Buddy Dale sent me this one. Hilarious!

Saw the original meme the other day but forgot to save it. I had to make my own.

Update: Fucking Facebook COVID bots

On my way out of Stones River National Cemetery, I saw this headstone and smiled for the obvious reasons:

But my brain quickly reminded me of a scene from the movie The Big Red One.”

“- Pvt. Johnson – 1st Squad: Would you look at how fast they put the names of all our guys who got killed?
– The Sergeant: That’s a World War One memorial.
– Pvt. Johnson – 1st Squad: But the name’s are the same.
– The Sergeant: They always are.”

I went last Saturday as volunteer to help lay wreaths. It was a very nice and very sobering event. Plenty of people showed up, but only enough wreaths for perhaps 1/3 of the tombstones.  I gotta find out how to get more somehow for next year.

Here are some of the pictures I took.  Click to enlarge.

I saved this photo for last. We were asked that as we laid the wreath, to say the name of the soldier out loud as show of respect to the individual we were honoring. The gentleman in the pictures was Vietnam Vet according to the cap he was wearing, and he not only said the name out loud, but talked to them as if they were known comrades. It was a moving scene to witness to say the least. And I guess after all he is indeed a comrade in arms across time.

I’ll be back next year.

The missus and yours truly had a chance to watch 3 episodes of The Mayor of Kingstown and one for 1883.

I like Jeremy Renner which is the reason I signed up for Paramount+ to watch the show.  I believe is an underrated actor who is capable to take any role in any type of movie. Go from any of his Avengers performances and then jump to Wind River to see what I mean.

The Mayor of Kingstown is about a family of wheelers and dealers of a town dedicated to the incarceration industry. I read somewhere that there is not a single main character with a redeeming value in the show and I would have to add that it also includes about 99% of the secondary ones. Yet, I hooked me because I felt I was watching a juggler play with 5 grenades at once, all with the pins straight and you are just wondering when the whole thing is just going to collapse spectacularly.

As for 1883, we only saw the first episode and the production value is outstanding. Sam Elliot is Sam Elliot and I have to give props to Tim McGraw; the sumbitch does a very nice job of acting. The story is being told (mostly) from the point of view of McGraw’s daughter in the series and I realized it reminded me a lot of the miniseries Centennial, specifically the part where Elly Zendt’s letters to her best friend were the narrative of the young couple traveling from Pennsylvania to Colorado.

Oh yes, lots of shooting and the guns appear to be period correct including a rolling block rifle (Sharps?) with a long scope.  Tim McGraw’s Colt SAA looks minimalistic and very nice and kudos to the producers for actually having a double barrel shotgun as the go-to weapon when SHTF or wrongs need to be righted. The experts can say what they want, but the gun that won the west was in my humble opinion, the 12-gauge side-by-side shotgun.

If you haven’t watched the shows, give them a try. If you had, leave a comment and tell me how wrong or less wrong I may be. 🙂

Theft of water during a drought. The exploitation of immigrant laborers. Intimidation of residents by armed criminals.

A Democratic state senator from southern Oregon said his region, awash in illegal marijuana farms that are protected by gunmen, is starting to look more like a failed state.

After hearing him and others testify this week, the Oregon Legislature dedicated $25 million to help police, sheriff’s offices and community organizations pay for the ballooning costs of cracking down on the thousands of industrial-scale, illegal cannabis farms. Residents said the assistance is welcome but not enough.

Awash in illegal cannabis farms, Oregon plans millions for relief – OPB

Damn it! This si what the War on drugs has brought us. If we would only legalize pot and allow for the farming of it under government control, we would not be seeing stuff like this happening.

Seven years after Oregon voters passed a ballot measure legalizing the recreational use of marijuana and its regulated cultivation and sale, the state is grappling with an explosion of illegal marijuana farms that have brazenly cropped up, primarily in Josephine and Jackson counties in the south.

How’s that possible? /end sarcasm>

I am still amazed that government and potheads in general thought crime cartels would just go away with their heads bowed in defeat. You go ahead and allow a demand to be increased tenfold by legalizing a drug habit and you thought only those you allowed because you make them pay “legal” extortion money will produce the Devil’s oregano? And the farmers rather than point out the idiocy, go after other farmers.

The farmer also blames landowners for selling or leasing property to bad actors.
“If somebody walks onto your property with a suitcase with $100,000 in $20 bills, you kind of know they’re not on the up and up. And if you take that money and allow them to do something on your land, you should probably anticipate that they’re there to break the law,” he said.

Dude, if some Mexican enforcer show up with a shitload of cash for my land (rental or buy) I’d take the money too. They still run under the directive of “Plomo o Plata” (Lead or Cash) and I enjoy breathing pretty much to risk it because you were dumb enough to buy in the Legalization fairy tale and now you are butthurt and soaked with debt.

The Law of Unintended Consequences never fails to impress me.