Get Them Dirty Critters Out of My House

Posted on 29/04/2016 by Grumpa Joe

An interesting perspective on the Trump phenomenon.

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Raccoons in your attic

Gingrich on Trump

Fresh idea by Newt Gingrich. Love Trump or hate him, a good reason
Understanding Donald Trump
from The Washington Times, Jan. 8, 2016 by Newt Gingrich

Donald Trump is a genuine phenomenon. He may or may not become the Republican nominee for president. He may or may not win the presidency, even if he becomes the nominee. Yet it is clear that he is
a phenomenon, and that any history of the 2016 presidential race will have to spend a good bit of time analyzing Trump and his impact.

From the time he announced on June 16, Trump has dominated social and mainstream media. He dominates the conversation, despite the lack of paid advertising. Trump says outrageous things, and his supporters
shrug it off. At every turn, his poll numbers continue to rise.

As a step toward understanding this amazing performance, I spent part of the Christmas break reading his first bestseller, ‘The Art of the Deal’. Written in 1987, this book is a classic among American business books, and has influenced a generation of entrepreneurs.
Trump wrote ‘The Art of the Deal’ when he was 41 years old and having a successful run. The book’s popularity contributed to Time Magazine’s decision to feature Donald Trump on its cover in January 1989.

The portrait that emerges from this easy-to-read and remarkably interesting book is of an aggressive, ambitious person who is constantly pushing, constantly learning, and always seeking the next challenge. Reporters and analysts who are trying to understand Trump,
would be well served by slowing down and reading this nearly three-decade-old bestseller.

They would discover that Donald Trump has developed a remarkable set of rules and principles that allow him to make decisions with incredible speed. Trump knows a lot, but what is amazing is how rapidly he figures out what he doesn’t know.

My favorite story is of the Wollman Skating Rink in New York’s Central Park. The Wollman Rink was a heavily used public skating rink which had fallen into disrepair in 1980. New York City tried for six years to fix it, spent $13 million, and the rink still was not ready to open.
In June of 1986 Trump, who could see the rink from his apartment, finally got tired of the embarrassment, and offered to fix the rink at his own expense. At first the city turned him down because its bureaucracy did not want to be embarrassed by someone fixing something they couldn’t fix. Trump kept pushing, and finally out of embarrassment, the city gave in.

The key part of the story is Trump’s reaction to being put in charge. He promptly recognized that he didn’t know anything about fixing a skating rink. He asked himself who built a lot of skating rinks.
“Canadians!” he concluded. He found the best Canadian ice skating rink construction company. When the Canadians flew in to assess the situation, they were amazed at how bad the city had been at solving the problem. They assured Trump that this was an easy job. Trump fixed the six year embarrassment two months ahead of schedule and nearly $800,000 under-budget. (The city did end up paying for the work, and Trump donated the profits to charity.)

After reading this chapter you begin to think that maybe Donald Trump really could build a wall along our southern border for a lot less than our current government estimates.

‘The Art of the Deal’ is filled with stories like this — stories of common sense, stories of calculated risk taking, and stories of innovation and marketing.
Anyone who would like to better understand Donald Trump would be helped by reading this remarkable book.

Another is his pledges, and I have no way of knowing if he will make good on all of them, but I do agree with all of them. Trump is the only candidate that is serious about building The Wall”!
There are two other important pledges Trump has made that no other candidate of either party has matched ! First deportation of millions of illegals that are demanding and costing American taxpayers billions of dollars, and
second, closing 34 Muslim training camps throughout our country!
I WOULD LIKE TRUMP OR ANY OTHER CANDIDATES PLEDGE TO REINSTATE ANY AND/OR ALL MILITARY OFFICERS DISCHARGED BECAUSE THEY DISAGREED WITH OBAMA OR HIS POLICIES!!

Here is another that kind of wraps up my feelings about Trump; Raccoon’s in your basement! An interesting analogy. You’ve been on vacation for two weeks. You come home, and your basement is infested with raccoon’s. Hundreds of rabid, messy, mean
raccoon’s have overtaken your basement. You want them gone immediately, so you hire a guy…a pro!!. You don’t care if the guy smells, you need those raccoon’s gone pronto, and he’s the guy to do it!
You don’t care if the guy swears, you don’t care if he’s an alcoholic, you don’t care how many times he’s been married, you don’t care if he voted for Obama, you don’t care if he has plumber’s crack…you simply want
those raccoon’s gone!

You want your problem fixed! He’s the guy. He’s the best. Period. That’s why Trump! Yes he’s a bit of an ass, yes he’s an egomaniac, but you don’t care.
The country is a mess because politicians suck, the Republican Party is two-faced & gutless, illegal’s are everywhere. You want it all fixed!
You don’t care that Trump is crude, you don’t care that he insults people, you don’t care that he had been friendly with Hillary, you don’t care that he has changed positions, you don’t care that he’s been married 3 times, you don’t care that he fights with Megyn Kelly and Rosie O’Donnell, you don’t care that he doesn’t know the name of some Muslin terrorist,…this country is weak, bankrupt, our enemies are making fun of us, we are being invaded by illegal’s, we are becoming a nation of victims where every Tom, Ricardo, and Hamad is a special interest group, with special rights to a point where we don’t even recognize the country we were born and raised in!!;
“AND WE JUST WANT IT FIXED” and Trump is the only guy who seems to understand what the people want.

You’re sick of politicians, sick of the Democratic Party, Republican Party, and sick of illegal’s. You just want this thing fixed. Trump may not be a saint, but doesn’t have any lobbyist money influencing him. He doesn’t have political correctness restraining him. All you
know is that he has been very successful, a good negotiator, he has built a lot of things, and he’s also not a politician, so he’s not a cowardly politician. And he says he’ll fix it. You don’t care if the guy has bad hair. You just want those raccoon’s gone and out of your house.

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Raccoon damage in a home office.

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Fourth Grade Patriot

Posted on 16/04/2013 by Grumpa Joe

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As a child in grammar school I read a lot of books. Once I discovered the local library my world opened immensely. I lost myself in reading books about early American life, the frontier life. I especially enjoyed reading about colonial America. The Revolutionary war held my interest and I reveled at the exploits of our Patriot Citizens who formed an army to fight the mighty British.

As an adult, I often bad mouth the French for their attitude toward the US, but when I read accounts about the founding of America, I realize just how critical French help was to making victory possible.

This winter I have read a few books more than I have in the past, and on my last trip to the library I spotted a book that piqued my interest. The author’s name did it, Newt Gingrich. Gingrich has been somewhat controversial in recent years He served in Congress and was Speaker of the House during the Clinton Administration. He is largely responsible for Clinton’s successful second term as President. Clinton is often praised for leaving a budget surplus for the next president. The truth of the matter is that Gingrich as Speaker orchestrated legislation that Clinton very wisely signed into law.

Newt Gingrich is a historian. Before entering politics he taught history. His love of history is clear in “Victory at Yorktown.”  Reading this story brought back memories of my fourth grade début into the world of history. Gingrich with co-author William R. Forstchen have crafted a fictional story of George Washington’s leadership to end the war and to solidify the USA. Within the story depicting the factual accounts of Washington’s strategy and the hardship his army endured for six long years there unfolds a personal account as well. Two friends growing up side by side in the colonies find themselves working as spies. One worked for the Loyalists (England) the other for the Patriots. They share a love for a single woman who has her own allegiances. Who will she wind up with, or will she survive the rigors of war? Throughout the story of the war, the authors cleverly weave the love story into the plot just often enough to keep it a fascinating read.

It infuriates me when I read news accounts about modern educators dumbing down America by  rewriting history books to push their ideological spin on our kids. As a child, I developed a love for my country by learning about the hardships endured by those who fought to make it happen. It filled me with pride to know I was born into that effort. The authors of the new history books want to re-direct our children into learning to love ideologies which are contrary to those of the Founders.

As parents and grandparents, we must stay ever vigilant to the material being fed to our  kids at school and to take action to remove offensive material, and to banish politically motivated teachers from the system.

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Who Knows How Great A President Will Be?

Posted on 09/09/2012 by Grumpa Joe
Cover of "Bedtime for Bonzo"

Cover of Bedtime for Bonzo

Many people talk about the man Obama is competing against as unqualified for the presidency. They belittle his ability, his stiffness, his jobs, his religion, his wealth, and in general people don’t like him as much as they do the  “Great One.” When I say this, I include Republicans and Conservatives too. They just don’t believe in the man one hundred percent.

This attitude began to have an effect on me during the debates. I listened and liked very diehard conservatives like Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum, and I really loved the government-reduction talks of Libertarian Ron Paul.  All of their messages seemed more “presidential” than those of Mitt Romney. The constant down play of Romney continued to work on my mind.

One night, in a dream, my sub-conscious played a movie about an event that happened thirty-two years ago.  America was in a terrible state. The economy tanked, interest rates pushed sixteen percent, and people were losing jobs. President Jimmy Carter was still unable to pronounce the word nuclear, even though he worked on a team to disable a damaged nuclear reactor while in the navy.

It was time to re-elect Jimmy Carter or to replace him. He succeeded in making the economy worse from when he took over four years earlier. His mission to rescue Americans held hostage by Iran failed miserably. The country was losing hope.

The candidate that challenged him was a loser. He had lost his first bid to the presidency four years earlier during the primary. His credentials to be president were somewhat lightweight. He served two terms as Governor of California. Before that his career included: sports casting, acting, leader of the Screen Actors union, and finally Governor. This man spent a good part of his working life as a Democrat, and eventually became Republican.

The facts were confusing and confounded me. How could an actor and union president lead the country as a Republican?

My conclusion came through much introspection. The country is in the toilet; the current president didn’t know how to make it better. His policies only made things worse, and there was no other option but to kick him out of office for new air.

I voted for Ronald Reagan even though I thought there might be better candidates somewhere on the planet that just didn’t happen to be in the race. The candidate whose claim to fame was a movie named “Bedtime for Bonzo” co-starring a chimpanzee, became my man.  I followed my instincts that anyone would be better than another four years of Jimmy Carter. It was the best electoral decision of my life.

The man Ronald Reagan, who I couldn’t reconcile, became a strong world leader able to compete with the Russians and the evils of communism. He also knew how to shrink the government and lead the economy into a sixteen-year growth sprout.

Who knew during the campaign how great this man would become? I feel the same about Mitt Romney; I’m giving him a chance to make good things happen.

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Congress, Do Your Job, Can Him.

Posted on 25/08/2012 by Grumpa Joe

When the Founding Fathers came together to build this country, they knew that human nature would always tempt politicians to go astray. They pondered about the congress having too much power, and if that happened Congress would control the country by its legislative power thus nullifying the executive and judicial branches. In a stroke of genius, they came up with the three branches having equal but separate power.

What happens when one of the three branches usurps the power of the others? In the year 2012 nothing. Our Congress and Supreme Court are abdicating power to the Executive Branch. This very plainly pisses me off, and it should you too.

Our President -0 is doing just that. He is rough riding over Congress and has tried with some success to do it with the Supreme Court too. Where is Congress in this matter? Instead of the Executive administering the government by the laws enacted, it is doing it by executive fiat, the Executive Order. Where is Congress? Why are they not outraged? Why are they not holding the President’s feet to the fire?

Well Grumpa Joe, you are just a fanatic racist who doesn’t like this president because he is black. Bullshit.

I despise this president and all before him who refuse to control our southern border.

I despise this president because he sided with a foreign government (Mexico)  in a lawsuit against a State in the Union (Arizona).

I despise this president because he devised a clandestine program to set the country up to destroy the Second Amendment; he called his program Fast and Furious. When Congress did finally act against him, he declared his papers confidential under executive privilege. We accused President Nixon of burglarizing an office, and he was relentlessly pursued by the press and Congress until he resigned in disgrace over the matter. Nixon’s act did not result in Border Agents being killed with guns we allowed to cross the border.

I despise this president because he refuses to acknowledge a need for voter identification, but demands attendees to his speeches verify their identity with official ID’s.

I despise this president because he pretends to deport illegal aliens, but is only putting them into a holding pattern until they can disappear into the underground of the USA.

I despise this president because he tolerates Sanctuary Cities in order to hide and protect illegals.

I despise this president because he has taken the Welfare Reform Act and arbitrarily gutted a major requirement without any discussion by Congress or the Supreme Court. Why isn’t the Congress filing suit to bring this to the SC?

I despise this president because he places more credence in the hopeless United Nations than he does in the US Congress.

I despise this president because he deliberately usurped the First Amendment right of freedom of religion in his omnipotent health care act.

I despise the president for his sneaky and lawless way using the UN over his own Congress to get our military involved in Libya, and Syria.

I despise the President for allowing special interest groups to control his agenda.

I despise the president for a stupid green jobs program that dictates his energy policy.

I despise the president for using agencies like the EPA to sneak regulations into effect that usurp  Congress.

I despise this president for taking over a private sector company to reward his supporters.

I despise this president for believing all people are too stupid to take care of themselves. What ever happened to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and human potential?

I despise this president’s demonization of capitalism and the rich. I can only wonder why he hates himself so much? After all, he is rich and he uses the capitalist system to sell his phony life story.

I despise this president for wanting to make the USA into Europe.  Europe has been working at light speed to catch up and be like the USA while remaining socialist; which by the way, is proving to be a disaster for them.

I despise this president for declaring that America is not a Christian Nation.

I despise this president for bowing to foreign leaders.

I despise this president for being a pansy with Iran.

I despise this president for throwing Israel under the bus. Have you looked at a map of the mid-east? Israel is a small dot in a vastly huge area. They are surrounded by Arabs. Why are the Arabs so bent on annihilating them? Why is this president so bent on letting that happen?

So where the hell in Congress in all of this? Why don’t they wake up and do something to show us they are an equal entity? Why don’t they bring impeachment proceedings against the president? They are totally afraid to even utter the word. I realize that there are two houses in Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Fathers wanted debate and argument between both houses on laws. They required  both houses to agree on a law before it can be enacted. Unfortunately, at this moment we have a Democrat Senate, and a Republican House of Representatives. The House of Representatives has passed many laws but they are stonewalled by the Senate. What we see in this process is exactly what the Founders envisioned.

What we need is a creative House that determines how to ally with the Senate or the Supreme Court to get past the blockages that make it seem inept. What we need is a Newt Gingrich to consult on the matter, he would know how to provoke the two houses into action.

Many of my rants above are impeachable offenses, but where is Congress?  They are out looking for Mitt Romney’s tax returns, and  attacking Republicans for a comment made by candidate Aiken about abortion. At the same time they stick their heads into the sand about our president’s record on late-term abortion and saving babies who live in spite of a botched abortion attempts.

Folks, we have a huge job ahead of us, but it can be accomplished. How? Just like a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, this one begins with firing President -0.

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Soup Kitchens versus Food Stamps

Posted on 27/01/2012 by Grumpa Joe

I can’t remember what I had for breakfast this morning, but I still visualize pictures from the Great Depression of the thirties. The most striking images are those of destitute, out of work men lined up to get a cup of soup and a piece of bread. Thankfully, I never lived in those lines, neither did my parents. Mom and Dad were too frugal and conservative to allow themselves to get into a situation where they could not feed their kids. The tiny yard behind the house served as the City Farm. She did not waste a single square inch of soil. We had vegetables all summer and through most of the winter. Mom’s canning skills were excellent and she canned the surplus perishables. Root vegetables like potatoes, parsley, and carrots went into in a cold bed under the porch. Her chicken coops yielded eggs, fresh chicken, and pigeons; yes pigeons. I write a lot about the experiences under the category of Biography. You can go there and experience some of these times through my short stories.

Candidate Newt Gingrich has labeled Obama the Food Stamp president. Today, I saw a response from the president where he calls Bush the Food Stamp president. Yes, the number of people who went on food stamps during the Bush administration was real, as they were for Clinton, and presidents before him. The simple fact remains that the slope of the food stamp growth curve takes a painful turn up under Obama. It correlates with his spending curve too.

Gingrich makes his point that Obama has not done anything to help these people get off food stamps and to get a job. He is correct in his accusations. Obama should argue that he is being compassionate and keeping the jobless from starving. Blaming Bush is getting old and tired. The error of giving the jobless food stamps and extended unemployment benefits is that the jobless take advantage of the system and fake looking for work. To many of them, the benefit period becomes a paid vacation.

I have only seen one vegetable garden in my neighborhood besides my feeble plot. It belongs to an immigrant Italian who still believes in growing and canning food. He makes his own wine too, mmmn.

My cartoon depicts a typical soup line during the thirties, with a modern twist. The people standing in this line are waiting for a food stamp handout. The reality is that you no longer have to wait in line as my picture shows. Just for fun, I went online and Googled food stamps. The search turned up a government site (SNAP). This page reads like the IRS booklet one uses to complete his tax form. I went further and clicked on a prescreening page, and completed a fictitious application. I failed to meet three qualifying requirements. I went back to the beginning and completed another application. This time, I listed only my Social Security income and not Peggy’s, success. I qualified for $347.00 per month. I didn’t wait in line, and the money would come to me in the form of a debit card.

The amount $347 doesn’t sound like that much, but compare that to a single cup of soup and a piece of bread everyday after standing in line for hours. This is exactly the reason we don’t feel like the “Even Greater Depression of 2008” is no where close to the “Great Depression of the 1930’s” at all.

Do I sound like a liberal? Not at all, I believe with Newt that the dignity of a man with a job is far more valuable than a debit card. Add that 347 to an unemployment check, and we are beginning to talk some serious money here.

Why would anyone in the USA want to work when the tax payers give us such wonderful benefits?

TAXERY = SLAVERY

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