This rant is in response to a Now This video talking about Racism & the Confederate monuments - I can't find the video now - but needed to post this here...

Let me just start by saying that this man is correct about the Dixiecrats & the racism that ran rapid for the first 200 years of this country.  But I do feel that we have made great leaps in the betterment of our civil rights – I feel that color now is something that everyone sees – but only the angry or oppressed allow color to decide their opinion.  I also feel that words – no matter how hateful the intent or how degrading the tone – are just that, words – and as we all learned as children – only sticks and stones hurt.  So now to this video ---

In my personal opinion - these monuments should be removed - and placed in museums teaching about the Confederacy and slavery. But these monuments should not be destroyed or pulled down by the mob – it should be removed by whomever owns them – be it private or government.  Mob rule is never the answer – especially when we have elections going on where these could be put on the ballot and voted on this November.  And yes – racism ran deep in the south and the Democrat Party located there in the early to late 20^th Century.  For quite a long time – there were in reality, there were essentially 2 Democrat Parties during that time – 1 in the north that pushed for social change (i.e. FDR & Kennedy) and another in the south who didn’t want to disrupt the status quo (i.e. Strom Thurgood & LBJ).

I personally have ancestors – who never owned 1 slave – who fought for both sides in the Civil War.  My Southern ancestors wee fighting to protect their homeland from, what they were told by their leaders & politicians, the northerners taking their homes and giving it away to “the darkies”.  I know this to be a fact as letters & journals from those ancestors are on record.  My Northern ancestors fought to protect the union as their President had asked – President Abraham Lincoln – who’s monument was vandalized in the first “protests” in DC.  I have pride in both sides for fighting & dying for what they believed in. So unlike what this gentleman stated – the Battle Flag is a sign of heritage to me – as it flies over the graves of people who fought for their rights and land.

The president that this gentleman confused with Cleveland was actually Ulysses S. Grant – the Second elected President of the Republican Party, the President who oversaw the proper Reconstruction – the man who won the Civil War & made it possible to enact the Emancipation Proclamation I the entire US – And who’s statue they just destroyed in San Francisco.  And according to his charts – the first spike In Confederate Monument building was in 1910ish.  At that time – the Democrats were gaining momentum and took control of Congress in 1910 & the Presidency in 1912.  Also according to this chart – Confederate Monument building dropped considerately in the 1920s – about the same time the Republicans retook the Presidency.  Feel free to check these facts – I did.  FDR, in the 1930’s, started the welfare programs, that now so many people are trapped in that they don’t realize that they have just been put into another form of oppression. 

So now we have “protests”, that in most cases are justified, that have gone way beyond peaceful.  We have people who are angry because they are being told “Trump is racist”, “White Privilege”, “Republicans will put you back in chains” – Really??????  Republicans freed the slaves. Republicans did the Reconstruction. Since the Great Depression, Republicans have been in office over 3 of the 4 best economic periods.  Black unemployment at an all time low, Hispanic at an all time low, Middle class income at an all time high, Federal taxes low --- But because Celebrities & Democrat politicians – who are all rich – tell us that Republicans & “Old White Guys” are bad & hate people of color & the  poor – and they wouldn’t lie to us – Right??????

So – instead of destroying things to make “everything better” – how about we talk – Instead of erasing history – how about we learn from those mistakes – and instead of assuming everyone who doesn’t look like you hates you – how about we look at what they like about you.  I think Life would be so much easier then………

Vaping as of 9/11/2019

So I have hit my wits end – I work in the Vape industry and am tired of all the headline reporting by so many outlets – my own favorite local radio station WRNN Hot Talk 99.5 in Myrtle Beach included – reporting that all vaping is the cause of the recent deaths and illnesses.  These are fake news – the FDC has found that Vitamin E acetate may be the cause of this epidemic.  Vitamin E acetate is an chemical agent that is used as a thickener to help dilute THC in some cartridges that have been sold in the underground market.  The reason that I am so upset is that this morning (September 10, 2019) the morning show on WRNN stated that “vaping was causing these illnesses” and that one “boy’s lungs exploded”.  Nowhere in my searches today that I have been doing ever since I heard this, have I found anything that even remotely resembles lungs “exploding.”  I am not disputing that people have gotten sick and unfortunately as of my writing this, 6 have died, but research must be done before you report on any subject.  Even CNN reported on September 5 that the focus is now being turned towards Vitamin E acetate ( https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/05/health/vaping-chemical-new-york-investigation-bn/index.html ) and I found that on my first search.  There are many more reports from fact-checked sites that report the same.

By stating “Vaping is causing deaths” without research, causes people to over-react.  Michigan has banned flavors for 6 months, New York’s Governor is trying to ban vaping  entirely (https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-gov-cuomo-ecigarettes-terpenes-thickening-agents-honey-cut-juul-20190910-abru2hkxzbglzb6mdwfu2vhu2e-story.html ), an Alabama school has removed bathroom stall doors to easier catch kids vaping ( https://www.wafb.com/2019/09/09/north-alabama-school-removes-bathroom-stall-doors-combat-vaping/ ), and many municipalities are trying to ban flavored e-liquids because “only kids like flavors” - which is so false I can’t even say it without laughing – 2 of my favorite flavors are Pimpin’ Pancakes & Cinnamon Sweet Sugar Cookie and my kids aren’t even kids any more.  I’m sure the list is longer – but just researching it raises my blood pressure.

I was a 35 year smoker until I walked into a vape store in Myrtle Beach (that as of 4 months ago,  I now proudly work for) and talked with the employees about vaping and what the dangers were.  I totally understand the age requirements on vaping, nicotine is addictive and can inhibit proper learning and mental abilities in developing teenagers.  But before you condemn an entire industry, do your research about the developing problems and report them properly.  There are many people who listen to what you report – and believe it is fact.  As Dave Priest from WRNN has said many times about the national talk shows on after his morning show – some people get their news and information from just them.  Please – use Google, use Siri, use Cortana, use Bing – use something – but make sure you are stating facts or at least what is considered the facts at the time.

How you can win my vote…..

I understand that we are 21 months from our next Presidential Election – but I thought I would let the candidates know how they could win my vote.  I live in a state where you decide which primary you want to vote in – so even though I am an independent I can vote for anyone if I feel strongly about them.  So here is a list of every issue that I have an opinion on – some of them have no impact on my life – but I feel so strongly about.

1.       I have a fence around my property so that I can control who and what comes in and who and what goes out – we need the same for our country.

2.       I believe that a child is no more than a parasite in the body of a woman – but some parasites are beneficial – no abortions for birth control.

·         If abortions do exist for birth control – first trimester only

·         If abortions do exist for birth control – men should also have the right to “opt-out” – the same period of time that a woman has to choose to abort

·         If “Opt-out” does exist – men lose permanent rights if they “opt-out” – no coming back later and deciding to be “Daddy”

3.       Taxes should be the same percentage for everyone – i.e. 10% = if you make a dollar – you pay 10 cents – no exceptions – no tax shelters

4.       If you want to make a single payer healthcare program – i.e. Obamacare – then States should be required to increase their Medicaid coverage to the federal limits & insurances should be mandated as to what must be covered – and the payments should be based on the persons ability to pay – again – a percentage of income

5.       Education must be improved – students rely too much on their devices to solve problems – a Life Skills course should be included teaching how to cook, balance a checkbook, fill out an envelope for mailing, build a basic shelf from scratch, how to check their oil in their car – things that are needed to be an adult.

6.       If you promise something during your campaign – try to keep that promise – not just forget it after being elected.

7.       Once in office – stay on the same course – if you are for something – stay for it – or explain to us why you change your mind – and just because your opponent is for it isn’t a good enough reason to change, maybe that is what we need – both sides agreeing on something.

8.       I do believe in gun control – but not gun restriction – ballistic reports should be preformed on each firearm and a record of it should follow its serial number similar to a person’s fingerprint.  Stop trying to take away guns all the while you have personal security & Capital Police & Secret Service protecting you and your property with said weapons.

9.       Stop wasting our time with Collusion Trials or Hillary Trials – neither will amount to anything – even though I feel HRC should have been arrested in an FBI raid – it is far too late for that…

10.   Stop trying to convince me that the only people who are racist, homophobic, xenophobic and violent are white.  Really read and watch the news and listen to EVERYONE – you will find racist, homophobic, xenophobic and violent people of all walks of life.

11.   Let’s pay less attention to what is happening in other countries and more attention to our own.  We have people starving, freezing on the streets – dying because they can’t afford “affordable” healthcare – Bridges and roads crumbling – schools over-crowded – we have fixed unemployment – now let’s fix some of our other problems.

12.   An Immigrant is great – join the group and merge into our Melting Pot – Illegal immigrant is just that – illegal – Sanctuary cities and states are ridiculous – they are blatantly breaking the federal law and said lawmakers should be arrested and jailed for harboring known criminals – because illegal is illegal – and illegal is not “oops – my visa expired last week” – but it is “Oops – my visa expired last year”

I am not hard to get along with – in most cases I just want candidates to tell me how they feel & what their belief system is – not quote the Party lines – I have felt for years that the 2-party system is the biggest problem in our country.  Trump is not really a Republican – but had he ran Democrat or Independent – he most assuredly would have lost the election – so like so many things – he cheated the system.  He no more “colluded” with a foreign entity then any other candidate – how much did Hillary get in money from other countries???  And how can so many people say we need term limits on Congress but yet continue to elect the same people over and over again.  How can my generation and every generation after vote for people who have been in office since I started voting???  By the way – I will be voting 35 years in 2020.  There are 16 in office for over 30 years – 79 since Bill Clinton’s first term – this is really our problem.  What is worse – without mentioning names, we are now electing people into office who have no clue how our country works – how the Government works – or even what makes up our Government…  How can we expect anything to change??  No matter who is president – no change will ever take hold until we all go to the ballot box and vote out the incumbents – I personally like my current representation for my state in Washington – but that doesn’t mean I think we shouldn’t vote them all out…  Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, Diane Feinstein, John Boehner, Chuck Schumer, etc. are so out of touch with the normal American – it is just sad.

OK – Ranted enough for today – but have already started on the next one (was originally part of this one – but was making it WAY TOO long)

B

Ok everyone – This is my first and only rant on hate.   I have never been someone who expects everyone to feel about a person or group of people as I do, so I have never posted publicly that “so-and-so” must die or used any number of racist slurs that trust me – I know…  First and foremost – I am not a racist or homophobic or any other hateful statement that has been flying around the many media sources, I am in fact a prejudiced person – that means by true definition that I judge everyone before getting to know them.  Yes, a lot of these opinions are based on stereotypes and from my 35+ years dealing with the public in some form of customer service.  I am not saying that this is a good thing, or that I am a good person for being this way – I am just telling the truth. 

When I see the crouch of someone’s pants at their knees and an oversized flat billed baseball cap – I automatically think thug, when I see someone covered in “Jailhouse Tattoos” – I think trash.  When I see young girls dressed like adult hookers – well – you get my drift.  But – as anyone who has really gotten to know me – I also can change those opinions – My own daughter is a member of the LGBTQ community, wears her pants lower than most thugs I have seen personally and one day I will curve that hat like it is supposed to be…  She is not a thug – or some of her friends for that matter – but the majority of those she has brought around have been. They have all been told to should her Daddy respect and he will return it.  Isn’t that what we all were taught??  To treat others as we would be treated ourselves??? 

I don’t care what your personal beliefs are – as long as they don’t interfere on my life  - and I will do the same for you.  Hate destroys this.  Hate makes people treat others the exact way they don’t want to be treated.  And why do we hate?  The color of someone’s skin?  Who they pray to?  Who they share their love with??  Really – why does this matter to anyone but themselves??  Just because we don’t understand others doesn’t mean that we should automatically hate them.  This is what Radical Muslims are doing to us – and we don’t want to be treated that way. 

As everyone should know by now – Kathy Griffin recently did a tasteless photo shoot depicting a beheaded Trump.  Really?  This was funny to her?  Now I understand that in the past random anonymous people have burned, lynched or otherwise embarrassed and tortured past POTUSes – but again they were anonymous and difficult to prosecute.  But prosecuted they should have been.  These are to incite anger and hatred so by definition – they are a hate crime. 

Now Trump may not be your ideal President – Hell – he’s not my ideal President – but he is our president, elected the way our founding fathers designed – and if you are not happy with the way it happened – call your Congress-person and Representatives and get an Amendment to get it changed – stop spewing hate and get it changed the correct way.  The more hate you spew – the more that gets returned right back.  I dealt with Slick Willie for 8 years – no matter what I thought of him…  then  8 more years of W – no matter what we all thought of him in the end…  Then 8 years of Obama and his ilk.  Trump is not my first pick – but I am glad that for the first time since Carter (who was terrible in his own right) – we have someone who is not a Washington stooge… Can we please stop fighting and throwing poop at each other like monkeys – W’s military record, Bill and his 1000’s of women, Obama and his Birth Certificate and Trump and his “Russian Collusion” – These we all unfounded and mostly unproven things that have wasted our time and resources – The only one that I haven’t had a problem with was the Clinton E-mails –but that is for a different rant…

I know this has gone a little off track – but then again – it is a rant – when do they ever go where you expect them to go…  Feel free to comment on anything I have said in this – discussion is the best way to get past the hate…  (See how I got back there…)

Off my soapbox.

OK everyone - here is my first post of this year... First - let me just say that it has been 21 days since The Donald became President #45 and we have not been nuked, republicans have not taken the streets and beaten gays, blacks, or anyone not white males. Liberals have rioted in the streets, destroyed properties of businesses that supported Hillary during her failed attempt, and thrown the First Amendment into the trash on numerous college campuses. The Democrats are try...ing everything they can to cripple Trump's cabinet by delaying their confirmations, and in trying to tear down these appointees, they have even quoted many people incorrectly. I don't mind the Memes on FB - hell, I even think most of them are kinda funny - and SNL has made a lot of money over the decades poking fun at the President and his administrations - had Hillary been elected - the same would have happened.

What angers me the most right now is so many people are saying Trump is racist because of the executive ban order - which only bans persons with citizenship from these 7 countries who do NOT have a current, ACTIVE and VALID visa or green card for our country. Yes the roll-out SUCKED and people were inconvenienced, but no one was kept out of the country who were LEGALLY allowed here. this ban is NOT a Muslim ban - there are around 50 countries in the world that are predominately Muslim and only 7 that have been proven by OBAMA'S own administration to be supporting terrorism. Stop lying to your =selves that it is anything else.
The attached video contains ACTUAL footage from Bill Clinton and Obama talking about illegal immigrants that sounds almost identical to Trump's platform - Trump just is much more blunt about everything he says. And how many Presidents have in their first 21 days started working on the exact things that got him elected... Give him a chance - trust me - if he does anything I find appalling - you all will be the first to know - I was not a Trump supporter in the beginning - I actually thought originally that he was running just to help Hillary win...

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Minimum Wage or Minimum Accountability???

 

As most of you are aware – I started working around 13 – back when the Minimum wage was $3.10 (which according to inflationdata.com – is equal to $8.76 today.)   Since I was 16 I have received more than minimum wage for my work – even though I have always worked in either retail or restaurants – and do you know why???  Because – I worked hard and did my job well.

 In 1990, Minimum wage went from $3.35 to $3.80 then $4.25 in 1991.  I was a server at the time and had hit the server ceiling at my restaurant of $5.00 an hour.  On both occasions – my wages didn’t raise at all.  But yet 95% of the other servers did receive an increase due to these changes.  Now my question of the day is – if everyone else got an increase because the cost of living had increased, then didn’t mine?  President Bush (the First… J ) didn’t take that into account. 

Also – In 2007 – I took a job getting almost double minimum wage, I left on good terms in June of 2008 and moved out of town for 16 months – I returned in September of 2009 – the minimum wage had gone up by $2.10 – but I still returned at the same wage I had left at – and was the 3^rd highest paid in my department – the other two had been there before me, during my absence, and were still there.   So all the hard work I had put in to getting the raises and all my experience gets punished – now the ones who have no experience or work ethic get raises thanks to the US Government, while those of us that have worked our way up to the top of the pay scale receive nothing – when raise time came we heard “because costs have gone up – we can’t give raises for a while.” Well costs didn’t just increase for Minimum Wage workers – it increased for everyone!

Speaking of business costs – If Maryland increases the minimum wage to $10.00 – that is a 27.5% increase from our current minimum wage of $7.25 – Approximately 50% of entry level employees would get an increase of some kind to get everyone to $10.00.  Being that I know restaurants – I know that in the food business, it is a delicate balance between the cost of the product and the price of the item.  In Maryland, you try to keep all costs below 75% of what the store takes in every day.  Usually a cost breakdown is 20% food cost (price the business pays for the food and beverages they serve), 40% towards recurring costs (maintenance, Rent/mortgage, insurance, utilities, etc.) and 15% unforeseen and advertising costs.  The 25% that is profit – it gets broken up into management salaries, owner profit and some put back into the business to expand or remodel.  Trust me – the owner’s profit isn’t as big as most people think.  Some owners never see a true profit.  But now that minimum wage jumps up 27.5% that balance is thrown off.  The only choice most owners have is to either increase prices or cut the number of employees on staff.  Neither of these choices are what we are looking for with our current economy.  Also – morale in the store among the employees tends to drop.  Now the top paid employees see the “Nugs” (New Useless Guy/Girl) getting paid closer to their rate even though they have no knowledge of the job which got the “Old-timers” the money they now make.  And even worse – the “Lugs” (Loser Useless Guys/Girls) – and we have all worked with these people, the ones who are just there to get that check – are now receiving a raise that they really don’t deserve.  Morale drops – job performance drops – profits drop – more cuts….  A deadly cycle for a business.  I have watched way too many be choked to death because they can never get a solid financial base.

Our current governments – both State and Federal – have no idea how bad raising the taxes on the “rich” – you know, the ones who sign the pay checks – and raising minimum wage will hurt the small businesses.  We have joked for years that Wal-Mart, McDonald’s and Starbucks would run everything – but the more we destroy the chance for small business to succeed, the more likely this will happen.  Taxes are constantly being raised on everything we buy, every penny we make, everything we do for entertainment.  Our Government keep sending our money to everyone that has a hand out, spending more money than they can even hope to collect – but what is the answer to fix that problem to them – “Make the “rich” give even more to the ‘poor’” – but the rich are rich for a reason – they don’t give away their money – so they raise their prices and rates to make up for the loss. Prices and rates that the poor still have to pay – pushing the “not quite poor” even closer to be the poor.  Soon there will only be two classes of people left – the rich and the poor.  Sound familiar??  Like the Royals and the peasants?  Didn’t that cause at least one revolution??  Learn from the past people – or you are doomed to repeat it…

 

Just Sayin’

 

Has hell frozen over???

Has Hell Frozen over???

I’ve been sitting here off and on today – listening to the Weather Channel and hearing about how we are having record cold all over the United States.  Surfside Beach, SC is expecting a 30 degree drop in temperature in 2 days from the 60s to the low 30s.  Tonight, Brainerd, MN is expecting a low of -29 after getting a High of only 10.  Monday Brainerd is only going to have a high of -16 degrees.  Even Walt Disney World, FL has been feeling it – this Sunday, they are expecting a high of 80 – but then by Tuesday – the high will only be 46.  What is going on here??  Is The End Nigh??  We even have an ice breaker ship stuck in Antarctica – so stuck that 2 other ice breakers could barely get within a mile of her.  And it is the summer in Antarctica. 

I mean seriously – has hell frozen over??  I thought we were suffering from the great evil of global warming…  Why am I finding this harder and harder to believe.  Maybe we aren’t letting the cows fart enough now and it has now caused the next ice age -- I know – I am being simple – but really ENOUGH with this cold!!!!  I am sick of being sore due to the weather changes -- I just want a solid week of weather to be at least some what normal...

Just sayin'