As a kid, the Detroit Free Press was something I looked forward to every day. My Nana still tells the story of me pretending to read it before I even learned how. I wanted to know what was happening in the big city up the street. The sports, the crime, the politics. It was all so interesting. My favorite was Mitch Albom. It was a column, not just an article, and he always had a good ending.

In my teen years they switched to delivery only 3 days a week, and with the internet slowly making it easier, our relationship sort of faded away. I was no longer limited to the local beat writers as more and more talking heads and keyboarders came on the scene. How could the paper possibly survive?

One might think journalism. They could stick to their slogan “On Guard for 190 Years” and stick to bias-free truth. Or, as it seems they have chosen, they could start churning out click bait material with flashy headlines with the intent of riling up both sides. In my opinion, their goal is to incite heated arguments in their Facebook comments as a way to increase the spread of the article.

I was recently dismayed to see that I had one of these discussions blasted into my news feed as a “sponsored ad.”

Rep. Matt Maddock, wife join conservative Facebook group discussing possibility of civil war

The story by Clara Hendrickson explains how a GOP state rep and his wife commit the crime of joining a facebook group where other people discussed things such as “a big cleanup of our leaders” and their disappointment with recent gun legislation. The article does not point to anything wrong that either target posts, but rather cherry picks comments from random people on the internet to paint the whole group, and everyone associated, in a negative light. The message that the Detroit Free Press is trying to portray is that the couple should be judged by the commentary of strangers in all Facebook groups or discussions they are party to.

But do they hold themselves to the same standard?

Breaking News: Detroit Free Press Pays to Host Facebook discussion where participants discuss possiblity of civil war

The site of this discussion was the aforementioned Facebook ad that at last count 2.6k reactions and over 1700 comments. I don’t feel the need to go thru and select from the trash that is the majority of internet comment sections, because I don’t feel that the Free Press should be held accountable or judged by the actions of people that aren’t even confirmed as real humans. Did the Freep research every person they quoted in the story to check for authenticity? Of course not, they didn’t even include names. Their intent was for me to click on the story, or get involved in the drama at the bottom so it shows up on a friends feed, who clicks on the story.

This is what On Guard looks like?

Shameful, and sad. I chose to block the Freep on Facebook that day. My mental health is too important. I am not strong enough to not read those comments and get irritated. This time it was just too much. I had a soft spot for your dying industry, but not feel like a jilted lover. The Free Press is not covering news, they are covering middle-school drama, and worse yet, they are getting involved in it. They are spreading the rumors rather than seeking the truth.

I miss those days. The feel of the paper in your hand. The newness of the ink. The truth that all politics aside, you were being delivered the news, good or bad. You weren’t being fed the same garbage you could get anywhere. You had Comics and Sports. Major events, local and global, would have the cover story saved or hung as a symbol of history. Now all we get is that weak showing by Clara and the editorial staff who let it by as way to drive dirty web traffic.

My Nana turns 90 this year, the next time I see her she will inevitably tell that same story about the Free Press. It will break my heart to tell her that I no longer even pretend to read it.

I simply believe in the idea of small government.

When I was in fourth grade, our social studies teacher was explaining the progressive tax system. The specific example escapes me, but I remember understanding how if you made less, you paid less of a percentage, when you made more, you paid more of a percentage. I had a math mind, so I quickly recognized that the more you made, the EVEN more you paid. In my adolescent mind this was wildly unfair. Up until then I had thought of America as a club where everyone paid a fixed cost.

This was the moment I became a racist, bigot, fascist and xenophobe.

Obviously I say that in jest, this was 25 years ago when it wasn’t taboo to be right of left-center and the world was not so slanted. I just feel the need now, with this snowball of society rolling downhill, to explain this position before its squashed from existence. To believe in small government is not any of those things, it is just a different view on how we solve the problems that we face. To claim otherwise, as media figures, celebrities, and leaders of the opposite party regularly do, is an irresponsible use of the platform God has provided you.

I don’t hate gay people, as a matter of fact, I love them. I have never personally met one who did not have a stellar sense of humor. Small government solution to the marriage issue would be to simply remove the federal government from marriage. Why do they have anything to do with it? Tax purposes.

Racist? Never met a brown, black, yellow, green, red, blue, or white person that I didn’t like or get along with simply because of the color of their skin. I think the idea that small government solutions are racist implies that people of color need big government, which is racist in itself. Nobody can truly count on Uncle Sam. Why is that we send people and resources to a distant Capitol to solve issues in our alley? Tax purposes.

It would be interesting to have the conversation again. People in general are much smarter, compassionate, and understanding than we were 25 years ago, but it seems we are less willing to negotiate. As a PROLC (person right of left center) it is clear to me that we are being tugged harder and more aggressively by a certain side, so the natural defense is to tug back. I have watched, experienced, and sympathized with all of the social issues of the past few years that culminated in 2020. The only glaringly obvious common denominator in all of them, is the big fat bureaucracy in Washington. How do we not see this? Why is the press shamefully slanting their work to embolden this “systematically racist” government to grow bigger?

Obviously, they are not the solution. Providing them endless resources to fail is our failure. Why waste water on a dead plant.

I simply believe in small government. I feel that the government should try to be frugal and stay out of our lives. Big government has never stopped someone from becoming a drug abuser but a tight-knit community has. Big government doesn’t stop people from being criminals, but a strong family has. As a matter of fact, nobody is a criminal until Big Government makes them one. Sure, I think we can all agree on some crimes. Do not murder. Do not rape. But how many of our laws are so black and white? Ten? Big government does not write things black and white. They don’t write anything to be understood by the laymen.

In 5th grade, my social studies class had a mock election for the 1996 presidential race. There was only one vote for Bob Dole. The teacher asked who it was, and I raised my hand. Everyone laughed, teacher included. That was when I learned my views on government might not be welcome in the future.

By now, it should be crystal clear that we need a change. The insurrections, the silent coups, all of the in-fighting, the MASSIVE spread of misinformation, opinions masquerading as facts; they all need to stop. It is sad that we have taken it this far, but neither side is ready to step back, rightfully so, and it all seems like a conveniently choreographed illusion of chaos. A perfect storm meant to take down the United States, and it just seems almost too perfect. Is this not staged?

Who is pulling the strings? Why do we have just two parties that represent the vast array of opinions in the self-described melting pot? Who benefits from this? The people? Or the parties? It is strikingly apparent that for all the vile rhetoric, both parties need each other to be their only enemies and are actively working to make sure it stays this way.

The only motivating factor is power. The federal government needs that animosity toward one another to maintain control. If neighbors on the same block have multiple view points and can exchange these ideas to come up with commonsense COMPROMISE to fill the needs of their community, than what would we need Washington for? Politics need to be an emotional hot-button topic to prevent centralized government from being outdone by their local counterparts.

There has been plenty of time when one-side has held majority in DC, why do we still have problems? Why do we still have problems? If they fixed the problems, what would they campaign on? Fear of the boogeyman across the aisle.

It is time that we get rid of that aisle. We need to stop using a letter after our Representative’s names on television unless the news anchors are going to put a letter next to theirs. Get us the truth. Get us the substance. Get us a government that works.

In this fairy tale world, where I don’t fear a massive retaliation by the power hungry people behind the curtain at party headquarters for even attempting such a thing, I would propose that we get this split kicked off with a Jernigan Party. A third, a fourth, a fifth party. One that is allowed on stage at debates. Two who get substantial coverage from our esteemed journalists. Three who get a seat at the actual table, at least. There is no reason that America should be split down the middle, forced to pick between two bickering divorcees who would rather spread rumors about one another to better their position than make logical decisions for the betterment of their children.

The Jernigan Party, would obviously be for small government, but we are open to other parties ideas. We sort of understand that you get one life on this earth and would rather move forward in a way that doesn’t exclude 70 million people. Make no mistake, we will talk shit. We are going to call out the big party when their grand-daughter gets a DUI and the system magically spits out a court date one day after an election, by “coincidence.” We are going to call out the back door deals. We will bad-mouth the shape shifters who go in front of the cameras to rag on the other parties in an attempt to stigmatize their view point. The ones who continue to dehumanize one another post-revolution will hear from us.

Most importantly, it’s just going to be a grand old party. We will have fun. We won’t hide our good times. We will joke around a lot. There will definitely be some youtube pranks in the mix. There won’t be this secret agent, dominate the world, kill or be killed attitude at this party. In this party. Whatever. It’s just an idea because I am frustrated by the snowballing effect of these past 15 years and the fact that none of our highly respected leaders can put their ego aside for ten seconds to stop it. Who would benefit from stopping it? The people? Or the parties?

It is my duty to announce the establishment of this party in time for the 2022 elections. There is a new class of Congress people from the entrenched way of thinking who will be warming up their chairs in the coming weeks. They will be getting used to this power for the next 7 months before they start campaigning again and the cycle continues. Is it no wonder they don’t get much done? The paint hasn’t dried in their newly remodeled office before they’re back on the trail. The only way to defeat them is to band together to separate. Find your party. Create your party. Campaign for your party. Stir things up and let the cream rise to the top. If the Greens, or the Libertarians , or the Bobby Boucher party makes it and the Jernigan party remains a figment of my imagination, I will be fine without power, but I will not be able to rest without peace.

#Godspeed

9 months into the Chinese Flu and our first option is to shutdown. In the beginning, it was our only option. We knew nothing about this virus. The federal and state governments had failed, for decades, to prepare with any form of national stockpile of PPE and ventilators. They were caught with their pants down, in the middle of impeachment proceedings, and the ‘safest’ thing to do was lock it down so we could mobilize.

And mobilize we did. Field Hospitals sprung up in major cities and in the ports around them. Industries shifted to production of sanitizers and masks, others sat at home to stay safe from an unknown virus that was being broadcast on every form of media with scary pictures of a microscopic bug. The fear of killing our parents and grandparents was cemented into our head.

Now where are we? We’ve had nine months to prepare, we weren’t expecting a vaccine for another six. We have all the data, we know who it kills, we know who spreads it, we know the survival rate, we know we don’t have to leave our groceries outside for three days, we know kids aren’t giving it to their grandparents, we know quarantining patients in nursing homes is a bad idea, we have the PPE, we have had time to produce the ventilators, and our only solution is to lock it down?

How dare they? We don’t want to overwhelm our hospitals? What about the TCF center in Detroit? The floating hospitals in New York and California? What about a plan that targets protecting people who need protection? What about any alternative other than the status quo? Next time, a shutdown, which should be the last option, will be the first.

At the current moment, with no clear plan that doesn’t sacrifice our freedoms and livelihood in exchange for a false sense of security against an enemy we know we can defeat, they go back to Washington to squabble over $600 Christmas checks that account for less than 10% of the total of they are charging Americans for the spending package.

In a year where we have had access to only a tiny fraction of the perks our membership in America promises us, these dopes in D.C can’t even agree to give us a 10% rebate. They can’t come up with a plan that might make the other side look good. They can’t solve the problem until the next administration, or the one after that. The government who monopolizes the right to protect and prepare can’t even do that without cranking out a 5000 page bill hours before the due date and then vilifying those who oppose.

The lockdown is not our only option. The “pause” is not helping the citizens. When you asked us to give up 21 days of our lives, you had my vote. At this point though you are asking Americans to give up over 1% of their expected lives. You’re asking grandparents to give up 10% of their remaining lives. You’re asking kids to give up 1/12th of their formative years. High students need to give up 25% of that experience.

All of this over a scary bug with a 99% survival rate that we have the most powerful species in the history of our earth researching, treating, curing, and preventing? How dare they? If we don’t shut them down, they will continue to shut us down. Next time don’t expect them to ask nicely. #Stayhomesavelives 😦

Imagine working your ass off to survive as a restaurant over owner in the pandemic world. You and your employees will barely make ends meet with carry-out orders. You are monitoring the ever changing guidelines and “laws” coming at you from health departments, mayors, governors, and federal officials. You are trying to keep just the right amount of food in stock, in case of a new lockdown, or a sudden opening. At times you probably feel like you are no longer trying to save the business for yourself, but rather for the couple dozen employees you have counting on it.

Now imagine being in California. You completely change your business model, adhere to all the rules, create an outdoor space, and open back up ready to recover the year. The hours and tears and anxiety are behind you. Then comes the second round. You are being shutdown, and worse, the leaders are ignoring their own nonsensical rules. At least 9 lawmakers go on a conference to Hawaii, telling you to stay home. Thanksgiving is cancelled, but the mayor of San Jose goes to a gathering of 5 households and claims he didn’t know it was against the “rules.” You could not care less what they do, you only care that they are shutting you down.

And then this.

You come in to scrape together a few dollars on carry-out orders one day, and in the parking lot adjacent to your building, is a massive outdoor dining space set-up by a Hollywood studio and approved by local government officials. An absolute slap in the face. You don’t fault the employees of said studio for being legally allowed to work, or that they will need lunches, but you are bitter that they can’t use your identical venue next door.

This is what happened to Angela Marsden, owner of the Pineapple Hill Grill & Saloon in the California Republic and it absolutely shameful. It is tyranny in its purest form. It is the elites picking and choosing. It’s cronyism. It it abuse. It needs to come to an end.

If there is one thing that the Rona has done for us, it has shown us what unprecedented power (in America) suddenly given to a wide-range of officials, elected or not, does to the psyche of these egotistical maniacs. They will not give it back willingly. If they do, be aware that they are looking for a reason to get it back. They will find an obscure law from 1938 that they can use to dictate until a challenge works thru the court system. They will lie, they will cheat, and they will distort the “best science and the best facts” to drive the fear that feeds their power.

Imagine being just a restaurant owner. If you are in California. You try to work a deal with the Hollywood studio that set-up camp in your parking lot and hope their caterer will have use for your inventory before it spoils.

I am optimistic that we can move past this time and I can refocus my attention on things that aren’t so negative, but here we are. It just seems that by ignoring it, we are empowering them to continue with this crap, and the next time around it will only get worse.

At what point is enough, enough?

The coverage of the Hunter Biden saga by the mainstream media has been criminal. This is not an exaggeration, those that we entrust to hold public officials accountable should themselves be held accountable when they fail to do so.

Case in point-When the Hunter Biden emails were revealed, high-ranking (former) intelligence officials signed a document alleging that this had all “the markings of Russian disinformation.”

Not once did anyone in theBiden camp deny that the content of those emails were falsified. So it is one or the other, it can’t be both. Either the emails are fake and it is russian disinformation, or the emails are fake and it is the work of some high-level spy games. So as a reporter what do you do?

How about asking the Biden camp if they are fake?

But wait, they say its russian disinformation.

Are you saying these emails are fake?

No, I am saying it is russian disinformation.

How could it possibly be both? How could not one of the multi-million dollar tv personalities have enough journalistic curiosity to get the American people an answer? How can NPR, A PUBLICLY FUNDED INSTITUTION, brush off the story as “non-news” without an uproar and immediate forfeiture of their budget. It’s glaringly obvious that the story is more verifiable than some foreign dossier. Anyone with half a brain could tell that “the big guy” was old uncle Joe, and that he was undoubtedly enriching himself and his family by currying favors. How do they get away with it?

Because they don’t care, or we don’t care, or they don’t care that we care. Either way, they have gotten away with it for too long and it needs to stop.

Facebook and Twitter, public enemy #1. ABC, CNN, Fox. Public Enemy #2. Any company who shapes minds and opinions and abuses that power should be held accountable by at least 50% of the population. The misrepresentation of truth, the distortion of facts for political gain, the compounding power of a centralized government armed with an increasingly invasive media wing, they all need to go.

As Americans, or even world-citizens, left, right, or center, we are not that far off from each other on what we want. The agitators in power are responsible for finding those cracks in our unified front and driving a wedge thru them. Then hammering that wedge repeatedly until it becomes a canyon. If both sides could see this, maybe we could fill in the gap, or get rid of it all together. I vote the latter.

From what I understand, former President Obama will spend his twilight years making sketch comedy shows on Netflix. His next work of art, and first private sector job, will be a show highlighting the tumultuous transition of 2016. This is rumored to have President Trump as the focal point of their humor.

Very interesting approach.

We have not heard from this guy in 4 years and two weeks after the election he’s making the rounds. I suspect he would like to come back into the public light. I wonder if this show will cover the unprecedented spying his administration did on the Trump transition team. Do you think they will show a cartoon Obama in the room as they decide to dox General Flynn? It will be fun to see how they depict the dirty DNC operatives who financed the fake dossier. The voice of Nancy Pelosi is going to be a tough role to get. It would be fun to see the drawings of the mass media, huddled in a corner gobbling up every word from 44 like little lapdogs, and barking ferociously at 45 like junkyard pit’s ready to thrust out of their chains.

How petty is this by the way? It will surely prompt a retaliatory series and then we’ve got two former presidents arguing about who is less of a criminal. Not a good look. While I often disagree with Mr. Obama’s worldview, I have no doubt he is a fine gentleman. I understand he is a young guy, but would like to see him find a different hobby. He can be a lot more flexible now, after the election. He could make an actual attempt at healing the divide rather than doubling down. He could grow to appeal to both sides.

I was far more prepared mentally this election season, but I worry about those that were not. You have almost half the country thinking the other side stole the election, and the left side thinking the right stole the last one. Everyone is racist. Riots could pop up at anytime. Even as chill as I have been the whole vibe of 2020 is beginning to irritate me. This country is not going in the right direction; I think that is true no matter who wins Wrestlemania. We need someone to step up and listen to both sides like an adult, silence the pesky accosters piping up in the corner, present a solution that falls in the middle, and move on. The last thing we need is another sitcom.

When they go low.

Now that Trump is gone, what happens with all this vitriol? If you are a firm believer that the GOP is the party of hate and anger, we know where theirs go, the same place has allegedly been aimed since their founding. At women and minorities obviously. But what about our friends on the left? They have fed off their disdain for the President for four long years. They’ve mocked him. They’ve lied about him. They’ve played up his weaknesses and suppressed his strengths. What happens to the ‘Occupy Democrats’ of the world? Or the CNN’s? The Saturday Night Live’s? What are we going to hear from Trevor Noah and Stephen Colbert? Who do the celebs lecture us about?

Where does all their hate get directed?

The Love/Hate balance in this country is completely off, and though I would like to see what a major correction to the equilibrium looked like, I don’t see that coming down the pipeline. You can’t keep us cooped up and not expect an outburst. You can’t constantly berate one side, misrepresent their views, and shout them down with bullshit blanket accusations like “racist” or “xenophobe” and then call for unity because your PR machine manipulates a corpse into office. You’ve got too much hate built up for that.

I suspect now they will come for the second-tier. Now that they’ve labeled the GOP the party of Trump, and Trump the face of everything they hate, the connections are too easy. Anyone who labels themselves as right of center should be scared. They will nitpick and dox and investigate and call for your jobs. Your past social media posts are not safe. Your children will not be off-limits. The left will clearly not rest until there is no more right.

The left has a firehose full of hate with no way of shutting it off and no “anti-christ” to spray it at. No Hitler. We should all be nervous about what they do with it.

Dear ruling class,

Just get your shit together, please. This drama going on between you for the past decade and beyond is now beginning to impact our lives. I am tired of it. Who is right? The left? The right? Who cares? When you get to office, you are one in the same. The agenda of your party outweighs the needs of us constituents, and you will do anything to seek, hold, and gain more power.

Just get it together.

You fight like children. Who can go in what bathroom? One side is racist, the others are snowflakes. The state-owned media are cogs in the machine. Rather than act like a teacher and keep these kids in line, they feed into it. They pass on the drama and keep the rest of the class wound up. You should all be ashamed of yourselves, but I get a feeling that this is what you want.

I just want my life back. I want to be able to have an opinion. I want to be able to enter my neighboring countries. I want my family cottage back from Canada, I want to check up on my social media “friends” without being inundated with negativity. I want news reported honestly and with the utmost integrity, not packaged to feed an agenda. I want sporting events back, the kinds you go to. I want gatherings. I want our leaders to lead, and not go in front of the cameras like a professional wrestler or soap-opera showman and assault their opposites with inaccuracies.

I want a common sense approach to solutions based on negotiation from both sides, not two separate solutions that we spend decades trying to garner enough votes to attempt. I want the lowest possible taxes that covers the greatest extent of our needs as a country. I want journalists to journalize when politicians are unjustly getting rich. But more than anything, I want my life back.

Get it together.

While you fight over how much we should fear a virus, or who should be president of a divided government, chunks of our lives are being wasted. Give us our freedoms back. End the virus propaganda. Give us the truth. And cut out the crap.

A revolution will not be kind to any of you.

I am not a republican. I am not a democrat. I’m not a liberal or a conservative. I’m not a Trump supporter, but I do support Trump (to an extent). I have been following the decay of American politics for long enough to realize that the blame does not fall on his shoulders. It is getting completely out of hand, yet we allow it.

I had a bit of a mental breakdown in early 2017, and the previous presidential election was one of the major contributing factors. I felt like we were allowing the government to divide us, and my inability to help was a lot to cope with. This time around, I think I am prepared to just vent. My anxiety has been building up a bit lately so now I guess it’s time blow some of it out. The date is 11/11/19.

In terms of the impeachment, and please understand that I am not some cunning political operative who fully understands the rules of the game, but if Joe Biden was not running for president, would it have been ok for the president to ask Ukraine to investigate the alleged improprieties? If it had been Dick Cheney’s son for instance, with VP Cheney in the crosshairs? If withholding money to investigate a political opponent is grounds for impeachment, than isn’t withholding money to fire a prosecutor grounds for investigation? It just seems ironic.

The major issue I have with impeachment, aside from the fact that in less than 12 months the American public have the opportunity to remove him from office if they so choose, is that it’s a dog and pony show that is going nowhere when there are some serious issues of greater importance facing our nation. Do we not have time on the docket for those?

We could find common ground, if they wanted us to. I imagine that unity pays less in political dollars. You can no longer run a campaign based on working towards a common goal, vilifying your opponent and the ideas they represent is the only path to success. Maybe it’s a chicken vs egg scenario.  I suppose it could be argued that they are simply playing to us. I think they are simply playing us.

I’m not suggesting a violent revolution. I’m just a random dude. My hope is that I can maintain my sanity in a world that will become more venomous each day we get closer to the election. If I had a wish though, I’d hope that we could stop demonizing each other and turn our attentions to the real problem. That entity in Washington that robs our paychecks in exchange for a lifetime of unfulfilled promises to fix all the problems they themselves have created.