, just keep things simple: follow the recipe exactly with no substitutions, serve it up at the right temperature, use fresh ingredients and cook it in cookware from this century on a gas cook top, and likely your food will be considered 'tasty.'  Break any of these rules, and you qualify as a 'bad cook.'

Just like my Aunt Sally.  

No need for law and order anymore

It's true.  Who needs law and order?  Only the privileged few, that's who.  And they can afford to pay their own security costs, so no need to worry about them.

And what about the rest of us?  Exactly who will come to our defenses when looters and rioters are smashing our store front windows, looting all of our inventory, and then burning down our businesses to the ground, which we put our heart, soul and life savings into?  

Well, nobody with a gun, that's not the way to solve problems in society today.  No siree Bob.  We should all understand that anybody who breaks laws these days simply is misguided or uninformed as to how things work.  Rather than sending an armed policeman, it would be just as effective in sending in a social worker who will explain to the misinformed citizen (or illegal alien) just how Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs works.  

Problem solved.

If you buy into all of this 'defund the police' foolishness, then you agree with me here.  And you deserve to move to CHAZ/CHOP in Seattle, where they can shoot you and nobody will come to help you.  Just the way you want it.

For the rest of us sane people, we all understand that when you have a very small percentage of miscreants with guns take over a section of a large city, that cannot stand.  There will be no reasoning with these types, and I can see that there will be more than a few of these criminals who will die when the rest of us take back our streets.  

Reasoning with these scumbags will get you the same results as trying to logically and diplomatically solve your differences with the Wolf Man.  If you disagree with me, try it and see how things work out for you.

Good luck with that.

Fredd's Choice Awards: Top 10 films ever made

These flicks have everything a red blooded American could ever ask for in a film: Good guys wasting bad guys, or in the case of The God Father, bad guys wasting good and bad guys. Note the absence of any over riding love interests in the Top 10: I relegate those movies to the "Chick Flick" genre, and therefore they are absent here.

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Without further ado, here are Fredd's selection of the Top 10 Films Ever Made in descending order:

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10. Robocop. Set in the future in crime-ridden Detroit (no change from the present), police officer (portrayed by Peter Weller) is gunned down by scumbags, dies and his corpse is refitted with state of the art weapons, computer brain and great lines: 'dead or alive, you're coming with me.' Unbeknownst to Robo's creators, a bit of his human memory containing morals and ethics flickers within the computer brain, and in the end the bad guys get theirs. A true feel good flick, this film is one for the ages.

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9. Electra Glide in Blue. Good hearted motorcycle cop (lead role by Robert Blake decades before he became a murderer) is promoted to detective, then is witness to lawlessness by his mentor. He rats his boss out, returns to his motorcycle beat and meets an odd end. The photography in this movie is outstanding, considering its age (1973).

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8. The Unforgiven. A brilliant Clint Eastwood film (he played the lead and directed this one) about justice meted out in the old west town of Big Whiskey. Gene Hackman is also outstanding as the small town thug sheriff 'Little Bill,' who also gets his in the end. Great lines throughout, such as 'a man's got to know his limitations.' Also, Little Bill to Clint's character: 'you just shot an unarmed man!' To which the great reply goes 'well, he shoulda armed himself.'

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7. Jaws. Another great movie, where primordial monster shark devours any and all hapless New Englanders who splash about in its waters. Best line: Roy Scheider to vessel skipper Robert Shaw, when spotting the beast in their 20-something foot fishing vessel: 'we're going to need a bigger boat.' Indeed.

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6. The Godfather. Need I say more? Some say this is the best ever, I say phshaw. It is indeed a good flick, with the bad guys portrayed as having a twisted sense of moral virtue in their murderous pursuits of money and power, but the best ever? Nope. Great line: "Leave the gun. Take the cannoli."

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5. Kelly's Heroes. Another Clint Eastwood jem, a savvy U.S. WWII soldier gathers a team of other greedy GI's to snag a fortune in gold from a bank behind enemy lines. Star studded, and memorable performance from Donald Southerland as 'Oddball.' Catchy little sound track of 'Burning Bridges' is well done in conjunction with the entire production.

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4. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Russell Crowe does a truly superb job as commander of a British War ship of the line during the Napoleonic War era, and historical attention to detail is magnificent in every way. The relationship between the ship's doctor and the captain is also engaging. Great lines at the captains dinner table, including the 'weevil' joke. A real keeper, this one.

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3. The Outlaw Josie Wales. I have included this one (yet another Clint Eastwood beauty) because of the righteous vengeance wrought upon so many wicked and deserving adversaries. Josie loses his family to a merciless and brutal raid on his homestead while he is away in the Civil War fighting for the Confederacy. When he returns to find the slaughter, watch out. This film has got to be the record holder for most killings by one guy (I lost count after the 'Gatling Gun' segment). Chief Dan George also hilarious in his role as Indian side kick.

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2. Fargo. The Cohen Brothers can really come up with some sick stuff at times, but put it together in a most compelling fashion. Homey, pregnant northern Minnesotan police officer tracks down homicidal maniacs hired by moron struggling car salesman trying to pull off hostage scam, things go completely awry.

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1. Shane. This film, although dated (1953) has everything a great film requires: good guys (Alan Ladd) prevail over slimy bad buys (Jack Palance) in this sod busters vs. cattle barons setting based roughly on the Johnson County War in Wyoming circa 1892, and was primarily filmed in the spectacular Grand Teton setting near Jackson Hole. Great film effects, and the attention to historical detail merits mention. Just a great feel good flick, this one will definitely stand the test of time.

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You will note that all of these films (with the exception of Shane) are from the 1970's on. Some might say that this list suffers from the 'error of recency' where the rater will favor more recent films than those 'great' films of the past. Not so, since a great flick absolutely must be filmed in color (Technicolor was the gold standard going way back). "Citizen Kane," for example, was left off the list: black and white just doesn't cut it with Fredd. Sorry. That, and any films with romance as the main attraction must be included in a 'Chick Flick' category, not 'Greatest Ever.' So, you see, if you disagree with my list, you are simply wrong.

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That, or your choice is in the Top 20, where I have omitted the 11 through 20 films simply because my fingers are getting tired of typing.  This post is around 11 years old, but bears re-posting..

Communities need to hire better police

Minneapolis is on fire currently.  Another police brutality case erupts into civil unrest, and the community is suffering mob violence over the perceived injustice as a video lays out yet another bad decision by a bad cop.

No, I haven't seen everything leading up to this video of a Minneapolis police officer holding down an African American suspect, knee to his neck, all the while the suspect pleading with the officer that he can't breath.  The suspect died shortly thereafter.  It would be hard to overcome this video in a court room, but I will have to say that this is awfully hard to watch as this callous rogue cop slowly suffocates this guy as he begs for his life.  Just awful.

Look at the cost of this bad hire.  This cop, who has had lots of disciplinary action taken against him over his fairly long career, is another example of how a poor hiring decision can cost a community dearly.  This bad cop should never have been hired in the first place.  Give a thug a little authority, and everybody knows what will happen: they will abuse that authority, and brutalize the public.

Minneapolis is symptomatic of the hiring process in many larger metropolitan areas: they have budgets, the budgets are tight, and they can't offer the kinds of salaries to their police force that would attract more talented individuals.  College grads are likely not attracted to positions that start with annual salaries as low as typical rookie policemen/women.  Accordingly, communities are getting non-college trained folk, and although many of these people entering the police academies would make perfectly fine grocery baggers or landscape laborers, giving some of these unimpressive rookies a gun and discretion to make life and death decisions on the spot requires a higher caliber of personnel than a ditch digger or a gas station attendant.  

We can all see on our TV screens the result of bad police decisions, as we watch Minneapolis burn.  Time to jack up the salaries and qualifications of America's law enforcement personnel.  We can't advance a polite society when we have brutal thugs wearing badges killing us willy nilly.  

Time to wise up. 

"We're all in this together..."

Yes, we've all heard our betters tell us this, over and over.  And they seem to believe what they are telling us.

"We are all in this together."  And in the next breath, our betters tell us to stay at home, no beach outings, no haircuts, just sit.  And in the breath after that, they instruct their chauffeur to warm up the Bentley because they have an appointment at the hair salon, just for them ((Lori Lightfoot (D), Mayor of Chicago)).   

When asked why she can get her hair done, but nobody else can, she replied "I'm on national TV every day, I need to look good and I take my personal hygiene very seriously."  Next question.  In other words, I'm special and you are not.  It's OK for me, but not for thee. So shut up.

About that same time, our corpulent Illinois governor, J.B. Pritzker (D), is telling us the same thing: 'we are all in this together.  Accordingly, I am asking you to stay at home and save lives.'  Even as these words are escaping his meaty jowls, his sister is jetting off to Florida on her private plane to see relatives.  When asked about this double standard, he replied that he is insulted that this reprehensible question was even brought up, next question.  In other words, shut up.  I'm important and you are not.  It's OK for me, but not for thee.  Or words to that effect.

And what about our betters shutting down businesses left and right, telling us all to stay home and save lives.  Subsequently, all revenue for these businesses comes to a screeching halt, and all of these small businesses are suddenly insolvent, dead broke.  Our betters in government, however, are getting paid direct deposit on time and in the manner in which they have become accustomed.  "We're all in this together," as they cash their paychecks and we proletariates declare bankruptcy because these well paid government types tell us to stay at home, save lives.  We're all in this together, remember.

We voted for this?  Unfortunately, we did indeed vote for this.  I am using the Royal 'We', because I did not vote for this.  I voted for Republicans, and yet my Republican candidates did not prevail at the ballot box, at least not here in The Land of Lincoln (Illinois).  The Democrats in power now did, and they seem to truly believe that whatever they think is good for their constituents is what they will enforce with the ham-fisted power of their offices.  Just for the record, whatever Democrats think is good for all is almost never good for anybody except themselves and their cronies.

Notice in Red states that want to open up commerce sooner rather than later, things are getting better.  Also notice in Blue states with Democrat governors (Michigan, New Jersey, New York and California leading the charge), draconian state mandates of lock downs continue until, well, forever (until a vaccine is found and available for all).  In other words, years.

But above all else, just remember 'we are all in this together.'

No sympathy from me for under capitalized businesses

As Grampa always used to tell all of us, 'you need to save some money for a rainy day.'  Well, as usual, Grampa was right: it's raining cats and dogs right now, and those that saved that money for that rainy day are doing OK.

I am somewhat surprised, however, at just how many businesses there are out there that can't endure a bad month or two in a row without going bankrupt.  There's a ton of these under capitalized folk that have been living paycheck to paycheck for, well, decades.  Yes, our own elected government officials have screwed up the economy to hell and back by mandating shutting down commerce so that old folks don't die.  

Then again, we have been ensuring that all of our old folks live in the lap of luxury since the Great Depression era and good old Uncle FDR who ensured that there was a goodly amount of our nation's wealth was transferred to old people, this has been going on for almost a century or so now.

But as for the younger generation who can't rub two nickels together during hard times, this will generate very little sympathy from me.  Going bankrupt because you can't pay your employees or rent for a month, that is just not the way that our fore bearers suggested it be done.  

It seems that restaurants are the bulk of these failures, and in general terms this has always been the case.  They say that 90% of all restaurant start-ups fail for whatever reason: bad food, poor service, shoddy equipment and environs, if people don't enjoy what you are providing, you are toast.  As it should be.

Our federal government is now shoveling out helicopter money to all of these under capitalized businesses by the trillions of dollars; now I (a tax payer) am on the hook for bad business models, and I am not happy about any of this.  The employees?  Unemployment benefits are available, also at my (the taxpayer) expense, which is reasonable under the circumstances since the government is the reason that they are unemployed in the first place.  

Of course, that is a topic for another day.

Moral of the story?  Always listen to Grampa.  Unless he is talking about that huge fish he caught back in the day, don't bother listening to any of that, it's all hogwash.  Other than that, Grampa knows what he's talking about.

A few holes in an Ancient Alien theory

Zecharia Sitchin has several books out about mankind's beginnings based on his study of the cuneiform tablets dug up from the ancient Sumerian haunts in the Middle East.  Accordingly to his theory, the 'Those who came from the Stars,' the Annunaki, traveled from the Orion constellation to earth many thousands of years ago in order to mine gold here on earth.

Once they got here, they determined that the labor required to obtain the gold was just too much for their alien hands, and so they co-opted a local species of ape (our forebearers) to make it smart enough to do the slave labor involved in mining the gold, and once they trained the slaves, they could kick back and just count the ingots that their slaves dug up.

Or words to that effect, that's the Sitchin theory.  Now, I can buy that these aliens may have appeared eons ago, and that they may have had a hand in altering the DNA in our ancestors to some extent, but what I don't buy is that they couldn't figure out how to extract gold from our planet without help.

This is a civilization that traveled through space hundreds of thousands of light years away, and once they got here, they climbed down the ladder from their space ships with a pick ax, a pan and a shovel and got frustrated at how hard gold mining was.

Gimme a break.  These guys given their technology could have melted a mountain or two with their ray guns, contained the resultant lava in their tractor beams, isolated, refined and extracted the gold from the lava, all from the comfy confines of their environmentally controlled space ships.  No need to get their hands dirty, or maybe their tentacles, whatever.

For them to monkey around with the DNA of some aboriginal primates, wait a few generations for these primates to wise up enough to take orders from the Annunaki masters, that really doesn't square with common sense.

A guy can only swallow so much malarkey.

Italy is NOT the United States

Not even close.

I've spent quite a lot of time in Italy.  Not recently, but the times have not changed all that much.  My first sojourn into this backward country was a real shocker, however.

As a young soldier in the U.S. Army, I took a 30-day leave to travel around Italy along with two of my army buddies.  We took the train from Munich, West Germany and headed south to the land of wine, pasta and sunshine.  What a heaven on earth to spend a long vacation, or at least that is what I figured would be the case.

The train trip was uneventful, until we got off at the train station in Bolzano in the northern part of the country.  I had to relieve myself and went into the public restroom facilities at the train station.  This is where the stark differences between Italy and western civilization diverged: the urinal was just a ledge against the wall, and the "toilet" was simply a couple of concrete wedges to place your feet located in between a 6" hole in the floor.   And toilet paper?  None to be found.

What?!!?

I was a 21 year old corporal (actually what is called a Specialist 4th Class, same same), and had been in the service for 2 years by then: I knew how to cuss like a sailor, spit and hawk loogies with the best of them, and how to generally act like a miscreant.  But this took me by complete surprise.  What the hell was this?  I might as well have looked for a stand of bushes, it would have smelled better; the fetid stench inside this 'facility' would have made a buzzard puke.

The whole country is filthy.  The restaurants, the buses, the cabs, the people.  Filthy dirty.  And we adjusted to this culture quickly.  We rented a car, and noticed that nobody obeyed the street signs, stop signs, and drove on the sidewalks if they needed to, which they all seemed to.  

When in Rome, as they say.  So we threw out all of our western politeness that our mom's taught us, and actually had a pretty good time down there.  What the hell.  In 1976, we could buy a 750 ml bottle of white wine for approx. 25 cents, as the lire to the dollar exchange rate was quite attractive at the time.  We lived like kings for a month.

Now the place is ground zero for the Wuhan virus.  It is spreading like wildfire, with no end in sight.  I am not shocked.  Their health care system is probably no different than their train station restrooms: let's just say they are 'lacking.'  

Just like their justice system.  They treated a shy college kid, Amanda Knox, like she was Charlie Manson.  They trumped up ridiculous charges of her murderous rampages (of which she had nothing to do with), and kept her in jail for the better part of two years before she was finally exonerated.  Yes, justice in Italy is probably very similar to health care in Italy.

I can't say that I can see much hope for them in their fight against this viscous scourge.  They are just not the types to prevail if they can't even provide toilet paper in their restrooms.  They can't even provide toilets in their restrooms, much less toilet paper.

Of course, things may have changed since I was there.  Probably not, though.

Coronavirus panic is good for Fredd, sadly...

Yes, the more wide spread panic about the Wuhan virus, the better off Fredd will be.  I never thought that I would be on the same side as Chuck Schumer, David Muir and Nancy Pelosi, but here we are.

I completely divested my portfolio from the equities market, and now it is in my best interest that the stock market tank like never before.  The more it goes down, the better off I will be once it hits such rock bottom prices that I will get back into equities at bargain bin prices.

Thank you, ABC anchor David Muir.  Thank you Chuck Todd, and thank you Wolf Blitzer.  You guys are driving home the panic about this Wuhan virus that can guarantee that the stock market tanks like 1929, like 2008.  Yes, and you are hoping that it also tanks Donald Trump's likelihood of getting re-elected in 2020.

I like rooting for America.  I have been long in stocks for many decades, but now I find myself rooting for destruction and desolation with the rampage of this Chinese weaponized virus (as long as I keep to myself, I'm 65 and of prime target to this insidious scourge).  

What a state of affairs.  Ask me if I value Donald Trump's re-election over the value of my portfolio.  Go ahead, ask me.

I know that answer.  The Donald better have some real moving and shaking on those teleprompters tonight.  I gotta say that I am with me, and not with him, if forced to choose.

Free stuff for everybody! It's appeal is limited....

If you have been listening to what all of the Democratic contenders for the nomination for president are shouting from the mountain tops, it all boils down to a basic, fundamental message: "if you vote for me, I will enact legislation to transfer other people's wealth to you."

No, of course they don't put it exactly that way, but there is no other possible understanding of what they propose than this essential philosophical tenet of socialism: spread the wealth around.  And in order to spread wealth, you have to take it from those who have more and give it to those who have less.  Duh.

Our political system protects anything you say on the stump, regardless whether it's true or not, doesn't matter: political speech is protected in this country.  Scalawags of all kinds know this, and accordingly will say absolutely anything that sounds good to their potential constituents.  If in the end after all the ballots are counted, they wind up with 50.000000001 percent of the votes, that's all that matters.  They win.

And who doesn't like free stuff?  I like free stuff.  You like free stuff, everybody likes free stuff.  Unfortunately, nothing on earth is free; somebody pays for it, that's just the way it works.  If you don't pay for whatever you got, then it's free.  Free to you.  But it wasn't free to whomever got stuck with the tab.

This drives me crazy, the fact that a lot of people listening to these socialist politicians believe it.  The ignorant among us, they really do.  But thankfully, there are also those listening to these messages that know how this country works: people put forth effort that others value, and they are rewarded with the fruits of their labor.  If their labor is less valued than other's labor, they get less fruit.  Conversely, if their labor is more valued than the next guy's, then they get more fruit.  It cannot be explained any plainer than that.

I was listening to Dean Cain (who portrayed Superman on the old series 'Lois and Clark' which ran on ABC from 1993 to 1997), now turned broadcast personality, while he was on location in Red Lake, Minnesota this Super Tuesday morning asking a young woman who she was supporting and why.  

"I am supporting Elizabeth Warren, because she is fighting for economic justice.  People are frustrated that they see the stock market going up and up, and yet this wealth has no impact on their day to day pay checks.  It's just not right, and Elizabeth Warren will fix that."  I paraphrase her answer here, but that is the jist of what she truly believes.

This young woman basically believes that the gains in the stock market should be shared among the proletarians, with no consideration as to who has skin in the game.  Free stuff for everybody, that's only fair.  No thought is given to stock holders, who worked for that investment money that they risk in the market, no thought whatsoever ("you didn't build that!!").  And what about when the market goes down?  Does this woman think that those paychecks of her ilk should be exempt from those losses?  I think she does.

And Pochahontas, Bernie, Slow Joe, and every other Democrat in the field (maybe not so much Mini Mike, he sort of gets it but not really), they all tout Medicare for all (free health care), free college tuition, forgiveness for all student debt (more free college), $15.00 minimum wage (free wages for work that is not worth $15.00/hour), and lots of other free stuff.

The rub is that none, and I mean NONE of this stuff is free.  Somebody pays for all of it, every damn penny of it has to be paid for by somebody: doctors and nurses don't work for free, they get paid, and do not give away their talents, health care is not free.  $15.00/hour for $5.00 worth of work does not mean that they get free $10 bucks an hour.  The employer pays that, again, not free.  Lenders forked out big bucks to college students in the forms of loans, which they expect a return, they didn't loan out 'free money' to these kids, it was real money and this real money is not an entitlement to these college kids who signed those papers.  College professors, and their heated/air conditioned classrooms cost money, none of that stuff is free.  Somebody paid for all of that, not free by any means.

For these politicians to stand on their stumps and promise free stuff to everybody only resonates with some; those who don't have stuff.  The other people listening have stuff, and know that these politicians have painted targets on their backs as chumps whose stuff they will confiscate.  The appeal of free stuff is limited only to those who believe in unicorns frolicking in meadows filled with rainbows and gum drops, and that there should never be a tear drop in any eye ever.  

The rest of us know that only elbow grease generates stuff.  And elbow grease ain't free, never has been and never will be, and we also know that there ain't no unicorns frolicking in idylic meadows, and we have seen a lot of tears in a lot of eyes, that's life in the Big City.

A pox on these politicians who are promising to take stuff from one group and give it to another in exchange for their vote.  An oozing, pus dripping pox. 

The Democrat Party is a dumpster fire

The debate in South Carolina last night was a white hot mess.  The CBS moderators looked like the Chicago fire brigade after Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked over that lantern: completely inept and impotent to control the howling and screeching of the sorry lot of potential candidates to oppose Donald Trump.  Nobody on stage has any presidential street cred whatsoever.  None of 'em.

Now there's talk of Bob Iger getting into the race (and bring some Disney magic back to the once loyal opposition), and Bernie Sanders' unstoppable march to the nomination in Milwaukee appears to now be an iffy proposition.

Maybe it's time for a tried and true politician to show these Johnny Come Lately's how it's done: enter The Old Crone.  There seems to be renewed interest in her mastery of malfeasance and skulduggery, which the Left prizes above most everything else.

Hillary in 2020?  Don't scoff, The Old Crone may have emerged from her political grave to haunt us yet again.

Lucky us.

If you believe NBC, Trump has no path to re-election

As of the head to head polling by NBC/Wall Street Journal on February 2, 2020, the president loses to each of the leading Democrat contenders: Trump loses to Joe Biden by 6 points, gets thumped by commie Bernie Sanders by 4 points, Pochahontas Warren mops the floor with Trump by 3 points, and the Butt Guy, Pete Buttiegieg squeaks past The Donald by 1 point.  Look at the Fox News voter preference poll back in August (see graphic), trump got his ass handed to him by every damn commie running, to include the failed Kamala Harris.

And yet I saw with my own eyes that in the New Hampshire primary, where The Donald was virtually running uncontested, he got 118,000+ voters to brave the brutal cold to trudge to the polls and cast their vote for the Donald, wildly beyond the showings of past incumbent uncontested New Hampshire primary elections. 

Additionally, the coverage of rallies by any of the Democrat contenders in both Iowa and New Hampshire are absolutely puny and pathetic as compared to The Donald when he showed up; he packed in his venues with tens of thousands unable to get in, while nobody seems interested in any of the current crop of Democrats, their rallies barely fill a high school gym (and that's if they pay enough lefties to attend).

But NBC and the Wall Street Journal give the Donald no chance of re-election.  How can this be?  I recall the same thing happening in 2016; the enthusiasm that Trump generated on the campaign trail dwarfed that of Hillary Clinton, and yet according to all the polls, he had no shot.  No path to the Oval Office, stick a fork in him, he's done.  He's toast.  Fuhgeddaboudit. 

One would think that these polling organizations would want to come close to getting it right this time around, and yet none of them are looking at the same thing I see: the enthusiasm for Donald Trump is triple or more of that than any of the socialists/commies that oppose him.

I have missed calling several elections in the past, simply because I didn't want to think about my side losing (again).  But I think this time around, I can confidently claim a Trump landslide, and the GOP snatching that gavel from Nancy Pelosi's shriveled gnarled fingers.

Yes, a Trump landslide, and his coat tails will be huge.  All the polls say otherwise.  We'll see in about a little less than 9 months from now, won't we?

Nobody is going to win the Iowa caucuses

Well, except Donald Trump.

Whoever claims victory on the Democrat side of things in Iowa tonight will surely go down in flames eventually, since none of them...not a single one of them...has any credible idea as to how to make things better for Americans.  Other than Donald Trump, that is.

The radical socialist communist left wing of the Democrat party now calls all the shots.  The only reasonable Democrat still in the race (technically) is John Delaney (D-Md), and even he has some radical left wing ideas on tax rates, social programs and other ways to spend taxpayer money like a drunken sailor.  And he is their most reasonable guy in the race, and has no shot.  He is clearly not nutty enough for the left wing base, who is chomping at the bit to change America into a nation more like Communist China or Vladimir Putin's dictatorship in Russia.

Most of them on the ballot (Michael Bloomberg or Tom Steyer not withstanding) have never run a successful business, not even a lemonade stand; Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, NONE of those guys (and squaws) have ever met a payroll or made multi-million dollar decisions as to how to better a business's position in the market.  And yet ALL of these dufuses (dufi?) are trying to convince voters that they and only they know how to best allocate American resources to the benefit of Americans.  How on earth can they claim this as true?

And exactly how on earth can all of these idiots convince the majority of Americans that their lives suck right now, and that things are going down the crapper, when all anybody has to do is look around them and see that things are coming up roses on virtually every front under the leadership of President Trump.  They are trying to convince us that it's raining, when in fact they are pissing on us.  Only the dumbest Americans can possibly fall for all of their malarkey (as Slow Joe Biden might put it).

They can't continue this narrative with any credibility.  But that doesn't stop them from trying.  Nobody among these cretins currently running for president on the left has any ideas as to how best to manage the American economy, manage the American foreign trade/policy matters or anything else that is required to promote American interests, either foreign or domestic.

Yet every media outlet in the country is watching this horse race. 

As if any of these clods will avoid a landslide loss in November.

Sulemani no longer 'a nuisance.'

Remember when John Kerry was campaigning for president in 2003/4 and called for a return to the days when we considered these Middle Eastern terrorists such as Sulemani to be nothing more than a 'nuisance' rather than imminent threats?  

These terrorists and their 'nuisant' ways have been responsible for perhaps hundreds of thousands of deaths over the past few decades, to include Americans, Iraqis, Syrians, Yemenis and even Russians and Iranians.  You should ask the family members of those killed by this terrorist general and see how much of a 'nuisance' they consider this guy to be.  

Of course the Neville Chamberlains of the left will conduct massive shows of great wailing and gnashing of teeth at this war mongering president for authorizing this targeted drone strike, but let them.  Appeasing the mullahs with pallets laden with cash money has gotten us nothing but body bags.  Obama figured he could buy his way into a peaceful Iran with this foolish offering, and we see what we got in the bargain - nothing but more Iranian aggression and death for many Americans and their allies.

The Iranian mullahs are now promising a devastating response to this 'rogue' action.  I say bring it.  Afterwards, we will target all of those forces who generate anything close to revenge, and then sit back and see what else they got.  Which is not much, as Iran has always been a weak bully in the region.  

We simply chose to punch the bully back.  It works every time it's tried.