Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Do The Right Thing

. After I graduated from police school in 1964, I was assigned to work in the patrol division while I was on probation. I asked one of the old hands for some words of wisdom that I should always remember. He told me in no uncertain terms…. “Never put yourself in any kind of a position where you could not or would not be comfortable with arresting someone is you had to do so..” In other words… ‘Do the right thing.’ Don’t take an offering of any kind, even a hamburger or some favor from anyone for any reason if it could jeopardize your ability to put someone in jail or file charges against them if it was necessary. I am watching as are most of you, the ongoing debacle with the Republican National Committee over the upcoming presidential nomination convention. As you know, the front runner in this race Donald Trump got beat out from any delegates from Colorado since the voters themselves did not vote for any delegates, the party choose who the delegates were to be. The chairman of the Republican Party was trying to spin the matter by saying the practice was allowed under the rules for that particular state. Try telling that to the millions who felt they were cheated out of the nomination process. Another spokesman made the comment that … “We (the RNC) pick the nominee, not the people.” Perhaps the rules do allow for this kind of action, but like most of you I thought we all got to participate in the nominating as well as the general election process. Apparently not. Apparently we, the lowly taxpayers, are not to be trusted with the power of the vote. Why we might actually choose and elect someone outside of the reining power base. Heaven forbid. So I suppose our votes are just really a sham so that we feel good and think we are actually helping to choose our national leadership….but not really, just let them vote and throw away the results since they are too stupid to know what is good for them. We do know, we have experience in running the country, The problems you see each day? Like the runaway deficient… ineffective foreign relations…poor defense results? We inherited those from the previous administration. Who inherited them from the one before them and so on and so on. No, we take zero responsibility for our actions, you see it isn’t about you…it’s about us. We don’t care to do the right thing….we are not interested in your problems, we have our own. Such as how to get our ill-gotten gains into safe offshore accounts now that Panama and Switzerland are no longer safe places for my cash stash. I know and I suspect you do as well know when we are doing something that just isn’t right. It comes from that small voice we have inside of us called a conscience. It disturbs me to believe that electing people to politics requires the suspension of your conscience. I don’t see much evidence of it otherwise.

Monday, April 11, 2016

The Parties Over.....

The Parties Over……. Years ago, I was sitting in a green room with a lady who was married to a US Congressman…In the few minutes we sat waiting to go on the program, I asked her what her husband was going to do now that he was no longer in congress. She looked me square in the eye and said without hesitation…. “Why, he is going to be President of the United States.” This was years (maybe 15) before he actually ran and was elected. I went home that night and told my wife what this crazy old lady (or so I thought) had told me…but sure enough he did get elected. How could she actually believe this so far in advance? I have always grown up with the theory and belief that anyone, anyone at all could eventually become the president of our nation if they tried hard enough to gain the votes necessary to propel him or her into that office. So, what happened to that idea? The idea that we, the people actually got to choose the people we want to represent our interests in governing our country. It is obvious by what is going on now that you and I have no influence upon the outcome of what goes on in our national political arena. Ask the millions of people in Colorado who just lost their right to vote in a presidential primary because the Republican Party does not agree with or like the current frontrunner….Donald Trump. Why have elections in the first place since the outcome is going to be decided by a group of insiders who want the status quo to remain the same? What effect can my one vote have when it (along with millions of others) is being tossed aside and disregarded because the establishment leadership wants to maintain their control on the reins of authority and to hell with what we the people want? What do we know about government and what is in our best interests, anyway? We are just the hardworking men and women who don’t lie, cheat and steal from the governmental coffers and pay our taxes year after year while the fat cats travel first class, stay in 5 star resorts and commit fraud and theft for billions of dollars with little retribution ever extracted. “Oh, you stole 25 million from the XYZ Agency fund? Shame on you….there is a black mark by your name and you get probation for 5 years….don’t do it again.” Hardly a day goes by, that we don’t read or hear about these situations, is there? No, the Republican Party has taken a stand and made their intentions very public. We, the people don’t matter to those in power. Our beliefs are not welcome. Our opinions are not wanted. Go home…let the big boys handle these important matters. You just report to your jobs at the salt mines of America and send us your tax monies. Keep your head down and don’t ask questions. We really don’t need to hear from you at all. In fact we would prefer not to hear from you for any reason. We may wave at you as we are passing on our way to some exotic destination for a week or so in which we discuss the granting of a billion or so bucks (to some of our friends) for the research study on the mating habits of cockroaches. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams…..those names ring a bell? King George III didn’t listen to the people in the colonies either, did he?