Cruise Day 4 - Roatan, Honduras

Got up early on Day 4 and had a good breakfast.

Then I packed up my gear, got off the ship, and headed out on the pier to get to my pickup point. 

A beautiful sunny day it was.

My first time diving in Roatan. 

NCL had selected Anthony's Key Resort to be the operator for this dive and they certainly had chosen well.  Very professionally run operation and they really know what they are doing.

We first did the standard paperwork and one diver couldn't go as they didn't have their C-Card and PADI had no record it had actually been issued. Allegedly she had gotten trained at a resort and it may have been a paperwork issue - or she might not have actually been certified - so she couldn't go. Her boyfriend stayed behind as well (its possible they went off with the Discover Scuba group), bringing the number of divers down to 8.

Met a nice guy there diving who was with his kids, Colby from Louisiana.   I teamed up with the three of them so I technically had a buddy.

I had brought my own gear along, while most of the other divers had not.

We got on board the boat, and I setup my gear on my tank and everyone got ready for the first dive of the day.

These would be cruise ship type dives - guided by a divemaster and well within Open water limits. We got our safety brief, which was well and properly done, and headed off to the first dive site.

 

Trump Is About To Help The Liberals Win The Canadian Election

So mark Carney, the elite replacement for the hapless Justin Trudeau as the head of the Liberal Party of Canada, has called a snap election.  

After the Liberals have run the country into the ground, so much so that the RCMP in a report has noted the potential for unrest due to their mismanagement of the country, the Liberals hope to capitalize on Canadians' dislike of Trump calling for them to be the 51st state.

This cunning plan may very well work.

Until Trump started  his quixotic claim for Canada to be the 51st state and threatening  massive tariffs over some very dubious claims over fentanyl allegedly coming across the border form Canada (the major source of illegal drugs coming into the US, including Fentanyl is from Mexico), it looked like the Liberals were in for a massive and very well-deserved drubbing.

Indeed the Conservatives were ahead 45% to 11% in December 2024.

Now, not so much: Angus Reid Institute: Liberal lead over CPC increases to eight points, but is Carney’s house of dreams built on concrete or sand?

and 

338Canada

This change can all be laid at Trump's feet.

Trump is very much setting himself up for an own goal if he persists in calling for Canada to be the 51st state and continuing the tariff push, as well as some recent announcement about stupid visitor restrictions on Canadians visiting the USA that are really not helping.

The joke about the 51st state was perhaps funny for a very short bit, but no longer. 

In fact, Republicans would not want Canada as a 51st state right now - they;d vote en masse, with the exception perhapos of Alberta, for Democrats.  

Canada's Liberals and its even farther left wing party, the NDP,  can at times make Bernie Sanders and AOC seem downright erudite and centrist. Short of making Canada a US Territory until such time as we teach them to become Americans and get off the socialist bent, bringing them in as a state (or realistically a few states) would be disastrous.

So, instead of Canada getting  a conservative and fiscally responsible government that would be much more likely to work with him on important issues, Trump's about to be the reason a massive globalist and elitist, who has likely spent far more time outside of Canada as a member of the global bien pensants than in  Canada, into power.

The Liberal party has spent decades downplaying and indeed disdaining Canadian nationalism and spreading a multi-cultural and woke globalist outlook about the country while pushing unfettered immigration and a tax and spend policy that would make Democrats, including Adam Schiff,  moist.  

But, even when the Librerals are putting their country into the toilet,  Canadians tend to get a knee-jerk nationalistic reaction when the US criticizes them (and especially so when the criticism is unfair which is the case currently) and the Liberals are using that to try and win an election that by all rights they should lose badly.

Trump really needs to knock this off, and quickly it's not helping US political or economic goals at all.

Cruise Day 3 Cozumel - The ABCs

On the third day, we arrived in Cozumel.

 And had another time change.   An hour change going forward, back and forward again occurred almost every day on the cruise. 

We disembarked in Cozumel and walked down the pier.

 We had some extra time before the excursion began so we checked out some shops around the port.

The farmacia was doing some brisk business and had some pretty decent prices inside.

 Then we met up with the excursion and boarded a comfy tour bus.

We were headed for a tour of the ABCs - on this case Alcohol (Tequila), Bees and Chocolate.

Our first stop:

 

The Mayan Bee sanctuary, home of the Melipona Bee.  The melipona are small, native to South America, don't sting, shy, and produce less honey than your typical honeybee.

They live in hives inside tree trunks.  

We got to sample the honey and compare it to the standard honeybee honey.  Allegedly in addition to being delicious, Melipona honey has therapeutic effects including bee-ing good for wounds and being applied to your eyes.

That was a neat stop.

Then we stopped for lunch. 

Had some great fish tacos on the beach along with a margarita.

 Absolutely delicious.

We then headed onward to discover Mexican chocolate.

 We saw a presentation on the history of chocolate and got to try some that was made in the traditional manner, with the beans grinded on a stone platter. 

Different from the chocloate you have today for sure, not sweet but very good. We then got to sample and buy some premium chocolates made in the modern and very tasty fashion.

Then on to the A in the ABCs of the day.

Tequila.  As it turns out ,Tequila can only legally come from the Blue Agave plant. If its not the blue agave its not tequila.  If its made with less than 51% agave, it also can't be called Tequlia.  Most types of Jose Cuervo is often referred to in Mexico as 51/49 or mixto as it just makes the cut. Mescal also comes from agave but not blue agave. The more you know I guess.

We got to sample some nice tequilas including 100% agave ones, as well as some flavored liqueurs made from tequila.

 The caramel one was rather exceptional.

 

 

That was the end of the excursion, and we headed back to the ship and soon were underway heading to our next stop.

After dinner, we went to the dueling piano bar.

 Helluva good time. All three of the singers were personable, funny, and really talented. All three could play piano, drums, guitar and sing which is pretty damn impressive. They could work a crowd and everyone was singing along to the many rocking tunes they played.

That was a great day and a great night.

March Cruise Day 2

Day 2 of the cruise was at sea.

 

It started with  full English breakfast in the Irish pub on board.

 

We wandered around the ship, walked the decks, and had a nice time. 

Lots of things to see and do on board.

Exploring around the ship, we found a niche with a small seating area and lots of plaques commemorating ports the Getaway has visited, as well as a scale model of the ship.

After dinner we went to see a comedy show.

The comedian noted it was his first time performing in the Gulf of America. Yes when you're in the Gulf, weather apps are now referring to it as the Gulf of America - no dead-naming the Gulf now.

It was a good and quite funny show.  We then stayed for the later R-rated comedy show from a second comedian (they would switch throughout the cruise, with one doing the PG show and one doing the R-rated one every other night.with fresh material each time) and it was laugh-worthy as well.

The Good Ol' College Hockey Game

Yesterday I went to East Lansing to attend the Big 10 Men's Hockey Tournament game of MSU v Notre Dame. First time I've been back to the Munn Ice Arena in years.

College hockey tends to be a lot of fun to watch.

We got there pretty early and before that got lunch at Raising Cane's the ne plus ultra of chicken strip restaurants. Yum. We then parked and headed to the arena, with plenty of time to wander around.

 Free rally rags were provided to all the fans.

 

We got to watch the warm up.

 

And the game began.

It was a very low-scoring game with a lot of action.

 A couple small fights, a few penalties and both teams were excellent at killing the power plays.

The Spartans won 1-0, with the single goal taking place in the third periods, with 46 shots on goal to Notre Dame's 19.  Should have been a much higher score, but defense on both teams were seriously on point. 

It often seemed the Spartans were taking shots when off balance and not ready to receive the puck after a pass to take a shot at the net.

Still, a win is a win, and they advance in the tournament to play again next week. 

A nice Saturday day trip.

March Cruise Day 1

We flew into New Orleans for this cruise. A nice uneventful flight on Delta got us there nicely.

I had paid for transfers to the ship and a Norwegian Cruise Line Rep was right where the pre-cruise info said they would be.  I had already prepared luggage tags before departure so we were soon on the bus to the ship.

Then we got checked in, boarded, had an on-boarding drink and lunch, and soon the Getaway cast off and we were rolling on the river, taking the Mighty Mississippi to the Gulf of America.

We passed by lots of other ships on the muddy waters of the Mississippi, and saw lots of industry lining the banks.

Our boat also had an armed escort.
 

Yes, that's a rather nice machine gun on the bow.

Soon we were in the blue waters of the Gulf.

We started touring around the ship, and in the art gallery I saw a work that caught my eye:

A darn nice painting and going for a nice high price too.  They also had quite a few by Thomas Kincaid and some other big name modern artists.  More on that later.

We had out first dinner at a specialty restaurant, Cagney's Steakhouse, and to say it was superb would be an understatement.  Service was tops, and it is the best steak at sea, easily rivaling, and dare I say besting Morton's or Ruth's Chris.

It was a most excellent and auspicious start to the cruise.

A Classic Hi Power

My FLGS had kindly transferred in for me this Fabrique Nationale Mk III  Hi Power

 It's an Israeli contract FN Hi Power pistol.

Complete with Star of David marking.

 I've been wanting one of these for a long time.  I remember when they first came in and I couldn't get one as none of my local dealers would do a transfer at the time, which sucked.

So I finally have one, and its rather nice,  Decent sights, a decent trigger even with the magazine safety in place.the MK III safety is easy to operate, and it feels good in the hand.

Nice to have this classic in the collection.  If the weather holds up. I may take it to the range this weekend.

Where I Was Last Week

Blogging was lighter than usual, as I was out of town.

It was time to get away from the cold and snow of Michigan for warmer climes.

Took a 7-day cruise on the Norwegian Getaway to the western Caribbean, spending much of the cruise in the Gulf of America.

To say it was a most fantastic time is an understatement. 

Much more details to relate and many more pics to follow.

At My FLGS T'Other Day

So I went to my FLGS to discuss some things and I'm also there to pickup a transfer, of which I'll discuss later..

He's not just my dealer,  but also a client, and he's currently passing a rather detailed ATF audit, one might even describe it as a proctology-level exam, with flying colors.  They actually told him he's one of the top stores in the state in terms of his records being done right and his inventory being in tip-top shape which is a very good thing.

Fellow pulls up in a truck and comes in wearing a very patriotic gear type t-shirt and looks around.

My client greets him warmly and asks what he can help him with.

Fellow says he's been shooting for awhile and enjoying it and he's been shooting a particular gun for a while now and wants to buy it. 

So my FLGS asks him what he's looking to buy.

He wants to buy a Glock 1911.

Client explains Glock doesn't make a 1911. Fellow then says "Oh it must be a Glock 38 then".

Probably not, given that Glock 38s are a compact sized Glock in 45 GAP. It is pretty unlikely to be the gun he was shooting as it's not a particularly popular choice for local ranges to have out for rental nor is 45GAP regulatory stocked. 

Turns out he was not, in fact, shooting a Glock 38.

Most likely, he was shooting a Glock 30 or  Glock 21 in 45 ACP, and that's where the confusion has come in. 

Glock's model nomenclature really doesn't help either.

I headed out and let them continue the discussion.

Gladiator II - Just Why?

To say Gladiator 2 was a sequel no one asked for is an understatement.

The first Gladiator was fun, had some respect for historical accuracy, and was a pretty accurate reenactment of the Rome tactics and gladiatorial games of Marcus Aurelius' time.

 Gladiator 2, not so much.

To say it had so many blatant historical inaccuracies it would hurt a classicist's soul is accurate. Verily, it did.

Horrendously bad, it was. 

It begins with a Roman fleet attacking Numidia under the Emperors Caracalla and Geta sometime between 209 and 211 AD. The leader of Numidia at the time is named Jugurtha.

The problem is the Roman Republic's War with Jugurtha took place in 118 BC, prior to the Roman Empire, and Numidia had been under Roman domian and control since then.

This does let them get some DEI credit for the film though portraying Jugurtha as Black, rather than North African Berber so there's that. 

And no, the Roman generals at the time of Geta and Caracalla were not known to run ahead of their formation fighting enemies one-on-one.  Not how it worked.

It gets progressively, and dare I say diversely, worse from there.

Denzel Washington plays Macrinus, as the master of gladiators. He does a fine job chewing the scenery and basically portraying himself out of Training Day. He's an enjoyable actor, but it kills the history of the period all the more, but again awesome diversity DEI credit.

The real Macrinus was the commander of the Preaetorian Guard  and as far as is known was not involved in the death of Geta, but was involved in killing Caracalla and becoming Emperor for a short period before being killed himself.

Oh, and Macrinus, while from North Africa, wasn't Black, but again DEI cred.

Geta and Caracalla are portrayed as effeminate half-wit twin poofs.  Again for DEI credit I suppose, when the historical record is rather different. 

Also, they weren't twins with Caracalla being 11 months older. They were both active on military campaigns and Caracalla was held to be quite the military strategist and campaigner. They did hate each other though and far more than is portrayed in the movie.

Caracalla also never had a pet monkey.  Lawdog is likely happy to know that.

Gladiator 2 even literally jumped the shark by having sharks in the Colosseum during the nautical battle scene.

While Rome did stage a Naumachia in the Colosseum at least once, the Romans did not capture sharks and have them swimming around the Colosseum during such battles.

Hilariously and painfully the naval battle itself was announced as a remake of the Battle of Salamis and described as a battle between the "Trojans and the Persians".

The Battle of Salamis was between the Greeks and the Persian  - in 480 BC. The Trojan war was much, much earlier, in the 12th or 13th century BC between the Greeks and the Trojans.  

The movie then continues with more and more historical inaccuracies.

There's even people sipping coffee and reading newspapers during the movie. 

Coffee didn't come to Rome as a beverage before the 17th century AD,  and newspapers weren't invented until the 1400s AD - over a thousand years after the events in the film.

I mean you can take license with historical events, but asking the audience to disbelieve a thousand years worth of an anachronism is asking for a bit much. 

In short, if you haven't seen Gladiator 2 yet,  I recommend you disbelieve it ever existed.  Instead you can have a much better and more enjoyable use of your movie-watching time by watching Gladiator again.

Surely, They Can't Be That Stupid

Apparently, they can indeed be that stupid, and stop calling me Shirley:

The term, Intelligence Community when applied to the American version of same, is rapidly becoming an oxymoron, if it hasn't already.

 

That level of incompetence is rather staggering.  But, perhaps, they were simply too busy having kinky and highly workplace inappropriate chats on secure government systems to pay attention to avoiding blowing the identities of CIA employees while they were chatting about a whole different kind of blowing:

 

Forbes: More Than 100 Intelligence Staffers Will Be Fired Over Sexually Explicit Texts In NSA Chatrooms, Gabbard Says

One would think members of the "intelligence community", being presumably both more tech-savy and intelligent than average, would know not to do something that the average American worker already knows is highly inappropriate to do in the workplace.  

Or they did know that, but figured the rules didn't apply to them.

That's Wrongly Using Your Head

The Detroit Free Press: Man busted in airport smuggling cocaine under toupee

Cocaine makes you do dumb things.  Smuggling cocaine even moreso. Indeed, it can make you wig out.

A Colombian man was arrested for attempting to smuggle cocaine worth thousands under his toupee, officials announced on Monday.

The suspect was caught before taking a flight to Amsterdam from Cartagena's Rafael Nunez International Airport, according to Reuters and Sky News.

He had about $10,000 worth of coke under his wig. 

Maybe he should have just opted for a comb-over.

Hamas Perfidy And A Michigan Connection

So Hamas murdered Ariel (age 10) and Kfir Bibas  (age 4 months) by strangling them to death and then disfigured their bodies, and then to add insult to injury handed over coffins that were locked, stuffed with Hamas propaganda along with the bodies, and did not actually return Shiri Bibas' body, instead putting an unknown woman's body int the coffin (The body of was later handed over Friday night).

Hamas, with Iranian backing, also attempted to carry out a massive series of bombings in Israel, only failing due to setting the timers to 9pm rather than 9 am.

Hamas is yet again violating the ceasefire with these acts and expecting to get away with it, as more and more Hamas terrorists are released to kill again in return for live and dead hostages.

Meanwhile, our own Governor Whitmer of Michigan is busy gallivanting around Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates  on a junket with a Hamas apologist and Hezbollah supporter, Osama Siblani, that she brought along for the visit: 

Washington Free Beacon: He Said He'd Take Jews 'Back to Poland.' Gretchen Whitmer Took Him on an Official State Trip to the Middle East. Details of the trip and who she is meeting on it while hanging out with Siblani makes it even worse.

Words would fail to express the disgust that I have right now for our dear  governor half-whit. 

To be jaunting around with a Hamas apologist as Hamas commits terrorist attacks and continues to hold people hostage is beyond the pale. 

Some 51st State Humor

President Trump was in the Oval Office when his telephone rang, "Hello, President Trump," a heavily accented voice said, "This is Archie, up 'ere at the Harp Seal Pub in Badger's Cove, Newfoundland, Canada, eh?

"I am callin' to tells ya dat we are officially declaring war on ya!"

 

"Well, Archie," The Donald said, "This is indeed important news!  How big is your army?"

 

"Right now," said Archie, after a moment's calculation, "there's myself, me cousin Harold, me next-door neighbour Mick, and the whole dart team from the pub.  That makes eight!"

 

Donald paused.  "I must tell you Archie that I have one million men in my army waiting to move on my command."

 

"Wow," said Archie.  "I'll have t' call ya back!"   Sure enough, the next day, Archie called again.

 

"Mr. Trump, the war is still on!  We have managed to acquire some infantry equipment!  We have two combines, a bulldozer, and Harry's farm tractor."

 

President Trump sighed.  "I must tell you Archie, that I have 16,000 tanks and 14,000 armed personnel carriers.  Also, I've increased my army to one and a half million since we last spoke."

 

"Lord above," said Archie, "I'll be gettin' back at ya."   Sure enough, Archie rang again, the next day.  "President Trump, the war is still on!  We have managed to git ourselves airbourne!  We up an' modified Harrigan's ultra-light wit a couple of shotguns in the cockpit, and four boys from da Legion have joined us as well !"

 

Donald was silent for a minute and then cleared his throat.  "I must tell you, Archie, that I have 10,000 bombers and 20,000 fighter planes.  Huge.  My military complex is surrounded by laser-guided, surface-to-air missile sites.  And you need to know, since we last spoke, I've increased my army to TWO MILLION!"

 

"Jumpins, Lord tunderin!"  "Two million, ye say!!" said Archie.  "I'll have ta call youse back.

 

Sure enough, Archie called again, the next day.  "President Trump!  I am sorry to have to tell ya dat we have had to call off dis 'ere war."

 

"I'm sorry to hear that," said Donald.  "Why the sudden change of heart?"

 

"Well, sir," said Archie, "we've all sat ourselves down and had a long chat over a bunch of pints, and come to realize dat dere's no way we can feed two million prisoners."

Now, it is true that the Canadian Forces are small but mighty.  They are rather confident in their capabilities, and they do punch far above their weight. 

Indeed, apocryphally, the Geneva Convention was started because of the Canadian military, who refer to it even today as the Geneva Checklist.

But in reality, should the Canadians kick off Defence Scheme No. 1 and  War Plan Red ever gets dusted off and updated in return, this can only end one way:

 

Inflation Isn't Rearing It's Ugly Head Again, It's Just Being Actually Accurately Reported Again

Right on time for President Trump to take office, the data now shows inflation increasing.

Reason: Trump May Have To Grapple with Returning Inflation

We will note that Reason, an ostensibly libertarian publication is no friend of Trump.  Verily, Reason seems to be having vapors about his actually reducing the size, scope, and spending of government - something you would think a libertarian would cheer for, neh?

One would think so, but no. Basically Reason at this point is all about marijuana legalization and wide open borders, and damn little else. 

It is not "returning inflation", instead it is that inflation is now being reported accurately again after the books have been cooked and the data tortured the past four years.

Politico: How Democrats Were Tricked Into Believing the Economy Was Strong

The Democrats, pace Politico, weren't being "Tricked" -- they were the ones running the trick.  

The Biden-run government agencies were the ones massaging the data and running the scam under reporting inflation and messing with job statistics to give the picture of a rosy economy under Biden that wasn't. 

The Biden Administration and the media establishment (But I'm repeating myself) had been busy boasting and talking up how wonderful the economy under Biden has been, how Biden achieved a "soft landing" and  try to give him a boost for his reelection and then for Harris when even the massaged stats couldn't get him to the finish line.

The administration and media both made themselves busy asking Americans - "Who are going to believe Biden and the Media, or your own lyin' eyes?"

Now that Biden is out, the stats are being reported, presumably more accurately, just in time for President Trump to have to deal with the results of the massive overspending and effects of the policies Biden has left behind. 

The Fed's decision on setting interest rates - including reducing them right before the election which just so happened to assist Biden, was doing so based on the statistics being manipulated.  

The deliberate false reporting of government statistics,  statistics relied upon to set economic policy, should be seen as one of the greatest scandals of the Biden era.  

Perhaps one day it will be.

I Did Not Know That Michigan's Libraries Are

Heavily, and in some case majorly, funded by traffic tickets and penal fines. 

I had figured that library mileages on property taxes were responsible for the bulk of the funding. Apparently not.

Nor did I know, but I should have guessed, that Wayne County would manage to screw up the accounting and distribution for that funding. Badly.

The Detroit Free Press: Accounting errors have cost Wayne County libraries millions

Over the last decade, 18 libraries in Wayne County have been shorted as much as $1.9 million, while 11 saw an influx in cash, all because of staff turnover at the county level and subsequent accounting errors.

The money at issue flows through the state and comes from penal fines, which are paid to courts in criminal and some civil violations, including most traffic fines. County treasurers collect and distribute the fines to libraries. This funding is baked into state law and it can account for anywhere between 3% to 70% of public libraries' annual budgets, according to the Library of Michigan.

 Wayne County lost the employee who calculated penal fines and the county did not replace that position, according to a report the Library of Michigan prepared for public library directors and boards.

So interesting to know that a goodly amount of the fines from court goes to the state's libraries, hopefully helping the True Crime shelves be well stocked, and that Wayne County can impressively mess up the distribution of those funds.

Lawyer, Please

So the fun with the unpleasant lying lawyer continues.

In the first bit of the latest fun, she has refused to produce unredacted copies of the appraisals of some of the firearms she had appraised and attached to her petition (notably not the handgun that she now suddenly claims they had all along, nor another rifle that we're pretty darn sure her felon brother now has).

Each appraisal has an area blocked out.  One of them is not well blocked out and we can tell it is a copy of a drivers license, and with the phone number that is seen we're pretty darn sure who was handling the firearms appraisal on behalf of the co-trustee.

The felon brother. 

Bit of a no-no, that.

Not a good look for a trustee of a trust to enlist a felon to posses and handle firearms.

So a motion to compel it is, and I have filed it and asked for attorneys fees for having to being it as the refusal has no proper basis.  The hearing unfortunately won't be for over a month, but I expect the unredacted copies will be ordered to be turned over as there's no privilege for this kind of malfeasance. 

The second of the latest news is so much more fun.

Unpleasant lying lawyer now demands the house my co-trustee and beneficiary client is living in now has to be sold to pay for trustee administrative expenses - i.e. the costs of the frivolous lawsuit her client has filed and caused to accrue.

In other words, they want to drive my client out of her marital home now that she has been widowed, and probably grab a fair bit of the value of it, which I suspect was the plan all along.

I reply to her that no, that's not going to happen. 

Instead, I note that such expenses are, by law, paid from the residue of a trust and not from specific distributions like the gift of a house.

Since the co-trustees distributed all the residue as no one thought the Unpleasant Lying Lawyer's client would engage in this ridiculous lawsuit there is no residue at present remaining.

But, instead we will need to clawback the distribution made to all the beneficiaries to cover this which means her client, her client's felon brother, and her client's sister, and my client as well proportionately, will need to opay these "expenses" as the law requires.  

So, as a result.  her family gets to pay a share not only of her client's "administrative expenses" brought on by this lawsuit - but they get to pay my client's expenses as well.

She's certainly not going to be happy with that, and it'll be fun to have her explaining to her family that they now need to cough up the money that they had been paid to cover both side's expenses as co-trustees in this ridiculous lawsuit.

Methinks her cunning plan just backfired a tad. 

But, this is what happens because when you FA, you get to FO.

So Hamas Violated The Ceasefire Agreement

And of course, they lied and claimed Israel had violated it. Hamas is now saying they will not release hostages until Israel makes new concessions.

This tends to be Hamas' modus operandi - agree to an agreement, violate the agreement while claiming Israel violated it, then make further demands beyond what were in the original agreement while only offering to do what they had already agreed to do under the agreement.

Unfortunately for Hamas, they don't have Biden in office anymore, and President Trump has agreed with Israel's demand that since Hamas has now violated the agreement, they must release all the hostages this week.

Given the condition the most recent batch of hostages were in when released, it may be that Hamas wants to delay to try and improve the health and enhance the appearance of the next set of hostages to be released - or there may not be any live hostages left to release.

 Oh, and USAID gave $3 million to a Hamas-affiliated rapper in Gaza (Which means $3 million was funneled to Hamas) to ostensibly create anti-Israel and anti-Semitic songs.

Because, of course they did.

You Can't Be Your Own Personal Representative, Even if You Select It Online

Or: Why doing an online Will may not work for you.

Had a client come in with his deceased brother's Will, and there is property that needs to be probated.

The brother decided to save some money, not hire an attorney, and do it himself online.  

He certainly had the right to do so.

But he lacked the ability to do it right.

He saved money, at least initially, but created a major headache and expense for his survivors.

The problem is he manged to name himself as Personal Representative (think Executor if your jurisdiction uses that term instead, its the person responsible for running the estate through the probate process) of his Will. 

Once you have shuffled off your mortal coil, you can't be personal representative of anything, much less your own Will and estate. It doth not work that way.

I don't know if the online tool he used glitched, or if he didn't understand what he was doing and filled it out wrong, or what.  But we now have a problem as a result.

But as a result, we have to do a lot of stuff that would otherwise be unnecessary and more costly than if it had been done right from the start. 

We now must do a formal probate process complete with a hearing before a judge rather, than the less expensive informal process, to get someone else appointed as the Personal Representative and allow the estate to get moving in probate.

Sometimes it makes sense to have a professional do things, and it can save a lot of time and money too.

Corruption And The Problem Of Scale

DOGE is finding an impressive amount of government corruption, fraud, and featherbedding networks in US Treasury payments.  Verily they are uncovering the Democrat-Progressive-NGO complex with their probe into USAID and Treasury spending.

In a single area of government spending, DOGE learned that $100 Billion (with a B) in entitlement payments were going out to people with no social security number or other identifiers attached to the payments. Treasury officials apparently stated that $50 Billion of that was outright fraud.  Yet the payments were made year after year. It is likely even more programs will show outright fraudulent transfers.

Now $50 Billion in fraud in a single program could be dismissed as just a rounding error in the US Treasury's annual spending of over 6 Trillion dollars. 

And therein lies the problem.  When $50 Billion in fraudulent spending in entitlement programs is just considered a rounding error, you've lost the plot.

 $50 billion is the equivalent of a an entire lifetime of income tax payments by 153,581 Americans. Every dollar in income taxes paid for their entire lives, wasted on fraud in a single program - in one year - every year.

This $50 Billion in spending isn't just a political disagreement over priorities or funding Democrat's friends and buddies in NGOs or throwing money at SPPL (Stuff Progressive People Like). It is an outright transfer of payments to fraudulent recipients.

One should note that $50 Billion is higher than the entire GDP in 112 countries!  

If the fraudulent payments were a country's GDP, the Country of Entitlement Fraudlandia with a GDP of $50 Billion has a GDP equivalent to 14 Haitis, and handily would beat out Bangladesh, Romania, Nigeria, Ukraine, and Morrocco in world rankings at 51st in the world.

The $50 Billion received by Entitlement Fraudlandia is far more than the amount of aid sent so far to North Carolina after Hurricane Helena, which is, depending on what source you look at as a clear answer is interestingly hard to find, anywhere from 3 billion to up to 9 billion total in the latest round of aid.

Even worse, a General Accounting Office report from late April estimated outright fraudulent spending by the Federal Government to be  233 Billion to $521 Billion each year.

That would make The Nation of US Spending Fraudlandia have a greater GDP than India and it would be a Country with the 11th highest GDP in the entire World.

Again, that's just from outright fraud, not even touching cutting what are arguably legitimate, while still being  rather objectionable, payments that are being made on rather questionable spending priorities and to reinforce the Democrat-Progressive NGO complex.

Making Cents - The Case For Ending The Penny

Inflation has made the penny barely worthwhile nowadays. 

Indeed, the early symbol for a penny originated with the Roman denarius - a coin that once was a day's pay for a Roman legionary. When English translations of the Bible referred to a penny they were, in fact, referring to the denarius.

The days when a penny was a day's pay are long, long, long gone. 

Verily, even most people's thoughts these days are more costly than a penny.

Inflation has eroded the purchasing power of the currency, and now the lowly penny may be making its final farewell.

The United States 1 cent coin costs 3.69 cents to make,  a 20% increase this year alone, currently costing the US Treasury a loss of $179 million dollars per year minting them for them to sit in people's drawers or jars, and weigh down their purses.

As such, Trump has instructed the Treasury to stop producing them.

While from a sentimental standpoint, keeping the penny is attractive as the US has had pennies since 1787, it is likely time to join other nations such as Canada in letting the penny make a graceful exit from our money supply.

Other US coins have gone by the wayside. For example, the last United States half penny was last minted  over 150 years ago in 1857 and the lack of 1/2 pennies hasn't been missed or remarked upon. 

Expect the penny to be removed for circulating currency if Congress agrees, and the costs of items to be rounded up or down accordingly.

The end of the penny, after all, just makes cents.

Every. Single. Time. Yet Again.

Surprising no one, President Biden's final jobs report was "revised" downward - yet again joining every other one of the Bureau of Labor employment statistics reports.

Revised downwards. Every. Damn. Time. 

That simply cannot be a happy coincidence.

Legal Insurrection: January Jobs Report: 2024 Employment Revised Down by 600,000

Well, at least it's not the 818,000 fewer jobs than first reported the last time around, but over counting by 600,000 is one heckuva statistical error.

Yet again, these stats aren't just bad because they let Biden trumpet a healthy economy and jobs market that simply wasn't there - in an election year no less.

A major problem when you cook the books on these reports is people do rely upon them.  For example the Fed, when considering adjusting interest rates relies on this report, among others. and in such reliance is not cutting rates probably as much as they should as they think the economy is growing just fine.  Unfortunately the economy under Biden was presented as being much better than it was due to these cooked statistics.

And Nothing of Value Was Lost

Talk about the devotees of the party out of power going insane.  

Having a medical procedure with some serious consequences to protest the President is pretty radical, especially as it is purely performative nonsense.

The Washington Beacon: Not Kidding: Michigan State Rep Says She Sterilized Herself To Protest Trump 

A Democratic Michigan state representative told protesters Wednesday that she underwent voluntary sterilization to avoid becoming pregnant during President Donald Trump's second term, a left-wing media outlet reported.

"Just under two weeks ago, I underwent surgery to ensure that I would never have to navigate a pregnancy in Donald Trump's America," Rep. Laurie Pohutsky told anti-Trump protesters gathered Wednesday outside the Michigan Capitol, according to a piece published by the Michigan Advance. "I refuse to let my body be treated as currency by an administration that only sees value in my ability to procreate."

                                                          . . .

Pohutsky insisted that her surgery was important, telling protesters, "If you know people who are questioning how serious this is, I'm going to repeat myself: A sitting government official opted for voluntary sterilization because she was uncertain she would be able to access contraception in the future."

So Rep. Pohutsky sterilizes herself per her announcement to prevent becoming pregnant during Trump's presidency and apparently believes having a child is a terrible thing. Kinda a drastic measure, no? 

Either this is purely political theater and she got sterilized for other reasons and is lying about it, or she is a complete moron.

This is because, as Rep. Pohutsky certainly knows, the right to an abortion and indeed contraception was enshrined in the Michigan constitution in 2020 via referendum and law.

How do we know she knows?  Well, she publicly celebrated it when it passed:

Today should most certainly be celebrated; it took a lot of hard work to get these bills to the governor’s desk, and while there is still work to be done, we should absolutely take time to appreciate this victory,” said Speaker Pro Tem Laurie Pohutsky (D-Livonia), chair of the Progressive Women’s Caucus and spearhead of the House RHA bills. “This journey began over a decade ago, and I am honored to be a part of the continued efforts to guarantee Michiganders have access to abortion care. It was long past due for these obstacles to be diminished so people can make the decisions that are right for them without government interference."

So she's a die-hard pro-abortion progressive Democrat and is clearly announcing this sterilization for performative reasons, and likely lying about the reason for it.  If not, she is bug-house nuts and doesn't understand the laws she herself passed and advocates for, nor how the United States governmental system works, in which case she probably really shouldn't be a state representative.

On the upside, she's taken her craziness out of the gene pool.

For those who don't get it:  Abortion and contraception is now enshrined in the Michigan constitution per the referendum in 2020 and by law in the massive package of bills that Pohutsky herself helped pass. Trump cannot change that.

Letting Michigan Democrats continue to fear-monger on abortion when they have decisively enshrined abortion at the state level is simply allowing them to continue to deceive their constituents on what is now a settled issue.

The Democrat crazies here are like a dog chasing a car - they caught the car and now they don't know what to do with it, nor how to shift away from the fear-mongering on abortion they were using to fuel their campaigns.

Michigan's Sturgeon Season This Year

Was over faster than the time it takes for you to spell Acipenser fulvescens.

OutdoorLife: Michigan’s Shortest Fishing Season Lasted Just 17 Minutes This Year, a New Record

With a maximum of 7 fish allowed to be caught, the season closed in 17 minutes as the limit was reached.

Some of the fish caught were huge, with the biggest weighing  a whopping 78.3 pounds.

That's quite the fish.

Never Lie For Your Client

As an attorney you do not, contrary to what is shown in movies and tv shows, lie on behalf of your client.

Doing so tends to backfire.

Today's story can also be known as The Perjury Case Continues.  To summarize if you don't want to click the link:

1. I represent the widow of the maker of a trust.  She;s the co-trustee along with the daughter of the widow from his first marriage.

2. The other co-trustee is the daughter of the widow (DOW) from the prior marriage.

3. DOW claimed my client had the handgun that now belongs to the trust.  Handgun is a rather nice old Colt .22 target semiauto pistol. DOW provably lied as DOW herself sold it in November.

4.  This doesn't look good for DOW.

So I do a nice letter to DOW's attorney, attaching the transfer form and noting that her client just committed a fraud upon the court and upon my client and this needs to be settled. If it is not, we will notify the court and petition to remove DOW as co-trustee for her fraud and her causing a loss in time and money defending against this false and rather serious claim, not to mention selling the firearms for far below their fair market value.

What does Unpleasant Lawyer reply: 

Perhaps you should reconsider jumping to conclusions.  An “LR” is not a handgun.

 

Unpleasant Lawyer

[Tell me you know nothing about firearms without telling me you know nothing about firearms] I respond:

        Unpleasant Lawyer:

That is a handgun registration form. 

 

 You will note the box marked pistol is checked.  .22LR is indeed a handgun caliber, also a rifle caliber, but in this case it is indeed a pistol and this is confirmed with the store.

 She replies:

It's a rifle

I'm rather amused and bemused at this point that someone can be this obtuse, not to mention unable to read a form the size of an index card printed in English and respond:

I’d bet you $100 it is not, but you'd lose, and lose badly.

 

Here’s a link to pictures of Colt Huntsman pistols for sale:  https://www.gunsinternational.com/guns-for-sale-online/pistols/colt-pistols-huntsman.c1384_p1_o6.cfm

 

Funny how those pistols match the exact pistol your client picked up at the house, isn't it?

 

.22 LR while it stands for Long Rifle is a a rifle and pistol caliber popular as a target shooting round in both handguns and rifles.

 

In this case, it is beyond a reasonable doubt that we are talking about a pistol.

 She responds:

You’re acting like a petty juvenile.

 

In any event, the handgun the widow kept is a completely different gun from anything my clients ever had.  She knows it.

Funny how the story changes, eh? So I respond:

You hate to admit you’re wrong eh?  Juvenile is you refusing to read the form showing it is a pistol and arguing it is a rifle in face of all the evidence including the make and model that it is not.

 

Now you’re trying to claim there is another pistol when that was the only pistol in the house, quit spinning for your client and trying to duck that she has committed perjury on this matter and get this resolved.

She responds

Again, you are behaving like a child and I’m not wasting my time on your bad behavior.  There were two handguns.  If you email me again taking that tone, I am deleting it and will not respond.  You can act like a professional or you can deal with the consequences.

She's lying and lying badly. Also, I daresay she's projecting badly.

Her email is the first time it's mentioned that there were "two handguns" after she finally seems to concede that the handgun is not in fact a rifle.  They have never admitted to the existence of a handgun being in their possession before, ever.

Maybe she was talking with her client while emailing, but I doubt it. It appears she is not just spinning but outright lying on behalf of her client.  Not a good look at all.

Petition to remove her lying client as a co-trustee has been drafted and will be filed imminently.  This is going to get good.

David Hogg Just Became What?

So the Democrats have now appointed David Hogg, known only for his gun banner efforts, and no other accomplishments, as their Vice Chair.

New York post:  Parkland shooting survivor and gun-control activist David Hogg becomes DNC vice chair

Apparently, this is an effort to get back the youth and the masculine vote.

 
Verily, this choice, along with the statements and writings of various people who should know better claiming the Blackhawk/Jet collision is Trump's fault, is one of many indicators that provide proof of Megan McArdle's aphorism that:

 "The devotees of the party in power are smug and arrogant. The devotees of the party out of power are insane."

Democrats and their fellow travelers and orange-man-bad devotees are not handling the transition well at all. 

Let's hope that Republicans can keep the smugness and arrogance to a minimum, even in the face of the Democrats going full-on bug-house nuts.