HAVING BREAKFAST IN CLEAN CLOTHES

Every now and then my number one critic offers her “helpful” criticism of my columns. Now to understand, my number one critic also fixes my breakfast and does my laundry. I therefore can handle the occasional comments about my writing but doing without breakfast and laundry gets to be a bit more problematic. So, I decided to give her criticisms serious consideration.

Her most recent observation was that my columns had become too negative and that I should concentrate more on the positive things around us. She has a point. It is much easier to see the negative because there is so much of it. It turns out that there is much positive news too.

For example, our economy is on fire. Unemployment is down and wages are headed up. On a recent trip to our little town I saw many, many signs on businesses looking for help. The fact is that today jobs outnumber the people looking for them. That alone will cause wages to increase because employers must have employees and will pay more to get quality help. They also will try harder to retain the employees they already have, ergo more raises and benefits. This is just good news.

Dear Leader little Kim of North Korea has announced that he is getting out of the nuclear business and will denuclearize the Korean peninsula. Of course he has said that before and is a proven liar, but this time it is a bit different. He and President Trump are scheduled to sit down to a meeting. I believe Kim and his cohorts are coming to the realization that Trump isn’t someone to be played with and that they had better pay attention. The country they save may be their own. More good news.

Real estate values are recovering and headed up. That means that most Americans’ wealth is also headed up. The stock market, while gyrating up and down, will continue to be the right investment for almost everyone.

Taxes have been slashed for all Americans. Companies are sharing that windfall with their employees. Paychecks are getting bigger. Buying power is increasing which means better profits for business. The “trickle down” economy is alive and well. All of this bodes well for the country. Sorry liberals.

Trade agreements are being renegotiated. President Trump is insisting that fairness in trade is essential if we are to participate. China is getting the message. By the way, they need us a lot more than we need them. Their existing thievery of our intellectual property will no longer be allowed, period. China’s financial existence depends largely on their willingness to get on board.

More good news. The Iranian Nuclear Agreement is on life support and Trump is about to pull the plug. Illegal treaties, those without Congressional approval, will come to an end. We have laws and rules and even Presidents have to obey them. Sorry Obama.

Here’s some more good news. Colin Kaepernick is still unemployed. The NFL is smart to stay away from this poison pill. Perhaps he can get a job in Europe where he has been giving “hate America” speeches. Maybe he can play soccer or cricket.

Several California cities and counties are joining the Federal lawsuit against their own state to undo SB 54. This law forbids allowing law enforcement from assisting ICE or even informing them of illegal aliens having been arrested or from being released from jail. The polls in California show clearly that Californians are opposed to this silly law.

Most of the good news above is because Donald J.Trump is in the White House. Again, sorry liberals. Hopefully by writing this column I will still be able to have breakfast and enjoy it wearing clean clothes. It was worth a try anyway.

Ron Scarbro

THREE STRIKES AND YOUR'E OUT

Baseball season has begun so let’s look at baseball and how it might equate to what’s going on in the world. Everybody knows it’s three strikes and you are out.  While it’s no game, Syria certainly seems to be in the batter’s box.

A year ago Bashar al-Assad and the criminal government of Syria used chemical weapons on her own people. They killed or injured many. Women and children were suffocated in that horrendous attack. President Trump, along with his advisors, decided to punish Syria for this illegal and immoral act. Under the “Chemical Weapons Convention of 1997”, chemical weapons are illegal internationally. No country can manufacture, stockpile, or use them for any reason. Syria is a signatory along with 197 other countries. So, we elected to deliver a measured response. We fired missiles at the air base from which the attack originated. Twenty percent of Syria’s air force was eliminated by the attack. We didn’t wipe out Syria’s complete air force, although we could have, we just took out a portion. This was a warning. In baseball, if a batter gets too aggressive and stands too close to the plate, the pitcher might throw a pitch inside and tight. It’s called a “brush back” pitch. Most batters get the message and back up. A year ago we threw a “brush back” pitch at Assad. Apparently he didn’t get the message though. For the sake of this essay, we’ll call that strike one.

Well, he did it again. He attacked his own country and his own people with illegal and immoral weapons. He gassed women and children. Who knows how many were killed or will have lifelong side effects from the attack. The pictures were sickening.

What’s wrong with this sorry excuse for a human being? Bashar al-Assad is a college educated medical doctor. His specialty is ophthalmology. He took his residency in London. He’s not a complete idiot. Or is he?

When his older brother was killed in a car accident, his father, Hafez al-Assad, a butcher and a tyrant, decided that Bashar was to succeed him as President of Syria. He was recalled from London and rushed into job training for dictatorship. All indications are that he learned quickly. When his father died, he quickly took over the country. Some thought that this medically trained individual would be a modern leader with compassion for his people. How wrong we all were.

Fast forward to a week ago. Assad strikes again and kills his own people gassing them with chlorine and sarin gas. Our response to this latest attack was again somewhat measured. We fired about one hundred missiles or so and took out his ability to manufacture chemical weapons. Our efforts were limited so as not to create too much collateral damage. All indications are that our attack was a success.

For Syria and Assad, this was strike two. We brushed them back after their first attack, and for strike two we bombed a few factories. Will there be a strike three? That’s pretty much up to Assad. He should understand there is another pitch in some pitchers’ repertoire.  It is called the “bean” pitch. Sometimes it just makes more sense to throw the ball at the head of the batter. Sure, you might injure him. You might even kill him. But hey, that’s baseball.

Assad and his thug buddies, Russia and Iran, should get this message loud and clear. The world is tired of chemical attacks and we are not going to put up with them anymore. In fact all of the little tin horn dictators around the world should take notice. Are you listening North Korea? The game has changed. It is now reasonable to assume some countries might not even get three strikes. You could look up and see the dreaded beanball headed straight for your head.

Ron Scarbro

THE THREE Ds TODAY'S LIVING

I don’t know whether I am disappointed, disillusioned, or just disgusted. Maybe all three. I admit to being somewhat naive concerning the political climate of the country today. I thought everybody loved freedom. I thought every American loved our Constitution. I thought people would respect the institutions of our government and our elected leaders. I have always seen us as law abiding, law respecting people. I guess I have misjudged the climate.

To show how naive I am, I even thought the media would be truthful and report the facts. It truly never occurred to me that the “mainstream” media would editorialize the news to fit their own agenda. Boy was I wrong. Today what you believe depends almost entirely on what networks you watch or what publications you read. If you watch the alphabet networks, you get only an ultra liberal view of news and never really hear the truth. How sad. If the New York Times is your source of news, you never get to know the whole truth and are left with just their editorial idea of what truth is, or what truth you should hear.

Last November over half of the country decided they had had enough and elected a Republican President, a Republican Senate, and a Republican House of Representatives. That’ll fix the mess, we thought. Wrong again. While the President is doing everything in his power to fix it, he is constantly stymied by a few disloyal so-called Republicans who have no concern for anything but themselves. Of course the Democrats are never going to be on board because they are the authors of the problems in this country. From the “Great Society” to Obamacare, to all sorts of give-away programs which have virtually eliminated all incentive from a large portion of our citizenry. These are Democrat programs and they are leading to the destruction of our values and our way of life.

California is virtually bankrupt as are several other Democrat run states. California, as a way of dealing with their fiscal cesspool, decided to make their entire state a sanctuary for illegal aliens from all over the world. That probably will be the straw that will finally break their camel’s back. If the Federal Government withholds money from those lefties, they are doomed.

Hollywood has decided to alienate over half of their possible customers by taking a leftist hardline on everything. The decidedly unfunny comedians are soon going to be without any audience. ESPN is on the verge of losing everything because of their cowardice and “political correctness”. The NFL may soon be a thing of the past because of that same cowardice. The Senate has become an “old age” home.

Yes, I am disappointed. I truly never thought I would see such days as these. And yes, I am disillusioned. What has happened to the morality of our citizens? What has happened to patriotism? What has become of good manners? Oh, and yes, I am disgusted. I’m disgusted with the greed of those politicians who think only of themselves with no thought of the country they serve. I am disgusted that some of them grow obscenely wealthy at the taxpayer’s expense. They should hang their heads in shame as they are led off to prison to serve the sentences many so richly deserve.

Finally, I wonder, is it too late to fix this? Have we gone too far? Can Trump get any cooperation from the people we elected to help him? Or, will the swamp just continue until everything turns into swamp sludge? I have smelled swamps. They stink. Is that our heritage? Is this what we are leaving to our children and grandchildren? I truly hope not.

We need to add another D to our list. Defense. We absolutely must defend our American way of life before it is too late.

Ron Scarbro

ARE WE A COUNTRY OF LAWS?

Many years ago I was a resident of the former great state of California. I use the term former advisedly. Back then the governor was Pat Brown. He had a son who was by all accounts a little weird. His name was Jerry. He also had a unique nickname, “Moonbeam”. Jerry, at one point in his life, apparently wanted to be a priest and went to school for it. Later on he decided that the priesthood wasn’t for him. Then he started dating singer Linda Ronstadt. I guess that didn’t work out either. So, the only thing left for him was politics. He ran for and was elected to several offices. He even tried to become President of the United States. Fortunately the voters thought better of that notion and sent him back to California.

I have always been amazed that a state like California, which has beauty and resources like none other, would do everything in their power to destroy their own state. Today they are among the most highly taxed and expensive states in the country. Many of their residents cannot afford to live there anymore.

That would be bad enough but another problem has surfaced for California. The uber-wealthy and the well-to-do are also leaving the state in droves. They are flocking to lower tax states like Texas, Nevada, and Florida. And, they are taking their wealth with them. Not only is California’s wealth disappearing but so is the tax base for the ultra liberal policies of their lefty governor and their legislature.

To add to the joke that California has become, Governor Moonbeam just pardoned five felons who were also illegal aliens. This was an obvious effort to poke his finger into the eyes of any who would question him as supreme dictator of California. This is on top of California’s proclamation that they are a “sanctuary state” whose laws supercede federal law. Something tells me that once great state is about to learn a huge lesson about who is actually in charge.

Finally, our own government has sued California and their legislature to overturn their so-called sanctuary status. Several cities and counties in California have either joined in the suit or filed separate suits of their own. This nonsense will finally come to an end.

I am sure you have heard by now of a large group of Central Americans who are travelling through Mexico with the goal of entering America illegally but with such force of numbers as to overwhelm our border security. This group is being funded and encouraged by another lefty group known as “countries without borders”. Excuse me, but a country without a border is not a country.

If our government doesn’t stop this latest assault on our southern border, we absolutely must fire everyone who is responsible and replace them with people who will do their jobs. We cannot continue to open our doors to every individual in the world who wants to live here.

I hate to keep harping on this but the only way to successfully deal with illegal immigration is to take away the incentive to enter illegally. If there was no job, no healthcare, no free schools, no welfare, no food stamps, and no other free goodies, these trespassers would have to find another country to invade. This is as simple as requiring evidence of legal residence for any of the freebies mentioned above. And, punishing any employer, welfare organization, medical facility, school, or state who violates the law. And I mean seriously punishing them. No silly fines. I am talking jail time.

We are either a country of laws or we are not.

Ron Scarbro