A FEW RANTS FOR THE END OF 2018

What if they had a government shutdown and nobody knew? I understand that many who work for our government do important work, but I also believe many more are just paper stackers. And when the stacks get high enough, they take them down and stack them again.

I watch with amazement as supposed-intelligent people, Members of Congress, rant on about the border wall. I heard Senator Schumer sounding like a schoolyard bully, stating that President Trump will never get his border wall. People of New York. Are you proud to know that Chuckie Schumer represents you in the US Senate?

Here’s some information for you Senator Schumer. The border wall is not President Trump’s wall. It will belong to the American people and it will be built and it will be effective keeping illegal people and drugs out of this country. Your actions are not now and never has been about a border wall. This defiance of our President is about you and your Democrat cohorts refusing to allow him to have any success. You and your Democrat associates will pay a huge price for your continuing resistance to the will of the American people.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for goodness sakes. Retire. You are eighty-five years old and you have fought cancer many times. You have earned an easy chair. Ultimately none of us can stop the march of time. You will eventually be replaced and by a justice who both can read and understand the Constitution of the United States. The sooner the better.

To the Federal Reserve. Thanks for nothing. By your actions you have successfully destroyed the wealth of millions of people as well as made a serious dent in the economy of this country. I hope you are proud.

I don’t know about you, but I am growing very tired of experts who think they know all. I remember Alan Greenspan. He, almost single handed, destroyed this country for years. In his zeal to be relevant, he and his cohorts raised interest until their choke-hold brought the stock market to its knees. It took many years to recover from that bit of stupidity. Who knows how long it will take to recover from this latest attack on our economy. Leave the markets alone. Leave interest rates alone. Let the market decide.

I wasn’t going to write a column this week. I am celebrating the Christmas season and I hope you are too. So, I’ll leave you with this thought. This country and its people are stronger than a few punk politicians. 2019 is going to be a great year.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

Ron Scarbro

OBAMACARE HAS TO BE REPLACED

OBAMACARE HAS TO BE REPLACED

A federal judge in Texas has found Obamacare unconstitutional. He ruled that since the individual mandate, that being a required participation or a fine if you choose not to participate, was eliminated by the Trump tax cut of 2017, the entire law was now illegal.

Of course the response has been predictable. The left is up in arms screaming that this is all Trump’s fault. They will immediately appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the most liberal court in the land, who will doubtlessly overturn the Texas Judge’s opinion. It is easy for the Ninth Circuit to rule the way they do because they either don’t read the Constitution or they do not understand it.

The next step is also quite predictable. The whole matter will be appealed to the Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit will again be overturned. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is the most overturned court in this country. Obamacare as we know it is finished.

The fact is it should have been finished before it even started. The only reason the “Affordable Care Act” became law was because the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, changed the language in the law and made the individual mandate a tax. Congress clearly stated it was never intended to be a tax but Roberts decided to write law rather than just do his job of interpreting law. By renaming this mandate a tax, it passed Constitutional muster. With the subsequent elimination of that particular tax by the tax cut, Obamacare immediately became unconstitutional.

Now the Congress is going to have to enact a new law to cover up for the disaster of the past.

The number one problem is pre-existing conditions. Now remember, we are not talking about health care. No, we are talking about health care insurance. The only way any insurance can work is if the vast majority of participants pay for the coverage but never use it. Imagine if you decided to never buy health care insurance but found one day that you were diagnosed with a catastrophic disease. Do you think it would be right to then go out and buy insurance? No insurer could survive if this were the situation. With no individual mandate, only the government would be able to subsidize such insurance.

This then is the problem facing the Congress. Had Obama stayed out of this in the first place, private business would have found a way of dealing with the situation. But he didn’t and now we must clean up the mess that has caused.

Here is a little fact that is going to upset some liberals. Medical care is not a right. It is a commodity and just like all commodities, it is for sale. Here is another fact. The high cost of medical care has been caused in large part by the availability of health care insurance. Imagine what care would cost if there was no insurance and the medical industry was left to competition just like all other commodities.

The other side of that coin is that we have some of the best care available and that is due in large part to the vast amount of money flowing to that industry.

This is just some of the reality that Congress is going to have to deal with as they consider new legislation. Here is another fact. A large number of our citizens will never have enough money to pay for medical care, nor will they willingly buy and pay for medical insurance. Couple that with the knowledge that government run health care doesn’t work anywhere in the world and it won’t work here.

The Congress has a big job ahead of them. They need to concentrate on that and leave partisan politics aside.

Ron Scarbro

I HAVE A QUESTION

In October the stock market started a roller coaster ride that continues today. The talking heads who claim to be the experts said it was just a “correction.” What is a correction? I did some research. It would appear that when the market experiences “irrational exuberance,” according to some mystical group of traders, it must correct itself. That usually means a 10% change in value. So, people sell their stocks until the market reaches some unknown number that satisfies this same group of traders.

I have a question. When the market regains the losses from the correction, is that a correction also? Is it a correction of a correction? If any of this is truly a correction, what should the market value be? Who gets to decide what the stock market level should be? I have been involved in the stock market on a very limited basis for many years and since 1995 it has grown in value from a Dow Jones average of approximately 4,000 to over 25,000 now. Wow, how many “corrections” do you suppose have occurred in the last twenty-five years? I’ll leave that to the much smarter analysts. They seem to know best.

This brings me to this question of climate change. The global warming crowd is heating up again. Did I say that? Yes, I guess I did. The earth is getting too hot. The sea levels are rising. The ice is melting. We’re all going to die. In the next few hundred years the sea level is going to rise a few inches. Yadda, yadda, yadda. I am sure you’ve heard it all.

I have a question. What should the temperature of the earth be? What should the level of the sea be? Who, among these brilliant scientists, gets to decide the answer to those questions? This whole global warming, climate change conversation is actually just a Godless religion. A religion which puts humans in charge of nature instead of the other way around. The next time you see one of these brilliant scientists, ask him how to stop a hurricane or a tornado. How about creating rainfall for dry areas of the world. I’m pretty sure he won’t have an intelligent answer.

Consider this. When the earth started warming after the last ice age, do you suppose the cavemen sat around their campfires looking for someone or something to blame? After all, there were no automobiles. There were no factories burning coal and belching out poisonous smoke. There were the occasional volcanoes erupting though.

What they did see was a gradual receding of the ice on the earth. What they saw was a gradual warming of the atmosphere. Do you think they were happy or were they sad about this? I think they were overjoyed. It was easier to stay warm. Food probably became more abundant. Grasses grew where ice once had dominated and that probably brought prey animals closer. For humankind, global warming was a blessing. I’m pretty sure nobody at that time thought that the earth was getting too warm or the sea was rising too high.

Fast forward to today. We have a lot of experts. Just ask them. Most will tell you they are the preeminent source of all things concerning the climate.

I have a question. What if this climate change we are experiencing is nothing more than a continuation of the warming that melted away the ice age? Humans have a tendency of measuring time in weeks, or months. Climate changes are measured in thousands of years, not weeks or months or even years.

As you can see, I don’t have any answers. I only have questions. But until one of these brilliant experts can answer my questions, I will just continue to think what I think and believe what I believe.

Ron Scarbro

SHUT UP AND SING

Did you hear Barack Obama the other day? He said that if you watched Fox News you had a completely different worldview than if you read the New York Times. Well, duh. These were some of the most truthful words I ever heard from this individual who seems at times to have a problem with the truth.

I confess. I watch Fox News, but I also have in the past read the New York Times. Basically I do that to see how the other side lives. I also obtain news from many other sources. In my mind, to depend on only one source is asking for and receiving a one-sided coverage and propaganda. That being said, I am convinced that the New York Times has long ago ceased to be a news organization and has become instead a propaganda arm of the leftist movement in this country. And as I have said before, I wouldn’t wrap my dead, rotting fish in the New York Times for fear my fish would be contaminated by the experience.

This is what I know. What you believe and what you know is largely dependent on your source of information. The only way one can know without a doubt the veracity of anything is to have experienced it. If you go through life using the New York Times as your only news source, you would be a disciple for the left. By the same token, if your only source is Fox News, you become their puppet. I have friends and relatives who think they know the truth of situations but, because they often get their information from left wing news outlets, they couldn’t be further from the truth. Sadly, in my view, Fox News has moved so far to the right that their content is sometimes suspect also. Their motto, “We report, you decide,” is cute but the facts are that they decide what they report just like all news organizations.

When a newspaper publishes one of my columns, it is printed on the “Op-Ed” page. That’s where it belongs. It’s not news, it’s opinion. Unfortunately, much of what passes as news in our publications is really nothing more than opinion driven by the agenda of either the writer or of the organization for whom he works. When readers mistake opinion for news, they become believers. Sometimes that is good, sometimes that is bad. Wouldn’t it be great if news organizations just reported the facts of situations, and let the readers decide what they choose to believe? I am afraid that ship has sailed though. Even local news anchors seem to find it necessary to both report the news and then tell you what to think about it. That is not their job.

An interesting experiment is to find a news story of interest then follow that story through all of the major networks. If it is a positive story about Donald Trump, Fox will give it a favorable reporting. The rest of the networks probably either won’t give it favorable reporting or they will ignore it all together. If a story doesn’t fit a network’s narrative, it will usually not find the light of day. That particular type of malfeasance will not be well received by the consuming public either.

Newspapers are having much more difficulty staying afloat. The more they try to be the news instead of just reporting the news, the more difficulty they are going to have.

It’s a lot like when Barbra Streisand tries to offer me her opinion on politics. I say, just shut up and sing. When you are not entertaining me, you are just boring me. When news outlets stop reporting the news in favor of giving opinion on the news, I say just shut up and report. Otherwise you are just a bore.

Like the late, great John Wayne once said, “Life is tough. It’s even tougher if you’re stupid.”

Ron Scarbro

AMERICA'S PATIENCE IS FINITE

We have a problem. It is not an immigration problem. It’s an illegal immigration problem and we have this problem because our Congress apparently doesn’t care.

Today thousands of so-called refugees are camped near our southern border ready to invade this country. They have clearly announced their intentions. Their plan is to swarm the gates and overcome the guards. They mistakenly believe they will then just be allowed to travel freely in America, taking part in the goods and services provided to our citizens. They plan to just disappear into the surroundings.  Well guess again, amigo. President Trump has said it ain’t gonna happen. I don’t know about you, but I believe him. If I were in your shoes, I’d consider myself forewarned and find a way back home. The activity you are embarked upon is doomed.

I have often wondered what I would do if I had the power. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I will offer my solutions again.

Our biggest problem lies within our own borders. We absolutely must take away the incentive for anyone to attempt illegal entry into this country. First, we absolutely must require e-verification of everyone living or working in this country. If you are here illegally, you have to leave. Take yourself to the nearest American Consulate in your own country and legally apply. Get on the list just like everyone else and wait your turn.

Part two of this simple solution is to sanction any employer who hires anyone who is not verified to be here legally. These have to be serious sanctions, fines, and even jail time for violators. Major meat packers, agriculture producers, textile mills, and all who hire illegal aliens must obey the law. They don’t now because we let them get away with it. We have to enforce the law.

Next, we cannot allow illegals to receive any welfare benefits, free medical care, or even free education. Any municipality, state, county, city, or otherwise caught violating this law must face the same sanctions.

Officials in any state, county, or city who proclaims themselves a “sanctuary” for illegals would be arrested and face penalties for aiding and abetting criminal activity. That includes Governors, Mayors, Councilmen, Sheriffs, and any other law breakers.

If we enacted such a law and enforced it, in a matter of days we wouldn’t have to deport anybody. They would deport themselves. Any who don’t would be arrested and put into prison. Simple problem, simple solution.

But, Ron, what about all the businesses who depend on these low-cost laborers to do the work of picking the crops, mowing the lawns, or cutting meat? That question brings us to the next step in dealing with illegal entry into this country.

We establish a guest worker system. Individuals, not entire families, could apply for temporary work visitation into America with a verified job. The temporary permits would have an inviolate date for departure and it would be enforced. They could be renewed if the employer attests to the character of the worker and the need to employ them. The term of the permit could be negotiated between the employers and the government.

So, to the bleeding hearts who think this is just too cruel. Did you know that if you travel to Canada you have to have a passport? And don’t even think about trying to use their state run medical system. That will get you put in jail. America, just like Canada and all other countries in the world are sovereign nations. We have borders for a reason. For the same reason you can’t just open the door and walk into your neighbor’s house, you cannot just walk into another country. You could not just open the pantry of your neighbor’s house and eat their food. You could not pick the fruit from their trees, nor could you camp out on their lawn.

America has finite resources. Those resources are reserved for Americans and their legal visitors. America graciously shares her resources with others and has for generations. But those resources and our patience are finite.

Ron Scarbro

THERE ARE WINNERS AND THERE ARE LOSERS

All through our lives we have tests and trials. Some we win and some we lose. I don’t know about you but in my experience I have learned and grown much more from my losses than from my wins. Oh sure, I would rather always win, but that just isn’t going to happen.

Maturity begins to happen when we learn to lose as well as to win. Nobody likes a sore loser. Reasonable people use their failures and losses as education. They learn from them and move on.

Over the recent past, though, a new thinking has emerged. The idea that everybody has to win and at everything. We shouldn’t have actual grades for school work because it might lower the self-esteem of students who don’t make the good grades. The fact that some didn’t work as hard is apparently irrelevant.  Everybody has to make the team whether they can play well or not. All young ladies who try out to be cheerleaders must become cheerleaders otherwise they may be harmed for life. 

How would you like to be facing surgery being performed by a doctor who was accepted into medical school and passed on to become a surgeon because the school was afraid to harm his self-esteem?  

This movement has fostered the concept that nobody can lose. Everyone gets a participation trophy. Young little leaguers then go through life thinking they can actually play well when in fact they cannot.

The pain comes when reality strikes. And reality always strikes. Students who are ushered through school and passed on eventually face the real world. Your employer expects real results and doesn’t particularly care about your self-esteem. If you can’t perform, you are replaced by someone who can. That is the simple fact of life.

So Ron, what’s this column all about? Well I’m about to tell you.

It appears some individuals who espouse this thinking that everyone must win have gone on to become potential candidates for government offices. We just experienced an election where some of the losers, Democrats, lost their elections but were ill prepared to lose. Of course I believe that if you go into an election, you should be prepared to fight to the end, but when the end is staring you in the face, recognize it and go on with your life. Be gracious, be kind, be respectful, and live to fight another day. Hillary will go to her grave bemoaning the fact that she lost. Had this country wanted Hillary Clinton to be President, she would have been President. Georgia gubernatorial candidate, Stacey Abrams, refuses to accept the fact that she was rejected by the voters of Georgia. She has threatened lawsuits to redo the election. Go away Ms. Abrams. Your thirty minutes of fame are up. Now you are just getting tiring.

The Florida mess continues to show the incompetency and possible deceit and treachery of their Democrat machine. Rick Scott’s vote count plurality went from 55,000 on election night to just over 10,000 in a recount. Where did those votes go? Recounts should happen when election differences are in the hundreds of votes, not thousands. Just like the Bush/Gore battle, this election produced the correct winners and life goes on. Florida will continue to be the laughing stock of this country.

All this has caused me to come up with a new idea. How about we create a “participation trophy” for losing politicians. When the votes are counted, election losers can be awarded this trophy and their self-esteem won’t suffer unnecessarily. I can see it now. It would be molded out of the best plastic and painted with EPA approved, non-lead paint in a nice gold color. It wouldn’t need any names engraved on it. That way we could use the same trophy over and over again saving tens of dollars. It’s a win, win. (sarcasm intended)

Here is reality. There are winners and losers. Intelligent people learn from their losses and grow. Losers just cry and complain.

Ron Scarbro

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN

It’s deja vu all over again. We have an election and winners are chosen. That is everywhere except in Florida. If Democrats lose, they seem to decide we probably should start all over again. At least we should recount all the votes. Perhaps we should recount votes which are not even votes. Let us check out the trunks of all the cars. Who knows? Maybe there are boxes full of uncounted votes and they are all for Democrats. Why shouldn’t we. After all, we have been doing it for years and gotten away with it. I lived in Minnesota when Al Franken was first elected to the Senate. The election was over, that is until someone suddenly found a boxful of ballots in the trunk of a car which all were for Franken. The Democrat machine in Minnesota got their wish and the little toad Franken was their Senator. That is until his own depraved proclivities caught up with him and away he went.

One of the lawyers representing the Democrats said that we should count all the votes, even the votes of non-citizens. I wonder if that lawyer knows that it is a federal crime to vote in any federal election if you are not a citizen and it is punishable by one year in prison and a fine. I wonder if he also knows that advocating the violation of the law is also a crime punishable by prison time and disbarment? Maybe he should reread some of his law books. Here’s an idea. Why don’t we arrest and prosecute criminal offenders of our election laws and put them in prison?

I also just learned that a group went into the prisons in Florida and registered convicts to vote. They even registered the school shooter who killed all those kids.  I couldn’t make this stuff up.

There is plenty of blame to go around for the Florida fiasco. The primary offenders in these elections seems to be Broward County and Palm Beach County. Why hasn’t the Governor of Florida fired the incompetent supervisors of elections there? They have been sued and they have lost their lawsuits before. How much illegal activity will the Floridians put up with? The second part of this blame lies with those people who break election laws. And ignorance of the law is no excuse. If you are an illegal person you cannot vote, period. If you do, you are subject to arrest and imprisonment. Finally, the blame lies with the voters themselves for allowing these votes to even be close. How much more evidence do you need before you recognize that you are being had and that there is a good possibility your vote is negated by illegal activity?

And so you say, hey, it’s Florida. I don’t live there. Why should I care? I’ll tell you why. Their US Senator votes in the US Senate and that Senator makes decisions that affect all of us.

Here is a clear fact. The Democrats have decided they are going to try to steal this election. They have hired their best election thieves to go to Florida and contest everything. It didn’t work the last time they tried it and it won’t work this time, but it will put this country on edge for a few weeks while they play their little games.

Florida, clean up your act. Citizens of Florida. Wake up. This isn’t some third world country. Elections are one of our most precious rights and when anybody tries to mess with them, they violate the most sacred activity of our citizenry. Governor Scott, you are still Governor. Fire the incompetent supervisors and replace them with honorable people who obey the law. This country is getting tired of the whole mess. If our citizens lose faith in the electoral system, our goose is cooked.  

Ron Scarbro

GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS

There’s good news and there’s bad news. First the good news. The election is over. That means that for at least a short time we won’t be bombarded with nasty, ridiculous campaign ads. In all my years of watching elections, this is the worst I’ve ever seen. Lies, topped by more lies. No way on earth to know what the truth is.

More good news. We extended our representation in the Senate. As I am writing this, we don’t know exactly by how much, but we for sure have more Republican Senators today than we had yesterday. That means President Trump will have an easier time getting judges and other appointees confirmed plus there is the very real probability that more vacancies will occur on the Supreme Court over the next six years and he will need to get the right people on that court. That is very good news for the country.

Now for some bad news. The Democrats took over control of the House. Some believe Nancy Pelosi will once again be elected Speaker. I can only hope. More bad news though. We will have to listen to Maxine Waters run her very big mouth. A close examination of that indicates some possibly good news. Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters are the gift that keeps on giving to the Republican Party. The more they resist and obstruct, the better Republican chances are to once again regain control in 2020. So, Nancy and Maxine, run your mouths. Stir up trouble. Resist and obstruct. In 2020 you will get your just reward.

If the Democrats try to subpoena their way to success, they will fail. If they try to investigate their way to success, they will fail. I believe the American people have had a belly full of worthless investigations. The Mueller report will have to come out soon and that should be the end of it.

There will be talk of impeachment, but there will be no impeachment. To be impeached, one must commit crimes. Sorry, Maxine, but no crimes, except the possible crime of having you in the House of Representatives, have been committed. The more you and Nancy sit over the pot and stir chanting incantations along the way, the further back you will sink in the eyes of the American people.

So, there is good news. The Democrats will either have to work with Trump, or their control of the House will be short lived indeed. It is amazing but something good could come from the parties working together. Only time will tell if they get the message.

More good news, Jeff Sessions just resigned as Attorney General. I like Sessions, but I don’t think he did a good job especially by recusing himself from the Mueller investigation. That nonsense could have been nipped in the bud early on had he stayed the course. A new AG will bring fresh eyes to all this and will doubtless bring it all to an early conclusion. The American people are tired of Mueller and all of the ridiculous allegations. Reasonable sane people know there was never any collusion with the Russians by anyone on the Trump team. It is far more likely, based on the leaked reports, that it was the Democrats who colluded with the Russians.

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. It is different than yesterday, but aren’t they all.

Ron Scarbro

IS INSANITY CONTAGIOUS?

The older I get, the more I am convinced that some things just cannot be explained in simple terms. But I am certain of this one fact. There are crazies living among us. Some of them travel through life without any problems and some even seek and receive help. Some, however, succumb to the voices they claim to hear, and act on those impulses.

You could say that they get marching orders from voices in their heads. In just the recent past we have seen mass murder committed by otherwise normal looking and sounding people. The clown in Las Vegas was a successful millionaire. The school shooter in Florida was an obvious wing nut. This idiot just arrested as the mail bomber is a former male stripper with a long rap sheet of crimes and now we have a synagogue killer with no discernible criminal past. All of these killers seem to want attention which they feel has been denied them. They do all have one thing in common however. They are all evil to the core. They are pathetic examples of humanity at its worst.

Were they all crazy? Probably. Were they all so crazy that they should have been institutionalized? Probably, but who knows? You probably know someone today who is “iffy.” You surely have seen people on the street talking to the trees or otherwise demonstrating craziness. What should be done with those people?

Some folks have obvious deficiencies which causes them and all around them problems. Some of these deficiencies are inborn and some are created by the use and abuse of alcohol and drugs. Have you ever seen an individual who has sniffed glue to the point of intoxication? Many of these folks are incapable of living a normal life and caring for themselves. Consider street level opiates and fentanyl. Some of the abusers just kill themselves while some kill others. Years ago we had asylums. Today we put crazies in prison.

Down through history we have seen craziness. I am convinced that craziness is contagious. Consider David Koresh in Waco, or Jim Jones in Guyana. These clowns were obviously insane but they also infected a large number of followers. Mass suicides and murders ensued. We have seen politically motivated murderers like the radical Muslim, Omar Mateen, who killed all those people in the Orlando nightclub. How about brilliant geniuses like Ted Kaczynski? He was a Harvard grad as a teenager and a math professor. But he was no doubt a complete whack job who will die locked up in a cage. There was Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and many others whose charisma and glib oratory put them in positions of absolute power. They used that power to murder millions. We also have morons like Kim Jong-un who ascended to power because they were born into it. They’re still crazy and murderous.

I started this piece with the comment that some things just defy understanding. Lightning strikes an unsuspecting kid on a baseball field. A tree falls on a house and kills a sleeping child. Sometimes you just have to believe that God has called someone home.

Hateful political rhetoric stirs up people. Some more than others. No one has the franchise on ugly political rhetoric. But, the more it is spewed, the more problems it will cause. The current blame game going on because of the latest nutjobs doing their craziness isn’t doing anybody any good. In fact it may well have the reverse effect.

Here’s an idea. How about we just all cool it and take a breath. How about we see craziness for what it is and punish evil for what it is. We are fortunate to live in the greatest country on earth and we have enough problems to deal with without creating more.

Ron Scarbro