Author Archives: Sam Ross Jr.

First my wife sang out the news as delivered by her smart phone Tuesday, and then a cousin emailed the revelation. Hunter Biden guilty on all counts.

No doubt Clueless Joe henceforth will not refer to Hunter without the “convicted felon” tag so liberally applied to one Donald Trump.

I can just see the campaign ads with Biden and his “convicted felon” son.

No? Clueless Joe and his tribe of sycophants would be disingenuous on such matters?

Of course there are differences between the convictions. Trump was found guilty of felony charges that were escalated from misdemeanors after the statute of limitations had expired. This by a jury instructed it needn’t agree on what Trump supposedly had done wrong to convict him, and after a trial presided over by a judge more fit for a scene in a Three Stooges short.

Order, order, order in the court.

I’ll have a pastrami on rye.

Hunter, on the other hand, came a cropper in federal court for mixing gun ownership with being a crackhead, fibbing to the Feds about it all, and having his former sister-in-law turned lover throw away the gun due to concern about Hunter’s mental state, and neatly cataloging all this in text messages.

Hunter’s crimes were felonies, not technical violations ramped up due to some overzealous left-wing district attorney. The statute of limitations had not expired on Hunter.

Allow me to admit right here I’m surprised Hunter was convicted. It wasn’t for perceived lack of evidence, but more because evidence doesn’t seem to outweigh politics in court decisions these days.

Reports indicate Hunter could face as much as 25 years in prison and a fine of up to $750,000.

But, before you indulge in orgies of celebration, I’m thinking there’s still room for a sentencing reprieve. Along that line, if Hunter serves more than a few days, or even less time behind bars, I’ll be stunned.

As to the fine, even if it’s $750,000, all Hunter needs to do is hurl some paint at a canvas to produce more of his kindergarten level art to be gobbled up by some Biden and Democrat cronies posing as art collectors, just to tamp down any appearance of anything not completely above board.

Any of Hunter’s art pieces could fit under the category of dog’s breakfast, a British term for a confused mess.

Beyond the gun convictions, it’s fair to ask why Hunter continues to skate on accusations of association with sex trafficking of minors, not to mention carving out percentages of his “business” deals for “The Big Guy”

Don’t forget, until a righteous judge intervened, Big Guy Joe’s justice department was offering Hunter a plea bargain that would have made the gun charges and a tax beef go away.

Now Hunter has gone down on the gun part, but still faces court on the allegations of failing to pay income taxes.

Of course, Clueless Joe and DR. JILL BIDEN, who expressed pride today over Hunter, will be equally proud if a guilty verdict follows on tax charges.

And they will be similarly proud when the consequences of Hunter’s misdeeds amount to a light slap on his money-grubbing wrists.

Seeing them forced to embrace publicly their beloved convicted felon brings a smile to my face. Maybe they might want to adopt Trump?

I passed on writing my typical D-Day post yesterday, in part because of the way our president politicized the 80^th anniversary of this historic event and turned it into a Ukraine pep rally, which made me want to vomit.

You’d expect as much from an obviously addled sort who thinks, despite all available evidence, that his relative was eaten by cannibals in Papua New Guinea during World War II, and more recently twice noted in an interview that he has known Vlad Putin for “over 40 years.”

Now that’s a Russian collusion tale worthy of investigation by the Biden Secret Police considering back then Putin was a relatively unknown KGB officer. So what was a minor league U.S. Senator, which Biden was at the time, doing consorting with a KGB agent?

I’d love to hear that explanation, other than the stereotypical Joe is losing his mental faculties and we can’t hold him accountable for things like mishandling classified information because of that.

We also can’t, presumably, hold Biden accountable for anything that happens during his watch as president. We can, however, blame his predecessor, Donald Trump, for all Biden calamities, including a southern border only slightly less porous than Ukraine’s ground defenses.

But Biden and his brain-donor supporters aren’t alone in claiming long-term residence at the irrational hotel.

Today’s major dose of irrational behavior centered on the monthly jobs reports, an exercise in reading goat entrails that no one should take seriously, yet investment professionals do month after month.

Understand that these days government statistics tend to be guesses and results issued by statistical models, which are themselves mostly guesses, seasoned with a bit of research.

If you made observations based on similar models, a neighbor buying a new car might cause you to state that car sales are going through the roof, and we might be in for a record sales year.

Government inflation reports are excellent examples of useless numbers. Some exclude “volatile” items such as food and energy, which just happen to be two elements necessary to life as we know it.

Our Federal Reserve, still trying to meet its target of reducing inflation to 2 percent annually, loves an inflation measure which does not include housing costs. Understandably, this might be accurate if all residents were Section 8 types or illegal immigrants, not responsible for paying their housing costs. For the rest of us, housing is a cost just as essential as those for food and/or energy.

Today’s job report roared past estimates, to a reported 272,000 more on payrolls.

Of note, the “job” numbers don’t differentiate between full-time and part-time. I lose a job paying $60,000 a year with good benefits, and two kids down the street get hired on to cut grass part-time during the summer for $10 an hour and that’s a net gain as far as the government is concerned.

Similarly, if I lost the above-mentioned job, but took down two of those part-time jobs, again a net gain on the payroll report.

Further complicating things, the 270,000 gain was from the so-called “Establishment” report, that deals with feedback from businesses and adjusts it all with the birth-death model to smooth the numbers.

The births and deaths refer not to workers, but to businesses who employ people. It is ESTIMATED how many of these companies have opened or closed (were born or died) during the month.

Meanwhile, the household survey, which talks to people and extrapolates based on that, came in at a DECLINE of 408,000 workers.

And, just to spice up the statistical sundae, the unemployment rate ticked up to 4 percent, which would seem to indicate fewer, nor more jobs.

There is a difference of roughly 9 MILLION between jobs numbers the establishment survey reports. vs. the numbers of the household survey, with the establishment that much higher.

Based on this ridiculous statistical soup, billions of dollars were made or lost Friday.

Next week, we get the monthly Federal Reserve meetings and interest rates announcement, usually good for more unwarranted volatility in financial markets as the irrational react and overreact on vague, generally meaningless numbers.

Meantime, we can amuse ourselves with more absurd Biden musings, of which there almost certainly will be many.

At first blush, it seems odd in the extreme that the U.S. and its European allies are so eager to provoke war with Russia.

The state of the Russian army, as to its ability to stand up to NATO forces on the ground, is open to debate. What is not open to debate, and has been pointed to directly and repeatedly by no less an authority than Vlad Putin, is that Russia possesses enough nuclear weaponry – and the means to deliver same – to turn our world into a smoldering cinder.

Surprisingly, all the climate alarmists who have been predicting incorrectly this outcome for Earth from natural forces for maybe 40 years, are some of the same leftist morons encouraging more attempts to provoke the Russian bear.

This all makes no sense unless you realize how desperate things are in many of these nations and for the leaders.

Clueless Joe may be able to unleash his Soros-anointed petty dictators in the form of local district attorneys to harass one Donald Trump, but polls indicate a sizable majority of the populace, as many as 75 percent in some examples, think Biden is inept, doing a poor job of stewarding the country, and needs to be gone yesterday.

Similar heads of state, such as France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Olaf Scholz, are just as unpopular if not moreso than the Clueless One.

A major foundation for this unhappiness is inflation, producing declining standards of living. The U.S., France and Germany also have varying degrees of internal instability due to out-of-control immigration.

The U.S. and France also have massive debt problems, as in obligations that cannot be repaid or delivered upon.

Facing elections and a wrathful populace, it is in the best interests of these proven demagogues to devolve into the ultimate misdirection. So they start World War III. At least they will still be in charge before succumbing to the carnage they have unleashed.

And, make no mistake, for these left-wing sickos, being in charge is all that matters. Damn the overall good of the people, even their survival.

History will record – if there is any history written after the fact — that Clueless Joe led us bravely into war just so you wouldn’t be able to pay attention to his many failings.

Same for Macron and Scholz, the latter of whom heads a country that reportedly has begun to draft 60-year-old men.

Can’t happen here? Don’t kid yourselves.

And if you think the West’s leaders will blink before leading us to nuclear Armageddon, that’s far from a certainty. Remember that desperate people do desperate – and stupid – things.

The word of Donald Trump’s conviction reached me Thursday even as I was trying to sort through a problem gaining title to my latest vehicle purchase.

There is a common thread here. Allow me to elaborate.

First, I’m not shocked that Trump has been convicted. It was not by accident that the case, brought by a politicized district attorney, tried under the guidance of a politicized judge and with a jury plucked from the deepest blue part of already deep blue New York State, produced the desired Deep State verdict.

Clueless Joe and his operatives have succeeded in weaponizing the courts, the intelligence network and various levels of federal law enforcement operations against his chief rival for president, one Donald Trump.

Deluded Democrats will argue until they go hoarse that none of this is true. I can only argue the facts, from the lies to judges to get wiretaps on Trump, to the clear difference in prosecuting Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents to giving Clueless Joe the senility pass on same, to the questionable acts of those ranging from FBI agents to judge Juan Merchan, Bogota, Colombia’s gift to American jurisprudence.

This sham trial is the cherry on the top of a sundae of bastardization of the legal system.

Back to my title problem. I received a letter today from the people at the state Department of Transportation that they had problems issuing me a title for the 1984 Corvette I had purchased April 9, 2024.

Specifically, an accompanying notation cited a lack of a proper notary seal and signatures.

The car having been purchased a two and one-half hour drive away, this presents a problem. I called the woman who had handled the title work and we walked through the situation over the phone. I presumed – correctly – that our civil servants would have already vacated their offices.

The notary told me where to look to confirm that she had put her seal both on the title and on the accompanying paperwork. We sifted through said paperwork and seemed to find all the appropriate signatures.

So, what happened?

The notary, in speaking with others in her area, says this is a common problem in 2024, where once it was not. Some notaries merely resubmit the paperwork and, magic, it’s OK.

Simply put, the notary said, there are a lot of people working for the state who struggle to do their jobs these days in this department.

She didn’t say it, but I will: Thank you DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion.

People are being given jobs, from judge to paper shuffler, based on race, sexual orientation, gender and not the former standard of competence.

Legal experts I have seen on television regarding the Trump trial – one prominent one who is a self-confessed Hillary Clinton supporter – saw extreme errors in how the Trump judge handled the trial. Did he get the job because he ticked off a lot of DEI boxes – immigrant, non-white, leftist?

Did the person who (mis)handled my title application check some of the same boxes?

You may have read or seen that a full one-half of UCLA’s medical students fail tests of basic medical competence. But they check a lot of DEI boxes, so no problem.

Coming soon to an emergency room near you, doctors who can’t tell the difference between a sprained ankle and lung cancer.

Trump can and will appeal this ridiculous trial and verdict, and will win even if he has to go all the way to the Supreme Court to escape New York’s politicization.

I, hopefully, will get my title problem rectified in coming days, weeks or months.

But it’s time for the nation to take a stand against this rampant bias and ineptitude and the next great chance comes with November’s election. Otherwise, strap in for things to continue to worsen inexorably.

Behold the Gaza floating pier, a metaphor for the reverse Midas touch that has characterized the Biden regime.

Simply put, everything Clueless Joe and his handlers touch turns to the sort of excrement the North Koreans were floating into South Korea with balloons earlier this week.

That $320 million expenditure for the floating pier was quintessential Biden, throwing money at a problem without regard as to whether or not the solution would work. Hey, it’s all about image, not substance.

Supposedly a way to get aid to desperate Palestinians – desperate because they have ceded political control of their state to terrorists who randomly attack sovereign nations such as Israel and bring the wrath of those aggrieved parties home to roost – the floating pier lasted about two weeks.

“Rough seas” were cited as the reason the pier failed and now it is being towed to a distant beach for repairs. Apparently waves of three feet constitute rough seas for this pier, meaning it probably couldn’t operate on any significant body of water for long.

Bottom line, Biden might as well have dropped $320 million from a helicopter into the Mediterranean Sea.

But Biden and friends are always eager to waste your tax dollars, witness their penchant for vote buying with student loan forgiveness, half-baked electric vehicle tax credits, foreign aid of all stripes, supporting the hordes of illegal immigrants invited in to boost Democrat voting rolls and subsidizing various questionable Woke organizations.

As bad as the floating pier debacle has been, the push for electric cars has been worse. Trans secretary Pete Butt(whatever) got called out on the whole mess recently when it was noted that a $7.5 billion investment had produced just seven charging stations after two years, according to the Washington Post, traditionally a Democratic house organ. But similarly left-leaning Politico claims there have been zero operating charging stations built to date with the $7.5 billion bequest.

Whether it’s seven or zero, it’s not much return on $7.5 billion.

We have a modest bank of chargers at the supermarket along Osborne Street and on Tuesday I witnessed for the first time a car actually being recharged there. Maybe they predate the $7.5 billion allotment.

Regardless, Biden never met a fiscal black hole he wasn’t willing to feed with tax dollars, even though often those shaking the begging bowl are, shall we say, more than a touch ungrateful.

The other day Zelenskyy, the vertically and intestinal fortitude challenged leader of Ukraine, was lamenting the lack of aid, and blistering Biden for planning to pal around with his left-wing crank actor supporters at a Hollywood fund-raiser rather than kissing Zelenskyy’s butt by showing up at a “peace” summit next month in Switzerland.

This denies Zelenskyy yet another photo op, albeit with him needing to stand on a box, ala former actor Alan Ladd, to come close to looking the others in the eye.

Maybe those conscription gangs forcing Ukrainian men into the army and whisking them to the front to be butchered by superior Russian forces might want to snatch Zelenskyy and give him a taste of the action.

Meanwhile, Biden ought to throw a bone to Zelenskyy and offer to give him the floating pier for use in the Black Sea. The only problem is it would require somehow eliminating any waves higher than three feet, which would be about the top of Zelenskyy’s head..

I found myself explaining the Memorial Day Holiday weekend to granddaughter No. 2 the other day, and it reminded me of how far this nation has slipped.

Begin with the concept of some holidays being rescheduled to Mondays, the better to provide three-day weekends to the masses.

I first noticed this sort of push with Thanksgiving. I know, it has yet to be relocated to Monday, but Thanksgiving creep has engulfed Mondays, and many other days.

As a youth, antlered deer hunting season often began the Monday following Thanksgiving and, no, we didn’t get Mondays off back then for the holiday. But, many of us went hunting and in the case of students at Greater Johnstown High School, that meant standing in a massive line down the hall from the Room 422 attendance office Tuesday morning to have one of the curt attendants there let you back into school after an UNEXCUSED absence.

It would be no problem now, because Thanksgiving holidays, in schools and the work world, have swelled to almost a week away from things. Now, many have off the Wednesday before because, well, it just makes sense.

Of course almost all are off the Thursday of the holiday itself. But Friday is a given now, too, because, I mean, why come back to school or work for a single day?

Just add in an off day Friday and we’re into the Saturday and Sunday traditional weekend off days. We’re at four days off, and counting.

But it’s such a downer to have to go back to work on a Monday after a prolonged off stretch, so what the heck, take Monday off, too.

Bumping traditional holidays to Mondays are mini-examples of such holiday creep.

It wouldn’t be so irritating if somewhere along the line people remembered what holiday we are observing, and why. In the past such things were taught in schools. Today, not so much.

Granddaughter No. 2 having recently had only her kindergarten graduation, I knew she would have learned little about Memorial Day in school. So, I pointed out it’s a day to celebrate the military service of those who have worn the uniforms of the various armed services.

From my son’s best friend, to other family friends, to fathers, uncles, grandfathers and cousins of the family who have served, I told her this is a holiday to honor that. For those who didn’t return, it’s time to reflect on how some have paid a great price to protect the freedoms and opportunities we take for granted.

She listened politely and probably forgot about it even before my words had stopped echoing around the SUV.

But I tried. And, in advance of our Saturday holiday cookout, I put out a fresh American Flag. She noticed what I was doing and, again, I gave her the brief meaning of Memorial Day.

Maybe not now, but my hope is someday she might recall what I said and observe the holiday as something more than a component of a three-day weekend.

We’re into the third round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and what have we learned?

• Defense still wins, witness the way the Florida Panthers shut down the New York Rangers in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference final series Wednesday night. The Penguins and their fans might want to take note before expecting to contend for the Stanley Cup again anytime soon.

• Out west it’s a similar story, where the depth and defensive prowess of Dallas has the Stars taking on high-flying Edmonton in the conference finals there. Dallas should advance to the Cup Finals from that series.

• The Boston Bruins coaching staff and players all should spend the offseason taking remedial math classes that they might learn to be able to count to five. The Bruins were hit with a playoff record seven penalties for too many men on the ice and in just 13 games, to boot.

• Goalie interference is the NHL’s pass interference, in that even the so-called experts can’t agree on what to call and what to let pass without penalty. In Game 1 of the Rangers-Panthers series there was yet another situation with a goal scored despite physical contact of the goalie with the opposition (no initial interference call at the time), a challenge by the Rangers, another video review and, during the lengthy delay, the announcers came to the conclusion they have no idea which way these calls will go. That apparent Florida goal was disallowed due to interference.

• Another curiosity of NHL officiating is the high-sticking call. If a player hit by the high stick can provide evidence the blow drew blood, it’s a double minor, four minutes or less of playing short-handed vs. the customary two or less. This blood can be from a slight nick. On the other hand, a player could be knocked unconscious and be suffering terminal internal bleeding on the brain. But, no external evidence of bleeding, just two minutes.

• Hockey, with the arrival of high-definition television, is a great sport to watch on TV and playoff hockey is even greater. Yet NHL ratings for the first two rounds of the playoffs, while up 9 percent from last season, are still only a modest 1.16-million average viewers. NBA playoffs ratings for two rounds are down 12 percent, but still dwarf those of hockey, averaging 4.03 million viewers. So, NHL ratings are poor, unless you compare them to CNN, the Certainly Not News network, whose primetime programming (8 to 11 p.m.) has hit a ratings low since 1991 with only 494,000 average viewers. Sure, NHL ratings are poor, but not CNN poor.

• Edmonton is the final Canada-based team alive in the Stanley Cup playoffs, looking to end a drought that extends to 1993 and Montreal for the last Cup win by a franchise from Canada. It probably won’t happen. But does it really mean that much? As the broadcasters noted often during the Edmonton-Vancouver series, the Vancouver team (based in Canada) had as many Latvians in its game lineups (two) as Canadians. There were eight American-born players performing for Vancouver.

Last week was a collage of bitter irony, punctuated with moments of absurdity and insight.

We revisit the week with an installment of news and views.

NEWS: Kansas City Chiefs placekicker Harrison Butker inflamed passions on the left while speaking at a college commencement when he said one of the “most important” jobs a woman can have is as a homemaker. Butker also is not in favor of abortion or of those in control promoting gender identity confusion.

VIEWS: It was both fitting and expected that the NFL (which cynics note can be referred to as the National Felons League) rushed to distance itself from Butker’s remarks, noting his views are not theirs. Of course not. The NFL is the land of simplistic messages on its sidelines and helmets, pithy stuff such as the motto on the statue of the mythical Faber College founder in the movie “Animal House” proclaiming “Knowledge Is Good.” Will the NFL rush to note it is not their position the next time a player comes out as gay, or goes public supporting abortion? Of course not.

NEWS: The creators of the “South Park” cartoon series have recognized the swelling mania for the combined anti-diabetes/weight loss drugs by having character Eric Cartman try to avail himself of this miracle. But Cartman is denied access to the drugs, and looks to friends for help.

VIEWS: As a fat person myself, I feel able to look at this issue with a degree of perspective. For probably the past two years our television screens have been saturated with ads of fat people singing and dancing because a new drug basically allows them to continue to eat like pigs, but keep their blood sugar and weight under control. Who do you think pays for those commercials? Answer– whoever pays the mega drug companies for the prescriptions, mostly either private insurers or we taxpayers through various government healthcare systems. It’s not the average chubby consumer paying the freight. The American way in healthcare is to medicate instead of addressing root causes because potential solutions such as exercise and healthy diets do not enrich big drug companies, who in turn lavish that cash on media outlets to advertise their newest, best drugs.

NEWS: Researchers at the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Pennsylvania have reported on a study that found a mother lode of so-called “Green” metal lithium is to be found in the waste water from fracking for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale, which runs under the ground in about two-thirds of Pennsylvania.

VIEWS: Climate change is a center of great hypocrisy, which includes proponents of electric vehicles choosing to ignore the negative environmental impact of how a considerable portion of elements vital to those cars, including lithium for batteries, is mined. But climate activists also want fossil fuels, including natural gas, banned. How ironic that fracking could be a major source of lithium. It’s enough to make Greta scream. Then again, Greta also is likely to scream if her private jet is late to whisk her to the latest environmental elitist confab.

NEWS: The U.S. Department of State has issued a “worldwide caution” alert for citizens to be on guard for terrorist attacks or violent actions against Americans. Those overseas are advised to use “increased” caution.

VIEWS: These things amuse me. What exactly should I do to exercise caution? If our intelligence agencies cannot spot major plots in advance, why expect me to do so? And while it’s all well and good that the State Department thinks things are worse for Americans in foreign lands, I am not sure that is the case. The porous nature of our borders, with an increasingly large number of Chinese illegals (many of them military-service aged men) entering, might give pause to those of us sleeping here, too.

Growing up in Johnstown, one often heard natives opine that we were about 10 years behind the times.

Frequently, the observation was made by way of lamenting our backwardness.

But, in truth, sometimes this distance from society’s leading edge was a blessing. Example: Our family structures remained stronger longer than those of the nation at large.

We had less crime.

Our cost of living was lower.

We had the sort of economy in which a worker with a strong back and work ethic could make a living that could support a family.

School districts were effective.

Our local media, from newspapers, to television, to radio did an excellent job of reporting happenings in Greater Johnstown.

Fast-forward to 2024 and we’ve caught up – alas — to the negative trends writ large..

Family units here increasingly are splintered.

Crime is up, even if you ignore the large segment of mayhem that goes unreported.

The cost of living, particularly when it comes to buying a single-family residence, is inexplicably higher for an area with an aging population and low median income.

Well-paying jobs for those of limited skills are few.

Our major school district is a basket case.

And the local media, well, that, too, is a shadow of things past.

I was lamenting this with a former member of a local media recently, he being a former radio and television reporter and anchor. Our careers had overlapped for an extend period when I worked for the local newspaper.

Back then, the newspaper’s editorial stance mirrored the community. It was a well-edited, accurate read.

These days, it’s full-Woke leftist editorial policy and on the few days when I actually look at the paper, the product is anorexic both in terms of pages and local content.

I similarly try to avoid the local TV news, but it never fails to amaze when I do view it.

Not that long ago, the wife wanted details on a fire in the Hornerstown section of Johnstown. She tried to get it from the so-called Johnstown TV station, one whose studios are less than a mile from my Southmont home, but thinks State College and Centre County are its priorities. Predictably, specifics were lacking on the local station’s fire report with the usual explanation that authorities wouldn’t give them more details.

As the former fellow media member and I noted, commit journalism and find out!

The Altoona-based station did have the details, things such as the victim’s name.

Just today, my inbox had an email with a link to more local TV hilarity that had showed up on social media.

In that video, the anchor, all bright and smiley, told us “today is Monday, the 26^th” and gave her name. Presumably she got her name correct, but she did soon realize (a voice from the director in her earpiece?) that her time references were wrong and did note that it actually was the 17^th and clearly she didn’t know what day it was or the weather, so she threw it to the weather girl.

Said weather personage also pointed out to the confused one it was Friday, not Monday. Cue the giggling.

If this is what you’re looking for when it comes to local television news, have at it.

For the rest of us, we will pine for the days when anchors knew the date and day of the week.

On the plus side, maybe the anchor has a future as a Joe Biden impersonator.

This Tuesday was another day with time spent at a funeral home, another opportunity for sustained introspection.

In this case, the deceased was Tom Reed, a 92-year-old I first knew through my father as a fellow Oakland neighbor and later, through Reed’s children as school mates, and even later, with some of the children being friends of my wife.

First, let me commend the two grandchildren – both adults – who captured the essence of the man in their remarks at the funeral service.

Tom Reed epitomized what once was the fabric of this country. Born in the depths of the Great Depression, raised by an aunt after his mother died early in his life, he later facing the challenges of raising a large family on limited income. Through it all, Reed overcame and succeeded.

It’s an exemplary story that once could have been told and retold involving others of his generation. These days, not so much.

The term “legacy” was oft-heard on this day and what greater legacy can a man leave than an extended family that does the right thing, professionally and spiritually? And what of his impact beyond that family through various activities with community-oriented organizations?

Do not mistake this with the current crop of Johnstown elites who use nonprofit setups as shells to extract money from the public purse and redistribute it to themselves and political connections.

As the pastor conducting this funeral service noted, sometimes one is recognized for good deeds toward the community and sometimes not. But, in the final analysis, these things are noticed by the beings that count.

To do good deeds without the hope of public praise, that’s supposed to be the spirit of the thing.

Fast-forward to 2024 and think about how many people you know who only have community interest if it benefits them. They wallow in pools of self pity about their lot in life. They whine about not being able to afford to buy a house, while driving (leasing?) God-awful expensive transportation, vacationing frequently, and pouring $6 cups of coffee down their gullets.

They appeal to the vote buyers to help them out by forgiving student debt. They want $20 an hour to ask you if you want fries with the burger you just ordered. They do not feel compelled to develop skills and training to make them more desirable employees, but rather demand higher pay just because they want/need it.

They are envious of those who have worked hard, saved, and so are financially comfortable in old age. Why should these oldsters have the money when the young people need it that much more?

Social Security? Medicare? Never mind that workers and employers paid into these programs, they should be cut off at the knees to allow more bucks to be passed to the needy young.

And then there is the burgeoning class of people who just want outright handouts from square one. Work? That’s for suckers. UBI (universal basic income) in which the productive are asked to subsidize the unproductive just because, is their Holy Grail.

Meanwhile, these types are content to linger on welfare, or other forms of public assistance, collecting cash payments as well as food and rent vouchers, not to mention free health care.

Imagine attending a funeral for one of these malingers and hearing speakers thanking the deceased for introducing them to the family business, that being life on the dole. Any talk of legacy will be taking bows for leading this nation down the path to fiscal no-return.

For all I know, as a taxpayer I’d be helping fund those funerals. There would be a barely audible whisper from the coffin – “Sucker.”