I am not doing well with the mandated “quarantine” and other restrictions in our forced closed economy. With my years of experience and observation, I can unequivocally state that I neither trust nor believe the governments, the news media, scientists and doctors who cooperate with governments. I don’t believe anything that they are telling us about the Covid-19 “dam-pendic”. I am totally confident that the virus has been around longer than since December, that many more people have contracted it than reported, and that the survival rate is much higher than we are being told. There is no doubt in my mind that the authorities over diagnose, over count, and over report the number of infections and deaths.
The knee jerk over reactions by federal and state governments are unprecedent in the history of our country. Even presuming that the driving intentions were good (and that is not an assumption that I can accept), these restrictions are an amazing attack on our liberties and our economy. The damage that the closing of our economy has done may take years to overcome – and we may never get back our fundamental liberties. Most damning, is the reality that all of this suffering may have been based on inaccurate, grossly inflated numbers.
The question facing each of us as sovereign individuals, created in the image of God, and blessed with God given rights and liberties is, “Where do I make my stand?” If you are not asking yourself this question, then you have already surrendered your sovereignty to the evil power of the State and you have accepted being a slave to your Masters. May God have Mercy on your soul.
For those of us who are still sovereign, when will you take your stand?
Tomorrow, every business in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is supposed to deny entry to unmasked people. The Governor’s order includes the provision that those with medical conditions, do not need to and merchants cannot deny if so claimed.
After prayerful thought, I will not comply.
It is not that I am thoughtlessly endangering the lives of my neighbors. From all that I can read and find, this thing isn’t a tenth of what they want us to think that it is. As more studies are being done, researchers are finding that many more people have had it than thought and that the mortality rate is a whole lot less than projected. The government, the news media, and the so-called “scientific community” have lied to us right from the start.
When I am diagnosed with a contagious illness I will accept being quarantined, but not until. This is no longer a question of quarantine, but rather an issue of being held on house arrest without being charged, tried, and convicted.
The resistance to this must begin with each of us deciding when and where to make a stand. I will not comply with the mask order. If I am refused entry after saying that I have a medical condition that prevents me from wearing one – I will simply sit down right in the doorway and remain there until I am allowed in – or removed by force. Following the examples of Ghandi and Dr King, I will protest peacefully. For now.
We each, as sovereign individuals must make the choice. I have made mine. May God lead each of you to the choice that is right for you.
Sunday, April 19, 2020
Thursday, April 16, 2020
Are We Going to Learn Anything?
Well into our forced, semi-voluntary house arrest, one wonders if we are taking advantage of the many “teachable moments” that the Pandemic is offering to us. It would seem that many of us needed to learn to wash our hands and not to sneeze or cough on other folks. I’m pretty sure that my parents taught me these things, but I could be wrong. We should be learning that personal space is not merely a “social construct”, but may be rooted in a natural, self-defense instinct. Some of us might be learning that not working isn’t as much fun as we used to think.
There are some other things here that I genuinely hope that we are learning. One of the first take aways for me is that “we” are not living in one big, global village. There are natural and cultural differences around the world that can, in the wrong circumstances, become deadly. Natural selection is based upon the environment in which we develop. Our unique and particular environments provide us with some immunities to diseases common in our environment. Being 10 and more generations in temperate North America, I have no natural immunity to environmental threats that exist in environments on other continents. I have no immunity to diseases that thrive in the rain forests, the subarctic, or the vast semi-arid regions of Asia. We, here in the United States, have a natural immunity to local diseases that might devastate populations on other continents. Different places and different populations have different immunities and different diseases. It is what it is.
There are also cultural differences in populations around the world that can have powerful impacts on our health. There are many places in the world where there is no sanitation. Some people in the world simply are not clean, by our – or any other – standard. Many people in the world live in squalor that would kill the typical, modern American. And, some people in faraway places eat things that would kill most of us. (Think about the whole bats boiled in those Chinese soups.) Nor is food preparation equally sanitary around the world. Many people buy their meats at markets where the food animal is alive and butchered right on site with little or no water, soap, sanitizers, or refrigeration. Very few of us would ever consider cooking and eating a chicken, dog, cat, or a goat from a Chinese “wet market”. Hell, a lot of Americans won’t eat home butchered venison! Our culture demands that our food stuffs be grown, processed, stored, and marketed with the utmost sanitary controls. These are cultural differences that can, and obviously have, caused health issues around the world.
I hope that we will learn that it is imperative to have strict control over our borders. This is not a statement rooted in any form of racism or xenophobia; but rather one born from the acceptance of realities as they are. There are diseases out there in the world that can raise hell with our American family. We need to know who is coming here and from where.
We should also learn that not every other nation has the best interest of the American people at heart. China could and should have been more open and honest about this virus way back last fall. Had China been more open, perhaps we could have prevented the half – million Chinese nationals who came to the US for the Chinese New Year celebration from coming. That one action alone may have prevented Covid-19 from getting a foothold in America.
It might also be time to learn that the “Wizards of Smart” don’t have all the answers and that we can be “experted” to death. Every Covid-19 model has been wrong. Every “expert” forecast about the severity of the Pandemic has been wrong. The “Wizards of Smart” first projected more than 2 million Americans would die from the virus. They have down graded this projection to somewhere between 20 and 60,000 casualties. The difference in these projections make me wonder if there was any actual scientific basis to any of these guesses. Or, how smart really are the “Wizards of Smart”?
And, just how ventilators and hospital beds did the “Wizards of Smart” say that we needed? Just how many patients have been treated on the Navy hospital ships in California and New York? How many empty beds are there in the fields hospitals that the Army Corps of Engineers built almost overnight?
It might be too much to hope for, but I am hoping that we will learn that the leadership of the Democratic Party has no real concern for the future of our country and our people. One can argue about the rightness of government infusing 2 trillion dollars into the economy – since government edict destroyed the economy – but the Democrats stuffed billions and billions of dollars of stupid spending into the stimulus. The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Public Broadcasting, and Planned Parenthood baby killers don’t need billions, while more than half of Americans are not being allowed to work.
We might also learn that “Trump Derangement Syndrome” should be classified as an actual mental illness. Listening to the main stream media “report” and pontificate about the President’s handling of the Pandemic is sickening. If you didn’t know better, you might think that Mr. Trump doesn’t care how many of us die and that any Democrat could have done a better job. Does anyone remember how many Americans died of the swine flu when the vaunted, Indonesian Barry Soetoro was President?
There might be some questions that you should not ask; however. Like, how many games of solitaire can one play in a day? How many free Kindle books are there to download? How many robins can you count from your easy chair? How many Bigfoot podcasts are there out there? Just askin’.
There are some other things here that I genuinely hope that we are learning. One of the first take aways for me is that “we” are not living in one big, global village. There are natural and cultural differences around the world that can, in the wrong circumstances, become deadly. Natural selection is based upon the environment in which we develop. Our unique and particular environments provide us with some immunities to diseases common in our environment. Being 10 and more generations in temperate North America, I have no natural immunity to environmental threats that exist in environments on other continents. I have no immunity to diseases that thrive in the rain forests, the subarctic, or the vast semi-arid regions of Asia. We, here in the United States, have a natural immunity to local diseases that might devastate populations on other continents. Different places and different populations have different immunities and different diseases. It is what it is.
There are also cultural differences in populations around the world that can have powerful impacts on our health. There are many places in the world where there is no sanitation. Some people in the world simply are not clean, by our – or any other – standard. Many people in the world live in squalor that would kill the typical, modern American. And, some people in faraway places eat things that would kill most of us. (Think about the whole bats boiled in those Chinese soups.) Nor is food preparation equally sanitary around the world. Many people buy their meats at markets where the food animal is alive and butchered right on site with little or no water, soap, sanitizers, or refrigeration. Very few of us would ever consider cooking and eating a chicken, dog, cat, or a goat from a Chinese “wet market”. Hell, a lot of Americans won’t eat home butchered venison! Our culture demands that our food stuffs be grown, processed, stored, and marketed with the utmost sanitary controls. These are cultural differences that can, and obviously have, caused health issues around the world.
I hope that we will learn that it is imperative to have strict control over our borders. This is not a statement rooted in any form of racism or xenophobia; but rather one born from the acceptance of realities as they are. There are diseases out there in the world that can raise hell with our American family. We need to know who is coming here and from where.
We should also learn that not every other nation has the best interest of the American people at heart. China could and should have been more open and honest about this virus way back last fall. Had China been more open, perhaps we could have prevented the half – million Chinese nationals who came to the US for the Chinese New Year celebration from coming. That one action alone may have prevented Covid-19 from getting a foothold in America.
It might also be time to learn that the “Wizards of Smart” don’t have all the answers and that we can be “experted” to death. Every Covid-19 model has been wrong. Every “expert” forecast about the severity of the Pandemic has been wrong. The “Wizards of Smart” first projected more than 2 million Americans would die from the virus. They have down graded this projection to somewhere between 20 and 60,000 casualties. The difference in these projections make me wonder if there was any actual scientific basis to any of these guesses. Or, how smart really are the “Wizards of Smart”?
And, just how ventilators and hospital beds did the “Wizards of Smart” say that we needed? Just how many patients have been treated on the Navy hospital ships in California and New York? How many empty beds are there in the fields hospitals that the Army Corps of Engineers built almost overnight?
It might be too much to hope for, but I am hoping that we will learn that the leadership of the Democratic Party has no real concern for the future of our country and our people. One can argue about the rightness of government infusing 2 trillion dollars into the economy – since government edict destroyed the economy – but the Democrats stuffed billions and billions of dollars of stupid spending into the stimulus. The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Public Broadcasting, and Planned Parenthood baby killers don’t need billions, while more than half of Americans are not being allowed to work.
We might also learn that “Trump Derangement Syndrome” should be classified as an actual mental illness. Listening to the main stream media “report” and pontificate about the President’s handling of the Pandemic is sickening. If you didn’t know better, you might think that Mr. Trump doesn’t care how many of us die and that any Democrat could have done a better job. Does anyone remember how many Americans died of the swine flu when the vaunted, Indonesian Barry Soetoro was President?
There might be some questions that you should not ask; however. Like, how many games of solitaire can one play in a day? How many free Kindle books are there to download? How many robins can you count from your easy chair? How many Bigfoot podcasts are there out there? Just askin’.
Friday, March 27, 2020
I Must Vote Against the Referendum
I have not entered the public discussion about the impending school tax referendum until now. I have tried to write my RedbankValley.org news articles with as much objectivity as I can muster. As a news writer, my role is to deliver facts, not to try to sway opinions. When writing news, I am just the story teller. As an essayist, my role is to entertain, share my point of view, and help to shape opinions. These are different roles and different functions within the community.
Let us be completely open before I go on – the opinions and ideas expressed in this essay are mine and mine alone. Neither RedbankValley.Org nor TechReady Professionals has any connection to this essay. Mayor Barrows has not read this and has no knowledge of what I intend to write. This NearCommonSense essay is mine and mine alone.
I have a lot of respect for many of the men and women on the Redbank Valley School Board. There are several that I consider to be friends. Similarly, I like many of the teachers and administrators that I have met over the years as my daughters and grand kids “did their time”. There are some marvelous teachers, good role models, and fine people within the staff and faculty. My thoughts about schools, taxes, referendums, and such are not intended to harm or hurt anyone. But, “tempus fugit”, “so let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.”
First, I simply don’t like government monopoly schools. I do not think that having given control of curricula and outcomes to State and Federal bureaucrats has worked well. I know that I was not as well prepared to go out into the world after finishing high school as my father was. And my grandfather was better educated after 8th grade than I was after 12th. I don’t see very many of today’s 18-year-olds being at all ready to be fully functioning adult citizens. This is not a criticism of Redbank Valley, but rather an indictment of the entire public-school model.
But it does bring the conversation around to the upcoming referendum on raising school taxes. As much as it pains me to have to say, I simply cannot support raising taxes for the schools. It is not that I don’t want kids to get an education – I don’t think that they are now through no fault of our school district itself – but rather, in 25 years of being part of this community, I never seen the Redbank Valley School Board be fiscally responsible and there is nothing in the referendum or proposed budget to suggest that they are going to start being so now.
Over the years, we have seen school board after school board ignore their budgets and spend money on virtually every request made of them. I cannot recall a time when any Board has refused to fund anything brought to them. And never once have I heard any director ask if this spending request is within this year’s budget. The Board approves every teacher’s meeting, conference, and travel request with no discussion regarding the budget allotment for such items. And while these individual items may be only a few hundred or a thousand dollars each, the cavalier disregard for fiscal accountability is staggering. Or to paraphrase the late Senator Everett Dirksen, “a billion here and a billion there; pretty soon you are talking real money.”
And there have also been some big expenses that the Board has approved with no consideration for financial responsibility. We really didn’t need a new gym at the high school. We really didn’t need an off budget renovation of the track for a cool half a million. Following the Parkland school shooting in find year, the Board jumped into a $100,000 per year over budget ongoing commitment for security personnel. It is fortuitous that Principal Amy Rupp has covered most of this with grants, but again, this is indicative of reactionary spending that speaks of a lack of responsibility.
As I wrote in a recent news analysis for RedbankValley.org, the state and federal bureaucracies mandate so much of the district spending. PDE doesn’t always adequately fund these mandates, shifting the burden to districts. But, PDE does not control the cost of labor in individual school districts. The Redbank Valley School District has created an extraordinarily voracious feeder in its labor practices.
The Board touts their efforts to “cut spending” by citing how many fewer teachers there are now than there were in the past. However, when you drill down into the numbers, a different story emerges.
Student and Staff numbers
2002-03 2007-08 2012-13 2016-17 2017-18
Student Enrollment 1450 1207 1146 1083 1116
Elementary Faculty 55 57 49 46 45.5
Secondary Faculty 52 49 46 42 38.5
Student: Faculty Ratio 13.6 to 1 11.4 to 1 12.1 to 1 12.3 to 1 13.3 to 1
Support Staff 67 66 58 59 57
Administration 8.5 8.5 7.5 7 7
Student: Administration Ratio 170 to 1 142 to 1 153 to 1 155 to 1 159 to 1
*Chart taken from Redbank Valley School District Press Release #6 September 2017.
This chart clearly shows that in school year 2002 – 2003 there were 107 teachers in the district. In 2017 – 2018 there were 84 teachers. Superficially, this is a decrease of 23 teachers; however, the student to teacher ratio decreased from 13.6 students per teacher to 13.3, in effect meaning there were actually more teachers in 2017 – 2018 than there were in 2002 – 2003. Similarly, the student per administration dropped from 170 to 1 to 159 to 1. Again, meaning more administrators per students than previously due to a decrease of 334 students over these 15 years.
It is all well and good to talk about paying enough to attract and retain good teachers. This goal must be tempered with the reality of monies available. Redbank Valley School District simply cannot afford to pay teachers as much as we currently are. The money simply is not there. This tax increase that voters will be voting on does nothing to address the current or future cost of labor in the district. According to “THE REDBANK REFERENDUM FACTUAL INFORMATION” published on the District’s website, ” If a majority of voters vote in favor of a referendum tax increase, the district budget will be balanced without the need for educational program cuts or staff furloughs. The total from the referendum increase plus the Act 1 Index plus the referendum exceptions and PDE adjustment will be enough to balance the 2020-21 budget.”
“Will be enough to balance the 2020-21 budget.” There isn’t much here to inspire hope.
At the present time, teachers are working without a contract. If past performance is the indicator of future actions, we can safely assume that the Union wants 2 – 3% guaranteed raises annually. Where will that money come from? The state increases in funding have amounted to less than 1% annually in the past few years with no promise of improvement. The proposed 2020 – 2021 district budget projects that labor will be about 65% of the district’s spending next year (without a new contract). A 1% increase in 100% of your spending will be more than consumed by even a 2% increase in 65% of your spending. (If you don’t understand the math, email me and I will explain it to you.)
The district simply must get control over salaries, wages, and benefits. The Board must demand that the Union present an immediate 5% decrease in salaries and benefits. This drawdown must be coupled with a contractual guarantee that all future changes in salaries and benefits will match (plus or minus) annual changes in state funding. The District must also lower starting salaries to be more in line with incomes within the district. It is unconscionable that a starting teacher should be paid more than the median household income in the area. It is even more egregious that the top salaried teachers can make 50% than that median household income. There can be no solution to the district’s finances with anything less.
If we lose teachers because of lower pay, then, so be it. At this point in time in our district we need teachers who have the calling, who love the area, and who want to help rebuild the community. Those teachers who would leave for a handful of dollars, may not be the best fit in our current situation. This may seem harsh, but the onus for saving the Redbank Valley School District is completely in the hands of the teacher’s union.
Without an ironclad guarantee of draw downs and raises tied to increases in state revenue, I cannot support the tax increase referendum.
Let us be completely open before I go on – the opinions and ideas expressed in this essay are mine and mine alone. Neither RedbankValley.Org nor TechReady Professionals has any connection to this essay. Mayor Barrows has not read this and has no knowledge of what I intend to write. This NearCommonSense essay is mine and mine alone.
I have a lot of respect for many of the men and women on the Redbank Valley School Board. There are several that I consider to be friends. Similarly, I like many of the teachers and administrators that I have met over the years as my daughters and grand kids “did their time”. There are some marvelous teachers, good role models, and fine people within the staff and faculty. My thoughts about schools, taxes, referendums, and such are not intended to harm or hurt anyone. But, “tempus fugit”, “so let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.”
First, I simply don’t like government monopoly schools. I do not think that having given control of curricula and outcomes to State and Federal bureaucrats has worked well. I know that I was not as well prepared to go out into the world after finishing high school as my father was. And my grandfather was better educated after 8th grade than I was after 12th. I don’t see very many of today’s 18-year-olds being at all ready to be fully functioning adult citizens. This is not a criticism of Redbank Valley, but rather an indictment of the entire public-school model.
But it does bring the conversation around to the upcoming referendum on raising school taxes. As much as it pains me to have to say, I simply cannot support raising taxes for the schools. It is not that I don’t want kids to get an education – I don’t think that they are now through no fault of our school district itself – but rather, in 25 years of being part of this community, I never seen the Redbank Valley School Board be fiscally responsible and there is nothing in the referendum or proposed budget to suggest that they are going to start being so now.
Over the years, we have seen school board after school board ignore their budgets and spend money on virtually every request made of them. I cannot recall a time when any Board has refused to fund anything brought to them. And never once have I heard any director ask if this spending request is within this year’s budget. The Board approves every teacher’s meeting, conference, and travel request with no discussion regarding the budget allotment for such items. And while these individual items may be only a few hundred or a thousand dollars each, the cavalier disregard for fiscal accountability is staggering. Or to paraphrase the late Senator Everett Dirksen, “a billion here and a billion there; pretty soon you are talking real money.”
And there have also been some big expenses that the Board has approved with no consideration for financial responsibility. We really didn’t need a new gym at the high school. We really didn’t need an off budget renovation of the track for a cool half a million. Following the Parkland school shooting in find year, the Board jumped into a $100,000 per year over budget ongoing commitment for security personnel. It is fortuitous that Principal Amy Rupp has covered most of this with grants, but again, this is indicative of reactionary spending that speaks of a lack of responsibility.
As I wrote in a recent news analysis for RedbankValley.org, the state and federal bureaucracies mandate so much of the district spending. PDE doesn’t always adequately fund these mandates, shifting the burden to districts. But, PDE does not control the cost of labor in individual school districts. The Redbank Valley School District has created an extraordinarily voracious feeder in its labor practices.
The Board touts their efforts to “cut spending” by citing how many fewer teachers there are now than there were in the past. However, when you drill down into the numbers, a different story emerges.
Student and Staff numbers
2002-03 2007-08 2012-13 2016-17 2017-18
Student Enrollment 1450 1207 1146 1083 1116
Elementary Faculty 55 57 49 46 45.5
Secondary Faculty 52 49 46 42 38.5
Student: Faculty Ratio 13.6 to 1 11.4 to 1 12.1 to 1 12.3 to 1 13.3 to 1
Support Staff 67 66 58 59 57
Administration 8.5 8.5 7.5 7 7
Student: Administration Ratio 170 to 1 142 to 1 153 to 1 155 to 1 159 to 1
*Chart taken from Redbank Valley School District Press Release #6 September 2017.
This chart clearly shows that in school year 2002 – 2003 there were 107 teachers in the district. In 2017 – 2018 there were 84 teachers. Superficially, this is a decrease of 23 teachers; however, the student to teacher ratio decreased from 13.6 students per teacher to 13.3, in effect meaning there were actually more teachers in 2017 – 2018 than there were in 2002 – 2003. Similarly, the student per administration dropped from 170 to 1 to 159 to 1. Again, meaning more administrators per students than previously due to a decrease of 334 students over these 15 years.
It is all well and good to talk about paying enough to attract and retain good teachers. This goal must be tempered with the reality of monies available. Redbank Valley School District simply cannot afford to pay teachers as much as we currently are. The money simply is not there. This tax increase that voters will be voting on does nothing to address the current or future cost of labor in the district. According to “THE REDBANK REFERENDUM FACTUAL INFORMATION” published on the District’s website, ” If a majority of voters vote in favor of a referendum tax increase, the district budget will be balanced without the need for educational program cuts or staff furloughs. The total from the referendum increase plus the Act 1 Index plus the referendum exceptions and PDE adjustment will be enough to balance the 2020-21 budget.”
“Will be enough to balance the 2020-21 budget.” There isn’t much here to inspire hope.
At the present time, teachers are working without a contract. If past performance is the indicator of future actions, we can safely assume that the Union wants 2 – 3% guaranteed raises annually. Where will that money come from? The state increases in funding have amounted to less than 1% annually in the past few years with no promise of improvement. The proposed 2020 – 2021 district budget projects that labor will be about 65% of the district’s spending next year (without a new contract). A 1% increase in 100% of your spending will be more than consumed by even a 2% increase in 65% of your spending. (If you don’t understand the math, email me and I will explain it to you.)
The district simply must get control over salaries, wages, and benefits. The Board must demand that the Union present an immediate 5% decrease in salaries and benefits. This drawdown must be coupled with a contractual guarantee that all future changes in salaries and benefits will match (plus or minus) annual changes in state funding. The District must also lower starting salaries to be more in line with incomes within the district. It is unconscionable that a starting teacher should be paid more than the median household income in the area. It is even more egregious that the top salaried teachers can make 50% than that median household income. There can be no solution to the district’s finances with anything less.
If we lose teachers because of lower pay, then, so be it. At this point in time in our district we need teachers who have the calling, who love the area, and who want to help rebuild the community. Those teachers who would leave for a handful of dollars, may not be the best fit in our current situation. This may seem harsh, but the onus for saving the Redbank Valley School District is completely in the hands of the teacher’s union.
Without an ironclad guarantee of draw downs and raises tied to increases in state revenue, I cannot support the tax increase referendum.
Sunday, March 15, 2020
It's Just the Flu!
The note below showed up on Facebook this morning and tied in very nicely with my thinking on this “pandemic coronavirus”.
Throughout most of human history, life itself was dangerous enough to keep the people in line. Modernity removed many of the natural threats – humans, especially Americans, were less likely in 1920 to be killed or eaten in their front yard than in 1820. We hardly given any thought today to “lions and tigers and bears, oh my!”, and there don’t tend to be roaming marauders like there were 200 years ago. In many ways, life has become so tame that we sometimes seem to manufacture things to be afraid of. A free people, free of fear, are difficult to control. The horse running free over the hills, is not plowing the Master’s field. The unharnessed horse has little value.
Novelist Michael Crichton wrote a very good thriller called “State of Fear”, in which he posits that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the World (and especially the American people) were totally free of fear. Unshackled, or unharnessed, if you will, the American people were poised to explode with a burst of creativity the likes of which had not been seen since the dawn of the industrial age. Without the looming threat of nuclear annihilation, there was no way to control the people.
Crichton’s story is that the government, media, and academia conspire to make Climate Change seem like an immediate, existential threat, thereby, giving governments more control over the people. Like the horse in our previous illustration, the Masters cannot control a free, unharnessed people.
This writer wonders just how prescient Crichton may have been. The American voters completely derailed the Masters’ plans by electing Donald Trump as President. The man does not play by Their rules and is an existential threat to the world’s Ruling Class. After three years of constant attacks, the man just keeps on keeping on. They can’t figure out how to stop him. They thought he would resign when they impeached him, but when that failed, They needed something bigger.
Something far more frightening. A global pandemic, perhaps?
The news media began “reporting” on the coronavirus immediately following Trump’s acquittal by the Senate. The actual seriousness of this new flu does not warrant the news coverage or the resulting hysteria. As of this writing (March 13), fewer than 50 people have died in the US. Fifty out of 320, 000,000 Americans – .00015625% of our estimated population. More Americans died today from cancer than have died from the coronavirus. More Americans died on the highways today than have died from the virus. Many more American babies died from abortion today than from Covid – 19.
The hype is absolutely irresponsible.
But yet, it is serving the purpose. Professional sports leagues have postponed their seasons. Gutless state governors are closing schools – now, I must wonder under what authority, but that’s just me. The Democratic Party is cancelling their primary elections to give the nomination to a senile sex fiend rather than to a senile, rabid Communist. President Trump has cancelled his campaign rallies – ah! Now, that’s the big one! Keep those damn Deplorables from gathering. So goes our First Amendment Right to free Assembly.
The economic impact of all of this hysteria will be staggering. Events cancelled, pay checks disrupted, payments missed, banks failing – all over a mild flu. The Ruling Class is taking full advantage of this, fueling the hysteria, trying to disrupt the economy, trying to bring as much misery as possible to the American people, knowing full well that the news media, will blame Trump for whatever bad they are able to rain down on the people. The more pain, the more economic hardships, the more the media will trash Trump in their effort to restore the Ruling Class to power.
Fueled by the media hype, the Ruling Class has set out to destroy our economy in order to blame it on President Trump. Mark my words, but in the meantime, it’s just a flu. Live when you live then die and be done with it.
Novelist Michael Crichton wrote a very good thriller called “State of Fear”, in which he posits that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the World (and especially the American people) were totally free of fear. Unshackled, or unharnessed, if you will, the American people were poised to explode with a burst of creativity the likes of which had not been seen since the dawn of the industrial age. Without the looming threat of nuclear annihilation, there was no way to control the people.
Crichton’s story is that the government, media, and academia conspire to make Climate Change seem like an immediate, existential threat, thereby, giving governments more control over the people. Like the horse in our previous illustration, the Masters cannot control a free, unharnessed people.
This writer wonders just how prescient Crichton may have been. The American voters completely derailed the Masters’ plans by electing Donald Trump as President. The man does not play by Their rules and is an existential threat to the world’s Ruling Class. After three years of constant attacks, the man just keeps on keeping on. They can’t figure out how to stop him. They thought he would resign when they impeached him, but when that failed, They needed something bigger.
Something far more frightening. A global pandemic, perhaps?
The news media began “reporting” on the coronavirus immediately following Trump’s acquittal by the Senate. The actual seriousness of this new flu does not warrant the news coverage or the resulting hysteria. As of this writing (March 13), fewer than 50 people have died in the US. Fifty out of 320, 000,000 Americans – .00015625% of our estimated population. More Americans died today from cancer than have died from the coronavirus. More Americans died on the highways today than have died from the virus. Many more American babies died from abortion today than from Covid – 19.
The hype is absolutely irresponsible.
But yet, it is serving the purpose. Professional sports leagues have postponed their seasons. Gutless state governors are closing schools – now, I must wonder under what authority, but that’s just me. The Democratic Party is cancelling their primary elections to give the nomination to a senile sex fiend rather than to a senile, rabid Communist. President Trump has cancelled his campaign rallies – ah! Now, that’s the big one! Keep those damn Deplorables from gathering. So goes our First Amendment Right to free Assembly.
The economic impact of all of this hysteria will be staggering. Events cancelled, pay checks disrupted, payments missed, banks failing – all over a mild flu. The Ruling Class is taking full advantage of this, fueling the hysteria, trying to disrupt the economy, trying to bring as much misery as possible to the American people, knowing full well that the news media, will blame Trump for whatever bad they are able to rain down on the people. The more pain, the more economic hardships, the more the media will trash Trump in their effort to restore the Ruling Class to power.
Fueled by the media hype, the Ruling Class has set out to destroy our economy in order to blame it on President Trump. Mark my words, but in the meantime, it’s just a flu. Live when you live then die and be done with it.
Saturday, December 21, 2019
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.
Saturday, December 7, 2019
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.
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.
Sunday, November 3, 2019
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.
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.
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