Cartoon Cats

 

On Being An American Patriot

I was in the military during the Vietnam War, so does that make me a patriot?

I pay my taxes every year on time without trying to see how little I can pay, so does that make me a patriot?

I obey all the laws of the land and do not complain, so does that make me a patriot?

I am NOT CONVINCED that just by being in the military, paying taxes, and following the law makes me a patriot...

Why?

Doing these three items makes me a good American, but that is not necessarily being a patriot...

Why?

Because, being a patriot is expressing a feeling of LOVE, DEVOTION, ATTACHMENT, and LOYALTY for this country.

I enjoy living in the US of A, but I would not say that I love, am devoted, have an attachment, or am loyal...  that just isn't who I am.

Just because I don't love, am devoted, have an attachment, or am loyal to the US of A, does not mean I want to live some where else....

This country has an enormous amount of problems that it has yet to face and deal with other than try to ignore....  

These are:

1. What we did to the Native Americans
2. What we did to blacks
3. Double standards under the law
4. Rank has its privileges
5. Wealthy arrogance
6. Educated arrogance
7. Religious arrogance
8. Gender inequality
9. Law Enforcement abuse of power
10. Management and labor bitterness
11. North and South rivalries
12. Our Political Leaders LIE
13. We intentionally bend the laws
14. Corrupt judges
15. Insatiable greed

Will any of this change?

I have live 75 years and none of it has changed in my lifetime...

Sadly, without the wealthy,

• we would not have companies
• we would not have goods and services
• we would not have contributions to charities
• we would not have new product development

This is the greatest country in the world right now based upon the FREEDOMS that we have and others do not have...  BUT, I don't consider myself to be a PATRIOT...   I entered the military simply so that the government would pay for my college and grad schools...

Launch

 

Galaxies Newr the Dawn of Time

The small red dot highlighted inside the white box on this James Webb Space Telescope image is an early galaxy, seen as it looked just 350 million years after the Big Bang.       STScI/NASA

New baby pictures of the universe, taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, show that galaxies started forming faster and earlier than expected.

The telescope launched back in December and it now orbits the sun about a million miles away from Earth. Its giant mirror allows it to detect faint light that's been traveling for almost the entire history of the 13.8 billion-year-old universe. That means it can effectively see what galaxies looked like way back in time.

The snapshots captured so far have both thrilled and perplexed scientists, because it turns out that many luminous galaxies existed when the universe was very young.

"Just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, there are already lots of galaxies," says Tommaso Treu, an astronomer at the University of California at Los Angeles. "JWST has opened up a new frontier, bringing us closer to understanding how it all began."

In research papers published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Treu and other astronomers report the discovery of one galaxy that dates back to just 450 million years after the beginning, and another that dates back to 350 million years.  READ MORE...

Underwater Road

 

Strictly Political

 

Immigration from Mexico Tears Down Quality of Life in USA

 I have been more fortunate than others in that because of my father's employment, I went to high school in Cairo, Egypt and during the summers, traveled throughout Europe on $3 and $5/day from 1962-1966.

When I was in the military, we went on a Med Cruise and visited all the countries that bordered that body of water.  When my wife and I retired, we vacationed in the Caribbean, Mexico, and throughout Europe...  so, one could say that I have had ample opportunities to know what the quality of life is like is countries outside the US of A.

And, therein lies my problem with all this immigration as it is going to reduce the quality of life in the US of A wherever a group of them decide to live...   They will bring their lifestyles with them and the US of A will turn into MINI TIJUANA's...  see below...

Movement

 

The Threat to the USA

 

As a North American from the US of A, I can honestly say that there are several threats to the United States of which many may not be aware...

These threats include:

• China/Russia/North Korea/ Iran
• A Weak Military
• STEM Training
• Inflation (slow growing economy)
• Ending Fossil Fuels
• Immigration (limited resources)
• A Divided Country
• Robotics/Artificial Intelligence
• Crime and Violence
• Our National Debt

Most North Americans living in the US of A are concerned with whether or not they can get an abortion or not...  or if, the LGBTQ+ community is given all the rights they deserve....  or if, whether or not we should legalize marijuana nationally...  or if, college education should be free...  or if, everyone in this country should drive electric vehicles, knowing that our power grid is not strong enough to handle the overload and knowing that there is not enough charging stations to handle the demand...

Just for shits and giggles...

1. China is not giving up fossil fuels
2. India is not giving up fossil fuels
3. Russia is not giving up fossil fuels

SO...  how much of an impact will our country have on the GREEN MOVEMENT???

Isn't it interesting that I have only partially addressed ONE OUT OF 10 concerns...  

what about the other 9?  

can you imagine what they might entail?

Still After Trump - Six Years Later

 

Blockchain Development Companies

If you have been following banking, investing, or cryptocurrency over the last ten years, you may be familiar with “blockchain,” the record-keeping technology behind the Bitcoin network. And there’s a good chance that it only makes so much sense. In trying to learn more about blockchain, you’ve probably encountered a definition like this: “blockchain is a distributed, decentralized, public ledger.”

What is Blockchain?
If this technology is so complex, why call it “blockchain?” At its most basic level, blockchain is literally just a chain of blocks, but not in the traditional sense of those words. When we say the words “block” and “chain” in this context, we are actually talking about digital information (the “block”) stored in a public database (the “chain”).

“Blocks” on the blockchain are made up of digital pieces of information. Specifically, they have three parts:

Blocks store information about transactions like the date, time, and dollar amount of your most recent purchase from Amazon. (NOTE: This Amazon example is for illustrative purchases; Amazon retail does not work on a blockchain principle as of this writing)

Blocks store information about who is participating in transactions. A block for your splurge purchase from Amazon would record your name along with Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN). Instead of using your actual name, your purchase is recorded without any identifying information using a unique “digital signature,” sort of like a username.

Blocks store information that distinguishes them from other blocks. Much like you and I have names to distinguish us from one another, each block stores a unique code called a “hash” that allows us to tell it apart from every other block. Hashes are cryptographic codes created by special algorithms. Let’s say you made your splurge purchase on Amazon, but while it’s in transit, you decide you just can’t resist and need a second one. Even though the details of your new transaction would look nearly identical to your earlier purchase, we can still tell the blocks apart because of their unique codes.  READ MORE...

Skateboard Girl

 

Goodbye Nancy Pelosi

A Year's Worth of FOOD...

 

Having Goals to be Successful

Is it necessary to have goals?

Only if you want to be successful...

What is success?

It varies with people's attitudes...

For instance:

some think it is a big paycheck

some think it is a big office

some think it is power or position

some think it is buying whatever you want

some think it is a big house

some think it is an expensive car

What does it mean to have goals?

Having goals is nothing more than having a plan.

For instance:

• I want to finish high school and join the military...  probably the Air Force as that might be the least dangerous for enlisted personnel.
• I want to move up the ranks from E1 to E9
• I want to retire after 20 years
• I will start saving $2.50/day at age 20 and at the end of each month, I will put it in a mutual fund
• I want to take the skill I learn and acquire a job with those skills for another 20 years that has some sort of pension
• I need 40 quarters of outside of the military to qualify for Social Security
• I will work for 40 years and retire for good at 58 with 2 retirements
• At 67, I will apply for Social Security and have 3 retirements
• At age 67, I will liquidate my mutual fund and collect $500,000
• Estimated Retire Income
• Military - $2,000/month
• Second Job - $2,000/month
• Social Security - $1,500/month
• $500,000 Interest - $2,000/month
• Total Montly Income - $7,500

SO...

Having goals will put you in a position to be successful in many ways...  and, with the above example, there is no borrowing money for college...  you don't have to go to college to be successful...

If you have a burning desire for college, you have 20 years in the military to attend college and the MILITARY WILL PAY FOR ALL OF IT...  University of Phoenix was specifically designed for people in the military.

BUT...  not to have goals means you will flounder and not get anywhere until you realize how important goals really are...

In the end, the choice is always YOURS...

 

Chinese Artist - Gu Kaizhi

Gu Kaizhi, courtesy name Changkang, was a Chinese painter and politician. He was a celebrated painter of ancient China. He was born in Wuxi and first painted at Nanjing in 364. In 366, he became an officer. Later he was promoted to royal officer. He was also a talented poet and calligrapher.

Our Divided Country Changing

 

One of the outcomes of the 2022 midterms point out by Dan Bongino was the fact that in most every State in the United States the majority that the DEMOCRATS won by DECREASED from 2020...

In other words, let's say the Democrats in general in 2020 won by 20 points across the board... where Democrats won either House seats or Senate seats....

In 2022, Democrats only won by 10 points or less in most of their House and Senate seats...

SO...  what does that tell you?

It tells you the Democrats won again...

but, not by much this time...

REASONS:

1.  The Democrats pushed for early voting among their ranks so they could not change their minds based on new information...

2.  The Democrats got more votes to be counted by hand that by voting machine...

3.  The Democrats lied about abortion, saying the Republicans did not want it to be allowed...

THE TRUTH ABOUT ABORTION:  The Supreme Court did not make abortion illegal, but said that it was the responsibility of the STATES not the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT...  that is a huge difference.

4.  Donald Trump was seen as still the leader of the Republican Party and many people HATED him...

5.  The Republicans did not have any solutions to offer the American people.

6.  The Republicans did not fight the lies the Democrats were spreading...

So...

What will happen in 2024?

The Democrats might continue to win but their margins will decrease...

The Democrats could be destroying themselves with their progressive, liberal views more than they realize...

The global community could turn against the leadership of the USA because of their role models and the fact that they are projecting weakness to Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran...

Winston Churchill Saying

Diesel Reserves Running Out

President Joe Biden is proposing a plan that would require fuel suppliers to maintain a minimum amount of diesel in their inventories this winter to stave off severe shortages and prevent extreme price hikes. However, it could create a demand surge and drive up already high prices, according to Bloomberg.

The plan would force diesel vendors to take supplies off the market which could cause short-term diesel demand to soar and drive up prices in the Northeast, where fuel shortages are most severe, according to Bloomberg. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has exacerbated the East Coast’s fuel shortages as the region has become dependent on Russian imports due to the region’s constrained pipeline capacity.

“We also want to make sure there’s enough fuel in the United States,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said when asked about U.S. fuel exports to energy-starved Europe during an interview at the COP27 climate conference in Egypt. “It may not be a business choice that they make, but we’re asking, as the companies that are operating in America, to do what they are doing in other countries.”

The national average price of diesel is $5.31 per gallon and is $1.58 higher than it was in November 2021, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The Midwest region’s wholesale diesel prices skyrocketed in July after pipeline operator Magellan Midstream Partners increased the minimum inventory levels for fuel held throughout its pipeline, according to Bloomberg.

The European Union (EU) required its member-states to fill natural gas storages to 80% of full capacity in order to prepare for potential winter shortages, according to the European Council press release. Europe is currently heavily reliant on U.S. oil and gas imports as Russia has continuously disrupted natural gas deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline in retaliation to EU sanctions.

Americans who use heating oil (a form of diesel) will spend an average of $2,354 to heat their homes this winter which represents a 27% increase from winter 2021 and the highest price point in more than 25 years, according to the EIA.

The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Curious

 

Surrealistic Artists

 

Salvador Dali - The Persistence of Memory

Pablo Picasso - Guernica

Rene Margritte - Lovers

Joan Miro - Harlequin's Carnival

Max Ernst - The Tobing of the Bride

Surrealism

Surrealism, movement in visual art and literature, flourishing in Europe between World Wars I and II. Surrealism grew principally out of the earlier Dada movement, which before World War I produced works of anti-art that deliberately defied reason; but Surrealism’s emphasis was not on negation but on positive expression. The movement represented a reaction against what its members saw as the destruction wrought by the “rationalism” that had guided European culture and politics in the past and that had culminated in the horrors of World War I. 

According to the major spokesman of the movement, the poet and critic André Breton, who published The Surrealist Manifesto in 1924, Surrealism was a means of reuniting conscious and unconscious realms of experience so completely that the world of dream and fantasy would be joined to the everyday rational world in “an absolute reality, a surreality.” Drawing heavily on theories adapted from Sigmund Freud, Breton saw the unconscious as the wellspring of the imagination. He defined genius in terms of accessibility to this normally untapped realm, which, he believed, could be attained by poets and painters alike.

Characteristics
In the poetry of Breton, Paul Éluard, Pierre Reverdy, and others, Surrealism manifested itself in a juxtaposition of words that was startling because it was determined not by logical but by psychological—that is, unconscious—thought processes. Surrealism’s major achievements, however, were in the field of painting. Surrealist painting was influenced not only by Dadaism but also by the fantastic and grotesque images of such earlier painters as Hieronymus Bosch and Francisco Goya and of closer contemporaries such as Odilon Redon, Giorgio de Chirico, and Marc Chagall. 

The practice of Surrealist art strongly emphasized methodological research and experimentation, stressing the work of art as a means for prompting personal psychic investigation and revelation. Breton, however, demanded firm doctrinal allegiance. Thus, although the Surrealists held a group show in Paris in 1925, the history of the movement is full of expulsions, defections, and personal attacks.

CHECK OUT TOMORROW'S POSTINGS FOR 

5 SURREALISTIC PAINTERS AND THEIR ARTWORK

Strictly Political

 

A Trip to SAMS

 

About once a quarter, my wife and I drive down to Knoxville to make bulk purchases at SAMS because it is cheaper.  Knoxville is about about 30 minutes away from where we live...

What we usually purchase is Toilet Paper, Kcups for McCafe, Pomegranate Juice, Box of frozen COD and Salmon, Turkey Burgers, Atkins Shakes, Raisin Bran, Pimento Cheese, Nuts, and any odds and ends that come to our minds, that are cheaper that WalMart.

It is interesting to know that SAMS is a storage warehouse for WalMart, but some items are cheaper at WalMart than at SAMS...  so, you cannot assume anything and check all prices.

Today after shopping we were going to go to Panera Bread for lunch...  possible a cup of potato soup and 1/2 Tuna sandwich...  but, as we walked by the instore cafe, we decided to get a hotdog and a drink and eat while we were there.

A hotdog and a 24oz drink cost us $1.40 each.  The hotdog was delicious...  just like a hotdog that you would buy at a baseball park.

One of the things that we like about SAMS is that when you go there on the weekends, there are vendors (not SAMS employees) giving away FREE FOOD.

So, for desert, we had 2 pieces of strawberry cheesecake and 1 serving of apple pie (which was about 2 bites)...

Filled up the drink before we left to have something to drink on the way home...

I am just wondering how many people get a SAMS card and go to SAMS everyday for lunch?

Classic Sunday Morning Newspaper Cartoons

 

Democratic Speaker of the House is Gone

 

Nancy Pelosi has an approval rating of 31% and a disapproval rating of 48% or almost half the county...

I guess that means not many people liked her...

While she was the first female speaker of the House, not many American thought she was a good leader...

Did her being a Democractic female congress person stand in the way of compromising with the Republicans so that something positive could be done for the American people?

The Democrats and Republicans SPLIT THE US in HALF...  which means whatever one side wanted because they had the majority WAS NOT what 50% of Americans wanted.

While that is how our DEMOCRACY WORKS, those kinds of decisions only represent half the country...

The Republicans now have the a majority in the House but by only 1-2 hairs of their asses...  which means whatever they push through WILL NOT REPRESENT our entire country...

ONLY ONE SIDE WILL BE REPRESENTED...  a huge flaw in our Democracy...  and one that we did to ourselves in the 2022 midterms....

NON ONE SIDE HAS A MANDATE  from the people...  therefore whatever one side does, HALF THE COUNTRY WILL DISAPPROVE...

We just screwed ourselves for another 2 years...

AGAIN...  

THIS IS WHAT BIDEN IS GOING 

TO GIVE YOU:

1.  Higher gas prices

2.  Higher food prices

3.  An increase of illegal immigrants

4.  An increase in illegals drugs

5.  An increase in Fentanyl from China

6.  An increase in Crime and Violence

7.  An increase in Taxes

8.  Higher rates to borrow money to stop inflation

Hot Inflation Will Wipe Out Most

With price levels continuing to spike, the Fed is no longer using the word ‘transitory’ to describe inflation.

U.S. consumer prices jumped 7.7% in October from a year ago, still hovering near the the highest levels since the early 1980s. Food and energy are still spiking at a historic pace, which could give the Fed more reason to keep raising interest rates.

It’s a vicious cycle criticized by many investing veterans. And Rich Dad, Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki is one of the latest experts to sound the alarm.

“When inflation goes up, we’re going to wipe out 50% of the U.S. population,” he told Stansberry Research earlier this month.

Let’s take a closer look at what Kiyosaki means by that.  READ MORE...

Landing