Tag Archives: America

Current Events

SOTU – Nothing but a Pack of Lies

12 Comments

Before I introduce this post I need to update you on my battle with USAA. The inevitable finally happened; all these years, 49 as of this month to be exact, I bragged about not hearing this from my bank, insurer, brokerage firm, mortgagor, and all around favorite organization in the U.S. But, it has happened. I called last week to discuss something with them and this is what I heard, “Welcome to USAA, press one for English.” That did it for me for I do not do business with a company that  doesn’t understand where they are and what language we speak. I am not trying to disparage those who speak Spanish, I am merely saying, if you want to live in the U.S. learn our language. If I would happen to move to some South American country would I expect them to speak my language? Hell no I wouldn’t; it would be my responsibility to learn their language.

So, starting this week I re-joined and began moving everything to NFCU to which I belonged starting in 1967 when I returned from RVN. I stayed with them until I moved to USAA in February 1974. Needless to say, I am really impressed with what they offer and am sure I will be happy with them. 

Okay, now to the post. Another good one from my friend and fellow Marine Greg, I did not watch the SOTU address as I knew it would be nothing but one lie after another and sure enough that appears to be exactly what it was. I have convinced myself that his election was, in fact, fraudulent in every aspect. I mean, do we really have that many stupid idiots in America that thought he was the best choice. I don’t think so, the problem is Trump just pisses everyone off all the time. He has certainly ruffled my feathers of late by his disparaging remarks against my Governor. I don’t think he knows DeSantis very well as he is not one he wants to spar with. And now that Haley has thrown her hat in the ring, he is even attacking her.  What does he think he is going to gain by doing that? I remember my favorite president of all times, Ron Reagan saying, “A Republican should never speak ill of another Republican. ” Trump had best shut his mouth. If the primary were held today, I would not be voting for Trump as I personally believe he hasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming president again. Shut the hell up Trump!!

Smoke, Mirrors, and Balloons                                                                                  By: G. Maresca
Since the Biden Administration took office, their billowing nonstop smokescreens are asphyxiating. Consider the humiliating withdraw from Afghanistan to the proxy war with Russia in Ukraine to record inflation claiming food, energy, and a stagnant stock market.

The mirrors are as plentiful as a carnival funhouse with the daily flood of illegals pouring across our Southern border as Biden toasts “President Harris,” while calling out to dead congresswomen and confusing Cambodia with Colombia. Biden’s response: blame Donald Trump.

Then there was the manifestation of a series of flying objects – the first one identified as a Chinese spy balloon. Four more objects appeared within days. Coincidental or is the logical conclusion too overwhelming? If Biden doesn’t know what these are, we should know.  For half a century, Washington claimed Biden doesn’t know anything, but when he admits he didn’t know anything, nobody believes him.

With layer upon layer of bureaucratic red tape that holds Washington hostage, we were fortunate that when Biden finally gave the order he didn’t shoot down the Goodyear blimp at the Super Bowl.  Popping China’s spy balloon was the first thing Biden did to reduce inflation since taking office. With Biden at the helm, it is like watching a kindergartener juggling hand grenades.

It took some cowboys in Montana to call attention to the first balloon. Then Biden claimed it posed no threat, only to shoot it down.  One more downed balloon and Biden gets the top prize at the funhouse.  The balloon didn’t penetrate Washington airspace because the Chinese knew there was no intelligence there to collect.

Being a national security issue, this is the bipartisan concern the nation has been searching for as China is testing American resolve. The communist Chinese must exit from our universities, research facilities, corporations, and from any land acquisitions.

President Obama’s East Asia Strategy afforded the Chinese plenty of intelligence correlated electronics, hardware, and software. Recall the 2009 hack of F-35 fighter-jet blueprints to the continuing theft across the board of intellectual property through clandestine cyberattacks. China’s thievery of American data and technology continues to be met with little to no consequences.  How much American technology was attached to that balloon?

The Rutherford Institute reports foreign entities owned 40.8 million acres of American agricultural land with China owning nearly 192,000 acres that were all near military bases. Customs and Border Protection reported a 700% increase in Chinese migrants at the Southern border as we witness the consequences of open borders and air space.

China is on a ceaseless campaign to embarrass and humiliate America while becoming the world’s dominant military. The obvious seems lost on those shining a seat with their groove thing in the Oval Office and throughout the Pentagon. How long have these flights been going on without a response and why? Sadly, the military is too consumed with reducing their carbon footprint and pushing their diversity inclusion and equity (DIE) agenda.

Biden appears compromised, yet Congress does nothing.

Since this is the Chinese “year of the balloon” and for better protection of their fleet of spy balloons in the future, the Chinese will be changing from white balloons to rainbow-colored ones stenciled with the letters: BLM.

From all these classified documents and balloons floating around and Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals, and the “big guy’s” stake in them, where are the straight answers? The nation’s media, its fourth estate, does not have the slightest intention of pursuing any of this.

American companies that deal in technology should not be doing business in and with communist nations. This did not occur during the Cold War with the Soviet Union, so why is today any different. Let China have the NBA. They deserve each other.

If anything, a Chinese balloon has brought to the forefront our military vulnerabilities that must be addressed. As a nation, we are not isolated from foreign military threats, and our pathetic response begs many questions about our military preparedness.

Meanwhile, at the southern border ….

We are trying to solve a spiritual problem through political means. Until we realize this, the situation and all the hot air surrounding it will only continue to inflate, and those Chinese spy balloons will be the least of our concerns.

Originally posted 2023-02-18 10:10:46.

Recent Posts

Is America Dying?

13 Comments

This was sent to me from a fellow Marine brother with the author unknown, but whoever took the time to write this, he or she has created an absolute masterpiece of gospel truth. I urge you to read it slowly and absorb it all. Then read it again. Nations  of long ago took centuries to fail, not so in today’s electronic world. The script has been written, the play appears to be in its final act – the United States of America as we knew it is doomed. Thank you Al

Men, like nations, think they’re eternal.  What man in his 20s or 30s doesn’t believe, at least subconsciously, that he’ll live forever? In the springtime of youth, an endless summer beckons. As you pass 70, it’s harder to hide from reality…. as you lose friends and relatives.

Nations also have seasons: Imagine a Roman of the 2nd century contemplating an empire that stretched from Britain to the Near East, thinking: This will endure forever…. Forever was about 500 years, give or take…. not bad, but gone!!

France was pivotal in the 17th and 18th centuries; now the land of Charles Martel is on its way to becoming part of the Muslim ummah.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the sun never set on the British empire; now Albion exists in perpetual twilight. Its 96-year-old sovereign is a fitting symbol for a nation in terminal decline.

In the 1980s, Japan seemed poised to buy the world. Business schools taught Japanese management techniques. Today, its birth rate is so low and its population aging so rapidly that an industry has sprung up to remove the remains of elderly Japanese who die alone.

I was born in 1945, almost at the midpoint of the 20th century – the American century. America’s prestige and influence were never greater. Thanks to the “Greatest Generation,” we won a World War fought throughout most of Europe, Asia, and the Pacific. We reduced Germany to rubble and put the rising sun to bed. It set the stage for almost half a century of unprecedented prosperity.

We stopped the spread of communism in Europe and Asia and fought international terrorism. We rebuilt our enemies and lavished foreign aid on much of the world.  We built skyscrapers and rockets to the moon. We conquered Polio and now COVID. We explored the mysteries of the Universe and the wonders of DNA – the blueprint of life.

But where is the glory that once was Rome? America has moved from a relatively free economy to socialism – which has worked so well NOWHERE in the world.

We’ve gone from a republican government guided by a constitution to a regime of revolving elites. We have less freedom with each passing year. Like a signpost to the coming reign of terror, the cancel culture is everywhere. We’ve traded the American Revolution for the Cultural Revolution.

The pathetic creature in the White House is an empty vessel filled by his handlers. At the G-7 Summit, ‘Dr. Jill’ had to lead him like a child. In 1961, when we were young and vigorous, our leader was too. Now a feeble nation is technically led by the oldest man to ever serve in the presidency.

We can’t defend our borders, our history (including monuments to past greatness) or our streets. Our cities have become anarchist playgrounds. We are a nation of dependents, mendicants, and misplaced charity.  Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.

The president of the United States can’t even quote the beginning of the Declaration of Independence (‘You know – The Thing’) correctly. Ivy League graduates routinely fail history tests that 5th graders could pass a generation ago. Crime rates soar and we blame the 2nd Amendment and slash police budgets.

Our culture is certifiably insane. Men who think they’re women. People who fight racism by seeking to convince members of one race that they’re inherently evil, and others that they are perpetual victims. A psychiatrist lecturing at Yale said she fantasizes about “Unloading a revolver into the head of any white person.” We slaughter the unborn in the name of freedom, while our birth rate dips lower year by year. Our national debt is so high that we can no longer even pretend that we will repay it one day. It’s a $30-trillion monument to our improvidence and refusal to confront reality. Our “entertainment” is sadistic, nihilistic, and as enduring as a candy bar wrapper thrown in the trash.  Our music is noise that spans the spectrum from annoying to repulsive.

Patriotism is called an insurrection, treason celebrated, and perversion sanctified. A man in blue gets less respect than a man in a dress. We’re asking soldiers to fight for a nation our leaders no longer believe in.

How meekly most of us submitted to Fauci-ism (the regime of face masks, lockdowns, and hand sanitizers) shows the impending death of the American spirit.

How do nations slip from greatness to obscurity?
* Fighting endless wars they can’t or won’t win
* Accumulating massive debt far beyond their ability to repay
* Refusing to guard their borders, allowing the nation to be inundated by an alien horde
* Surrendering control of their cities to mob rule
* Allowing indoctrination of the young
* Moving from a republican form of government to an oligarchy
* Losing national identity
* Indulging indolence
* Abandoning God, faith, and family – the bulwarks of any stable society.

In America, every one of these symptoms is pronounced, indicating an advanced stage of the disease.

Even if the cause seems hopeless, do we not have an obligation to those who sacrificed so much to give us what we had? I’m surrounded by ghosts urging me on: the Union soldiers who held Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, the battered bastards of Bastogne, those who served in the cold hell of Korea, the guys who went to the jungles of Southeast Asia and came home to be reviled or neglected.

This is the nation that took in my immigrant grandparents, whose uniform my father and most of my uncles wore in the Second World War. I don’t want to imagine a world without America, even though it becomes increasingly likely.

During Britain’s darkest hour, when its professional army was trapped at Dunkirk and a German invasion seemed imminent, Churchill reminded his countrymen, “Nations that go down fighting rise again, and those that surrender tamely are finished.”

The same might be said of causes. If we let America slip through our fingers, if we lose without a fight, what will posterity say of us?

While the prognosis is far from good. Only God knows if America’s day in the sun is over.

Author Unknown

Postscript: Read it and weep, forward or erase it! I read it three times and am now posting it to you, believing that we are at the moment in time to either stand up, or shut up! We now may soon be at the next stage in our country’s future. I believe it is closer than we think. God help us.

 

 

 

Originally posted 2023-02-08 11:36:04.

Current Events

Flyers or Faggots?

3 Comments

Another good one from my friend and our fellow Marine brother, Greg who certainly has a way with words. Amazing that it takes a Russian to remind us who were are and what we stand for.  Surely the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL don’t know who they are or what they are supposed to stand for as role models.  Maybe they should change their name to the  Philadelphia Faggots – the pride of the city of Brotherly Love. I wonder what their attendance record is for home games?

The DIE penalty box
By: G. Maresca

On a recent mild January evening in the City of Brotherly Love, the affection of one home team NHL player was anything but mild. A firestorm of disgruntled wrath erupted upon Ivan Provorov, a Russian native and a defenseman for the Philadelphia Flyers, compliments of the LGTBQ+ agenda and their woke confederates of the diversity, inclusion and equity crowd (DIE).

It reminded me of the old standby: I went to a hockey game and a boxing match broke out.  However, this fight underscores how secular humanism is attacking religiosity for the cultural soul of the American nation.

Provorov, a Russian Orthodox Christian, refused to wear a “Gay Pride Night” jersey with the rainbow flag or use a rainbow-taped hockey stick during warm-ups before the game. “I respect everybody, and I respect everybody’s choices,” Provorov said following the game. “My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion.” It is the gay lobby and their media allies who couldn’t help themselves in falling over each other making a huge issue over why one player decided not to conform and prostrate himself to the LGTBQ+ agenda.

Provorov is not making a stand saying gay pride night should not be held. He is merely exercising his right to decide and be left alone. Being compelled to support the tenets of a faith other than his own is as un-American as it gets – until now. No one should have to be a billboard for another’s political, social, or religious beliefs.

Symbols of faith, freedom, and courage are rare in contemporary American society and yet it is a Russian, no less, who is the model of strength and conviction in this torrid era of national wokedom.  This is why many supported him on several websites by selling out his jersey.

Provorov takes all the risk as standing tall against the leftist mob takes plenty of puck. Most would rather not jeopardize being maligned and browbeaten. Provorov spoke for others without the courage of their convictions, while expressing one of the basic dogmas of Christianity: “love the sinner, hate the sin.”

Since inclusivity is the goal, perhaps the Flyers will host a “Christian night” where players will wear jerseys saying: “Jesus Saves?”  What about “MAGA hat night,” too?

A truly free society does not mandate that their citizens conform to any agenda that forsakes their own believes and traditions. Such hollow virtue signaling only serves to chip away and rust our liberty. The fact that so many are unable to differentiate between honoring one’s country and applauding who people sleep with says much about how distorted our values have become.

First comes the demand for tolerance, then comes acceptance, followed by celebration, and finally mandated participation.  The perpetually aggrieved and offended are never satisfied, provided they do not get their way they move on to the next outrage and repeat the process over again.

As a nation we are consumed in a protracted episode of the Twilight Zone, where it is heroic to disrespect and protest the American flag, while hoisting and paying homage to the gay pride colors is not only expected but unquestioned.

The LGTBQ+ movement is not merely about acceptance of certain sexual proclivities and gender identity with preferred pronouns; rather it is a wholesale secular religion that must be acknowledged over one’s own religious and conscientious beliefs. The great marketing ploy that LGTBQ+ is about “love” is a canard in the first degree. Although they preach tolerance and acceptance, they embody the exact opposite provided you dare to disagree.

The harassment of Provorov violates our Constitutional rights. These are the same rights that leftists shove in your face when convenient for them. Provorov understands America better than the many who thrive on victimization and outrage. With his Russian roots, he knows all too well about Marxism’s groupthink.

Provorov deserves respect, not ridicule.

It has never been about tolerance, diversity, or equity.  Rather, it is about submission and conformity. If it were about inclusion, the left would acclaim Clarence Thomas, Amy Coney Barrett and Thomas Sowell.

They don’t.

They disparage them.

Sadly, we have devolved into what we once condemned and fought against, and it has taken a Russian to remind us.

I certainly have not forgotten what I abhor and am against, and I surely do not need a Russian to remind me – do you?

Originally posted 2023-01-28 16:25:43.

Current Events

Gas or Electric

4 Comments

OMG, What’s next gang? There is not enough going on in this once great Nation, that we now have to hear that coking on a gas stove is bad for our health. This would be so hilarious if it weren’t so true. Keep it Joey, you are outdoing yourself.

Another good one from my friend and Marine Greg Maresca

A cooked-up nanny state crockpot

By: G. Maresca

The left wants you driving an electric car and now cooking on an electric stove as they want to ban gas stoves. Richard Trumka of the Biden administration’s Consumer Product Safety Commission said gas stoves should be banned under the guise of public-health.

This is the same administration claiming the border is secure and inflation under control.  We are $31 trillion in debt with Social Security heading toward insolvency and the left wants to know what you cook on.

After criticism, Trumka backtracked saying President Biden is not in favor of banning gas stoves. Trumka mistakenly said the unspoken bestowing new meaning to the expression: gaslighting. When it comes to the climate alarmist agenda, there is always something simmering on the burner.

Rather than cook on gas stoves, the Biden’s will not only cook but heat the White House by burning all those classified documents stored in their garage at Car-a-Lago. Was this “find” of classified materials the roadmap to route Joe and his Corvette to the exit ramp? Such fodder is a column for another day.

The left had their bedrooms liberated with the Obergefell vs. Hodges decision and have now moved into your garage, bathroom, and kitchen.

Leftists claim gas stoves are a health hazard.

Cooking is chemistry and the noxious gases created are from the ingredients, the digestive tract and sometimes from poor ventilation, but not natural gas. This is not about your health or renewable energy; it is about power and control. People need to realize when government bureaucrats regulate health, safety, and energy, they are nothing but trojan horses for unchecked hegemony.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has taken the appliance truck hostage saying all new gas stoves, hot water heaters and furnaces will not be sold starting in 2025.  By 2035, New York will join their Californian brethren where it will be illegal to purchase a gas vehicle.

Such “bans” are part of the Great Reset that will supplant individual freedom of choice with government diktats. Liberty is taken one small bite at a time all in the hallowed name of the common good. Famed science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein said decades ago that “there is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.”

How convenient that the Inflation Reduction Act includes an $840 rebate for electric stoves. Provided subsidies, rebates, and tax credits are ineffective, coercion follows. We will be like Cuba is with cars except with gas stoves that are a half century old. We will be scrounging and fabricating parts to keep our gas appliances serviceable.

mocrats are pro-choice and follow the science loyalists except when it comes to gas. According to Consumer Reports, more gas is used to generate the electricity needed to run an electric stove than a gas one. Likewise, gas stoves are not the preferred stove to cook on and do not stay hot after use. How many restaurants on Martha’s Vineyard cook with electric? Moreover, gas stoves still function when the power goes out.

No matter what the science says, including published peer reviewed analysis of data, you will still be labeled as a “climate denier and a crackpot conspiracy theorist” if you don’t agree. Perhaps the solution lies in having your gas stove identifying as electric along with any other gas appliance.

As the electric grid grows more strained with each passing year, going all electric where a portion is dependent on unreliable and destabilized renewable power has plenty of consequences.

Electric cars, light bulbs, toilets, pronouns, and now gas stoves as it is one absurdity after another. What’s next? The FBI kicking down my door and wrenching away my quarter century chrome shower head from my warm wet hands.

Burger joints and steak houses will go the way of phone booths and VHS tapes. Enter gluten free soy cuts on an electric stove cooked by an LGBTQ+ illegal immigrant.

So, leave the key under the mat when they come for your gas appliances and go out and get your COVID booster and make sure your mask covers your nose.

What’s there not to like?

 

Originally posted 2023-01-21 17:49:10.

Current Events

Is USAA Too Big?

3 Comments

My unequivocal answer is YES! Next month, I will have been a member of USAA for forty-nine years. USAA has been my only bank, auto and home insurer, my brokerage firm, and until recent years my home loan company since February 1974. I was eagerly looking forward to getting my 50-Year sticker for my car next year, but that will not happen. Why do you ask? Well, bear with me and I will try to explain as briefly as possible. And I ask all those whom I had been responsible for recommending this one-time superb company to you to please read carefully and make your own decision. I am sorry.

As has happened over the years, back in December I had a suspected fraud incident on my rewards credit card, which my bride and I both have a card on that account. First let me explain that we use that card for EVERYTHING, and I do mean everything. Oftentimes I only have a few bucks in my wallet. In fact, I even bought my 2012 Mini Cooper on the card. Anyway, I called USAA and as always, I got a very polite, courteous, and knowledgeable agent who promptly took care of the problem by cancelling my card and issuing another.

I commented about having to notify all the companies that hit that card for monthly debits e.g., utilities, etc. She recommended I get another card and use it for bill paying but put the card in a drawer and not use it to buy anything but continue to use the current card for everyday purchases like gas, groceries, online purchase. That way if a fraud incident happened, I would not have to notify anyone of the card change. I thought WOW, what a great idea. I thanked her profusely. She transferred me to a credit card application agent who, as always, was another very polite, and knowledgeable agent. I explained what I wanted to do, and she agreed stating she does the same thing with two cards. I spent about forty-five minutes having to listen to four disclosures and filling out the application. She put me on hold and submitted it to the Underwriting Department. She came back on and informed me my application was disapproved. WHAT?

She blamed the disapproval on an Experian credit report. I asked for a copy of the letter outlining the refusal, which she forwarded to me. I immediately went to Experian and pulled up my credit report. My credit score was 803, and every comment on every account was favorable. They did mention I had too many inquiries during the last twelve months. I refinanced my house twice during the year to get down to a 1,75%. VA loan. Their last comment was, and I quote, “There are no unfavorable comments on this report”. Was I pissed? You Betcha!

I am an Economist by education and hobby; I understand the banking industry and the FED rules. This disapproval was not a result of a banking industry rule; it was USAA’s. I called USAA asking to speak to a supervisor or manager and was told none were available, but she would make a note and as soon as one became available, I’d get a call, – I never did!  So, as I have done one other time over the years, I wrote the CEO, now Mr. Wayne Peacock, a personal letter knowing full well he would never actually see the letter since he has a department who handles his letters – they are too big for him to be bothered with such trivial matters.

About two weeks later I received an email stating USAA had tried to reach me by telephone but was unable to. I never received a voicemail nor a phone call from them. However, they did provide a link for me to call them back, which I did.  The extension was to the CEO’s grievance department. I was told it was a recorded call. She said she was calling about my problem with a fraud charge on my credit card – she obviously had not understood the reason for the letter; therefore, I had to enlighten her. We spoke for almost an hour, and I got the party line – sorry too many inquiries. I asked if there were any mitigating circumstance considered e.g., longevity with the company, or even some sort of loyalty to a member’s record of NEVER paying a dime in interest charges or late fees. She said no, everyone is treated alike to be “fair.” She understood my frustration, but there was nothing she could do as too much time had passed. My only alternative was to reapply, but there is no way to tell what the result would be.

I asked if the CEO had seen the letter, and she said no. I asked was there any way for her to get him to see it; she said she would try, but there was no guarantee. She did say she would try and contact the underwriting dept and see if there was any way at all for them to relook at it, and she would get right back to me. That was over a week ago and I have not heard from her and won’t.

The fact is USAA has gotten too big. I am simply just another client, one of the masses and my record means nothing to them. Don’t get me wrong, it has nothing to do with my retired rank. Oh yes, they call me Colonel Bathurst when I talk to the nice agents, but that is not the point. I am talking about forty-nine years of an exemplary record.

As I stated in my letter, when I joined USAA, it was for officers only. Then they lowered it to E-7’s and above, which I applauded. Then as I best as I can remember they lowered it to E-4’s and above, Again I applauded that action. Then they lowered the threshold to any Vet with an honorable discharge or a general under honorable conditions. That concerned me! I considered that a mistake. Did they understand who gets a general discharge under honorable conditions? As many of you reading this will surely understand, many of those are not the most favorable vets around. It means they probably had official problems such as a court martial or several Article 15’s, and they just weren’t up to par with their peers. I personally believe that move has caused USAA some problems, which may be why our year-end bonuses are not what they used to be. Granted there were many who were young, wild, and foolish, and may have done something to grant that discharge, but have now grown up and became reliable trustworthy citizens.

One more issue in the letter. My RV was totaled during Ina. My insurer, Nationwide since USAA sends you Progressive because they don’t insure RV’s, paid off the loan. A debit to my checking account was to hit in two days. The loan company, US Bank because USAA’s interest rates are over the top compared to them. I called US Bank asking them to not issue the debit because of the loan being paid off. The agent said she would try but it normally takes two days to stop it, but she would try to expedite it. It was Thursday and the debit was to take place on Monday. She recommended I call my bank and tell them to not accept the debit in case she cannot stop it. I called USAA and was told it takes them three “business days” to execute a stop. I did not know USAA’s computer systems and data updating do not work on weekends. Luckily, US Bank came through and it was not executed. Maybe I will go to US Bank when I leave USAA, they don’t seem to be too big.

Sadly, I am done. I will not get my 50-year sticker. As soon as I get my year-end bonus and my senior bonus in February, I will un-ass USAA and take my business to another financial institution who understands there are exceptions to every rule, and one who recognizes and appreciates longevity and loyalty.

Cavet Emptor,

Jim

PS, Strangely, I have in recent years spoken to several members, even within my own family who also left USAA for a variety of reasons, all of which point to being too big. I do know I can get auto insurance locally for a lot less than USAA even considering their yearly bonuses, but I stayed with them for loyalty reason.

Additionally, in Oct 2017 I posted a letter I had sent to then CEO, Mr. Stuart Parker, about their advertising campaign. And I did get a call, but not from him. You can see my posts should you desire.

Originally posted 2023-01-08 13:05:48.