A Conservative View from New Hampshire

Ray Cardello. March 8, 2021

New Hampshire needs a strong Conservative candidate to continue our movement of returning the Granite State to a Red State and we may have such a candidate in Julian Acciard. Julian is a Marine Corp Veteran, a lifelong resident of New Hampshire with a brief stop in California. He is married, father of three, a resident of Derry and describes himself as a Conservative Republican. Here is a quick note from his website for Congress:

It is the role of elected officials to represent, sacrifice and serve their constituents while politicians consider themselves the governor and never amongst the governed to forever control and lord over their constituents. I aim to represent my state and serve my state/district for no longer than 12 years total combined in congress should I be given the honor. This is my self imposed term limit as service was not ever intended to become a career.

He has an impressive list of policy beliefs, too many to go into here, but you can check them, and him, out on his website: https://julian4nh.com/ He has strong ideas on Immigration, Economic Revitalization, Education, Taxes and even the state of our Climate. All of his ideas are consistent with Conservative thinking and very much the polar opposite of Chris Pappas….which is why we need to send Pappas home before he takes hold of a third term in DC.

I invite you to take a look at Julian and see if you agree he might be our choice for Congress in 2022.

We now are getting a much clearer picture as to why our education systems needed more funds via the COVID Relief Bill. They don’t need the money for PPE. They do not need the money for better ventilation. They don’t need it more classrooms to allow smaller classes. They need it to fund ridiculous programs of indoctrination both of students and of young parents of future students. There is no limit to where these “educators” will go to spew their venom.

I want to qualify my comments as I know and have known a lot of teachers and administrators in my lifetime. Most have been loyal to the profession of truly educating America’s youth. Some unfortunately I know had an agenda and unfortunately this post may hit close to home.

Let’s look to a case in Arizona to support my belief. The Arizona Department of Education has created an “equity” toolkit claiming that babies show the first signs of racism at three months old and that white children “remain strongly biased in favor of whiteness” by age five. They have made this kit available to new parents within their reach who obviously are not aware of the dark thoughts their newborn is having about their neighbor in the hospital nursery. These are not teachers. These are not educators. These are sick people who are not contributing to any healing this country may need but are contributing to the divide that is widening between us. They are not pointing out racism, they are racism. These are the same fools who do not want to learn from the mistakes of those who have gone before us but to erase any mention of them from history. They don’t want to teach history, they want to rewrite it as they see fit and how it serves their agenda.

We cannot waste another dime on these individuals. We cannot allow them to continue to hold our children hostage in an effort to garner more money and power for their cause. We need to look for alternatives. We need to continue to push private and charter schools as alternatives to public education. We need to make these people as obsolete as the history they want to eradicate. These people want us to believe they are the most essential of the essential. They need to be put in their place and their cause put down. The time has come. They have exposed themselves for who and what they really are…..a danger to society that needs to be replaced.

Ray Cardello March 4, 2021

We can look to Operation Warp Speed for some good news mixed in amongst all of the disheartening news that we are being blasted with daily. I am a news junkie but even for me, the pace of the news in 2021 is frenetic and most of it is alarming. It really makes you question where we are headed and if there is a way to recover from all of the bad decisions being made in every sector of our lives.

As of today, thanks to Operation Warp Speed, we have three companies approved by the FDA to manufacture and distribute COVID-19 Vaccines to every American and the world. By government getting out of the way of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson we were able to have effective vaccines approved and available in 8 months as opposed to the three to five years that it would normally take to get a vaccine to market. This is the Miracle of the Pandemic and we owe a big thank you to President Trump for initiating Operation Warp Speed. It is the free market and not government that is putting vaccines into American arms. Let Biden and his twisted version of reality try to steal the thunder but the truth will prevail….Capitalism at its best was at the core of the Operation. And the story gets even better. Big Pharma is always a target of those who profess socialized medicine but just today Merck has entered the battle by teaming with J&J to help produce J&J’s vaccine, the only single shot version now available, which will boost production capabilities so that we can get over 300 million people vaccinated and the US on its way to putting this Pandemic in the history books. The J&J vaccine also does not require the deep freeze temps for storage that the Pfizer and Moderna versions do which opens up far more facilities to speed the injection process. All of this will bring us to the Herd Immunity level we need to be able to resume our normal lives without masks and social distance. It will allow us to bring back the hug, handshake and visits with family. This past year has felt like a lifetime for most of us. Unlike our parents and grandparents, we did not have to live through the Depression and World War II. This was our first big challenge and we probably get a C- grade for our efforts. That grade is brought down by a combination of poor leadership and a selfish attitude that made the effort of sacrifice a far more difficult task than it needed to be. That mediocre grade may just be enough….enough to get us across the line. We have had far too many deaths. We have all suffered emotionally and economically but we will recover. We will recover just the way we should; as part of a Team, the American Team. We again have shown that no challenge is too great for this tough bunch. Soon, we can put our masks in the back of the drawer where they belong. Right there with Mood Rings and Pet Rocks…..never to be brought out again……Thank God.

Ray Cardello. March 3, 2021

How can it be considered a smart policy to protect the citizens of our country from the spread of COVID by restricting legal travel via Air from another country while simultaneously allowing an unfettered flow of undocumented and untested number of illegals crossing by foot across our Southern Border?

According to the CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) there were 78,000 attempted illegal border crossings in January. Those are who were caught and do not include those who were able to cross and avoid apprehension. There is no policy that requires testing before entering our Southern Border, as a matter of fact, Biden has committed to vaccinating border crossers. American citizens are either waiting to register for their shots or are on a list with 60 days until they will receive their first dose but walk across our border and Joe will be there waiting with a syringe. Will this insanity ever stop and we are only six weeks in!

This is what is happening with folks from say, Europe, who want to fly to America. This is from the Department of State website:

Effective January 26, all airline passengers to the United States ages two years and older must provide a negative COVID-19 viral test taken within three calendar days of travel regardless of where they are traveling from. Alternatively, travelers to the United States may provide documentation from a licensed health care provider of having recovered from COVID-19 in the 90 days preceding travel. If you need to travel due to an extraordinary humanitarian emergency and you are unable to obtain a test, please see COVID-19 Testing Waivers, below.  In addition, the order also requires a passenger attestation stating they have received a negative Qualifying Test result (this is not in place of a test). Check the CDC website for additional information.

The test must be a viral test (NAAT or antigen test) to determine if you are currently infected with COVID-19. Travelers should avoid the antibody tests which look for prior infection.

The Biden administration is being very careful to avoid the term Crisis when asked about the situation at the border. They claim it to be a Challenge that is under control while blaming the increase in crossings on Trump and his lack of immigration policy……nonsense!
Under Trump, we had an allegiance with Mexico to keep asylum seekers in Mexico until processed. We were building the wall which by every agency and metric was showing to be effective. The word was do not try to come to America illegally as you will be caught and turned back. Border crossings were down. Drug flow was down. Illegal gun and gang member flow was down. So what did Biden do during his first week? Reverse every Trump initiative and effectively turn the flow of all across the border traffic back on. Biden is doing all he can to hide the disastrous results of his actions but the word is out. Camps that had been closed under Trump for lack of need are now being reopened. Thousands of beds are needed immediately for children crossing unattended or with someone other than their parent and set the record straight; these are not innocent 4 and 5 year old children but 13 to 17 year old males who threaten our security as many will end up in established Mexican gangs in our country. In six short weeks, Biden has turned our border into a disaster while at the same time making it difficult for legitimate and legal world travelers to enter our country. If not so serious and sad, this would all make a good book or movie about how an old and out of control President was making one bad decision after another but it is not a fictional account. It is real and we are in trouble. The effort to destroy America is being led by forces among us and its leader is Joe Biden.

Ray Cardello. March 2, 2021

I own handguns. I had never thought to be a gun owner until the government decided that they no longer had a responsibility to protect its citizens. I bought my guns legally. I passed a background check for each purchase. I keep them in a locked safe and have educated myself on the safe and proper usage of my firearms. I belong to the NRA and a local Gun Club, both of which are committed to the right to own a gun and to ensure that gun owners use them safely. I am not the problem when it comes to rising crime rates.

The Biden administration, along with the likes of Schumer, Pelosi and even Beto have the Second Amendment and my right to own and bear arms under attack. Surrounded by their security people armed with weapons, they are committed to taking my guns away from me. Good luck with that, Joe. Good luck Nancy, Chuck and Beto…..it is not going to happen.

I would ask you to enforce the laws on the books if you want to lower crime rates. I would ask you to look to the illegal gun owners and criminals walking the streets for the cause of escalating crime rates but you are doing all you can to take down laws that keep criminals under control and all you can to ensure their rights while coming after mine.

Let’s look at some of the things you have done to harm the safety of Americans.

1. Opened the borders leading to an uncontrolled flow of Illegal Aliens, drugs and, yes, guns across our southern border.
2. Passing laws to eliminate cash bail. In your effort to make it easier for criminals of little means to be released from custody on a simple promise that they will present themselves in court.
3. Emptying prisons first in the name of COVID 19 but now because you feel that confinement is unjust for criminals.
4. Defunding Police departments because you think that will help solve the fantasy of systemic racism by police on the black and brown communities.
5. Attempting to disband ICE and Border Patrol because they are unfair to illegal aliens.

So your efforts are trained on restricting my rights, or eliminating my rights to own a firearm while doing all you can to put more criminals on the street. As long as your priorities are messed up and you are going after legal gun owners and turning your attention away from criminals, I’ll hold onto my guns and good luck wrenching them from my hands. There is a reason that the brilliant creators of our country saw fit to ensure our right to own guns in the Bill of Rights and that reason is a runaway government. Right now, this government is in a sprint and they will not stop unless we stop them. That is what we are doing by speaking up and fighting them at every stop….all the time, keeping our hands on our guns so that they cannot.

Ray Cardello. February 28, 2021

Illinois was so proud of themselves this past week as they became the first state in the country to do away with cash bail:

“In this terrible year and in the middle of a brutal viral pandemic that hurt Black people and brown people disproportionately, these lawmakers fought to address the pandemic of systemic racism,” Governor Pritzker said during a ceremony Monday. 

It was easy for Illinois to pass this bill for they have such a low crime rate……wait a minute, isn’t Chicago in Illinois? Isn’t Chicago the Homicide Capital of the country? Isn’t Chicago, that had 769 Murders and 4,033 Shootings in 2020 in Illinois? It certainly is but statistics, like science don’t matter. Victims don’t matter. Reality and common sense don’t matter. Woke is what matters.Eliminating the hardship on members of the community of color is what matters. It is unfair to expect a person of color that commits a crime and is arrested to have to be able to afford bail. That is why so many celebrities and even Kamala Harris, spent last summer raising money to bail out people of color who had rioted in our major cities during the Summer of Love! I cannot make this stuff up. I feel like a fiction writer penning a new thriller. It’s sick!

Let’s look at an example of the result of Cash Bail Reform:

Fox News Reports…Cassandra Tanner Miller has become an advocate for stronger bond conditions as Illinois and other Democrat-run states push to weaken such conditions under the pretense of “social justice” efforts.

Tanner was home with her 9-year-old daughter, Camryn, and son Colton when the children’s stepfather, Christopher Michael Miller, broke into the home on Sept. 21, 2019.

Miller was released from jail on something called an “I-bond,” which allows a person to leave jail without paying any bail as long they promise to return to court for their hearing.

“Are you all ready to die?” asked Miller, who was supposed to be in court at the time.

Her daughter, who attempted to protect her younger brother, was bitten, strangled, and nearly tossed off the second-floor railing.

Although Tanner and her daughter were able to escape while Miller was reloading a gun, Tanner’s 18-month-old was shot 10 times in the head and killed.

How do you replace that young baby? How do you erase the terror and sorrow inflicted on Tanner and her daughter? You cannot but that is not the problem. The problem is people of color committing crimes and having to come up with the funds to pay bail and be released. That is not fair. That is unjust. This is insane. Illinois is first but New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania are closing in on bills of their own. What do these states all have in common besides rising crime rates? They are all run by Democrat Governors. The Left, more concerned with Woke and equity for criminals of color than their helpless victims. What is it going to take for all people of color to see that this is not right? Unfortunately, it will probably take them becoming a victim to see the light. God help them to be able to still see the light when they are recovering from the assault.

Ray Cardello. February 27, 2021

It has only been a short time since President Donald Trump left Andrews AFB as President and arrived in Florida as Former President. A blip in time but long enough for some of us to realize the he deserved four more years in the White House before he took that flight. The country needed four more years, even though many will never admit it.

It will be interesting to see how history will treat 45 but that will depend on who is penning that story. A true historian will tell of how this political outsider may have been the greatest conservative President since Reagan but liberal writers will claim he was the most destructive man to ever occupy 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. I am on the side of the historian. It is difficult to encapsulate all that Trump accomplished in his one term. He was a tireless man who seemed to be recharged by the progress he was making on his quest to Make America Great Again. Many have a hard time seeing the good in President Trump as they cannot see past the bad in Celebrity Trump. Brash, rude, honest, unfiltered are some of his qualities that did not serve him well as President. Patriotic, loyal, unselfish, all-seeing and visionary are those that made him the successful leader we had but did not appreciate.

Trump was like the rising tide in my view. He felt that by elevating America to its greatness, all would be better for it. You only need to look to the status of the Black, Brown and Female of our country. In four short years he created more opportunity, lowered the unemployment to historic lows and raised the average income to the highest ever for these groups. Called a Racist and White Supremacist by the left, he actually did more for people of color than any Democrat President could have dreamed of. This is one of the reasons the left hates him so for he was converting these minority blocks to see the merits of conservatism and that would never work for the liberal left. They needed these groups to be kept down and under their control. The irony of those yelling Racist and Bigot is they are in actuality the ones oppressing these groups they claim to champion.

Love him or hate him as a person, he will be looked at as one of the greatest Presidents of our time. Why, because he did what no others could do. He kept his promises. He spoke often and loudly about what he was going to do, people taking it lightly as they had heard it all before, but damn it, this was different. Trump promised but Trump delivered. In four years he accomplished more than any President ever did in eight years. If not for the Corona Virus, he would have coasted to a second term. He would have continued to make positive changes and put us in a better spot at home and in the world than we may have ever been. But not to be. The Virus and the Liberal Left Machine hit him and hard. It may not be over just yet.

Former President Donald Trump will make his first public appearance since leaving office when he speaks at CPAC today. There is much speculation and anticipation for his speech and some are even hoping he announces he is running again in 2024. I hope he leaves all of the talk of the election being stolen out of the speech and instead concentrates on getting a golden escalator built a CPAC in time for his grand entrance. We do miss him but we also look forward to him coming back…..bigger, bolder and better than ever.

Ray Cardello February 27, 2021

If one mask is good, then two will be better and three must be great! This from a man who just a year ago told us the spread of COVID in the United States would be minimal and masks were not necessary. Why is this one man still calling the shots that are dictating ridiculous constraints on our lives. Follow the science. That has been his mantra but the science must be changing daily as his story and mandates to us have changed like the New England weather. Anthony Fauci, the hero of some, could very well be the poster child for all that has gone wrong with the government handling of the COVID Pandemic. He has stiff competition for the top prize from the likes of Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom. Maybe we can call it a tie and just award them the Three Stooges COVID Control Award. I don’t like getting this sarcastic but it is masking the degree of anger I feel about the way we have been manipulated for over a year. It is pathetic, it is criminal as people have died, not as a result of contracting COVID but from the impact of the decisions of our government.

Let’s face facts. The only good or right decision since last February is the vaccines. The reason that we have two vaccines with a third getting the green light today, is the government got out of the way. These companies have broken every record for how quickly they had vaccines ready to inject into the arms of America and the world,not because of the government, but in spite of it. Flatten the curve, 15 days to slow the spread, social distancing, masks, disinfect, wash your hands, quarantine…..so many terms, talking points really, and is there any evidence that any of them did anything to put us on a track to normal? No. What they have done is to usurp our independence, liberties and rights in a giant power grab. They took our livelihood and our spirit and now they are taking our money in a multi trillion dollar transfer of wealth that will do little to help anything related to COVID but will reward Representatives and Senators by letting them pad the coffers of their political cronies. It is pathetic, it is criminal as people have lost their jobs, their businesses, their homes. Lives have been ruined by suicide, addiction, depression. Our children have been robbed of nearly two years of the schooling but all of this is just collateral damage as our government assumes total control of our lives.

And one last thing, the COVID mishandling by our government has also cost us a second term for Donald Trump and has given us the Biden / Harris era. We don’t know which one of them is in charge but does it really matter? One is suffering from dementia and the other is incompetent. We had made such gains under Trump until the COVID hit and the recovery was gearing up. The future ahead had hope but now, the first six weeks of Biden has shown we are going back to the woes of the Obama years. It is sad and very difficult to find anything positive to hang our hats on. We have to hang on and survive as best we can until 2022 when we can hopefully take back the two houses of Congress and put the brakes on the Biden slide. I guess that might be the positive we were looking for.

Ray Cardello February 25, 2021

I guess that I am old enough to remember when we were not traveling through life burdened by the many labels that we are forced to carry today. Growing up in a very diverse city, Lawrence, Massachusetts, we lived in neighborhoods that were identified by the local church. Whether the church was named after an Irish, French, Italian or Polish Saint you could tell what the predominant ethnicity of the community was. It was an identity but not a restriction. We had friends from other neighborhoods and we even had the pleasure of enjoying sharing the traditions of a different “culture”. We may have come from the Italian area or the French area but we were all from Lawrence. We enjoyed our roots, we enjoyed interaction with others and we existed as one. When we got to high school and all the different areas were melded together, there were no issues, there was no labels, there was just us….young people making our way through adolescence. It was a simpler time, maybe even a naive time.

Something happened in the decades since I grew up. A system that used to be responsible for educating our children has taken over the role of indoctrinating them from their first day they enter a kindergarten classroom. Who gave them this mission? Who gave them this power? We did. Not by affirmation but by our complacency. We allowed it to happen and now it is bigger than all of us. It has taken on a life of its own being fed, or festered, by our higher education system that is turning out bots injected with more feelings than knowledge all excited to become a part of the system. The system to create a “Woke” society one student at a time. I tried to do some research into the term Woke but I got totally frustrated. There are so many interpretations that the word really has no meaning. Using the word becomes the meaning of the person saying or writing it. It means nothing but it is a way of judging someone on your own terms and standards. In my eyes, you are either woke or not…..wow, that was easy.

I think that the term Woke, will become so overused that it will burn itself out. Racist, sexist, bigot, misogynist, supremacist, even libertarian are all labels that have been used so much by the media, the talking heads, the brilliant Hollywood elites that they now have little meaning. I think the recent Super Bowl was clear evidence of a movement gone too far. From the singing of the Black National Anthem (like we really needed one) to God Bless America to The Star Spangled banner all being performed by black artists. To the half time show featuring dozens of performers nearly all of which were black. To the plethora of advertisements featuring either black actors or bi-racial couples and families. The message that the NFL was trying to tell was so in your face it was offensive. Let us just be people, not people with a color. I know I am not a racist. I have many friends and acquaintances that I do not believe are racist. I am not sure I even know a racist personally. If I did, they probably would not be welcome in my circle. Yet why are all of us who identify as non-black or non-brown being forced to feel guilty as white privileged racists? Because society and academia have deemed it so. Sorry but I do not accept the label and I’ll be damned if I will accept the guilt. Let’s wake up and can the woke. If not, it will continue to divide us as a nation and have far greater impact on us as a people than the COVID-19 virus could ever accomplish.

Ray Cardello February 25, 2021

Three dozen Democrat Representatives, not Republican Reps, have sent a letter asking for Joe Biden, The Commander in Chief, to relinquish the sole access to the Nuclear Codes. They do not want the football in the hands of Biden alone without someone watching over him. These members of Congress, who despised former President Trump, took no such action while he was in control of the Codes so why now, what do these people know about Joe Biden that we do not know but they are concerned enough to want to usurp his power and control of our nuclear response to attack. Obviously, in less than two months, the actions and demeanor of President Biden has made them nervous and concerned enough to step up and take action against the Leader of the Free World and the Democrat Party.

“Vesting one person with this authority entails real risks,” the letter from Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., and obtained by Politico reads. “Past presidents have threatened to attack other countries with nuclear weapons or exhibited behavior that caused other officials to express concern about the president’s judgment.”

The letter continues: “While any president would presumably consult with advisors before ordering a nuclear attack, there is no requirement to do so. The military is obligated to carry out the order if they assess it is legal under the laws of war. Under the current posture of U.S. nuclear forces, that attack would happen in minutes.”

There are many reasons for the President being in sole control such as he is the ultimate commander of our military but is also about speed and security. Should we ever be under attack from a foreign power, time to respond is of the essence and there may not be the time to bring together a group of people to make a decision to respond. Thus the reason why the “nuclear football” is never far from the President.

The letter and the tweets also written by these same representatives indicates that there is a lack of confidence in the President. His limited schedule, his continued gaffes, his reluctance to be in front of the press to answer questions, the fact that Vice President Harris has been handling calls with foreign leaders that should be made by the President all lead to support the fear that Biden is not capable of handling the job. He is in effect not the acting President of the United States. This is something many of us feared since he became the Democrat nominee but now it is his own that is coming out to clip his power. Maybe this time we should listen to these folks, keep close watch on this man and be ready to do what is needed should he show he needs to be removed from office. It is a very scary thought but President Harris may happen to us sooner that we could have imagined. Dear God, protect us.

Ray Cardello February 24,2021

The Mask, the symbol of the COVID -19 Pandemic. The mandatory face covering that we were told would protect us from contracting the COVID virus and the piece of cloth or paper that has become a lightning rod in communities across this great country. It is a symbol of a virus that brought America to her knees. When the virus hit in the early days of 2020, there was confusion and fear. We were getting mixed messages from the “experts” as the counts of inflicted and dead from the virus grew by the day. The Mask will help, the mask is useless, no, it will be needed to protect us all. Be careful of surfaces, wash down your groceries, disinfect everything around you and for God’s sake, wash your hands often.You could not pick up a newspaper of listen to a newscast without getting a different opinion in those early days. It was that confusion that festered the fear that led to a paralysis of our economy and our country. Schools were closed, businesses sent their workers home, the roads were emptied, stay at home orders were sent out…..life came to a halt. The right to assemble was dead. The right to worship was dead. The right to move freely and to be with others at will was dead. Our rights were dropping like flies under the whack of a swatter. Our life of freedom and of free will was over. The government that was to serve the people was now the master of the masses. We stopped whatever we were doing at noon and five for updates. We were waiting to be told what we were to do next. We were basically under house arrest, the victims of a foreign born virus and of a government we allowed to usurp our rights. We were willing victims and those in charge seized on our fear and complacent state of mind to place more and more restrictions on us and our means of making a living and providing for our families. We were no longer a free nation. No body knows when we will be again.

Yesterday marked the 500,000th death in our nation attributed to COVID-19. We have a blind faith that this info is correct. We have doubts but we have become fearful to question or challenge the ones in charge. Joe Biden went to the air last night to mark this somber day and to plea to us to look forward to better sunny days ahead. It was a wonderful performance from an inept individual. He appealed to our raw emotions and he did his job. The number 500,000 is a huge number, one that is tough to get our arms around. It is all a part of the plan to keep us in fear and under control. I feel horrible that I have a cynical view of all of this but I do and I think for good reason. We are only being fed the bad news of the daily happenings of our new life under COVID Times. At no time yesterday did I hear that the number of new cases of COVID was actually down over 85% over the last four week period. Instead of being told of that positive stat, we were told we may need to wear masks into 2022 and that we may atually need to wear two…..if one is good, two must be better! The number of dead from COVID, and we can debate the accuracy at another time, puts it as the third highest cause of death in the US per year, right behind Heart Disease and Cancer. A huge number but in a different perspective it tells a different story. Another variable in an ever changing year-long story of COVID-19.

We have much to be positive about. Rates of contraction down, Two vaccines are in distribution with a third being approved soon. Schools are opening. Restaurants are under less restrictions. Working remotely is a common method of employment in 2021. What we need to do now that we have adapted and learned to live with the fear, is to get our liberties back. We need to be firm and insist that this happen. That whatever was taken away be reinstated. That is our mission. That is now our purpose and how successful we are in that effort will determine how we live in the Post COVID era. We have survived but our fight is not over. We are in the process of putting down the virus. Now we have to put down those who have deemed themselves in charge. They did not earn that spot, we did not appoint them to that spot but we do need to remove them from that spot so that we can then become once again the Land of the Free.

Ray Cardello February 24, 2021

This is so pathetic and you probably have already heard so much about this Bill which is nothing more than a Democrat Spending Spree disguised as relief for the people and businesses of this country. We don’t have the money to fund this $1.9 TRILLION price tag but the opportunity was there for the Dems and they had to seize it. They are more greedy than smart and the Republicans alone can do nothing to stop this. Only 9% of these funds are earmarked for COVID relief, the other 91% is for a collection of projects, domestic and foreign, and the list will seem like a parody. It is not and we will detail some of the items that will waste your money, the government has no money, your money for generations to come.

The way the Dems are talking, this money is needed now to get the country back on track. Wrong….very little of the funds will be spent this year…..except for pork projects. This is criminal and that is not hyperbole. They are stealing your money for their projects.The claim that schools are not open because of lack of funds is simply a lie. There is over $600M allocated in the last Relief Bill directed to education that has yet to be spent. Only 5% of the funds in this package for K-12 will be spent this year…..is that urgency?

Let’s look at some of the projects with no connection to COVID but will be using your money….not really your money but more your grand children’s money.

1. $270M for Arts and Humanities Endowment.
2. $200 M for museums and libraries
3. $100 M for Silicon Valley Underground Railway
4. $50M for Family Planning
5. Raising the Federal Minimum Wage to $15.00
6. Expansion of Medicare and Obamacare to include coverage for Aliens
7. Multiemployer Pension Plan Bailout
8. $100M to bailout Blue State budget shortfalls
9. $852 million for AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps Vista, and the National Senior Service Corps
10. $50B to FEMA to fund funerals for COVID victims
11. $1.5 billion for Amtrak

Is that enough to make you ill. That is your money going to pay for favors owed by the Democrat Hierarchy. This is pretty much a done deal. There is little that can be done, the Dems have the numbers. Some of these expenditures may get challenged in court but that will take time and the money will be spent in the meantime.The best we can do is educate as many folks as we can as to what the Dems are doing. It will maybe pay dividends in 2022 when hopefully we take back the House and Senate. The wallets will probably be empty by then.

Ray Cardello February 23, 2021

This is not a hurricane so maybe it is not getting the attention of a Gulf storm hitting New Orleans but this is a natural disaster and the response by Washington to come to the aid of Texas as been an equally atrocious disaster. The horrendous winter storm and frigid cold hit the entire state of Texas over a week ago. No power, no heat, no water, no food supply and it took until this past Friday for President Biden to declare Texas a National Disaster.

Biden seems to be getting a pass on his response to Texas and their need for help in recovering from this blow from Mother Nature. A far cry from the roasting that President George W. Bush received for his response to Hurricane Katrina. At that time, Bush could do nothing right according to the press and media but in Biden’s case with Texas, any critics have been silent. This seems to be what we can expect going forward with the Biden administration. They are the media darlings and there will be no critics. That may get old as the bad decisions or lack of urgency may finally get to be too much to ignore. If not this situation, what will it take? Time will tell.

The people in Texas are still melting snow for a source of water. The grocery shelves are as empty as they were at the start of the Pandemic. Electricity is still not restored for the entire state and when the frozen pipes thaw and pipes start breaking it will be phase II of the crisis. Democrats like Chuck Schumer are already pointing fingers at Texas claiming this is their fault for not yielding to the perils of Global Warming when designing their power grid. Does he even hear himself….Warming???? This is the longest stretch of cold temperatures that Texas has felt in decades. The wind turbines did not fail because they overheated, they FROZE. Chuck, get an understanding before your lips go into gear. There were problems with the grid and they will be investigated and corrected but call off John Kerry and Little Greta Thunberg. There is no warming to see here.

This is week 2 of the recovery. The good people of Texas are tough and they will survive but they also deserve our help. Maybe if we can pull Biden’s attention away from freeing illegal immigrant criminals or tearing down our borders for just a moment, he can see fit to lend Texas a helping hand. Or maybe we can tell him that Texas is still part of Mexico and then you’ll see him jump through hoops to bail them out….or in this case, warm them up and turn on the lights.

Ray Cardello February 22, 2021

Operation Talon is a nationwide ICE operation that focuses on removing illegally present convicted sex offenders from the United States. It seems like that would be a policy that everyone could unite behind. Who would possibly think it is a better idea to keep these offenders in this country able to escape the authorities and to put in danger any neighborhood and anyone’s children? A fair thinking person would answer no one….no one would ever want these sex offenders as neighbors. Ahh, but that doesn’t account for the powerful pen of President Joe Biden. For some yet to be explained reason, Joe Biden has reversed the policy of Operation Talon that had been responsible for the arrest of 19,752 illegal aliens from 2014 to 2018 who had been convicted of serious crimes including 5,500 for sexual assault, 4,900 for child molestation and 1,700 for rape. What benefit is there, who does it satisfy, to reverse this policy and let these people roam amongst us? There is no answer. There is no logic. It is becoming a pattern with this administration……no answer, no logic.

This week, 18 Attorneys General from across this country banded together to urge President Biden to rethink his decision. These people fear for the citizens of their states. They are taking action to protect their citizens. Biden is taking action to do just the opposite. The country is in danger because Biden is taking action to protect sexual offenders. The insanity of it all.

This is happening at the same time that Biden is continuing to cut into the authority of ICE and Border Patrol. The flow of illegal aliens is already increasing and the caravans are on the move. By taking action like reversing Operation Talon, we, and I say that loosely, but more specifically Joe Biden is inviting more unwanted characters to come to our country now knowing that their activity, their actions against the people of this country will have little in the way of ramifications.

It is very difficult not to get angry as I write this post. I realize that emotions are best kept out of writing opinion or commentary but how can my blood pressure not rise when I write this as I assume yours will when you read it. What is the end game here? What is the plan? Can it be so obvious that this administration and the forces behind it are actually trying to destroy America as we know it? Is it too simplistic to think that it is simply bad decisions by a new and confused team in the White House? We had made such incredible gains in our security at the border over the last four years. There was renewed support for the hard working men and women of ICE and USBP. All that hard work destroyed in four short weeks and without debate, without a single vote, just with the swipe of a pen. I do not see how this can be brought under control until the mid terms and that is assuming the GOP can regain control of the House and / or Senate. That unfortunately does not stop the pen. That can only be stopped by removing the person holding the pen from office and that will not happen until at least 2025……God Help us until then.

Ray Cardello February 21, 2021

It is almost laughable that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is calling for the investigation of Governor Andrew Cuomo for his actions that may have resulted in thousands of COVID deaths in New York nursing homes. I feel that any politician pointing fingers at another is like the proverbial pot calling the kettle black. I hate to think that every person in political service is tainted but damn, they all seem to find a way to prove our point.

AOC has dodged investigations on numerous occasions during her very short time in Washington. Just a side note that she has only been in Congress since 2019 but it seems like she has been around for years. We can probably credit the media hype for that perception as they can find any insignificant reason to put her on the evening news. Being given the title of leader of the Squad, which was never a label earned with merit, has elevated her beyond her capabilities. But we digress.

AOC has not been thought to have been responsible for the death of anyone, though she did kill thousands of jobs when she killed the Amazon move to NYC, but she has had numerous allegations of potential crimes in her short 2 years in DC. Most of the misdeeds involve the misuse of campaign funds. I am a firm believer that politicians are not there for anything but to acquire money. It may not start out that way but I admire the people like Jason Chaffetz or Trey Gowdy. They got in, did what they could and moved on. Lifers….the Nancy Pelosis, Bernie Sanders, Albee Hastings, Jim Inhofe…..do they really feel they are serving their constituents or are they supporting their extended families with campaign dollars? AOC didn’t wait to be a lifer to realize there was money to be made. In 2019, the chief of staff for AOC was known to have funneled nearly $1 Million dollars from campaign funds to two of his private companies. This individual was a former Sanders’ fund raiser. In 2020, it was discovered that AOC ran a fundraiser to support the Green New Deal. All monies went directly into her general campaign fund. That’s quite the Green Deal!

Have there been any ramifications for these actions? No. Have there been any findings from the House Ethics Committee? No. Will AOC learn from the errors of her ways? Why…..that’s why she is here. But dressed in a kryptonite cape, she has no problem pointing her finger at Governor Cuomo. It is the right thing to do for her political future and the right thing to do to deflect the light from her own actions. She is young. She is inexperienced. She has done nothing to earn accolades. But she has learned how to play the game. Don’t ever let her throw a stone.

Ray Cardello February 20, 2021

We all feared that Joe Biden was not mentally competent to be President of the United States. We all feared that he would be a figure head with Vice President Kamala Harris actually handling the duties of President or that Biden would actually step down and Harris would conveniently become the President of the United States without ever receiving a single vote. This fear is quickly becoming reality and we are only four weeks into a four year term.

I have to admit that I have questioned what Harris’ purpose is when she stands quietly stage left while Biden does his best to read his way through a prepared statement. This has been happening since day 1 and she is yet to utter a word during any of these public appearances. She just stands there as if ready to step in should something happen to the President. A strange happening at best.

We now learn that Harris is making and taking calls with foreign Heads of State that the President should be making, especially if these are the first contacts with the new Administration. Three days ago, Harris handled the first call of the Administration to France and President Macron. They talked about a number of subjects which, to be honest, don’t really matter. This call should have been between Biden and Macron. President to President. Not President to President in Waiting. The other issue with this situation is Harris is not prepared and able to handle these conversations with foreign leaders. All you need to do to understand this is to watch the interview Harris had this week with Savannah Guthrie of NBC. Fumbled was the word used by the NY Post to describe Harris’ answers when pressed about getting schools open in this country. Guthrie uncharacteristically pressed Harris for answers and Harris was incoherent. If a friendly NBC reporter could get her flustered, what would Macron, Merkel or Putin do to her? That is a question that should scare every one of us.

Harris is not a seasoned statesperson or even a polished politician. She failed in her attempt to get through the Democrat primaries and dropped out before the very first vote was cast. She was done in by Tulsi Gabbard, the Representative from Hawaii who was wrenched from the primaries by Hillary Clinton when she started the fake news story that Gabbard was a Russian operative. This is all the making of a decent Saturday night movie but this is our country and these people are supposed to be our leaders…..we are in the same boat as Harris and Gabbard last February…..we are about to get yanked from the stage…..we are in deep trouble and no body is paying attention. The media is more interested with which video games Biden played with his granddaughter or how the love between the Bidens is going to heal America. As I said, no body is watching as the President is being slowly removed from power to make room for one of the most incompetent liberals in DC. This plan has been in the works for months and we are now powerless as we watch it play out in front of our eyes.

By: Ray Cardello February 19, 2021

I do not believe in generalizations or lumping an entire group of people under one umbrella, but I am getting very tired of the hypocrisy of the left and its characterization of the right. I do not consider myself a Racist, a Bigot, a White Supremacist, an Extremist or Ideologue. It is offensive to be labeled any of these names simply because I believe in a political philosophy. I was very saddened when I saw the attached comment yesterday and I try to imagine what could bring about such anger. I cannot put my head in that spot.

You cannot watch any channel or read any newspaper or website and without folks on the left, talking heads that I do not want to give credibility to, preaching about the divide in this country. Of course the blame is put on Conservatives and then the “expert” will go into a litany of slurs to enforce their belief in how cruel and evil we are on this side of the aisle. It should raise the hair on our necks but I really believe we are simply saddened to hear the same talking points repeated ad infinitum. It gets old and soon just becomes noise.

My circle of friends is mostly right leaning….some lean more than others and there are some folks of opposing view sprinkled into the circle. I will not speak for all Conservatives but I will speak to my sampling. We are positive people. We believe in God, Family, Friends and we all have a deep love for our country. We are fearful of the current direction but as Rush Limbaugh often said, there is no time to panic as we should always hope that the majority of people share the image of our country and will keep it on track. I will not deny the shameful acts of January 6th but I guarantee that you will not find many Conservatives who support such actions. That was an anomaly and not our M.O. We do not riot, we do not loot, we do not destroy property. We communicate, we participate, we write and we try to persuade people that America is still a great country with a bright future…..if we don’t let it jump the tracks.

This post by the verified Gay Rights Media is evidence of the type of people or groups that are creating the divide. The person who wrote this hopefully did not give his words much thought. This group flys the Rainbow Colors and begs for inclusivity and equality (equity) in every aspect of life and then posts this unnecessary venom filled collection of words. Should we get mad, probably but I think the majority of us feel so very sorry that this person contains so much anger. It is a burden we don’t carry and that is why we can have hope. Hope that this anger will burn itself out and when it does, we welcome them under our umbrella where every day is partly sunny and the future is bright.

By: Ray Cardello February 18, 2021

The Conservative movement is credited by most to President Ronald Reagan but many will say that it was the impact of Rush Limbaugh and his outreach to 20-30 million followers that is really the leader of the Movement. In a world of liberal media, it was rare that someone like Rush could amass the following that he had but it was the power of the message that was key. Conservative Talk Radio has been the target of liberal politicians for years. They knew the power of people like Rush who could reach millions…..not just reach them but get them to buy into the message and become not just listeners but members of the movement.

Dead at 70 after battling lung cancer, he passed far too soon but he was ahead of his time. He created Conservative Talk Radio and made it a force. He was a Patriot, a Conservative, a True American. He loved this country and it was that love that drove him to be who he was and why he was so integral in the lives of many.

There may never be another Rush. He was the right person at the right time with the right message and the right audience. A lot of “right” in that last sentence and for good reason, he was responsible for preaching to his rabid listeners that the thinking of the “right” was the right way for America to continue to exist. Rush may be gone but his impact, his philosophy, his message, his energy will live on for years. I guess in the end, what more could we ask for from a life ended far too soon.

The rising gas prices that corresponded exactly with the day that Biden took office is but one measure of how costly the Biden administration has already been and what may be ahead. Gas prices are increasing daily as we are migrating from the state of energy independence we achieved under Trump to the Green Energy Era of Biden. The Pipeline has been halted, drilling on federal land stopped, offshore drilling curbed and evidence indicates he has just begun to hurt us in the wallet.

The interesting, and frustrating, reality of the Pipeline being red lighted is the fuel is still flowing but by truck and rail. These methods are not only more costly but generate more pollution and are potentially more hazardous. The storm that has gripped Texas has shown the pitfalls of wind energy as all wind driven turbines in the state are frozen as are many of the residents. As of today, 17 people have died in Texas due to the cold.

Jobs are being killed. The COVID Relief Bill is nowhere near ready to give aid to anyone. Vaccinations are at a slower rate than pre Biden times. Schools are not open as Biden succumbs to the Teachers Union. The Wall is not only stopped but may actually be taken down. 25,000 illegals are being released from Mexico and being let into our country and another 125,000 have been approved. No vetting, no testing. Our citizens are in virtual lock down but the illegals are free to roam.

We have rejoined the Paris accord which just means our money going there with no results to show for it. We have rejoined the WHO….what have they done to solve the Pandemic on a world level….nothing. We are going back to the good old days of NATO where we pay and Europe says thanks….now we don’t have to.

What a successful administration. All this negativity in less than 3 weeks. Just wait to see what the next four years will bring. Buckle up and watch your wallet. Your money is his money to spend.

When it was learned months ago the Eric Swalwell had been, or may still be, involved in a relationship with a Chinese spy, it was quickly swept under the rug by most media outlets, there were no significant investigations, Swalwell kept his spot on the Intelligence Committee and the spy, a Chinese national named Fang Fang or Christine Fang, was tipped off by Swalwell that her cover was blown and she fled the country before ever being questioned by the FBI or any law enforcement agency. Any ramifications for this….none.

This all seems surreal as Nancy Pelosi pledged her confidence in Swalwell and denied any further action but then she chooses him as an Impeachment Manager tasked at bringing down the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump…..but wait, he is already the former President but we have covered that in a previous post. This farce was all about embarrassing Trump and the Republican Party and ultimately to prevent Trump from ever running for office again. They are paranoid of this man and it all failed miserably.

So watching the impeachment hearings last week, we got to see Eric Swalwell, the man who may have compromised our country with pillow talk with a Chinese Spy telling us how dangerous Donald Trump was and is. You cannot make this stuff up.

But wait, then it gets just one step more bizarre. In an interview with CNN after the verdict came in and Trump was acquitted, he made the following statement:

“We could have called God herself and the Republicans weren’t going to be willing to convict [Trump],” he said. “So we’re proud of the case we put forward.”

This was not a mistake as he made the same comment on numerous media outlets. If said by anyone else, it could be dismissed but with this man’s history, it just lends to his image as a stooge of the Democrat Party. I can only thank God Herself that he is a Democrat.

Amen and awoman!

Terry Meza is a liberal state rep from Texas who has no interest in protecting her constituents unless they are thieves…..then she has their backs.

Meza has introduced TX HB 196 which will amend the Castle Law in Texas which gives a homeowner the right to protect their home from intruders even if it requires deadly force. She does not think that is fair to the thief breaking into a home and they deserve to be able to take what is yours and make it theirs….no trouble here…..just back away. There have been many stories and posts on social media about her proposal, and though most are false and exaggerated, they are not that far off. In her own words, this is her intention:

My bill HB 196 and my position on the Texas Castle Doctrine has been misrepresented in the news as of late. It does not repeal the Castle Doctrine, and it does not restrict homeowners from using firearms in self-defense as applicable to current Texas stand your ground laws. What my bill would do if passed, would require a homeowner to exhaust the potential of safely retreating into their habitation before using deadly force in defense of themselves or their property. I filed this bill because the castle doctrine as it currently exists emboldens people to take justice into their own hands. While theft is obviously wrong, we have laws to address that. I don’t believe that stealing someone’s lawn ornament should be an offense punishable by death.

In other words, you are sleeping soundly in your comfortable bed and you hear glass breaking as someone is breaking into your home, your castle. Though your first reaction might be to reach over to your gun safe and retrieve your loaded pistol to protect you, your family, your pets, your property, your now violated home…..nay, nay….you would be wrong according to Ms Meza. That would be unfair to the person who just broke into your home.

According to Meza, you need to first retreat, maybe hide in a closet or under the bed. You need, obviously, to hope your wife, children and pets are also retreating or hiding. For in Meza’s world, it appears that your stuff is their stuff, your home is their home, and it must be your fault for locking the door. The absolute insanity of it all.

This woman needs to be brought directly to Washington and put in charge of Joe Biden’s new Gun Control effort. She understands that good, law abiding folk don’t need to have or to use guns and if only the bad guys have guns then fewer people will get hurt or killed. When will the adults take charge….please.

We own guns. We are getting the necessary training to be conscientious gun owners. We never felt a need to have to own guns until recently when people like Rep Terry Meza decided we needed people like her to take control of our lives. We will defend ourselves, our property and the Terry Mezas of this world be damned. I hope people will see stories like this and realize we are being robbed every day. Not by thieves with guns but by politicians with pens.

He was bombing in the early primaries and caucus, He was performing poorly in the debates. He was showing his age and mental decline and was getting more people feeling bad for him than being behind him. Then came the South Carolina Miracle. He was resurrected by Representative James Clyburn and somehow, all challengers got the message…we have chosen our candidate and it isn’t you. Joseph Biden went on to win South Carolina and was ordained as the man to take on the Evil Donald Trump and return America to its path to Socialism. Clyburn, an unlikely and unlikable gent from SC was now the new King Maker. He now had Biden in his back pocket.

The only problem Clyburn had is that many people feel they have Biden in their back pockets or pocketbooks. It is obvious from day 1 with the tone and content of the record setting number of Executive Orders he has been signing that he is busy trying to accommodate all of the people pulling on his strings. He claimed during the campaign that he was a moderate and as evidenced by his years in Washington that he could bridge both sides of the aisle. At the same time, however, he was touting he would be the most Progressive President of all time. You cannot be both of those people he claimed to be and it is obvious the Progressive side is clearly winning. He is killing jobs and local and state economies while satisfying the environmentalists. He is putting us in danger by letting thousands of untested or vetted illegals cross the border through a border that is no longer protected by ICE or Border Patrol. This thrills the Squad. He is mulling healthcare for illegals and forgiving student loans putting smiles on the faces of Nancy, Chuck and Elizabeth. There is no need to do what is right for the country when you are making the left smile with satisfaction. You have done your job. They put you in the office, behind the Resolute Desk, you just keep signing those orders.

I guess we can be thankful that Biden has taken every weekend off since sworn in. If not. The EOs would be even more prevalent. Where is this going to stop? Biden has both the House and Senate but going through normal legislative processes apparently is not in his vision. He is content with using Executive Orders to get his agenda fulfilled quickly but remember, he who lives by the EO will have to sit by and watch them go by the wayside as the next President can also wipe them all out by the stroke of a pen and a fancy signature. Thank God these guys still know cursive….todays kids will never be able to sign an EO.

I realize that Joe Biden has one task that he is lazer focussed on and that is to overturn every decision that Donald Trump made in the last four years. In other words, if he had his way, we would simply erase the last four years and begin where the Obama years left off.

This is such a difficult subject to tackle in a Blog. There is so much negatively done to our immigration system and border security in a few short weeks that it is not hyperbole to say that Biden has put his pen to Executive Orders that have damaged the safety and health of the American people. Joe Biden does not have an immigration policy, he has a border less America policy. Let’s take a look at just some of the actions:

1. Stopped all construction of the Border Wall with Mexico and put a stop to any future funds being directed towards construction.
2. Has put all would be illegal immigrants on notice that there would be no action taken on them in the first hundred days of his administration.
3. Has opened up tent cities in Texas to replace the detention cages installed by Obama / Biden
4. Illegal immigrants are being let into this country without any check on their current COVID-19 situation. No checking of records and no testing.
5. He is releasing any detained illegals being held in this country for non-felony offenses. In his opinion, DUI is a non-felony. Not sure those who have lost family members to drunk driving illegals feel the same.
6. Over 25,000 asylum seekers being held in Mexico under an agreement with the Trump administration have been released and now have free access to the United States.
7. He has not disbanded ICE officially but all arresting and enforcement duties have been suspended…..in effect they are moot.

All of this, and there is more such as federal funds for funerals of COVID victims may be extended to illegals. Healthcare, including vaccinations, may be given to illegals. And this is when our own citizens are all living under some level of house arrest. Our schools are not open. Our restaurants are not open. Our free travel is not open. Our masks are still on and may be doubled soon. Many have not visited with loved ones in over a year but our border is open. The caravans are coming, the wall is open, $15 minimum wage is waiting and the pot of gold is real and it is called America.

You would think the death of anyone due to COVID-19 would be about as sad as you think of but how about the vast number of unclaimed dead that are in storage trailers, warehouses or already buried in mass graves as being an even tougher story of COVID.

In the spring and summer of last year, big cities like New York, Newark, Los Angeles, Dallas and even the Twin Cities of Minnesota were accumulating dead bodies at a rate faster than they could handle. Funeral Homes were shut down or overwhelmed, Morgues could not keep up with the mounting dead. Cities went to manners few would have thought about to stem the tide.

New York was using a warehouse with twenty freezer tractor trailers to store some of the dead. St Paul bought a former produce warehouse for $5.4M that could store up to 1,000 bodies but fortunately was not needed, yet. El Paso ordered 10 freezer trucks and Gov Newsom ordered up 60 for California. In New York, bodies were buried in a mass unmarked grave at Hart Island, NY’s Potter’s Field.

On the one hand, I guess you can give credit to public officials that had to come up with a solution to a horrific situation. On the other hand, where were the families? How could so many deceased individuals remain unclaimed? There is no good answer. By the end of 2020, 2,225 bodies had been buried at Harts Island, the most in one year in decades. Over two thousand souls with no one to claim them.

2020 will be a year we will never forget. It unfortunately has become 2021 and there is no end in sight for the Pandemic and the sad stories that continue to surface. As a society, as just human beings, I hope we can do better. I hope we have learned lessons from our Journey with COVID about what is truly important and I lastly hope that not another single body has to be put into a freezer because not a single person cared enough to bring them home for a proper good-bye.

This woman is amazing. In a previous post I went into what Tulsi Gabbard has been but I would rather focus on what or who she might be. I think that her leaving Congress might be the best thing for her and us. She is taking to YouTube on her own channel, and on her own terms, to spread some positivity and goodness into our lives. I did not hesitate to subscribe to her channel and I hope you won’t either.

Warning: this video contains fouls language and the truth.

I will not be in the practice of simply grabbing videos from YouTube and pasting them on my Blog. When I saw this video, it was described as EPIC by my friend who sent it along to me, I knew I had to pass it along. It is honest, is crass, is blunt, is off color and is so very much spot-on.

Diversity, and the search for diversity, has been out of control for a long time but in the last few months, it appears the diversity movement is taking some serious steroids. First of all, diversity requires labeling everyone so you can properly assign them to their correct grouping. Isn’t that being judgemental? Aren’t we supposed to accept everyone for who they are so how do we do that if we first have to label an individual and then file them into a box of similar folks? It doesn’t square….it cannot be done.

Having dealt with many different people in my career in management, I had only one way of measuring a person; results. I had white, black, gay, bi, men, women, other…..you name it and I had them on my team at one time or another. I did not see who or what they were but rather what they did to make themselves valuable and productive.

I live just off the campus of one of the oldest and most prestigious prep schools in the country. Phillips Exeter Academy has been turning out gifted and promising students since the 1700’s. You would think schools like Harvard, Yale, Brown would have offices on campus just to sign these future superstars to their next level of academia…but no, they cannot do that as Diversity will only allow them to offer a minute number of grads from a particular school a full ride to their school. Crazy, right? Parents are paying over $200K to send their kids to PEA, a high school, and graduating in the Top 5% of their class does not guarantee them a spot at the next Big Time School…..unless they fit a particular category of Diversity that a school needs to fill. How is that a merit based system? How is that not discriminatory? How is Diversity not just a simple example of Racism?

Where was the outrage last year when Joe Biden did not look for the best qualified person to put on the ticket but narrowed his pool of candidates to Black Women….where was the noise from White Women or Brown Men? How very blatantly Racist and the only purpose was to fill a box and please a particular group of supporters.

Where was the outrage as President Elect Biden began to fill his Cabinet posts and again, not looking for the best, he looked to fill the seats to mirror America….Give me 2 browns, 3 blacks, a few women, a gay guy, a transgendered whatever and okay, a white guy. Insanity….absolutely.

There is no apparent end in sight for this madness. In the future, parents might want to get their kids molded from a very early age to fit a certain type of person that is in demand. Once you have them totally conditioned as that “person”, can you now teach them to read and write. Just not cursive. Somehow that is no longer necessary.

The following is a summary of the call between Biden and Xi

WASHINGTON — President Biden spoke Wednesday evening with President Xi Jinping of China, raising concerns about Beijing’s aggressive policies abroad and human rights abuses at home in the first conversation between the two leaders since Mr. Biden’s election.

Turning to what may be the most important foreign relationship of his presidency, Mr. Biden issued those warnings while offering to cooperate on global priorities of mutual interest.

In a summary of the call, the White House said that Mr. Biden “underscored his fundamental concerns about Beijing’s coercive and unfair economic practices, crackdown in Hong Kong, human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and increasingly assertive actions in the region, including toward Taiwan.” But the leaders also discussed “the shared challenges of global health security, climate change and preventing weapons proliferation,” according to the summary.

According to the official Chinese account of the two leaders’ call, issued by Xinhua, Mr. Xi cautioned Mr. Biden that the two powers had to cooperate or risk calamity, and gave no sign of giving ground on Xinjiang, Hong Kong or Taiwan.

Just a quick thought. If this conversation was so important and so full of content as the summary suggests, why does the call not even appear on the official agenda? I hope at some point the audio or transcript is released so we can be assured that the conversation even took place and was on the up and up and not a fund raising call for Hunter and the Biden Clan…..don’t forget the 20% for the “Big Guy”.

The idea of raising the Federal Minimum Wage to $15 has been a talking point for Senator Bernie Sanders for years. When he dropped out of the 2020 election and backed Joe Biden for President, you just knew this was one of the promises he expected in return from a newly elected President Joe Biden. There are very few people who think the increase is a good idea….those unskilled workers who will be paid the new rate and a handful of Left Wing Dems who have been promising the new Minimum Wage to their excited followers.

Before we get into the cost to the country should this become law, let’s look at the basics of the Minimum Wage:

1. It was never meant to be the wage of the single earner of a family of 4. Sanders always talks about how this rate is barely sufficient to feed a family. He is right. It was never meant to nor should it.

2. The Minimum Wage is designed for young people starting to work and for older people with a part time job to supplement their retirement or Social Security.

3. The Minimum Wage is not designed for high skilled or professional employees. If you are only suitable for a job that pays Minimum Wage, you need to invest in some training to prepare yourself for a more demanding higher paying job.

4. Raising the Minimum Wage to $15 is not going to put more money into the pockets of many, it is going to put many out of a job.

The CBO (Congressional Budget Office) is supposed to be non-partisan and look strictly at how a political decision is going to impact the country. In this case, the news is not good. The CBO says an increase to $15 in the FMW will result in the loss of 1.4M jobs….that is 1,400,000 people put out of work to give others a raise. Small business will be impacted the most. Incomes are on the low side, costs are high, profit margins are thin and this will put a burden on them that they will not be able to pass onto their customers. Employees will need to be cut.

In a simplistic example. An auto parts retailer has three drivers on duty at any time. Currently they are making $10 per hour or $30 per hour for the trio. At $15 per hour, they each would be happy but somebody is going to have to go. The trio now cost the dealer $45 per hour, a 50% increase. He cannot pass that cost onto his customers so one driver out and the other two remaining drivers will have to just be quicker and work harder….or their customers will have to be satisfied with a lower level of service.

The Minimum Wage should never be dictated by the Federal Government. One rule rarely works across the entire country. This is something for the states to decide or better still, let the free market set the rate. This is just another example of Big Government sticking its nose where it should not be, and no body comes out ahead except the politicians who can say I fulfilled my promise….at who’s cost?

Growing up an Italian in Lawrence, Massachusetts in the 60’s and 70’s was not easy on the state of mind. DAGO, WOP, Guinea, Grease Ball were a few of the more popular labels attached to those in our neighborhood. Every nationality in Lawrence had their own section of town, their own church, their own grocery stores. It wasn’t until we got to high school and kids from every part of town were together did we have contact with anyone of a different “race”. I remember having a crush on a girl from Tower Hill but as I was from Prospect Hill, her parents forbid us from dating…..a Jewish Girl and an Italian Guy was not an approved match in 1970 Lawrence, and we just accepted it.

Terms like xenophobic, racist, homophobic misogynistic had little meaning back in those days, most probably couldn’t be found in a dictionary. As for most of us, we just accepted the fact that we were different but we were all on the same journey. How have we gotten to where we are today where you cannot watch the evening news without being made to feel guilty. I cannot identify with the labels being put on me and all of the other “privileged” white males in this country….it is all such BS.

Why is it usually some professional Black woman, an actress or politician, or (and this one blows me away) a Black athlete pulling in $20M a year that are spouting off about injustice, lack of opportunity, equal access to good schools for their kids….give me a break, We have come so far in this country to put all people on a potential track to success. No other country opens their arms to so many immigrants per year. Black and Brown unemployment are at their lowest in 50 years. Black and Brown earnings are at their highest in the same timeframe. Black and Brown home ownership is also at all time highs. If this country is so cruel and unjust to minorities, why do so many march thousands of miles for a chance to get a pass through our borders. We need to stop listening to the narrative and allowing a guilt trip to be placed upon our shoulders. This past weekend was evidence of the extremes, that they might have gone too far in driving their story home. The Super Bowl was like a showcase of Black influence. The Black Anthem, America the Beautiful, The Star Spangled Banner all performed by black celebrities. The half time show featured probably 100 black singers and dancers. Nearly every commercial was black actors and actresses. The Twitter world was even ablaze with comments that it is Racist that Tom Brady has won so many Super Bowls during February, Black History Month. Are you serious? Or simply in my face.

I grew up in a household where acceptance of others was the rule. We witnessed segregation and racism in the 60’s on our trips to Florida, The shacks along RTE 301 in the Carolinas. The Black Chain Gangs along the highways of Georgia and Florida. The Black Only restrooms and water fountains. That was racism and it was an eye opener. It is no longer that way. Do we have sins to atone for as a country….absolutely, but how many years do we have to pay for the past? Can we stop fanning the flames and let each other simply exist? I truly believe that that is the wish of most Americans but as long as politicians, media talking heads and racial equality activists see a gain in speaking up, the scars will never have a chance to heal. The bandaid will never come off. The divide will always be there to keep us apart.

Today begins the second impeachment hearing in the Senate to remove President Donald Trump from office. But wait a minute. Isn’t Donald Trump already out of office? Didn’t a new President take office weeks ago? So if Impeachment is to remove a President and the President is now a Former President, why are we going through these steps, wasteful and expensive steps, to do what has already been done? Seems like a good enough question and one the media might want to ask.

I caught a few minutes of Meet the Press on Sunday. As a side note, can’t we change that title to Meet the Story Tellers….but I digress. I stayed with it to hear the partisan Chuck Todd ask the hopefully outgoing Representative from California, Adam Schiff, a real tough question. Do you feel the passing of the Articles of Impeachment were passed too quickly through the House? To which the all knowing Adam Schiff replied, and I paraphrase: Chuck, we had a dangerous individual in the White House. We could not waste another minute to remove him from power. We could not convince Mike Pence to invoke the 25th amendment so we had to act quickly to secure the safety of our people and the Republic itself. Follow-up question from Chuck…..crickets!

Well here’s the thing. Nothing changed. The Article was passed, and with the support of 10 Republicans, it was delivered to the Senate and today, nearly three weeks after President Donald J. Trump left office, we are starting a process to remove him from office to protect the country from this evil individual. It seems the Cavalry has arrived too late. The horse has left the barn and is retired to Florida.

So what is this really all about? Is this an action that is going to heal a divided country or stoke the flames. Is there a game plan? It is absolutely going to further divide us and certainly going to raise the ire of the 74 Million citizens who cast their vote for the reelection of Donald Trump but that is not the concern of the Democrats. They want to embarrass Trump at all cost. They want to prevent him from coming back in 2024. They want to strip him of all the privileges of a former President. All in the name of vindictiveness and all in the name of futility. They do not have the support of the Senate. They do not have the votes. What they do have is deja vu to 2020 when they were spending all of their time unsuccessfully trying to impeach Trump the first time that they allowed a Pandemic to sneak up on us and shut us down….Nice job Nancy. Nice job Chuck. Nice job Adam and Jerry. And in the true Spirit of America, if you fail once, do the same thing again. Biden is signing his name on Executive Orders at a record pace to erase all of the accomplishments of the Trump Presidency and now they are trying to simply erase Trump….Good luck with that. It will never happen

When are the Dems going to have a come to Jesus moment and realize they have gone too far? Not soon enough. I have been a Second Amendment Advocate since long before I ever owned and used my first gun. Whether for sport, hunting, collecting or personal protection, the right to bear arms is granted explicitly in our Constitution. The fact that our Founders made it the Second Amendment shows how important they felt the right was and is. They also felt it was important to protect ourselves from an out of control government. Those wise individuals must have envisioned Rep. Lee in Congress some day. This proposed bill shows how totally out of control they are and how much control over us the want. I cannot believe she hails from the great state of Texas with this thinking.

H.R.127 states that its purpose is to “provide for the licensing of firearm and ammunition possession and the registration of firearms, and to prohibit the possession of certain ammunition.” It aims to do so much more.

The bill calls for the U.S. Attorney General to establish a licensing and registration system through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which would increase the federal government’s ability to monitor gun owners’ purchases and the location of their firearms by requiring them to inform the government of the “make, model, and serial number” of the firearms that they own and adds that the firearm owner must tell the government “where the firearm is or will be stored.” In order to obtain a license, individuals must also complete “at least 24 hours of training.” Individuals can be stripped of their license and must get their licenses renewed. The bill goes on to state that the info collected will be provided to every level of Law Enforcement, from local to Federal, and also all branches of our Military

In order to obtain a license to possess a firearm, an individual would need to be at least 21 years old and, in addition to undergoing a background check, would require that the individual undergo “a psychological evaluation” which could potentially involve “other members of the household in which the individual resides.” Under the bill, a person could have their constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms stripped from them if they’ve been hospitalized with a wide range of psychiatric disorders, including depression. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, there were approximately 17 millions Americans who suffered a major depressive episode in 2017. If any of those folks are gun owners, they would be required to surrender their guns and license.

The bill also bans ammunition that is .50 caliber or larger and bans people from being able to possess magazines that are able to hold greater than 10 rounds of ammunition. The bill also forces people to pay an $800 fee to the government that insures them “against liability for losses and damages resulting from the use of any firearm by the person during the 1-year period that begins with the date the policy is issued.”

Lee has been criticized in the past for demonstrating a lack of understanding of firearms, saying in September 2019: “I’ve held an AR-15 in my hand, I wish I hadn’t. It is as heavy as 10 boxes that you might be moving. And the bullet that is utilized, a .50 caliber, these kinds of bullets need to be licensed and do not need to be on the street.”

AR-15s typically weigh on the high-end around 10 or 11 pounds but can be as light as 5.5-6.5 on the low-end. They do not fire a .50 caliber round, rather, they fire a significantly smaller .223 caliber round.

This Bill could pass in the current Trifecta control of Congress and the White House. Our only hope then would be an injunction and a suit filed in the Supreme Court. It should not come to that. Common sense should prevail but currently in Washington, we have a remarkable drought of common sense.

Starting a new phase of my retirement years brought me to driving a school bus this past September. I wasn’t sure what to expect and of course heard the usual horror stories…some of which, I confess are true, but this job has been a revelation into many different facets of life. First of all, I now realize the enormous responsibility placed upon you when that first student walks through the doors and takes their seat. You are now responsible for the precious lives of somebody else’s children. What bigger responsibility could there be. Secondly was an unfortunate reality check that elementary age kids are tough. They have not yet learned respect for adults or their own fellow students. Their parents are demanding and may be why their kids are so difficult. But this is not to be a negative post so let’s move on.

This year has not been normal for any part of anyone’s life and it has been especially difficult for our kids. Their schedules have been totally disrupted and from week to week they do not know if they will be in school or on remote learning from home. Kid’s need stability and we have not supplied it this year. My route changed soon into the school year and I started driving Junior and Senior High School students…..these are the ones I was warned about…those stories could not have been more false.

These kids, with not a single exception, have been a pleasure to deliver to school and back home again at the end of their day. They may be a bit comatose in the morning and getting a hello or any response to my AM greeting is sometimes futile. But by the time we get to the school entrance and the kids are filing off the bus, every single one of them either thanks me or wishes me a good day….they thank me for giving them a lift to school. Who would have thought. Even some of the older guys who said nothing for the first week or so have been beaten down by kindness. My greetings are now met by there’s. I am so glad those warnings were simply fake news!

In addition to a regular route, I have also been able to give various sport teams a lift to and from their competitive venues. Boys, girls, Junior High, Senior High, they all have one thing in common: respect. It puts a smile on my face when I get them to their destination or back to their home school and every one of them gives me a big thank you. These are just good kids and they deserve better from us. They deserve to be treated with respect for that is how they are treating us. They need to get back to a normal life as soon as possible. We have all had a bad year but as adults we are better able to process our situation and the challenges thrown at us. These young people cannot. They miss the stability, they miss their friends, they miss their normalcy. The one thing I love most about these charter runs is the laughter. These kids are having fun and enjoying their time together. That is something that has been lacking for all of us this year.

It has been a huge eye opener. Whether their hair is purple or green and their earrings are huge (and that’s the boys…) or their jeans are stylishly ripped and they have no coats on in freezing temps, they deserve our respect and not to be judged. In spite of it all, these are simply good kids and I am honored and humbled to be their driver.

Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, Reps Omar & Presley and others chose to go outdoors this afternoon in a show of strength as they joined together to urge President Biden to sign an Executive Order forgiving $50,000 of Student Loans for recent graduates. This request is as ludicrous as the theatrics of the press conference. Schumer made such a big deal of this group braving the harsh winter air as a commitment to the action they were requesting. A brief few minutes outside in a Washington winter is such a big undertaking for Big Chuck and Elizabeth (Pocahontas) Warren. Maybe they should think about those hard working men and women working 10-12 hours a day on the Keystone Pipeline who just heard their jobs have been eliminated. Maybe they should think about the millions of Americans who have been out of work for nearly a year due to the ineffective treatment of the COVID-19 Pandemic by certain politicians. No Chuck, this isn’t about you. This is about the millions of people through the years who went to college, got an education and found a way to pay for it. What you want, is a $50,000 gift for people who chose to go to school and get degrees in useless majors that don’t allow them to get sufficient paying jobs to pay back their college debt. You, Chuck, want us to pay for it for them to which I say…….No #$&*()$# Way.

These students, kids, made a choice. They could have gone to a Trade School, they could have gone into the sciences or technology. If so, they would be able to cover their debt but instead, they chose to get a Liberal Arts Degree, paid $60,000 a year for tuition only to find that degree in Mid Western Tribal Dances and Mating Practices has zero….nadda…..value in the real world and thus they are now unemployed and living in their parents basement or attic. That’s a shame but that was their choice.

This post is going to be short and sweet. These kids took out these loans of their own free will. What they chose to do with the funds, as to what major they pursued, was also their decision. Now they can figure out how to repay the note. Maybe they can do what many of us did 40 years ago to pay the bills….we got a second job.

Let’s address cancel. When loans are forgiven, someone has to pay the debt. Your classes have been paid, your books bought and your room and board enjoyed. If you do not pay that back, we do. Not the government, they have no money of their own, they only have ours. Your “canceled” debt becomes our unwanted debt.

Think about all of the college students who have gone before us and paid their way. Think about students of the future and how they will have to resolve their own balance sheet. Today’s students should not be the exception. Make good choices, fend for yourself and don’t expect Uncle Sam to be around every corner ready to seduce you with payouts and relief in the hope of having your undying support for life. You are better than that, you are stronger than that. Ultimately, be stronger than the government.

When you stretch the truth so far and so often, how does one keep track of reality? That is a great question we should be asking the Leader of the Squad: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. This shameless woman who wasted no time in blaming Trump and all Republicans for the attack on the Capitol Building on January 6 that brought her as close to death as she had ever been has just one big question to answer…..How can that be since you were not actually in the Capitol Building at the time of the attack? Never one to waste an opportunity, AOC has appeared on nearly every network since the attack telling her harrowing story. In a live Instagram video this week with supposedly over 100,000 participants, she recounted the ordeal in detail as well as dropping the word that this near death experience was as bad as her surviving a sexual assault.The difference between these two events is in one, she made up the entire narrative and in the second, she gave no details at all but that doesn’t matter, she accomplished what she wanted and that was attention. She may have little in the way of morals or a conscience but she more than makes up for that shortage with attention.

There is no doubt the Capitol was attacked. We have all seen the footage and the damage caused by the domestic terrorists who infiltrated and wreaked havoc on the center of our Republic. Lives were lost, the building damaged, things stolen or destroyed. It was a dark day in our history for sure……But…..AOC was not there. She was not face to face with terrorists or death. She was safely tucked away in the bathroom of her office in the Cannon Building which is on the Capitol complex but not actually part of the building that was attacked. No attack, no terrorists, no damage, nothing happened in the Cannon Building. But let’s not let that fact get in the way of a good story, fiction as it may be.

According to Representative Nancy Mace (R-SC) who has an office two doors down from AOC:

AOC wasn’t even in the Capitol building where all the action was going down. If she was in her office, she was in the Cannon Building which is nearby, but a different building. But of course, many didn’t get the logistics and just assumed that she was in the Capitol building.

According to Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who has an office in the same hall as AOC, two doors away, there were never any rioters in their hall so there was never any physical danger from rioters coming in at any point.

Quite a different account was given to Newsweek by AOC:

Ocasio-Cortez said that rioters actually entered her office, forcing her to take refuge inside her bathroom after her legislative director Geraldo Bonilla-Chavez told her to “hide, hide, run and hide.”

“And so I run back into my office,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I slam my door. There’s another kind of like back area to my office, and I open it, and there’s a closet and a bathroom. And I jump into my bathroom.”

Ocasio-Cortez said [she] was hiding behind the door “and then I just start to hear these yells of, ‘Where is she?’”

As members of the mob banged against the door, Ocasio-Cortez believed “this was the moment where I thought everything was over.”

“And the weird thing about moments like these is that you lose all sense of time,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “In retrospect, maybe it was 4 seconds. Maybe it was 5 seconds, maybe it was 10 seconds. Maybe it was one second, I don’t know. It felt like my brain was able to have so many thoughts.”

“In between the screams and the yells,” Ocasio-Cortez added, “I mean, I thought I was going to die.”

What does this all mean? In the giant scheme of things probably not much. AOC is an immature individual who happens to be in Congress. There are many there that fit that bill but the traction she is getting from her story with the media may be more of the story. We know there is a stretching of the truth by politicians but isn’t there supposed to be a search for the truth by our press? Apparently the lines are blurred. Since the media and press are actully working for the Progressive Left, apparently they get to also play by their rules.

This is such a disheartening story that the new Biden administration is perpetrating. The fact that children are being held in any manner after they are presented at the US / Mexican border is sad enough but the fact that the Biden team is creating a myth, a false story, about the reason that these children are being held is, and this is not hyperbole, sickening.

Biden is trying to use the plight of these children as an example of the harshness of the Trump immigration policy. Unfortunately, their narrative is all a lie and they are repeating it often. Apparently if you say something often enough, it becomes reality (see Russian collusion storyline). With them saying it and their cooperative media repeating it, the general uninformed public will soon buy it. Their story is that these unfortunate children have been taken from their parents with the possibility of never being reunited. If that were true, I don’t think you could find anyone who would have supported such an action. They now want to stop any future separation and do all we can to reunite these families and ideally on this side of the border.

Here is a more honest assessment of how this all happened. These unfortunate minors were actually not with any relatives as they came to and crossed our border. Very often they were pawns being transported by paid coyotes or they were found simply wandering around in the wilderness having been abandoned by whoever they were being transported by. There are no obvious parents with whom to reconnect these children with. They have no paperwork. They basically have no identity. A travesty? Absolutely, but not a situation that warrants blame being cast upon Trump or Border Patrol. As Biden continues to destroy all of the gains Trump made on working with the Mexican Government to put some controls on illegal border crossings, the number of these unaccompanied children will grow. A humanitarian problem with no easy solution but a perfect situation for the Biden administration to parlay to their favor as they try to do as much as possible to negate all of the Trump gains at the border and to make it a porous access point for illegals to gain access to their promised land. The caravans are already on route and they know that the rules have changed. They know that Biden and the Democrats see these people as future supporters and voters so safety and security for the rest of us be damned……The Dems are now in charge.

The current COVID-19 Economic Relief Bill that the Democrats are trying to push through the Senate has about as much of a chance of passing as Trump being impeached a second time…..oh wait, that actually happened. What I mean is it would have a snowball’s chance of hell in passing with the required 60 votes. But, the Dems, led by Bernie Sanders are threatening to use Reconciliation if they can not get to convince the Republicans to eat this big fat Pulled Pork Bill they have put together. Let’s be honest. This is not a COVID Relief Bill as much as a well disguised and named bill to convince the American public that they are taking care of us in a time of need. Let’s look at some of the hidden gems in this nearly $2.3 Trillion package.

Direct economic relief via stimulus checks of $600 for individuals making up to $75,000 per year. $1,200 for couples making up to $150,000, and an extra $600 for dependent children that are under 17 years old.

$15 billion in funding for live venues, independent movie theaters, and cultural institutions.

Provides $15 billion for airlines to support payrolls, $1 billion to Amtrak, with $655 million for the Northeast Corridor and $344 million for the national network, and $2 billion split between the motorcoach, school bus and ferry industries.

Provides $819 million to the Bureau of Indian Education-operated and funded schools and tribal colleges and universities.

$7 billion to expand broadband access for students, families and unemployed workers.

$1 billion in grants for tribal broadband programs.

Provides $10 billion in direct funding to the USPS without requiring repayment. These funds will be used for operational costs and other expenses resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bernie Sanders said this as he pushes for Reconciliation which would only require a simple majority to pass the bill: “If Republicans want to work with us, they have better ideas on how to address those crises, that’s great, but to be honest with you, I have not yet heard that”

What he wants added is an increase in the Minimum Wage to $15, more money for schools to reopen, eviction relief and more. He is not being specific but is talking about the pain and fear inflicted on the US people by the pandemic and that means just getting the printing presses working overtime. This is how they are going to use these bills to push through all of their promises made during the elections and then some. As Chuck Schumer said: “Now we take Georgia, then we change the world”. That is what this is really about. Buckle up, this ride is going to get bumpy.

The CDC, The Center For Disease Control and Prevention, should be an integral component in our war against COVID-19. The staff of the CDC should be concentrating 24/7 on the virus, its various mutations and what we need to do as a people to protect ourselves and others from the spread of this nasty plague that has gripped us for nearly a year and how to ensure we have the tools to prevent the continued havoc being wrought by this attack from China. Per their own mission statement, they are a research and informational tool for the government.

The CDC Mission Statement: To promote health and quality of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability. CDC’s mission statement succinctly states how the agency approaches its responsibilities as the nation’s prevention agency.

So how and when did this research arm of the HHS Department begin being a regulatory and enforcement agency that is acting like they are an armed team working under Homeland Security? When did suggestions become mandates? When did a team of scientists morph from telling us what we should do to stay healthy to become an unarmed militia that decides whether we are guilty of civil or criminal penalty if we do not heed their “advice”? I guess part of the answer is they saw an opportunity to assume a new roll when the world was under lockdown. The second part of the answer is….WE let them!

We surrendered many of our rights during this Pandemic. We gave up our right to worship, we gave up our right to free assembly, we have even given up our right to free speech. Now we are giving up our right to free think. Do what we say or pay the consequences.

We have to start fighting back. We have to regain our country, our Republic. We need to say enough. We know the death toll of COVID-19, or at least the number we are being told. What is yet to be counted is the lost and broken lives as a result of the suggestions, the mandates, by the CDC and the various Mayors, Selectmen, Governors and yes the President as they take to the air or internet to tell us they are our best friend and they will lead us through this emergency. Sorry but I have little faith in these people and their insight. They all point to The Science but which Science is that? The one that said masks are not useful but now mandate them. The ones that said open the schools,,,,no, close the schools. The ones that said outdoor dining was bad, then good, then bad again. How about the genius who said open the restaurants in California for outdoor dining but no watching TV……WHAT!

I have faith we will get through this but not because of our political leaders but rather in spite of them. All we can do is take care of ourselves, our loved ones, keep our heads focused and stay positive that their is normalcy down the road and it is not disguised with a mask. Then let’s focus on regaining our rights and vow never to let them slip away again.

We were very fortunate to have hosted the first home meet and greet for General Don Bolduc in August of 2019 when he was launching his quest to displace Jeanne Shaheen in DC. From the first minutes that the General, his wife, Sharon and his trusted dog, Victor, walked into our home, it was obvious that this was a man of character who would take his dedication to New Hampshire with him to Washington should he be chosen by the people of New Hampshire to be their Senator. He ran an admirable grass roots campaign and looked to be the Republican candidate to face off in 2020 against the liberal Shaheen. Unfortunately, in one of the most confusing moves by President Trump, the President threw his support behind Corkey Messner and the Bolduc campaign was derailed in the Republican primary. I am thrilled that Don wasted no time to declare his candidacy for Senate in the 2022 race against Maggie Hassan. Hassan is not only one of the least respected Senators in Congress, according to the website govtrack.us, but she has also been labeled as one of the top 5 Democrat Senators who are susceptible to losing their seat in 2022. This may be a perfect storm for General Bolduc. He is already known to the voters, he should not have a Messner to contend with in a primary and is the truly Conservative choice against Hassan in a state that is showing a trend towards returning to a Red State. Why is Bolduc the right person for New Hampshire? These are his key policy positions.

1. THE ACA IS A BUREAUCRATIC MESS THAT IS DESIGNED AND DESTINED TO COLLAPSE

2. NEW HAMPSHIRE HAS THE HIGHEST STUDENT DEBT IN THE NATION.

3. AS AMERICANS, WE ARE PROTECTED UNDER THE CONSTITUTION TO BEAR ARMS.

4. BORDER SECURITY & ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION ARE ABOUT NATIONAL SECURITY

5. NEW HAMPSHIRE DESPERATELY NEEDS A FULL-SERVICE VA HOSPITAL

6. ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT HAS TO PROMOTE FREE MARKET COMPETITION

Conservative positions that are right for New Hampshire at a time when the voters of New Hampshire, the real Granite Staters, are yearning for a return to Conservative representation in Washington.

We hope the the General, Sharon and yes, Victor will again join us in Exeter to meet his like thinking supporters. It will be our honor to open up our home for the next Senator from New Hampshire, General Don Bolduc. Let’s look forward to a successful flip of the Hassan seat in what is looking to be a Red Wave nationally in the midterm of 2022.

President or Dictator? If Joe Biden were to answer that question, by his own definition, he would have to say Dictator. Maybe he will need to redesign the Presidential Seal and he will simply have that done by Executive Order.

Donald Trump signed 220 Executive Orders in his four years as President. That is 55 per YEAR….Joe Biden has put his signature on 37 EOs in his FIRST WEEK. Even the liberal New York Times is asking him to hit the brakes.

Ease Up on the Executive Actions, Joe. President Biden is right to not let his agenda be held hostage, but legislating through Congress is a better path. NY Times Editorial Board

So what is so urgent that with control of the White House, The Senate and The House, Joe cannot wait to legislate, he needs to dictate. With the Pandemic gripping our nation and that being the single thing that Biden supporters sent him to Washington to tackle, most of those EOs must involve our War on COVID. If you thought that you would be wrong. Let’s look at the urgent situations that Joe could not wait to address.

1. Executive order rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate change

2. Executive order to promote racial equity

3. Executive order revising immigration enforcement policies

4. Executive order incorporating undocumented immigrants into census

5. Executive order refocusing on the climate crisis and canceling the Keystone XL permit

6. Executive order banning discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation

7. Proclamation pulling funds from border wall

8. Executive order reversing transgender military ban

9. Executive order to end reliance on private prisons

10. Memorandum expanding access to reproductive health care

How’s that for a Top 10? I am sure the Squad is feeling pretty empowered. The LGBTQ community just found the gold at the end of their rainbows. Planned Parenthood just gave out bonuses when the ink was dry even though it means the deaths of millions of unborn babies. And oh yeah…strike up the bands for the marching caravans from the South…stimulus checks, vaccinations and voter registration cards await you at the border.

All of these actions are signed by a President who claims he is a moderate. Claims he can work with both parties in Congress and who says we can impeach Donald Trump and still have Congress do it’s job. Sorry, these are the actions of a President beholden to the Radical Left. This is a President who some feared would be a puppet and is already caught up and tangled in the strings. This is a President who has shown us in just 10 days what we can expect….the promised Transformation of America. Nancy, Chuck and Bernie are old but Joe has given them a tingle up their legs that they thought they had forever lost.

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One of the most stressful aspects of this nearly year long pandemic is being able to keep pace with the narratives, to try not to get sucked into the panic that was being used to garner control and to try to ascertain the truth from the lies. Between the politicians who parlayed this crisis to chip away at our God given rights and the lapdog media who rather than dig for the truth would nod their heads in agreement with whatever line they were being fed we have a cast of characters to view as those who orchestrated the biggest coup on the American population without ever having to fire a shot.

There are so many who are guilty in this conspiracy to keep us locked down and to decide who would survive and who would be a victim….with their life or their livelihood. There is one, however, who stands head and shoulders above the rest and because he had placed himself on such a high pedestal, he is now looking at a bigger fall. This pompous individual who took an hour of our day for months preaching to us from on high about how not only New Yorkers should live in this COVID world but how all people should bow to his wisdom. He was touted as a possible step-in for Biden, should the nominee implode before the election. He was praised as the voice of wisdom and strength by virtually every MSM outlet, he was awarded an Emmy for his daily appearances and yes, he even had time to write a book….his own account of what an incredible job he had done and the wonderful person and leader he is. Aren’t we all so lucky to have Governor Cuomo in our lives at our time of need? No, actually we are not and as the truth unfolds and the layers are peeled away, we are not left with a savior but more like an onion and it stinks.

It is all starting to unravel. The NY State AG produced a report today claiming that the nursing home deaths as a result of COVID-19 that had been reported by Governor Andrew Cuomo had been understated by as much as 50%…..not 5, not 10 but 50 %. Instead of 10,000 New Yorkers losing their lives in nursing homes because of the tragic decision of Cuomo to put infected patients in homes with healthy residents may now be as many as 15,000. Governor Cuomo is responsible for these deaths. Maybe not all of them could have been saved if the USNS Comfort sent to New York by President Trump or the military hospital set up at the Javits Center had been used as suggested by Trump but no, Andrew Cuomo knew better…..he wrote a book about it, remember. He contaminated numerous nursing homes and as a result, 15,000 are dead. By the way, Cuomo is also nominated for a Nobel Prize for his great effort this past year. They may want to hold off on that presentation.

There is no question that Cuomo is a terrible Governor. The state is bleeding money, people are leaving the state for better environments like Florida and Texas, the vaccination program is in shambles, over 1500 restaurants have permanently closed in NYC but now add to all of that, the needless deaths of 15,000 of New York’s finest. Will he be held accountable? Probably not. He actually may throw in for President in 2024. Won’t that be just great. He can take his NY expertise and drag down the whole country. That will make a heck of a book.

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Tulsi Gabbard did not get the Democrat nomination for President in 2020. Tulsi Gabbard is no longer a member of Congress representing the state of Hawaii. These may all prove to be a good thing for America.

Now before you think this is going to be a negative post and I am going to stomp on Ms Gabbard, you could not be further from the truth. I think, and have from the first Democrat debate, that Tulsi Gabbard is a breath of fresh air. The Dems saw her as a threat and canceled her out of the race by having Hillary say she was a Russian spy, change the rules to keep her off the stage and basically brush her aside. Why, because they are afraid of a woman like Tulsi Gabbard. Smart, young, energetic, well spoken, a member of the military, a wife, a middle of the road thinker….she could be all we could ever ask for in a politician. But DC is a mess, a disfunctional quagmire where people like Gabbard get eaten alive. She has taken to Social Media, she has taken to appearances on FOX, she has written a book, she is getting her voice heard and even her delivery is fresh and interesting. I think that Tulsi Gabbard’s best days and most influential days are still ahead of her. I hope she chooses her landing spot wisely where she can be heard by and influence the greatest number of people. She is a quality person, she is a proud American and we need to savor a person like her as they come around far too infrequently.

The Senate has always been considered the Upper Chamber of Congress and is the deliberative body where it is imperative that there be approval by both parties for a piece of legislature to pass in the Senate. Evidence of what happens when the filibuster is eliminated for Senate action is the approval of Supreme Court Justices. Harry Reid changed the approval of executive branch nominations and federal judicial appointments to a simple majority by utilizing the so called Nuclear Option back in 2013. He would live to regret that move when Mitch McConnell extended the Option in 2017 to allow Neil Gorsuch to be placed on the SCOTUS by a simple majority. This was the first of three SCOTUS appointments approved during the Trump administration. This was a huge development for the Republicans as it assured a Conservative leaning Court for years to come. Overall, though, this use of the Nuclear Option is dangerous for all as it places too much power into the party of power.

There are far too many initiatives on the table by Democrats in this new Congress and with them holding the Trifecta of all three branches, having a simple majority be the rule in the Senate will open the door for a flood of Progressive ideas being pushed into law. Staying with the Court, a simple majority rule would allow the packing of the Supreme Court to a possible 15 Justices instead of the historic 9. This would reshape the Court and if 6 new liberal Justices were added, it would remain liberal for generations. In addition to the Court, the initiatives on the Environment, Voting Rights and Procedures, Immigration will be just the beginning of the total transformation of the United States that Democrats have been promising for years. We have to maintain the filibuster to maintain America. It really is that simple.

Where to begin with this farce. First of all the fact that this feckless group of Congressional Democrats is marching the impeachment paperwork to the Senate in Prime Time…..talk about made for bad TV. This is a mock trial of a former President with the sole purpose of not only destroying him, preventing him from ever coming back to run again and to send a message to his supporters that they are in charge and they can cancel us at their will. Sad and oh so wrong.

This is being done at a time when supposedly the Pandemic is supposed to be the focus of all. They claim the Senate can multi task but let’s be realistic, The Senate, and Congress as a whole, has not been able to put together a COVID Relief Bill in months but now claim they can impeach a private citizen and work on approving Presidential appointments and work on COVID……they can not do any of the individual let alone the collection of tasks.

The closing line of the Impeachment said it all…..prevent him from holding any other office in the future. This from Nancy Pelosi who lives in a city where 2200 homeless are living in hotels at the cost of $15M a month. This from Eric Swalwell who ran for President for a nanosecond while he was sleeping with a Chinese Spy who has left the country so she can not even be questioned. This is such a farce that I could go on for paragraphs but that would be as futile as the Impeachment and as inept as the Democrat party has shown in the last ten days. More to come….stay tuned but this will prove as useless as it did a year ago. There will not be 17 Republican Senators to vote Yeah so let’s save the time and money and move on.