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.