What the left and the right both get wrong

   Driving home from work I was listening to talk radio. There was a guest host sitting in for Dennis Praeger I never heard more than his first name Mark.He had a whole bunch of callers extolling the virtues of Trump in 2024. What ever you think of Trump the reality is that he doesn't have snowballs chance in hell of winning. How can I be so sure it is quite simple math unlike polls doesn't lie. There are approximately 29% percent Republicans and 33% Democrats if Independents won't vote for your candidate they can not win. This is something both parties tend to forget. 

I get ardent supporters wanting to stick by their candidate but I've heard very few host that will call people on supporting someone totally unelectable. 

In 2016 we saw a tight race between two candidates that were totally reviled by 50% of the country.

Hopefully we get a completely new slate for 2024.

Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas to my friends real or electronic it doesn't matter. I hope all that see this are blessed today and all next year.

Other people's money

 Back when the country was founded we decided that the people should rule, it is our country not some king or noble classes. We are now 31 trillion dollars in debt and the people we elect believe it is more important to buy votes than to be fiscally responsible. Keep in mind that every time some new proposal comes out of Washington we can't afford what we are already doing. The Biden administration tried to buy some votes with student debt forgiveness, luckily the courts seem to have declared that unconstitutional. Now Joe and the Democrats are proposing spending 36 billion dollars to shore up under funded pensions for the Central States teamsters unions. Now I bear no animus toward these teamsters but it is not the job of the government to pay these pensions. If they are under funded through fraud or malfeasance have the DOJ go after the employers or the unions to have them make good. 

 We've heard for years how Social Security and Medicare ore going broke and that the prudent thing to do is to save so that we can eventually retire. If Biden wants to help retirees he ought to work at shoring up SS instead of trying buy a block of votes with somebody else's money.

Dividing people with half truths

  The local news was promoting equal pay day the day that women achieve equal pay with men. nine extra months that it takes women to earn what men did last year. There was twist though women as a whole achieve equal pay in March, this is referencing African American women. I don't dispute either date my problem is that it has absolutely nothing to do with being a woman African American. It has everything to do with the jobs that people choose. A couple of years ago flight attendants in Canada were threatening to strike unless they were paid the same as pilots. Of course pilots make more because it takes more skill to fly a plane than to serve drinks and seat people.     

 I would hope the TV news people would share this information when spouting there propaganda. Of course that might not allow them to make victims of people

Repeat

 I feel like I'm playing a broken record. The so called party of the middle class is once again sticking it to the middle class. Why does Joe Biden believe I should pay for someone else's student loans. Paying taxes is bad enough when it is funding legitimate government responsibilities but it is truly obnoxious when they take money out of my pocket and put it directly into someone else's pocket. The real problem is backing student loans for classes that have no chance of creating an income that will be able to payoff the loans in a reasonable time frame.

So if Biden wants to push an executive order make it no loan backing out side of STEM studies. STEM studies almost always lead to jobs capable of paying off student loans. As for the dead beats that had no problem taking out a loan and letting it grow into arrears let their social security statement reflect their debt.

Looking out for the middle class

 Got to love the Democrats they are always trying to help the middle class,not. Our caring Democrat friends working to pass their Inflation reduction act which will probably cause more inflation and also lets the poor and middle class help by electric cars for people with far more money than we have. The dems complain about excess profits of big business and help the auto makers to excess profit by subsidizing vehicles that aren't ready to be sold on their own merits. 

More legislation is passed for no other purpose than to con the people into voting for them. Hopefully people see through the lies and make them pay at the polls just as we are paying at the pump and grocery etc.etc etc.

Covid relief

 Biden was in Cleveland touting a section of the Covid relief package that was passed with no Republican support.The bill was loaded up with many non Covid programs including bailing out union pensions that were under funded. Biden's rally was held in front of supporters and many union members in danger of having benefits cut. The press was all over this on the evening news lauding Biden and the Democrats for helping working class Americans.

I was really ticked off, first off how is this covid relief, it's not it's just another case of government spending money we don't have  to buy votes. Secondly how can this be for working class Americans when most Americans no longer have traditional pensions. They want me and others like me whose only pension is what we save for to fund someone else's pension. Where does that end many states especially California and Illinois are severely under funded on their pension obligations are we to bail those out as well. Thirdly why is our press core not asking these questions. Last but not least we get to pay for the pensions twice once directly and once through the run away inflation that comes from spending money that isn't there.

 

 

Netflix

 There is a rather large catalog of TV shows and movies to watch on Netflix and yet often I have a hard time settling on something to watch. Invariably the longer I look the more likely I am to pick a foreign film. In the past couple of months I have ended on French, Mexican, Russian,Brazilian, Spanish,and even a Polish movie. Most are dubbed to English almost beyond detection when dubbed some subtitle the original language.

Saturday night I noticed there were several titles with an actress from a movie a watched a couple of weeks ago Honeymoon with my  Mother, starring Carmen Machi . So I watched a Remarkable Tale and Tribe. Going by my limited knowledge of Spanish films I would have to say Machi is the queen of the screwball comedy in Spain.

Carmen Machi an actress worth looking for, she owns the screen no matter who she is standing beside.

Amending the constitution

 A recent Politico article was arguing that we should make it much easier to amend the constitution. They cited the ERA equal rights amendment as an example of why it should be easier to amend. Their other point  was that Scalia thought it might be better if the amendment process was easier. I guess it depends on how you view the constitution, to me the constitution is more than the law,it is the rules on how our country is to operate. This is why it should be hard to amend the constitution everyone knows that there are consequences to changing the rules in the middle of the game. 

Look at the nonsense with the changing of the filibuster in the senate. Harry Reid changes it a little, so McConnell feels justified in changing it now we have Schumer wanting to basically wipe out the filibuster. All because they can't get their own way within the scope of the rules as they stand.

Everybody should just grow up, taking your ball and going home is not the answer.

Greetings

 Beggars out tonight.

Goblins, Ghosts, and Princesses.

Happy Halloween.

Accusations

 There have been a number of stories recently accusing people of  racism, homophobia, transphobia,sexism, or any any other ism you can think of all  wanting us to believe the accused are horrible people. Some of these people maybe all of them may truly be horrible people but most of these stories don't tell us what was said or what was done except in vague statements. How are we to know  without accurate quotes, an accusation without evidence is slander. Sometimes accusers are thin skinned or the media are trying to push an agenda. If your going to accuse give evidence and context to  the accusation so we really know what is going on.

Big lies

 There has been much moaning and groaning over the so called big lie and how Trump's accusation was destroying democracy. The lies that truly tear at the fabric of the USA's democracy are the ones that aren't freely debated or even mentioned.

Take the budget bills being debated currently Democrats and Republican's both have claimed  they have their version weather 3.5trillion or 1.5 trillion fully funded. How has no one in the media asked how can this be funded when we run between a 1 to 2 trillion dollars deficit annually. We would half to almost triple our taxes to actually be fully funding anything. It's as if they are saying I can afford the Cadillac as long as I live in it.

Big Lies won't destroy America it's the lies no one sees that are destroying our democracy.

Racial disparity

 The Nord foundation in Lorain county did a commission to study racial disparity in the county. The foundation that does much charitable work to try to improve the lives people in Lorain county and the surrounding area was dismayed at the the growing disparity. 

Some numbers Latinos are 300 percent and blacks 400 percent more likely to live in poverty than whites.

White people average 175 % more than latinos and 200% more than blacks

housing 59% of blacks rent, 24% of whites rent, and 20% of latinos rent.

Life expectancy of 64.8 in a predominantly minority neighborhood and 80.2 in predominantly white neighborhood.

According to the article these gaps are growing, and while they don't suggest a cause or a solution it is implied that racism must be the cause.

The article and numbers are from Thursday's 8-12 edition of the Elyria Chronicle Telegram. 

While I have no doubt that the numbers are accurate I could tell you the cause without spending a huge amount of money on a study. If they weren't trying to sow racial discord they would have included the reason in the story. The three fastest growing cities in Lorain county are Avon, Avon Lake, and North Ridgeville largely because farm land is being turned in to very pricey homes. These three cities went from small rural communities to coming close to passing Elyria and Lorain to fading  industrial cities. It's pretty plain that adding huge numbers of wealthy people to an area  is going to make the poor look poorer.

The disparity that is not talked about is the disparity in children born out of wedlock. The numbers vary between studies in general 28% of white children are born out of wedlock as opposed to 72% black children. Which is a real problem single parenthood far more often leads to bad outcomes. It wasn't always this way before LBJ's so called great society black families were as likely if not more likely to be intact. There would be a far better outcome for minorities if we would quit telling them that the government can fix their lot in life. 

A good life is simple hammer this home in teaching children, A good life is simple do these things in order study hard, graduate high school, get a job, get married all before you have children.

Of course this is too simple for Democrats and robs them of control over the people they claim to be trying to help.

Elections

 For months since the last presidential election we have seen republicans try to tighten up security measures and democrats and their media pawns claim these new regulations are either undemocratic or racist or both. Basically the left claiming they should be the sole arbiters of free and fair elections. The funny thing is we can look at Democratic primaries for a view of what happens when Dem's are given sole control of elections. Bernie Sanders would be a good person to ask if these primaries are fair and free. 

You see the Democratic parties idea of what constitute free and fair elections includes being able to manipulate the outcome, and we are to believe that they only want to put their thumb on the scale when they choosing their own candidates not when they are trying to oust someone they despise.

Strange logic

A recent poll  by the AP NORC center for public affairs shows a majority of people believe abortion should be legal in the 1st trimester with no exceptions. The same poll shows a majority of people believe it should  be illegal for the 2nd two. 

You can argue legal or illegal but when you say it's okay now but not later you are being totally illogical. When is age the determinant factor for the morality of killing someone. 

Of course logic is not the most common trait of human beings is it?

A couple of random thoughts

 So president Biden has declared June Nineteenth as a national holiday, congress passed his declaration with little opposition. Those opposed argued that we don't need any more racial holidays, that we we should not look for differences but things that unite us. What a pile on BS total nonsense if we can't be proud of ending slavery what can we be proud of. My objection is more pragmatic do we really need another day where federal employees get paid for sitting home. Businesses for the most part ignore many of the ever growing list of holidays because they have to pay their employees with their own money.

Which brings me to my second observation Leonard Pitts wrote an opinion piece this week claiming paying taxes was not only the law but a patriotic duty. It might have been true at one time but what started out as taxation  has become something more akin to theft. When the purpose of taxes becomes a way to take money out one persons pocket and put it directly into someone else's pocket it's hard to feel patriotic about it.

More press hypocrisy

 For the past couple of weeks the press has taken Joe Manchin to the wood shed for "failing to save democracy" because he won't vote to end the filibuster  or vote for a national take over of election law. Of course these are the same media people that extol the virtues of Mitt Romney or Liz Cheney for standing up for their beliefs. It's okay to be frustrated with members of you own political bloc when they won't toe the party line. What's not okay is to portray these stand outs differently based on party.

Memorial Day

 Some heroes gave all.

Remembrance and thanks are due.

Small payment indeed.

Don't be a Dumbass

 I've consistently said the Covid "crisis" has been over blown. In fact some studies show that there were more excess deaths in the last year from sources other than Covid (basically the lock downs were killing more people than the disease.

The fear mongering has done it's job and if we want to put the fear behind us we can't be Dumbasses. So skip the excuses and go get the vaccine. The wife and I have been fully vaccinated for over a month a little discomfort the day after the shot and no side effects. It's a win-win weather you buy the hype or not it won't hurt you if it doesn't work and if it works you won't get sick.

So let me repeat don't be a Dumbass.

Lies

 You have to wonder how anyone would believe anything a Democrat politician says they can't even stick to one name they used to be liberals now their progressives. Democrats claim to be for the working class and wanting to fight income inequality or the ever widening gap between rich and poor. Yet every time I hear a proposal from the left it is detrimental to the middle class worker. Take Biden and his climate pledge, it all sounds good until the bill comes in everyone wants a clean healthy environment but at what cost. In order to reach his carbon reduction goals most cars will have to be electric and most power plants will have to stop burning fossil fuels. So what's the cost, I 've been looking at maybe getting a new car and the cost differential between gas and electric is any where from 8,000 to 17,000 dollars. Now for most working class people this puts owning a car almost completely out of reach and this is just one small part of the added expenses coming from the climate worriers. 

Maybe lies is too strong of a word well intentioned but ignorant assuming they can see all the consequences of their good intentions might be more accurate. One things for sure no politician cares about my wallet as much as I do.

It's going to be a long 4 years hide your wallet and hold on tight