Author Archives: Sam Ross Jr.

An unlikely voice has spoken out against the woke mob mentality overtaking this country – James Carville.

The self-indulgent among the younger crowd, those whose frame of reference extends only to their memories from childhood and forward, might not recognize Carville’s name.

But perhaps they have heard of former president Bill Clinton, the man Carville got elected, twice. Carville once was the guru of the Democratic party.

He was a particularly unattractive man physically, once described as looking like the love child resulting from the sex scene in the movie “Deliverance,” a disturbing image on many levels.

Regardless, Carville knows politics and he skews hard left ideologically. Yet even Carville is concerned about his party and it’s full-on embrace of the radical religion of wokeism.

Think of wokeism as the modern equivalent of the Salem witch trials. The woke gang is a crazed, self-righteous minority that, under the guise of pursuing equality, operates as judge, jury and executioner.

It is a definitive example of mob mentality, where even those within the crowd who disagree to some extent are afraid to speak up lest they turn the mob’s attention on them. Those on the outside are even more timid to challenge the mob agenda.

That was Carville’s message in a recent interview with Vox, an ironic venue considering Vox is Latin for voice, but all voices on Vox seem to speak with a left-leaning accent.

That Carville would use this digital soap box to call out a movement that Vox denizens likely would agree with, at least to some degree, is telling.

Said Carville: “Wokeness is a problem and everyone knows it. It’s hard to talk to anybody today – and I talk to lots of people in the Democratic Party – who doesn’t say this. But they don’t want to say it out loud.”

The fear is one of retribution, albeit most often not physical violence. The threat from the cancel culture is ostracism both online and in professional life. It can put a former insider on the outside looking in; a formerly successful business person in the welfare line.

Even major corporations are quick these days to toe the woke line in commenting for public consumption lest they become victims of campaigns to turn their bottom lines red. The thinking seems to be, go ahead and speak out against the majority because those milquetoast types lack either the guts or the motivation – or both – to fight back.

This doesn’t mean violence is not a weapon, too, of the woke crowd. “Mostly peaceful” demonstrations that turn violent and destructive are the hammer that gives implied threat to the more pedestrian campaigns to discredit and shame on social media or in the lamestream news outlets.

So, cowed by fear, what likely is a majority – even among Democrats – that does not endorse full-blown socialism and blatant racism for the avowed purpose of reversing past racism – sits silent while the mob has the floor.

This is not a new concept. Then-president Richard Nixon referred to the “Silent Majority” in a televised address in 1969, calling on them to support him against protests of the time both racial and against the Vietnam War, as well as to back him as an opponent to the overall rise of the so-called counterculture.

Donald Trump tapped into that silent majority sentiment, won one term as president and arguably was re-elected if the voting fraud could have been factored out of the equation.

Already Trump, admittedly not a young man, is making overtures of running again in 2024. If he is still around, and hale and hearty at that time, and if wokeism continues to gain speed flying in the face of the majority of this country’s citizens, it’s going to take exponentially greater voter misconduct to beat back Trump in 2024 than it did in 2020.

Carville realizes that and he’s trying to get his party’s attention.

Joe Biden, who has abdicated a large piece of his presidential duties to Kamala Harris, finally got around to addressing Congress and, by extension, the American people, tonight.

I chose not to watch, due to the likelihood that Biden would be promising the moon in the way of governmental handouts while also playing the blame game by calling out Republicans, police, Wall Street, whites in general and white men in particular – all the usual suspects in Democratic harangues.

Instead of enduring this pap, my time was spent creating an internet snapshot of America, doing some quick browsing and capturing the temperature of the propaganda dispensers.

Make no mistake, this is not an exercise in satire. These are real headlines I saw, no matter how absurd they sound.

It began with my browser starting page offering up promos for some stories I might find worthwhile.

From smithsonianmag.com, I got “The Unmistakable Black Roots of Sesame Street.” They weren’t talking about a bad dye job at the local beauty parlor.

This item was the second pick on the first line of capsules and photos. Taking the sixth spot, on line two, from marieclaire.com was “The Unbearable Whiteness of Ballet.”

Of 21 promo items on the page, not a single one appeared to have input from what generally would be described as a traditional or conservative viewpoint.

I guess this should be understandable since I watched some CNBC investment television this afternoon trying to monitor the Federal Reserve news, and saw at least three times an ad for some sort of new drug for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Wall Street and capitalism’s cable channel is eager to virtue signal.

Said ad was an ode to woke-ism, showing a couple of men repeatedly, including sitting at the end of a pier lovingly stroking each other’s hands. Along the way there were two black guys twirling drumsticks and the ad concluded with a black guy wearing a stethoscope, presumably a doctor or male nurse, giving the whole thing minority legitimacy.

But back to the internet and our peek at how manipulators are attempting to program your thought process.

I stopped by CNN.com tonight and found, predictably, a Bidenfest orgy to the greatness of the guy finally getting in front of a microphone for more than a few minutes. “Jobs, jobs, jobs” screamed a huge headline, and it wasn’t a reference to the late Apple computer guru, first name Steve.

Over at MSNBC more hero worship was on display. “America is on the move again.” Why, yes, people are moving out of deep blue states such as California and New York in record numbers, seeking lower taxes and better living conditions elsewhere in red states such as Texas and Florida. But this headline did not refer to that.

Last stop, Foxnews.com, which has gone left. “Blue-Collar Blueprint” was the major headline, although a side item promo quoted pollster Frank Luntz: “I don’t remember a time in my lifetime when people are more divided than they are right now.”

Earlier today on zerohedge.com, a site I highly recommend for anyone wanting a daily digest of the news and stories the lamestream media will bury, there was an item both sad and illustrative. In a 5:40 p.m. post the headline read: “Biden Administration To Ban Menthol Cigarettes . . . Because They’re ‘Racist’ ?”

Repeat, this is not satire. Both the Washington Post and New York Times had headlines about the planned move. Supposedly blacks disproportionately smoke menthol cigarettes, so the cigarettes are purported to be a racist ploy by manufacturers.

Nanny-staters like Joe Biden are going to push for legislation to protect those who could protect themselves simply by choosing not to smoke or not to purchase menthol cigarettes.

Side note: One of my brother’s friends (he was white) in our old neighborhood grew up smoking Kools (menthol cigarettes) and drinking R.C. Cola. It wasn’t diet cola, either. But when he died at an early age we’re pretty sure it was the Kools that did it to him, not the soda.

In view of the fact that manufacturers since 1966 have been required to warn people that cigarettes in general can kill them and people still smoke, a lot, I’m thinking banning menthol cigarettes will shift smokers to other brands and/or create quite a black market (no pun intended) for anyone willing to buy up menthol cigarettes now and sell them later at massive markups.

This menthol ban should be about as effective as the “Just Say No” anti-drug campaign, which is to say not very much so.

And there you have it, the final entry in a not-so-pretty snapshot of the pathetic state of this country, no matter how much happiness malarkey Biden dispensed tonight.

Beware, the COVID-19 vaccine push is about to go into overdrive.

I’ve noticed the trend for some time, but it was rammed home by a doctor’s visit last week. The occasion was the routine 6-month checkup that in this era of the Affordable Care Act passes for interaction with a family doctor.

After my blood work had been reviewed (all is well) my weight and blood pressure noted (acceptable but not great on both counts) and various pleasantries had been exchanged, I was asked if I’d gotten the vaccine, or planned to do so.

It was slipped into the conversation so casually, the way spies looking for information in the old thriller TV shows or movies did it. Make it seem almost an afterthought; nothing that important.

My response was no and no. And thus began a bit of verbal fencing. My position is and has been, I’m willing to take my chances with a death rate of about 1 percent for people such as me vs. embracing the vast unknown risks of vaccines not subjected to customary periods of study to discern possible side effects.

The fact that the vaccine manufacturers got blanket immunity from lawsuits during this hurried rollout does not inspire confidence.

The arguments about whether the vaccines are, in fact, gene manipulation also is a concern.

Reports of violent reactions to the shots are troubling. Also worrisome is anecdotal evidence. A young and healthy friend of my son found the vaccine worse than the disease – he’s had experience with both.

It is disingenuous when people say the adverse reactions are a very small percentage. Also tiny is the percentage of deaths from COVID-19, but that hasn’t hampered the terror campaign.

The vaccine pushers use combinations of guilt, virtue signaling and general what-can-it-hurt? arguments to make their case.

It was easy for them early in the going. The most gullible and easily panicked sheep rushed to get the jabs. They signed up on waiting lists. I know of at least one frantic individual who drove hundreds of miles each time for her jabs. More correctly, her daughter did the driving.

Neighbors are astonished that neither my wife nor I raced to the telephone or computer to get on the lists.

Apparently these days you don’t need to wait. On the contrary, vaccines sit unused. Mass vaccination centers have closed down for lack of demand. Reports are that generally the 50 percent or so of the population that wanted vaccinated has taken the shots. The other 50 percent isn’t interested at this time.

The usual suspects – fear merchants, most of whom are credentialed with M.D. titles – are appearing regularly on television to promote vaccines and your duty to get them. Not surprisingly, the M.D. experts who will not preach fear don’t seem to get the same air time, at least not with sycophantic nods of approval from the show hosts.

My doctor and I got into a side discussion on abortion. I noted how the eliminators of unborn children cloak their task in terms such as pro choice rather than pro abortion. Just sounds so much more harmless and right, doesn’t it?

Well, on the matter of vaccines, I’m pro choice. I don’t want one, so you can have mine. It is my body, to borrow another line from the infanticide crowd.

I don’t understand the concern among the self-righteous people who have taken the needle. If the vaccine works, you’re safe and it’s me taking the risk by not getting it. If the vaccine doesn’t work, why bother to get it at all?

What about the SCIENCE? is oft-heard from the pro-vaccine folks. What about it? Increasingly, studies, such as a recent one by MIT, show social distancing and reduced capacities do little to prevent spread of the virus and those measures were rammed down our throats as SCIENCE.

The study authors would, however, like to keep you from going to gyms, or church, where your heavy breathing, or singing and talking, might more readily spread the disease.

Of course there is no mention in reports on the study that urge avoiding social justice warrior protests and riots to prevent spread of the virus. Can’t infringe on the right to rape and pillage.

Talk of so-called virus passports or immunity passports to allow vaccinated people to move freely about, and restrict movement of the non-vaccinated, keeps being downplayed by the powers that be. But, rest assured, if enough people don’t willingly take the needle, these measures, or similarly draconian ones, will be implemented to coerce compliance.

And then the battle truly begins.

Welcome back ladies and gentlemen, or non-specific gender term of your choice, this is Woke Double Jeopardy.

Just a quick reminder, check all common sense, rational thought, and proven data at the studio door. Here the subject matter is all about agendas, virtue signaling and outright falsehoods.

I’m your host, Al Bino, and my co-host is Sue Dointellectual. The contestants continue to be Blyn Defanddum, Gull A. Bull and Missy Enformed.

Bino: We left off with Blyn controlling the board. Go ahead, Blyn.

Blyn: Let me have Bitter Irony for $400.

Bino: The answer is, residents of Western Pennsylvania awoke on this Earth Day, April 22, 2021, to find a couple of inches of snow on their lawns.

(Chime sounds) Bino: Take it, Gull.

Gull: What is global warming?

Bino: No, sorry. Anyone else?

(Chime sounds again) Bino: You’re up, Missy.

Missy: What is climate change?

Bino: Correctomundo, Missy. Gull, you apparently forgot that global warming has been re-branded climate change, the better to include any outcome that is not exactly average (meaning just about everything on every day that is weather-related) as undeniable proof that man is making this planet uninhabitable. Make another selection, Missy.

Missy: I’m liking Unfathomable Utterances for $400.

Bino: The answer is, “Teenagers have been having fights including fights involving knives for eons. We do not need police to address these situations by showing up to the scene & using a weapon against one of the teenagers.”

(Chime sounds)

Bino: You’re up, Blyn.

Blyn: What did a genius activist post on Twitter in a weak attempt to say a policeman was wrong to stop a knife attack by shooting the girl wielding the weapon?

Bino: Amazingly, that is the correct answer. I may be giving away my age by telling you this, but I recall a time when a policeman would have been commended for saving the life of the potential victim of that attempted knifing. You’re still up, Blyn, make another pick.

Blyn: I’ll stay in the same category, Unfathomable Utterances for $600.

Bino: The answer is, “Defund the police.”

(Chime sounds)

Bino: Take it, Gull.

Gull: What is the virtue-signalling rallying cry of hoods, as well as professional athletes, politicians and celebrities who can and do pay for private security to protect their golden butts?

Bino: Very good, Gull. Well, we’re already out of time again – sorry for stealing your line, Sue – so we are going to Final Woke Jeopardy.

The category is Racism in America. The answer is, according to the official Black Lives Matter Twitter account, of the past two presidents, this one has been more guilty of terrorizing black neighborhoods by sending in military equipment.

(Furious scribbling by all three contestants)

Bino: OK, pens down. We’ll start with Gull, in last place with $300.

Gull wrote: Who is Donald Trump?

Bino: No. And your bet? $300, giving you zero. Next let’s see what Missy and Blyn, who are tied at $500, came up with. Missy?

Missy wrote: Who is Donald Trump?

Bino: Again, no. Your bet? $500. So you’re at zero, too. Well, let’s see what Blyn has.

Blyn wrote: Who is Donald Trump?

Bino: Wrong again. Your bet? Also all-in for $500, so you finish with zero, too. The correct answer is Joe Biden. We also would have accepted Sleepy Joe, Creepy Joe, Kamala Harris’ Placeholder, or Basement Guy. It looks like we have three zeroes for contestants, a fitting outcome.

Join us again next time for more Woke Jeopardy.

I’m thinking America’s long-running knowledge show is overdue for a makeover to reflect the times and it might look something like this: Welcome ladies and gentlemen, or non-specific gender term of your choice, this is Woke Jeopardy.

Check all common sense, rational thought, and proven data at the studio door. Here the subject matter is all about agendas, virtue signaling and outright falsehoods.

I’m your host, Al Bino, and my co-host is Sue Dointellectual. Let’s meet the contestants.

He’s an activist and protester for anything that rolls down the left lane of the political agenda, a currently unemployed philosophy major living in his parents’ basement, say hello to Blyn Defanddum.

Our second contestant, who still believes in the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and the promise of socialism, a government worker from parts unknown, here’s Gull A. Bull.

Rounding out the contestants is a community organizer whose motto is “Often wrong, but never in doubt,” meet Missy Enformed.

OK, Blyn, start us off,

Blyn: Let’s try Different Strokes for Different Folks for $100.

Bino: The answer is, a Minnesota police officer has been convicted of various murder and manslaughter charges for the death of a black man whom he was subduing with a knee to the neck, but as that trial unfolded, it was announced that the U.S. Capitol police officer who shot and killed unarmed protester Ashley Babbitt, a white woman and 14-year Air Force veteran, will face no charges.

(Chime sounds) Bino: Go ahead, Gull.

Gull: What is justice?

Bino: Correct. We also would have accepted what is proof of absurdity in the legal system circa 2021? You have control of the board, Gull.

Gull: I’ll take Uncommon Valor for $100.

Bino: The answer is, Idriss Deby.

(Chime sounds) Bino: Take it, Missy.

Missy: Who was the 68-year-old president of Chad who died this week of wounds suffered while he was commanding a military unit in the field against rebels seeking to oust his government?

Bino: Correct. We also would have accepted who is someone who did more than talk tough, the easy path preferred by Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi? Go ahead, Missy, pick again.

Missy: Give me Math Is Racist for $100.

Bino: The answer is, 47 percent and 48 percent.

Painfully long period of dead air and finally a buzzer.

Bino: Well, that was a tough one. The correct question is, what is the percentage of respondents to a Pew Research poll who believe coronavirus to be a very big problem (47 percent) vs. those who believe illegal immigration is a very big problem (48 percent)? And this despite massive efforts by government and media to convince the citizenry otherwise. You get to pick again, Missy.

Missy: OK, let’s take a shot – sorry about that – a stab – let me start again – a crack — ummm, ahh, I’ll try Who’s Zooming Who? for $100.

Bino: The answer is “She’s a loving girl.”

(Chime sounds) Bino: Go ahead, Blyn.

Blyn: What is what a mother says of her 15-year-old daughter after that daughter is shot by police while seeming to attack other civilians with a knife?

Bino: Correct . . .

Dointellectual: . . . Sorry to break in here, Al, but our time is up for now.

Bino: Thanks, Sue. Please come back for the next round, Double Woke Jeopardy, where the amounts are doubled and the game will continue to amaze you.

Sure the country is headed to hell in a hand basket, but at least Democrats can be counted on for comic relief along the way.

As a side note, often the laughter stems from absurd threats and name-calling uttered by people who profess to be in the process of trying to unify this nation and the world.

Just last week Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi addressed yet again the overblown topic of protesters invading the U.S. Capitol.

Pelosi called herself a street fighter, noted she’s pretty tough, and said of the protesters that if they’d met up with her, “They would have had a battle on their hands.”

It is not clear what geriatric Nancy would have done. Maybe she would have hit them on the head with small samples of her favored elitist ice cream, at $11.75 a pint, which equates to $94 a gallon? Sure that ammo would add up, but Pelosi could just have put it on her government expense account.

Or maybe Pelosi would have hurled 55-gallon drums of Botox at the protesters, strangled them with one of ever-present scarfs (the better to hide sagging neck skin) or even thrown a torn up copy of the State of the Union Address in their faces hoping to subdue them with paper cuts.

More likely Pelosi was just happy to have had her security people escort her out of the building and allow her to hurl empty threats and boasts after the fact.

Pelosi seems to be learning at the feet of Joe Biden, although following the lead of a man whose grip on reality is tenuous at best doesn’t seem to be the best strategy.

You might recall Biden, on multiple occasions, saying that when he was a young man, which would be about 100 years ago, he’d have taken Donald Trump out behind the gym and thumped him physically.

That’s brave talk from a guy last seen losing a battle with the steps to Air Force One, suffering a couple of knockdowns in the scuffle. If that had been a sanctioned bout, the referee would have had to have stopped the fight and raised the arm of the steps – metaphorically, of course.

Biden has moved on to calling Russia’s Vladimir Putin a “killer.” Responded Putin: “He who said it, did it.”

And your mother wears Army boots, or some such juvenile retort popular during my childhood.

At the risk of being branded a Russian bot, sympathizer, stooge and propagandist, if Biden actually ever would take a poke at Putin, I’m picking Putin in a first-round knockout.

Now Biden is proposing a summit meeting with Putin. Should that occur, I’m hoping Sleepy Joe’s handlers keep a tight leash on him, lest he lapse mentally and attempt to get physical with Putin.

If that happens, I just pray the cameras would be rolling, to record for posterity Biden wishing he was back tangling with the Air Force One boarding stairs.

No summation of laughable Democrats could be complete without a nod to House member Maxine Waters, of whom a CBSnews.com headline asked in a Feb. 24, 2010, posting, “Is Maxine Waters Really As Dumb As She Seems?”

Waters was back in the spotlight the past week, telling another House member, Jim Jordan, “shut your mouth” during hearings on COVID-19. She then rushed to the friendly confines of CNN to brag “Jim Jordan is a bully and I shut him down.”

Perhaps she can get Biden to take Jordan behind the gym and seal the deal physically. Or not.

Evidence that our government’s ongoing bastardization of the economy is producing absurd outcomes can we witnessed all around you if only you care to look.

Begin with the first-person anecdotal example I learned of while walking today and encountering a fellow car buff. He told a tale of another classic car he’s bought and the conversation got into the rising prices of such cars, real estate, and all other manner of tangible goods.

During the course of this talk on price inflation, he shared that his wife last year began alternating weeks with another woman on their job. One would work a week, then take the next week off.

Bottom line: This guy’s wife, with all the unemployment add-ons she received for the weeks she didn’t work, ended up making $5,000 more for the year by working half of it, than she’d made working the entire previous year.

If you think this is sustainable long term, or good for the economy, you are gullible indeed.

It produces examples such as a few weeks back, when I had difficulty finding a worker to put up a piece of downspout on my house.

It leads to stories such as the Florida McDonald’s franchisee offering $50 bonuses just for a workers to come in and APPLY for a job. An investing podcast I listened to on today’s walk told of a landscaper who hired 20 or so people and none showed up for the first day of work, preferring to sit home and spend stimulus money.

The problem goes beyond the micro level to the macro-economic. Historically low interest rates have made borrowing easy to purchase cars, houses, whatever, thus increasing the prices of said goods.

Food and energy also have increased in price, a tax on everyone.

More importantly, this easy money has removed an important feedback item from the economy. Where before companies had to have a reason to exist, had to generate profits, now they can borrow their way into continued existence. Eventually they fail, but only after burning up a lot of capital.

That’s money that could have gone to more productive means had economic signals been intact instead of being distorted by governmental money policy.

Investments, too, benefit from loose money. Online brokerage applications see spikes in activity each time more stimulus money hits the banking accounts of its traders. The money often goes into the latest, hottest momentum play, fueling that trend until economic reality intrudes, as it always must in the long run.

Many of these traders aren’t bothering to go to work, preferring to attempt to leverage the stimulus money into riches.

Think of all the goods and services you use in a single day and what you would do if no one was incentivized enough to go to work and make the goods or perform the services.

We all can’t sit home and collect government handouts without the nation collapsing. That’s the harsh reality the socialists don’t bother to mention.

But government pursues this course, and not just in this country. A cynic would argue that whenever we get the raging inflation that accompanies such wild spending, governments, being the massive debtors they are, benefit from paying back those debts in depreciated currency.

Further, if price inflation touches off wage inflation, government benefits there, too, with higher tax revenue from higher income.

Economic growth, and the long-term financial health of the country will be adversely affected, but that’s a problem for down the line. For now it’s spend, spend, spend while you can and just live for today.

I’ve returned to the blog-posting keyboard after taking a two-week hiatus, which I am sure my handful of readers will understand. Or maybe they didn’t notice.

It seems like little has changed since the last post. So much propaganda, hypocrisy and bias; so little time.

We’ll cover some of this with a dose of news and views.

THE NEWS: Nancy Pelosi’s husband showed prescient timing in spending about $1.95 million to acquire Microsoft call options (the right to buy the stock at a fixed price) just ahead of Microsoft landing a government contract that has caused the stock to rise about 11 percent in a short amount of time.

THE VIEWS: You could have knocked me over with a sledgehammer when I read that.

THE NEWS: In yet another Project Veritas expose, a CNN technical director was taped saying his network (The Most Busted Name in Fake News) ran a propaganda campaign designed to get Joe Biden elected and Donald Trump ousted as president.

THE VIEWS: You still got that sledgehammer handy?

THE NEWS: A Texas non-profit recently hired a Biden transition official and soon thereafter landed a $530 million federal contract to manage the inflow of migrant children at the southern border.

THE VIEWS: Sledgehammer, please.

THE NEWS: Portland (Oregon) Police are flirting with the political correct firing squad by declaring a “riot” when protesters set fire to a police association building and an ICE building there, protesting a shooting death in – wait for it – Minnesota. A police chief in Minnesota already has resigned under fire when he labeled a crowd committing vandalism and attempting to injure police a “riot,” incurring the wrath of the woke media members.

THE VIEWS: I’m reminded of the selective language of ice hockey, where our tough guy fighter is an “enforcer” but your team’s tough guy is a “goon.” Cue Gertrude Stein: A riot is a riot is a riot. Call it a clambake, street party, mostly peaceful protest or rave if you like, but in reality it is a riot.

THE NEWS: A Texas police officer was shot multiple times Wednesday morning during a routine traffic stop, but has survived. A suspect has been arrested and also is suspected of murdering a woman in a nearby carjacking. The shooting of the policeman was, according to Associated Press, at least the fourth in Texas in recent weeks.

THE VIEWS: It gives you some perspective on the Minnesota shooting, when the man who was shot, accidentally according to the police, suffered his fatal wound while resisting arrest during a routine traffic stop. Cops have a right to be tense.

THE NEWS: A black student at Albion College in Michigan has confessed to writing racist and anti-Semitic graffiti in a dorm stairwell.

THE VIEWS: Can we expect riots – I mean mostly peaceful demonstrations – calling for that guy’s cynical, opportunistic head?

THE NEWS: A 37-year-old co-founder of Black Lives Matter has gone on quite the buying spree, acquiring four high-end homes in the U.S. for $3.2 million.

THE VIEWS: As Bernie Sanders has showed, just because you’re a Marxist doesn’t mean you don’t believe in pampering yourself with expensive real estate. Mum’s the word.

THE NEWS: Former basketball star and current analyst Charles Barkley, who is black, took the occasion of a break in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament coverage to note that politicians are dividing this country along lines of black vs. white or rich vs. poor to maintain their power and money.

THE VIEWS: Predictably, Barkley was roundly criticized by liberals. Just shut up about life and talk about basketball was their message. But we’re supposed to endure endless National Anthem protests at sporting events, Major League Baseball caving to woke interests by relocating the All-Star Game, Black Lives Matter uniform patches and other melding of sports and racial politics.

The overriding flaw in the thinking of those who would have this become handout nation is that eventually people need other people to do work.

No matter how many inflated dollars the government direct deposits into your account, or how much is handed out in the way of other subsidies, it’s all meaningless unless some people continue to do their jobs.

You need truckers delivering goods. You need people stocking grocery shelves. You need policemen, firemen, healthcare workers, utility workers, teachers, child care workers construction workers, military. Etc., etc., etc.

I came face-to-face with the shortage of willing workers in recent days when yet another strong windstorm raced through the area and took the measure of one of the upper-level downspouts on my house.

I live in Southmont Borough, where the sewer Nazis are out and about inspecting for homes who might have storm runoff infiltrating the sewers. That means one can’t chance unchecked water flow near the house’s foundation, lest some of it infiltrate the basement and exit through the floor drain.

This makes downspouts vital and one of mine had its date with gravity Friday of last week. I immediately did some quick internet research and reached out to several “handyman” types, thinking they’d be eager for the work.

I actually spoke to one who answered the phone because his jobs were called off due to the high wind the problems that creates for those working on ladders.

Both that respondent, and a woman who answered the phone at another establishment, were, how shall I say this, disinterested. They would try to take a look next week.

I stressed someone could knock it off in about an hour, tops, and the pieces were intact, just needing to be put back into place and ostensibly better secured with a pop rivet or two.

Apparently they have more work than they can handle. One couldn’t even slip by at the end of the day for a bonus job. But, if that’s the case in my economically depressed area, you’d think others would get into the contracting/handyman business to fill the apparent need.

Or maybe people would rather collect enhanced unemployment, stimulus checks, and other governmental largesse.

The local rag had a story a couple of weeks back about how local small business owners were up against the wall finding people willing to work. One actually had an employee quit once the stimulus money was in his checking account. He’d worry about working down the line, when that ran out, or wasn’t replaced by yet another round of giveaway money.

When Tuesday was slipping away, I tried to reach out to both handyman contacts from the past Friday. They could not be reached. I tried a third, no answer. I tried yet another – number out of service.

My wife found a name on a neighbors message board she frequents and called. The guy actually was interested. I took over talking to him and got a commitment that he’d get back to me today about possibly coming Friday. Great.

Having had a trying day of helping babysit granddaughters, and watching my investment portfolio shrink, I got the Mustang convertible out for a therapeutic cruise, with a stop at a local indoor flea market.

Returning to my car, I was surprised to see a text and missed call on my cell phone. The guy was coming tonight (Tuesday) to do the downspout.

God Bless America! I quickly called him to confirm that was great, I’d be racing home (figuratively speaking, of course) and hopefully it would be as easy as I told him it would be.

The work could have been done by me, if I was about 60 pounds lighter, and not cursed with severe acrophobia. My wife had volunteered to borrow a neighbor’s ladder and do the job, but I didn’t like that idea, either, for safety reasons.

This “handyman” and his worker showed up, went the extra mile in terms of securing the downspout to prevent future unhappiness, and generally were pleasant people.

It occurred to me that the next windstorm might find the house blown away, but the downspout still standing. Quipped the guy on the ladder: In case of an earthquake, stand under this downspout and you’ll be safe.

When I’d talked on the phone originally with the business owner, I lamented how people didn’t want to work, or believed a job wasn’t worthwhile unless it promised five figures.

He’d given me a ballpark figure of about $70 to $100 for my repair. I told him I’d willingly go beyond that just to have the problem fixed.

When all was said and done, I happily paid him $120 – not bad for two guys and an hour of work. It is one hell of a lot more than the proposed $15-an-hour minimum wage

Yet as time passes, fewer and fewer people are willing to perform such jobs – or any jobs, for that matter.

You might not think that’s a problem now. Trust me, you will.

A few days back my daily walk turned into a head-shaking experience when I talked with a long-time acquaintance.

It was a sunny day and he was occupying a lawn chair in his driveway when I waved and called out. He came over to join me for a brief conversation about world events, an interaction that turned into a COVID-19 debate.

Unexpectedly, the discussion devolved into facts (me) vs. feelings (him) with his bottom line: “You read too much.”

This indictment of researching a subject, coming from a guy whose job was as an educator, pretty much floored me.

Well, I’m still reading, including today, when zerohedge.com had a story on a study showing COVID-19 media reports in the United States had been overwhelming negative, to the tune of 87 percent. By way of comparison, that study found 51 percent of stories outside the U.S. falling into the negative category.

No doubt traditional leftist apologists will try to impugn these messengers. But that’s going to be difficult because the researchers are from Dartmouth College and Brown University, two Ivy League institutions that are generally on the left end of the political spectrum.

The story on the study is replete with examples of how the media put a negative slant on even positive developments in fighting COVID-19 and how such things sowed misinformation among the populace.

This misinformation seems to have found fertile ground in the mind of the man I spoke with during that walk.

It’s heartening that some academics have found what I anecdotally recognized — the slant being put on news. It’s disheartening that so many sheep won’t bother to consider the evidence and instead cling to their media-fed fears and misinformation.

Such media bias and agendas is pretty apparent across the board, but often is harder to quantify than with the COVID-19 example.

Inciting racial tensions and political divides is another media favorite, one that backfired when some rushed to social media to bash white guys in the wake of last week’s Colorado mass shooting. The man arrested in the case, is not white, but Syrian.

In a surprising bit of responsibility, USA Today has fired its “race and inclusion” editor for hitting Twitter with her screeds about it always being white men pulling the trigger in mass shootings. After the fact, she deleted the tweets, but that ship had sailed.

I’m sure this fired editor won’t be out of work long. There always seem to be radical outlets eager to give succor to such extreme types, as long as their extreme leanings are to the left.

That seems to be the reason for existence of too many media outlets, deconstructing this country.

But even before it became public knowledge that the alleged Colorado shooter was not a white guy, only an idiot (Kamala Harris’ niece included) would have jumped on their digital soap boxes to proclaim mass shooters “always” are white guys, or words to that effect.

According to statista.com, there have been 121 mass shootings in the United States from 1982 through developments this month.

Sixty-six of those shooters (54 percent) have been white, which is a little more than one-half, well short of “always.” Twenty-one of the shooters have been black (17 percent) and 10 Hispanic (8 percent).

The shootings don’t comport with the racial breakdown of the population, as cited in that statista report. It referred to 61 percent of this country’s population as white and about 14 percent black.

This means the social justice warriors should be on their Twitter and Facebook accounts, or in front of microphones, proclaiming that whites are UNDERREPRESENTED statistically among mass shooters and blacks are OVERREPRESENTED.

That doesn’t fit the narrative, the agenda, so they’ll just ignore it.

But there I go again, arguing that statistics – facts – should carry the day vs. feelings, emotions and media-fed, irrational fears. How retro of me.