Economy
Taking Our Profits
In the Fall of 2021, I saw the financial problems coming and promptly got out of the stock market. It crashed just a couple of months later. I posted about it at the time, but I can’t find the post. That meant for 2022, we had no Capital gains because we weren’t in the stock market.
Anyhow, I bought back into the market last July, at my wife’s insistence. She bought 450 shares of Royal Caribbean (Symbol: RCL) at $32 a share. Total cost was $14,400.
Today, RCL announced their Q2 profits, and they went from a $500 million loss for Q2 2022 to a $450 million profit for Q2 2023. The stock price skyrocketed to $112, which put the stock price near its pre-pandemic price. The value of those 450 shares was $50,400 when we sold, which is a $36,000 profit. A return rate of 350% for the year.
My other stock buys haven’t done as well. I bought 100 shares of Smith and Wesson last December at $9.82, and it is only selling today at $13.09. I own a few shares here and there, but they are sitting flat. The market may go up from here, but I am not looking to be greedy. Still, I think this is a good time for profit taking on stocks.
Still, we have done well in the market during the past year, having made just shy of $40,000 in capital gains. That will mean we owe $6,000 in capital gains taxes, but that is still less than what we would have paid in taxes on a second job. My wife knows far more about investing than I do, and that’s why I let her make the calls on that.
Cops
Property Crimes Are Our Achilles Heel
Before we get started, I don’t need anyone quoting the law to me. I know that in most places, we are not permitted to use force to protect property. I don’t care what the law is, because I am fully aware of that. This post is about what the law SHOULD be. Take a look at a couple of videos:
Now consider that we are being told that “insurance will take care of” reimbursing you for theft and vandalism of property. Never mind that the more insurance claims there are, the higher the costs of insurance. People who would destroy and steal your property for whatever reason are confident in the belief that they will get away with it, and in many cases, they are correct. The police and courts, our own law enforcement, are failing in their duties by doing absolutely nothing to prevent this, and in some cases are actively supporting it.
I trade pieces of my life in exchange for value, which I then used to acquire my property. If you destroy or take my property, you are in actuality engaged in stealing away finite pieces of my life. Pieces that I will never be able to recoup.
Either the government needs to step up, or the people will begin to say “enough” and will begin doing it themselves.
Military
Activating the Reserves
Most people think that you join the military for a term of 2, 3, or 4 years. What people who haven’t served in the US military usually don’t know is that everyone really signs up for 8 years. What people think of as their 2, 3, or 4 year ‘hitch’ is merely the active duty part of their contract. You can begin serving that active duty part of it immediately, or you can wait up to 12 months to report. That’s in your contract as well. When you are done with that active duty commitment, what happens to the time that is left?
The military owns your ass for it, that’s what. If they want you to come back, you come back. That is exactly what is happening to 450 unlucky people this month as Biden issues orders to call up 3,000 reservists, up to 450 of whom can be people who recently thought they were done. Where are they headed, you ask?
Europe, to join the other 100,000 troops already there. Gotta be ready for Biden’s big war in Ukraine. They are going to use the catchy name from 2014- Operation Atlantic Resolve. Can’t kill thousands of people in a military adventure without a catchy name.
Biden’s boys are careful to mention that the troops aren’t going to the Ukraine. Nope, they are joining the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team. The base that the brigade is operating from is called Camp Herkus:
I’m sure that you won’t be surprised to find out that this camp is in Pabrade, Lithuania. Now Pabrade is just 3.5 miles from Lithuania’s border with Belarus. That also places them less than 400 miles west of the suburbs of Moscow, and 110 miles from the eastern end of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. The red pin is where the Brigade is based:
When you find out that the US opened the base in August of 2021, then remember that the US started moving troops into Europe at about the same time, and you can begin to understand why the Russians finally decided to get pissed off and invade Ukraine six months later. How would Americans react if the Russians decided to place an armored brigade 100 miles from the Canadian border? Perhaps Putin isn’t the dictatorial asshole he is being painted as?
Consider that an Armored Brigade Combat Team is what used to be called a heavy armored brigade. The armored brigade combat team (ABCT) is the army’s primary armored force, and is the largest brigade combat team formation with 4,743 soldiers. An ABCT includes 87 Abrams, 152 Bradley IFVs, 18 M109s and 45 armed M113 vehicles. It is a formidable unit, and carries a lot of firepower, all of it on the northern border with Belarus.
On the western border with Belarus is Poland. What’s there, you ask? The US First Army, with the potent V Corps has its headquarters there.
As a part of the enhanced Forward Presence (eFP), four NATO multinational battalion battlegroups are stationed in Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. On the eve of the summit, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, in addition to expanding the high readiness force with 40,000. up to 300 thousand soldiers announced to increase the potential of the battle groups to the level of brigades.
Last month, Poland began moving elements of its 12th and 17th Mechanized Brigades to its eastern border with Belarus. These are the same brigades that were just upgraded to the Abrams.
With tens of thousands of NATO troops massing on the border, it makes sense that the Russians are putting tactical nukes in Belarus.
Biden is pushing for a war with Russia, and Russia will have little choice but to use nuclear weapons in the face of division sized armored forces pushing towards his capitol city. If the US does the stupid thing, there is little chance of avoiding the use of at least a few tactical nukes.
I am old enough to remember when the Democrats were opposed to nuclear war.
Gaming the Courts
Next: SCOTUS to Make Pi=3.0 For Easier Math
The reason why tranny insanity is taking hold is because of the Supreme Court. On June 15, 2020, SCOTUS ruled in 3 separate cases that Title VII of the Civil rights act applies to LGBT people, thus making men who believe themselves to be women as official super citizens who are entitled to more rights than the rest of us. This effectively places delusional people in charge.
The cases were Bostock v. Clayton County, Zarda v. Altitude Express, and Stephens v. Harris Funeral Homes. Writing for the six-3 majority, Justice Gorsuch held that Title VII’s protections against discrimination or harassment “because of sex” extend to members of the LGBT community. Specifically, Title VII prohibited firing the Plaintiffs because they were gay or transgender, because sex necessarily plays a role in the decision.
This means that the Federal government has, through SCOTUS, officially granted transgenders the full protections of the law.
It’s gonna get worse as the empire collapses.
Government
The Three Branches
Vox has posted an article titled “How the Supreme Court put itself in charge of the executive branch” in which they complain about SCOTUS declaring that the Biden administration cannot do things like fight climate change, declare pistol braces to be illegal, or forgive student loans. The entire article is complete bullshit. The President never had those powers, and it’s time that we all recognized why.
The document that grants powers of lawmaking to the Federal government is Article 1 of the Constitution, which lays out the lawmaking power of the United States in Section 1:
All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States
The laws passed by Congress are called the United States code (USC). This is what the USC looked like in 1925. Note that all of the laws passed by Congress in the first 150 years of its existence were found in one book:
That one volume represents all of the laws that were passed by Congress in the first 150 years of this country’s existence. That Federal Law library has now expanded immensely.
What was one volume in 1925 expanded to become 25 volumes just 90 years later.
Article 2 of the Constitution lays out the duties of the Executive branch, along with those of the chief executive (The President).
The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.
The duties of the President are found in sections 2 and 3, which I have summed up in the following bullet points:
- The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy and of the Militia
- he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices
- He shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
- He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur
- He shall nominate Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States
- The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.
- He shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers
- He shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.
- He shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed
That last one is really important. He, through the executive branch, sees to it that the laws of the United States are faithfully executed. Note that CONGRESS has been vested with ALL legislative powers, and the executive makes sure that those laws are carried out. Nowhere in the Constitution is there any provision for the Congress to abdicate and delegate its legislative powers to the executive branch.
Even so, our government has created an entire branch of government and of law called Administrative law. It is through this law that administrative departments like the ATF are declaring things to be illegal or prohibited, even when those things are not prohibited by legislation.
Administrative law is the body of law created by the agencies and departments of the government, which carry out the laws passed by Congress or a state legislature. Why do they need help doing this? BEcause most of the members of Congress are complete morons who spend most of their time chasing pussy, getting drunk, and using their power to enrich themselves. They don’t have time to be informed on the issues, so they punt.
When Congress passes a law on a complicated issue, Congress often needs help determining all of the details of how the law will be enforced and implemented, because they are corrupt morons. Administrative agencies and government departments fill in those gaps for Congress and pass additional rules and regulations to achieve what they want Congress’s goals to be, in their own opinion. Of course there is a great deal of corruption, graft, and people putting their own desires and spin on the ball.
All of these administrative laws are called the Code of Federal regulations. The number and complexity of laws passed by the executive dwarfs the 25 volumes of laws that have been passed by Congress.
This, despite the fact that the Constitution explicitly states that all legislative Powers shall be vested in Congress, and makes no provisions for Congress to abdicate, delegate, or assign those legislative powers to the executive branch.
The case of Marbury v. Madison established the concept of Judicial review. The court has had the power to declare laws unconstitutional ever since. In my opinion, the Supreme Court hasn’t gone far enough in declaring that the entire CFR is unconstitutional wherever and whenever those regulations do anything except control how the laws will be enforced. As soon as a regulation changes the plain meaning of the wording of any law passed by Congress, it is null and void.
For example, there is nothing in the laws passed by Congress that would permit a machine gun to be defined as anything other than a firearm that discharges more than one shot for each function of the trigger. The President can’t forgive student loans because all expenditures must originate from the House of Representatives. If Congress wanted student loans forgiven, they would have done so.
Of course, that can’t happen any longer. The system is far too complex for it to suddenly by unrestrained. The damage that has been done to the intended form of government by permitting these administrative agencies to write laws out of wholesale cloth.
economics
Exploding Debt
On June 1, the Republicans caved by giving President Biden a blank check to borrow whatever and how ever much money he wants to spend. On that day, the US debt stood at $31.46 Trillion. Within a month, the US had borrowed another Trillion dollars. Here we are, just six and a half weeks after they handed him the credit cards, with $32.54 Trillion in debt.
Proving that the Democrats never deal on ANYTHING with good faith, they are already calling for the abrogation of the handshake agreement that the parties reached to rein in the spending. They are borrowing money at a rate of over $100 Billion every business day. To put that in perspective, I wrote in 2009 that Obama had broken a record by borrowing a Trillion dollars in only six months.
It took this nation over 200 years to borrow a trillion dollars. Trump did it in seven months, Obama did it in only 6 months. It took Biden 9 months to borrow his first Trillion dollars, but he soon got better at it. His second trillion took three months, borrowing $2 trillion in his first year. In fact, he has increased the national debt by 118% in just two and a half years.
President Trump increased the National Debt by 134% in four years.
Obama increased the debt by 194% in eight years.
President George W Bush borrowed his first trillion dollars in two and a half years. He borrowed his second trillion a year and a half later. Another two years, another $1 trillion. All told, President Bush borrowed $5 trillion in 8 years, increasing the national debt by 187%.
It took President Clinton 3 and a half years to borrow his first trillion dollars. All told, he borrowed $1.2 trillion in his first term, and $600 billion in his second. He increased the national debt by 140% in eight years.
George HW Bush borrowed his first trillion in 3 years, and he increased the National debt by 170% in four years.
Reagan borrowed his first trillion in 6 years, and doubled the National debt during his eight years in the White House.
Carter increased the National debt by 150%, but “only” borrowed $300 billion in 4 years. I guess that was when $1 Billion was real money.
Ford increased the debt by 147% in 3 years., Nixon by 135% in 5 years, Johnson by 116% in 6 years, Kennedy by 106% in 2 years, Eisenhower by 108% in eight years.
Democrats, and Republicans, both in a contest to see who can spend the most in our society of “how much can you give me if I vote for you.”
Remember when the Biden spokeswoman told us that borrowing trillions didn’t cost anything because it was already accounted for? So that’s where we are- under Biden, the US has borrowed $4.75 trillion in just two and a half years. This can’t continue.
By definition, anything that can’t continue, won’t. There is no amount of voting that will fix this.
Government
Today Is Not the US Birthday
July 4, 1776 is not the nation’s birthday. It is the day that the colonies declared independence from England. The true birthdate of the nation was the day that the US Constitution was ratified- June 21, 1788. Most of what we learned in history class was simply incorrect.
Military
Supply
The military supply system is stupid and messed up. Everything has a stock number and a description. They frequently don’t make sense. For example, a flyswatter is referred to as “Exterminator, Insect, Manual.” When I was a new E-4, I was forced into the role of Supply Petty Officer for the workcenter by the E-4 who was previously the most junior. He was glad to be rid of the job. I was soon to understand why.
On July 1, 1941, a requisition was submitted for 150 rolls of toilet paper by an officer aboard the submarine USS Skipjack (SS-184). As the boat patrolled the Pacific, the requested item never arrived. In March 1942, Lieutenant Commander James Coe took command of the Skipjack. As Coe settled into his new role, he learned of the missing toilet paper. On June 19, Coe received a canceled invoice for 150 rolls of toilet paper. The request was the original from July 1941 and was stamped “canceled-cannot identify.” Coe wrote a response that is famous within the Navy today.
1. This vessel submitted a requisition for 150 rolls of toilet paper on July 30, 1941, to USS HOLLAND. The material was ordered by HOLLAND from the Supply Officer, Navy Yard, Mare Island, for delivery to USS Skipjack.
2. The Supply Officer, Navy Yard, Mare Island, on November 26, 1941, cancelled Mare Island Invoice No. 272836 with the stamped notation “Cancelled—cannot identify.” This cancelled invoice was received by Skipjack on June 10, 1942.
3. During the 11 1/2 months elapsing from the time of ordering the toilet paper and the present date, the Skipjack personnel, despite their best efforts to await delivery of subject material, have been unable to wait on numerous occasions, and the situation is now quite acute, especially during depth charge attack by the “back-stabbers.”
4. Enclosure (2) is a sample of the desired material provided for the information of the Supply Officer, Navy Yard, Mare Island. The Commanding Officer, USS Skipjack cannot help but wonder what is being used in Mare Island in place of this unidentifiable material, once well known to this command.
5. Skipjack personnel during this period have become accustomed to use of “ersatz,” i.e., the vast amount of incoming non-essential paper work, and in so doing feel that the wish of the Bureau of Ships for the reduction of paper work is being complied with, thus effectively killing two birds with one stone.
6. It is believed by this command that the stamped notation “cannot identify” was possible error, and that this is simply a case of shortage of strategic war material, the Skipjack probably being low on the priority list.
7. In order to cooperate in our war effort at a small local sacrifice, the Skipjack desires no further action be taken until the end of the current war, which has created a situation aptly described as “war is hell.”
J.W. Coe
Coe’s letter caused quite a stir and was circulated throughout the fleet. When the Skipjack returned to Australia after her patrol, she was greeted by quite a sight. The pier was stacked seven feet high with boxes of toilet paper instead of the usual crates of fresh fruit and ice cream. Toilet paper streamers decorated the dock, and a band greeted the boat wearing toilet paper neckties and toilet paper flying out of trumpets and horns. The men of the Skipjack would not have to do without toilet paper again, as they were greeted upon every return with cartons of the precious paper.
Back to my story: we had an upcoming deployment, and I had to order supplies to get us through the first six months. I was told to order some superglue and some wooden handled cotton swabs. I looked them up, and the superglue was listed as “adhesive, cyanoacrylate” with a unit of issue of CS (meaning case) and a unit cost of $1.44. The cotton swabs were listed as “applicator, cotton tip, wood handle” with a unit of issue of BG (bag) and a cost of $0.29. No mention in either case of how many were in a case or a bag. At the time, the military was known to be paying $400 for a hammer, so I had to guess.
I guessed that there were at most 2 tubes of superglue per case, and ordered 12 units of superglue, and that there were at most 10 swabs per bag, so I ordered 100 bags of them. What it turned out was that there were 144 tubes of glue per case, and 100 swabs per bag. I wound up with 1,700 tubes of superglue and 10,000 cotton swabs. This mistake was legendary. I caught shit about it for the entire deployment.
When I passed the job on to the newly promoted guy a few months later, I was evil about it. We sent him down to supply to get a can of eh-eye-arr. He came back to supply with a bottle marked “Air, room temperature.” He got the best of me.