THE INVASION WILL CONTINUE

Well, an agreement of sorts has been reached. The Congress has three weeks to come up with a viable plan that includes money for a border wall in order for President Trump to sign it. What do you think are the odds that it will happen? Pelosi is on record as being totally opposed to any wall or barrier on our border. She and her Democrat colleagues are clearly defiant of anything Trump wants plus they are obviously for open borders since they believe the illegals who come into this country will automatically become Democrat voters. Pelosi and her ilk are trying to take the Democrats further to the left. As a Republican I say, you go girl. The closer you get to the left, the sooner you fall off the cliff.

Speaking of moving to the left, it seems that several Democrats, most of whom nobody has ever heard of, are situating themselves to run against Trump in 2020. And that now apparently includes Hillary, again. Is she serious? Oh well, the more the merrier. And the more they try to out-socialist each other, the better.

Now we hear that Howard Schultz, former head of Starbucks Coffee, is planning to run as an Independent. I think that is a great idea. He and former Mayor Bloomberg of New York can spend themselves silly and split apart any remaining semblance of the Democrat party. Now that sounds like a winning plan.

Sadly, I have watched as this great country is being pulled apart by nasty, ugly, partisan politics. In the past, honorable people in positions of authority from both sides of the aisle would sit down together and work things out. After a hard day of bargaining to enact laws, they would find time to have a nice adult beverage or two before going at it again the next day. Where has that kind of collegiality gone? Where’s Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan when we need them? Now we have Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. They are pitiful examples of elected leaders. If this republic survives, future generations will look back on us and laugh.

All of this partisanship and hate politics is serving to break this country apart. We are definitely becoming two countries. You and I should continue to thank God that we are on the right side of this nonsense.

Imagine if a civil war should happen. And don’t think that it couldn’t. Guess which side has all the guns. Guess which side the Military would be on. Guess which side produces the food for the whole country. Then you can guess which side would be sitting in the corner, lighting up a joint, trying to decide which bathroom to use and then waiting for their next government check. I think, should any civil war ever begin, it would be the shortest war in history.

But, enough of this silly talk about civil wars. What is going to come next in the hallowed halls of Congress? Who is going to be the first to defy Pelosi and Schumer? The Democrats have three weeks. If you think Trump isn’t serious, just watch. I personally think he should take all the money budgeted to non-functioning government agencies, such as Congress for example, and use that money to fund the wall. Do you think that would get their attention?

One way or another this wall issue will be resolved. But unless and until we take away the incentives for the illegal invasion of our country by people from all over the world, the problem will persist. If we don’t, we deserve the invasion.

Ron Scarbro

CRAMMING FOR THE TEST

Do you remember back in school? Our teachers would announce that there would be a test on this certain material and that we had plenty of time to study and prepare for that test. If you were like me and most of my friends at the time, we would put off any studying or preparation. Maybe we just thought if we forgot it, it would go away. Well it didn’t. Then the day would be announced and we would cram. There were many nights when we would read and study the material in order to be ready for the test.

I mention this because I am again cramming for an exam myself. Now this isn’t a school test. No, this is a regular physical exam which I go through twice a year. It consists of many checks of my body functions and the most important test of all, the blood test. For many years now I have been told by the doctors through my blood test that I had pre-diabetes. For the uninformed, pre-diabetes is a glucose level that gets to the point just below full-blown diabetes. I was told that it was just a matter of time if I didn’t change my ways. I was going to have diabetes. That has been going on now for over twenty years. And, I haven’t really changed my ways. And I haven’t, so far, gotten full blown diabetes.

Here’s what happened. A couple of days ago I was asking my wife why didn’t we have some nice pie or cake for dessert. We rarely get any such treat. To which she replied, we can’t do that, you have a blood test coming up soon and you will want to be ready. In other words, it was time to start cramming for the test.

The question is, is the test really valid if I try to trick my body at the last moment in order to have a better result than would be my result if I didn’t prepare. Have you ever seen a printout of a blood test? It is a series of numbers that look more like a math problem than a medical procedure. I even had a VA doctor tell me once that physical exams are numbers games. You have blood pressure, glucose, body mass index, temperature, weight, height, cholesterol level, both LDL and HDL. There are too many numbers to keep up with. I am quite sure that all of the numbers are important unless you get run over by a semi on your way home from the doctor’s office. Then all bets are off.

Because I take statin drugs I cannot have grapefruit. I love grapefruit. Because I was raised in the south I love desserts and fried foods. Apparently those are no-nos to someone my age. If heaviness were such a problem, how would you explain whales, hippos, and elephants?

I have developed a different philosophy. I think one’s genetic makeup is far more important than a little bit of pie or grapefruit. Most of my relatives lived into very old age eating the southern diet and carrying extra weight. I doubt that any of them ever crammed for a physical exam. Most never even had a physical exam. I heard a noted famous doctor say on TV the other day that if you cut out meat from your diet, you could actually live a few months longer. I don’t want to seem ungrateful for the information but, really? I think I’d rather have a nice rare steak.

My problem now is simple. All I have to do is convince my doctor, and then my wife that my reasoning is sound. In the meantime, I guess I will continue to cram for the exam.

Ron Scarbro

TOXIC MASCULINITY

Like most of you, I get up in the morning and turn on the news. I also pick up my newspaper and read about what has happened overnight. Most of the time the news, even though at times is quite serious, is mostly mundane and common place. Every now and then, however, a story catches my attention to such a degree that I have to research it to learn all I can. Such a story arose today.

It seems a radical feminist group has decided that men, because of their gender, suffer from toxic masculinity. What in the world could that mean? Apparently the American Psychiatrist Association issued a finding a while back which concluded that young boys grow up desiring the traits most associated with manly men. According to the APA, those traits include aggression, bullying tendencies, homophobia, and failure to show emotion. Otherwise they might be seen as sissies. These feminists declare that this is the reason men should be seen as enemies of women. Excuse me. Apparently men, and that would include their own sons, brother, and fathers, are the enemy of women. This is identity politics at its worst.

Let’s start with a little biology lesson. Like it or not, it takes two to tango. The only virgin birth on record happened over two thousand years ago. For the human population to exist there has to be a union between a man and a woman. Granted artificial insemination is an option, but the seminal fluid required comes only from a male. Not only for humans, but for all living species. It’s the way of the world.

Now I understand there are some women who just don’t like men. Guess what, the reverse is also true. But to accuse all men, using the charge of masculine toxicity, is to say that all men are poisonous. That could cause many problems for young men growing up. What are they supposed to do? How are they supposed to react?

As youngsters grow up, boys and girls, they are faced with many challenges. Dealing with their changing bodies is certainly one of them, not to mention their changing hormones. Adding the accusation of toxicity to that mix is just plain ridiculous.

All across the animal kingdom, and incidentally we are in that community, males and females join together to grow their species. It has been that way since the world began. I seriously doubt there will ever be any other way for humanity to continue. In other words, both men and women are necessary for our existence.

Young people growing up learn from their teachers. Those teachers are their parents, their siblings, their schools, and their churches. If they turn out to be thugs, it isn’t the fault of their gender. Probably somewhere along the way they were failed. Perhaps they should have been punished for a misdeed and weren’t. Perhaps they were not recognized for an accomplishment when they should have been. Regardless of the reason, it was never the fault of their gender.

The Gillette Razor company has come out with an ad that calls on men to shave off their masculine toxicity. That is a shameful ad. The language in that ad condemns anyone who grows whiskers as toxic. Sorry Santa. People should toss their Gillette products into the trash.

I’ll tell you what’s toxic in this country. When groups use identity politics as weaponry to marginalize other groups just because we all don’t share the same point of view.

Personally, if I ever had to go into battle, I would much rather have John Wayne beside me than Johnny Depp.  

Fortunately the country as a whole will see this as nonsense and it will disappear as quickly as it appeared. Radical feminist groups will have to find another way to show their disdain for anyone who disagrees with them.

Ron Scarbro

A SILLY GAME OF CHICKEN

The government shutdown is still going on. What we are watching is nothing more than a game of chicken. Two entrenched sides, each refusing to give in, fighting for their respective positions. I don’t think the border wall or border security has anything to do with the battle that is going on. This is about the Democrats trying to stop the unstoppable force known as Donald Trump. And they are going to lose. They probably already know that but they are going to fight on anyway.

Let’s face it. What can the Dems say when 2020 rolls around? The economy is now and will continue to be on a roll. Enemies, both foreign and domestic, will be in complete retreat. Their own party is splitting at the seams with the arrival of the nouveau-Socialist and other far left fanatics. Their own left-wing media cannot help them so they have to do something.

The problem is that they have picked the wrong fight. Trump will win this fight because the American people are on his side. And this isn’t the only issue facing the voters. Let us examine some of the problems Democrats will have to deal with in the next Presidential election.

Obama said that Trump will never bring jobs back to this country unless he has a “magic wand”. Sorry, Mr. Obama. Apparently what was necessary had nothing to do with magic but had everything to do with removing governmental interference and reducing the onerous tax burden. The liberal notion that only government can manage the American people is obviously false. And it’s time they came to grips with that fact.

American ingenuity and talent is all we need to be successful, as long as the government gets out and stays out of the way.

A poll released today shows that 64% of the American people believe illegal immigration is a major problem. Pandering to criminal trespassers by refusing to stop them from illegal entry or giving them illegal sanctuary is not a winning issue with the voters. The sooner the Dems come to this realization, the better.

It really is quite funny. Among the first official acts of the new Democrat controlled Congress was to bring forth articles of impeachment of the President. Absolute nonsense. The two morons who brought this issue to the Congress should be embarrassed. The problem is, I don’t think they are intelligent enough to be embarrassed.

Speaking of intellectual deficits. Do you remember Dem. Rep Henry, Hank, Johnson of Georgia? He took the floor to proclaim that Trump was nothing more than Hitler commanding storm troopers. Johnson is the idiot who famously opined that if we put troops on Guam, the island would capsize and sink. This moron thinks islands are just floating on the ocean. He and his comparably ignorant fellow Congresswoman, Sheila Jackson Lee, are two of the main reasons we need a minimum IQ score to serve in any branch of government. If we had such a requirement, the Halls of Congress would be much quieter and considerably emptier.

Listen up Democrats. Impeachment of a President requires that he would have to commit high crimes or misdemeanors. The House would have to approve the articles and then the Republican controlled Senate would have to approve it by two-thirds majority. First of all, the president has not committed high crimes or misdemeanors and the Senate would never vote to impeach him. It ain’t gonna happen. Get over it.

There are tremendous issues facing our country. We elect individuals to go and do the serious work of governing. We don’t send them to Washington to play silly games. We don’t send them there to audition for election to the next step. It looks like half of the Senate Democrats are already running for President. Get to work. Deal with the real issues. Fix the immigration problem. If you are not up to the job, find another career.

Ron Scarbro.

WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE

Do you remember the early 70s? I do. We were being told that the world was running out of oil. All of us were going to have to get used to a new way of living. No more fossil fuel. Cars and trucks would have to be electric. Gasoline prices began to skyrocket. Gasoline shortages were everywhere. I remember having to buy gasoline based on odd or even numbered license plates. Even at that there were long lines at all filling stations. It was another one of those “we’re all going to die” situations.

I guess the campaign was successful. The price of oil soared. The truly amazing thing is that once the price got high enough, suddenly more oil was discovered. In fact, so much oil was found we became an oil exporter rather than just an oil importer. We finally got rid of liberal politics and began to pump oil out of shale. It was soon discovered that there was more oil under North Dakota than all of the Middle East.

When this glut of oil hit the market, oil prices began to moderate. In fact, former oil exporters like OPEC and Russia started to have economic problems because their economies were based on higher priced oil and natural gas. So, it turns out that we really never had an actual shortage of oil. It was just a scare tactic to drive up the price. It seems to have worked.

There was another “we’re all going to die” moment back in that era. Some very intelligent??? scientists and professors started the rumor that the world was soon to be so overpopulated that it could not sustain itself. I remember some very established people cancelling their life insurance because they reasoned it would have no value. The standard thought was that the world could only last another ten years. That was sixty years ago. Today the world is probably healthier than ever in its history. Hmmm. Kinda makes you wonder, huh?

This brings me to the latest “we’re all going to die” campaign. That being, of course, global warming and climate change. Liberals are spreading the alarms. Gov. Moonbeam Brown of California says that we are running out of time. The world is at death’s door. The scientists and professors, who stand to gain millions in grants by keeping this farce going, are lining up to convince us all. The leftist media, which is actually nothing more than an arm of the Democrat Party, is all on board. The new young Socialists who are invading our country will be out in full force attempting to jam this nonsense down our collective throats. It has already begun.

I suspect that in just a few years when this latest campaign has run its course, there will be yet another issue that will so inflame the liberals that they will have to scare everybody.

Here is some news for the liberals. Yes, we’re all going to die, eventually. Probably not from a shortage of oil and probably not from over population of the earth. I don’t even think global warming is going to cause our deaths. Most of us from old age. Some will die in accidents. Some will just get sick. It is a part of living. But the reality is that we’re all going to die. My humble advice is to live while we are alive. Enjoy our time on this earth. Love our families and our friends. Take care of the earth. Don’t waste. Don’t destroy. Conserve and protect. And most importantly, stick around for another fifty years or so so you can laugh in the faces of the doomsayers. That will be fun.

Ron Scarbro

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