EXECTUIVE ORDERS

A few weeks back I wrote that I didn’t believe the American people would put up with dictators for a very long time. I was talking about Governors, Mayors, City or County Managers, etc. who decided for themselves they would close down the economy of this great country. And, they didn’t use the accepted route of enacting laws, no, they issued “executive orders”. Some have called this instant law. 

Well, there’s a problem here. First of all, it isn’t law. There is no Constitutional basis for executive orders. Laws can only be made by legislators. If a governor or a mayor wants to make a law, they should get elected to a legislative body where laws are in fact enacted. Executive orders are, at best, suggestions. 

Consider the case of the beautician in Texas who defied an executive order and reopened her beauty salon without official permission. She was arrested, and by the way she had broken no law, brought before a judge who was hearing this non-case. The judge decided that not only would he adjudicate this matter, he would show judicial wisdom. He told the owner of the salon that all she had to do was apologize. My question and hers was to whom? And for what? Bless her heart, she refused. She refused to kowtow to politicians who had illegally closed down her business. The same for the judge who obviously had no knowledge of Constitutional law.  She was sentenced to seven days in jail. 

Fortunately, the Governor had her released immediately and the American people, upon hearing about this nonsense, sent tons of money to her for her trouble.

That was not the end to this. All across this country various politicians have taken on dictatorial powers, not granted to them by any law by the way, and issued “executive orders” closing businesses, beaches, parks, sports venues, bars, restaurants, churches, and anything that pleases them to do so. At the same time they closed mom and pop stores, they left Walmart and Costco alone. What's that all about? How is it safer to be inside Costco than to be on a public beach or a golf course? 

Now the obvious has happened. All across this great land people are defying these illegal orders and returning to their normal lives. This movement is going to continue. There will no doubt be more virus-related sickness and death, but at least the people will get their lives back. Oh, and by the way, the death rate from coronavirus infection is less than a fraction of one percent. 

Sadly there is a political element to all this. A very cursory examination of the most strict dictatorial orders are in Democrat states. Is this just another conspiracy theory? I think not. If the Dems can continue to destroy the economy up until the election, they must believe America will look to them to bail us out. 

First of all, I doubt this will last until the election. The American people won't allow it. We are not too fond of dictators. Gestapo-like tactics will not fly here. Asking people to spy on each other and "report" them to the authorities is ridiculous. Sorry Mayor De Blasio. No, we will return to our lives, smarter, better prepared, and less pliant. Dictators need to find another country.

Ron Scarbro May 20, 2020

YOU GOTTA KNOW WHEN YOU ARE CAUGHT

So, what have you been doing during your confinement for the pandemic? I have been engaged in the highly intellectual activity of watching cop shows on TV. Oh, I've learned a lot. One of the most interesting things is when a bad guy is being arrested and he doesn't want to comply, what does he do? Why, he fights. He screams profanities. Most of the time he gets hurt and still is under arrest and hauled away. 

In a recent show I watched a bad guy, about 5' 5" and maybe 140 pounds soaking wet, try to resist four police officers, each topping 240 pounds, all armed with handguns, tasers, and night sticks. There was also a K9, himself about 100 pounds, and armed with a very bad attitude. 

The bad guy couldn't seem to get it. He was caught. It was over. But he was going to try to fight his way out. Well, obviously it didn't work. He was tased, bitten by the dog, cuffed and stuffed and off to jail. One of the monster cops asked the guy, "Don't you get it? You're caught.” 

Now you may be wondering what this has to do with today's column. I'll tell you. In recent days a great deal of information has reached us concerning the illegal acts of higher ups in the FBI and the Justice Dept. Also, a number of other individuals have been identified as being involved in illegal acts. Democrat legislators have been named. People who should know better will now have to face judgement for all sorts of wrongdoing. Orange jumpsuits will be the new dress code for many in Washington. And I couldn't be happier. 

What has been the reaction of many of those facing these accusations? Well, they are aghast. They are screaming denials. They are accusing their accusers. It all looks like a cop show rerun. 

I have some advice for them. You are caught. The more you scream your denials, the more you will look foolish. The evidence against you is overwhelming. Comey, Clapper, Nadler, Schiff, Page, Rice, and too many others to name here. Probably even Obama and Biden. They will all soon be facing music they never thought they would have to face.

There are some very good lessons here. First and foremost, this is America. Coups are discouraged, bloodless or otherwise. Plotters are arrested. In the past they would have been strung up. Today's plotters will probably just be jailed but the American people will demand that they are punished to such a degree that future such attempts are stopped in their tracks.

We have elections. If you don't like the choice of the American people, find yourself a candidate that you like who can win legally. It really is quite simple. To try to overthrow the duly elected government is treason and it has consequences. It doesn't really matter that you might hold a high government job. Your arrogance is repulsive to all traditional law abiding Americans.

This final thought. When the media becomes an arm of a political party, they should be required to identify themselves as such. For me and many others, the mass media has lost all credibility. If you can't just report the facts and let the people decide for themselves, perhaps you should find a new line of work.

Ron Scarbro May 12, 2020

DO THEY REALLY THINK THIS IS GOING AWAY?

For the sake of remembering, let’s go back just a few years to when Bill Clinton occupied the White House. He had a dalliance, for lack of a better description, with an intern. 

Now let us count the violations he committed with this young girl. Number one, he was the President of the United States. That would certainly put him in the position of superior to the job of the intern. Secondly, he was old enough to be her father at the time of the sex act. Number three, he was in the Oval Office of the People’s House. He wasn’t in some cheap hotel or the back seat of a car. No, he was in the office of the most powerful person in the world. Next, when the word got out, he lied to the American people. Then he went a step further and lied to the Grand Jury. Bad luck for Bill, the young lady had saved the dress she was wearing with the evidence still on it. Clinton was subsequently impeached, disbarred from the practice of law, and the country suffered embarrassment worldwide. 

But Ron, why bring up this ugly memory? Well, I’m about to tell you. At the time of all this there was much conversation about women’s rights. There was talk of women being taken advantage of by men in positions of authority. You surely remember. 

A lady named Gloria Steinman was at the forefront of the uproar about the mistreatment of women and women’s rights. She was loud and often on our TVs with her righteous indignation over it all. She was also a big supporter of Bill Clinton. When she was confronted about Clinton’s transgressions and asked to comment, her comments were priceless. Even though Clinton represented everything she supposedly despised, she said men like Clinton were powerful men and had powerful appetites for, I guess sex, as well as other things. In other words, because Clinton was a Democrat and generally supported women’s causes, he should be forgiven and his sin should be erased from the memories of everyone. Hmmm.

Along comes Republican, Brett Kavanaugh, candidate for the Supreme Court. You would have thought the end of the world was at hand when some lady makes an unfounded accusation of sexual abuse that allegedly happened when they were children. All of the usual suspects come out of the woodwork screaming that he must be burned at the stake and never allowed to sit on the high court. By the way, the usual suspects included Joe Biden. A barrage of unproven and unprovable accusations were leveled at Kavanaugh and he survived them all. The Democrats and their co-respondents in the left-wing media were aghast. They couldn’t believe that in spite of it all, Kavanaugh was in fact seated on the Court.

Well, here comes Joe Biden now running for President. Out of the blue an accusation of sexual abuse is leveled at him. Whether you believe it happened or not is not the point of this essay. The point is that the Democrats and their close associates in the lefty media are going to try to brush this entire mess under the nearest rug. It turns out that, in the eyes of the Democrats and the media, the important thing is not the abuse of women but instead electing Biden to the White House, sexual abuse and women in general be hanged. So tell me Democrats and leftist media, is sexual molestation okay? Or is it only okay if one is a Democrat?

Do these clowns really believe this is just going to go away? Do they really think the Trump machine is going to let this lady be abused yet again by the media? By the Democrats? And do they really think the American people don’t see what is going on? They had best reconsider their position.  

Ron Scarbro May 3, 2020

THE NATIVES ARE GETTING RESTLESS

My inbox has been especially busy lately. I have received a lot of very interesting forwards. Some of my favorites are quotes and sayings from people in the past. I will start this column with a recent forward. 

“Soon, when all is well, you’re going to look back on this period of your life and be so glad that you never gave up.” Author unknown. How about that for a perceptive offering? I can’t find out who said it but it certainly rings true in these days and times. 

I am sure all of us, from time to time, consider the mess that we face and wonder when will it all end. Well, this I promise. It will end. And it will end soon. As a people, we have been tested. How have we done? Are we passing our test? How will we be when this is nothing but an ugly memory? 

I think we will all be better for the experience we have had. We will be stronger. Hopefully we will be better prepared for whatever comes next.

Things happen. I live on a small island just off the coast of southern Georgia. Just last week two tornados passed by us within less than ten miles. One went north of us and the other went south. We were not touched, this time, but this is all ending just in time for hurricane season. We have lived in many parts of this country and they all had their particular natural issues. We have lived through earthquakes, blizzards, tornados, and hurricanes. Now we are living through a pandemic. We will get to the other side and we will for a certainty be thankful that we made it to the other side.

Here’s another quote. “Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution.” That delicious quote comes from Albert Einstein. 

As I was writing this piece a song came on the radio. "You can't roller skate in a buffalo herd, but you can be happy if you've a mind to." Penned and sung by the master of such music, Roger Miller. It is clear, there are some things we just cannot control, but we can be happy if we have a mind to.

Next week I am going to get a haircut, finally, and my wife has an appointment with her beauty shop. We also are planning to go out to one of our favorite restaurants. It isn't much, but it is a beginning. 

I heard an interesting item on TV this morning. Apparently in New York from a study of those who died from this virus, 99.2% of them had "underlying issues." So that must mean that only .08% of those who died actually died from this virus. As I have said before, any death is sad, but one would think if these numbers are correct, we might have oversold the threat from this bug. I am certainly no expert but it seems clear we could have dealt with this without destroying our economy. 

Oh, and by the way. The natives are getting restless. All over the country groups of people are marching in the streets demanding that we get back to normal. TV is terrible. There are no sports. I think I have seen every cop show that has ever been made at least two or three times. There is no news with the exception of the latest on "Covid 19". I am to a point where I don't want to hear the word. 

Very soon now there will be a vaccine for this virus and it will go the way of swine flu and other such maladies that have hit us. Gasoline will soon be back at $3.00 a gallon, and airline flights will be full. The stock market will probably go well beyond its highs of the past. As far as attitudes are concerned, it is just as easy to be positive as it is to be negative. Try it. You might like it.

Ron Scarbro April 29, 2020

SOLUTIONS ARE NONPARTISAN

It has been an interesting couple of months to say the least. I have learned some new things. I have seen old ideas take on new meaning. For example, I always thought a corona was a nice Mexican beer that usually came with a slice of lime. Wow, who knew? It turns out that corona is a virus that has been unleashed on the world by China and it has killed several thousand people with more soon to die. It even has its own nickname now. Covid19. What ever happened to Covids 1 through 18? I really don’t want to know, just wondering. 

I have learned other new things also. How about this one? If a pitcher throws you a curveball, and it breaks like it is supposed to, it is almost unhittable. But, if that pitch flattens out and doesn’t break, the next thing you see is the baseball flattening out and disappearing over the center field fence. So, I always thought flattening a curve was a bad thing if you are a pitcher. Well, apparently flattening a curve during a “pandemic” is a good thing. The number of cases rise until they reach this arbitrary peak, they level, flatten out, then start headed down. Soon then, the pandemic is over. This is the good flattening of the curve. 

According to most reports we have reached this leveling off point in some areas. We even are now considering reopening our economy and returning to some semblance of normal. I am of the opinion that this could not happen soon enough. Of course one size doesn't fit all situations. What might be okay for North Dakota isn't necessarily good for New York or New Jersey.  So, we will proceed with caution. 

Next we have "social distancing". That's the one that has become the biggest problem but at the same time it is credited with the biggest success we are having dealing with this virus. I was never a fan of people breathing down my neck anyway. But I am also not a fan of dictatorships. Some politicians have taken it upon themselves to sign "executive orders" regulating activities of free citizens. In their zeal to be in charge, they have thrown our Constitution out of the window. Well guess what? That has never and will never be acceptable to free citizens. 

I am convinced that if reasonable people are given true information, they will do the right thing without executive orders. The moronic Mayor of New York City, De Blasio, has instructed New Yorkers to spy on their neighbors, take pictures of perceived wrongdoing, and send those pictures to the authorities. They will then deal with it. I believe that was pretty much the way things happened in Germany in the 30s and 40s. Sorry Mayor. Wrong country and wrong time. We, the people don’t need or want a “gestapo”. 

In my last post I commented on the ease by which the citizens of this great country gave up their freedoms because of fear of a disease. Do you remember what Benjamin Franklin once said? “Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” As we go further it would be in our interest to remember these brilliant words. It would also serve the interests of our “leaders” to remind themselves as well.

We are a free country. We, the people, are citizens, not subjects. Given the correct information most of us would do the right thing. Most of us would be responsible. Would-be dictators, take note. This pandemic will soon be over and we will expect you to return to your jobs. You know, the ones we hired you to do. Pandemics, by their nature, are neither Republican nor Democrat. Solutions are also nonpartisan. It is time to get back to work.

Ron Scarbro April 21, 2020