Author: Rick

We had two mass shootings in less than 24 hours. Of course the next thing to do is to start blaming people. Everyone’s favorite target from the left is President Trump. He is a racist and says racist things. He incites violence. The right seems to ask questions first. Where did he get the guns? Were the guns legal? The dust didn’t even settle yet and it has to be someone else’s fault other than the person who did it.

The next step in this whole process will be, “We need to control the guns!” The response will be, “The Second Amendment, it is a Constitutional right!” So let’s play some things out here in this post.

The Democrats would love to take away all of the guns because they would like to save us from ourselves. Take away the guns, no more gun violence. I beg to differ. They would take away all of the registered guns. There could be roughly 300 million unregistered guns in the United States. Bottom line, if you want a gun you can get a gun! Even if the government tried to round up all the guns, criminals would still find ways to get a gun. During all of the major wars in the world, guns were still moved around illegally via the black market.

The Second Amendment. ” A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” One Presidential candidate has stated that if she becomes President she would give Congress 100 days to enact gun legislation or she would, via Executive Order. Now she can’t change the Second Amendment, but would probably ban automatic rifles and guns of that nature. You could do that but it is still not going to take them out of circulation. Ban the sale of guns and ammunition? Now you are making an economic determination against some citizens. You would also rile up a good portion of people who may have voted for you, let alone the lobbyists for some political action committees.

Here is my take. The Second Amendment is not going away. Our two so called “esteemed” parties have proven over the course of the last 12 years or so, they cannot or will not work together. They stick to their party platform, bottom line!! It’s my way or the highway thinking. For us, the people we would need to find and elect folks who would work together. As long as criminals can get guns, I will be keeping mine, thank you. If there were no guns guess who would have still have them, the police and military. A study was done, regular people divided into two groups, one prisoners, put in cells and the other half were the guards. The study never finished, the “guards” developed I am better than you attitude and the “prisoners” developed a victim mentality. Some people think the police are brutal and overbearing now. We seem to have a general lack of respect for our fellow citizens, we treat each other like crap. That training comes from home, parents as a whole need to raise respectful human beings. Finally guns are here and aren’t going away any time soon. Education about guns, gun safety and respect for guns and what they can do, I think would be helpful. Keep thinking friends, until next time.

The 2020 Presidential election looming, it reminded me of something I feel really shows how the government really thinks about themselves and not the citizens.

The Democrats in this election cycle have well over two dozen major candidates vying for the nomination for 2020. Twelve of them are current members of the Senate or the House of Representatives. Pretty soon they will be crisscrossing the country in the name of securing the nomination. Guess who gets to foot some of the expenses of all the candidates, we, the taxpayers.

Once they have raised at least $5,000 dollars in at least 20 states from a minimum of 20 donors they receive matching funds from the Federal Election Commission. Presidential candidates must limit campaign spending for all primary elections combined to $10 million plus a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). This national spending limit was $48.07 million in 2016. Limit campaign spending in each state to $200,000 plus COLA, or to a specified amount based on the number of voting age individuals in the state (plus COLA), whichever is greater. In 2016, state limits ranged from $961,400 in Wyoming to $23,092,100 in California. OK now that we have some of the numbers out of the way, lets continue.

In the past I have had posts regarding some of the benefits of being elected to office. Some others include, flying home on taxpayers dime. Senators can get $40 thousand dollars do furnish their home state office. They can open as many offices as they like. They get a 72% subsidy to offset healthcare costs. They make their own schedule and work roughly 140 days a year.

Before I digress too far, here is my take. These current members of Congress running for President, if they are serious, should resign from their job. If I want another job, I do it on my time, not my current job’s time. If I don’t do my job I get fired. Every job has a description of what it is, here is the basics of yours, the duties carried out by a Member of Congress are understood to include representation, legislation, and constituent service and education, as well as political and electoral activities.  Tell me where it says run for President! You were elected to Congress to serve the state you came from, not to run around the country trying to be President. You are making $174,000 a year with all of those benefits and it seems to me you don’t take that job seriously enough to warrant the next step. You could miss an important vote on let’s say, border security or funding for the detention centers that need beds!!!

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Folks I have hit the mother load. The article I was going to write took a 180 degree turn. I found a site Govtrack.us that could give you all the information you would need help keep our Congressmen and Women accountable.

There is the House Committee on Ethics that deals with any impropriety that a member of Congress may have encountered. Sexual harassment, illegal campaign contributions, illegal use of House funds, and excess funds to name a few.

We will start with the definition of reproval. Your reproval of your dog for chewing your new shoes could take the form of an angry expression on your face, and a stern, “No!” So if Congress finds you guilty of something and give you a reproval, you get a letter stating what you did was wrong and you should not do it again. WHAT! These are elected officials that are in that position to represent us, the people!! Let’s not forget that when they are done “serving” their country they get at least $174,000 a year for life.

In some cases a Representative did receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds and funneled those to his own personal use. If you resign your post right before the Congress year ends, the case is dropped because they don’t have jurisdiction anymore. The said felon walks with all of the money that was not theirs to have in the first place. They still also get $174,000 a year for life!!

Let’s tackle sexual harassment. If you get charged and go to court there is the Office of Compliance Account which would pay off your accusers and make it go away. “We wanted to save the taxpayers money.” Said Congress Person would walk away, no harm, no foul and $174,000 a year.

Accountability folks, there is none for Congress. They play by their own rules, the rules that apply to us do not apply to them. They talk a good game every two years or four years when they need us. Written by someone paid to write speeches. They protect their own, it is an adult frat house with all of the same trappings of college sports.

How do you get to know a person? You have to spend time with them, from there you can make your determination on the kind of person in front of you. I have had three instances in my life where I made a determination on a person’s character first hand. I spent 23 years in the restaurant business and met a lot of people, a few who I found out first hand, the outside perception did not equal my own first hand experience.

The first instance the general manager I worked for turned out to be the total opposite of the outside opinion. All he wanted was those that worked for him was to work hard and do your job. In he second instance, shocker, he was nothing as portrayed. I was told by this man to take an impromptu couple of days of vacation just after he moved to the store. I was able to surprise my girlfriend in Las Vegas. Guy number three, threw me under the bus big time and almost got me fired. Karma came back and bit him in the ass.

When Donald Trump announced his quest to be President people started coming out of the wood work to denounce him. He is a racist. He is misogynist. Ben Carson is black and is in his cabinet. Kelly Anne Conway was the first woman to win a Presidential Election as campaign manager. On the flip side good things he has done also surfaced. The kid he flew across the country in his plane because no airline would, because the boy need a medical procedure. The couple he helped in a broken down car along the highway.

Here is my take. We aren’t going to get close enough to Donald Trump to get to know him personally. We will have to take information where we can get it, do research. I don’t make my decisions from the news as a whole. I look beyond the news, both sides give their “view” not the news. I follow President Trump on all the major platforms. In the two plus years as President I can’t find a single thing that leads me to think he is racist and hates women, Rosie O’Donnell aside. I am still looking and get my wife’s input on all of the good, bad and indifferent information that comes down the pike. So in closing folks go beyond the news and do some research. We need to make our own opinions not “follow” the opinions. Until next time.

Folks this is going to be tough. Trying to wrap my head around this is taxing.

Let’s start with my experience. I have had the unfortunate time, twice to be involved with abortions. The first I was young and had no clue what to do. I was afraid to make a statement, have an opinion or do anything lucid. I basically left it up to my girlfriend at the time to make the decision. The decision was to abort. I was told by a friend” She would hate you for the rest of your life!!” The second time I was engaged to be married. Having been thru the first one, I was totally against it. One of the reasons was during the first one, I was in the room when it happened. It is not very pleasant, ugly to say the least. Anyway my fiance was not ready to be a mother, done deal, her choice.

So after the first abortion, I felt horrible, like I was going to pay dearly for my non decision. Being a redhead at least back then, everywhere I went for at least six months I would see little redhead girls everywhere I went. When I could finally forgive myself, I was able to move on. I wound up marrying this girlfriend 28 years later. My now ex-fiance, we are facebook friends and she never became a mother.

Moving on, we now have states allowing abortion to the day of birth, nine months! It is still hard to wrap the mind around. There are provisions regarding if the baby survives, do you give birth and then do the deal? What is next “aborting” your baby at one, two or three years old?

So in the 15 minutes since I finished the last paragraph my wife and I had a great discussion about this topic. Our perspective is basically, don’t spread your legs and make sure you wear a condom. As soon as you give up those choices, you loose the ability to abort. . Life is about making choices, life is the ultimate choice. Once you become pregnant it is not so much your body anymore, you share it and it took two of you to get to this point.

As my wife and I were talking, planned parenthood should be there to provide women with protection. Birth control not abortions. What planned parenthood does provide is abortions over birth control.

I usually end with “here is my take”, this topic goes way further than my take. I read an article recently that said aborted babies are not humans because they can’t think for themselves and aren’t capable of cognizant thought. You take any animal in the known universe and try to extinguish it what will happen? It will fight, for survival, for it’s right to be alive in this universe!! I can’t imagine a doctor looking at 9 pound 6 ounce baby whomever and saying goodbye forever!

Folks, here we are the 116th Congress complete in total ineptitude. As in at least the last three Presidential elections, Congress seems to afraid to do anything, waiting for the next President to be elected. Oh wait, there is a mid-term election so they all wait in expectation what will happen then as well.

The 116th Congress as reported in other news media has done nothing in the first 100 days. Since I started my blog, I have spent more time on what is happening, by whom and when it is being done. The biggest thing coming out of this Congress is still impeachment of President Donald Trump. Two years, 25 million in tax money, no collusion, can we move on, apparently it is not allowed. According to the Democrats a bill to protect late term babies that survive, did not have bi-partisan support. On the other side the Republicans who support it say they have asked for a vote 26 times. It comes across as “You didn’t do it correctly, no you didn’t do it correctly!” “You fix it, no you fix it!” These are our so called elected officials doing nothing but pointing fingers and having temper tantrums. Five year old children are not as hateful and dishonest.

Let’s go to actual impeachment. It would start in the House, guess who controls the House, Democrats. No surprise here it would pass with flying colors. It would then go to the Senate if they passed it, Donald Trump would be gone. Wait who controls the Senate, Republicans. A stalemate, who wins, no one, we the taxpayers loose, again!! Shale we flashback to 1998. Bill Clinton was knee deep in impeachment precedings. The House controlled by the Republicans and the Senate controlled by the Democrats. Gee what happened, he remained President. Chuck Shumer from New York had the best speech pertaining to impeachment then and going forward. He basically said if Congress went thru with impeachment in 1998, impeachment in the future would be used as a tool for either side to push their agenda. Aka tit for tat! Damn he was right!

Here is my take. Both sides in this dumpster fire should resign. We should be so lucky. Our interests are not in their interests. As I have already written, their six figure salaries, great health care, over million dollar a year staff. Vote when they work, can vote their own raises, don’t write any legislation. Travel to and from D.C. to their home on our dime. Can run for other jobs while being paid for their current job. Hopefully I am hitting a nerve. They need to go, we have the power to do it, it is called the voting box. We tend to fall for their B.S. every election cycle. Let’s be more intelligent on who we vote for, they may just be out there.

We continue to see women’s issues pushed to the fore front. I have no problem with it. I do have an issue with how it is presented.

Let’s start with my Mom. Mother of three boys, me being the youngest. She divorced when I was eight. She did the best she could trying to keep food on the table and raise us as best she was able to manage. There is a low point which I am sure she hopes we would forget. She is a strong woman, I still have a little fear in the back of my head of the ass kickings I received from my Mom. Everything she had to deal with, there was no complaining or woe is me. Just a straight out hold your ass accountable from sun up to bedtime.

We will move to my wife. We have been married for two years and together for ten years, this time around. Mother of four and went from stay at home Mom to bread winner faster than you can say damn!! She started the main body of her work doing destruction for a construction company. Sledgehammers and pry bars, the whole nine yards. Let’s move forward about ten years. She works for Home Depot at the pro desk, where the contractors come and get their supplies to re-build or build from ground up a house. Fast forward another ten years, she works for Lowes as a delivery manager. She makes sure all the contractors and the general public get their home products on time. She now is Vice-President of Five Dollar Enterprises. The main body of work for this company is bread delivery. She is hands on lifting and moving stacks of bread ten feet high.

Here is my take. My Mom had to deal with being a single mother, no complaints. My wife has worked in a “man’s” world her whole life, no complaints. They both walked the walk and talked the talk. What women need right now in my opinion is the so called female leaders to lead as my Mom and wife do. Lead, not continue to go ” woe is me” or “I am just a woman.” They are trying to hold me down because of this, that or the other thing. For anyone in life, respect is earned not just given to you. If you want to be equal, get out there and do it!!!

I had an ordinary work week. Nothing to get me thinking, my wife just off surgery was my main focus. What to write as I woke this morning I pondered?  I made egg salad, sliced the turkey for sandwiches. Checked my email and…. there it was the thing that made my blood boil and make the hair stand up.

I am a hockey fan and have been since I switched over from basketball in 1992, thank you Wayne Gretzky. In these times of everything politically correct, hockey has still been an arena where men can be men. I am not afraid to say that, women and men have physically different bodies. My wife was my first hire for my business because she works and works hard.

Before I digress too far, Kate Smith has now been added to the racist list. Let me ask a question, “Do you know who Kate Smith is?” “How has Kate Smith influenced your life?” “Do you care who Kate Smith is?”  Kate Smith started her career in and about 1930 as a singer. She was not trained but had a beautiful voice. If you ever heard the song ” God Bless America”, that was Kate Smith.  The song was recorded in 1938 I believe, so 80 years old. Being from South east Pennsylvania I am a Philadelphia Flyers fan and during their 1974 run as Stanley Cup champions she sang the song live during a finals game with the Boston Bruins. That song has been used for years as a rally cry for the Flyers during any playoff run. She even has a statue in her honor outside the stadium in which the Flyers play.

Here is what pisses me off.  Someone, found the time to find songs she recorded in 1931 and 1933 that were actually racist. Hell I will give it to you, they happened. We know the one was not written by Kate Smith, the other, who knows.  What was happening in and around those years….. the great depression. People jumped off buildings and others did what they could to survive. Did we discuss those issues, no. An offensive song recorded, your done!! The Philadelphia Flyers caved to someone, in my opinion, who is just looking for something to be offended about anything!! Hockey had no stand or sit for the anthem, no BU@#S*&T. The fan base of the Flyers is hardworking blue collar people who spend their hard earned money to cheer and or rain boo’s on the home town team. The mainstream media pays no attention to hockey, the hockey fans DO! Kate Smith singing “God Bless America” has no effect on 99% of this country.  To the Flyers, who pays your bills, that is who you answer to. Does Peco energy service the rest of the country? Did Comcast tell you to cover up the statue? Start your own network, that will pay your bills. You have choices these days, in my opinion your fans will love you even more, grow some b@))s!!

Here is my take.  Someone or someones are just sitting around spending their time looking for anything to offend anyone. The media is giving them the time and some of us continue to stand behind them. Where is David Hogg now? He is not so much the media darling now, is he? The #MeToo does not have the steam it once did. Where are those coming out? The Kavanaugh hearings changed the game. He was beaten down because of something he did in the early 1980’s. You are not qualified to be a Supreme Court Judge because of what you “didn’t do” in the 80’s. Isn’t this 2019? What were you doing in your twenties? Were you the pillar of the community? Which bar did you frequent and vent your frustrations? Did you spend all of your time helping others?  Sherman burned down the South, what about that outrage? What about the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis, what about that outrage? What about the outrage for the Native Americans of our country, we slaughtered them unmercifully. The Japanese Americans interned during WWII, outrage? Irish slaves, outrage? Chinese slaves, outrage? Do I need to keep going? Hopefully you get the point. I say we open that same can on our elected officials. Kavanaugh, not elected but appointed had to endure this, what is in the closet of the folks in Congress who preside over this mess. I bet some of them would not be ” worthy of office” based on their past.  The past is the past, that is why it is called the past. I am not the same person I was twenty years ago. I have different views and beliefs. Can we all learn from our past, yes. It is not something to run away from and erase. If you like the movie Suicide Squad, the perfect line is “Own that Shit!”

For those that are old enough, the title means something. For those who are not, look it up. It could mean something to you. The Cincinnati enquirer on April 7th had an article that made me go WTF!! It seems our esteemed elected officials that make the laws we abide by don’t seem to write them. You would think someone on their staff would write the bill. Wrong think again. Would it be a corporate lawyer, wrong answer. Well then who would write a bill? It would be a model bill. They come from think tanks, corporate entities and political action committees.

So your sitting Senator or Representative with their minimum $174,000 a year salary and at least a 23 person staff don’t come up with the laws in which we abide? So as a person that controls his budget along with his wife, lives within our means, and balance a budget every month, this makes no fiscal sense. You get paid that amount of money and we get, it seems nothing on our tax investment. What exactly are you folks doing in Washington D.C.?

The special interest groups and industrial groups are getting what they want. OK in some instances that is bad. I fully believe in the Capitalist model on the flip side. My focus is more on the fact our elected officials are not working and we pay them an absorbent amount of money do to “their job.”

Here is my take. Every election cycle we, the people need to delve deep into those who want to represent us. They come to us promising everything under the Sun, what do they deliver…..nothing. There is, after election a orientation for new Senators and Congressmen, would that orientation more or less be sit down and shut up? They say Washington D.C. is a grind, who is going to stand above it? We the people need to stand above it. Keep thinking people!

Obviously the horrible shooting spree in Christchurch is top of mind right now. It is again a senseless loss of life. Fifty families changed forever and three people who won’t ever get what they deserve. These people need hugs. These people need family. These people need closure. My home is in Cincinnati, I am 8564 miles away, I can’t help with anything substantial except to feel for these people. Thoughts and prayers do go to them and what follows is to your own family.

Here is my take. Some of our own politicians have shared their opinion on the shooting. The citizens of New Zealand don’t need to you to make it about the United States, they are dealing with burials and funerals. Here you go, for instance, AOC, you are now an ugly American. I have never been overseas but we have a reputation of being a know it all and try to make it all about us. We don’t know it all, they do need our emotional support, if they want it, so keep your ugly American mouth closed and use your new found platform to give thoughts and prayers.