ELECTION 2021

 

It’s November 3, 2021 and the elections for this month/year are over. Glenn Youngkin (R) has beaten Terry McAuliffe (D) for the governorship of VA. This is a heavily Democrat state where Biden supposedly won the election by 10% only a year ago. The Democrats are saying this is not a reflection of Biden’s failure as a President. The Republicans are saying that it is.

Throughout the campaign the Democrats focused on one issue: Trump. It was what they talked about most. When President Biden went there to campaign he mentioned Trump repeatedly but never mentioned any accomplishments he or McAuliffe had achieved. President Obama went in and told the people of VA that the culture war didn’t actually exist, it was created by the Republicans. VP Harris came in and campaigned for him. So did GA heavy hitter Stacy Abrams. And yet he lost.

On the other hand Youngkin never talked about Trump and didn’t even campaign with him. He talked about the concerns that the voters of VA had. This included the handling of the border, the rise in crime, cancel culture and the determination of school boards to insert critical race theory into schools.

The difference in views between the two on schools was jarring. McAuliffe did what any Democrat would do. He said that he would increase teacher’s pay. He showed he could care less what voters and parents think saying "I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach." Then again teachers unions almost exclusively donate money to Democrat candidates.

Youngkin sides with the parents. He made note of what the fact that critical race theory is yet another attempt to pit one group against another. It’s yet one more example of the Democrats trying to create an us versus them mentality. All the while schoolboards were claiming that they were in fear for their lives. They and the teacher’s unions sent letters to the President asking for him to start an investigation into parents who were upset by their actions. Unfortunately for President Biden it came out that these letters were instigated by his own White House as they asked both groups to make this request so they could assign AG Garland to instruct the FBI to look into the parents. This is a throwback to the Obama administration politicizing a government branch as they did targeting right leaning groups by the IRS.

So what can we take away from this election? If you ask Biden he says it’s because his Build Back Better initiative hasn’t been passed yet. He ignores his performance as President in the whole matter and says that has nothing to do with anything. This after saying a few days ago that America has the strongest returning economy in the world…despite the fact that both Indian and China are showing more growth. He says things like more people have had the vaccine since he took office; well since the first vaccine was administered on December 14, 2020 and he took office January 20, 2021, about a month later I hope so. That’s almost 10 months compared to one. And the numbers aren’t decreasing.

The wise Democrats are realizing that the goose that laid the golden egg, or in this case the orange goose, can no longer be used to win an election. At a time when gas prices are at least a dollar more than what they were a year ago, when inflation shows no sign of slowing down, when the border is porous, when murders in this country are on the rise people no longer want to hear “orange man bad”. He’s been gone for 9 months how can any of this be his fault? Especially when anyone can see what policy measures have been put in place that have created these things.

The border: Biden eliminates all items put in place by President Trump without looking to see which ones worked. During his campaign he also told people come on in. The results was an increase in people crossing the border illegally. He tried to say this was just a seasonal thing but the numbers showed the numbers were higher than in the pass. Then he recently decided to pay all these people who entered ILLEGALLY $450,000 each because they were separated from family members while breaking the law in the way they entered the country.

Crime: As activists and protesters complain there are thousands of young blacks in this country being killed by white police officers they called out for an elimination of police forces and defunding the same police departments. This in spite of the fact the facts. Facts like black criminals were more likely to be shot by black officers than whites. Facts like the numbers aren’t there to back up the claim. As the claim was made the facts showed there were perhaps 100 blacks killed by police officers at the time and that most of them were either trying to take the officer’s gun when shot, trying to run over them with a care or other violent acts. At the time the claim was made there were only two, count them, two incidents where the police were guilty of misconduct in a shooting death and both resulted in charges brought against those officers.

Gas prices: When Biden took office the average cost of a gallon of gas was 2.47. Today it is 3.39. Before he took office America was self-sufficient for the first time when it came to gas. Those on the left will tell you that Biden had nothing to do with this, it is due to a shortage on the supply side. This ignores the fact that he shut down two pipelines when he entered office. And while he’s called on our country to commit to stop using fossil fuels he’s encouraged those in the Middle East to increase their output and agreed on Putin putting a pipeline in Russia.

Activism right and left: As riots and buildings continue to burn across the country the Biden administration does nothing to prevent them. They don’t hold organizations like BLM or Antifa responsible for any of it despite their fingerprints everywhere. Instead they continue to push the concept that the most dangerous groups facing our country are white supremacists. This despite there being no white supremacists staging rallies or destroying property or people anywhere. And if you’re a parent concerned about what your children are being taught, the Biden administration considers you a threat as well. So much so that they’ve called on the AG and FBI to investigate parents who are bold enough to speak on behalf of their children.

Foreign policy: Before he became President, Biden said that out allies were unhappy with us and he would re-establish our relationships with foreign countries. Now the French are unhappy with us because of our deal with Australia for nuclear subs. North Korea began testing missiles again. China launched a hypersonic missile. President Biden removes our troops from Afghanistan in a catastrophic failure removing the troops first rather than last and leaving behind a number of US citizens and Afghanis who helped us who would now face execution; his response was that this was Trump’s fault because he committed us to withdrawing troops from there by May (which he said as he began withdrawing them in August 3 months after that “deadline” while ignoring the Trump plan that called for troops to be withdrawn last rather than first; it also ignored the fact that a vast number of other items put in place by Trump he either ignored or rescinded).

In 2020 candidate Joe Biden ran as a moderate Democrat. Once in office that was tossed out the window and he showed his far left ideas and put them in place. Yet another lie to get where he wanted to be. Or at least to get the Democrats in power. And to retain power they’ve done all they could from trying to eliminate the filibuster (which they used often) to claiming voting rights were being destroyed by the right when in fact they were making things easier to vote. At least legally.

So what can we take away from the elections this year? Well for one Democrat strategists are today talking about how they need to stop talking about Donald Trump. It’s done nothing to help them. But that won’t be easy since there are almost no accomplishments that can be seen as positive since Biden took office. More bad things have actually happened in almost 10 months than the entire 4 years Trump was in office. My guess is we will see more lies told about opponents and more attempts at changing voting rules.

The Republicans may be celebrating now but they need to keep the push on rather than bask in the wins. They need to continue to stand up for things they believe in such as not teaching CRT or allowing pornographic books into schools. They need to clean up police forces and eliminate the bad apples and show this is being done. They need to prove they have a better plan for all of the things that Biden has ruined since taking office. And they need to not sit down but to work hard to win the midterms and take back both the House and the Senate.

They say you can’t blame all of the bad things that happen on just one President. The mass media tried to prove that wrong for 4 years of Trump by turning any good news into bad and consistently blaming him for everything. Now they claim none of these problems are because of Biden. But they’re finding it’s not near as easy to make something as terrible as the Biden administration look like it’s doing something good. It would be nice if they were just impartial. It’s time they were ignored and people did their due diligence in what is actually taking place.

ARE WE HERE YET?

 

I’ve noted before that fear sells when it comes to the press. They not only thrive on it, they encourage it. If you don’t believe that then look at the headlines at the top of Drudge today. You’d think the world ended and the apocalypse predicted in MAX MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME was already here.

-CDC internal report calls Delta variant as contagious as smallpox 

-Millions infected daily?

-Significance of “breakthrough” infections not clear

-Mask decision followed Cape Cod outbreak

-Capitol Police ordered to arrest barefaces

-School debate erupts anew weeks before classes resume

-Feelings of déjà vu amid more mandates, restrictions

-Front-line workers in FL say surge “feels like impending storm”

-“Crazy” wait times at testing sites

-Some chasing extra dose, while scientists debate

-NFL QB jabbed after pressure from league: “They’ll make life miserable”

-Pandemic leads to another summer of anger

-Biden mask back on

-Military ‘mandatory injections’

-Sydney readies for the army as lockdown fails to quash Delta variant

-LA schools mandate weekly testing for students, teacher

-‘Covid with a vengeance’ consumes politics

I know that most of us have had someone touched by Covid since this all began. I had a family member who tested positive. The result? Some headache, some nausea for a few days. After that all done. Now don’t get me wrong I know there are some who had it worse and many who have died. But consider all of the people you know, your day to day life, your going to the grocery store, your family get togethers. Do you see signs of the apocalypse there? 

When you think about it the worst thing about this has been the politicization of it all. The government talking about forcing people to take vaccines. Government groups arresting people for not wearing masks, especially odd since they told us if vaccinated you don’t need them. Biden and Harris saying they wouldn’t take a vaccine if it was made under Trump only to months later condemn people for not taking the same vaccine prepared under Trump; and then claiming others were responsible for people’s unwillingness to get the vaccine. Borders closed to the north while thousands who test positive are allowed to come across the southern border and shipped to cities across the country. Telling us to trust the government who says one thing one week, the opposite the next and then reverses to the first item a week later. Yes, information changes but why not stop rushing to judgement only to change days later?

With all of this explosive news one would think Covid was the number one cause of death in the US in 2020. Except it wasn’t. It came in third. First was heart disease and second was cancer. Then you have unintentional injuries, stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease and suicide. I understand and Covid is different from the first two because it can be transmitted from one person to another but why are we not seeing as large a concern for every other item on the list? And if we are forcing people to be vaccinated, when we see the same edicts given to the other items on the list?

Here’s the thing about Covid. It’s out there. It will always be out there with new variants popping up from time to time. If you don’t believe that consider that influenza is still on that list and it’s been around for centuries. Take precautions, get the vaccine and wear a mask. But don’t condemn others for choosing not to. And stop with the Chicken Little scenarios. It’s not helping the country when you do so.

WE ARE NOT WHO THEY CLAIM WE ARE; WE ARE UNITED

 

I mentioned “self-fulfilling prophecy” On Facebook. There’s a great example of it going on right now.

For most people their day to day lives consist of going to work, coming home, doing things around the house, eating dinner, watching TV and going to bed. Weekend are spent dealing with bigger things around the house, going places, being with family and things like that. The average person, the majority of people, are doing this day in and day out. They have jobs, they don’t have time to join hate groups. But the press goes on and on about them as if they were marching down each and every Main Street in America.

They have pushed this narrative of a racist country for decades in spite of things finally getting better. As each generation realized the mistakes of the past, things improved. Starting in the 60s, which you have to realize is now 60 YEARS AGO, the changes began. Blacks were on TV series and commercials, being paid on sports teams and in commercials and separate bathrooms were being changed to just two, men and women. The 70s showed a surge in movies with Blaxploitation films making blacks heroes, blacks were not just included in series but were the lead characters as well, inclusion and representation in more and more things on a daily basis was happening. All of this continued with each passing decade. But one thing didn’t change much. 

Blacks still weren’t moving into better paying jobs. They’d been sold a bill of goods for decades saying “Vote for me and I’ll take care of you”. Except it didn’t happen. Instead politicians like LBJ destroyed the black family unit and black fathers were replaced with government fathers paying the bills and raising kids. It is perhaps the single worst thing to happen to blacks in the country. It increased the number of crimes committed by blacks and an increase in black gangs.

This was boosted in a time when it should have decreased. Barrack Obama was our first black President. That should have been a great moment for blacks in this country and in some ways it was. But here again we had a Democrat pledging to save people and he did nothing to help them. Wages for blacks didn’t rise significantly his 8 years in office. And he blamed white people, in particular police officers, for all the ails that took place for blacks in this country. It was the initial wedge being planted between whites and blacks again.

Then we had a rash of police involved shooting deaths involving white officers and black suspects. Except that it wasn’t a rash or huge number. It was like single digits and almost all of them involved criminals committing crimes. But that’s not what we heard. That caused the rise of a Marxist organization (their words not mine) who focused on the deaths of blacks in this country. Unless those deaths were committed by blacks against blacks (the number one killer of young black men today in this country) or abortion clinics. That organization took in millions of dollars preaching hate and claiming this was rampant in this country. As the dust settled slightly we found out that all of those donations weren’t going to local chapters and the leaders of the group were buying multiple properties, some on posh white neighborhoods filled with people they claimed to hate.

Now that self-fulfilling prophecy. Throughout all of this, from the 60s forward to now, one group profited highly from these events. The mainstream media promoted racism in this country. Seriously. News is based on alarmism. You create a boogeyman to scare children and tell them stories about him on nightly news. In this case white supremacist and Klan members. Early on these people were rightly vilified and they began to crawl into obscurity. Groups like the SPLC were trotted out by the press to inform us that it was still raging across the country. The thing is we didn’t see these groups. Almost ever.

That all changed when Trump was elected. Not because he encouraged it, he actually condemned racist organizations routinely but you’d never know that watching the nightly news. For the first time in decades we actually saw a racist group show up on TV in Charlottesville. And then they disappeared again. But that didn’t stop the press. They could now jump up and down screaming “See! We told you they were there!” And then they disappeared again.

But the press continued their claim that these people were out there rioting in the streets and causing issues in this country. To boost this claim they began labeling anyone who disagreed with them as racist. If you thought all lives matter and not just black lives, you were told you were a racist. If you supported that policies of the Trump administration, things like policies that saw significant rises in median household income levels and wages of blacks rise for the first time in decades, you were labeled a racist. If you spoke your mind and it wasn’t a woke mind, you were a racist.

Night after night, day after day, we were being bombarded with this information from the press. And it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. After claims had been made for decades people began to believe what they were being told. Recent surveys show that many Americans believe that racism is alive and well in this country, that it is thriving. Why? Because they have been told repeatedly that it has.

Stories of people like George Floyd were claimed to be the norm rather than the exception. This led to calls to defund the police. If you’d listen to the news you’d think that’s what everyone wants. Some cities went so far as to follow through with this, taking money from police departments and putting it into social systems instead. The end result was fewer officers and a rise in crime. Some of these cities saw a 700% rise in their murder rates. The hardest hit neighborhoods were those of color and impoverished neighborhoods. In those neighborhoods blacks were not calling for fewer police but for MORE police. Almost every survey of these neighborhoods saw that 70-80% of blacks living there wanted MORE police. But that doesn’t make for a good soundbite for a politician on TV.

And those racists scum we were told about, our biggest boogeyman? The Biden administration and the FBI have told us that white supremacist are our most feared domestic terror group at present. All funding and efforts are aimed towards taking down these groups. None of these groups are named though. And we haven’t seen evidence of their doing anything. At least with foreign terrorists we saw them take down two towers, get on planes, kill our soldiers in other countries and more. Here though? Crickets.

And while those crickets chirp when it comes to these racists terrorists we watched as buildings were being burned to the ground in Democrat run cities across the country. Federal buildings and police stations were set afire. People were being brutalized and in some cases killed by groups like antifa. Cars were carjacked. Streets were blocked and cars forced to drive elsewhere. A section of one city was set aside for protesters resulting in death, rapes, theft and more in that area with no police protections. Make no mistake these groups were definitely terrorist groups. But Democrats called them a myth. They said they didn’t exist as video upon video showed them doing these misdeeds. The press portrayed them as “peaceful protesters” as building burned in the background.

When January 6^th happened the press had a field day. There was those racists’ boogeymen! There they were trying to overturn our country and destroy democracy! They were mostly white so they had to be racists! They were terrorist trying to harm this great land.

While we had a steady stream of violence for three months across the country that destroyed lives, businesses and billions of dollars in property damage none of that was called an act of terrorism. And it went on for months and months. January 6^th took place on one day and after 5 hours it was all over and things went back to normal.

If you think a bunch of unarmed people waving American flags can completely overturn our system of government in a single day I have to wonder about you. This group was nothing more than a collection of people who were unhappy about election results and got carried away. The amount of damage they did that day was a few windows and a door. No buildings were burned to the ground. No businesses were destroyed. With the exception of one of the protesters no one was killed by what took place. How could you possibly believe that our system of democracy, our government, could be completely upended by 3-400 people walking through the Capitol building while we have thousands upon thousands of military personnel in this country, thousands upon thousands of police officers in this country? Really?

I think our country is stronger than that. And if people simply turned off the network news and cable news stations who make it their business to create turmoil rather than appease it they’d know this. If they sat on their porch and said hi to their neighbors they’d see just how peaceful this country really is. No one is walking down the aisle of the supermarket yelling racial epithets at people of color. They see people they know, smile, wave and say hi. Their lives are not ruled by racist beliefs in spite of what the press and left wing politicians want us to believe.

The press does this because it sells. The old adage “if it bleeds it leads” is still true to this day. The thing is that they encourage the worst in people giving them air time. Politicians know too that if you create something to fear they can control you as well. Present people an evil and make them think you are there to right all wrongs, to finally give them justice and to protect them and you’ll get votes which is all they care about.

A simple question. After months of riots, burning buildings, looting, killing in the streets, congress has not impaneled an investigation of what took place. As a matter of fact many of those people who were arrested doing these things have been released without charges. On the other hand a congressional inquiry has been established for what happened during 5 hours on January 6^th. Almost 500 people have been arrested and jailed for actions from that day. A man walking peacefully through the Capitol that day was just sentenced to 8 months in prison. He was guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time waving the wrong flag. So why are we focusing so much on that day but not the months previously? Unless you’re using it for political purposes.

How about we do this. We stop watching those news programs that promote outrage and violence. Or we start digging deeper into the things they tell us so we can learn the WHOLE story. And how about we continue to sit on the porch, wave to the neighbors and be the normal people we are. The normal people that the news folks and politicians have no clue make up the majority of this country. The good people that know first-hand that racism isn’t running rampant, that black and white people live together fine every day, that police are actually good people and that hate isn’t ruining this country, news people and politicians are.

Cathy Turner's Memorial

 

 

As some of you are aware my wife of 41 years (this coming August) passed away. I've been writing on Facebook to deal with it in my own way. At her memorial service I wrote something for Pastor Kevin Stirratt to read for me since I knew I'd never make it through reading it. Many of you said that not only did Pastor Stirratt do a great job of the service but that the words touched you. So if you would like to read them through taking your time I thought I'd post it here. The following is what was written and said:

If you know me you know that I surround myself with two things. Movies and humor. So keep in mind that humor has gotten me through much of this. Memories of things that Cathy and I laughed at, of when she laughed at me and when I laughed at her. I’ve also gotten through much of this with crying and thinking back to the good AND bad times. What I posted this week is true, ALL couples go through times like that. If you think you’re the only one take comfort in knowing you’re not alone. And as I said on my post, like the nightly news it is the bad things that get talked about and the most attention while the daily good things are set aside. Those bad times might make up just point 1% and the good times 99.9%, but they don’t get nearly the attention they deserve.

Cathy and I began dating in high school. She always reminded me how dumb I was about asking her out and it made her laugh. I walked up to her at her locker and said “Would you like to go out Friday night?” She said yes and I said “Okay I’ll let you know when” and walked away. Believe it or not I was shy. Before that we were with a group of friends who went out to Luden’s Bridge and then Noah’s Ark for pizza. The next time we went out was our first date, 3 couples, to Southtown to see the movie THE ODESSA FILE. The following week we began going steady. 

We went steady off and on through 2 years of high school. She’d get mad, break up and by the time I got home (remember, no cell phones then) she’d be on the phone apologizing and we’d be back together again. We stayed together the same way while I was in college and in 1980 when I graduated we got married. We moved to Indy and I worked for Loews Theaters while she worked for different dentists making retainers. We had Alex there and around 1986 we moved back to Decatur. 

We were together through the years of Popcorn Video and she kept making retainers for a doctor in Ft. Wayne. Eventually she left that and pursued an education as nurse. She went to both Ivy Tech and St. Vincent’s and eventually got her BS in nursing. She was proud of the RN after her name.  She worked at various hospital including here in town and at nursing homes. When she got sick with Meniere’s disease she went on disability. Eventually she came down with cancer and was fighting that the last two years. But it was congestive heart failure that took her from us. 

So much for history and a few answers to some of your questions. My memories? 

I remember her being a hottie and no matter what she always was that to me. I remember how much she adored our son Alex, James to some of you. Ask me another time and I’ll explain. I remember her loving being the drum major for the Bellmont High School band. I remember her loving music, from playing it to singing to listening to it. She was mostly off key singing but I never told her. She would often be enthralled by various performers from Kenny Loggins to Daryl Hall to Michael Hutchence to Robert Lamm. And yet when I once said “It’s a good thing I don’t fall for any performer” she cried saying that would tear her apart. She was still a fan of Chicago last week. 

She couldn’t have loved her family more. Not just her nieces and nephews who she baby sat for when they were kids but their kids and their kid’s kids as well. If there was a baby around they weren’t safe if she was there. She loved holding those babies. She loved watching they grow up. She loved supporting them. She loved watching them in their homes. 

She loved the rest of her family too, her parents and sisters and brother. She loved my family. Does love mean you never get mad? Not at all. She did that often. If you ever saw her scowl you’ll remember it now. But it didn’t mean she didn’t love those people with all of her heart. She was opinionated and that got her in trouble sometimes but it never meant she didn’t still love her entire family, each and every one of you. Okay I will admit, though not a family member, she didn’t like Juan Williams on THE FIVE very much. She made me fast forward through his comments when we’d watch.

When our son moved away it broke her heart but she understood. There were times when she would call just to hear his voice. There were times she had ME call just to hear him but didn’t want to talk over the past year. Then she would say something because she got tired of hearing the two of us talk about movies or comics. Neither interested her. 

She love some reality TV but hated other shows. Ghost hunting shows she loved, historical shows she loved and lost type shows she loved. Among the pictures I shared are some of the guys from GHOST HUNTERS we met. She was ecstatic about that. She heard they were going to be in Kentucky and I made sure she got to go see them. She loved FINDING BIGFOOT and EXPEDITION BIGFOOT. Watching those shows with her gave me ideas to use in Sweet Christmas. I often wondered why she loved shows like this but hated wrestling programs. Some people actually believe in Bigfoot *cough cough Kevin*. 

She was my censor when I would write the Sweet Christmas programs. I heard more than once “No Mark, you can’t do that there.” Everyone who is a member of this church should be thankful that she was there. You may be in trouble at the next one. And yet in spite of that she didn’t prevent issues with pants. 

You can’t be with someone for 45 years and sum up your life together in 25 words or less. Heck I’m at 1027 already. We had our ups and downs but I loved her each and every day. Last Friday I realized it even more than ever. I will cling to those memories and thoughts and feelings. From comments made this last week I know all of you will as well. The outpouring has been amazing. I will have to adjust. My whole focus for the past two years has been taking care of her. Now I feel kind of lost but I will find myself again eventually. I love each and every one of you just like she did. I thank you for your love to her all these years. I thank her for the love she gave me for over half of my life. 

I have no doubt more memories will be shared over the upcoming days and weeks. But now I open up to allow anyone to do so here. I was told some people might be too shy. You’re among friends and loved ones. There were so many good times. Feel free to share those now, here. And if not Kevin will move on. If someone doesn’t get up and talk about Swine Lake I will be stunned. 

I’ll get the ball rolling. Three weeks ago she looked at me after the song “Happy Man” by Chicago played. She said “I could play the bongos like that. Why don’t you order me some bongos?” I laughed it off. A week later she said “Has my package shown up yet?” I said “What package?” She said “My bongos”. I told her I thought she was joking and she know she was serious and not to buy her any of those cheap bongos but a real pair. So I ordered her a real set of bongos. They showed up last week and she was tickled pink. She began playing them right away having watch lessons on YouTube that week before. She kept telling me she wanted me to learn a song on the guitar and would joke that we would play together on Madison Street. I’d just laugh. I knew better. But I’ll tell you this. I’m glad I bought her those bongos. At a time when she wasn’t feeling herself or feeling good they made her smile. I’ll keep that smile with me. 

I love you all. Thank you for me and Alex both. Your turn.

If you are here with someone you love, turn to them and tell them and give them a hug or a kiss or both. Let them know. Right now. Life is precious and short. You might think you’re too busy and will get to it eventually. The reality is that you never know no matter what age you are if you will miss that chance. So do it now while you can. Call someone you love when you leave here and make sure they know. Write to them. You can lose someone in the blink of an eye. Don’t let the chance to tell them what they mean slip from you. Do it now and do it often after.