Month: January 2024

Government, Politics

Can The Door Be Closed?

The United States no longer has a border. Among the many gifts the Biden (shadow Obama) administration has given us, is a complete free for all at the southern lines on a map. I don’t care what party you identify with, you cannot deny it’s a disaster. The “adults in the room” are handling it even worse than the Afghanistan withdrawal, if that’s even possible. The truly incompetent part is that by denying they want an open border, they’re making everything worse. At least if they came out in the open and declared an end to border enforcement, they could put policies in place to manage the influx of “new citizens”. The current strategy is pitting states against sanctuary cities and the federal government. No one wins in that scenario. So the big question is, assuming we wanted to, could we even close the border at this point?

Let’s say a chest thumping Republican is elected this go-round and actually pursues shutting down the border. Would it be successful?

Sending 100,000 troops to the border would be the easy part. That of course would trigger daily lawsuits from crazed liberals crying and moaning about the lack of humanity. Talking heads on CNN would put their stern faces on and lecture us about the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, baring federal troops from participating in civil law enforcement. We could get past that however – the troops can build barriers, dig moats, provide surveillance support, and transport services, etc… Border Patrol can lead the actual detainment activities.

So it wouldn’t be hard to shut down the border. It’s the butterfly effect that would be hard to manage. Hundreds of thousands of people a month are streaming through South America into Mexico at the moment. We shut the border and Mexico now has a humanitarian crisis they have no way of dealing with. What will the public do when they see MSNBC gleefully televising squalid Mexican refugee camps of a million people within six months or a year? The UN would condemn the US so fast your head would spin. You think AOC’s fake crying at the border was performative art, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Of course we could put pressure on Mexico to enforce their own southern border and try and stop the influx. Forget for a moment that Mexico is controlled by the cartel, much of Latin America is still the Wild Wild West except with jungles. They have no ability to stop the influx even if they wanted to.

Perhaps the biggest issue is that Mexico is the United States second largest import trade partner. Mexico is now the new China for manufacturing cheap goods. If Mexico decides to retaliate against US border mandates by limiting importation of parts and tools… good luck with finding a new car, medical devices, or a whole array of consumer products. Are we willing to endure a trade war over border policies?

And then there’s the biggest elephant in the room – what do we do with the tens of millions of illegal aliens already here? That whole last and final amnesty thing certainly didn’t work out like Reagan hoped. Assuming we implemented some sort of deportation policy, what if the rest of the world doesn’t accept them back?

It’s a bit of a sticky wicket we find ourselves in. There are no good answers. We can give up and just open the floodgates and hope for the best. We can go all John Wayne and try and restore some order, but then spend the next decade fighting the wailing and teeth gnashing of the progressive left and media. We really managed to screw ourselves, haven’t we?

While it’s probably a lost cause, I think we should still try. Being the awful xenophobic, white nationalist (code-word Nazi), isolationist that I am – I’d like to see my country not become Europe. I’d like to hold on to the quaint idea that I can be a proud of my country and the American exceptionalism that built the modern post WWII economy. I’d like to think that I live in a country in which allowing a monthly influx of hundreds of thousands of fighting-age males to stream across the border from every place on the planet, would be viewed as a bad thing.

Alas, I don’t think it’s realistic. The political machine (the enterprise), the progressive left and the media are too powerful. And, they have a weapon that cannot be defeated. It’s a word. All these evil thoughts I have? it’s because…

I’m clearly a racist.

Game over, it’s the argument that cannot be defeated. Politicians, CEO’s, and public figures quiver at the mere thought someone might throw this word at them. It’s the thing that will send people to frantically bend the knee to social media in desperate attempts to keep their followers from abandoning them, when accused of that horrible word. Racist is the new Nazi.

We went from being lectured about having strong moral fiber and “sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me”, to careers being ruined and grown men crying tears of soy when faced with Tik Tok influencers whispering that you might be a racist.

Yep, the more I think about it – I don’t think we’re going to make it. We’re never going to close that door.

P.S. for all you who were dropped on your heads as babies, or liberals (which may be the same thing), I’m talking about ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION ONLY. Legal immigration should be encouraged. And no, the current fake asylum tactic is not the same thing. See, fear of that word has me pre-emptively quantifying what I mean for fear that someone will accuse me of hating all immigrants. Sigh…

Cool, Daily Life, Motivation

Ready To Start Over?

I am a collector of cheesy sayings, quotes, and memes. When I read or hear a good one I write it down. Occasionally I’ll hang one in the bathroom like my framed “Live Laugh Love” poster. Sometimes I’ll make them into Twitter/X posts, sometimes blog posts (are these things still called blogs?). More often than not they get deleted or forgotten, just like your New Year resolution. However yesterday I saw one that I couldn’t resist. It ticks all the boxes; cheesy, inspirational, and true. So if I had to read it, so do you. Ready?

“The count is zero when you wake up”

Did you have a bad day yesterday? Doesn’t matter because the count resets every morning. Did you set a personal deadlift record yesterday? Doesn’t matter because the count reset this morning. Is some weird intrapersonal drama going on at work? Doesn’t matter because the count starts at zero today. In other words a zero count every morning is a less cheesy and lame way of saying every day is a new day.

Unless you’re a Hamas commander who just had a 500 pound JDAM drop on you – then your count definitely does not reset.

I really needed to re-read this saying today. Why? I’ve had zero alcohol for over a month. I’ve worked out at least three days a week. I’ve been both downhill and cross country skiing multiple times. I’ve been riding my bike on the greenbelt. I’ve skipped all deserts and feel like I’ve been paying attention to what I’m eating. I initially saw a seven pound weight loss.

This morning I stepped on the scale and I gained four pounds.

Shit. I didn’t drink all through the holidays and kept away from the buffet table and still gained weight. What’s the point? I might as well have that evening cocktail if I’m going to gain weight anyway. It’s very depressing.

Sigh. Deep breath. The count is zero when you wake up. Today we start over from scratch. I don’t know what the answer is, but we will find a way to make this weight loss work. Yesterday or the last month doesn’t matter. Calories have been too high and protein too low. Step count and workout intensity have been half-assed.

We can fix this and turn the ship around. There was a mantra I’d mutter to myself back in the trail running days when things started to hurt – it’s mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.

It’s not whether you fall down, but if you get back up. Ok, ok, ok. I’ll stop with the cheesy sayings. You get my point. Go out and do the thing today.

And remember, always drink upstream from the herd (sorry, couldn’t resist). What’s your cheesy saying for the day?

Daily Life, Health

Death To Coffee

I was asked last night by someone who does not drink coffee – what does coffee do for you in the morning? Despite the urge to say, “uhm everything”, it did make me think. But first, some context. Starting about a month ago I began to make some changes. No, we won’t call them changes but experiments. One of them was to start drinking non-caffeinated tea at night before bed. I’m trying to avoid reaching for a snack, desert, or nightcap in the evening. Turns out a hot cup of tea fills the belly and keeps me from foraging in the kitchen.

Next, I started reading about Dr Huberman’s morning routine. Of the things he suggests doing, one of them was to delay caffeine intake for 90-120 minutes upon waking to let the residual adenosine clear from your system. At that point his caffeine choice is a strong tea.

It got me thinking. I’ve lost the taste for coffee lately. It’s very acidic and not helped by the fact that I make crappy Keurig coffee because I’m too lazy to do the pour-over or French press thing. Although I’ve never in my life been a tea drinker, I was already drinking it at night so why not try it in the morning?

So a few weeks ago I substituted some old caffeinated tea I found in the pantry for my morning coffee. Shockingly, I didn’t die or lapse into convulsions. I won’t say I was in love with the taste, but it was certainly more mellow on my stomach than the coffee.

So here we are. I’m keeping up with the tea instead of coffee thing. I ordered some fancy loose leaf tea and a proper tea strainer thingy.

Let me be clear about how momentous a change this is. Way back in the day when I was a software developer, I drank an absolute frightening amount of coffee. As in, multiple full pots a day. In later years as an RN, the only way to survive 12-13 hour shifts was large amounts of caffeine. Nowadays I’m back to a normal 2-3 cups a day, but the ingrained habit is strong. It’s a big thing that I’m not drinking coffee.

Is it going to be a continuing habit? That brings me back to the original question I was asked – what does coffee do for me in the morning? I honestly didn’t have an answer. In reality I’m probably not getting a decent nights sleep and therefore I’m super groggy in the morning. It feels like coffee/caffeine is the only way to “wake up”. A logical person would conclude that the right answer is to work on getting a better nights sleep, rather than caffeinate to compensate. I’ve never been accused of being the sharpest crayon in the box.

The routine I’d like to work towards is two-fold. First, work on getting a better nights sleep. Second, continue to incorporate Dr. Hubermans ideas. Wake up, sunlight, two large glasses of water with salt, and delay the caffeine for 90 minutes. For extra bonus points, use that 90 minutes to get my workout in.

At that point, take my time and make a proper cup of tea or a decent cup of coffee. Probably alternate. Maybe 70/30 tea/coffee.

Once I’ve reached that level of superhuman performance, I shall be in a perfect state of zen.

So that’s more than you wanted to know about one of my 2024 resolutions. We’ll cover the conquest and take over of some foreign country and running a 100 mile ultramarathon in another post. How about you? Are you a coffee or tea drinker? Pour-over or French press? Best high caffeine morning tea? Inquiring minds want to know.