Author: Rick

October 2nd President Trump announced he tested positive for the Coronavirus after one of his staff members tested positive. A lot of Americans posted, get well soon , we are with you and the like. Other responses were ugly and horrifying to invoke on anyone let alone a sitting President.

Chris Wallace of Fox News, wear the damn mask! Trump should concede the election, the NY Times. It gets worse the further down the news media chain to the basic citizens calling for his death. “You are responsible for 208,000 deaths, you get what you deserve!” “You should drink Clorox like you told us to!” “No one deserves to die more than you!” “You put America at risk with your ignorance, you should die!”

When I clicked on President Trump’s message on twitter at that point it had 2.3 million views about half were positive and the other half negative. It totally made me sick to see people calling for his death! This man, man, is a husband, a father and a grandfather, working thru life as we all do. How angry would many of these people be if they posted their parent or loved one had fallen ill and others were calling for their death?

Here is my take. It is absolutely abhorrent to call for someone’s death because you don’t agree with their political view! It goes to the seventh layer of hell when these same people are spitting venom that is not their own! The venom of the media talking points! Please do your own research, don’t be part of the sheeple crowd! Let me specifically get to those who are blaming the President for the 208,000 deaths in this country. You would have a platform to stand on if and only if there was a country in the world that this pandemic has not affected! Please if you can point that country out, do it. To all of the mask police out there have you listened to the talking points of wearing a mask? Have you read the packaging on a mask wrapper? A mask may SLOW the spread not stop it! A person called in to a local radio show talking about how he tested positive for the coronavirus. He was shocked that his family is now affected even though they wore masks and socially distanced. “I did everything I was supposed to do.” Are people thinking this coronavirus is something new, no! It is now the seventh named coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. This name was chosen because the virus is genetically related to the coronavirus responsible for the SARS outbreak of 2003. Are Americans literally waiting for a vaccine for this, it seems state level governments base their executive orders on this thinking. The swine flu took a year and a half to come up with something viable. Guess what the swine flu is still out there, they did not eradicate it, just contained it. So SARS-CoV2 is not going away, it is here, what do you do now?

We should not be surprised President Trump tested positive. Did we stop AIDS from crossing the globe? Did we do such a great job of stopping the swine flu that 60,800,000 Americans were infected with it? The Spanish flu of 1918 infected 500 million world wide and killed 675,000 Americans. It is idiotic to think half of this country wants to blame this virus on one man and wish for his death. It was a losing battle, regardless of what President Trump did or did not do.

Justice Ginsburg’s passing last week brought out the good in some people and the WTF in others. Justice Ginsburg was battling cancer for 20 years. She did her job as a justice on the Supreme Court for 27 years after being nominated by President Clinton in 1993.

Justice Ginsburg had a dying wish to have the next President of the United States fill her seat on the court. Unfortunately the Constitution does not apply last wishes to some’s death. Article II section 2 just says the President shall nominate and by the advice and consent of the Senate appoint judges, ambassadors etc.

Back in 2016 Justice Scalia died and President Obama had an opportunity to nominate a judge to the Supreme Court. We were 10 months out from the election and all your well know Democrat leaders were saying we need to nominate a judge and proceed with the Senate hearings. It just so happens the Republicans were in charge of the Senate with a majority. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said we won’t have hearings on a new judge until after the election.

Justice Ginsburg had not passed even 24 hours before the partisan politics reared their fangs! Democrats are jumping up and down the Republicans said the exact opposite in 2016. Democrats are now on the other side facing, you just flipped your position as well . If you look at the two, 2016 Democrat President, the Senate majority Republican. The Senate was well within it’s boundaries to not pursue a nomination. Here we are, 2020, Republican President and the Senate with a Republican majority, they will go forward.

For me the truly disappointing thing is some folks could not just let the country and women in general celebrate the life of Justice Ginsburg. It has been a learning experience for me as to what she did in her life. You had people, women, on video screaming that Justice Ginsburg had one thing to do, live until 2021, so f**k you! You couldn’t have just retired while Obama was President, you died while Trump was President, again f**k you, f**k you!!

Here is my take. Democrats can not sit in their position and say you are not upholding her dying wish. It is laughable to think this is your position. You want a women’s dying wish for a seat on the Supreme Court to guide your thinking versus the Constitution she served for 27 years. If the shoe was on the other foot the Democrats would do the same thing. Back in 2016 the Democrats were all in on Hillary Clinton winning the election, she was supposed to nominate the Supreme Court judge in 2016 and the seats that followed. Arrogance is the downfall of many people!!

My wife got to experience a positive thing yesterday. I could not because I was working. Some organizers a few weeks ago decided to have a Trump parade around the interstate 275 loop, here in Cincinnati.

The 275 loop runs 83 miles around Cincinnati and runs into Indiana and northern Kentucky. The event ran from 10 am to 12 pm and everyone participating was asked to fly Trump flags or whatever they had to support the President. By the time 4:30 am rolled around there were 8000 people that had signed up via facebook. When the event took place you had dump trucks, motorcycles, cars of all sorts, military vehicles, even a guy towing a 40ft boat covered in Trump! People that didn’t drive stood on overpasses waving flags and showing support. There were folks lined on some areas of the interstate waving flags as well. Imagine driving 13 miles per hour and seeing and feeling an overwhelming support for your country and President Trump!! I wasn’t there and as it was described to me it gets emotional!!

Love him or hate him, I personally did not hire President Trump because he is a smooth talker! I didn’t hire him because he is a life long politician! I didn’t hire him because he is politically correct.! The man is flawed, who isn’t! He speaks his mind, he pushes your buttons!! He has more people involved in our political process than any President before him. For me he is taking care of business!!

Ask yourself, how do you take care of your “personal” business? Are you in it to loose money? To make money? Make everyone your friend? As a former restaurant manager, I know first hand, not everyone is going to like you!! Some people hate you!! Some people you can’t make happy, no matter what!! The bottom line for being a manager is you need to balance what is best for everyone to get to the end goal. Can you make hard decisions!! Can you make the unpopular decision! In the case of President Trump the man is delivering results! This country is a results based country. If your results fail in Wall Street that company looses money. If you fail in school, you get held back.

Here is my take. This was the most patriotic thing that has happened in my life in a long time. These types of support for President Trump have been happening across the country! Not since September 12th 2001 have I seen this much support and love for this country! This should scare the shit out of the Democrats!! They have been trying for almost 4 years to beat us down, demonize us and tell us how to feel!! As a group 8000 strong they showed patriotism and love for this country and President! The silent majority wasn’t so silent September 12th!!

First we had the George Floyd riots. Hell the Portland riots that first started with his death are still going, about 90 days later!! Now it’s Jacob Blake’s turn to spark riots. Yes he was shot by a white officer and 8 times seems excessive, but FACTS don’t seem to matter anymore to anyone!! Floyd had fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system at the time of his death, I guess that is not a fact! He had heart disease, I guess that is not a fact! So I suppose none of these things contributed to his death, just the white cop on his neck!!

Jacob Blake has a record on May 3rd he was involved in an incident with sexual assault and misdemeanor trespassing and disorderly conduct. He was charged July 6th and he had a warrant out for his arrest. Police were responding to a 911 call on August 19th and they knew he was there. A confrontation at a Racine County, Wisconsin, bar led to a combative traffic stop and a total of five criminal charges in September 2015, including resisting an officer, disorderly conduct and three gun-related ones. No conviction here but there seems to be a pattern of bad behavior. I suppose justice for Jacob Blake is more important than justice for the woman who he sexually assaulted and had harassed for years. Where are the #MeToo people?

Fact, 32 officers have been feloniously killed 2020. Felonious assault is an unlawful attack or attempted attack, accomplished through force or violence, that causes physical injury to another person. Fact, 215 white people have been shot and killed by police in 2020. Fact, 111 black people have been shot and killed by police in 2020. To the media BLM and Antifa, facts don’t matter. Their personal agendas, destroy President Trump at every turn, shove police brutality down our throats and fight fascism are the only things that matter. Antifa is the group using fascist tactics not trying to stop fascism. Our returning sports stars don’t seem to care about facts either, they all just boycotted their own games recently in support of Jacob Blake and justice for him.

Here is my take. Fact, I don’t watch the news, too biased. Fact, I am not watching ESPN, they kowtow to BLM and millionaire players. Fact, before I write an article I wait for facts to come out before I form an opinion. Facts could save someone’s life. A true representation of the facts could let people form their own opinion. The court of public opinion does not wait for facts. The Judicial Branch is where the facts matter and where the facts can change things for the better.

So here we are four months into Covid-19 crap. As we all have experienced lock downs, masks, social distancing and stay at home orders. We have listened to “experts” in their field to help us navigate our way thru the corona virus.

Lets start with the Imperial model that the spread of this virus was supposed to take. Neil Ferguson who led the model team at Imperial college was predicting 2 million American deaths by October. Right now we have 162,000 and just over 5 million cases. This guy has a history of being really wrong. Based on his model in 2001, 11 million sheep and cattle in the U.K. were put down because of foot and mouth disease. The prediction of 150,000 deaths turned out to be less than 200. In 2002, mad cow disease. Predicted 50,000 would die in the U.K. because of it, 177 died. Moving on to 2005 with the bird flu. The prediction was 150 million people would die from it, 282 world wide died. Wow, in 2009 people are still using his models. The swine flu was supposed to kill 65,000 British citizens, 457 died. There were a few people and other organizations wanting to see how Ferguson and his colleagues came up with their numbers. They never replied to email requests. To top it all off Ferguson and his team were working with Microsoft to tidy up the code to finally make it available.

Doctor Fauci, Doctor Fauci! He was named director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases in 1984. Obviously we all know his name at this point. He seems to not support things that have helped the country since the start of Covid-19. He was against President Trump when the President stopped travel coming in from China in late January. The government was warned of a possible pandemic and he said there was no worry to the media. Hydroxychloroquine and zinc on a recommendation from President Trump from a France study that had success, Fauci said there was little anecdotal evidence to support. Here is the definition of the word. Not necessarily true or reliable, because based on personal accounts rather than facts or research. A further study from a hospital in Detroit showed a 50% decrease in deaths from Covid-19 if using hydroxychloroquine and zinc early in treatment. He recently was at a Washington Nationals game to throw out the first pitch, afterwards sat in the stands with two others. No mask, no social distance. When asked about it, he said he was drinking water to hydrate. I looked at the picture, I don’t recall any water in the shot. “There is no question that there will be a challenge to the coming administration in the arena of infectious diseases,” Fauci said during a speech at Georgetown University in 2017, adding, “the thing we’re extraordinarily confident about is that we’re going to see this in the next few years.” The NIH has a budget of for 2020 41. 6 billion!! Let that sink in! In 2014 the government suspended research on infectious diseases. Fauci managed to circumvent the government to send 3.7 million to the Wuhan lab thru a grant from his NIH institute.

Here in Ohio, on August 6th the governor, Mike Dewine tested positive for the corona virus and later tested negative. Then had a second test come back negative. At this point there are two tests used to determine if you may have corona virus. A diagnostic test can show if you have an active corona virus infection. An antibody test looks for antibodies that are made by your immune system in response to a threat, such as a specific virus. The diagnostic test can take a couple of weeks for results. The antibody test is much quicker however, antibodies can take several days or weeks to develop after you have an infection and may stay in your blood for several weeks or more after recovery. Because of this, antibody tests should not be used to diagnose an active corona virus infection. This is from the FDA. Yet they are still used!! There are six other active corona viruses, what if these two tests are picking up these other flu viruses? It is known that Covid-19 has parts of MERS/ SARS in it. Could it be called Covid-19 when it is just the common flu?

Here is my take. We have had our lives put at stake by people who seem to have no idea what the hell they are doing. Fauci seems to love his new found celebrity and continues to talk to anyone who wants him on T.V. The media will use these people to get their agenda out, take out Trump at all cost!! At all cost! We, the little people don’t matter, an agenda to the self serve politicos, lobbyists and D.C. swamp creatures is what is in front of us. If we use our brains and think, we are a threat to that agenda. Look thru the blah, blah, blah talking points. You have an opinion and so do I, they may not be the same and that is OK. Look to the Constitution as your guide, if you don’t have a copy get one!!

No political discussion today. July 9th was the first day of the order from the governor so although I am against the mask thing I decided to make the best of it because the stores could get fined. So we get in the store and the mask goes on.

It is inventory day so I have to count all of the bread and buns. I am already uncomfortable with the mask. A couple of minutes in I am having to count and recount my numbers. Frustration is setting in. I pull the mask out briefly to get fresh air and go back to work. One section of shelf holds eight packs of hot dog buns, I can’t get the eighth one in its spot. Frustration again building I throw the pack of hot dog buns on the floor! Cinnamon raisin bread on the top shelf I throw four of them against the back wall because I can’t get them to stand up! Frustration turns to anger!! The pen doesn’t write, I throw it and break it! Empty bread trays get dropped and kicked!! My wife is coming behind me cleaning up. Blood pressure up, feeling like I can’t breathe, face beat red, I rip the mask off my face and throw it on the floor!

My God I can breathe! I need to get out of this aisle! Go count buns in another area of the store. I get there and count the hamburger buns, how many hamburger buns were there again? I still can’t breathe right. I recount three times! I bend over to get some deep breaths, I still don’t feel normal. Count the hot dog buns! Same result as before, how many were there? Oh there is the lady that does price signs, I need a sign. I describe what I need, my words seem slow, what is wrong with me? Am I making sense? I feel foggy! I bend over again to take some deep breaths. She asks if I am OK? My response, ” I can’t wear a fucking mask!” I want to man up, my brain and body desert my wishes! She says it’s OK some people just can’t do it. Do you need to sit down? Do you need a drink of water? I tell her I need to figure it out. I’m tired but there is still a full day ahead of me.

Here is my take. I think I had a panic attack. It took four hours from that point to feel normal again. I never had felt that way ever in my life. My doctor would not give me a doctor’s excuse for not wearing a mask. Most doctors are staying away from this practice so they don’t get sued! Bottom line I am choosing my health and well being over this stupid virus and stupid response. I will figure out some way to wear a mask and not freak out. It won’t be pretty, so before you stand as judge and jury because someone is not wearing a mask, ask some questions first! Keep your shaming to yourself and show a bit of humanity and kindness. There assholes are out there but not everyone is an asshole!

Well, well, well. What did anyone with a brain think would happen with all of the “mass gatherings” in the streets after the George Floyd death? A spike in Covid 19 cases! They were even labeled more important than public safety. Lots of things were opening up and now our overlords are jumpy!

Starting in Cincinnati tomorrow 7/9/2020 everyone in public is REQUIRED to wear a mask in public. Enforceable by the health department with a $25 fine. To top it off there is even a tattletale phone number you can call to report people, let me go run to Mommy and Daddy!! This is also until further notice. One notable exception is going to church, no mask is required. Waiting in a restaurant, mask! Now I have no issue with anyone going to church. Since this whole Covid 19 started, religious people have been dumped on by the state governments.

It seems we have gone to bat shit crazy level at this point. There are fines of $50 to $300 dollars out there for not wearing a mask in public. Governor Gavin Newsome of California has even banned singing in church! WTF! The public shaming of people and masks is on it’s way to a city near you! George Takei has called for it as well as some of my family members!

Here is my take!! If you look at the packaging on the mask you buy, please flip it over and read the back!! On it you should find some kind of disclaimer. One I found; “This mask will not stop the spread of Covid 19, social distancing, washing your hands frequently and not touching your face are the best practices for stopping the spread of Covid 19. Another said; “By wearing this mask, we do not guarantee that you will not contract any illness.” Hell even the CDC says a mask may slow the spread of Covid 19, not, will stop the spread. To top it off wearing a mask is listed last in line of the other three I mentioned above. The N95 masks that health workers use are the only masks that WILL stop the spread, however, you can’t wear them all day without almost killing yourself. When will the madness stop! We know who is most vulnerable! We know who it kills! When are we going to protect them? To beat a dead horse, you can’t stop it from spreading! Jimmie Johnson of NASCAR tested positive last week. They have had safety protocols in place for more than a month, eight races or so in to the resumption, then he gets sick. How will the NBA, in their bubble, stop it? Just wait, I will call it here, there will be positive tests. The only way there won’t is if they stop reporting them!

If you are listening to the news, cough, cough, and ESPN you will see more and more cases of the corona virus, Wuhan flu or whatever you want to call it being reported. Obviously more testing equals more cases.

You have all of the major sports leagues opening up in about a month. All of the riots put a lot of people in the streets. The “news” is reporting an alarming amount of young people coming down with the virus. Well no “duh” stupid what would you think the average age of all these people, may be, 25-49!! Professional athletes are not going to be 50 or over. When is the last time you saw a 60 year old in the streets looting and burning things down!!

If we re-visit the near history of lets say March, if it hasn’t been erased yet (inserted current political pun) we can see how the corona virus affects people. This virus does not seem to affect young people much, they may even not know they have it. Gee isn’t that asymptomatic!! The group it affects the most is 55 year old and up people and people with pre-existing conditions. The “news” is not mentioning asymptomatic or if these people are going to the hospital. Are the hospitals being overrun with these cases like they were, cough, cough, in March?

Another big push that has just started gaining steam is mandatory masks in public. Just the other day the Kansas governor signed and executive order making masks mandatory in public. Joe Biden even said as President he would make masks mandatory. Covid 19 is a flu, another strain of the flu. Apparently we can’t get this thru the thick skulls of those in charge!! Right now roughly 2,690,000 Americans have been infected, 129,000 have died and 98% recover. I am going to beat a dead horse, 40,000 to 60,000 die annually from the other six strains of the flu each year. If you take all of the deaths from the flu since Nancy Pelosi has been in office your winning number would be roughly 1,480,000.

Here is my take. There seems to be a lot of arrogance with our so called leaders that what they say will control Covid 19. They continue to use the media to scare the population into compliance. The first identified corona virus was in 1960, so you are going to tell me for 60 years we have been trying to control flu viruses. I would call that an epic fail. You can’t control a micro-organism so I suppose the next best thing to control is the population. People are going to continue to contract Wuhan flu no matter what you do! We know at this point what we are dealing with and to change the scare point every couple months just exposes your total lack of empathy towards your fellow humans. Every single life on this planet takes a certain risk when it walks out the door, cave or whole in the ground everyday. I will not live in fear, I do not live in fear. I like many Americans do my research and due diligence to weigh the risk of when I should walk out the door and when I should stay inside.

So trying to wrap my head around all of the protests, looting and destruction, my wife and I decided to take Doc Rivers’ advice and ask the hard questions. The question became, who do you talk to without being judged a racist or angering that person. The good Lord presented us with the perfect person.

There is a gentleman, Calvin, who is a couple layers up the chain for the company we work for and a no nonsense kind of guy. Follow the rules and do your job. He loves to teach you if you ask the questions of something you do not know and he grew up in Alabama. Perfect choice in my estimation. After the usual, how is business, how are you doing, he says, “What do you make of all of what is going on with the death of George Floyd.”

Obviously his death was murder and we are trying to understand all of the fallout following his murder. Calvin, like us, no fan of the death, destruction and violence. We brought up the systemic racism. His response were things we were never taught in school. Our learning stopped at the Emancipation Proclamation. Laws were still written by the government to put restrictions on black people. Police brutality came up, Calvin’s response, ” The color of my skin is considered a weapon.” It is a crap shoot if you get pulled over, you don’t know what you are going to get. Calvin to us, black people are more aggressive than white people. I could have the same conversation with the two of you and a black person and someone watching it could get two different views of the conversation. My wife to Calvin, a lot of black people seem to have no respect for themselves or where they live. They wear their pants around their ass and have no problem throwing stuff out on the street. Calvin’s response. If you have had rules and laws for over a hundred years put in place to keep you down, how would you respond?

Where do we go, how can we make it better? If systemic racism stems from the government and it’s agency’s and most black people vote Democrat…. Calvin said you get what you vote for. He suggested businesses build in low income areas. “I don’t care if they build a wall around it in the beginning.” Give people in urban areas a place to work that they can walk to or take the bus. Having jobs would help remove the pawn shops and liquor stores on every corner. Eventually people could get off of welfare. The community would eventually raise itself up.

Here is my take. We found answers from Calvin, he gave us insights we never had learned. Just based on the definition of systemic racism, Congress again is the issue. Congress has been the bane of my blogs existence. Pelosi, 33 years, McConnell 30 years, Schumer over 30 years, here is your definition of systemic racism. They are part of the Legislative Branch of the government, they make the laws. This whole awful situation should lay at the feet of Congress past and present. This primary season here in Ohio, my wife and I did not put our vote for anyone who was the incumbent. Jaylen Brown of the Utah Jazz said it best. “We need to do our homework on who we vote into office.” This is screaming term limits to Congress from my perspective!!!

You would literally have to be living under a rock to not know George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis. I believe America as a whole was mad as hell! There were calls for justice followed by rioting then looting across the major cities in America.

So the next thing you do is watch the news and one of the first talking points is systemic oppression. So let’s get a definition. Oppression that occurs at the institutional level, such as in government policy-making, within educational institutions and the throughout the health care system. While one-on-one experiences of discrimination might stand out more in our minds, systemic oppression is even farther-reaching because it is coded right into the institutions we depend on to survive.

For days while cities burned and people died all I kept hearing was we need to stop racism. Police brutality needs to stop. I am mad and angry. People need to listen. Systemic racism needs to stop. The news turns to the celebrity view. Doc Rivers, ” we need to ask the hard questions.” White coaches and players from the NFL, this needs to stop and I support the protests. Dale Earnhardt Jr., ” I learned some things and this needs to stop.” LeBron James, “We are being hunted everyday!” Drew Brees was asked about the standing for the flag. He hoped people would stand to respect the flag. The responses, Malcolm Jenkins, “F**k you Drew!” Marquis Colston, “You don’t get it bro!” In the case of Malcolm Jenkins his first response was taken down and replaced.

Eventually the officer that was kneeling on Mr. Floyd’s neck was arrested. As the looting and rioting continued the America that was united under the unnecessary death of George Floyd turned to horror at the destruction and not understanding, WHY! Congress members were at home over fears of the Corona Virus. The only voice from the government, from my perspective was President Trump.

Here is my take. As soon as all of this craziness started all I kept hearing was talking points. Everyday the same talking points regurgitated by anchors and celebrities alike, no answers, no solutions, talking points!! Most of us had not heard of systemic racism until this started. The one and only person I came across that had any sort of help to the issues we face was Stephen A. Smith. Maybe we should have a national police czar to oversee the police departments. Nobody else shared experiences to help the rest of us understand. My wife and I work in part of what is considered not a nice area of Cincinnati. We don’t see the racism. We are not naive enough to say it does not happen, there are assholes everywhere! We get along with everyone, they are happy to see us and we are happy to see them.