Author: BigCountryExpat

Greetings!
I’m avoiding some aspects of the poly-ticks tonight, but I definitely do have to make mention of the current hullabaloo over the McDonald’s Fast Food Fiasco.

Bear with me on this one, it’s going to get stupid before it gets better. Thing of it is, as you can tell, I love me some Mickey-D’s. It comes legitimately as most of my job(s) from the time I started working, to the time I was overseas, most of my gigs in one form or another revolved around fast food.

My very first job was as a dishwasher at age 14.
Illegal AF but DeadDad said it’d ‘build character’
Bullshit.
I only got the job because he knew the owner. It was one of the beach front restaurants on Hampton Beach that was there all the way up until the Great Fire of 2010. We used to have the occasional fire on the beach, mostly attributed to what MomUnit called “Jewish Lightening” as the owners of the majority of the property on the Beach were of the tribe. I’d say about 1/2 of them… the other half surprisingly were Greek of all things…

MomUnit was a bit of a firebug… she’d love to go down and watch the firefighters do their thing… for the most part back in the day, it’d be a ‘one and done’ with the target building only suffering… 2010? Not so much. Link HERE An unexpected 60mph sustained wind took out an entire block leaving it looking like Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

What’s left of that building on the corner? Yeah that’s the restaurant I worked at first, Hudon’s…

Sorry… digression #201…
Back to the issue(s)
So, after I turned 16, and in the interim from 14-16 having labored every. single. summer. in shit-work related to the Beach and allll it’s Tourist Environs, I got a gig working at the first Mickey D’s in town.

Turns out I was pretty damned good at it. I was a Drive Thru God man… the only thing was I also worked Burger King at the same time, as I was saving for a no shit Smith and Wesson 9mm I had my eye on… Another quick but funny:

I worked the Drive Thru at both places. Usually 11-7 or 8pm at Mickey D’s, then the 8-overnight at Burger King. I was getting about maybe 4-6 hours of sleep. One night I was all fucked up and I was at Burger King… a car rolled up (I think it was like 2am) and the Headset went off… I stated per the required script: “Welcome to McDonald’s, Home of the Big Mac, What can I get for you tonight?”

Mind you this’s Burger King
At 0200.

Dude behind the wheel at the Drive Thru ordering sign AND his friends in the car? Well turns out they were stoned out of their gourds and had the munchies…

This of course confused the ever living fuck out of them!!!

They answered “Uhhhh… uhhhh…. huh… uhhh…”

Once it got straightened out, we all had a HUGE laugh over it… I still crack up thinking about… I totally blew what few functioning brain cells they had left apparently.

So, I stayed on the gig(s) until I turned 18, and was eligible for a Hackney License. Another story there, but tangently applicable as driving a cab meant hustling, and with that hustle came a LOT of hastily consumed Big Macs. I also for the record overlapped Wendy’s for a while too after I quit Mickey D’s over a scheduling conflict…

But at the time at “The Clown’s House” I was good enough that I got assigned to ‘assist the Managers’ with ordering the restock and supplies for the store… meaning the bitch in charge shunted off her work on to me. So… I did the ordering… more on this in a minute.

Now, we’ve ALL heard about the $18.00 Big Mac Meal in Connecticut. For me, this was no surprise as that particular store sits between the North Bound and South Bound sides of Interstate 95. That place has always been a gouge-festivus as it’s like the ONLY stop to take a piss and get some on-the-highway grub… or at least it was? Is? Not sure… I won’t go ‘behind enemy lines’ any longer since we buried DeadDad.

The charts come courtesy of ZeroHedge

Like retard-level over 100% inflation on the Clown’s food.

Then there’s the Year to Year over a ten year period for just the Clown’s Price Increases on individual products:

Now… interestingly in 2014, the “McDouble” burger was $1.19 allegedly. As memory serves me, and for those days, that particular ‘grouping’ of memory storage hasn’t been too badly damaged, the cost of a BASIC Hamburger in 1987/88 was about $0.59 per burger. That means that up until 2014, the price of a basic Burger, double or not, was about the same, coming in at $0.59 cents per burger.

I mean a McDouble is one piece of cheese added as well as an extra meat patty, so yeah. Calling a burger being about $0.59 cents is about right for back then… prices used to be far more stable than they are now.

Now, thing of it is, when I did the ordering, and as a franchisee, we had to order from the Corporate Warehouses. “X” amounts of hamburger patties, case, one each, type one each. “X” amount of quarter pounder patties… you get the idea… ALL of this had to be ordered from Corporate. And, like in the majority of supermarkets, they had the Cost of the Case, and then the Unit cost per item listed. The book had BIG warnings on it… BIG trade secrets having all the costs in it I guess…

In 1987/88, a Hamburger patty was $0.16 cents per pattie.
A CASE of those patties, at about I think 100 a throw was $160 a case. The buns for the burgers, per unit I believe was as memory serves, like $0.08 cents per bun, with them ordered in bags of 100 each. The ketchup, dehydrated onions, mustard and pickles were damned near inconsequential as those, (excluding the onions) came in 5 gallon buckets that we hardly ever needed to ‘reload on’ considering the parsimonious amount we utilized… the onions came in a 2 pound bag, dehydrated, and we’d get a good 2-3 days out of those, by refrigerating them at the end of the night…

Total cost: $0.28 cents per burger
Which was then sold at $0.59 cents.
This was, before everything else factored in, a theoretical profit of $.031 cents per burger. And that’s JUST on the burgers. The profit margin on Quarter Pounders, and especially Fries was even better.

The reason the could supply the franchises was because, like Starbucks, they own all the manufacturing for the ENTIRITY of the corporation!

They have ALL their own farms.
Beef
Vegetable
Fishing Fleet(s)
Hell, even their own dairy farms to provide the milk to make the Flurries and Shakes… leastways when the fucking machine isn’t broke-dicked…

Jes’ Sayin’

Yep… they even have their own fleet of trucks and reefer trailers… you’ve ALL seen them, usually parked where the drive thru may-or-may-not-be partially blocked when they’re getting a reload. Another thing on my intel is that XWife?

She was the Second Store Manager of the most productive McDonald’s in New England. ANY of you who have ever driven down to the Cape in Mass might know the place of which I speak… It’s at the ‘crossroads’ of Interstate 93 and 3/3A heading onto the Cape. It used to be the last place to get chow before you got onto the Cape, and man, it was busy. They regularly got 4-6 busses an hour filled with Tourists headed down… MASSIVE Sales… she also kept me up to date with her days back then… anyways… I learned a lot from those days…

And since the Clown owns the ‘means of production’ and whatnot to make their own ‘stuff’… well Yes, they do get hit with basic inflationary issues, but however it’s not like they’re getting hit by their suppliers…

They are their own suppliers!

And to show of what I speak, I went to the US Department of Agriculture, who used to track the cost to raise a Beef Cow. From ‘start’ to ‘table’ if you will…reason I emphasize the ‘used to’ is they stopped doing this in 2010!

Funny that idnit?
The data however is revealing:

Now, for “All Beef Cows” the cost is 1988 was according to this, was about $84.80. This correlates to this other chart I found from the USDA:

Pretty close to the mark IMO.

Now, when you figure in how many burgers you get from a cow?
According to some of the sources I found, you get about 2200+/- burgers per cow. And those are quarter pounder burgers. However, we can provide an estimate based on available information. Take the average 1,400-pound live weight cow, you can expect to get about 550 pounds of usable meat from it.  That makes 2200 +/- burgers… which in turn weigh:

And then a regular burger? It weighs in at 1.6oz uncooked:

Which means you get (roughly) 5500 regular Mickey D’s Burgers out of ONE moo cow.

Which means that in our Clownworld Clown Burger Shop, you get, as stated, 2200 +/- quarter pounders, or 5500 +/- regular burgers? You’d get roughly in circa 1988?

Let’s see…
$0.59 for a Regular Burger
Sunk Cost of said-cow: $84.80
One Cow: 5500 patties per cow
Making you about $3245.00 +/- per COW
The COST of said-burger however, each cow COST $1540.00 in expenses…

And I’m no good at maff… I admit it… and then add on this was 1988!!!

The Quarter Pounder?
$1.70 for a QP w/Cheese
Sunk cost of the cow: $84.80
One Cow: 2200 patties per cow
Makes you about $3740.00 +/-
I can’t do a expense of how much it was for a QP pattie for us… that’s lost to the mists of time… but using the 30% marker, as in a regular burger cost 30% more than the investment, call it about $0.75 cents +/- with everything to ‘build’ a QP…
With that? Cost/Investment for a QP was about $1650.00+/-

Nice work if you can get it…
Now mind you, I’m not taking labor, transportation costs (fuel(s) specifically) Invested costs, amortization on the property/building, and all the other crap like cups, etcetc…

Nevermind that commodities fluctuate
You have good years and you have bad years
Some years, there’s a surplus of beef
Some years, beef is a costly item.
See the above chart.
Hell a modern day potato blight would really fuck up the Clown and his Cohorts…

There’s a reason the McRib only comes out in the fall.
It’s when they’re culling the piggies and the McRib is sufficiently cost-efficient to make a profit…
Either way…

It’s ALL expensive.
But if you look around and see who isn’t gouging the ever living fuck out of the public? Companies like Chik-Fi-A, and surprisingly Starbucks, which has the entire country of Costa Rica ‘locked down’ as their coffee suppliers. Hell, we have two more new Chik-Fil-A’s opening/being built here right now… that place? OMG! From what I can see, it’s a license to print money…

But for them to try and tell us that a fucking Big Mac meal is about $10 +/- depending on location?

I got some bridges to sell you and beachfront property in Las Vegas….

The main takeaway is, besides the blatant gouging of what had been a cheap and convenient chow, it’s now ackchully cheaper to go to Chili’s and get the new burger combo there… it’s Chili’s 3 for Me combo meal lineup, which gives guests bottomless chips and salsa, an entree and a bottomless non-alcoholic drink starting at $10.99. 

The “Smasher” has the same ingrediants as a Mac, including Thousand Island Dressing (Mac Sauce) and a BIG honkin’ burger…

Cheaper than a Large Big Mac Combo…
Only thing is, the ‘sit-down-to-eat’ is a wee bit less quick and easy as a drive thru, but hey, what do I know?

Your thoughts?
More Later
Big Country

MY personal fave Mc’d’s chow… wish they’d serve it here…

Greetings!
Sorry for the paucity of poasting. It’s been busy around Ye Olde Casa De El Grande Campesino. Haven’t had fuck-all time to do any real poly-ticks anal-lysis.

Been trying to bust out 10 hour days at Glorious People’s Tractor Factory #187. I like either getting a full day worth of overtime, or if I need it, taking a day off with pay so to speak.

Also, Been working on the Prick 77.

Took it completely apart, and did the ‘basic Dash 20 Inspection’. When I ‘cracked the shell’ and pulled the ‘guts’ out of it to inspect it to make sure all the modules were in it, the interior was fucking pristine. Like as if this thing had never been opened/serviced since it was made!!!

I also got a battery pack that takes “D” Cells that powers it, and wow… I gotta say it works! I mean at least it makes static… I have to do a IRL transmit/receive test shortly. The -only- thing that was ‘broken’ was the little light that illuminates the dial when you put it on the “lite” setting. The bulb was blown, but I got a $5 replacement on the ‘Zon, which works perfectly. I mean, hell… it turns on, has static… I already had in my possession a mike and antenna rig that I use on my Falcon II.

I mean that’s one of the bonuses of being overseas soooo long I scrounged a PILE of ‘crap’ that I eventually ended up using. From NVG mounts and Rhino horns to fucking antennas and shit… even the Medical side I have enough bandages to mummify a fucking platoon…

Anyways… I painted it as well… I personally think it looks good:

And Of Course I had a spare Torii decal laying around…
Don’t you!?!

The ‘glow cube’ is courtesy of my bro the Tactical Hermit who sent me some slick stuff as a giftie… I appreciate it and you bro!

The next step is to bust out the Falcon… according to all things I read online, they’re both compatible as long as I turn off the ‘scramble/secure’ on the Hand-Held. And then try the Baofengs. Sapper bough like a ton of them on Prime Day… I think he got like a 8-10 pack of them for short cash. I mean, Granted, limited range, easily trackable, but ultimately disposable.

In fact now we have so much Commo Gear, the quarterly ‘battery service day’ is going to be instead of a single day, it’s going to be more like a full fucking weekend. I mean now I literally have an entire .50cal Ammo Can that’s stuffed with the rechargables. The commo gear itself is in a 40mm Ammo Can. Those are some big bastards and just my shit that I’ve ‘allocated/reacquired/scrounged/bought’ over the years has it filled to the brim.

Here’s hoping a CME/EMP the shit doesn’t get fried.

And yes, I know it should be/needs to be grounded but that’s hard in the middle of the living room or as Gretchen calls it “The War Museum.” Can’t zigzactly jab a grounding rod into the concrete floor Aye?

Unless one of you malcontents have a suggestion?
I’m all ears.

But as far as everything else, I’m “Keepin’ on Keepin’ on” as Dio says all the time.

I will say one thing about today however:
Per the Commander In Chief, June 6, 1944:

SUPREME HEADQUARTERS
ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE

Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!

Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, June 6th 1944
The D-day Pre-Invasion Speech

The saddest thing about it?
Be prepared… this’s hard to take but it needs to be said and shared:

“Our country’s going to hell in a handbasket!”
“…that isn’t what we fought for…”

That right there
Fuck
Any wonder guys like me want to take up arms and start shooting motherfuckers in the fucking face???
Sgt. Dekle, USMC deserves(d) better.

God help us.
Any wonder why I’ve been dodging the news lately?
Jes’ Sayin’
And as an afterthought, Sgt. Dekle died about two months after that was filmed…Link HERE

Think About It…

More Later
Big Country

Greetings!
Yeah, been a full day again. Did the final hours to get my 80 for the paycheck from People’s Glorious Tractor Factor #451. It’s been a bit of a grind lately as the H.R. Commissar has been ‘sniffin’ around my Rhubarb patch’.

Can’t be having that… she’s a fucking troll in human-ish form.

4 kids, 3 BabyDaddies…. that’s all I really need to say Aye?

So after hitting the 80 hour marker, despite me being able to collect as much O.T. as I want, we had other things, specifically Gretchen’s Parents ‘things to do’

I clocked out, we got in the car and off to the Villages
Again.
That drive takes it out of me like a motherfucker these days. 90 miles each way… at least gas is down to $3.27 in some spots. I did see $3.17 at one point at a massive Love’s Truck Stop, but at the time, the benzine was good to go.

So, got there, Gretchen finally did a cut and color for Mom, and I fixed Dad’s TV. His speakers were blown due to the bass being set so high… it’s an older-ish RCA, and when I finally figured out what was wrong, I realized the bass had toasted the internal speakers. For Father’s Day I got him a soundbar which was my mission today… I almost wasn’t able to get it to work as the TV is that old and the only connector that matched up to the soundbar was the fucking AUX-Headphone jack if you can bel;ive it. No HDMI, No Optical… I mean just the ‘red-white-yellow’ standard plugs from the 80s and 90s…

I got it working Thank Crom.

Would have pissed me off to no end as there was a strict ‘no return’ on the soundbar (I got it 50% off on clearance…. $49 bux… a steal for the quality IMIO). But I did ultimately get it working… the internal speakers were so bad that the sound was completely distorted until I fixed it. Dad was very happy with this, so I’ll take the “W” on this…

So some mems I got, courtesy of WiscoDave and others, most NSFW and feel free to use and abuse them:

More Later
Big Country

Greetings!
Soooo
ANOTHER reader sent me a ‘care package’. In this case I got me a Big Ole Cardboard Box, with a note: “BCE: Found this cleaning out my recently deceased Father-in-Laws house. He was a Marine radioman in The Nam. I have ZERO use for it, and I have no idea if it works. It’s ‘dead weight’ and I thought it would make a nice addition to your collection (or a good doorstop.)”

No signature, nor return addy.

My most humble thanks for the gift Fren.
It will have a good home here.

It was a heavy sumbitch. Turns out, it was a rather worn but in good shape for it’s age PRC-77!

Now the fascinating part is the front plate?

It’s a Brazilian Issue PRC-77.

The only thing I can think of is that his FIL was part of both the Nam, and the Marine’s intervention in the Dominican Republic back in 1964? Maybe his FIL took this as a souvenir? Brazil and the US had some ‘issues’ during that timeframe, and his FIL -might- have been in the D.R. prior to a tour in the Nam…

Either way, this thing is awesome.

Not sure if it works however. The battery case has/had this weird “D-Cell” made at home adapter, which as you can see, I have id’d the issues:

It takes like 10-12 D Cells…
Sheesh…
If I had to make and educated guess or even a WAG?

The Brazilian Army probably didn’t have either the access to, or ability to manufacture the standard ‘brick’ magnesium battery that the Prick 77 used:

Hell we don’t even make those things anymore… last run according to sources was back in 2008. That pic came from eBay, and they want $60 buxs for it!!! That’s going to be a hard pass thank you very much…

So, my guess is that since the Brazilians couldn’t source ‘traditional US DotMil Batteries’, someone put on the “thinking cap” and came up with a way to power this thing without the need for the standard US DotMil issue battery.

Overall, the thing is pretty beat on. No extreme damage outside of a freq knob being fucked up, and it missing like ALL of the rubber covers and fiddly bits. Turns out there is a ton of those out there for rather short $$$.

I’m going to do my best to see if I can repair it, and see if it works. If it does? Well, yeah sure it’s non-secure. Granted it’s ‘OldTech’.

HOWEVER it is MilSpec and I have a more-than-passing familiarity with the ole Prick 77. My reserve unit I was in after Gulf One used them almost exclusively. Adding on a manpack radio to the preps, never mind a Brazilian manpack?

I can only imagine using it as say a distraction for the OPFOR.

As in placing it in a good ambush spot… and turning it on, and leaving the mike button taped on ‘transmit’…

Even if to only distract the ‘bad guys’ with their RDFs (radio direction finders)… And when they do find it, man, the looks on their faces… “WTF are the fucking Brazilians doing supporting these guys!?!”

Sort of like my eating, washing then saving them Chinese PLA rations to be ‘left behind’ as a distraction. My reasoning for things like this is that well, the Intel Squirrels?

Stuff like that throws them for a loop… literally. If done properly you can completely ruin their day. It gets inside and completely fucks up their OODA loop. For those unfamiliar, the ‘OODA loop’ is “Observe, Orient, Decide and Act”

Now, that’s for banking/investment, but it still is absolutely applicable in a military scenario. By leaving behind a bunch of PLA (People’s Liberation Army) field ration wrappers, the Intel Squirrels, as is their nature, are going to run down every. single. possible. aspect of them before ultimately discarding the idea that the REDFOR has PLA support.

By having, oh say an Italian handheld VHF DotMil radio ‘dropped accidently/left behind’ they’re going to be scouring ALLLL sorts of intel (eBay and the like, never mind private sales, which since I got this thing, there’s a WHOLE HUGE Community of DotMil Radio enthusiasts) and thereby utilizing other resources to track down the ‘who-how-where-when-why’ of it all.

Krainian Rations right now, as well as Russian Rations would be great. Any anti-Leviathan Action could be credibly dropped on the doorstep of a vengeful Krainian, pissed off at the US for needlessly causing the slaughter/destruction of the Modern Day Krain or a SVR team of Russians, doing ‘sabotage’… thereby distracting the REDFOR (Leviathan if I didn’t make that clear) intel assets, as well as actual Hunter/Seeker Kill Teams.

Hell…
Talking tradecraft like this alone….
If I go to jail, I did not kill myself aight?

But yeah.
Things like that are the ‘sand being poured into in the intel gearbox’ as let me tell you… the Intel Squirrels? There’s some serious autism going on there. I personally dealt with them professionally for a number of years. And God help someone IF one of the ‘squirrels’ gets it in their heads that “Yes, those PLA rations means there must be a connection to the bad guys and being supported by the PLA”… well, from experience, it’s almost impossible to get them to ‘switch tracks’ so to speak.

They’ll ‘run that nut down’ until they hit a brick wall.

And even then they’ll still have misgivings that its a possible false track. That it’s still valid, and that they missed something.

In the meantime, you can keep fucking with them.

It’s a wonderful thing.
Call it “The BCE Intel Mobius Loop”
Once you set them on the track, it’s really fucking hard for them to alter course, OR even worse admit that they were wrong.

They’ll keep going, round and round and round and round and round and round and round ad infinitum

Hubris in the Intel World is a Pure Dee Motherfucker.

Them Intel Squirrels? Because the DotMil trained them and told them for years that they were/are the bestest, brightest, and smartest, they don’t have the ability to realize they might be wrong. I lost count of how many times I saw this…

Hubris like I said… anyways… your thoughts and suggestions always welcome.

So More Later
Big Country

Jes’ Sayin’

Greetings!
Sooo much better having central air that works.

Sapper and I went to a supply shack in Tampa proper yesterday… Place was deep in the Heart of the Hood. Cost me double of the one I ordered on the ‘zon. $20 for the ‘zon, a little over $40 for the one we got. The problem w/the ‘zon order is I ordered it on Friday for a Prime Overnight delivery and the ETA was 10pm!

Not good enough.

So 0800 we took the ride, got the part and I did the installation. MUCH better now. The ‘zon-cap if you will, showed up at 10pm, so now, as suggested by the majority of you all, I have a spare tucked away if this should happen again.

Sapper thinks we should do this annually either way. Just in case sort of thing and sort of how we pull PMCS on the filter monthly, and the blower unit gets checked every six months.

Either way it’s nice to enjoy a coooool Sunday. Took quite a while to cool off the house after the repair as it had hit 86 inside… even the cats were uncomfortable. Gretchen was the only one comfy as for instances like this I have an ’emergency window unit’ I put in the bedroom for her. Only thing I hate about that thing is despite it’s size, it’s an energy pig.

Now
News-News?
Not really caring these days. Just preparing for the worst. Getting as much overtime as I can to make bank so’s I can keep getting MOAR of the ‘necessities, the bare necessities” that Baloo in “The Jungle Book” was singing about:

Granted, in the way the song goes, it’s all about ‘the moment’ i.e. one shouldn’t worry about anything other than fulfilling the very basic needs and instant gratification, living life day by day and focusing on the moment. In my view?

Making sure we got the ‘bare necessities’ to ride out the coming storm. MOAR Food, MOAR Ammo. MOAR Comms gear.
Guns?
Nope.
I’m good thanks.

Feel free to contradict me.

The Feds tried to close down and ‘confiscate’ Alex Jones’s studio the other day. The only reason they didn’t was he locked himself inside, and called the Local Sherriff who told the Fibbies to fuck off and die in a fire.

THAT is a cautionary tale. Ole Alex Jones IMO is a nutjob. I was listening to him back in 1998-99 when he was broadcasting back in the day from Austin TX. Being stationed at Fort Hood (Da Hood) he was always good for some laughs. His “Black Helicopter” conspiracy shit (all Blackhawks and modern choppers are black-ish in color) His claims of “All the Russian/NWO Armor ‘stashed’ at Da Hood…. Man I could go on for days… Problem is, he’s like a broken clock. He’s at least right twice a day.

The “Russian/NWO Armor” of which he spoke of was a vast collection of shit that various units brought back from Gulf One. So much so that the CG (Commanding General) of the base had to have it ALL centralized as there was just too much to go around… like almost a Battalion worth of Soviet Shytte plus ‘other’ interesting items that the units who deployed to Saudi first, then Kuwait and then back home? I mean each and every. single. unit. scrounged -something- to take home.

Case in point, sometime when I was in 2/187th, the 5th Group Barracks had a ‘shakedown’. They found, no shit, a fully functional and (could be) armed 12.7mm DsHK Russian Heavy Machine gun in one of the rooms. I say ‘could be loaded’ as there were a bunch of ammo cans, new, fully loaded with 100 round belts as well. It was not demilled.

Seems some of the 5th Group engineers had ‘collected’ the weapon, tore it down, and put all the pieces-parts in with the engineering stakes and ‘other’ engineer surveying equipment. I mean the tripod? Yeah a tripod is a tripod is a tripod… especially to REMF inspectors… and if you threw the barrel(s) in with the ‘other’ long metal tubular objects I’m sure they’d be overlooked as well. And unless you knew what you were looking for, the receiver group could pass through as well…

No one got fried for it tho… the Group ‘donated’ it to the on post museum. Used to be on display. Not sure now as the last trip there the Museum was closed.

But yeah.
I mean another “for instance” was in 1994 when I was stationed in Hohenfels. One of our ‘new-ish’ M-113s developed a fuel problem. Leaking fuel cell. It was ‘new-ish’ to us in that it was a hand-me-down track from I think 4ID. Well, our wrenches went to work, started to tear things apart, removed the cracked fuel cell and lo and behold!

There were 4 folding stock AKMs inside the fuel cell. Seems (they think) that the crew and/or maintenance team (in Iraq/Kuwait during Gulf One) had stashed them (the AKMs) inside the fuel cell with the intent of recovery after they had returned to Germany from the Gulf.

The problem was, THEY went back to Germany. The track? According to the investigation, it sat for a loooong minute in Kuwait before being sent back to Germany. At which point instead of going back to its point of origin, it went to OUR unit as we had the most burned out raggedy-assed equipment in all of EUSARA.

I mean hell, we were the OPFOR.
We ran out shit into the ground like you fucking read about. So, after us having it for about a year, they think them AKMs being battered around inside the plastic fuel cell finally cracked it, resulting in the need to swap it out. I mean I’m impressed that the fuel cell lasted that long as in 1/4INF OPFOR, we ran our vehicles balls the fuck out 254-7 for at least 230+ days a year. I’m amazed it didn’t happen sooner.

So, yeah… if I start slacking in Poasting, it’s because I want to start running a wee bit “quieter and deeper” so to speak. I have waaay too many things to do before they come to cart me off to the camps so to speak. I do NOT want to be ‘that guy’ who pokes his head out of the burrow, only to get cranialized.

So More Later
Big Country

Greetings!
Nope, nope, this isn’t about OrangeManBad getting the ‘wet-willie.’ We ALL knew that was a most assured outcome. The best way to put it is (h/t WiscoDave):

Nope…
MY PERSONAL IRE:

THAT is the self-righteous sanctimonious piece of shit that gave our Gran#2 to the BabyDaddy in a utterly corrupt back-room deal and then sucked over $75k out of us while continually insuring we had ZERO chance of ever getting her back…

The link to the fucking TRAVESTY is HERE
I’m not gonna FedPoast
I’m not gonna FedPoast
I’m not gonna FedPoast
I’m not gonna FedPoast
I’m not gonna FedPoast
I’m not gonna FedPoast
I’m not gonna FedPoast
I’m not gonna FedPoast
I’m not gonna FedPoast
I’m not gonna FedPoast
I’m not gonna FedPoast
I’m not gonna FedPoast

Oh but OH HOLY FUCK do I feel the fucking need to…

It’s fucking bullshit Aye…

So, enough there. Use your imagination as to what I’d reeeally like to do to that utterly smarmy self-serving sociopathic piece of shit. Involving the Flammenwerfer as the coup de grâce… meaning having him writhing around, on fire, in exceptional and exquisite pain….

With me laughing maniacally the entirety of it…
In Minecraft of course…

Yep. Two Tiered Just-Us System.
It protects it’s own, to the point they’re going to be really surprised when not if they start being drawn and quartered, and their guts being fed to hogs while they’re all still alive and screaming. Can’t wait to see the looks on their collective faces… Pure-Dee Pikachu Face as I’d expect…
Until the screaming starts…

I’m sensing a trend here….

So
The other “Name of My Pain” today is a recent and not totally unexpected thing from a recent shopping trip. Gretchen has tummy issues. Not many things she can eat that don’t cause bloating and pain. One of the items is the Special K with the yogurt ‘chunks’ or whatever they call it. She has at least one bowl a day, maybe two if she’s feeling like having it for dinner as well as her breakfaqst.

Needless to say we keep it in the pantry.

Last night after a few brews, I had the munchies, and decided it’d be advantageous to have myself a bowl as well, as hey, been a looong minute since I had some cereal. Up in the top shelf is where we stash the boxes, as the top shelf has plenty of room for them tall boxes. I saw that the boxes (2x) I had bought yesterday on a BOGO (pretty good deal, but still… $8 for a single family size box of cereal??? C’mon man!) I saw the box (open) that I had bought the week before.

The ‘new one’ on the left, the week old one (open) on the right… What prompted me to investigate further was as you canb see, the new box is taller and thinner…

Now, it sounds dumb, but to my trained eye, I was like… “That’s not right!” in that I took a lot of classes at MassArt back in the day, and I just had to check… I have some abilities in I don’t know what to call it? Spatial Equality/Sizing/Awareness? It’s hard to describe… I get a visual and can tell if something is actually bigger or smaller, or at least volumetrically capable of holding ‘stuff’ the same way… it’s part of the trickery of modern packaging and there’s an art as well as a science behind it… it was a class I actually got a solid ‘A’ in…

Both boxes were the same width on the front side… it was narrower as you saw on the linear side. The newer box being just taller. I measured them. The trick:
Old Box (Purchased only one week earlier)

19.1 oz.
New Box (Purchased yesterday)

17.9 oz

A difference of 1.2 oz.
Considering that a serving is 42 grams of cereal, which equals a cup, 1.2 ounces of cereal is 34 grams, which equals (in bran which was the closest thing I could get to straight cereal) .52 cups of cereal.

This means that Kelloggs is shorting a half a cup of cereal per box, but still charging the same as if it was still same as it ever was… Much like the Just-Us System:

Yep…
Like I said… I positively need a vacation…
Leastways for maybe a night or two on the beach somewhere.

But unfortunately it’s not happening anytime soon.
I’m banging this out in the extreme heat as the ‘new-ish’ AC has crapped out. I’m hoping it’s the capacitor. I’m pretty sure it is. (Please GOD let it only be that). My AC Guy, the awesome Joe-the-AC-Guy who I’ve had for years? He retired… moved to Ohio!!!!! I had no idea and he’s been taking my calls, walking me through various potential fixes… he finally let me know today he’s gone!

Aw shit.

He –did- give me his apprentice’s number, but he’s working for “Giant Conglomerate Air-Conditioning Repair Incorporated” and can’t get here anytime soon. So……….

I ordered a new ‘cap’ on the ‘Zon.
Gets here tomorrow…
If that doesn’t do it, I’m screwed

Talk about enough bullshit to make Mister Peanut even saltier…
I’m sooooo over being a shytte-magnet.

Now, lastly, anyone who wants me to take a crack at Missing Relations DotMil records or whatnot, email me at BCE187th@protonmail.com
I’ll need the following:
Full Name
D.O.B.
Service Dates and Branch (if available)
We can discuss pricing and whatnot… I’m not sure if we should do a flaty rate or hourly? Hourly could get deep… I mean as an example: Uncle Connie? In trying to find out if anyone had come across any wreckage that had previously NOT been Identified, I ended up emailing every. single. Dive Shop and/or water excursion shop in both Australia and New Guinea. As Connie’s A-20 left Cairns (Australia) and was hopping to Moresby (New Guinea).

As I said in the article in question “Well, back in 2020, as well as 2021, I went and found almost ALL of the SCUBA shops that offered dive excursions on and around Cairns and Port Moresby. Believe it or not, there are 3 A-20 Havocs that are within ‘normal’ diving range’ i.e. no mixed gasses needed. I got in contact with them all, and kindly, they let me know that they (as a collective group so to speak) had not found the Abijah Gooch, but IF they did, they’d be in contact.”

That was a metric shitton of hours involved.
So flat-rate? We can discuss options as we go.

So, other wise, More Later
The Hot AF Big Country

Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
A rather somber day here at Casa El Grande Campesino, as it is Memorial Day. A day that is supposed to be a somber reflection on the memories of those who paid the Ultimate Sacrifice for their Country(ies).

The last time we talked about a MIA/KIA was my Uncle 2nd L.T. Cornelius Francis O’Leary. The story of my work and research is HERE. One of r/ourguys O2 (as in the symbol for Oxygen) hit me up via DM askin g if I could find out some stuff about his Uncle Bruce who also was a KIA in WW2. Seems he died before O2 was born, and he wanted to know what I could find.

So O2 gave me his Uncle’s full name and D.O.B. and I was off to the races. It was a good thing in that me bein g fresh off of one ‘hunt’ I had no issue ‘shifting fire’ in going and finding out a LOT of info on his Uncle Bruce

Now, please allow me to introduce the Guest of Honor for today’s write-up: Flight Sergeant Bruce E. Greenhalgh

A rather dapper young man.
In fact so young, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force on June 30, 1943 as he was only 17 years, 10 months old. Apparently he was afraid he, like many others his age, was going miss out on the war.

He was born (according to the records) August 11, 1925. He lived with his father Edward in Niagara Falls N.Y. which explains the ease in which he was able to cross the border to enlist. Now an interesting factoid came up while perusing Bruce’s personnel jacket. His mother Elizabeth had a different address in the file. When O2 started going through the documents, he was highly surprised as it seems that after Uncle Bruce died, his father just faaaded away in the memory of the family.

His Grandmother and the rest of the family had said that her first husband Edward had ‘died’ whereas the record shows they were divorced. I figure that since Uncle Bruce didn’t make it home and had been living with Dad, it was easier and more ‘socially acceptable’ for Grandma to have been a ‘widower’ than a divorcee. Even O2 was really surprised by this revelation.

The other surprise was that the ‘Family Legend’ of Uncle Bruce was that he was so good at aerial gunnery that he had been asked to stay on as an instructor. The record on the other hand:

“…there is room for improvement.” and “…Not recommended for a commission.” and lastly “Not suitable at all” to be an instructor…

It is what it is…

After his training Young Bruce packed his gear and hit dirt in England April 2, 1944. He got settled in and on May 2, 1944, he was transferred to the 22 O.T.U. which was the No.22 Operational Training Unit (OTU) and was a Bomber Command unit that trained aircrew for World War II at RAF Wellesbourne Mountford in Warwickshire, England from 1941 to 1945. Bruce got trained up in being an aerial gunner on a Vickers Wellington bomber:

His training began on May 3rd, 1944, and ran until August 10th, 1944. He got a couple of days off, and then on August 23rd, 1944 after completing his transition to being a fully qualified Aerial Gunner, they transferred him again to 61 Base in Yorkshire England. He was at one of four training bases in Yorkshire that all fell under the Command of No. 6 Bomber Group, Royal Canadian Air Force.

This is where he trained up and learned the ins-and-outs of the Biggest and Baddest Bomber the Brits and Canoeheads had, The Avro Lancaster:

This was the heavy-heavy of WW2, designed to haul the MASSIVE 12,000 Pound “Tallboy” and the 22,000 Pound “Grand Slam” ‘Earthquake Bombs’. Mostly used in night bombing, it also was used for daylight precision bombing.

Bruce graduated and left the 61 Base on or around October 2, 1944. He was assigned to the No. 419 Bomber Squadron formed at RAF Mildenhall, England in 1941 as part of No. 3 Group, Bomber Command.

Now from MY reading of his ‘jacket’ he didn’t have any other flights except for his training missions. His flying record shows (that I can find) no combat runs until what I -think- was his first and only combat flight on October 28th, 1944. This was part of “Bomber” Harris’s Cologne Raids in October of 1944. The 6th Bomber Group and all attached units took massive casualties during this time, where the odds were One in Forty that your plane was going to get shot down. Those odds sound pretty good, until you realize that they were sending up 120+ planes on these raids, and at least 3 of them weren’t coming back.

Bruce’s plane was one of those that didn’t make it.

It got shot down on October 28th 1944. His initial interment was in Germany near Cologne:

Which after the war ended, he was formally interred in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery just outside of Koln (der Cherman spelling):

He was posthumously promoted from Technical Sgt. to Flight Sgt. on the same day.

Now, as with Uncle Connie (my Great Uncle) There was some confusion as to whether or not Bruce had actually been KIA’d. The file I found had the scanned actual letters from his father Edward, written to Casualty Command that -someone- in a POW camp in Germany had written him, and said that Bruce was alive but comatose. I won’t put the letters up, as they’re sort of heart-wrenching… a divorced father hoping against hope that his only son might still be alive.

I have to hand it to the Canucks man… they researched it.
Dug deep to find out.
Diligently.

ALL the letters back and forth between Casualty Command and Edward, trying to figure out if Bruce was actually dead or not? Back in WW2 they were a little too trusting as now? This positively reeks of scumbag-opportunism trying to give false hope. If Dad hadn’t reached out to Casualty Command, I just know the next letter would have been to the idea of “Bruce needs money” or some such evil shytte… But at least they final ‘closed the case’ so to speak, and after that, Edward s-l-o-w-l-y faded out into obscurity…

But Never Forget:

Fl/Sgt. Bruce Edward Greenhalgh
19 Years, 2 Months, and 17 Days Old…
Far too Young.
A Tragedy.
Lost Dreams.
Lost Futures.
Remember those who will never grow old.
Honor them, and their memory.
They deserve nothing less.

More Later
Big Country

Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
So we got Sapper’s Spawn and his Gran here for the weekend. It’s the second visit that they’ve both been down for a looong weekend. Great kid(s) the both of them. Sapper Jr. is a wee bit older than my Spawn #1, and his son Atlas is about 8 months younger than the Nukular-Powered Redhead.

We of course are having her over for the rest of the weekend starting tomorrow. Last time Red and At got together, they had a great time, and so, play-date time for the two of them to have some Memorial Day fun is mandatory. I also managed to get the pool fully operational and cleaned up!!!! There’s still a bit of filtration that needs to be done, but man, it’s clear clean and quite comfy.

In fact as soon as the two of them got to the house, they were in the pool relaxing from the flight. Sapper Jr. didn’t know if he was on a Boeing or not (“I couldn’t see any identifying markers!” he told me when I asked) and because of this, it was a white-knuckle flight until it touched down in Clearwater. An hour in the pool with a couple of cool n’frosty brews, and he was good to go.

Of courser the visit means we have a lot of activities going on, so if poasting is light-ish, this’s the reason. Like yesterday, no poast as we had to clean out the spare guest room as it had (past tense for now leastways) become a ‘catchall’ for random shit. Now it’s back to clean and functional. The only big complaint (not from Junior mind you) but from Gretchen is that all of the chest of drawers are filled, as well as the wardrobe with ‘supplies.’ 9 drawers, with 5-#10 cans of chow. The wardrobe is just chock-a-block with ‘other things’ as well… mostly food.

Yeah, storage space is getting to be a bit of a bother as I utterly refuse to stash anything in a non-climate controlled part of the house, like the garage. Too damned hot IMO. The only thing I –might– consider is the Rice and Flour? LOTS of 5 gallon containers with both items in there… Any input on that would be appreciated.

So… now to an interesting bit of news courtesy of WiscoDave.

Now
The reason(s) for this being interesting.

One: This happened back on May 3rd.

Two: The location of the Home is about 48 minutes from the now “Fort Liberty” i.e. Bragg. The SF Guy-in-question lives in Carthage, on Dowd Road.

Three: The intel -I’m- getting is this wasn’t just “some SF Guy” but a Light Colonel in 10th Group. Which makes sense as Carthage is a nice area to live in (upper-middle class) and faaar better than “Fayette-Nam” to raise your family. I’m waiting on solid confirmation but if this is right then, well

Four: is concerning to say the least as the guy who got shot? He was a Chechen. Like “Russian/Chechen”. As in the country that we’re at war/not at war with currently?

Guess what details a lot of Chechen run for the Russian DotMil?
Reconnaissance.
And according to what I’ve read and seen?
They’re fucking good at it.

Or maybe not in this case. Maybe against the Krainians?
Definitely not in this case, if in fact that was what he was doing.

The 911 call came in at 8:30 pm and stated that the “…caller explained that a person had been “taking photos on the property” and “became aggressive” toward a resident outside of their home, the sheriff’s office said.”

During this part of the encounter, ChechenManBad got his 72 virgins via three to four high velocity projectiles. The AIQ:

Nice Soupcatcher right there Aye?
(AIQ for the uninitiated: Asshole-in-Question)

According to the change dot org petition, dude was some innocent Utility Worker who got unmercifully gunned down while doing his job. The exact line of shit:

Ramzan was not armed and did not show any aggression towards the killer. At the place, where report of the completed work were taken by Ramzan, the inhabitant confronted him on the curbside, armed with a firearm and found him working, when suddenly decided to take he’s life. For an unknown reason, this man fired several shots and brutally took the life of Ramzan, who was 35 years old and had big plans for his future life.

change dot org Horseshit about a Now-Good Chechen

There’s a couple of problems with these statements.
The biggest to me are the following issues:

One: The report stated “Daraev did not have any utility equipment, utility clothing or identification during the time of the shooting.” If he was at work, why the Hell would he not be wearing his gear? Or at least have his ID? They’ve ‘supposedly’ reported this to OSHA, (like that matters at this point, at all) but I think this’s going to faaaaade awaaaay much like ‘other untidy incidents’ have in the past.

Two: NOT mentioned in the ‘normal channels’ is that ChechenManBad had an accomplice/coworker? The cops found ChechenManBad#2 doing the ‘get the fuck out of Dodge’ thing in his truck shortly after things going pear-shaped. Got picked up fleeing the scene. Does that sound right? I mean getting out of shooting distance IF the shooter was actually a deranged killer, and then call the cops, but this guy chose “None of the Above” and was bailing from the whole fucking scene altogether.

Three: To me? The most damning:

The sun was down when this guy fucked around and found out.

MY CALL:
Seeing that 10th Group Special Forces is responsible for operations within the EUCOM (EUropean COMmand) area of responsibility, as part of Special Operations Command Europe (SOCEUR), and IF the intel about his rank (Light Bird i.e. a Lt. Colonel ) is correct, well now…

Any bets that this’s Krainian Konnected?
And the first two guesses don’t kount.

This was a ‘soft recon’ of what might be a hard target later.

A sneak and peek gone wrong.

I think ChechenManBad, soupcatcher and all, might have been hoping to sliiiiide in quietly, on the down low and do a recon, but for whatever reason, r/ourguy caught him, and subsequently made him into ChechenManGood. The addy I found for the shooter is pretty damned rural as well:

That “cut in and break” north of the second from the left “Dowd Rd” on the map? That’s the power company easement (I think). I found it on the All Energy Infrastructure and Resources website:

The dotted line being power lines… not sure if the Shooter’s house is on the top, or the bottom, but either way, for this guy to be creeping around, after dark, with ZERO equipment, ID or anything else but a camera?

ChechenManGood was 250 YARDS into the woodline, away from the road… That’s a loooong hump at dusk-going-into-dark, with only a camera, on someone else’s land, in a Rural Part of North Carolina. Part of me tells me the Good Colonel should have left the fucker for the wild hogs and NOT called the cops…

But Orificers… go fucking figure right?

Jes’ Sayin’

Considering how we’ve been seeing a ramp-up in Retardation regarding the whole Kollapsing Krainian Katastrophe, I wouldn’t doubt for a minute if Ivan isn’t at least doing soft reconning of our best Warfighters and Commanders.

ESPECIALLY the guy who runs the Special Forces Group that would be nominally ‘running’ Ops in the Krain, and/or already is amiright?

LOTS of ‘stuff’ never makes it out to the “real world” like in Gulf One when a bunch of terrorists hit one of our Air Bases in Germany, with the intent of killing the airbase commander right before the Air War started. I only know of it because a classmate of mine was wounded in the subsequent firefight that happened. He was home on recuperation leave, and he told me the story…

And a minor correction
Brushbeater on “X” is saying this guy is a Full Bird Colonel
Ooof.
That’s a hell of a lot higher than MY source said…
But then again… one might be the Battalion Commander, the other, the Group Commander… either way, shit like this stinks to high heaven.

Anyways
Shit’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
Expect it, and that way, you won’t be surprised.

More Later
Big Country

Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
Sometimes you just need to step back, and say fuck it, and genuinely Thank God for what you have and for what He has provided, then take the night off, and have a Ice Cream Sundae:

How anyone can doubt the Existence of a Higher Power has obviously never had a proper Ice Cream Sundae… especially with plenty of whip-cream, and I even crossed the line, and went full retard, and threw in a ‘splash’ of melted caramel… call it my sweet tooth talking… Other wise?
No Nuts Bro.

It was game on, and over in a flash.
Nothin’ left but to wash the bowl…
Be cool to one another Frens, take your post(s)

More Later
Big Country

Greetings Me Droogs N Droogettes!
Gretchen got her nails done today by a friend of hers. Chick actually came by and did them in the living room. They trade services with each other, Liz gets her hair done by Gretchen, and Gretchen gets her nails done. Works out pretty well for each of them, as man I never knew how much nails, hair and whatnot actually cost as the Xwife never had her nails done professionally, and she did her own dye jobs out of a box.

Not that back then -I- would have known the difference right?

Now that I do, OMFG a set of gel nails?
Fully installed/painted and whatnot!?!
OUCH!!!!

There’s a reason modern whammez are always broke and looking for a sugar-daddy. Prices like that for just the nails? Never mind a professional level cut/dye/blow on the hair???

Like going into three bills at least for all the things.

That being said, I have zero complaints really. Gretchen being a top professional in the area, she cuts deals with others in the field so’s she generally doesn’t have to pay out of pocket… except for pedicures… and those? Well ever since she introduced me to them? As long as -I- get to go and get one as well, I’ll shill the $$$ IF it’s in the budget that month.

As of now, it hasn’t been for a while, and my nails are getting into ‘tree- climbing’ length… Jes’ Sayin’

So, either way, the house was smelling like a nail salon for a bit… like ‘get high from the fumes’ smell… no open flames please! As they wound up, Gretchen asked be if I had some cash to tip her fren, and I ended up digging into the “Cash-Money Skull” to get the tip $$$.

The “Cash Money and Coin Money Skulls” are literally what they are designated as:

The O.D. Green one gets the ‘folding cash’… i.e. those random single dollars you find in your pocket, all by their lonesome. The regular bone colored one gets the random spare change I end up with at the end of the day. That’s also the one with the “Good Idea Fairy Pin” from Mark Baker is pinned into the forehead…

As you can see, the Coin Money Skull is almost ready to be emptied. Usually I get between $20-50 in coin out of it when I clear it out. If it’s exceptionally heavy on $.25 coins, I’ve actually gotten I think it was like $64. (I believe that was the record.) The Cash Money Skull rarely gets anywhere near full because cash IS cash and ‘reasons’. The ‘rando-laundry $$$’ also goes in there up to and including $10 dollar bills… Twenties get put in the wallet.

The only rule on BOTH Skulls is they never get completely emptied out. Old Irish? Superstition maybe? Money begets Money? Something like that…

So after I paid out Gretchen’s tip $$$ I went to gather up the other ‘stashes’ of coin around here so I only make one trip to the bank. I have a couple or three other spots that ‘catch my coin’ in the bedroom as well. That’s when I found my old coin collection that my Grandpa gave me EONS ago. He collected the majority of them during his travels ALLLLLL over the world back in the day.

Now, I know they’re not really worth anything, value/collectible wise. But to me, they have some meaning… and some of them are just plain cool AF on their own. Three of them I found today (it’s been forever since I cataloged them…) were pretty cool, as well as a few others, so I figured I’d share.

First up:
Two British Pennies, and a Half Penny:

The cool thing is the two ‘full’ pennies, the dates are 1912 (pre-war) and 1918 (post? war maybe?). The ha’penny was made in 1952. Now, for scale, here they are with, on the left a British Sovereign, (1oz pure silver) and on the far right, a US Quarter for scale:

The dates on those are a wee bit better… focal points are a pain. Jes’ Sayin’. So yeah, the pennies are BIG honkin’ coins. They’re well worn too. At least they’re still legible. They’re only worth about $4-5 each, so I’ll just hold onto them. I was mainly surprised as they’re made almost exclusively of copper, and copper was a scarcity during WW1 due to the Brit DotMil manufactories needing it for ammo. But it seems in real time, 100+ years later, there’s still a HUGE amount of them in circulation.

Next up is the Soviet Coins:

THESE are pretty damn cool IMO.

A rarity in that back then, they (the Soviets) almost never let their money outside their borders nor foreign money into their ‘closed-circuit financial world’ so to speak. Strict cash controls, to the point BOTH of my Grandparents got hemmed up by the KGB/STASI when they did a pat-down on Grandma on a train while travelling in Hungary in 1956, and they found a roll of unauthorized USD $$$ in her bra. Cash smuggling back then, behind the Iron Curtain was a big no-no. Another story for another time… anyways…

These are Kopek coins. The larger one being a 2 Kp from 1961, the other a 1 Kp from 1940. THAT one (the 1940 one) I found surprising as again I figured itty-bitty coins like that would have been smelted down for ammo. Part of the reason I say ‘itty-bitty’ is, well, they are:

That’s a US dime for a size reference. The 1 Kp is even thinner than the dime if you can believe it… a Baby Kopek INDEED

Then, another interesting historical note about the “Iron Curtain” is that Grandpa was in Czechoslovakia in the 30s before it became part of the Warsaw Pact. On that trip, he got the coins on the left, dated 1924 and 1922 respectively. After the Czechs became part of the greater “USSR”, he went back, and got the coins on the right, dated 1962 and 1967:

What’s cool here is that the 1920’s coins, the ‘header’ around the outside calls it “Republika Ceskoslovenska” i.e. the “Czechoslovakian Republic” and in the 1960’s, the coins call it
“Ceskoslovenska Socialistika Republika” being my guess “The People’s Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia” Then they kept the ‘Rampaging Lion’ motif, but under Communism, they added a star above it, and reduced the ‘flair’ so to speak.

I got no idea what the current coinage looks like.

Then, lastly, a couple of coins that tell a story so to speak. Much like the Czechoslovakian ones… these however are from Germany.

One Pre War, the next two made before the war, but used throughout, and the last minted Post War. Now this part of my poast has got really nothing to do politically speaking. I mean it does, but it doesn’t. YMMV, draw your own conclusions. What it does however speak volumes as to currency debasement. The coins in question:

The coin on the far left was minted in 1923 for the “Deutsches Reich“, the Weimar Republic era. It’s a cheap aluminum coin, very unsubstantial. Even feels cheap AF. Almost like a carnival token…

The next two were both minted in 1938, right as the war was about to break out. Both are made of copper and marked “Deutsches Reich” as well, except these have “MustacheManBad’s Twisted Cross” on them.

The last was made in 1952. It’s marked simply “Deutschland” and it too is made of some cheap assed zinc/aluminum metal, and is from East Germany.

The obverse of all of them:

Now, I juuust realized that that East German coin? Might be worth something… I didn’t even realize it was a East German Kraut-Koin…

WHOA!
THAT I might have to sell off… $200 is a good exchange IMO. Not only that, but mine is in as good as, if not better shape. Need to get mine rated…

Anyways… my point of this exercise:
The left coin… can you see the valuation? If not, here’s a better shot:

That’s 200 MARKS.

When I -first- got stationed in Germany in 1994, one US dollar was worth 1.742 German marks. Theoretically, a 200 mark coin would have been about $116 USD +/- in 1994. In this case, the German Mark was sooooo devalued, debased and worthless in 1923… Hell, the Mark took a giant shit thanks to the unrealistic and ruinous Peace Treaty… it left the Weimar Republic completely penurious , and eventually was out on it’s ass because of shit like this. I mean even comparing the thickness of the coins:

That 200 Mark coin is ‘wafer thin’ as they would have said in that Monty Python sketch w/Mister Creosote. The pfennig is/was the German equivalent of the penny, while the Mark is the German equivalent of the dollar, least way it used to be until the Eurotrash and EuroWeenies took over and invented a new multinational currency out of thin fucking air. NOW the Mark and Pfennig have gone the way of the Czech coins above, as they too got “Euro’d”.

Point is however is that that 200 Mark coin? It’s the physical embodiment of a debased and worthless currency. One that had no, nor held no value, even to it’s own people. I mean it’s easy to look it up… hyperinflation in Germany during the Weimar Republic is easily verifiable. Wiki that shit. A bad economy coupled with an incompetent government was one of the reasons that MustacheManBad was able to take over.

We’ve all seen a couple pics from back then, one of the more famous ones being this:

Now some people have tried to debunk this as a Bank Manager rolling out the $$$ to his tellers in the morning, but even then… I mean isn’t that a lot of cash? I mean even if it was payday, from my POV? That’s a fuckton of bricks of $$$ and I can’t even see what denomination(s) the bills are/were. The pic IS historically accurate in that it WAS taken in Germany, around the mid-to-late 1920s/early 30s.

Another chart I found is the “How many Marks to buy and Oz of Gold?” chart:

Oof.
Silver closed here at what recently?
$31.83.
After sitting at about $23 on average for over a year…

And Gold?
Closed at $2417.00
This after being completely and utterly artificially repressed at the average of $2k for like ever

The wheels, much like Weimar, are finally starting to come off

There is no way (outside of a huge war, and we’ve all ALREADY covered that potential shitshow) that they can get things under control. I mean the profligate spending, the blatant money laundering… everyone knows it, everyone can see it… it’s just a matter of what ‘trips the circuit’ first…

Nope… not much to be done ‘cept grab the popcorn, sell that Pfennig and then use the proceeds to get Addy a new book or three, Kylie a new dolly, and if there’s anything left over, a couple of boxes of MOAR Ammo.

There’s never too much to be had.

More Later
Big Country