Posts Tagged “Donald Trump”
Consumer confidence is at an all time high. Businesses are bringing back thousands of jobs and foreign investment in the United States is growing by leaps and bounds. GDP is over 3.3 percent, double the Obama years, and may top 4 percent by the end of 2018. We have a stock market at an all time high, and businesses are planning on expanding and adding new services.
Yes, the rich are getting richer, but who cares. All of your money, my money, and Bill Gates money is just a number in a bank’s computer anyway. Regardless of how you may feel about Donald Trump you must ask yourself this simple question. Are the poor among us better off with jobs that create value and pay higher wages? Or are the poor better off having to work at teenager jobs that pay minimum wage?
It is well past time that we set aside the petty emotions of envy and jealousy of the rich that are among us and face the realities of modern life. People do not and will not thrive in a socialist society. There is no such thing as “free. Everything in life must be paid for. No system is perfect and some people will always be left behind. There will be winners and losers in everything that life has to offer. But the vast majority of people are better served when they are free to prosper and grow as they desire. When people are free to use their own ideas, talents, and hard work to create value we are all better off as a society. Life does not come without risks. You will make some bad decisions and suffer the consequences from them. And we will always have the poor. They are the bottom 16 percent of the bell curve. It’s simple math folks.
The poor will always be with us, but they will be much better off in a society with a median income of $60,000 than a society with a median income of $9,000. As a free people we will prosper. Too much government is a bad thing. For some reason this is a hard lesson for some folks to learn.
(Larry Oscar is a graduate from the University of Tulsa and holds a degree in electrical engineering. He is retired and lives with his wife on a lake in Oklahoma where he brews his own beer, sails, and is a member of numerous clubs and organizations.)
By Larry Oscar
Well we have entered another year. Last year sure was an exciting one.
In January 2016 who would have predicted the Cubs would take the World Series? Especially after they were down three games to one. Who would have thought that Hillary Clinton would have missed her coronation as President of the United States? Especially to Donald Trump. I guess that just goes to show that nothing in this world is for certain.
It was the great New York Yankee catcher Yogi Berra that once said “It ain’t over till it’s over.” I for one would not have imagined a more exciting outcome to either of these two events. Both embody the spirit of what this country stands for…competition. Competition is something that lies at the core of what it means to be an American.
It was what drove Commodore John Cox Stevens, a charter member of the fledgling New York Yacht Club, to form a six-person syndicate to build a yacht with the intention of taking her to England and making some money competing in yachting races. On August 22, 1851, his yacht America raced against 15 yachts of the Royal Yacht Squadron in the Club’s annual 53-nautical-mile regatta. They raced around the Isle of Wight. America won, finishing 8 minutes ahead of the next yacht. Queen Victoria, who was watching America cross the finish line, was reported to have asked who was second, the famous answer being: “Ah, Your Majesty, there is no second.“
There you have it. Another high class ass hammering by a bunch of beer swilling Americans. This coming year will be the 35th defense of “The America’s Cup”. And after Oracle Team USA came from behind 8:1 to defend their crown in 2013, it’s shaping up to be one of the main events of 2017. The race will be held in Bermuda this time around. I think the Aussies and the Limeys complained about all the San Francisco high priced hotels the last go around. If they think San Fran was expensive wait until they land in Bermuda. I’ll bet the countries that compete for the America’s cup won’t get a “pc participation“ trophy.
I hope that 2017 will bring a new spirit of competition in all aspects of our country’s institutions as well. Maybe the competition for the oldest sports trophy in history will inspire some of our leaders to institute competition in our schools. Maybe in 2017 we can have a choice in where and what the children of our new generations can study. And just maybe we can have the same spirit of
fair and honorable competition spread to our corporations when they compete against foreign corporations. No more stacking the deck to achieve some politically correct outcome.
There will be winners and losers in life’s struggles. There is no disgrace in losing. There is only disgrace in failing to compete. And there is disgrace in being a poor loser. Just look at the deplorable
behavior of the left wingers who lost the election. Many of our younger generation are afraid of competition. Why, if they lose then they could “feel bad”. We are raising a bunch of wimps. The American spirit of competition is what drives capitalism. It is what has made this country the most powerful nation in the history of the world. There are no participation trophies in life. And there are no guarantees of success. But there is a guarantee of failure if you don’t compete.
For the past eight years the leadership of this country has taken us down a miserable road of political correctness and envy of other peoples success. This path has given us the
slowest economy in decades with only 1-2% growth per year. Our country is fully capable of doubling that growth rate. All we have to do is turn America’s businesses loose to freely compete without being taxed and regulated to death. Finally, we may have some wind in our sails.
(Larry Oscar is a graduate from the University of Tulsa and holds a degree in electrical engineering. He is retired and lives with his wife on a lake in Oklahoma where he brews his own beer, sails, and is a member of numerous clubs and organizations.)
By Larry Oscar
With all the wild news today one can’t help but question the truth of the information we are getting. Living in the United States we assume that our “government” is telling us is accurate.
However, it has long been suspected by those of us, who know human nature quite well, that it is always wise not to jump to any conclusions based on what someone says who has a vested interest in telling us “some version” of the truth. Our government’s self interest always seems to lean towards prevaricators of the highest magnitude who are first on the scene to do damage control.
The recent Islamic terror attack in Orlando, Fl is a prime example. The quick pivot of the White House towards deranged individuals and gun control rather than the simple fact that the killer was taking action on behalf of ISIS and in the name of Islam should disturb you down to the core. And to make matters worse, the White House had their justice department scrub the transcript of the released 911 calls this Islamic murderer made to delete all references to Islam. This should make every American stand up and take notice.
We all know our founding principles have been under attack by the left wing mooching class for decades. It is without a doubt their next attack will upon truth. Truth is just about all that is left of the unique values that this country was built upon. It is not by accident the first document of our national foundation, The Declaration of Independence, starts out by referring to the concept of truth. “We hold these truths to be self-evident….”
Our founding fathers knew that any relationship, whether it be between individuals, institutions, or governments must first be based on truth if it is to be a lasting one. Now anybody with any amount of life’s experiences knows often the truth hurts. Truth calls out our human weaknesses and personal failures and more times than not it does not make us feel very good. In fact it and is a source for depression in some individuals who look upon their lives as a hopeless succession of failures.
However, the plain simple truth is that you cannot build a solid foundation for a house on weak and shifting sand. And twisting and contorting the truth is the shifting sand that causes a house to fall ( Matthew 7:24-27).
If our leaders in the private sector, public sector, religious, academic, or family institutions distort the truth they do so at their own peril and the peril of others. Regardless of how painful or degrading the truth is history has taught us that we are far better off if we face it head on and act accordingly. We fought World War II against a socialist nation led by people who actually had a Reich Minister of Propaganda, Joesph Goebbles. He served in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.
History has taught us that socialism cannot survive if it is under the microscope of truth. This may be the greatest inherent danger of socialism. We may very well be able to measure just how far our country has degraded by counting the lies and deceit that comes from the White House these days. Note how our illustrious President recently gave a glorious speech about our success against ISIS. And the very next day the head of the CIA, John Brennan, told our Congress that we have not slowed ISIS or their ability to carry out global attacks in this country or any other country.
Now who do you think is telling the truth here. You must remember every day the President gets a CIA briefing on world affairs and global threats. Who knows best, the one that is doing the briefing or the one being briefed? Words matter.
The left wing press is all over Donald Trump for his use of words, but when our own President says, “What does it matter what we call them?” the press manifests their true hypocrisy. If words don’t matter, than who cares what Donald Trump says. After all, they are “just words” aren’t they?
The truth is words do matter. And just because the truth does not support what you want to think, or what you believe does not mean it should not be said. You can choose not to listen to the truth and you can choose to ignore the truth, but you must never twist, distort, or just plain lie about the truth.
The right to know the truth is a basic natural human right we all have that was endowed upon us by the Creator. And there is one truth that should never be in question above all others……………Cold beer is always better in the summertime!
By Larry Oscar
Just smack me down with Hillary’s e-mails! It’s presidential election time again, and this election cycle may prove to be the most entertaining in decades.
And it would be far more fun if it the world was not in such a state of chaos. For that reason alone all Americans should step back and take a hard look at what this nation has become over the last several years. We have gone from the world’s leader in individual liberty to just another nation of moochers with our hands out waiting for a government check.
But the politicians are out in force promising even more government handouts for your vote. Funny thing, if a politician was to offer you a dime for your vote it would be illegal, but they can offer you a big fat welfare check for your vote, and somehow that’s okay. It should be illegal for any politician to offer anything of monetary value for your vote. The left wing party of our nation has a distorted collection of welfare promising “vote suckers.” They range from a mad socialist from Vermont; a Muppet version of Miss Piggy; to old Gaffy Duck Joe himself.
All of them claim to be the champion of the poor, the downtrodden, and the ever shrinking middle class. And their solution to all of the ills of these “oppressed” groups is to take more money from the producers in our nation and distribute it to the non-producers. Never mind that this didn’t work out so well in the former Soviet Union, North Korea, East Germany, Cuba, Venezuela, or any other socialist nation.
Old Gaffy Duck Joe recently proclaimed that corporations should do the “patriotic” thing and gladly pay more taxes. I guess old Gaffy flunked his history class. I seem to recall the patriots were the ones who dumped the tea into Boston harbor in protest of high taxation. It is time for Americans to restore our country’s commitment to individual liberty. There is a movement taking hold in this country and that is one reason the controversial New Yorker Donald Trump has been drawing huge crowds. New Yorkers are not known for their calm cool demeanor, and “The Donald” is no exception.
The United States was a beacon of hope for liberty for the entire world at one time, and we need to reclaim that title. When immigrants came to America the first thing they saw was a statue standing tall in the New York harbor that was given to us by France. It was the Statue of Liberty. It’s not the statue of welfare handouts, or gay rights, or illegal immigration, or political correctness, or even right-to-life, but the statue of LIBERTY!
Liberty is the main founding principal that this county was built upon. It is our national belief that liberty is more important than life itself. Liberty is what we fought and died for in every war this country has ever fought. And just in case some of you don’t know. The belief in liberty is why about 500,000 mainly white men fought and died to set the black man in this country free.
A fact that those who live in Baltimore and Fergusson need to think about. When you yield your individual liberties in exchange for big government handouts, excessive government regulations, or government social laws that favor ones religious beliefs, you are carving out the path to your own destruction. Liberty costs lives. We pay the price in lives every year for our liberties. Over 30,000 lives per year to have the liberty to own and drive an automobile. Over 4,500 lives per year to keep and bear arms. And we will pay a high cost in lives to maintain and ensure that our military is ready to defend our liberties in a world where those would take it away and remove your head.
America may be at a crossroads. Those of us whose parents fought against tyranny and won will soon be gone. We have now raised a generation who have never lost their liberties. They don’t know or understand the value that individual liberty adds to their life. And the big question is will they wake up and work to restore the greatness of America that brought hope to the rest of the world? Or will they sell their liberty for the promise of a government regulated and controlled life? Will they yield to the cry of those politicians who cry out, “We are all in this together. The government is here to help and, of course, I need to be in charge?”
What this nation and the world needs right now is a Patrick Henry in the White House.
Larry Oscar is a graduate from the University of Tulsa and holds a degree in electrical engineering. He is retired and lives with his wife on a lake in Oklahoma where he brews his own beer, sails, and is a member of numerous clubs and organizations.