It's no longer about whose life matters...

First off, we are a blended family and I am not racist. I believe in equality. Equality between men and women, between all races and peoples. But it's no longer about whose life matters. It's all about what matters to some black people and not that black lives matter. If black lives mattered the blacks themselves wouldn't shoot 104 and murder 6 in Chicago on Father's Day. Or other days when it's 40 or 60 shootings and God knows how many killing each other. A child shot through the second floor window while she was watching TV with her family, an infant murdered while in a car seat with her daddy. Two young men shot and killed after asking how tall another man was? What the hell? Every life matters no matter the color, but when will the people of color stop shooting and start trying to save their own lives?

This has become a real shit storm and I firmly believe the Black Lives Matter movement has been hijacked by anarchists and domestic terrorists. Politicians are pandering to whatever these people want, using the BLM as a reason to roll over and play dead. It seems anything that can be turned against non-blacks is being done, and likely not by the actual BLM people. Statues destroyed, buildings burned and looted. The leftist press wants people to believe the looting is just consequential and that is crap. They came with battery powered metal cutting saws to get into stores, so that is sure as hell not just spur of the moment. That was planned way ahead of time. I see this as becoming a civil war in the US as more and more people get fed up and will defend their homes and property against this invasion. To add idiocy to this, while the alleged protesters get away with destroying tens of millions or perhaps billions of dollars in property, three people are arrested and charged for tearing down a BLM sign made out of garbage bags.And this is equality in justice now?

The press is so left leaning they jump on every opportunity to vilify the current administration. For example, the following was blown up by the press as poor woman whines her family doesn't get stimulus check. Simple issue is she married an illegal. That is on her not the American people.  He's freaking illegal, you filed a joint tax return with someone who is illegal, he has no social security number, worked under the table, paid no taxes, you took the married deduction, got the earned income and child deductions and then what...wanted us to give you more? Freaking morons and yet the news picks up these stories so people think the current administration is bad.  It's just unbelievable.

The Democrats kneeling with African scarves around their neck for George Floyd. When did they ever kneel for the tens of thousands of service men and women killed defending our country? When did they kneel for all the first responders killed in the line of duty? When did they kneel for the victims of the Pulse nightclub? When did they kneel for the victims of wildfires, floods and tornadoes? Never. Pandering is what keeps them in office. What a sad bunch of people who were elected by other sad people. Of course they want to remove John Wayne's name from the Orange County Airport. I suppose if it was John Wayne Gacy it would be okay or maybe they will name it Hanoi Jane in honor of that traitor bitch. Anything is possible. 

We all need to be cognizant of others and be open to frank dialogue on the current issues. Racism has no place in our society, and while many of the old stereotypes seem to hang on, there are good and bad people in every race, color, creed, and unfortunately, religion as well.  Maybe what the country needs is to re-institute the draft to get all young people to see we are all the same. Serving side by side by men and women of color makes one realize we are all brothers and sisters, regardless of how we appear outside. Skin only covers blood and we are all bleeding red. 

Be kind to each other and maybe, just maybe, we can survive and prosper as one.

China keeps screwing the US over and over, regardless of the coronavirus

This is not anti-Chinese rhetoric, but rather the hard facts on how we, as a nation, keep getting screwed time and again by China, thanks to our own greedy businesses and even ourselves.

Most goods from China are sub-standard, lack quality control and are designed to put money in someone's pocket while delivering a less than efficient, or even safe, product. Let's examine some of the reasons why:

Cheap. Simply stated, Chinese goods are cheap. Cheaply made, cheap instruction manuals that look and read like they were written by kindergartners, poor packaging, and not designed to last.

Unsafe. Chinese products often carry labels like UL and others making them appear as if they were tested by Underwriters Laboratories for safety. In almost every case, they have not and they counterfeit the trademark of UL to increase sales among consumers who think they may be getting safe products. I read almost daily about products that fail, catch fire, melt, and present undue shock hazards and yet, they remain 9n the market. Someone is falling down on the job allowing this junk into the country without examination. Sadly, catastrophic failure of an item makes any legal avenue to claim damages and injury almost impossible.

Unsafe for children. Also unsafe is the materials themselves used in manufacture of Chinese goods. Lead base paint has been found in many children's toys and while some US companies state they go to China to assure they are using the proper materials, spy video has shown the Chinese switching back to unsafe materials as soon as the US based inspector leaves.

Unsafe for anyone. Remember the Chinese drywall debacle? If you don't have a house made with Chinese drywall you are more than lucky, you are blessed. It made many thousands sick when the contaminated and corrosive formula that emanated hydrogen sulfide, a corrosive gas with a rotten egg smell, and ended up in as many as 100,000 homes in the US alone. An estimated 550 million pounds were imported, enough to built at least 60,000 home in their entirety. Think that's an exaggeration? Here's from Wikipedia:
"Chinese drywall" refers to an environmental health issue involving defective drywall manufactured in China, imported to the United States and used in residential construction between 2001 and 2009 — affecting "an estimated 100,000 homes in more than 20 states."^[1]
In samples of contaminated drywall, laboratory tests will detect off-gassing of volatile chemicals and sulfurous gases — including carbon disulfide, carbonyl sulfide, and hydrogen sulfide. The emissions worsen as temperature and humidity rise, will give off a sulfuric (rotten egg) odor and will cause copper surfaces to turn black and powdery, a chemical process indicative of a hydrogen sulfide reaction and an early indication of contaminated drywall. Copper pipes, electrical wiring, and air conditioner coils are affected, as well as silver jewelry.
Homeowners have reported health symptoms including respiratory problems such as asthma attacks, chronic coughing and difficulty breathing, as well as chronic headaches and sinus issues."

Unsafe for pets. Numerous pet food recalls result from the quality of pet food that has been imported from China. Sadly, pets have died or ended up with severe disease that shortens their lives as a result. Pats are not considered people so the liability a company has for killing your beloved pet is almost nil. Check the labels and don't buy any pet, or human food, produced in China.

Failure. The failure rate of offshore products is surely many times greater than US made items. Yes, we sometimes have products made here that fail, but there are resources available to us to contact the manufacturer, or at least the seller, and have the issues rectified. Not so with most offshore products.

Customer service. That phrase falls on deaf ears with so many Chinese products and even their US sellers. Many are not versed in the English language and cannot converse with consumers to a successful resolution of  a problem. Sometimes they will answer queries and then go silent, or many times they just don't answer. And then you seem to have little to no recourse.

Warranties. The warranty on so many products made in China are worthless. US companies sell these products and in many cases, their entire product line is made in China. The companies swear they have a no hassle warranty and it really is...for them. They simply quit answering and then you are stuck with a useless product. Here's an example:

Sun Joe Cordless Pressure Washer fails after 4 uses in about 6 months. It seemed to be a great unit and has a two year warranty so the seller is contacted. (They state they are the "factory" but in actuality the factory is in China and they are in New Jersey.) Canned automated response asks for the usual information including model and serial number, name, address, etc. Then the silence begins. No further response from Sun Joe but they seem to still have time to send ads to buy more of their products. Another week and I e-mail them again, then another week and nothing. No matter how often they are contacted it's the same idiotic auto response, or no response at all. Oh yeah, they now blame COVID-19 for their lack of response. And I am not alone in these complaints, many others seem to be having the same lack of help. Another Chinese product that you can't fix and ends up in the junkyard.

Solar lights for the patio fill with water from the rain and fail in just a few months. Seller acknowledges the problem but then drops contact. Again, what a useless Chinese product and the seller can't compose a readable sentence. I kick myself for wasting money and swear no more junk products from China.

So how are we screwing yourselves with Chinese products? We keep buying them and keeping their economy afloat while our American economy falls further behind. No, the consumer is not totally to blame; manufacturers are greedy and move production offshore to make a bigger profit while decimating jobs at home. Corporations are only based on profits and not the consumer. Yes, there are some companies with stellar service, products and warranties, but they are few and far between. It is difficult to find Made in America goods for the most part. We need to demand more made in America goods and be willing to spend more for quality products. This will bolster our employment and economy here and not in sweat shops overseas.

Buy American!

Defunding the police is a bad idea

Cities are now questioning their current police departments and what steps to take to reduce police violence. Maybe the first thing they need to do is have the community actually respect law and order, rather than adopt the "me,me,me" attitude that the entire world is wrong and they are right. Maybe we need to start making crime not pay, and to actually punish those who break the law rather than reward them with a no bail, cut-em-loose policy. Catch and release works for some fish, allowing them to get bigger and breed. It is not an acceptable manner to deal with criminal behavior.

Defunding means moving dollars away from police departments and in many cases, giving it to social programs alleged to help a marginalized or lower socioeconomic community. This is a really bad idea as time and again we have learned that throwing money into inner city problems does nothing to stem the crime and violence. Several cities including San Francisco are floating the idea that police should not respond to "non-criminal" complaints or scenarios and that will be handled by social service type arbitrators. Imagine a domestic issue that escalates and the arbitrator is going to do what? Talk more? Or now call the police when it spirals out of control? I think we will see many injured civilians in cities that decide to do this. Many situations police face on a daily basis start out as pleasant interfaces and end up being much more. Of course, those suggesting foolish moves have never been a street cop nor had any experience in actual law enforcement activities. Like those non-players who Monday morning quarterback, and condemn the way a football was tossed on Sunday, it's easy to condemn the police for making split second decisions. 

 

My opinion is it's time to not defund the police but to restructure the department from top to bottom. How a department operates should NOT be on political whims nor on reactivity to events, rather by a hierarchy of command that starts with high quality leadership. Too often the command staff is filled with those the current politicians see as supportive and leaning to their cause, rather than to the standards and qualities that make a law enforcement agency a positive factor in city government. Chicago is a prime example where the Mayor throws the police command staff under the bus, and then has yet another head who she then vilifies as a prime reason crime is out of control, while she is pulling the strings to preclude effective policing.

Community policing has failed. The "old days" when everyone knew the cop on the beat is long gone. Now we have officers riding in cars and unable to meet and greet the citizens they protect. What happened to door checks on every business on a beat, where the officer had the phone number to call in the event he found a door unlocked? In my opinion, when that was stopped, it denigrated the value of community policing. Nobody knows the beat cop anymore and the community spirit of mutual respect has died.

Sad to see how times have changed and yes, I'm an old dinosaur, who remembers it as it was...respectful policing and community care.

Protests vs Anarchy

In these most difficult times, we are now faced with a serious action taken against all Americans...protests that have turned into violent actions bordering on anarchy.

It is not bad enough that so many families and businesses have been sorely impacted with the COVID-19 Virus but now we have to deal with the destruction of businesses and public buildings that already are suffering from the economic downturn brought on by the virus.

Those protesting certainly have the right to do so in a peaceful manner and I commend those who do just that...protest against disparity and injustice for any reason. Race, color or creed should have no place in whether anyone receives fair treatment in this country. But when protest become violence and looting, the protests lose traction and become a scourge on the very fabric of our society. When lawlessness supersedes common sense, the message of a protest is drowned out entirely. The focus now becomes on those who defy logic and think violence actually adds credibility to anything. It doesn't. In fact, people who may have been sympathetic to the protests now are enraged at what it has become.

I commend the authorities who have had such restraint in the face of violence. Having had to deal with a riot many years ago, I know the difficulty in being threatened, assaulted and still not responding with force. It is an almost uncontrollable urge to strike back, and only training stops that response action.

What amazes me is how the looters and arsonists target any business at all, and many are businesses that are owned by individuals, many minorities, who have or will lose everything as a result. One man, himself a minority, had just opened his smoke shop the day before the violence, and is now left without a means to feed and clothe his family, all because some idiots decided to loot and burn his business. He did nothing to deserve this...a hard working man who was trying to build a future for his family and better himself. What a sad scenario.

Then we have the elderly couple trying to defend a business who were beaten with 2x4's. Why not leave them alone and move on? And the person who saved for many years, just opened a bar and restaurant, and it was burned to the ground..destroying his future. And even sadder is he was a black man trying to build a better life for himself and his family. I wonder what he thinks of the protests now.

Those who damaged so much will be the same ones looking for handouts and freebies when this is all over. They don't work so looking for work won't be much of a chore for them; many likely live on the public dole or with parents so they have the freedom to be idiots on someone else's dime.

And, when the ravages of COVID-19 comes to these rioters and protesters door, then what? They will want the very society they decry to save them from the disease and possible death. They will want the paramedics and ambulances they are blocking now to respond quickly to assist them or their family. How many will end up on ventilators due to their own actions, failing to adequately distance themselves and protect each other from the virus? Only time will tell. 

2020 has become a year for the annals of history. The virus, huge unemployment, business failures and now the protests and riots. What is next for our country? We can all pray the future is brighter than the immediate past.