JUST SOME POSTS

Recently, I reposted on Facebook a synopsis of the votes in Congress relating to the government shutdown and funding. A co-worker/friend posted a response (which I have included below in its entirety to be fair and to make sure I addressed all points.   Here is what I posted: Here is his response in black: (I did omit a link he also posted to an article/story from CNBC going into the certainty of a government shutdown, otherwise this is all of it) My response is in RED following each of his comments.   First, Trump said, on national television, that he would own the shutdown.  Trump is owning the shutdown as much as he can. He has said what he wants in the budget and has professed to not accept or sign a budget without it. It is the Constitutional responsibility of Congress (specifically the House of Representatives, with oversite participation of the Senate and the Executive branch) to draw up and pass a spending bill. Then the President has the resp...

When this came to me, I was shopping for groceries. I remembered that I had done a Christmas poem last year; but I had forgotten it was also loosely based on "The Night Before Christmas". (if you care, it was last year just a bit later than this - here is a link: https://justsomeposts.blogspot.com/2017/12/a-christmas-poem.html ) And some say history does NOT repeat itself - ha! Here we go: SOME TIME BEFORE CHRISTMAS ‘Twas the weeks before Christmas and all through the land, People were whining of things they don’t understand. The politicians were posturing in front of cameras with care In hope that the news cycle would feature them there. The pundits and experts all smug because they knew, That few would even challenge the words they would spew. With the people recovering from elections just ended And hoping to relax while feelings were mended Out of the news mongers there arose such a clatter The people knew their weary bones just didn’t matter. T...

I am old enough now that I can wax historically without shame. I have decades of learning and knowledge to combine with experience to interpret and determine a response to an action or activity. The issue with the young is their lack of experience and knowledge to draw comparisons from. The young can only use what has been learned by and shown to them in whatever time they have been exposed to something. That brings up a point that I want to make that is a deviation from the main theme of this post - I feel strongly that one of the reasons that politics has degenerated into what it has and the candidates have become as bad (on both sides!) as they have, is that we feel it takes more maturity and wisdom to decide to buy an alcoholic beverage than it does to vote for our elected representatives - 21 vs 18 years of age; and to diverge more- with less proof of who is doing the activity! (ID for those slow on the uptake) But that is not the gist of this post, let me get to it. A lot of p...

I have been thinking about doing a somewhat (or overt) political ad for this election season. I had decided not to. This is not so much a political ad as it is an attempt at 'spainin' about the deficit and tax revenues in relation to the tax cuts that went into effect last year. First some numbers on what has happened to the economy due to the tax cuts and the reduction in regulations that the administration has put into place. Unemployment at record lows, employment participation growing for the first time in decades; more importantly, black and hispanic unemployment both at record lows. Consumer confidence is at an 18 year high which bodes well for the important Christmas shopping season and the economy in general. More importantly, tax revenues are UP! (if you car to follow up on that - I did a study on tax revenues following every major tax change over the past decades. I have facts and figures and even a spread sheet where I combined most of the numbers I crunched. Bott...

I have had some posts floating around in my head for a while. I wanted to at least get one done and then I can attack the others. I will admit, sometimes when I go to do a post I look and I have done something very similar a while back. That prevents me from writing. I am not sure exactly what I have written on the subject of perspective as I did not look. I did want to get one done. So, without further ado (too much ado is not good!)... The ability of a human to accept something that would have been unacceptable in another time, place, or situation, is profound. I recently wrote something concerning views of the past, in light of a portion of the people wanted to get rid of any reminder of anything uncomfortable. Our view of the past will almost always appear distorted when viewed through the lens of the present.                                                 ...

The national anthem, the "Star Spangled Banner", has gotten a lot of attention of late. Regardless of our personal feelings about it, I would venture that as close to 100% as can be have heard it and most have stood and sung along; some with hand over heart, some in salute, and some texting on their cell phones. My thoughts lately have been with how many have thought about the lyrics. How they came about and what they actually say. In 1812 the United States declared war on the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Ireland (the UK). This was the first declaration of war for a young nation. The prevailing sentiment was that the UK had to be forced to support and respect the sovereignty of the young USA. (NOTE: The following is an accurate but gross over-simplification of the times - it is NOT meant to be a defining history of the beginnings of the War of 1812, just a primer for those interested and maybe uninformed AND, if you do not care to read the history - scroll down to ...

The blog that I wrote when my wife was diagnosed with the fatal illness Multiple System Atrophy is now available in a book of the same title. I took the blog posts "as is" and added commentary and thoughts. It is available in the Kindle store if you are looking for an e-book. FYI, there is a Kindle app available for almost every tablet, phone, or computer if you so desire. The book is only $3.99 and a portion of any profit will go towards MSA research. If you prefer a "real" book, by the time you read this it should be available on Amazon for $19.99. Please consider purchasing one, even if it is just to make a donation to MSA research! Let all your friends and family know as well!! thanks, Scott

Well I have not posted since right before Christmas when the Christmas poem came to me. We (the collective we) were lamenting about goings on in far off lands and learning new ways to disrespect each other. Now we are back to one of the tried and true ways - fighting over gun control. Before I get into it let me let you give you some facts about me - I do not own any guns. I have never watched Fox news (except for switching between them and MSNBC and PBS on election night - I enjoy the contrast). I have voted for Democrats and Republican over my voting years. I try to get to facts instead of emotions on issues that are very inflammatory, like gun control. There has been another school shooting by a crazed individual with a gun; no THE gun, that all the world's troubles have been attached to; the AR-15. (AR-15-style is more correct, as actual AR-15s - trademark name owned by Colt - are a small part of the market as every rifle manufacturer makes a variant) This rifle is a semi-aut...