Caption: It’s no surprise that the clowns are backing their own Hyena Harris for US President in 2024.
Democrat VP Nominee Walz’s family in Nebraska endorsed Trump. I guess they don’t want to go broke.
Walz acknowledges that they’re kin, but disowns them.
Social Security?
People need to be grandfathered in, and we must move on. Still, the only way to do it is with a Constitutional Amendment that separates the trust fund that people and their employers contribute to from the federal budget and the “full faith and credit of the US.”
The program must be voluntary for participants, and the yield could be LIBOR -1 or something like that when it is annualized. If you and your employer contribute, the money is yours. There goes your safety net when your money and your interest run out. People who did not contribute to it can’t draw from it, and there is no social engineering wherein one person receives less due to means testing. It’s yours. Otherwise, the Ponzi Scheme rolls on, and the national debt grows. So, it’s not a social program. It’s simply a retirement savings account managed by a board appointed by the vote of participants. Social Security was and is a lie.
It could also double as health insurance savings for retirement (up to the participant) but not a fund from which to draw “Medicare for All.”
If you spend your money, there is the charity of others that you can cast your fortune with. It may sound cold-hearted because you know that a class of people will want to opt out but will still expect a paycheck. The Constitutional Amendment will allow a national program to exist without having it under the Federal Umbrella. It’s not a defined benefit or a defined contribution pension program.
Medicare is another massively mismanaged Ponzi scheme. It’s time to open up all health insurance markets to all insurers so people can buy the lowest rate and end Medicare. Yes, some grandfathering must be included in it, but the program needs to sunset soon. If States under the Tenth Amendment want to offer state taxpayer support for residents’ medical needs, that’s fine. Cope with the move-ins and freeloaders, as you will. You, too, can be California.
Bullet Points:
** How comfortable are you with your robust and impregnable power grid? Are you prepared for the grid to go down? How old is your grid? Could the Monkey Wrench Gang (a few old bastards with hand tools) shut it down in five minutes?
** (From the Mail Bag) – I don’t “slut shame” Kamala for “having a sex life.” I don’t shame her for being a sex worker, though that’s the only job she was able to land on her own. I have contempt for her because she is an unintelligent, incompetent puppet for influential, evil people. She got to where she was by sucking cock and being so vacant and soulless that she’d do whatever her masters commanded her to do, without question — the perfect empty vessel.
** Why is it illegal to go to the beach in New Jersey without a pass?
** I’m so old that I recall when the only fake news was the National Enquirer.
** Discussing lava tubes in AZ and elsewhere brought up illumination systems. I’m a fan of the costly but quality products made by Surefire (including suppressors). I’ve used their products for decades, and they’re always first-rate. This is an unsolicited plug on my part.
From the Days of Fighting Sail
How to join the Navy- as a Seaman
When you see ships in paintings or read reports, you always feel that all boats are fully manned, and the men are always happy to serve on these ships. If you believe this, you have the impression that the men went on board voluntarily, but was that the case? How did the Royal Navy get their men, and were they all volunteers? Let’s take a look.
Volunteers: Every captain was responsible for manning his ship. If he did not manage to complete the crew, he could even be relieved of command in extreme cases. Of course, all ships – within certain variations by cousins’ economy – were served equally by the recruiting authority, but this allocation was hardly sufficient. So, every captain tried to recruit volunteers, especially at the beginning of the war when not all pubs were empty. He posted posters in which he referred to his earlier victories, to the prizemoney that his people had acquired, and in which hand money and distant shores were promised. The government and individual magistrates also suspended hand money when volunteers were recruited. By 1795, this had risen to £30 in some towns. However, the merchant navy also needed a large contingent of men, which soon emptied this personnel reserve.
Recruitment by the Marine Society: The Marine Society was founded in 1756 as a non-profit. It brought in children and men who did not shape their own lives after a particular basic training in commerce or the navy. The children were mainly orphans or abandoned boys. The men were primarily released prisoners who could no longer find a place to live or work, vagrants who were threatened with conviction, and similar people in need of help. During these wars, the Marine Society brought no less than 23,000 people to the fleet, classified as boys and peasants who could advance in service. It had to be done differently if all the ways to attract volunteers were exhausted.
Pressed crews– ashore and afloat: The Press Acts allowed the Recruitment Authority to force all seamen aged between 18 and 55 years into the war fleet after the outbreak of war in the coastal towns and villages. The word “Impress Service” distorts the original correct word “imprest,” which means giving a man recruitment money. The recruiters used all their tricks, secretly put the shilling into men’s pockets, and then claimed they took the hand money and were legally recruited. In the period after 1793, no more such tricks were used. A troop of seamen under the command of an officer was sent out to pick up sailors. Whoever the troop found was taken along and forced onto the ship, and he could be happy when he saw his homeland again after a long time.
The press gangs were not squeamish. They did not confine themselves to sailors only but seized those who seemed strong enough to them and often sufficiently tore him away from his wife and children. They boarded incoming merchant ships and took away all but the few sailors who could bring the vessel to anchorage. There were legal requirements for the press gangs. The officer had to carry the written permission with him. The coast inhabitants also had rights. All who worked in shipyards or important coastal shipping, but also invalids, had certificates of liberation. Unfortunately, these were not always respected, and by the time a complaint reached admiralty, months had passed, and the ship was somewhere in the world. Only gentlemen were not harassed by the press gang.
The coastal regions suffered from this kind of human abduction, and the magistrates tried to contain it. Brian Lavery, for example, reports the case of the mate of a merchant ship being killed when a press gang attempted to hijack the sailors. The magistrate immediately brought charges against the captain for murder. The Admiralty, however, ordered him to the West Indies to prevent jurisdictional access.
After Napoleon surrendered in 1814 and the Napoleonic wars ended, Britain could now sharply reduce its Royal Navy. It had no need to impress sailors, and although it did not officially renounce the practice, it never again used that technique against Americans. In the next war against Russia in 1853, a new system of fixed-term engagements gave the Royal Navy sufficient volunteer recruits to meet its manpower needs.
Quota- Men: In 1795, the government passed the Quota Act, which required every seaport and every inland district in England to provide a certain number of men for the fleet. It may be remembered that the country had no general military service. The quota for men to be delivered was based on the size of the county, so Yorkshire had to provide 1081 men, Rutland 23, and London 5704. It was expected that the counties would try to lure them with recruitment money. But the districts tried first and foremost to eliminate tramps and small crooks. And one group was even pleased about this chance: the debtors in the debt prison. Those who owed less than £20 could report to the fleet and remain persecution-free. You could also buy a salesman to fill in for you. The price with hand money and free purchase was about £70. That was many times the amount paid to volunteers at the outbreak of war. This difference increased the seamen’s aversion to the quotamen. This also led to frequent conflicts within the crew.
If you look at the crews, you will see that the volunteer boys account for 8% (both midshipmen and the boys of the Marine society were combined here), Volunteer men 15 %, pressed men 50 %, foreigners 15%, and quota men 12%.
Identify the Aircraft
1
As World War II’s largest British-built heavy bomber, it was impressively tall at nearly twenty-three feet. Its robust Bristol Hercules radial engines, which collectively generated 6,600 horsepower, powered it.
2
Identify the Armor
3
There’s a really big hint – you shouldn’t need another.
Identify the Ship (and aircraft)
4
Since the ship’s name is prominently displayed, you must do more than write down a name.
Parting Shot
The Air Warfare Commander, sitting in the back seat, departed the aircraft without warning, taking the canopy and his Martin Baker (did he meet his maker in it?) with him. Next time, keep him in the Hawkeye.
End
Caving: 20 some years ago I took a Cave Rescue course in W. Virgina. Mandatory was 3 separate light sources. Keeping in mind that we wore helmets and LEDs weren’t a thing yet we had a Petzl helmet light with spare bulb and battery, a sportsman’s headlamp (we picked ours up from Cabela’s) with spare bulb and batteries, and a Pelican Super Saber light. Everyone also kept a chem light in a pocket on their person plus a couple more in their pack.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Short Stirling
2. Bachem Ba 349 Natter
Identify the Armor:
3. Uran-9 unmanned ground vehicle
Identify the Ship (and aircraft):
4. German catapult ship Bussard carrying Blohm & Voss BV 138
100%
A whole new topic. The Boeing Starliner capsule managed to get back from the space station to earth. Each capsule has a specific name. Kind of like how they named the Pan Am airplanes. The name of the capsule, and it’s painted on it just below the America flag on the sidewall bottom… Sea Anchor. Somewhat fitting.
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The German Natter rocket was made mostly out of wood and glue. With an armored cockpit with bullet proof glass. They had a space suit developed for the pilot. Depending on one’s viewpoint this may have been the first manned space rocket. (V2 was first space capable rocket, but as far as known was never manned during the war). Unfortunately the Natter test pilot was killed during testing.
More on Boeing and SpaceX on 9/11 on VM.
Yes, the test pilot for the Natter was blown up. I wonder if the pressure suit would have worked in the upper atmosphere?
They tested in vac chamber and all was good. They knew to pre breathe oxygen. I’d think staying warm and hand dexterity would be challenging. Draeger who made diving suits and regular pressure suits for aircraft was the suit builder. Suit had a lot of rigid metal to it and a big oversized helmet similar to Captain Nemo Disney movie diver so not very comfy. Tech went to Americans and Russians.
One is Avro Lancaster
Caving
I had a couple of guys on a training course who were into extreme caving. They were going to Oman on their holidays to a cave that was 3 days walk to the unexplored section. Three lights per person minimum. They were going to be 10 to 14 days underground. Not for me and I’ve been in caves in about six countries.
Surly beat you out on #1. It is a Short Stirling.
LIBOR, the system rigged by banks in London for years? Thank you no. (SOFR replaced that for setting US treasures. Why did we ever let the Brits set our interest rates?) End all the Foreign aid, the “Democracy aid”, and refugee aid. Plus stop a couple wars. We’ll have plenty of money. Expell the illegals at the same time.
Ok, don’t use LIBOR. Use 11th District Cost of Funds or some other measure, but you need to have some index to use to establish an annualized rate of interest to pay out that is ‘fair.’ Foreign Aid is often a scheme of kickbacks through NGOs that funds democrats in America. But funding a national retirement program in that way is like trying to use a drop of water to contain a forest fire.
Thank you for saying “banks in London” rather than “the English”. It’s an important point.
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As to why? The system is rigged. And not for us subhumans who exist only to serve the “Elite”. The other day our friend CederQ posted a meme at Phil and his place, saying “Record profits are unpaid wages”. The majority of comments (when I last looked) were along the lines of “that’s commie talk!!!” Nonsense. Those well meaning commenters were (probably, I am not a mind reader) thinking about small businesses: a family restaurant, the local plumbing shop, the corner garage, etc. But record profits are not going to those guys. It’s going to Pfizer (“take the jab or home arrest for you” with $90 BILLION in profits from Covid), to Boeing ($32.8 million to CEO David Calhoun for “most of our planes don’t fail”), to State Street, to Blackrock (“kill a commie for mommie” is so 1950’s. It’s “kill a brother for a Fink” these days). The wealth of this nation has been extracted and is going to that sort of vulture and crony “capitalism”.
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The saying is “the Devil’s greatest trick was to convince the world he doesn’t exist”. But that’s not true. The Devil’s trick was to convince us that he is right, and just, and honest, and our role model, our friend, our wise counsellor. And of course that he is The Real Victim and we must help him in all things.
X2
X3
Mike, I posted it knowing that most would think it is socialist/communist and it was directed to small businesses and it wasn’t. The post was directed to all the wealth being extracted from us mouth breathers, how corporations and ngos and yes, the typical politician are using graft and backdoors to untold wealth. Sadly, most of my readers failed that test.
Surefire for the win. Great stuff!
Beach Passes are a grift…it’s not “their” beach no more than it’s the beach of those beachfront properties. Beach towns are inherently tourist places, towns WANT people to come and spend money at their “special spot”, they foster it. Yet when people “discover a place” and it gets crowded or “bought up” (eg. Aspen et al) they then whine about people coming there (the, “if you build it they will come” scenario). In beach towns, taxes collected include beach maintenance in order to keep the main attraction, tacking on a fee to sit in the sand is nothing but a use tax after the fact. National Parks, local parks, mountain parks…same deal…we get to pay for the use of our own property. But that is what you get when ignorant do-gooder people vote for this stuff…while in some cases, the government simply enacts the fees (aka tax).
smarter towns (and villages) simply put in meters near the beachfront – and tow unrepentant meter-scoffs to a fenced facility, some of which have been known to close at sundown – oops!
Do people every go ‘postal’ when this happens? I realize that these tow lots have savage dogs roaming inside, and all that, but everything can be overcome with the proper level of violence. Some people in this modern world don’t understand the value of random acts of violence toward government drones that establish these kinds of practices.
Exactly…and also enact a “resort tax” structure to keep year round residents from feeling the hurt from newbies buying a little bungalow, doing a scrape off, then building a million (3-4 now) dollar monstrosity, jacking up property values on the block.
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Beat an Ocean City Boardwalk meter ticket once…it was later but perfect for strolling after the crowds left but the venues were still open. Parked, meters on the block were flashing some dark red, no readable instructions, so walked off. Came back 2 hours later after 10pm to find a $250 ticket on the windshield. Wrote a “terse” letter to them – as a longtime OC visitor (parents had a place there for 15 years), explaining that if they want to honestly collect parking meter fees they should make it obvious at night to be able to read the meter in the dark. The judge vacated the ticket then ordered the town to make the new meter usage “obvious”. Never mess with an engineer (or tick off a chemist for that matter).
Social Security was not taken from military pay until the Korean war as a portion of the pay was withheld for retirement if all obligations were met. When reservists and guardsmen were called up for service in Korea, they lost a portion of their civilian pension plan — that’s when companies kept folks and had company retirement plans — so Congress allowed those called to pay a portion of their military pay to make up for the lost pension bucks. To the best of my research, the Great Society implementation was when the active duty along with all reservists and guardsmen were taxed Social Security in every pay check.
In school, during an advanced course on history and proper documentation, a student wrote a wonderful paper using the National Enquirer as a primary source. Even though it was beautifully typed with correct spelling and punctuation he received a failing grade. The reason was that he used a known unreliable source. Of course, that was when we didn’t just make up stories and force feed them to everyone.
Social Security is not sustainable as presently envisioned. It’s become a redistribution system that’s part of the “full faith and credit of the United States,” and the United States is $35 trillion in debt and growing.
The teacher obviously never worked in intelligence or they would have known that one needs to vet the source and the information separately. Sometimes unreliable sources have accurate information. Kind of like the MSM now. Once ‘reliable ‘, now better verify before you trust.
I remember that a couple years ago or so the National Enquirer was printly some true stories that no one else was.
I cannot remember what those stories were, but I think they were Trump related.
Same with the Babylon Bee, more truth in sarcasm nowadays than the MSM.
They were space-alien related. I have proof. PROOF, I say!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTFfthVy_pA
Egger Suit!!
Beach passes are Peak Jersey. It’s a shame about the place; parts of it are nice.
All about the Control, though.
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We’re confident enough in the grid to have solar PV and propane local generation.
Plenty of food stock, too.
We aren’t as well set for gasoline, but we do have six vehicles with usually full tanks,
so that’s something. All but one are good for 300-400 miles range.
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-Kle.
Power Grid Supercalifragilistic Comfortableness: Not at all, past Winter “events” (meaning “weather”) have proven the grid is poor at best by those tasked with such things. Heard the grid will need to be 3x’d (min) in order to support the utopian (aka “control the masses”) “all electric” society. Heck, they can’t even do the 1x grid now, what makes anyone think those handling infrastructure robustness will/can do anything to expand our power grid reasonably well? These same people can’t even keep bridges and roads up to snuff…same as DC stealing We The People’s confiscated Social Security cash to use as they decide. Criminal in Armani suits.
Social Security
Nothing you have written I disagree with. I’m still paying into it since I’m still working. It does warm my cold heart to know I’m beating the actuary tables and I plan to continue hoping that it pisses off the evil scum using Social Security funds for every pet socialist scheme.
Many of us suspect an audit of the Federal Reserve, or the actual gold at Ft Knox, would show massive malfeasance. What might a forensic audit of the Social Security ‘Trust Fund’ show? Can Trump, in his next term, order those audits?
Good on ya, lad. I maintain that when any of us who are retired stands our last formation, it is a three-fer for TPTB.
1. You stop collecting SS.
2 You stop using any Medicare/Medicaid.
3. You stop telling the younger folks how it used to be.
RHT447
Fortunately I have kin that make me look like a flaming liberal. They will carry on.
” the perfect empty vessel.”
You take that back!!! She’s not empty. VP Harris is brown, dumb, and full of … er, Good Ideas.
Yeah. Ideas. Lots of good ideas.
You can be unburdened by what has been, etc.
Are you sniffing the anesthetics again?
I’m basking in the glow of democrat dogma. Which in its essence is now Trump Dogma since they’ve adopted his platform.
Mike_C must have spent way too much time out and about in the General Public, some might have rubbed off. He needs a cleanse…his choice to how that happens.
Space aliens are said to have perfected the technique, but I don’t know more than that – I don’t have details.
It’s not the general public. So far as I can tell, the normal person on the street is repulsed by the idea of Harris/Walz.
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The people I am parodying are high-IQ, highly-credentialed persons who embody the saying “you have the be really smart to be able to believe something that dumb.” The areas where I spend my professional time are thoroughly pozzed. As in full of people who claim the 2016 elections were totally above aboard, that Trump is psychotic, and so forth. And a number of these persons have paid thousands to attend some event where they got to shake Hillary Clinton’s hand. And also Harris’ appendage. But even those people are now keeping their political opinions to themselves. Even those people are feeling the economic pinch, and they’re concerned about crime and illegals, even if they can’t admit it out loud.
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But the guy I was channeling? He sends me texts (using company resources) at decidedly odd hours encouraging me to support “Harris/Waltz” (sic). He also told me that only the people in his country of origin (which is not his ethnicity nor his identity; the ordinary people there are “shockingly stupid, which I did not realize until I had to join the Army at 18. Before that I went to very exclusive schools.”) suffered under communism. “Russia? China? Those were nothing. It was just maybe missing some meals, or not having new clothes. But in [redacted]? That was where the people suffered. Where WE suffered.” Now this is not an evil person. But something on the order of 100 million dead Slavs and Chinese would beg to differ on the issue of “suffering”. It takes either an absolute idiot, or someone with an insanely weird view of the world, like this guy, to be enthusiastic about Harris and Walz.
We move in different circles, different people, but asking medical people if they’d want Kamala administering a hospital where they work, or Walz ordering medical supplies and not f-ing up the order completely might be a place to start. These turds are completely incompetent at doing anything. They have handlers for every aspect of their lives.
Soc sec can be managed ,not fixed. If the cap is raised ,currently @$165k I think or ended .S oc sec can easily get through the next 10 years when most of us in or 70s will have departed the planet. Medicare/medicaid will blow the budget long before that. I have seen projection they will absorb all receipts within 5 years. That’s prolly off as it takes all receipts now to pay interest on the debt.
If your dependent on meds , your screwed. Get healthy boys and girls your on your on.
NO confidence in the grid, and not much confidence is SS either… sigh…
There will come a point when we default on a payment to the national debt. What will happen to SS and Medicare after that?
Here’s the back story on the F-14 incident. On 6 November 2002 at NAS Fallon, NV, a battle-group-air-warfare commander (a Navy Captain) was being given a backseat orientation flight in F-14D, BuNo 164341, of VF-213, “Black Lions”. During an inverted maneuver, the Captain must have flinched when he slightly rose out of the seat and pulled the ejection handle between his legs by accident. He was very lucky since all of the ejection and aviation-life-support-systems (ALSS) equipment functioned as designed. The Captain landed in his parachute unscathed, was recovered almost immediately and transported to a local hospital for treatment and evaluation. The pilot, LT Geoff Vickers, made an uneventful landing back at NAS Fallon.
F-14D-170-GR, BuNo 164341, was repaired and returned to service with VF-213 back at its home base, NAS Oceana, VA. She would make the last operational catapult launch of a USN F-14 from the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) 28 July 2006. Went to AMARC for storage 20 September 2006. SOC 29 November 2006. Still there.
Gary North (deceased) said that in California around 1955 his high school teacher showed the actuarial math for how the baby boom retiring would make SS go bankrupt around 2011. There is no pile of savings in any form and never was, SS was a Ponzi from day one.
What retirees want is joint replacement surgeries, but you can’t store doctors and nurses in a government warehouse for 50 years. If you save in gold coins, then you have a pile of metal disks, not doctors and nurses. The gold coins are only useful if you can trade them to young doctors and nurses from the first or second world. But if the whole world had a fertility reduction, there are no young doctors and nurses anywhere.
The answer is – CLONES. Imagine an army of thousands of Mike_Cs running around, scalpels in hand.
I’ve never, hardly, paid into the ponzi.
Surely that deserves a reward.