I am changing my name to “Chicken Little,” because all I can say today is, “The sky is falling…the sky is falling!”
What is going on? Our world is fragmented, breaking apart, and taking all of humanity down with it. It seems that this downward spiral began just a short year or two ago. And since the election in November, the downward spiral is at warp speed. What’s Going On?
Let’s look at and briefly analyze several of the “big” items that this downward spiral has already seemingly gobbled up:
The NFL Anthem Protest
I am actually tired of all of this. The only NFL games I have watched in the past few weeks are San Francisco 49er games. Why? One of the “sons of my heart” is a 49er rookie wide receiver — Trent Taylor — and I could never forgive myself for missing his games. For those who know my love for football, understanding my divorce from the NFL certainly seems strange. But I love, watch, and have attended NFL games TO WATCH FOOTBALL! I watch the boob tube and read the NY Times and Washington Post for my political fodder.
Many Americans do not understand what is going on with the NFL and its resident millionaires. Honestly, NFL players do not either. I am not sure who holds the whistle that has called them to this attention, but someone has. Why? There is NO substance to their stated cause. Want facts?
“Bodies in the streets”
Kaepernick a season ago stated his reason for kneeling was because of police brutality and that cops are racially choosing and killing black Americans. Many of his fellow players picked up that mantra and made it “their” cause. But their cause is baseless. A recent “deadly force” study by Washington State University researcher Lois James found that police officers were less likely to shoot unarmed black suspects than unarmed white or Hispanic ones in simulated threat scenarios. Harvard economics professor Roland Fryer analyzed more than 1,000 of officer-involved shootings across the country. He concluded that there is zero evidence of racial bias in police shootings. In Houston, he found that blacks were 24 percent less likely than whites to be shot by officers even though the suspects were armed or violent.
According to the Justice Department,in 2014, over 6,000 blacks were murdered, more than all white and Hispanic homicide victims combined. Who is killing them? Not the police, and not white civilians, but other blacks. In fact, a police officer is eighteen and a half times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is to be killed by a police officer. Police officers are backing off of proactive policing in black neighborhoods thanks to the false narrative that police officers are infected with homicidal bias. As a result, violent crime is going up, in cities with large black populations, homicides in 2015 rose anywhere from 54 percent in Washington D.C. to 90 percent in Cleveland. Overall, in the nation’s 56 largest cities, homicides in 2015 rose 17 percent, a nearly unprecedented one-year spike.
No doubt there are rogue cops. But statistics compiled by Liberal entities and not Fox News show proof that yes, there are many, many black people being shot and killed. But most die at the hands of fellow citizens, not police. There is NO acceptable death by violence of any kind and it all must be addressed and stopped, no matter the sources. But the false attacks perpetrated by Leftist Media members and Democrats in office have been exposed. Americans need to take note before the violence goes any further.
Who’s leading the NFL players?
For more than a decade I was a team owner in Arena Football. During that span I served on the League Board of Directors with other owners and for several years served as Chairman of the Board. I was part of the League Union Committee that was charged with working with the AFLPA (Arena Football League Players Association) regarding negotiations, claims by union members, and grievances. In those years I learned just how powerful unions in America have become. In some cases, unions legitimately served the needs of workers who find themselves in desperate disadvantages in their employment. And those are good and helpful. Not so with the AFLPA. And sadly I believe some of that “reasoning” lives in the NFLPA.
That reasoning is to prove the union’s value to its members: the Players. How do they do that? They get their members more money, more benefits, and as much control of the employer’s operations as possible. The only way a union makes money is by convincing members of the union’s value and necessity and “giving” them benefits from time to time that prove to union members the unions have the upper hand with employers. It is no different in the NFL. IF the National Anthem Protest was legitimate, with all of the money the NFL has as does the players’ union, there would have been a massive PR campaign in the media about the substance of any issues with a detailed plan to resolve those issues.
Their plan? You know what their plan is, don’t you? Of course you don’t! There is no reason for this protest other than for the NFLPA and its members to somehow leverage these protests into additional money, benefits, and control. There has been a HUGE battle for several years between the NFLPA and NFL owners to get players a larger percentage of NFL revenue. And NFL owners are scared to death of the NFLPA! Why? The one asset of the NFL and its member teams that if taken away will kill the NFL is players. Remember this: NFL owners are each billionaires and several are multi-billionaires. No one intimidates them, except their players. That’s why Commissioner Goodell and owners have caved to simply pacify those spoiled millionaires who have no clue of any substance of this protest — because there is none. This baby-sitting by the NFL of its players will last only as long as it takes for them to demonstrate to players that players’ actions are literally killing the golden goose: NFL fans. And that has already started.
Puerto Rico
Now labeled as the greatest natural disaster in U.S. history, the Hurricane Maria devastation of Puerto Rico is heart breaking: rampant flooding, no water, no electricity, very little medical care, no food, and barely any transportation has crippled the island. President Trump and FEMA proactively and publicly prepared and initiated disaster plans for Puerto Rico days before the hurricane strike. There have been huge hurdles and roadblocks that have slowed down parts of the response, but the documented relief efforts by FEMA have been monumental — all lost on the Democrat Party in the U.S. and in Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico’s governor says efforts to restore cell service, gas and other basic needs to the island’s rural residents are progressing, even as many in those towns report feeling forgotten. “I recognize that right now, whether it’s the gas line or the ATM line, we’re limited,” Governor Ricardo Rossello told Reuters in an interview on Saturday at the Puerto Rico Convention Center, the government’s temporary headquarters. “But if you see the numbers,” he said, “you see there is a steady path to improvement.” More than half of Puerto Rico’s 3.4 million people lack access to drinking water 11 days after Hurricane Maria hit the U.S. territory, and 95 percent remain without power, according to the U.S. Defense Department. Some are expected to be without power for months. But on Saturday, Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) officials reported that a third of the island’s telecommunications network had been restored, and some 765 gas stations – well over half – had fuel, though it was not clear how much. This word came from the Governor — a person who would know facts about relief efforts.
The mayor of San Juan lashed out at Trump administration on Friday, decrying its relief effort in the wake of hurricanes Jose and Maria and saying if it doesn’t solve the logistics “what we we are going to see is something close to a genocide.” “We are dying here,” Carmen Yulín Cruz said at a press conference, speaking with tears in her eyes. “I cannot fathom the thought that the greatest nation in the world cannot figure out the logistics for a small island of 100 miles by 35 miles. So, mayday, we are in trouble.”
The truth: massive amounts of aid from the U.S. have been in Puerto Rico awaiting distribution inland since immediately after the storm. Puerto Rico officials were expected to manage the distribution. That has not occurred. The chief reason given by government officials is there is a lack of truck drivers to distribute.
San Juan’s mayor as she lashed out at President Trump and mainland Americans did so while standing in a large arena seemingly full of all types of goods from the U.S. to be distributed to Puerto Rico’s citizens. She cried on camera, “We’re dying here.” As of today, the official death count in Puerto Rico from this hurricane is 16.
The head of an international engineering firm in Puerto Rico said in an editorial Saturday that when the time came to send 50 of his engineers to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, he bypassed local officials and went straight to FEMA. The reason, said Jorge Rodriguez, the CEO of PACIV, in an editorial in the New York Post, is that “for the last 30 years, the Puerto Rican government has been completely inept at handling regular societal needs, so I just don’t see it functioning in a crisis like this one.”
Congress
They are NOT doing their jobs. Daily it becomes more evident that most members of Congress do not make decisions based on their voting constituents. Votes are for sale — maybe not literally, but pretty much all for quid pro quo. The political circus in D.C. is in-the-face of Americans as the wheels of legislation have screeched to a halt on Capitol Hill, at least in the Senate. As of today, there are over 200 bills passed in the House of Representatives for which no action has taken place in the Senate.
How can Americans expect Donald Trump to deliver on the legislative measures he promised in the campaign if Congress does not act? That’s exactly the point: many in Congress want him to fail. They forget that their failure to pass legislation will not be a presidential failure. It will be a failure of Congress.
What happens when things don’t get done at work because employees refuse to do what their bosses instruct them to do? The employees get fired. 2018 Congressional elections will probably be a mass employee firing unless they get going on business for Americans.
Summary
It ain’t easy right now in America. Anger, fear and uncertainty rule the day. And most of those we have historically trusted to lead from the muck and mire of these dangerous emotions refuse to take point. They instead push and promote personal partisan agendas designed to do anything but assist Americans with the important issues that impact lives daily.
As an example, take a quick look at New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer’s web page — just the “News” page: https://www.schumer.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases. There are 20 stories listed here that chronicle the last 10 days of his and fellow NY Senator for New York. Each story details millions of dollars these two Senators have together obtained from Congress for taxpayer underwritten “local” pork projects. NONE include anything about tax relief or healthcare revision. It’s all about power and what it brings to those in Congress.
This all impacts Americans in every city and town in the nation….and in Puerto Rico. The divisiveness is drowning our nation and its citizens. When will a unifying call go out from leadership to make us feel warm and fuzzy that our government really gives a hoot about us?
It needs to happen soon. The downward spiral is devouring all that is good about the USA.
Excellent!