Colin Kaepernick

Colin Kaepernick – I Feel Strongly Both Ways

The View from the Middle

So, Colin Kaepernick decides to sit out the national anthem and you would think the Russians were sneaking nuclear missiles into Cuba again.  Let’s all hope he actually has a cause to highlight and wasn’t just pouting over his recent lackluster performance.  Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and say he wanted to illuminate some injustice he felt strongly about.  So, how’s he doing?

Actually, not so good.  To start with, all of the publicity has been about him, and not the cause, whatever it is.  People have been arguing about whether he should even protest against the flag of the country that has given him so much and that also stands for the people who have fought and died for his freedom. 

Of course he has the right to refuse to stand for the national anthem.  That is just one of the great things about this country.  He has that right.  Try to do that in Russia or China or North Korea or name the South American country.  He would probably be shot or put in prison and for sure he would not be allowed to make millions of dollars playing a game like football.  But he does have that right here in the good old US of A.

And the NFL has the right to enforce the rules they have created, which Colin agreed to when he signed his multi-million dollar contract.  And people have the right to burn his jersey (as long as they don’t create a fire hazard, and I have seen some of that) or protest by not going to the games.  Freedom is not a one-way street.  In fact it is a multi-laned, multi-leveled freeway system that is available to everyone.  We’ll see how strongly Colin feels about his crusade if and when his income is threatened.

So, what are his causes anyway?  Do you even know?  He wants to shine a light on “the oppression of black people and people of color”.  Fair enough.  Our country is not perfect and we should be working on eliminating prejudice and evening the playing field of opportunity.  He also said, however, that “there are bodies in the streets and people are getting paid leave and getting away with murder”.  Paid leave?  Is this for police who are under investigation?  How many could there possibly be around the country?  A dozen?  Getting away with murder?  Again, WHAT?  Is this a comment on police shootings or drug related murders in Chicago? 

He also said that he could never vote for Donald Trump and that Hillary Clinton should be in jail.  I certainly can sympathize with his disappointment with both of our presidential candidates, but he needs to clarify his message.  If he is suggesting that Washington is inept, corrupt and bloated, then I am with him.  If he is implying that a bigger government is the answer to all of our problems, then I am disagree with him.

Here is my suggestion to Colin Kaepernick.  Stand for the next national anthem and say that now that you have the attention of the nation you want to use your position to make it better.  Recognize the good in this county.  We do have the freedom to make the very statement you made last week.  And we have made progress.  In 1865, the year the 13^th amendment passed, we had zero black congressmen or women.  One hundred years later, a year after the civil rights act passed, we had only six.  Today, just 50 years later, we have 48 black congress people and a black President.  Now that’s progress whether you want to admit it or not.  Embrace it.

Is America now perfect?  No, and I applaud Colin if he can expose some real problems and then, even better, suggest some solutions.  Is there prejudice in the US?  Unfortunately, the answer is yes, and we should denounce it wherever we find it, whether it is in a police department or a school or just on the street (BTW, prejudice swings both ways, so black activists who call for “killing white babies” should be universally condemned also). 

I would also suggest that Colin support some solutions and not just complain.  I have long supported strengthening black families, school choice and enterprise zones as real potential solutions to these problems.  People are tired of “bithching” and long for solutions.  Even if Colin’s solutions are different than mine, I beg him to focus on improving the situation and not just complaining.

I hope Colin stands proudly for the next and all future national anthems to lend his support to the country that has given him so much, and for those who have sacrificed to protect his liberties.  I also hope that he clarifies his position and focuses on improving this great country so that the country our children inherit will be even better than the one we live in today.

Government Behavior

While You Were Sleeping

The View from the Middle

Government officials will never run short of ideas on how to spend your money.    Who, for example, wouldn’t want a state of the art basketball court at Fayetteville high with the country’s largest jumbotron hanging over mid court?  Who wouldn’t want an Olympic pool to rival Rio for our kids?  Who wouldn’t want to expand our library to the tune of $50 million? 

These are all good and even sexy things to have, but spending the public’s money is all about choices.  What about Fayetteville’s dilapidated infrastructure?  What about the leaking water pipes?  And, with books going more and more digital, is this the best time to expand a library?  Maybe there are a few people who might even object to this expansion, if they knew the full facts of the situation. 

How many of you even knew that there was a special election in August for this $50 million library expansion?  The real answer is – not many of you.  Only about 6,200 of Fayetteville registered voters cast a ballot during this special election and only about 3,600 of those voters were in favor of this increase in taxes.  This compares unfavorably to the 30,000 or so who will be voting in the Presidential election this November.  Why not wait until then and get the opinions of so many more voters?  What was the rush?

Those are great questions.  What was this special election even asking citizens to consider?  This election was about expanding the Fayetteville library.  A noble cause, right?  But how much money is this increased millage going to raise and how much is this increase in taxes going to cost the average Fayettevillian?

If you had taken the time to read the coverage of this special election, you might think that this is going to cost the average citizen $54 per year because the articles referenced the cost per $100,000 of personal property.  However, since the median cost of a home in Fayetteville is over $180,000, the actual cost per household will be more like $100 per year, double the impression given.

The coverage also glossed over the long-term cost of this millage increase.  Even after the temporary increase (seven years by my estimation) from one mill to almost four mills, personal property taxes will move up to 2.5 mills forever.  In the past we have had a one-mill tax to support the library.  Why does it need to be almost tripled in the future?  Was one mill right?  Is 2.5 mills right?  Who knows, and that’s why we should have had a vigorous discussion over this new tax, and that is exactly what was avoided.

The library used Amendment 30 of the Arkansas constitution to push their personal agenda.  Amendment 30 was ratified in 1940, when Fayetteville’s population was just over 8,000 people.  This amendment requires a petition to be signed by only 100 people, which in 1940 was probably a significant number.  Today, however, Fayetteville’s population is over 80,000.  I’m confident that I could get 100 people to sign a petition to have the entire city burned to the ground so Fayetteville could get a fresh start.  This 100-petitioner threshold should be adjusted.  Finally, it was the city council that voted to consider this an “emergency” which would require a special election to address it. 

The point is, when the citizens of any city are going to have their taxes significantly increased in the short term and then substantially increase FOREVER, there should be a detailed explanation and debate of the costs and benefits so that each citizen can make up his or her own mind.  The city council spent $27,000 of your money to set up this special election to do the exact opposite.  They chose a time period that would minimize voter turnout so that they could rally their small, fanatical following to grab more of your money and spend it without your support, and in most cases even without your knowledge.

With shenanigans like this going on, is it no wonder that the people in this country don’t trust the government.  People of Fayetteville beware.  Your government has an insatiable appetite to spend your money.  Your city council is drunk with the power to write checks that the citizens of Fayetteville will have to cash.  Demand that your city council review this and all of their decisions in the light of day, and in full view of you the citizens.  If you don’t, you’ll find yourself poorer every year, living in a city with flashy amenities, but with a crumbling foundation.

The $400 Million Non-Ransom

Washington - Squandering Our Trust Faster Than Our Money

The View from the Middle

Does anyone really trust the government any more?  We’ve been lied to so often that we have become desensitized to it.  Even our news commentators respond to the deception by saying, “what do you expect, it’s politics” as if duplicity is standard practice in that profession and we just have to accept it. 

Harry Reid lied in front of the Senate when he said that Mitt Romney hadn’t paid any taxes for 10 years.  He then laughed about it when caught and rationalized, “well he didn’t get elected did he”.  Barack Obama was declared the liar of the year in 2013 by Politifact for his, “If you like your plan you can keep it” whopper.  Hillary Clinton just received four Pinocchio’s from the Washington Post and a “Pants on Fire” from Politifact for the tangled web she continues to weave about the handling of her emails.

We have Lois Lerner from the IRS and Bryan Pagliano who set up Hillary’s private server plead the fifth in front of Congress.  This allowed them not to tell any more lies, but it still deprived the American people of the truth.  And then we had Loretta Lynch basically do the same thing at her hearing to discuss her decision not to prosecute Ms. Clinton.  She refused to answer legitimate questions 74 times during that hearing.  Is any of this likely to instill confidence in the honesty and integrity of our government?

And now we have the President’s feeble explanation of the $400 million in untraceable cash sent on an unmarked jet in the dead of night to Iran.  Let me run through his strained argument as to why this couldn’t be a ransom payment.

First, he said that he told the American people way back in January.  And when were the hostages released?  January.  So, back in January, the President told the American people about the resolution of some innocuous 37-year-old claim that Iran held against us.  I’m sure the average American didn’t even hear it, and if we had I’m sure we would have all thought, “So what”.  Of course in this announcement the President failed to tell us that the money would be delivered in pallets of cash, in the dead of night, on an unmarked aircraft, minutes before the hostages were to be released.  If he had given us all these details, even the average American would have said, “That’s crazy!”

The President’s second “proof” that this was not a ransom was, “The American government doesn’t pay ransom for hostages.”  What the hell kind of proof is that?  In fact, that is the reason why people are so upset.  Even if it just appears to be ransom, it puts a price on the head of every American that works abroad or even vacations in Europe or the Middle East.

The President’s third point is that the timing is just a coincidence.  There were two separate teams working on these two deals (hostages and nuclear).  I’m not even sure what that is supposed to mean.  Were they forbidden to talk to each other?  Did they not answer to a common person like Secretary Kerry or the President of the United States?  And, are we to believe that this 37-year-old claim just happened, by coincidence to be paid to Iran within minutes of the hostages being released?  Are you kidding?  Even if that were true, wouldn’t it have been prudent on our President’s part to separate the two transactions so that this payment could not even be perceived to be ransom.  They have been waiting for 37 years!!  Another six months to a year was going to kill them? 

Finally, the President said it had to be paid in cash because we don’t have any financial arrangements with Iran.  I have to just call BS on this.  We have some pretty smart people in America.  I’m confident that someone could find a way to send the money to a friend of both sides so that country could get it to Iran for a small fee.  Besides, how do we plan to get the $150 billion to them later this year?  A fleet of planes filled with pallets of cash?

People who support the President ask, “What would you do?”  My answer is diplomacy, sanctions, covert military action and any other means at my disposal.  The President was right about one thing.  Even the appearance of paying a ransom puts a bounty on every American traveling abroad.  We should not have done this in this way.

And it’s not the money that bothers me.  It’s not even paying ransom, if that’s what this President wanted to do on a one-time basis.  Then he could warn everyone in America not to go to the Middle East for sure or even Europe.  Travel at you own risk.  It’s the lying that bothers me!

The President was, in effect, caught on camera handing bags of money to kidnappers just as the hostages were released, and has the audacity to look us right in the eye and suggest that one act had nothing to do with the other.  How gullible does he think we are?  All politicians need to have the guts to tell us the truth and then live with the consequences of their decisions.  The real solution to all of this is “term limits”.  Force these guys out before they have a chance to convert.

The Elephant in the Room at the DNC / RNC

The Elephant in the Room at the DNC / RNC

The View from the Middle

If you have fought your way through both the Democrat and Republican conventions with any kind of open mind, you have to be totally confused by now.  You have been told that Hillary Clinton is a cross between June Cleaver (of Leave it to Beaver fame), Eleanor Roosevelt and Mother Theresa.  This would, however, make Bill Clinton Ward Cleaver, which is an image too difficult to grasp.  Just a few days earlier, however, you were told that Hillary is a pathological liar and a cross between Vladimir Lenin and Bernie Madoff. 

At the RNC you heard that Trump is the consummate father and family man, a dynamic and utterly successful businessman and THE change agent that can save the country.  At the DNC Trump was pictured as a cross between Scrooge and Dr. Jekyll’s alter ego, Mr. Hyde.  The truth for both candidates is probably found somewhere in the middle.

We also know that neither party talked at all about the elephant in the room - our national debt. Our current debt is hovering just under $19.5 trillion dollars and this year we will add another billion and a half dollars to our debt every day.  This is the albatross that the current political class is hanging around the necks of our future generations.

Neither side bothered to tell the young people in this country that their plan is to return to trillion dollar annual deficits by 2022 and that by 2023 our national debt will be over $25 trillion.  They also neglected to tell us that the service on our debt today is only about $260 billion a year because interest rates have been so ridiculously low.  They also don’t want you to know that if interest rates return to normal levels (say 5 or 6%) by 2023, the service on our debt will be $800 billion dollars a year and will be the largest component of the budget.

At that point, interest on our debt will be a half trillion dollars a year more than it is today.  Service on that debt will be larger than our Military budget, larger than Medicare and larger than Social Security.  Where are we going to come up with an extra $500 billion a year to spend on interest payments to our debt holders? 

We can cut services!  We could reduce spending on Defense, Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security.  We could increase our revenues by increasing taxes or we could borrow more money from countries like China and Saudi Arabia.  Remember, Saudi Arabia just threatened to cash in $750 billion in US treasury securities and other assets if congress passed a bill allowing them to be held responsible for the 9/11/2001 attacks.  Is this the kind of blackmail our future generations can look forward to?  What would a similar but larger Chinese threat do to our economy and standing in the world?

The point is, there are no good solutions to our mountainous debt problem, and yet politicians continue to pile even more monetary obligations on to the backs of our children.  Bernie and Hillary want free college for everyone, government subsidized childcare and investments (code word for additional spending) on education and infrastructure.  All of that spending is in addition to our current plans and will only add more debt to America’s already pitiful balance sheet.

Let this be yet another warning by The View From the Middle to all Americans, but particularly to you millennials.  We can only ignore our debt for so long.  George W. Bush doubled our debt during his eight years in office and Barack Obama in on schedule to double it again over his two terms.  If we continue to bury our heads in the sand for the next eight years we will be the next Greece, but on a grand scale.  Our economy will be in a shambles and the world will have found a new safe haven for their investments.

We must all begin to make the tough decisions today.  Government is not a bottomless pit of money.  In fact, government has no money.  Every dime it spends comes from you in the form or taxes of debt it acquires in your name.  What we need is a smaller, more efficient government that lives within its means.  If we don’t take this challenge on like the greatest generation took on the Nazis in the 1940’s, we will doom our children to a future confined by debt, void of the choices we were blessed to have.