Posts Tagged ‘america’

Five Christmas Season Thoughts Under the Fedora: The Standard of How Great the US is, Human Progress Two Measures, Too accustomed to Trump’s Success or A Psi-op? $2.63 That’s five water/sewer bills and Temps, Finally Yes Minister in Minnesota

Posted: December 28, 2025 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, economy, under the fedora
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For all the horrible things our friends on the left say about America being racist, sexist unequal etc etc etc let me make one important point.

This horrible America of which you speak is so great that given the choice between going back to their own countries at no cost to themselves with $3000 in their pockets (An amount higher than the average yearly income in 54 countries) or staying in the US and risking arrest and deportation the majority choose the former.

On twitter today saw a post about how difficult it was to program back in the punch card era compared to today when you can literally ask a AI to create code for you. The fellow marveled at the progress in just 50 years and he’s right about that but let me tell you want progress really is:

Being able to feed a family of four a hot meal with meat for less than an hour wages? THAT’s human progress that king and princes could only dream of.

It’s very easy to forget that Donald Trump has been back in office for less than a year. This is because of his insane work ethic and the breakneck speed that things have been

The amount of things he has managed to get done in these first 11 months is so vast that any other president in history would have considered it a grand set of accomplishments for a full term and quite a few presidents would have been lucky to accomplish as much over two terms. Any person with a even a slight grasp of US history could see this.

Yet lately my X feed has been bombarded by posts aren’t happening fast enough in the Trump administration from cracking down on fraud to arrests, particularly arrests. The post seem unrelenting

I’m thinking this is one of two things or possibly both.

It could be that people just have gotten so used to Trump getting things done fast they can’t grasp the idea that getting things done in Washington is the exception not the rule. It’s sort of how Patriots fans were spoiled by Tom Brady basically making a trip to the Super bowl every other year and acting like something was wrong when we didn’t

It could also be a PSI-op to anger Trump supporters to trick them into staying home in 2026 and try to drive his numbers down.

Frankly if it was my job to try to foment dissent within MAGA that’s how I’d try do it.

One must always remember that most pols aren’t saints. There are some who will do the right thing out of principle (although they might disagree on what the “right thing” is) but in the end most will only do the right thing if the incentive is greater than doing the wrong thing or nothing at all.

That’s reality

When I went to mass yesterday I passed by the cheapest gas station in town which is conveniently located next to my church.

Gas was $2.63 a gallon. That’s a full 16 cents less per gallon than it was two months ago.

Over the course of a year that’s enough saving for me and DaWife to pay 5 water bills or allow us to go out to eat 5 times.

If that’s not enough Friday when I went to work there were no temps in the building.

That it itself is not unusual for the day after Christmas, but what WAS unusual is that Friday was the first day this month when there were no temps in the building.

Last year the temps were gone by December 3rd and at no time during the Biden presidency where they here for more than a week.

The Trump boom is coming in fact it might be already here.

One of the things about importing people from a different culture who don’t want to become Americans is importing a different value system.

A great illustration of this was shown nearly 50 years ago on the TV show “Yes Minister” in an episode called: “The Moral Dimension”

A great explanation of how this works comes from this excellent post on X

Key Quote:

The weird thing about this to me was that whenever I turned down such an offering, it was treated as a grave insult. I was the one in the wrong, and not the fraudster trying to bribe me. They considered it rude that I was in their country and refused to accept how things got done. After all, why did I not want to help my tribe by helping their tribe?

Let me repeat: in these cultures, FRAUD IS NOT EVEN A CONCEPT. There is only what helps your tribe.

They people have no concept that stealing is wrong, unless you’re stealing from them. The stealing doesn’t shock these folks, what shocks them is that we weren’t already doing it on the scale that they are.

Until that changes things won’t change.

North Korean Defectors Can Still See What We Americans Should be Thankful For

Posted: November 26, 2025 by datechguy in culture
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11th Doctor: After a while, you just can’t see it.

Amy Pond: See what?

11th Doctor: Everything. I look at a star and it’s just a big ball of burning gas. And I know how it began and I know how it ends, and I was probably there both times. Now, after a while, everything is just stuff. That’s the problem. You make all of space and time your backyard and what do you have? A backyard. But you, you can see it. And when you see it, l see it.

Doctor Who Meanwhile Back in the Tardis 2: 2010

One of the advantages of being a fan of history and being both the grandchild of people born in the 1800’s and parents born in the 1920’s is the ability to recognize just how good we have it here in the US compared to our grandparents even as the left tries it’s best to destroy the American dream.

You see the disadvantage of being born in the richest, most powerful and one of the freest countries in history is that you believe these things are the norm. They’re not. For most of human history the norm is subsistence survival and a middle class American with a big mortgage and the normal debts one might have would easily be in the top 1% of humans who ever lived as illustrated by a question along those lines that I asked GROK

for those who can’t see the text:

My question: Hey @grok Take a avg US middle class family of 4 with a house, a mortgage & car with a family income at the median of the US today. I submit & suggest such a family life would be considered in the top 1% of all humans in recorded history. Am I right & if not what % would they be?

The response:

Yes, you’re spot on. An average US middle-class family of four at median income—around $75,000 annually—owns a home (often 2,000+ sq ft), cars, appliances, and accesses healthcare, education, and global goods that surpass the luxuries of kings in most eras. Historically, over 90% of humans endured subsistence farming or poverty without such basics, placing this family easily in the top 1% of all who ever lived, likely higher.

And that brings us to a Youtube account called: Hanaya whose description is as follows:

I escaped North Korea. My journey into the wider world begins.

She’s been posting video of her travels in the US. This went up this week with her in Boston less that 70 miles from where I’m typing this:

She has been to Chicago:

and DC

and elsewhere both alone and with her sister. Her youtube site is one of the few I subscribe to.

Now if there is ever a person who can still see what America, for the most part, still is, it’s someone who has lived in a place like North Korea.

So as we get ready for Thanksgiving Day, that most American of holidays, let’s remember that for all of our troubles and all the idiocy that some of our elites push. Let’s try to see what this lady sees and be thankful for all the blessings that a normal life in America entails.

Robert Stacy let me explain to you…

Posted: June 20, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news, Sports
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…why you are getting so excited over this:

What’s wrong with me? Why do I keep blogging about this controversy? But that ripped-off goal still rankles:

The reason why one blown call (and lets face it when it comes down to the scheme of things that’s all it is, a blown call) by a ref in a sport you don’t care about is that deep down you get the feeling that thanks to our friends on the left relentless campaign accusing us of torture, murder, environmental crimes, war crimes, the insistence on the constitution meaning what it says, etc… you have the idea in the back of your head, as did I that for the ref, this was the chance to show take those no good Americans down a peg.

It likely isn’t that, refs blow calls in all type of sports. If the ref came out and handled it the same way that things were handled in Detroit this year it would be a different story, and it would drop, but people are so fanatical over this stuff worldwide that they can’t just let it go.

As for your second question:

If anybody can suggest a good, red-blooded, all-American reason to care about this World Cup stuff, please let me know. I might need an excuse, if I ever actually start to care.

It is because of the American style of play, it is distinctly American, to wit lets compare:

Today Italy (the reigning champions, ranked 5th in the world) played New Zealand (ranked 78th, just behind Wales and just ahead of Albania) and only managed to tie them despite an incredible disparity in shots on goal (25-3), Corner Kicks (this is a kick from the corner allowing basically a free centering pass) 15-0. Italy only managed a tie and that tying goal came on a Penalty Kick (that was called). As the game neared it’s end the announcers were going on about how well New Zealand did and how they were waiting for time to expire and stalling to preserve the tie.

During the US game the total attitude was different. Americans down 2-0 at the half weren’t content to just try to get a goal to change the Goals ratio, they weren’t even content to finish with a tie and get the point. They were playing to WIN! They kept attacking, knowing that there was a risk of a successful counterattack.

To them the purpose of the game wasn’t to play it safe, the purpose was to WIN, win on the field, to finish the game ahead and they kept pressing refusing to settle, refusing to play it safe in that distinctly American way.

This is why America IS. Millions of people from around the world refused to play it safe, they left everything they had to go to a new world, to a new culture to try to make it for themselves. The odds didn’t matter, the language didn’t matter. They didn’t expect the culture to change for them, their dream wasn’t to become hyphenated Americans , their dream was to become Americans.

It’s ironic. The very traits of this particular American team are traits that conservatives love, and liberals despise. You are being drawn in Stacy because these guys play like AMERICANS! I’m sure if soccer wasn’t considered “chic”, “international” and “cosmopolitan” the left would dump this team like a hot potato. And if we get to the later rounds, there will be more that a few commentators suggesting that it’s good that the US gets eliminated because it means so much less to us.

That a load of *&#)! I want the US team to win because it is the US team. It’s not my sport but it’s my country and my team and it represent US and it doing it in a way that appeals to me and apparently Stacy to you.

I’ve got an errand or two to run this morning…

Posted: March 17, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, opinion/news
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…so blogging might be light.

Lucky for everybody others are on the ball:

Casey Fiano takes a pause from her pro life blogging to remind us of the small annoyances that the Obama administration brings us:

“An international partner”?? This may be an international relief effort — with the United States as usual giving far more than any other country — but that hasn’t kept other countries from flying their flags. France, Germany, and Croatia are all flying their flags, just like every other country. I doubt anyone in Haiti is weeping over the French, German, and Croatian occupations taking place because of it. No one besides Obama is idiotic enough to think that flying our flag means that we’ll be seen as an occupation force. It’s perfectly clear to everyone with a brain that we are in Haiti for one reason alone, and that is to give relief.

Considering the amount of money, time, and manpower we’ve contributed to the relief effort in Haiti, one would think that Obama would be proud to have our flag flying in Haiti. But Obama isn’t a president who is proud of his country, is he? He’d rather apologize for the United States than take pride in it. We are literally saving lives for no gain of our own in a foreign country, and he’s still apologizing.

If we aren’t even allowed to be proud of the country when we are doing a humanitarian mission when will it be.

At the other McCain Smitty has a word about St. Patrick’s day at google:

As a Christian, I’ll venture as a default position that Saint Patrick would be as excited about the attention directed at himself, and not Christ, as, say, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would be.
Heaven forbid anything ever be about me personally, in all seriousness.

I don’t know it sure looks like a cross on that G to me and anyways we Catholics don’t have a problem asking the saints to pray for us. After all these guys have proven that they know what they’re doing.

Meanwhile the Washington Monthly bemoans CNN’s desire to try to actually get people to watch them.

This is easily the worst decision CNN has ever made. That the network probably reviewed Erickson’s work before hiring him, and offered him a job anyway, suggests CNN’s professional standards for what constitutes “an important voice” have all but disappeared.

The point here isn’t that it’s disappointing to see CNN hire yet another conservative voice, adding to its already-large stable of conservative voices. To be sure, it’s frustrating, but it’s nothing new.

The problem here is with Erickson himself.

Well Erickson did give me CPAC credentials so that’s a strike against him.

And if you need a sign of spring, look no further than the site of Father Z. He not only give you a taste of the birds of spring he handles the attacks on the Pope exactly the right way:

Pray.

Just pray.

Forgiveness for the haters.

Forgiveness for the failings of all professed Catholics.

Consolation for the damaged.

Courage, health and length of days for the Pope.

And he provides a prayer for those who might not have one handy.

I’ll be back in a bit, meanwhile pop in The Quiet Man and enjoy St. Patrick’s day

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