More to Impeachment Than Meets the Eye

There is so much more to this impeachment of President Trump than that which is obvious. The obvious is that the opposition simply wants to impeach and destroy the president.  This, in and of itself, is bad enough, when one considers that the push for impeachment began just after the 2016 election, before Mr. Trump was even inaugurated.  There may be motives, even in this most fundamental of reasons that move deeply beneath the surface, because the drive to impeach began before he was President.

The opposition has been caterwauling and pontificating about upholding and defending the Constitution.  This argument does not really make any sense to me.  These very same legislators that are hell bent on “defending the Constitution” are also hell bent on taking away the citizens’ right to self-defense.  These same legislators that want to “defend the Constitution” voted to force every American citizen to buy a product from private businesses. (That being Obamacare.)  It would seem to me, in my archaic world view, that one cannot support one part of the Constitution and pee on another.  I am not sure that we can pick and choose which of the rules we want to obey and which we want to ignore.

Even the simple idea of wanting to impeach an opposition President is suspect to me.  What is the foundation of this kind of thinking?  If a candidate wins the election, by the rules in force, why would the opposition think that they have the right to overturn the election?  Where are we in our political thinking that any of us would consider such actions?  Is one part of our society at a point where they hold the rest of our society in total contempt?  Why else would you think that you, as elected representatives to Congress, have the authority to overturn a Presidential election?  This is something that we all should think about.

Even more ominous I think, is the fact that hired bureaucrats at the FBI were actively involved in trying to influence the outcome of the election and then joined in the attempt to smear Trump after the election.  It seems impossible to me, that Paige and Strok in the FBI were just “rogue” agents.  I cannot see two people conducting the campaign that their text messages show without others supporting it.

I would offer as evidence, if not proof, that the FBI used the now totally discredited Steele Dossier to obtain FISA warrants to spy on Trump and his people.  It was not just once, but apparently the FBI got 4 warrants using this fictional report.  This would have taken a group of people working in concert, suggesting to me that this unelected bureaucracy has taken upon itself the role of a governing oligarchy – beyond the control of the elected officials who are authorized by the Constitution to run the government.

There was more of this evidence offered by the State Department employees who “testified” before the House Judiciary committee on the Ukrainian situation.  Each of these “diplomats” complained that Mr. Trump went “outside” of the established channels to conduct his foreign policy.  It wasn’t that the policies were that wrong, just that Trump bypassed the establishment.  Again, what is the basis of this kind of thinking? What has happened that it has become acceptable for bureaucrats to set policy, execute policy regardless of the President and his stated policy and goals?  Are we governed by the Constitution and its rules or are we governed by unelected, unaccountable oligarchs?

But, are we really looking at 2 divergent forces moving against the Constitution and the people, or are we simply seeing two regiments of the same army?  Have established elected politicians and non-elected bureaucrats truly formed themselves in Codeville’s Ruling Class?  Have we lost our Constitutional Republic while politics was distracting us?  And who really benefits from the loss of our democracy?

These are questions that we should be asking.  And while we are absorbed in the “politics” of impeachment, out in Virginia, the governor is threatening to call out the National Guard to disarm the citizens.  We need to watching, listening, and thinking.  There are those who would take our liberties for their own power and gain.  There are things moving and we could be swept away without even knowing it.

The Candle is Burning Low and the Hour is Getting Late

Journal – December 7 2019

I woke up this morning with a peculiar sense of urgency – not the usual “uh oh I better get up” urgency, but the feeling that something was different, or that it was time for something different.  I was dreaming when I woke up.  I was dreaming about a candle burning low and the flame flickering and I could here the spectral voice of “a friend of us all, Mr. Bob Dylan” singing, “So, let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.”

While I was busy other places the day has gotten late; very late indeed.  There are probably several reasons why this line of thinking has started.  Not meaning to be maudlin, I am in the later chapters of my life. Turning 67, I have spent more of my life than I have left.  Not maudlin, not sappy, just being real.  Every day is a gift now, and there are many more to come, but, while I may have 10 or maybe even 20 years left, I do not have another 67.  The candle is burning down and the hour is getting late.
My second back surgery is scheduled for next week.  While I have lived well with this bad back for 40 years, I just can’t take it anymore.  I think the pain and weakness is gnawing at me, too, reminding me of my limitations and mortality.  Combining a pending surgery with the reality of the shortness of time is raising hell in my mind.

I have lived an interesting life.  Many people would think that my life has been wasted, squandered, and has meant little, but it has been a most interesting trip.  I failed at several business ventures, lost two wives and a family, don’t own my own house, or have a retirement IRA. My life has been unconventional. I have seen the sun come up over the Canadian prairies, I have seen sunsets in Vermont, walked beneath the smoky winter sky in the Virginia woods, and trailed cows across the vast abandoned strip mines in West Virginia.  I have crisscrossed the country a half a dozen times and wandered around the upper Midwest.  I have danced beneath the Northern Lights and walked along the shores of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Southern Oceans. 

It has been a strange and amazing journey! And there are so many stories that need to be told.  That may be the biggest drive behind this sense of urgency.  I have to tell the stories while there is still time and while I can still remember them.  The candle is burning low and the hour is getting late.
I have heard that professional writers force themselves to write for a specific period of time every day.  Sometimes they write nothing but words in a row, sometimes they create great art.  It is, I guess, not a guarantee, but it is a discipline.  I have no discipline.  I have established patterns and routines in my life, but I am totally undisciplined.  I wonder if I can become disciplined in order to tell the stories before they are gone?

We shall see.  And, maybe NearCommonSense will be come my way of sharing my efforts with my Faithful Readers.

Watch here and see how I do.

It's Just a Game to the Ruling Class

I have been watching this ongoing “impeachment” non-sense down to Washington with a mixture of disgust, sadness, and growing unease.  The most frightening thing that I see in all of this, is that the professional politicians, those in the “Ruling Class” have trivialized and is making a mockery of, the most important responsibility given to the House of Representatives in the Constitution.  This does not bode well for the future of the Republic.

The Founding Fathers included impeachment, conviction, and removal of a duly elected president, as the ultimate relief valve in the event of a president going criminal in the White House.  The removal of the President, should be, along with declaring war, the most somber, awesome undertaking in the House of Representatives.  It should not be politicized and trivialized.  It is, after all, undoing the expressed will of a majority of voters.  If there is any respect for organized democracy, impeachment, conviction, and removal of a president should be approached only with just cause.

Let me digress, a bit, and discuss the Electoral College.  The Founders were incredibly genius.  They foresaw so many things, and structured the Constitution to be able to address them.  And, they saw things that existed in their day that would always exist.  One of these was concentrated populations.

It was obvious to the Founders that simply electing the President by popular vote would give incredible power to cities and towns and weaken the power of rural areas. The Electoral College allows for popular vote, but protects rural area, and small towns, by assigning electors according to the Congressional districts.  Philadelphia and Pittsburgh voters cannot overwhelm voters in the rest of Pennsylvania.  Votes from Warren, Elk, Cameron and Clarion Counties are just as important.  The Electoral College is a good thing and those who seek to circumvent it are either simply wrong, or simply trying to seize all political power.

We aren’t really seeing the atmosphere of respect and seriousness surrounding the impeachment attempt of President Trump that I think is necessary.  Talking heads and media commentators began speculating about impeaching Mr. Trump immediately following the election.  The Ruling Class and their sycophants simply could not accept that Trump had won the election.

It started during the election campaign.  Media types were harping on Trump and Russian collusion back then, even when there was grounds nor reason too.  Candidate Trump made a joke about Russian computer hacking – “Maybe the Russians can find those 33 thousand emails that Hillary lost.”  It was a joke, but media types insisted that it “proved” that Trump was working with the Russians to “steal” the election. It was a joke.

But, when he won, suddenly the Elites, the Ruling Class, the Privileged Ones needed an explanation as to why their chosen candidate had not won.  Usually when one loses an election, one tries to understand why one’s message didn’t work with voters.  Not so with the Hillary folks!  Mrs. Clinton was SUPPOSED to win!  There was no way a foul-mouthed bully from New York could beat her.

But he did, because he knew what things concerned us, the people, the most.  He spoke of these and he offered common sense solutions that we, the people, could get behind.  Trump won because he spoke plainly.  We, the people, are tired of “political speak” and “political correctness”.  We speak plain and it is time our elected officials speak plain, too.  Trump won because he spoke to us and with us.

The Ruling Class wasted almost 3 years with the Mueller, “Russian Collusion” investigation.  There was nothing there.  Now, they are on this “quid pro quo” with the Ukraine, accusing Trump of withholding military aid to the Ukraine until they “got dirt” on Joe Biden.  All of this now, is based a phone call to the Ukrainian President, the transcript of which the President released which shows absolutely no wrong doing. But the relentless impeachment push goes on.

The investigators continue to investigate in secret, behind closed doors.  They leak just enough cherry-picked information to keep the dogs in the news media straining at their leashes.  Congressional Democrats need to keep the public agitated, stirred up enough to demand action, even if there are no “high crimes and misdemeanors”.  After all, it is the “seriousness of the charges, not the weight of the evidence” that matters.  The end game is simply to drive Mr. Trump from office and therefore, to “win”.  It is just a game to the Ruling Class.

For those of you who don’t remember, the investigations that led to Nixon resigning stemmed from an actual break in at the Democrat Party Headquarters in Washington, DC.  Two of the perpetrators had connections with the Committee to Reelect the President.  Nixon’s aides told him about the break in and he participated in a cover up.  Clean shot, obstruction of justice, whether you were a Nixon guy or not.  Truth is truth.

With Clinton, the investigation into shady business dealings got tangled up with his womanizing.  Clinton, knowingly, gave false testimony under oath.  Clean shot, perjury, whether you were a Clinton fan or not. Truth is truth.

The difference between Nixon – Clinton and Trump, is that there were investigations going on about other things, that discovered impeachable actions.  There was no talk of impeaching Nixon before investigators found the coverup.  There was no talk of impeaching Clinton, until he committed his very public perjury.  In the case of Mr. Trump, the investigators intend to impeach and are investigating until they find anything, that they can convince a simple majority of Congressmen and Senators is serious enough to impeach, convict, and remove.

There is an incredible difference between the two approaches. If you are unable to see that difference, you may very well be part of the problem that is killing our nation.

I am not sure that most Americans will accept a railroad job impeachment of the President.  The people may not stand by and let the Ruling Class force the President out of office.  We, the People, have stood by and let the Ruling Class do many things that we should have stopped, even if it took force to stop them.  Their Oath of Office is to support and defend the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic – many of us question if they are doing that.

For the first time in my life, I am truly worried about the survival of my Country.

Why Bother with Laws?

Why do we have elected law makers?  Why do those elected law makers bother making laws when no one enforces them on a uniform basis?  Why does it seem like folks in the Ruling Class are judged by one set of rules and “us of a lesser breed” are judged by another?  Why does it seem like there is a total state of lawlessness engulfing our nation?

It starts in the Oval Office when Presidents refuse to enforce immigration and refugee laws that Congress passed.  It continues when Congressmen and Senators encourage people to break laws that they don’t like.  Then, states and localities simply ignoring federal laws. Where does it end?  What happens if you or me simply refused to obey laws?  We’d have the black, jacked boots of the bastards right down on our throats.  Maybe it is Ruling Class over Country Class.  Maybe it is that “they” see themselves as our “betters”.

I don’t want to buy into the Marxian trap of blaming “the oppressor class” for the ills of the “oppressed”.  Marxism is such a stupid over simplification of things.  But that is why Marxists and other Progressives like it – it is so simple; poor = good, rich = bad, white = bad, black or brown = good. There is no need for thought and thinking is hard for Progressives, Socialists, and other Liberals.

But I digress.  Why do we bother with laws, regulations, codes and other such implements of social structure when no bothers to enforce them?  We, Gennie and I, live in a subsidized rent apartment building for retired persons.  Back in May, we discovered that there was water leaking through the ceiling of our shower.  Obvious to most of us, there was a leak somewhere in the bathroom above ours.  Every time that I heard the “plink” of a drop of water hitting the floor of our shower, I would wonder from whence that drop of water originated.

It took from the 20^th of May until the 17^th of July before the building management company got around to ripping out the rotted ceiling and insulation from above our bathroom.  The ceiling tiles and insulation were full of mold. (I purchased a mold test kit earlier in July and cultured at least 5 different types of mold, one of which looked like black mold to me.) 

It seems funny to me that I had been fighting with my allergies ever since we moved back to the Redbank Valley.  Even taking allergy shots, I was down for three or four days a month with sinus infections and such.  I have not had a bad sinus day since July 17 when the plumbers dragged the moldy crap out of our apartment.  As a matter of fact, I have been able to go from weekly shots to every other week. 

Musta’ been sumpin’ in the air, there!

I did not use the phrase “dragged out” in the previous paragraph by chance.  That was how the plumber removed the mold infested materials.  No cautions, no masks, no ventilation, no removing residents, just rip it out and drag it out.  There are pages and pages and pages of building codes and regulations and laws regarding the removal of mold.  Nope. The building management company just ripped and dragged.  I mean, why spend all the money on legislators’ salaries and then not care if people don’t abide by the laws, codes, and regulations?

But the water kept dripping. Seriously.

Along about the 24^th of August, the management company finally ordered a replacement shower for our apartment and a new tub for the apartment above ours.  The lady above us needed a walk-in shower, so Gennie and I told the plumber to use the shower planned for us for her and just order another walk in for us. No good deed goes unpunished and it took over a month for the building manager to order another shower stall for our apartment.  To add insult to injury, when the shower stall arrived, the two end walls were cracked. 

It took another month for the next one to arrive.

So, here we are into the third week in October, 5 months after we reported the problem and our shower is still not installed properly.  The poor plumber is trying to get it done, but he has no real idea of what he is doing.  Yesterday, he replaced the ceiling insulation and put up dry wall without sealing the wood that had been exposed to the mold.  The shower, which is supposed to be handicapped accessible, is not.  The moldy wall is still there, the moldy linoleum is still on the floor.

There are volumes of laws, codes, regulations regarding landlord responsibilities to tenets.  There are pages of code and law about mold removal and treatment. And, fundamentally, there is the simple thing of just doing the right thing and treating people with respect and dignity. The company that manages our building does not seem to give a rip about laws, codes, regulations, or treating people kindly.

It’s not that we haven’t tried to get the authorities involved, because we have.  The USDA funded the construction of the building.  They have done nothing.  We have contacted several state agencies that oversee elderly programs, none of them have gotten involved.  We have tried to report elderly abuse, no one seems to care. 

It will take some kind of tragedy to get the attention of the authorities and then they will just pass more laws that no one will enforce. Why bother with laws at all?

Now They Want to Tell Us How to Run Our Air Conditioners

There are times when I really wonder how the “Ruling Class” looks at the rest of us in the “Country Class”.  When I think about the ridiculous number of regulations that have been imposed upon the American people by our governing agents, I sense a genuine lack of respect for the people by the rulers.  Or, in plain English, they must think that we are dumber than a box of rocks.  Maybe I am old-fashioned, or just being contrary, but I really don’t think that how much water my toilet uses per flush needs to be regulated by state and federal agencies.  I’m just saying . . .

The most recent example of government over reach was reported recently by Channel 5 News in Los Angeles, out in “the land of fruits and nuts.”   According to the news report, “Energy Star”, a program administered by the US Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, that is supposed to advise us dummies of how to save energy, save money and improve the environment.  (Read “Save the Planet!”)

Am I the only one who finds a magnificent irony in ANY federal agency providing information on saving money???  Am I the only one who thinks it is absurd that the US Department of Energy has never produce a single joule of energy for the American people?  Does anyone else ever wonder about how much authority we have given unelected bureaucrats in the EPA?

But I digress.  Now, this latest suggestion from our “betters” is that we should set our air conditioning thermostats at 78 degrees when we are at home and to turn them up to 85 degrees when we leave the house and set them at 82 degrees when we go to bed at night. Okay. Yeah, right.

There was a time when my house was 78 degrees when I was in the house.  It was before we had air conditioning.  I lived in very few houses that were comfortable in the summer without air conditioning.  We’d have a fan or two in every room, but all they did was move hot air.  Being in the house only offered relief from being out in the sun.  I don’t really want to live that way again.

And, the thought of sleeping in a room that is 80 degrees is almost more than I care to imagine.  I sleep better in cooler air.  It has been that way all of my life.  I remember sleeping out in the yard as a kid because it was too hot to sleep in the house.  I’m too old to sleep on the ground now and packing a cot in and out of the house every night and morning does not sound inviting either.  And, I am sure that my neighbors would not appreciate me sleeping the yard.  Along the street.  In South Bethlehem.  Just sayin’.

As miserably uncomfortable as many of us would find these temperatures, do we really think that the wonks at Energy Star keep their houses this hot in the summer?  I am pretty sure that the people who made these recommendations don’t follow them.  After all, they are our “betters”, aren’t they?

There’s a couple of things about this news article that bother me.  First, why in the name of bright, sunny days is our federal government wasting money on “Energy Star” when we are $25 trillion dollars in debt?  Where in the Constitution is authorization for this Energy Star program?  Why is this money being wasted?

It also annoys me that anybody would have the audacity to tell anyone else how warm or how cool to keep their house.  Where in the world do people get the idea that they have the right to tell other people how to live?  Why would anyone want to tell someone else how to live?  I simply don’t understand that – I have no point of reference for wanting to order another free, sovereign adult around.  It amazes me that anyone would want to.

I think what annoys me the most about this, is that our government has programs designed for people to tell other people how to live their lives.  I mean, seriously.  How have we gotten so far off track that we have government wonks running around telling how high we should set our air conditioners, how long it is “safe” to leave our Thanksgiving turkeys out on the counter, and zillion other regulations, rules, suggestions, and guidelines.  All of this on top of the “billions and billions and billions” that we spend on public education.

Maybe I am asking too much, but I would like to think that by the time our kids are ready to go out on their own, they know that how much they run their air conditioners in the summer and how hot they keep their places in the winter will impact how much heating and cooling costs.  Do we really need public service announcements and tv news casts every holiday about leaving our turkeys out too long?  (I wonder how blown away some of these folks would be if they knew that farm families years ago might leave the turkey out in a cool room until it was picked clean, and lived to tell about it!!)

There was a time in our country when we lived and let live.  There was a time when we minded our own business and let other people mind theirs.  There was a time when we understood that individual liberty was just that; the right to live your life as you wanted as long as you didn’t hurt anyone else.  I’d like to see those days return.  I’d like to see our people be free again and to respect the freedoms of others.

I hope it’s not too much to ask for and not too late to ask.

Our Little Town Floods Yet Again

Leisure Run Flooding Keck Ave & Rt 28 New Bethlehem, PA July 19, 2019
(Photo Courtesy Tech Ready Professionals & RedbankValley.org)

Twenty-three years ago, July 19, 1996,  after weeks of rainy weather, the skies opened up and dumped more than a foot of rain on the Redbank Valley. The creek system, from Brookville to New Bethlehem, was inundated with floodwaters of Biblical, catastrophic proportions.  Twenty-three years later, on July 19, 2019, after weeks of rainy weather, the skies opened up and dumped heavy rains of the northern tributaries of the Redbank Creek, once again, flooding parts of New Bethlehem and the Redbank Valley.

For those of us who were here, back then in the summer of 1996, last night's flooding brought back a whirling mass of memories.  We each have our own memories, the stuff of our individual nightmares.  Whether it be of buildings being swept off their foundations, or trees and stumps racing down the deluge, or all of the “debris” - that only hours before had been homes and businesses – piled up against the Rt 28/66 bridge.  Each of us took away our own personal perspective of the flood.

The thing that stands out the most in my mind, after all these years, is the fact that when the sun came up the next morning, people in New Bethlehem started cleaning up the mess and rebuilding their town and their lives.  There was no standing around waiting for Harrisburg or Washington to tell them what to do and how to do it.  There was no crying for FEMA, or the National Guard, or waiting for some body to swoop in and make things right.  Our neighbors just went back to work and Life went on.

Housebound right now after back surgery, I didn't see the damage from Friday night's flooding until I went to church on Sunday.  There was no FEMA, no Pennsylvania Emergency Management, no government involvement in cleaning up the mess and putting things back to rights.  It's still a mess out there where the creeks washed through town, but the sun keeps coming up, and folks in the Redbank Valley clean up, rebuild and go on.

There are a lot of things that I have come to love and respect about folks here in the Redbank Valley and their strength and resiliency and their ability to come back from adversity may be the characteristics that I have come to respect and admire the most.  These lovely hills have a rugged, bony skeleton; a hardness and a harshness, a wildness beneath their rolling green surfaces.  Our neighbors here in Redbank Valley have a hardness and strength to match the hardness of this land that we call home.

Folks in New Bethlehem will clean up after this flood like they have cleaned up after the others.  The creeks will continue to flow downstream, seasons will come and seasons will go.  We will continue our lives and in some tomorrow there will be another flood.  Our neighbors will come forth after that flood too, and clean up and rebuild.  It is what we do.

God bless and keep everyone who is dealing with this particular flood and cleanup.

Thoughts on the Fourth of July

The echoes of the explosions have faded away, the smell of cordite has drifted down the hollows and over the hills, and many of us will go on to enjoy a long, summer weekend.  Fourth of July, Independence Day – what is it really that we really celebrating, and why do some of us think it is really important?

Before the formation of the United States, every nation-state in the history of Mankind had been formed by groups of people, often sharing the same or similar languages and customs.  Kings and kingdoms grew from leaders who arose in times of crisis and maintained enough strength of arms to remain in control when the crisis abated.  The United States was the first nation in the history of the world that was formed to protect God-given, human rights and liberties.  In fact, the United States was the first nation to acknowledge that human being had Rights and Liberties and that they come from God.  This, in and of itself, may have been the most revolutionary of all of the revolutionary ideas.

Read the words of the Founders:  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”.

These words and the ideas they express were the most revolutionary political ideas ever presented and even now,  243 years later, they remain the best, most justifiable reasons for the existence of any government.  Herein, is the foundation of American Exceptionalism.

Think about the ideas in that paragraph, taken from the Declaration of Independence.  “That all men are created equal . . . that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, . . . that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed . . .”

Just and legitimate governments can only exist through the consent of the people that are governed.  This is one of the most radical ideas in politics in human history!  With this statement, the Founders of the United States defined for the whole world, for all time, the definition of a legitimate government.  No government that comes to power, or remains in power, through coercion, violence, or use of arms against the population can ever be considered legitimate - American Exceptionalism.

Governments are created by people – therefore, governments are the property of the people, the people are not the property of the government.  For all of human history, the "people" belonged to the Crown, except in the United States – again, American Exceptionalism.

The purpose of government is to secure the unalienable Rights that accrue to Mankind from God.  Any function that a government does, that does not serve to secure human rights and individual liberties is an illegitimate, or at least questionable,  function.  Another example of American Exceptionalism.

All men are created equal and given certain Rights, by God, that cannot be taken away.  There are those among us who will curse and condemn this nation because there was slavery at the time of the founding, because our Founders did not acknowledge "women's rights", or "protect" the Native Americans.  Anyone who condemns our founding or our Founders because of these issues is arrogantly ignorant, intolerant, and ill-education.  Slavery existed, in one form or another, in almost every country, every culture, every society since the dawn of Time.  Nowhere in the world were women included in the body politic.  Hells Bells!  In most places in the world in 1776, only a few nobles had any rights or freedoms at all.  We, America, have gone through amazing struggles to end slavery and to finally incorporate all citizens into the body politic.  Not another nation in modern history has struggled and succeeded to the extent that we have.  The interpretation of "all men being equal" is likely to continue to evolve, and maybe American Exceptionalism is an ongoing, evolutionary phenomenon.

To condemn the Founders for the things that they left out, things that no one had ever considered in their time or place, is simply ignorant.  To discredit, to throw out, to walk away from the phenomenal, exceptional ideas of the American Founding because it wasn't somehow "perfect" smacks of a nearly limitless arrogance.  To assume that one can take a hodgepodge of liberal ideas floated from college campi over the last 50 years and make a better system than our Founders did speaks volumes to the stupidity of modern progressives.

The merits of the Founding is well recorded in History.  During the first 150 years of our Nation, American Exceptionalism unleashed the greatest period of economic and technological growth in the history of the World.  During that century and a half, when our Nation held true to its Founding, America and Americans led the world from conditions that had changed little since the time of Christ into the age of heavier than air flight.  At the time of the Founding, the fastest method of travel was horseback.  One hundred fifty years later, man was flying in airplanes.

During those 150 years, there was a steady flow of (legal) immigrants arriving on our shores.  Like those before them, these (legal) migrants came seeking religious and political freedom and economic opportunity.  They left their original nationality behind and willingly became Americans – adding the richness of their cultures to what is the distinct American Culture.  They came to grow, to thrive, to try, to be all that God wanted them to be.  These people, these Americans, opened a continent, adapted to extreme cold and extreme heat, adapted to forests, mountains, prairies, and deserts and in their adaptation, the created a nation, a dream, a vision that still draws those who want to be free.

I contend that the freedoms guaranteed in our Founding were the energy and drive behind this creativity.  I do not think that anyone can prove me wrong. 

And that, Faithful Readers, is what we celebrate on July 4th;

“That all men are created equal . . . that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, . . . that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed . . .” , and the American Exceptionalism that grew from these ideas.

April in the Old Coal Mining Country (with apologies to Jack Kerouac)

March roared into our mountain world like one wild, super mean, hungry lion this year.  She pounced upon us with a viciousness that, in my humble opinion, was hardly called for.  The first two weeks of March were bitterly cold. In some ways, much more painful than the long cold spell that we survived in January.  The last two weeks were wet and windy and mean, even if they were not as cold.   Years ago, I read a description of March that has stayed with me across the long years: “ March is an old witch with big silver eyes and frozen rain in her wild hair.”  And so she is.  And March 2019, was no exception here in the old, coal mining country.

Mostly the mountains and ridges here in our country carried the fading gray of winter through March.  There were occasional skiffs of snow that brightened the hills, if only for a day or two, but the hills pretty much stayed that winter gray that we all know so well.  During the last few days of the witchy month, the woods began to quicken.  If you looked quick and sharp, by the last windy days, you could start to some of the earliest maples beginning to bud red, and the willows starting to turn bright yellow, and some of the greenbriars starting to show color.  But, you had to look quick and sharp, the gray still overwhelms the hills and hollows where the old men dug the coal.

Then April blew into the mountains here on the last of the March witch's winds.  But April is not March, and the winds blew warm and dried out the ground and picked up the last of last year's leaves and swept them across the land in whirlwinds, arabesques, and comically, wild dances.  Still not springtime, but there seems to be laughter and smiles in the April air.  Like the life rising in the trees around us, I think that Hope rises in our souls in the spring, too.  We have suffered and survived the winter, bound by the cold and dark, but Life returns to the land with the sun and we come back to Life as well.

Life returns to our mountain world with the rising of April.  It is subtle at first – a few trees begin to bud; red, yellow, and white buds begin to color the gray woods.  The first spring flowers begin to show, the daffodils, the forsythia, and the tulips.  Suddenly, the lawns and fields are full of robins, hunting flocking, mating, nesting.  The silent air of winter is gone, replaced with the chirping and tweeting and singing of flocks and flocks of birds that are back for the summer.  If you sleep with your bedroom windows open, the odds are that you have been awakened once or twice already by the pre-dawn symphony.  That is one of the few things that I don't mind interrupting my morning sleep.  There is pure harmony and joy in the bird's pre-dawn singing.

How can we speak of the capriciousness of April without commenting on the oft poetically referred to “April showers”?  Although March, in almost any place that I have lived, tends to be wet, somehow we have come to relate rain “showers” with April.  I was thinking about “April Showers” as I spent the day driving through torrential rainstorms and near hurricane force winds yesterday.  There was nothing nurturing, nor loving, nor whimsical about yesterday's April shower.  It was nasty, cold and brutal.  Yesterday's April rain was as miserable as anything January can dish out.  Even with that wintry rain, the trees pushed leaves out all day, giving a much different look to the woods by evening.   But, then I remembered the shower last week that left that marvelous smell of warm, summer thundershowers; the smell of warm, wet asphalt, spring soil, and the sweet, sweet smell of growing things.  April is capricious, wild, and wildly unpredictable.

If March is an old witch with big silver eyes and frozen rain in her wild hair, then April is a giggly, teenaged girl, who can't decide on what she wants to wear to the party.  She has windblown blonde hair and wears flowers in her hair.  Her peaches and cream complexion belie her flashing wild eyes.  She takes us from the last gasps of winter, through a wild ride of changing weather, while Life, and warm weather, return to the hills and hollows, the mountains and valleys of the old, coal mining country.  April is a wild ride with a giddy woman-child whose mercurial whimsy keeps us guessing as the sun climbs higher into the sky over the abandoned tunnels and lonely, empty strip jobs.

Those empty strip jobs rare their hunched backs into the vast dome of the sky over our mountains.  Some of them just beginning to grow the wild grasses, some of them covered with rich, carpets of grass that have developed over the long, sweep of years.  On some of the old domes, the brush has begun encroaching on the grasslands as the inevitable, endless, perfect cycle of reforestation works its way through time.  Some of the older stip jobs are forested now, that many years have swept through this land where the old men dug the coal.

And true to keeping with her wild-child, capricious, giddy adolescent persona,  April delivered a marvelously beautiful spring day today.  The morning sun lifted above the eastern hills, riding up in the clear and glorious sky.  A few puffy white clouds rode the soft wind and the air was as clear as crystal.  All across the neighborhood, the rhythmic hum of lawn mowers drowned out the flocks of birds, if only for a while.  The afternoon smelled of newly mown grass.  Not a person in the world could have ordered a more perfect day!

Darkness covers our mountain world again, tonight, as April wanders inexorably toward May.  The air is soft and warm, with just a bit of chill in it – perfect for the last few days of April.  March is a witch kitty everyplace where I have ever lived, and April drives you crazy 'cause it's not quite springtime.  This land where the old men dug the coal is no different.  Hold on to Hope, summer is just over the horizon.

Publishing the Honor Roll - Caution or Paranoia?

I get accused sometimes of not paying attention to what is going on around me.  Sometimes, that is a fair critique, and other times, my apparent lack of awareness is a ruse that helps me to maintain the tenuous hold on sanity that I have.  I was caught totally unaware Monday evening at the school board meeting when I heard that our high school principal had unilaterally decided not to publish the names of the students who make the honor roll.  I had missed that, somehow.

Principal Rupp told the meeting that she decided not to publish the names anymore because that publishing Honor Roll kids' names “could” make the kids easier targets for internet stalkers.

Seriously?

There is no denying that the world around us is full of dangers.  But it always has been.  The dangers change with changing times, but there have always been countless ways for people, somehow, to get hurt or killed out in the world.  We don't have to worry about being eaten by wolves as our great grandparents did, but they didn't have to worry about getting run over by a truck, either.  Life is brief, life is fleeting – one famous quote is “life is brutal, nasty, and short”.  It is what it is.

One of our “jobs”, if you will, as responsible adults, is to protect our children from harm.  This is a completely natural thing – we all know how animal mothers protect their young.  Preservation of the species is one of the most dominate instincts in animals.  We want our kids to be safe.  We don't want them to get hurt. We want to protect them.  That is good and natural and normal.

But, equally as important, is our role as trainers, in which we are to teach our kids how to exist in the world.  This role as trainer might be even more important than our role as protector.  How are our children going to function in the world when we are gone, if we have not taught them, prepared them, and forewarned them of things that they may face?  There has to be a balance between protecting our children and preparing them for the dangers in life.  We will have failed as adults if we protect our children to the point that they are completely unprepared to face the realities of the world around them.

We can learn a lot by watching the animals around us.  The momma cat hides her kittens when they are born.  She hides them from the tom cats who kill kittens so the tabby will come back in heat.  But, as the kittens get older, she brings them out into the world that she knows.  She teaches the kittens to stalk, to pounce, to fight. With each passing day, momma cat lets the kittens wander farther and farther afield.  She knows that they need to explore and to learn, and yes, they need to face some dangers on their own.  The mother cat knows that is how they will learn to survive.  In several months time, the kittens that started out blind and helpless, hidden from their greatest danger, become fully active, young adult cats.  The mother cat protected the kittens, but taught them how to exist in a world full of dangers.

I think that there are a couple of pathologies going on in modern American society that may help explain the overprotectiveness that we seem, as a society, to have for our children.  Our culture is obsessed with youthfulness.  We do not want to get old.  We are infatuated with looking, acting, being young.  And, if we let our children become young adults, then we can no longer be those same young adults.  I believe that we are crippling our kids by trying to keep them “forever young” so that we too can remain “forever young”.

The other pathology seems to be a collective paranoia about real, and imagined dangers.  The late author, Michael Crichton, posited in his novel, “State of Fear”, that following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, governments, news media, and academia teamed up to create the illusion of dangers where none actually existed.  This consortium wanted to generate fear within the population as a people afraid, are a people easier to control.  I am not sure that there is an actual conspiracy to create fear, but I do think that our news and entertainment media have created a perception of dangers far beyond those that really exist.

We have become convinced that our children are not safe if they are out of our sight for even a few minutes.  Our kids don't play outdoors.  Our kids don't spend summer days riding bicycles around town and around the area like we did when we were kids.  We keep our children indoors and with us nearly all the time.  We are not letting our children explore, live, and experience things.  Because of our collective paranoia, we are depriving our children of many of the real world experiences that they need to have in the normal process of growing up.

It may be a very fine line between being protective and becoming paranoia.  There is a danger in crossing that line because it is a rapid drop from paranoia, to stark, raving, lunatic paranoia.  Shadows become monsters, the slightest noise becomes some unseen danger and nothing is real anymore.  Not publishing the names of Honor Roll students to protect them from “internet predators” may have crossed the line into that land of lunatic paranoia.

The question now becomes, if it is dangerous to publish the names of Honor Roll students, isn't it also dangerous to name our athletes, our kids in extracurriculars, our students doing community services?  Where does Mrs. Rupp draw the line?  I really hope that all parents in the Redbank Valley School District will let the Superintendent and the School Board know that you want our students named in the paper so that they can get the acknowledge that they earn.  It is an important part of growing up and part of us as adults, bringing the next generation into the community.

A Matter of Perspective, I Reckon

It has been fun the last couple of weeks reporting on and writing about some of our neighbors who are upset with the new chief of police here in New Bethlehem. A lot of us don't handle changes well and Chief Malnofsky and the new police force is definitely a change from the reign of Chief Ryan. Far be it from me to say one system was better than the other – but, policing in New Bethlehem is different than it used to be. What is interesting to me, is how differently some of us are seeing the same thing.

Most of the complaints about the new chief and his officers are coming from several of the social clubs in New Bethlehem and East Brady. It seems like some of the members of these clubs think that the new New Bethlehem Police Department is singling out club members for harassment. According to these spokespersons, it seems like the NB cops are spending an inordinate amount of time "stalking" club members and skulking around the parking lots looking for people to harass on car safety violations and DUI's and such.

It is not paranoia when they really are out to get you.

According to New Bethlehem's Borough Council President, Sandy Mateer, reorganizing and restructuring the police department was in the works before Chief Ryan decided to see if the grass really was greener on that side of the fence. Mrs. Mateer says that a lot of residents have been expressing concern about the lack of policing going on in the area. Adequate police protection is essential for the orderly growth, or revitalization, of a community. That is one of the driving forces behind many of the civic leaders in New Bethlehem here in the second decade of the 21^st century; to revitalize and renew the community in New Bethlehem and the Redbank Valley.

Part of the plans for reorganizing the NBPD was adding more full-time officers, having at least 2 officers on each shift, and splitting the coverage territory into 2 districts – New Bethlehem area and the Rimersburg - East Brady area. Longer range plans would eventually see a police substation in East Brady. With 2 officers on duty each shift and the work area clearly defined, Borough Council hoped to have greater police visibility and coverage. It's always good to have a plan.

Having a plan “b” is usually a good idea, too.

There are 2 pretty well-defined sides to the current NB cop debate. One side wants more policing and the other side, not so much policing. What is best for the community as a whole? Who really should decide how the police do their work? In an ideal, Libertarian world, everybody would respect everybody else and we wouldn't need police. That ain happening on this side of the Pearly Gates, so we have to accept some amount of policing as part of the price that we pay for living in a civilized society. Such as it is.

But, I digress. There has to be some amount, some degree of police enforcement in order to maintain that civil society. We don't always realize just how many laws, regulations, and ordinances we have allowed the Ruling Class to impose upon us! It is likely that every one of us breaks a bunch of laws every day without ever knowing it. No police department in the world can enforce all of the laws that we, living in the supposedly "land of the free" are bound by. Every police department has to be directed by a legislative body to prioritize the laws, regulations, and ordinances to enforce. The New Bethlehem Police Department is under the direction of the New Bethlehem Borough Council. The priority of enforcement, then, comes from the Borough Council.

In theory, we “the people” direct the Police Department through the Borough Council.

In theory. Seriously.

I think that if we are honest, each of us has things that we think the police should pay more attention to while paying less attention to other things. I imagine that some of us think that Ordinance enforcement is a waste of the police's time, while some of us probably don't think car safety (brake lights, turn signals, etc.) are an awfully big deal. Most of us probably think that violent crimes against people and property should be a priority of any police department – probably not much disagreement there. The disagreement comes in how much enforcement we want to see in other areas of our mutual communal interactions. I think that likely, our preference about non-violent crime enforcement comes from the things that we do, or leave undone, in our daily lives.

I'd like to see the police spend a whole day ticketing people who stop past the white line at the intersection of Broad and Wood Streets, but that's just me.

The social clubs say that the “nit-picking” police are hurting business at the clubs and that this is going to hurt the community as the clubs financially support school and community events. The police say that they are not targeting the clubs. Chief Malnofsky says that his officers don't have time to “stake out” the Moose, VFW, and Eagles. Personally, I would hope that he is right. One has to wonder though, how much damage the members of the clubs are doing by posting cop warnings on social media on Friday and Saturday nights.

It seems to me like our community is going through some changes and maybe we all need to calm down and let things settle for a bit before we get all “take to the streets” and protesty. The new chief hasn't hired up a full roster yet. The department is re-organizing and rebuilding. Be patient, give it time, things will fall into place with a new normal before too long.

In the meantime, I am going to go scrape the snow off my headlights and tail lights and make a quick turn signal and brake light check before I go over town. Maybe next time I'm at the bar, I will leave one beer sooner than usual. And, maybe I'll stop posting cop warnings on my Facebook page telling folks not to come to town. Maybe I will be a little more cautious driving through town. Maybe I can do some little things to help make the situation better.

By the way, the New Bethlehem Police are having a “meet and greet” Saturday, February 2, 1 PM at the Community Center. It will be interesting to see how many “concerned” residents will turn out.

Meanwhile, I'd still like to see more enforcement at the Broad & Wood Streets intersection.

The Snow Storm

“Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields” 

With these lines, 19th-century American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson begins his descriptive poem of the snow storm with it's enforced solitude and wind-driven sculpturing. Looking out my window this morning, I see the Borough of South Bethlehem and the creek hill beyond covered in a blanket of fresh, new snow. As in Emerson's “Snow Storm”, there is a quietness and an emptiness that seems to blanket the world this morning as well.

South Bethlehem in Snow

In Emerson's time, snow storms were a normal part of living in the north. They happened every winter, people planned for them, and people dealt with them. In that long-ago time, when people were so much more self-reliant, the snowstorm wasn't something to be feared and dreaded, it simply was something that happened and had to be dealt with. The winter snow storm was as normal, and natural and nothing to be overly concerned about. The snow would come. People would deal with it. The snow would melt. People would tell their storm stories well into summer. The snowstorm was simply part of living.

So much has changed in 200 years! With all of our modern, scientifically wondrous technology, the naturally, normally occurring snow storm has become something to be feared, something dangerous, something almost supernatural. We have become so removed from all things natural, that a potential snow storm takes on the properties of some sort of sinister, evil, living entity, bent on wreaking havoc, causing pain, and destroying human lives.

It is just a snow storm! Snowstorms can happen in any winter. Snowstorms have been happening since the beginning of time – long before mankind arrived on the scene and they will keep on happening long after mankind has faded out of the picture. It is as natural as the sun coming up in the east and going down in the west. Yet, with all of our sophistication, all of our technology, all of our great scientific advances, we are terrified, almost to paralysis by the threat of a snowstorm.

The very technologic nature of our modern lifestyle makes us far more vulnerable to the vagaries of nature than we were in earlier, less sophisticated times. We don't, as a rule, have food stockpiled in our freezers and pantries, as our grandparents and those before them did. We don't have our own water supply, our own waste disposal systems, our own sources of heat and “power” (lighting and cooking fuels). We have become dependent, and interdependent, on the providers of our water, sewerage, electricity, gas, and oil. Most of us cannot provide for ourselves, no matter how much we might want to, and no matter how much money we may have.

There may be a certain nostalgia for being snowbound in the old farmhouse in the hills. There were kerosene lamps, Coleman camp stoves, a fireplace, and a cistern from which we could draw water. There was a freezer full of meats and vegetables. We had our own milk cow. Being snowbound was no big deal. But, we were not reliant on electricity for our entertainment, work, and information. We did not live in an instantaneous world where we thought that we had to have moment by moment information from around the world. The snowstorm was not that big a deal in that time and place; we were self-sufficient, at least for a few days at a time.

While there may be a certain comfort in remembering being snowbound 50 years ago, I don't know that I would want to return to the standard of living we had back then. I am not really sure that I would want to milk the family cow twice each day. I don't really think that I would want to carry firewood in and ashes out every day. I am not sure that I would want to rely on the three broadcast TV networks for my news anymore and I would not want to be limited to network TV for my entertainment. I think it would be difficult to get along without cell phones. All in all, I guess I am more comfortable with our progress than with the self-reliance that we may have lost.

Most of the time.

Reading over what I have written so far, I have another thought. Is it possible that we, ourselves, are not as helpless and at the mercy of nature as I might think that we are? Is it possible that our constant exposure to news and social media intensifies the perception of impending danger from what are just natural occurrences? Think about it for a bit.

TV and Internet news starts warning of storms almost a week before they hit. The constant 24-hour news broadcasting may lead to exaggeration and overhyping. When you have space (or time) to fill with words, there is a tendency to use more words than you need. Superfluous adjectives become the norm and we may use exaggerated hyperbole to describe relatively mundane events. A snowstorm headed our way is normal, but “normal” is not a great headline. Writers and newscasters are pulled toward the extreme – “life-threatening”, “devastating”, “killer storm” get thrown around with almost wild abandon. A snowstorm, that may make travel tough for a day or two gets built up into the most frightening event of our lifetime.

Maybe, the fault lies not in ourselves, but in our media. (Apologies to Wm. Shakespeare.)

The roads here in the Redbank Valley were bad yesterday and are horrible this morning, but you can get through if you take your time and are careful. We didn't lose power. It was a snowstorm. We have seen others in the past and we will see more in the future.

Oh, and it's cold here this morning. Cold, not “life-threatening”, not “devastating”, not “apocalyptic”, just cold. Bundle up if you go outside.

Government Shutdown - Just Political Play

As we head into the fourth week of the “partial government shutdown” let us take a few moments and look around the Redbank Valley to see how the “shutdown” is affecting us.  Maybe if we calm down and think it through, we might be able to put this in perspective.

We went grocery shopping last night.  The shelves were full, telling me that the food producing, manufacturing, trucking, and retail businesses are still functioning as normal.  We had supper in a restaurant which was full to capacity.  Obviously, the restaurant had electricity and gas to run its stoves and ovens and had been able to get supplies.  The roads between here and there were no worse than usual.  There were no mobs ranging the countryside committing horrific acts of violence and mayhem against the peace-loving people of the Redbank Valley.  Lights were on in all of the houses – including a few still fully lit with Christmas displays.

Maybe there are advantages to living in “flyover country”, the backwoods, the hinterland.  There are not that many “non-essential” Federal employees in our area.  Our local economy is not being impacted by the loss of their income. That could be a very selfish way of looking at it, but during the 10 years of the Great Recession, government employees – federal, state, and local – got their pay raises and perks while the “great unwashed” struggled to exist in the third world economy that the Obama Democrats were trying to create in America.  Having watched the private sector suffer for so long because of government meddling, it is a little hard for me to overly sympathetic with the current condition.

That is not to say that I am not sensitive to the people who are suffering from the shutdown.  I have been broke.  There have been months in my life when I ran out of money before the month ran out of days and there have been times in my life when there have been more days than dinners.  Most of the time, in my life, these rough patches were self-inflicted – or to quote Jimmy Buffett “ 'twas my own damn fault.”  It isn't the federal workers' fault that they are not getting paid.  The situation is out of their control and I feel bad for them for that.  I could almost get angry at the politicians who have crafted this misery, but anger just doesn't suit me anymore.

Not to minimize any of the individual hardships that some federal employees and their families are suffering, how many workers are actually being affected?  There are about 800,000 Federal workers who are not getting paid.  They are considered “non-essential” workers.  Why in the world are there 800,000 non-essential workers?  That is a question that should be answered.  There isn't any concrete solid number of actual Federal employees on the payroll.  I have seen figures ranging from 7 – 9 MILLION Federal employees.  That's a mess of folks.  If we take a middle figure of 8,000,000 and figure that 800,000 are “non-essential” and not being paid during this shutdown, we see that about 10% of the Federal workforce is considered “non-essential”.  This is a lot of people being affected – but I have to wonder why they are on the government dole in the first place?

Taking a larger view.  There are about 206 MILLION working-age Americans. The 800,000 unpaid “non-essential” Federal workers represent less than ½ of a percent of working age Americans.  This is not a particularly huge number of workers when viewed as a portion of the entire working - age population in the US.  The “shutdown” is a bitch-kitty for those workers who are not getting paid, but life seems to be going on for the rest of us.   As much as the Ruling Class wants to make us believe that we are, we are not as dependent on the Government as they want us to be.

The thing that irritates me the most, is the incredible hypocrisy that so many of our so-called “leaders” are exhibiting.  Every single one of the self-righteous hacks that are condemning a border wall has all voted repeatedly for building a wall in the recent past. Every two-bit, sleazy politico who castigates Trump for wanting a wall has been in favor of walls.  And, every single one of the no-account buggers lives behind walls to protect them from the rest of us “deplorables”.  If walls don't work, why do they live behind walls?  If walls don't work, why are their walls around prisons? If walls don't work, why did the Soviet Union and its puppet states build miles and miles of walls to keep their slaves from escaping?  Walls work, and a sovereign nation needs to be able to control who comes into the country.  It's a very simple thing.

There is absolutely no sound, intelligent, logical argument against building a border wall along our Mexican border.  None.

And their hypocrisy extends in total unreality when they start caterwauling about the “cost” of building a wall.  President Trump was asking for $5.7 Billion next fiscal year.  The Federal government will likely spend between $5 and $7 TRILLION dollars in the next year.  $5.7 Billion is a mere 1/10 of 1% of expected Federal spending. 1/10 of a percent.  That would be like your checkbook being 2 cents out at the end of the year.  A tenth of a percent is a rounding error.  Our Government throws away more than that every day.

The hypocrisy about spending should be clear if you stop and think that many of these same Congresspersons and Senators approved $900,000,000,000 in the great pork barrel of the “Stimulus Package” of 2009.  They threw away almost a TRILLION dollars on a stimulus that did nothing to end the Great Recession.  This is the same Congress that has authorized $20 TRILLION more in spending than the government could steal from the economy in fees, taxes, and fines, leaving us, the taxpayers to pay off with interest at some point in the future.

The whole government shut down is a cynical, political game that is being played at the expense of the government workers.  Securing the border was the lynchpin of President Trump's presidential campaign.  He promised to build the wall and the Democrats and establishment Republicans are willing to do anything to prevent Mr. Trump from achieving this goal.  It's not a question of morality, it's not a question of cost, it's not a question of effectiveness; it is simply to defeat Trump at any cost.

Our country cannot absorb the tens of millions of migrants who want to come into our nation.  Our society and our culture cannot withstand the tsunami of drugs and crime that is waiting to sweep across the border.  The American people understand that border security and the wall are essential.  It is time for the members of Congress to quit playing games and do their duty to the American people and build the wall and secure the border.

Happy New Year to California!

Most of us look forward to the New Year as a fresh start, a time of renewal, some sort of new beginning.  And while most of us woke up Tuesday morning with a sense of hope for the New Year, Californian's woke up to more than 1,000 NEW laws taking effect in the Golden State.

1,000 NEW laws.  I cannot comprehend 1,000 TOTAL laws, let alone 1,000 NEW laws.

Among some of the new laws are these; SB 100 which requires California to have 50% of its electricity generated by non-carbon sources by 2026 and 100% by 2045.  Even if it could be done, the cost will be horrific. SB 100 guarantees that Californian's will pay the highest rates for electricity in the United States, fleecing the public whilst the corporate “fat cats” get richer.

AB 406, a boondoggle to the teacher's unions, prohibits “for profit” companies from operating charter schools.  For all of the chatter about “a woman's right to choose” - apparently Governor Brown doesn't think women should have the “right to choose” how their kids are educated.  Besides, we can't let any more teachers get away without paying union dues for the Democrat Party!

SB1192 bans sugary sodas as a kid's meal default beverage.  Beverage choices were limited to water, plain milk, and non-dairy substitutes like yummy almond milk, while AB 1884 bans full-service,    dine-in restaurants from offering single-use plastic straws unless they are requested by customers.  The compromise legislation exempted fast-food chains and which type of restaurant uses the most plastic straws do you think?  Banning plastic straw?  I could not make this stuff up.

And, for any of you who still suffer under the delusion that Democrats are against corporations, SB 901 allows Pacific Gas & Electric power utility to raise rates to pay for liability associated with 2017 forest fires supposedly sparked by power lines and provides $200 million to thin forests.  The legislation avoids controversy about homeless starting forest fires and the legislature's passing laws limiting logging roads that served as fire breaks.  Once again, California's “ruling class” will force the people to pay for the mistakes of their corporate cronies.

From protecting unions and corporate cronies to forcing parents to pick “politically correct” beverages for their kids Californians will see more and more of their individual freedoms and liberties eroding away to the hopelessness of servitude to the State.

1,000 NEW laws.  It boggles the imagination.

1,000 NEW laws.  How many so-called laws does each of us violate every day without even realizing that we are breaking a law?  How many arcane, outdated, and maybe idiotic, ordinances, municipal, county, state and federal laws are there of which most of us are unaware?  How many laws did I break today?  I have no earthly idea, but I am quite sure that somewhere, somehow, today I broke one or more “laws”.  Is the world better off for all of these “laws”?  I genuinely have to wonder.

The question that comes to my mind, is why do sovereign people need 1,000 NEW LAWS to continue to function as a society?  Maybe a better question is, why do sovereign people need 1,000 laws, period? What has happened to us, Americans, that we have become willing to surrender so much of our liberty over to the various Governments?  How have we allowed this to happen?  What has been the thinking process that has made us willing to let a “ruling class” control so much of our daily lives?  And, maybe even more frightening, how are there so many among us so willing to tell the rest of us how to live?

I cannot begin to imagine telling others how to live their lives. I cannot begin to imagine wanting to control other people.  That is so alien to my way of thinking that there simply is no way for my mind to grasp controlling others.  What dark lust drives someone to want to control another human being?  What form of evil seeks to deny freedom and liberty in the lives of others?  What weakness has grown in the rest of us to accept it?

Have the Totalitarians among us used our big-hearted, kindness against us?  Have the Totalitarians among us made it “politically incorrect” to speak up in defense of our freedom and liberty?  Is it just not “cool” to be concerned about government overreach, and most definitely, divisive to speak of it?  Has our desire not to offend anyone allowed the Tyrants among us to run amok?  How much of our individual liberty will we surrender before we rise up to defend ourselves?

The debate should not be whether Republican or Democrat, nor “left” or “right”, nor even”progressive” or “conservative”.  The debate now should be “liberty” or “government control”.  Regardless of the issue, freedom-loving people must start speaking up for liberty.  Every additional law, rule, regulation, tax or fee takes another bit of your liberty. The fact that California enacted 1,000 NEW laws on January 1 should scare the daylights out of every American.