Tag: TomD

Tom’s World – 30MAR2025 – Human Nature

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Tom | Flickr

TomD

Even if we had a total rebirth, and somehow had a new constitutional convention attended by intelligent and principled patriots who would write a new constitution correcting the fault lines that allowed to corruption to enter and begin the rot, how long would it last before constitution 2 was also brought to the brink of collapse?

I’m pretty sure that the founders would have become violently ill at the thought of lifelong congressmen becoming fabulously wealthy and self important and totally divorced from the wishes, needs and physical and moral well being of their constituents.

It seems to me that any enduring political structure must be built around just how self serving and corruptible humans can be. But any system created by humans can and will be corrupted by humans. There has to be some robust self centering feedback system built at the absolute core where it will be hard to get to and corrupt. Maybe, that was supposed to have been the function of the Supreme Court but we all see the result that political appointment has had.

Elections can certainly and are easily subverted.

Tom’s World – 23FEB2025 – Gold Bricks Off the Titanic

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Tom | Flickr

TomD

Remember 4 and a fraction years ago during the BLM riots when there were entire city blocks filled with parked charter busses just around the corner from the riot site?

Also, there were Craig’s List recruiting ads for paid “rioters”. Somehow, nobody bird dogged the lead back to the source, not publically anyway. I’ll bet you that the ultimate money source was US.gov very possibly through USAID and a couple of cutout NGO’s.

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The analogy used by a senior EPA employee recently was, “throwing gold bricks off the stern on the Titanic”.

Even now, I suspect that if we ever learn the true scale of the corruption, we will be stunned, at least initially. After the initial shock, I think there would then be some public hangings.

So Joe Biden sold his office of the Vice Presidency for somewhere in the $30 million range?

What a small time piker.

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($4.7 trillion)

“That’s supervillain scale theft.” I don’t think there is even a word for corruption on that scale because the word has never been needed before.

Tom’s World – 22FEB2025 – DOGE, Blessed Be Their Name

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Tom | Flickr

TomD

I think it amusing/horrifying that the DIMs have finally identified their base principle, their hill to die on that MUST NOT be breached. DOGE has revealed the nature of that principle. And it is not DIE, open borders, green energy, climate change, transgender, etc., etc.

The hill that that they have chosen as the location for their apoplectic battle is the continuation of graft and corruption on the $trillion dollar scale.

Example from yesterdays news- Though it’s difficult, I’ll try not to get too pejorative here but that FAT ***** Black Georgia “woman”,Stacey Abrams, was in the news. DOGE (blessed be their name) uncovered that a PAC formed by Stacey a couple of months ago for environmental justice received a $2 billion (read $2 thousand million) grant from the nightmare Biden admin.

Understand that this PAC was 2 months old and had no employees and had a capitalization of $100 before the grant. Also understand that the grant had no conditions, no oversite, no monitoring, no auditing.

That precisely is the base principle of what the Dims have become and will “die” to protect.

Tom’s World – 13FEB2025 – The Ultimate Pyramid Scam

photog Current Events, Guest Contributors, TomD ,

Tom | Flickr

TomD

The Federal Government is history’s absolute worst fiduciary administrator even theoretically possible. SS and Medicare are supposed to be involuntary pay in advance programs for medical insurance and pension. I seem to remember having roughly 15% of my wages deducted throughout my life and sent to the Fed, supposedly to supplement or finance my retirement. So, how did the benefits for which I paid in advance throughout my working career become a line item expenditure on the federal budget?

If you are a pension fund administrator and spend every cent the second you get it and hopefully pay retirees from current funds, there’s a name for that: Pyramid Scam, a felony.

Tom’s World – 28JAN2025 – The Ravages of Time

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Tom | Flickr

TomD

The place where I grew up, at least from age 5, doesn’t exist any more. The name, Sandy Springs, exists as does the geographical location, north Atlanta metro, both exist. But the reality is long gone, torn down and the replacement torn down and the replacement of the replacement—- You get the idea.

Nothing, absolutely nothing physical from my childhood survives. Dust and dead. The neighborhood BBQ parties where everyone’s Dad was a WWII vet. The neighborhood gone, the street gone. Highrise buildings where the woods with the abandoned POW camp were. An 8 lane road where the old rock quarry was where we used to shoot snakes in the lake at the bottom.

I’m the only one left and I’m not going to be around that much longer either.

And the replacements are far from what I imagined as I read my Sci-Fi. Nobody then wrote anything sufficiently dystopian to include this reality.

Tom’s World – 25JAN2025 – I Get Around

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Tom | Flickr

TomD

That Valiant had a 170 CI slant 6 rated at 101 HP, that was the only motor available, and the 3 speed pushbutton transmission. But the time I got the car, it probably made around 50 HP. But the drive train was close to unkillable.

The tires at the time were definitely killable though. A new set could be worn down in less that 10K miles and I couldn’t afford anything like new tires. When the cord started showing, I would buy one used tire for around $5.

At the time, I was dating a girl (whom I later married) whose family had bought her a new VW. That helped a bunch.

My Dad had a 72 Impala with a 454 police interceptor package. That was something.

Below: my Kawasaki 500. This was followed by a Suzuki 1000 GS and later by a Suzuki 1100. Before I gave my last bike away in the early 2000’s I had around 200,000+ total miles riding experience.

A year or two ago, I was within a gnats whisker of buying a Honda 750 triple. The only thing that stopped me is that model was out of stock and nobody knew when they would have more. My wife was freaking out. Look at the picture below and you can see the appeal.

The last time I was active with motorcycles, I was in my 50’s, now I’m in my mid-70’s. I wonder what’s happened to my balance and reflexes since. I still have a motorcycle endorsement on my license though.

My old Kawasaki 500. This thing was a beast, it had about 25 HP at 5000 RPM and around 70 at 5500, with the front tire pointing at the moon. Talk about a hand full.

scan180

Tom’s World – 23JAN2025 – Rusted Floorboards and All

photog Guest Contributors, TomD , ,

Tom | Flickr

TomD

My 1st couple of years in engineering school (1966-1967) were with a slip stick. A number of years followed spent in the military and civilian employment before I paused my hedonistic lifestyle to complete my degree in Civil Engineering in 1975. When I started back in 1973, slip sticks were gone in favor of calculators. I started off with a $240 (in 1973 dollars!) Bowmar, by current standards, the equivalent of a current $12 scientific calculator. But I quickly gravitated to an HP 45. I can’t remember who I had to kill to get the cash for the over $400 price of the HP 45. I was living and paying all of my bills and food and tuition and books from my $275/month GI Bill and my weekend job pumping beer, shelling oysters and making Reubens at Smokeys Bar for a couple of bucks an hour.

My transportation at the time was a Kawasaki 500 until I got so cold one winter that I paid $100 for a 1962 Valiant with a rusted out floorboard that I covered with a stolen real estate sign to keep my feet from falling through.

Sounds tough but that was the absolute best time of my life.