Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

  Simple word, not so simple concept. 

You can have freedom from want and that is your basic Communist ideology.

You can have freedom to fail and that is democracy, but it gives you the ability to strive for better and reach higher goals, it does not feed you to stay at home and let you rot in place.

We have had freedom and we keep getting it modified when we have a major shift in which party holds the White House. When one party is there we see lots of tax cuts for the wealthy, more effort to limit unions, more debt for college students and home buyers, less concern for women, the elderly and veterans. The other party does just the opposite and usually reduces the national debt in the process.

  The use of a process of redistricting voting areas and the electoral college is the usual way one party gets in. Sometimes it is because they have selected a very popular person as the nominee but very seldom is it because they win the popular vote. This is one reason the electoral college needs to be abolished as it was established to deal with illiteracy.

  Our freedom to feel safe in our communities came from the knowledge that our police force was there to help and defend us. Today most of us do not know the name of a single police officer on the force in our own towns. We never see them on the street unless they are confronting someone and that is not a good time to introduce yourself. Every town seems to have a parking lot full of cars that are marked as police cars just waiting to go into service and yet the police station has no one in it as they have a remote dispatch office somewhere else. Move often than not you learn the name of a police officer because they are involved in some sort of trial over wrongful beatings or something on that order but not because they were on patrol downtown and you got to talk to them.

  Women in this country have had the freedom to make determinations about their health for over 50 years, but in some states they no longer have that freedom. The state has taken it away because a bunch of men have made the decision that the women are committing a crime if they choose to not carry a fetus to birth. These are the same men that will most likely not stand up and pay any support for that child once it is born, but then that is another issue.

  The right to vote has been fought for and won, and yet we are back to taking away votes because of ____________ name a reason, mostly because it was not cast for the person of choice that the someone wanted to win. Mail in ballots not valid, have to go to polling places, can’t have drinks with you, have to stand so many feet apart, and on and on. 

  In an effort to protect, we make some really dumb laws. Teens can drive at 16, younger in some states if they live on a farm. In most states teens can not consume alcohol until they are 18 and now they can not smoke until 21. Sex is an issue that has not been addressed and the reason is probably because no one knows how to discuss it intelligently without getting embarrassed. 

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

I suppose I am a big downer at this time of year, but I know I am not the only person that realizes the incongruency of this season.

Family or “friendly” gatherings often aren’t or don’t end up friendly, especially in today’s political climate. There is always one person that when the libations are plentiful wants to give everyone their personal dissertation on whatever is on their mind.

I have my questions about the settled-on date for Thanksgiving. It seems that the last Thursday in November is dubious for a harvest celebration considering that in the upper north-east harvest generally occurs in September and the first snow is in mid to late October. Having a lavish festival of over consumption when keeping the settlement stocked with supplies for the long winter is paramount, especially when replenishing those rations isn’t possible. Not saying that the thankful feast didn’t happen, just don’t think late November is a realistic time frame for such an event in the 1600s.

This season is supposed to be about goodwill but to many it is only about excess. Thanksgiving should want us to show appreciation and help those who have less, although these qualities shouldn’t be sequestered to the last 5 to 6 weeks of the calendar. Christmas has lost the sentiment of the figure that the holiday is named for. The holiday is supposed to celebrate a person that abandoned worldly possessions in the light of humility and grace, yet it is a day of want and greed. Children ask what they are getting for Christmas, parents and grandparents feel obligated to fulfill every craven request. This behavior does not represent the selfless nature of the deity people profess to be celebrating.

Sorry to be a bummer… I just want everyone to truly be thankful and share that gratitude with those they love and those they may not even know. Let’s not make this a season of Hypocrisy.        

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

 History is what we learn our past from for various reasons. So we know where we came from. We know how we lived and died, the ailments we suffered and the inventions we created. It also teaches us things that we should not do again because they are foolish like sticking your tongue on an icy flag pole. 

  That could be a very painful experience as can a civil war. That is another really poor choice of words, civil and war together. We had one and over 600,000 men and boys died fighting one another and half probably didn’t know why. The current situation with our politics is some saying that if they don’t get their way, namely put Trump back in the White House,  we will have another civil war. 

  The results of such an action will not be positive as more of our citizens will die for no damn good reason, and we will probably end up under the control of some other nation that is sitting on the sidelines waiting for us to start an internal fight so they can move in. Do those of us that know another term of Mr. T is a bad thing just let all you “Civil War” types have your way. I don’t think so, we will go and vote and most likely win as we did last time and then have to listen to the bleating for however long it takes before you all get over it.

  The movement of some to suppress and cause to regress rights is very real. There have been organized book burnings, major efforts to change history to reflect a different meaning to slavery, laws that punish because natural things happen that cause a woman to lose a baby, but that state does not see it that way. The list grows day by day,and issue by issue, so that more and more rights are taken from people that have done nothing to justify such treatment, except the twisted ideas in the minds of some very sick people that believe they have the final word.

   We need to stop this invasion of privacy, invasion of decency, assault on individuality and put these merchants of corruption out of their misery. The war with the Nazi’s ended 70 plus years ago and yet we still have people using that language yet today. They are using those tactics and preaching that kind of hate and it is unnecessary.

  Keep this in mind as well, both T and Biden are older men and since we are not living in the time of Methuselah it is not likely that either is going to be around for a huge amount of time after the next election.  Soldiers living in your homes is not a good thing as they may be just as big an attraction as they are a deterrent, but it may be necessary to keep you safe at some point.

  History is the Constitution and it should first be read as a historical document. Then the meaning that it had at the time written should be taken into account before making laws for today. In some instances that seems really backward, but a good receipt still makes a great loaf of bread. The products of today do not fit the definition of what was known and the reason for some decisions are not the same but logic and common sense need to be applied before public welfare is endangered.

  Example would be the owning of assault weapons. They were not known when the Constitution was written, and the 2nd Amendment addressed a standing militia for public safety. Currently the ownership of weapons addresses no safety and the public be damned. It is all about the will of the NRA and that agency’s supporters, this is not logic and common sense. The lack of ethics in the members of the Supreme Court have caused us a great deal of grief and will continue to do so as we have no way to remove these ineffectual fools. 

As always any comments welcomed.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

On Nov. 22, 1963, CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite battled to hold his emotions in check as he read a wire service report and looked up at the clock in a New York studio and he announced that President Kennedy had “died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time.”

I was not born yet but the reverberations and conspiracy theories of that bad day on Deely Plaza in Dallas are still in the lexicon of Americans. Americas Camelot was destroyed on that fateful day and a generation could tell you where they were when they heard the announcement. Presidents had been assassinated prior to Kennedy, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, but does anyone who is not a historian know the dates prior to Kennedy? I know Lincolns assassination was on April 20,1865 but I would have to look up Garfield and McKinley to even get close on the year they were assassinated.

The Kennedy assassination changed that way the Secret Service protects that President, you will never again see a President winding through a crowd in an open convertible. Now Presidents have a highly armored limo or SUV to transport them to and from events, secret service arrives day before the event to secure the area and those within spitting distance of the President to thoroughly vetted.

The big historical question is what would have been different in JFK lived and served a second term? JFK promised to stimulate the economy, pursue legislation to lower taxes, protect the unemployed, increase the minimum wage, and energize the business and housing sectors. Kennedy believed these measures would launch an economic boom that would last until the late 1960s. What did LBJ do in his stead, Johnson expanded upon the New Deal with the Great Society, a series of domestic legislative programs to help the poor and downtrodden. After taking office, he won passage of a major tax cut, the Clean Air Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. After the 1964 election, Johnson passed even more sweeping reforms.

So LBJ did expand to JFKs vision, but would Kennedy have had the Great Society and Civil Right reforms brought about by Johnson? Those are all questions that can only be hypothesized but never answered in this timeline. Would there have been a Kennedy dynasty, first John then Robert and possibly Teddy and later on John Jr.? Still question that we can only theorize.

The JFK assassination storyline of moves and books for the past 60 years and John F Kennedys legacy will live on as long as the stories are told.

The Boomer generation will forever remember where they were on 11/22/63 just like Generation X will always know where they were on 9/11/2001.Watershed moments that will never be forgotten.  

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

The election coming in 2024 will be contested during the campaign, during the ballot counting, and after all the votes have been counted and certified. It will be claimed to be stolen again as in 2020 because the outcome is destined to be the same this time around.
Why do I say that, because no one with a conscience wants to live in a world run by a mad man and that is what we will have if he (Trump) is put back in office. 

  All his vitriol about how badly he is being treated, and that the system is not fair and blah, blah, blah. He has not said one word about what he will do to make things better for the nation, only how he will go out of his way to punish those that have betrayed him and not supported his bull shit.

  He has made a big deal out of the fact that he and the gang in jail for insurrection have made a song that seems to have made it to the top of the charts, at least according to Trump. At any rate it has been copyrighted and is making money, which is the important part, wonder where that is going? Like most charity donations it is going into some pocket that is already full but can never be full enough.

  More great news from the followers of the one they are forming some sort of vetting program so that they can fill all the important government jobs with those that are loyal yes men. It is so special to see that the nation has produced so many that have grown up mindless and spineless that they are content to take orders from a very mentally impoverished gameshow host.

Comments always welcomed…

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

You are making all kinds of noise about having the military on the streets as soon as you are confirmed, which must mean you believe people are going to be opposed to you being elected or being railed in by the electoral college. Either way we are looking to have a scorched earth election. 

  If you are not elected your followers will have a civil war because your ego will not be able to stand the shock of the loss. If you win you are going to put troops on the streets to track down all those that have opposed you and deport them. Either way instead of the shining city on the hill you are going to oversee London after the blitz. 

  Hitler went to the Eagle’s Nest to get away from all the carnage he caused, where will you go? Is there a golf course big enough to shield you from the view of destruction of the country that you profess to love? Maybe Scotland except they won’t let you in. Some of your other friends that will rejoice over the destruction of this nation may have a hiding place for you, but once you have the ball rolling, who do you trust not to turn on you?

  Quite a dilemma that you are creating. It would seem that the only way out is to not have you on the ballot. No need for your followers to riot, you withdrew and asked them to stand down. No troops on the street as no one is protesting a very dicey election result, and all of the damaged stock in Congress have been replaced with critters that don’t have mad cow disease.

  Many people have aspired to be President, you actually made it. With no real training or understanding of the position and nothing but your ego to fulfill you did make it. Put it in you trophy cabinet and let it go. At your age you probably do not need the stress and the rest of us don’t need the mess, leave the politics to others. Go play golf.