I know, not the usual fare here for Sundays, but it is to accompany Peter’s posts about immigrant songs.

I may have told the story before, but here it goes anywhere: Three idiots with barely a command of an English Spanish dictionary decided to spend a couple of weeks in New York City. It was my first trip as adult to the US (Another one at 11 years and less than 48 hours in DisneyWorld does it count) and one of the reasons for the trip was to check on possibly coming to college.

I was nervous, won’t deny it. Many things happened that day that would have served as warning to others, but in my “ignorance” I chose to ignore them, including the fact that 5 planes were hijacked that day my a Left Wing guerrilla group, ours was to be the sixth, but the hijackers did not make it in time to board the plane. It was December and we were dressed tropically, we found out that we had been swindled by our travel agency with the van rental and so on.

Anyway, after we taken of, reached cruise altitude and breakfast was served, they showed a movie and one that I had not seen: “The Jazz Singer” Neil Diamond’s version. The movie starts with his song “America” which I never heard before and it struck me across the chess as good omen: You are doing the right thing and you will make it.

Thirty six years later, I am happy to say the omen was right.

America
Neil Diamond
Far,
We’ve been traveling far
Without a home
But not without a star
Free,
Only want to be free
We huddle close
Hang on to a dream
On the boats and on the planes
They’re coming to America
Never looking back again,
They’re coming to America
Home
Don’t it seem so far away
Oh, we’re traveling light today
In the eye of the storm
In the eye of the storm
Home
To a new and a shiny place
Make our bed and we’ll say our grace
Freedom’s light burning warm
Freedom’s light burning warm
Everywhere around the world
They’re coming to America
Every time that flag’s unfurled
They’re coming to America
Got a dream to take them there
They’re coming to America
Got a dream they’ve come to share
They’re coming to America
They’re coming to America
They’re coming to America
They’re coming to America
They’re coming to America
Today, Today,Today,
Today, Today
My country ’tis of thee (today)
Sweet land of liberty (today)
Of thee I sing (today)
Of thee I sing.

he song was from a time when becoming an American was enough prize and living in this country meant freedom, meant watching the Stars and Stripes fly and feel a knot in your chest. Today coming to America is about EBT benefits and free medical care. And God forbid you unfurl the flag because that makes you a racist.

I could care less about the Super Bowl, and most of the ads are shit.

This one from Budweiser hits it out of the park.

It is a true story.  Budweiser regularly shuts down beer production to produce canned drinking water.  Budweiser uses its network of trucks and distributors to ship that water to emergencies.

Budweiser shipped over 155,000 cans of water to the Gulf after Hurricane Harvey.

Truth is, I didn’t know about this until I looked it up for the Super Bowl ad.  I really glad they did this.  It’s stories like that that show just how much America is the opposite of a shithole.

Politicians are happy to shit down the goverment and hurt people to get their way.  They are happy to use an emergency to line the pockets of their donors.

Then they get in front of the cameras and proclaim loudly just how altruistic they are.

A private company, much maligned by the same politicians, quietly goes about using their resources to help people.

I’ve been covering the Democrat response to the popularity of the tax cuts.  It is a glorious mix of condescension and elitism.

Nancy Pelosi is just not stopping.

She sent out, what is quite possibly, the worst economic Tweet of the year.

Pretty obnoxious the GOP thinks workers should be weak-kneed with gratitude for corporations giving them pennies while pocketing a multi-billion dollar tax break stolen from the future of the middle class. #GOPTaxScam pic.twitter.com/ulLIexUf4q

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 26, 2018

Holy shit!

It’s clear that this is what they actually believe.  That rich Republicans are hording the money and tax breaks and bonuses are just crumbs dolled out to weak and stupid people who are powerless to help themselves.

One of the fastest ways to prove how economically stupid you are is to talk about “corporations” or “the corporations” like they are sentient and malevolent entities.

Pelosi and Democrats like her are trying to sell the message that people should HATE THE EXTRA MONEY IN THEIR PAYCHECK because… envy.

This is, first of all, a Communist mentality.  That is not an exaggeration on my part.

More than that, other than in the most impenetrable ideologues, it’s a horrible selling point.

The way most Americans seem to be seeing this is:

“The economy took a shit in 2008.  I voted for Obama.  For eight years I didn’t get a raise or a bonus, but the executives who ran the banks that had to be bailed out by Obama did. 

I didn’t vote for Trump but after one year of Trump in office, I got a raise/bonus, and am not afraid of coming into work and being downsized.

Maybe Trump was right.“

This is fucking horrifying for Democrats, and they are going to try and crush it.  I just don’t think they are going to be able to.

The elites got bonuses under Obama, the Middle Class didn’t.  Both did under Trump.  The Democrats can’t wave that away all that easily and the people

So they are going to try and make them hate money.

An appliance has decided to screw up a little but just enough to make SWMBO upset and I have been trying to get it fixed. Not “that is good enough” fixed but fixed-fixed.

Also, I have been doing some reading. I can’t go into details, but I am enjoying the hell out of it and trying to do so as fast as possible … for reasons.

But at least allow me to share this video:

One of the envelopes I sent was my first NRA Election Ballot.

Have you sent yours?

And no, I am not telling you whom I voted for… OK, just one: Robert K. Brown. His articles and the ones from other writers in Soldier of Fortune, were my first comprehensive Second Amendment reading.

Sorry, but I am faithful to my Elders and Wisers.
(Is that even a word?)

As your average American, I don’t do a lot old-school mailings. Maybe the occasional big envelope or package and almost always through the US Postal Service. I know, but I never had an issue with them and I had plenty with the private carriers.

Today I had to send out a couple of envelopes and SURPRISE! Not a single stamp to be found in the house. If there is one things I hate with passion is dealing with the inevitable lines at my local post office. It is not necessarily crappy postal workers but the customers: You see, Cubans (I am including all Hispanics) not only want to argue about everything but they do it loudly and suck the time and joy of being outside the house. And you don’t wanna be there in Payday when every single sucker goes buy a Money Order.

So, I exclusively go to this almost never used machine in the lobby of the same location:

For whatever reason, this machine is almost always free when I drop by.  Today was no exception (The line at the counter was 18 people deep, I counted them) but I was mailing only a couple of envelopes and the machine informed me that the minimum transaction was $5 and gave the option to buy stamps. Oh hell yes, sure as hell I don’t wanna stand in line and I was already hearing what sounded like an argument about the price of sending a box to some exotic Caribbean location with urgent shit for mom.

I was expecting to get a booklet of some sort like you get at the counter, nope: printed the QR code on the stickers right there after a quick ATM card transaction.

TADA! A few seconds later, the envelopes were tagged and deposited in the proper slots. Total time in the Post Office? I’d say easily under 10 minutes.

IMHO, the USPS should machines like this not only in every post office but any business that would take them. Go to the supermarket? Do your postal stuff there. Gas stations also come to mind.

Just my opinion.

Since the invasion of Poland by the Nazi blitzkrieg in 1939, it has been in the Military Sacred Scrolls and Historical Commandment Tablets that Cavalry is dead. It was a foolish thing when the Poles attacked tanks on horseback and think they had any chance of winning. It couldn’t be done then and now in modern times, no way Jose.

Till a group of Green Berets and a bunch of Afghanis did just that in the opening days of the War on Terror. Not only they won that battle, but they toppled the Taliban as the De Facto governance of the country.

There has been many High Speed-Low Drag shit done during these years of war, including the killing of Bin Laden, but nothing can topple that, specially from a group of truly special operators  who avoid door-kicking-superman actions and shy away from any publicity.

The movie “12 Strong” based in the book “Horse Soldiers” has ruffled the Social Warrior Justice’s feathers something awful.

This quote should give you all you need to know:

The Taliban are portrayed as black-clad savages, executing women who teach others above eight years old how to read and write.

Not for nothing, but that is an accurate portrayal of the Taliban. Others include the beat downs as a first and only warning of males not wearing beards; after that was death by an assortment of methods. Suicide bombers targeting strictly civilian targets and the destruction of any  historical artifact from an era or culture not mentioned in the Quran apparently escaped the critics. It should not be surprising since at the time, “human rights” organizations were more into trying to denounce the US and have US Soldiers tried for Crimes against Humanity than actually go after the truly evil fucks that ran Afghanistan and gave OBL refuge.

I cannot tell you if the movie is any good and I will keep to my tradition to wait for it in PPV eschewing theaters, but if it is any close to the book, it should be a decent flick. I hope it makes money and pisses the critics off just like it happened with Act of Valor.

HatTip Justin Blogson