Arrogant little fucker, ain’t he?

Fucker is begging for arms, and then he says this?

‘You can’t come to us empty-handed today, and we are expecting not just presents or some kind of cakes, we are expecting specific things and specific weapons,’ he said before the arrival of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

It ain’t like or his country are paying for the war materiel nor trading anything for it.

Were I part of the negotiations I’d tell Zelensky to pound sand.

A new personal record:

Landing on a 5000 ft runway, orientation 18/36 with a 220 wind at 26 gusting 36.

I gotta say it was challenging. But the plane is still usable and it was, if not a greaser, not all that bad a landing.  Wasn’t my best though. On centerline too. The approach was at about a 45 degree crab.

There were no good choices though, so I did it. Beat the storm in and put the plane away.

It was a challenge, and I almost went around just at the flare. Differential thrust is a good thing to have.

When they start paying like citizens then we can talk:

So the Supreme Court upheld that the US can treat Puerto Rico (a protectorate) differently than the States….at least as far as government handouts like Social Security and SSI are concerned.

Puerto Rico folks don’t pay Federal Income taxes, nor do they get representation in Congress…because they aren’t a state. They have benefitted greatly from being a protectorate of the US…no military costs, no taxes, lots of aid in Natural disasters, etc.

Now they want SSI for their people, despite not having contributed to the pool. They have NEVER anted-up to the table, being instead a drain on US taxpayers.

Are the citizens of Puerto Rico willing to do what the rest of us do in order to reap the benefits? If so, we can talk. If not, then shut up. Were it up to me, they’d be cut loose to mire in their own corruption and lawlessness.

Liberals are, of course, outraged. And it would seem that most who oppose this ruling are from or related to people who are from, Puerto Rico. Odd that. In fact, in advocating for free stuff for Puerto Rico, they are in fact, violating their oaths and bringing their loyalty to their country, the on who elected them. Race over Country is a thing amongst (Many) Hispanics, innit?

 

Supply chain incompetence

So I went to put new blades on the zero-turn mower.

I found one of the spindles had broken ears where the mounting bolts were. (2 out of the 4). The other bearing spindle had cracks on 2.

So I looked up on Amazon. $34 each and I can have them tomorrow…Supposedly OEM, not a chinese knockoff.

Then I called the local place where I bought the mower. They had the parts in stock, and they were just a few bucks more. I like supporting the local places, so I drove in and got a pair.

THey offered greaseable, and non greasable. Grease is cheap and it keeps the bearings happy, so I asked for the greasable ones.

Got home, and I had one greasable and one non greasable. Back to the mower place.

Got home, pulled the pulleys, got the spindle bolts loose, and found out that the replacement spindles were an inch and half longer than the ones I was replacing. Called the mower place, yeah, they have the correct ones, and drove back to town and exchanged ’em….taking the broken part with me to make sure they gave me the right one….AAAnnd the ones they were trying to give me were a half inch shorter that the ones I needed.

They did have the right ones. Supposedly it matters according to serial number on the mower as to which spindle length….I pointed out that THEY HAVE THE SERIAL NUMBER AS THEY SOLD ME THE MOWER. They simply never bothered to check….(I later found out that the parts don’t change according to serial number but MODEL number…

Christ on a pogo stick. This isn’t that hard, kid. Use the information tools they provide and don’t just get a part that looks similar off the shelf. And this counter guy has been employed there for several years. All told, it cost me an additional $10 in gas (Thanks Brandon!) and an hour of time to finally get the right parts…..I’d have been better off going through Amazon.

 

A lesson he’ll likely remember:

So in Syracuse NY, a 10 year old was caught shoplifting a bag of chips….The claim is that the cops “Terrorized” the kid. 

The cops were called and he was placed in the back of a police car and taken to his mother’s house. .

The neighborhood was, of course, outraged.

Thing is, had Mom (and Dad, if he exists) taught him not to steal, he’d not be there.

The folks in the neighborhood were, of course, outraged. Must be the cops were racist or something. “It was only a petty crime”…”Just a bag of chips…”

The beginning:

Today, in 1775, colonists chose to stand up and say “NO!” to the King of England’s administrators….and the army which enforced their rules.

They chose not to be disarmed, not to allow their powder and shot and cannon to be confiscated, and to fight the authority that thought that it was OK to take it. To lose their means to resist. They chose, instead, to keep that means to resist, to defend what was theirs, to have the ability to continue to say “Enough!” to the authorities.

They stood, and fought. While I doubt those colonists wanted a war, they were presented with the choice to either have a war, and stand as free people, or to knuckle under and be serfs. They chose the former.

From their actions that day began the birth of the country that became the United State of America. Like most births, there was blood and pain and mess….but birth a new nation they did.

Sending the soldiers of the King away in defeat, hounding them back to their barracks, sent a message that the colonies would not be ruled from afar, would not be taxed to ruin by a monarch from across an ocean, and would instead choose their own destiny.

That battle that began on Lexington Green…. happened 247 years ago today, in 1775.

Parker’s words at Lexington Green: “Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”

Good words then, and good words today.