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Current Events

The Schuylkill County “We The People”

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Still on the road in Charleston, SC, but had to force myself to post another barn burner and a must read from Greg. We are in great danger folks in case you have not realized it yet. God help us!!

“We the People”

By: G. Maresca

Like 48 years ago, it was a hot August day when another unprecedented historical unintended consequence entered the American chronicle when President Richard Nixon resigned his office. Being a paperboy and a two-sewer stickballer, I took time out of my summer vacation to watch the proceedings on network television.

This time I did not watch as another presidential first went down as a 30-member FBI platoon with weapons drawn burst into the home of a former president, The nine-and-a-half-hour marathon raid’s legacy is another despondent day for the American republic.

The raid was another exemplar of how federal agencies have been weaponized against the Constitution they are sworn to defend and protect. Maybe it was another variant of the Trump Derangement Syndrome and a warning to all MAGA supporters of what awaits them.

Parlay all three.

The raid certainly raises constitutional questions and any prosecution under the Espionage Act would be a reach yet remains to be seen.

After the Clintons removed spoils from the White House, no FBI raid occurred despite clearly underestimating the value of what was taken. Donald Trump’s circumstance should have been handled with the same discretion. Instead of the raid, a legal action in conjunction with the National Archives would have sufficed.

Leave it to the Babylon Bee this generation’s version of Mad Magazine to find levity: “The FBI raid on Melania’s closet was justified,” says Attorney General Merrick Garland while wearing a gorgeous new evening gown and sun hat.”

Where are the federal investigations of Hillary Clinton’s bleached servers, Hunter Biden’s laptop and illicit dealings with foreign governments, and Rep. Eric Swalwell’s intimate relationship with a Chinese spy, or the longstanding parade of Democrats sailing off to Epstein’s Island?

Democrats and the bureaucratic swamp creatures they breed have done everything to Trump short of assassinating him. Trump continues to live rent free in their heads but now as a private citizen.

The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is another ill-advised bill directed at reducing inflation and climate change that will prevent neither. The IRA should be renamed the IRS Enforcement Act as it will supersize the agency by adding 87,000 more agents, arming the IRS with more agents than the Marine Corps has Marines. The bill will not only raise but convolute the tax code even further, stagnating the economy leading to diminished investments in a stock market that is more roller coaster than Ferris wheel.

Democrats and the Washington bureaucratic swamp possess a hearty appetite for self-preservation and understand that the only Republican whom President Biden could defeat in 2024 is Trump. Attacking Trump compels Republicans to rally to his defense making him a likely candidate in 2024.

As the nation continues on its tight rope, Benjamin Franklin’s prophetic words ring louder: “We created a republic, if you can keep it.”

The average life expectancy for an empire is 250 years.

Over two centuries ago, a Scotsman and a contemporary of Franklin named Alexander Tytler, made the insightful reflection that a democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government especially when the electorate discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. Democracy then collapses into a dictatorship.

The impetus to respond on a local level to our ailing, late-stage empire was not lost on Jim Eisenhart, a Schuylkill County native, who recently formed a “We The People” non-partisan, grassroots group dedicated to educating and discussing Constitutional government.

There is an Edmund Burke quality to Eisenhart’s efforts whom like Burke, the 18th century Irish statesman who served in the British House of Commons, understands that the hallmark of a healthy society is reconciliation of the present and the future to the past.

The U.S. Constitution is the sovereign law of the land and remains the font from which protections against government overreach springs. For it is the Constitution that bounds the power of the federal government, not enables it. People must realize that it is them, not the government that holds the power.

The first three words of the Constitution sum it up concisely and the Schuylkill County “We The People” group will hold their second meeting at the Fountain Springs Country Inn at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 15.

When will we wake up folks and take back our country? I cannot imagine an IRS larger than the United States Marine Corps. Can you? Why?

Originally posted 2022-08-19 17:04:41.

Current Events

Words From a Legend

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Good morning gang, hope your celebration of America yesterday went as planned. We went to church, then literally took the day off. Edgar and I sat in a recliner and watch golf all afternoon — something I have never done before as I am not a golfer, only played five times in my life. However, it was a relaxing, enjoyable day for both of us.

I guess everyone has off today, but of course the swamp creatures never take a day off. They remain alert to attack anyone who disagrees with their agendas. But I care not to publish any of their diatribe or goings on today, but to post comments from a legend and forever hero of mine. The infamous Lou Holtz of Notre Dame. In his own words. Enjoy.

When I coached football, I’d tell my players that “life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you respond to it.” It was a way to get them to focus on themselves and on the things they could control – and to get them to understand that they were ultimately the authors of their own destinies.

It didn’t mean they weren’t on a team: football isn’t a game for committed individualists. It did mean, though, that when events unfolded – when they found themselves far downfield and wide open, or when they found themselves knocked flat by linemen twice their size – the measure of themselves was revealed in the very next moment.

You don’t know a player by what’s done to him. You know him by what he does.

It’s a lesson America could use now. My teams looked a lot like America – and they worked a lot like how America is supposed to work.

Every race, every ethnicity, and every point of origin was represented among our players across my career. They all had two things in common. The first was that they were passionately committed to making Notre Dame Football the country’s best – and a few times, they succeeded. The second was that each of them earned their spot. Yes, they were diverse, but the diversity wasn’t the reason for their presence. Every single player who wore the Notre Dame uniform deserved to do it.

That’s meritocracy. But why use the five-dollar word? I was born in West Virginia and raised in Ohio: out there, we just call it the American way.

There are a lot of enemies of the American way these days – right here in America. They’re men and women, mostly elites from academia and media, who would, if they could, walk into a football locker room and tell the players the exact opposite of my counsel: “life is 90% what happens to you, and 10% how you respond to it.” Then, having said that, they would probably demand to know why the team was gender imbalanced. Then, having said that, the team – now dispirited and infused with a victim mentality – would head out to the field to lose.

What’s true of a football team is true of a country. America’s promise has always been the opportunity for self-definition, self-advancement, self-creation. Where we’ve fallen short of that ideal – and we have – we’ve labored to correct ourselves. On the whole, we’ve done a pretty good job.

It’s fashionable now to lament failures in our history, but that myopic focus ignores the triumph of the present. In my lifetime alone, this country has defeated three malevolent empires, ended de jure racial segregation, and crafted a society so rich in opportunity that people from all over the world risk everything to get in.

Set against that record, unmatched anywhere, anytime, by anyone, we have the proponents of national decline and national lamentation – whether going by the name of critical-race theorists or the 1619 Project – arguing that America was flawed from the start and requires a wholesale purge of its own society before it is worth saving, or admiration.

We should be charitable to this crowd. Some of them genuinely believe the country requires a reckoning. Some of them are simply hucksters, selling books and clawing forth column inches in the timeless American tradition of media by any means. All of them, though, see themselves as on top and enriched when the reckoning comes. These aren’t radicals sacrificing for a better world: they’re power-seekers making their bid to rule with the acquiescence of a compliant elite.

That’s why we have to fight them. That’s why we have to win. When a football team believes that “life is 90% what happens to you, and 10% how you respond to it,” it loses. When a nation believes it, it ends. The stakes are that existential.

The creed set forth by the other side transforms our national life from a glorious constellation of mutual cooperation and community flourishing into a grim and zero-sum exercise of group versus group, with no winner – and many losers.

Football, I used to tell my players, is a rehearsal for life. That’s true for nearly any endeavor in which we strive and contend for the betterment of ourselves, our families and our communities. Our duty is to see that it’s a rehearsal for a triumph – not a decline. To make it happen, we must be willing to tell simple truths: among them, that no impersonal “structure” is the author of our fate, that each of us possesses the dignity and opportunity to make our own best lives, and that America is the greatest republic in the history of man.

Those used to be truisms. Today they’re radical dissents. But then, America was born in radical dissent. I couldn’t be happier to stand in that tradition. 

Lou Holtz is a legendary college football coach and chairman of the Center for 1776 at the America First Policy Institute

The comments from the FOX news page where I retrieved this might be worth reading. Simply reinforces there are many of us out here who refuse to give up.  Press ON!

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/july-fourth-america-truths-fight-lou-holtz

Originally posted 2021-07-05 12:15:03.

Recent Posts

Mr. Mattis

14 Comments

Not much from the swamp lately, so  Let me post an update on my favorite general. 

I am amazed at the number of hits My Open Letter to Mr. Mattis posted on 4 June 2020 has received. Not a day goes by that I don’t get at least one hit on that post almost a year later. To date there have been 224,545 hits on that post. Wow. Where is he, what’s he doing now? Probably hiding under a rock somewhere, but I’m sure he is still getting honorariums for speaking engagements from the leftists. Oh well, at least I don’t see any thing on the media from him. I am surprised that Joe didn’t hire him for some important post in his administration like Director of Constitutional Literacy. 

Originally posted 2021-05-27 12:37:24.

Current Events

Officer Tatum

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Okay swamp watchers, let’s see what others think of the systemic racism the swamp keeps telling us we have in the U.S.

This video needs no introduction or comments from me. It speaks very well for itself.

 

If you do not know who Officer Tatum is, please right click on Home below and open in new window; it is safe. Quite a guy!!

Home

Originally posted 2021-04-23 11:58:21.

Current Events

All Dollars and Little Sense

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Good day fellow patriots and conservatives. Haven’t posted in a few days as I have been overwhelmed with tales from the swamp creatures and their devious ways. The trial is over, and as we expected he was was found guilty, albeit with Joe and the b**ch from california ( I refuse to capitalize the name of that foreign land) spouting off at the mouth there is lots of ammo for an appeal. Let’s keep praying for it to happen..

And of course the House voted to make DC a state. Oh isn’t that great two more leftist senators and one congressman for the swamp. I don’t hold out much hope from the senate to strike it down; too many leftist republicans in there. So, how will we arrange the stars in the flag?  That will be fun to watch.

From my tone you may wonder what is going on. Well at my ripe age, I refuse to get excited about what happens. Oh, don’t get me wrong. When the war comes, I shall man the lines as I have done before, and if anyone offers me a billet such as a battalion commander, I shall rise to the occasion, as I am sure you will as well.

Had lunch today with two old fellow retired colonels with whom I have served several times, but not seen them in a while — I really don’t know why since we are all retired.  Joining us was another local retired colonel and a retired captain. Of course the items of discussion was a few war stories and lots about the swamp. It’s always a good time when Marine brothers can get together — I miss that.

Okay, what’s the post? Well , as many of you know, I am an Economist by education and full time hobby. I enjoy playing in the market. Today’s post came from my old friend and contributor , Eric Maresca. As a market player I found the article interesting and a dire warning to those who do as I do. Read and learn

By Eric Maresca

The stock market bull rally that got underway after a giant fall last February and ushered in the COVID era has been relentless. Who would believe record highs were even possible after such a swift drop during a pandemic, followed by political turmoil and civil chaos.

After the Federal Reserve cut interest rates again and went on a printing spree pumping trillions into the economy through three stimulus packages, the benchmark S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were catapulted to virgin territory. Likewise, we are in the midst of a cryptocurrency revolution where their hourly values run like an amusement park roller coaster.

With the M1 Money supply – the amount of liquidity available for spending – also at an all-time high at $18.4 trillion, the potential for one of the biggest economic booms in U.S. history is primed.

This optimism has predicted a strong 2021 second half.

The larger concern is 2022 and beyond.

Historically, long periods of low interest rates combined with a growing federal debt is no yellow brick road to Oz. You cannot ignore the laws of physics, gravity, or economics, as the government is spending itself into oblivion. From 2010 to 2019, the aggregate GDP growth was nearly the same Uncle Sam spent in COVID stimulus.

With so much stimulus finding their way to Wall Street, stock prices have been inflated. To underscore how pricey stocks are all you have to do is to juxtapose the price-to-earnings multiple at 31.5 and the price-to-sales at 2.9. At the peak of the dot-com bubble in March 2000, the price-to-earnings ratio was 29 and the price-to-sales ratio at 2.3. In addition, the stock market capitalization-to-GDP ratio that measures markets relative to the economy that peaked in 2000 at 140%, stands today at 190%.

Can you whisper bubble? Such a pop would result in a fiscal 9/11 and catch many nascent investors napping. Many were too young to recall the dot-com bubble burst over a generation ago and will pay dearly.

As the stock market rolls along, so does the national deficit. In fact, it seems to be about the only thing that is mushrooming faster. This should concern plenty, but along the D.C. Beltway such matters are dismissed.

 Stock trading has drawn plenty of new players armed with their “stimmy.” Rather, than paying bills, buying necessities, or paying down their debts, these emerging investors have turned day trading into gamification. With success they gain confidence and buy more shares, but the market’s present trajectory won’t last. When it drops many will see it as a fire-sale opportunity.

The stock app at center stage is aptly named Robinhood having taken its namesake from the English Democrat who robbed from the rich and redistributed their wealth. In this stimulus era of Robinhood fever and GameStop, why waste time researching good companies at reasonable prices, and then waiting years for returns to compound?

Apps like Robinhood, SoFi, Webull, and Public.com can be fun, but addictive, and a bookkeeping nightmare.

Such internet trading platforms make basic tax-abating strategies difficult to implement. Buying and selling stocks by the lot can lower your tax bill by choosing which shares to sell. However, selling specific lots are difficult or impossible to do online as sales are based on a first-in-first-out (FIFO) basis, where the oldest shares are sold first.

These time-honored tactics may be the least of their concerns when the market turns because it will. Once the public buys in, time is short and the potential for disaster gains momentum. When the melt down commences, nearly everyone will lose more on the way down than they made on the way up. Melt Downs do not end quickly, but over time. If the market is one thing – it is unforgiving.

Market peaks are clear in retrospection, but not in the moment, but the warning signs are there.

Do not confuse a bull market for brains.

As the timeworn adage rings: “Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.” That applies for booms, too.

Mot people do not have an exit plan like trailing stops that protects your gains and prevents you from losing more money. A diversified portfolio and fixed selling points is always your friend.

In my ECON 101 class the professor told a story that I have found over the years to an absolute. “Put five Economists in a room and ask them a simple question and you will always get at least six answers.” I have been trimming my portfolios for the last two months. I have more cash than I have ever had, upwards of 30% cash, and I keep building it. I have good stocks e.g., DOW down over 300 points today and my portfolio was up 1.9%. But I keep taking some profits and paring down. I believe it is coming folks; somone has to pay the bills the swamp is piling up.  Greg is talking common sense.

Originally posted 2021-04-22 17:16:31.

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