There is a good reason for me to talk about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, as several interesting things have happened regarding them. I haven’t changed my mind about the NFL product being prone to rigging games to cover betting odds. The referees have problems, and it’s pretty evident that they give the Kansas City Chiefs a lot of help in winning the games they do. So wherever there is money, there are temptations for corruption. But I enjoy the NFL product, and out of all the teams, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are my favorite. And Raymond James Stadium is my favorite place to watch NFL football games. The Cincinnati Bengals are my local team, but I am not crazy about the Brown Family ownership. I like the Glazer Family and how they try hard every year to create a winning product. It might not always work out, but they do try. And I was very impressed with the coaching staff’s picks in the NFL draft this year. There were several positions that Tampa Bay went out to get unique players for, most notably and most exciting for me, was Desmon Watson, the biggest NFL player ever drafted at 6’6” and 464 pounds. I like what the Bucs are doing and looking at their schedule, where they have to play teams with running quarterbacks, like Josh Allen, who are big, and teams that like to go for a fourth down if they are under two yards, Tampa Bay invested in being disruptive of this emerging trend. Almost every game is a playoff game this year because Tampa has won its division for five straight years. And it could be expected that they would move to the bottom of the pile, the way the NFL leverages things. But getting Desmon Watson to play next to Vita Vea at the DT position is a run-stopping combination that could be the most exciting and effective in the NFL.
With teams like the Detroit Lions, the Eagles, San Francisco, Buffalo, and many other teams known for their aggressive ground game, having Vita Vea on the Bucs team has been very effective. To put the largest person ever to be in the NFL right next to him is an excellent strategy by the Bucs coaching staff, and it certainly shows me a commitment to win. And I like that. But I’m not just interested in football or this year’s draft class, but something that shocked me this past week, as the Bucs released their 2025 schedule. Remember a few years ago when I made comments about the Buccaneer organization removing their old coach Jon Gruden off the Ring of Honor that was in the stadium at Raymond James because the woke NFL did not like that the Raiders coach got caught by email sending pictures of cheerleaders to his brother who was coach of the Washington Football Team. This was the ridiculous woke nonsense that China was trying to implement in our society, and Gruden was treated terribly for essentially making comments about NFL cheerleaders that were very natural. As punishment, Gruden was removed from the NFL in a lot of the same ways that Pete Rose was removed from baseball, and it was all over woke garbage. I was unhappy that the Glazer Family played into the Biden administration’s woke censorship of people and removed Gruden from his history with the Buccaneers. Gruden was a Super Bowl-winning coach, and pulling his statue from the lobby of One Buc Place was horrible in many ways and very hard on the fans. But if you’ll remember, I said this whole thing would blow up and that the Gruden decision was a mistake.
Given where he was then and where he is now, it was remarkable that the Buccaneers had Jon Gruden release their 2025 schedule on the official website. So this was Gruden talking about the Bucs, not as a fan of the NFL product, but as an official spokesman for the Buccaneers organization. After Trump won the presidency, it didn’t take long for everyone to realize that the woke stuff was garbage and the American people weren’t going to buy into it. That was a communist China strategy, and people weren’t adopting it in America. So, within a very short time of being essentially banned from NFL football, Jon Gruden was invited to talk about the Bucs’ schedule as the Glazer Family wanted to heal the damage done and restore their relationship with their old coach. And it was good to see that Gruden was willing to do so. That makes the video he did talking about the Buccaneers’ schedule remarkable. Even if people aren’t fans of the Buccaneers, it indicates a trend we see worldwide—the Trump effect of breaking old strategies for a much more optimistic future. And when the Glazer Family, who were Biden supporters, are moving in the healthy direction of restoring their relationship with Jon Gruden, you know the same thing is happening in every industry in every country worldwide. This gives a lot more perspective, for instance, on Trump’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia and his very popular reception there. People in the world like winners, not woke politics. And Trump is a winner. And so is Jon Gruden.
So much more than about NFL football, there is a lot of news coming out of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that is highly significant. Most importantly, they recognized that their support of woke policies was driving a wedge in their fan base, and they backed off their wrong position, even to the point of putting their arm around Gruden again, and he gracefully accepted their outreach. And as a result, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers product is much better and a lot more fun. And this is a trend we will see everywhere now with Trump in office. It’s a good measure of the pressure to step away from woke corporate policy and to make decisions based on market viability. This makes this year’s draft picks even more critical because the Glazer Family is aware that they want to win at all phases of public relations, including winning another championship to make their city of Tampa proud. The woke values of progressivism are the kind of things people who go to NFL games are trying to get away from. And the NFL itself has been slow to realize that. However, the Bucs organization quickly corrected its mistakes, a sign of many things to come under the new Trump White House. It didn’t take long for the Bucs to go from a complete ban of Jon Gruden and their past with him, to a full-throated supporter, which I thought may never happen, as bad as it was. But it was good to see, and fun. Woke politics has no place in our entertainment culture; it’s a communist strategy that should have never been introduced to anything in America. From CEOs to NFL head coaches, woke politics has been horrible. And I am thrilled to see my favorite NFL team step away from it noticeably and to repair their relationship with Jon Gruden, one of the best coaches ever to be in the game. And like most men, if he wants to talk about the boobies of NFL cheerleaders, that’s perfectly OK with me. That’s why the NFL has cheerleaders. People like to look at them, which certainly makes the game a little more fun.
I enjoy the NFL product more than most do from the perspective of the premium seats. Several times a year, I get a chance to watch a football game from the Club section or a private box, and I do like it. I like the Club Seats at Bengals games, from Paycor Stadium, as they call it today. I like having the Cincinnati Bengals in town and think it’s great for Ohio to have two NFL teams. But let’s not forget who does what and for whom here. Both Ohio NFL teams are complaining about their stadium accommodations. The Cleveland Browns want to move from their current waterfront Dog Pound and out into the suburbs which seems like a really dumb idea. Their stadium is right on the Lake Erie waterfront and is really nice. Most NFL teams have received new stadiums that are exotic domes, such as the new ones in Las Angeles and Las Vegas. Or they are complaining about getting one. My favorite team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has a very nice stadium I’ve visited several times. I think they do a really nice job in their community, tying everything together, engaging in community activity, and providing entertainment through sports. I was never happy with how Raymond James Stadium was publicly funded, as they all are. But with the Glazer family in Tampa, they built a nice stadium with a big Disney-like pirate ship in it, and it gave fans something fun to enjoy. And there are events at Raymond James Stadium that go on all year. They don’t just play NFL football there. Compared to the Bengals, the Bucs go to the playoffs a lot, and they have won a few Super Bowls. But the Bengals just don’t win much. Their season is usually over by December, and they have lost when they have had a chance at the big game. So, the Brown family in Cincinnati have not been nearly as good of owners as the Glazers in Tampa. All things have not been equal regarding the NFL experience and the owners who run them.
It was very contentious for taxpayers when the Bengals pushed to get the current stadium they play in, what was called Paul Brown Stadium for a while. It was not that long ago that it was built; Paycor Stadium is very nice and is one of the big features of the Cincinnati skyline. And as I said, I attend several games yearly as part of the Club experience. I’m not a stand-in-line kind of person. If I can’t get out of my car and go straight into the stadium security and to my seat with a private food service option, I will probably not go to a professional sports venue. And I’ve been to Paycor stadium in the nice summer months and in the snowy cold days of winter. And I think it’s great. But it’s not worth infinite amounts of money. The Bengals are coming up on the last year of their lease agreement with the county of Hamilton, and they want a better deal. They threaten to move to a different city if the Hamilton County commissioners don’t lay down and cave to their every demand. Currently, the Bengals want the taxpayers of Hamilton County to pay $150 million in 2024 and another $150 million in 2025 on stadium repairs, with the team contributing $50 million in exchange for a five-year extension through 2030. However, the county has only committed to $39 million in renovations for 2024 going into 2025 with a sort of blank check mentality.
So here’s where I’m at with the whole thing: let the Bengals go. See if another city wants to deal with their crybaby NFL antics. I’d say the same thing to the Cleveland Browns, too. While I like the NFL experience, it is a nice thing to have, but Cincinnati, Cleveland, and the state of Ohio generally do more for the NFL than the professional football teams do for those cities. Good luck, Bengals. Have fun moving to Chattanooga or some other secondary city. It wouldn’t take long for them to regret the move. We all remember what happened in Cleveland when Art Modell moved the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore only to call them the Ravens. Then Bernie Kosar, who used to be a quarterback, lobbied with others to bring an expansion team to Cleveland to become the new Browns, named after the Bengals’ owners. In the end, the NFL, which is more the way I think of the product than I used to, is an entertainment option closer to big-time wrestling. It’s something for people to talk about on Monday morning around the water cooler. But not good for much else. I think the referees tip the scales to favor betting odds, and they do it through play calls at critical times to get one team to win over another in a close game. (Buffalo clearly converted that 4th down over the Chiefs in that recent big game) There is too much money involved for the NFL not to be rigged in some fashion, so the whole product’s value is purely entertainment. And there is a limit to how much money anybody should spend on entertainment. I think these NFL teams should pay their own way, especially in the Bengals’ case; they should pay Cincinnati for the privilege to play. It should not fall on the county to pay the expenses of a private enterprise. The NFL everywhere has a broken financial model that double dips the taxpayers. But when teams don’t win now and then, a team like the Bengals abuses their relationship with the public.
Considering the size of the payrolls, some of these repairs that the Bengals want to be made at the stadium, whether it’s 30 million for some new paint or 300 million for structural improvements and general maintenance, the money should come out of the Bengals, and they should be happy to pay it to be treated as well as they are in the city of Cincinnati. Instead, and this is expected in all NFL cities, the expectation is that the public pays once in taxes to build stadiums for these entertainment options, and then they have to pay again to go to the stadium. And it costs a lot of money. Nothing is cheap at an NFL game. So, the NFL product is a pretty bad financial model, and they treat the cities they play in as if they are doing everyone a favor by watching them play football. As I said, I think the Glazer family in Tampa does a good job building a relationship with the community that pays taxes for a stadium that is much more friendly to the community than what the Bengals do. Or the Browns. And the Bengals, for all the trouble and cost they impose on the community, can’t win enough even to justify themselves. Everyone knew at the start of the 2024 season that the Bengals were in trouble. Sure, they had a great quarterback and some great receivers. But the coaching staff was lazy, disengaged, and lackluster. And the defense was horrendous. And that was game one of the season. Going to games during that entire season was like buying an expensive hot dog so the grandkids could listen to loud music and watch losers lose. The Bengals have not been good owners; they take, take, take from the community, and they don’t know how to win or give the community something to be proud of. And my advice to the county of Hamilton would be just to let them go. Call their bluff and let them leave. One or two playoff games could have generated more than enough money to pay for the stadium repairs. When you have several players with multi-million dollar contracts in the hundreds of millions, this money they want from the county is chump change. The Bengals should pay for everything. And they should pay for the right to play in Cincinnati. If they’re going to leave, let them. See how they like the next place they go. Cincinnati would do just fine without them and their losing ways.
The very next game after the Bengals had the Monday Night Football game canceled, I had a chance to go and see them in Cincinnati play the Baltimore Ravens for the last game of the season. It had been a busy year where literally every weekend was spoken for. But knowing that the Bengals were going to be in the playoffs and that, especially during this time of the year right after Christmas, this is when I like the NFL experience the most, I wanted to go to a game and enjoy what that product did for the entire city on a cold winter afternoon. It’s hard to experience the NFL product fully; it involves more than just watching the game for three hours out of your day like you do when you watch the games on television. Even that is hard for me and is often difficult. I get pretty mad when the team I’m cheering on doesn’t win because I feel that I wasted my time on them only to end up feeling not encouraged. So attending sports events for me is a lot like gambling. With my life so carefully managed from one moment to the next, investing in an experience where I don’t control the outcome is a lot of risk. But once the Christmas lights come down and we enter the full clutches of winter, I love that our culture produces the NFL playoffs to edge us through the hardest winter months. By the time the NFL playoffs are finished, and we have the Super Bowl, which I consider a great American holiday, we are almost ready for spring. The maple syrup starts flowing, and we know the days of extreme cold are ending. So the NFL experience is very valuable for all kinds of reasons, and they are best viewed from the Club Seats in Cincinnati.
I was not supportive of the NFL calling off the game against the Bills literally just a few nights earlier because the game itself means so much more to people than just the events of a player who happened to get hurt. The NFL is a very progressive corporation, what many call the No Fun League, putting on the field a uniquely American product. So the NFL is always in an interesting tug of war between appeasing their fan base and marching to the beat that comes out of the World Economic Forum’s strategic intentions for world domination. And, of course, the attack comes from where nobody really understands the direction. While fans watch the military flyovers during NFL games, which are quite spectacular in their own way, and complete the National Anthem with hats over hearts, the tide of the game, which is entirely out of the NFL’s control, takes on a life of its own. And it’s something you can only ever really see in person by experiencing firsthand. During this particular game, I had a very personal relationship with the military craft that was used, and they flew over very low, so low and slow that you could see the pilots. With all the fireworks, I had my grandson with me, which was quite a ceremony. Clearly, he was having a moment with the whole stadium, and patriotism was fully in the air. The haters of American culture might have the ear of the NFL and are pushing for its destruction through woke policies, but the current of American society itself was on full display all around us, and I found it very refreshing, worth its own currency in those cold January months.
Ultimately, the NFL is like a pioneer trying to cross the current of a raging river. They started something that Americans genuinely love, and that made them happy until their masters of finance leveled an attack against our culture, trying to use that love as a device of hate, to destroy that very culture by luring innocent people near it, then to influence them with extortion to social behavior changes that were controlled by the Desecrators of Davos as I call them, the Bond villains who are a part of the World Economic Forum. And those types of people called off that game against the Bills to remind people that safety and security were more important than the results of a game, which I will always argue are oppositely true. The result of a game, or an event in life of any matter, is far more important than safety and security. American football, represented by what the NFL puts on the field, is a dangerous sport that represents capitalism at its finest. It is different from European soccer in many ways that are critically important to our culture. Soccer is a kind of pinball game where skilled players get a random chance to kick a ball into a goal uniquely. American football is all about planning and precision. You get four downs to get 10-yard increments. Every play is like a business plan, and success is the end zone of all that planning and coordination paying off. The offense on the field is all of us. The defense is life itself, trying to keep you from scoring. Football in America has much more going on than most sports. People have an unconscious understanding of it, even if their conscious reality manifests into too much beer drinking and dancing to booming music. Football in America has a unique relationship with capitalism, and we have a perceptual understanding of that value, which is why globalist forces are attacking the game the way they are. If you want to bring down America, which many forces in the world do, then American football is the way to do so. That leaves the owners of NFL teams in a strange place. Do they follow the rules of wokism from the World Economic Forum, or do they listen to the fans who continue to make them rich and allow the currents of capitalism to wash over them in a way they enjoy and can thrive in?
I tend to be very free with the wallet at these kinds of events; I like my children and grandchildren to know how vital NFL games are to Americana itself. I don’t complain about the expensive drinks or hot dogs. I like the very expensive jerseys and hats. I like to tip the guys out front of the east entrance who are playing the drums. I love the energy and the celebration of life that is obvious at all NFL games. And I wish everyone could win every time. It is much like gambling to investing so much time and money into the NFL experience, but I see it as nothing but positive. And after going, I was reminded how dumb it was to cancel that game just because a player was injured. When bad things happen, we want to take time to see them taken care of. But there was more going on with the Bills player who suffered a heart attack on the field during Monday Night Football during the first game of 2023. Likely the heart attack was brought on by the NFL’s push for untested government vaccines, playing their role in the Great Reset by Klaus Schwab and the gang of destroyers who gather every year in Davos about this very same period. There are a lot of hostile forces in the world, and fans at NFL games are uniquely prominent in their effects, which is obviously frustrating for those forces. That’s why games should never be canceled, no matter what. The show itself has a value that transcends the way antagonistic forces shape logic, and the rebellion against their wrath is very much the core of the NFL experience, an unintended consequence. It’s what people cheer for during the game and why going to the games is such a cherished activity. And it’s why we must fight to keep our corporate products out of the hands of global politics intent to rule us all behind bureaucratic rules and regulations centered on safety and compliance. Those are the real enemies, and we love to cheer when our football teams score, regardless of what defense is set up to stop us. In the end, that’s what people celebrate, and it’s certainly worth doing.
Ok, I’m happy………………..my favorite football team on the face of the planet has managed to secure a 16th season from their future Hall of Famer, Ronde Barber. I was concerned after the Buc’s picked up Eric Wright, that Barber might retire, or that he might not want to play for Greg Schiano who will be Barber’s fourth head coach for the same team over his career. But Ronde has agreed to terms that will allow him to return for a one year deal to help the Buccaneers bring back to life a defense that was epic under the schemes of the great Monte Kiffin.
The offseason moves made by the Glazer family, who own the Bucs have been impressive so far on paper. I think they did the right thing to hire the right kind of guy in Greg Schiano from Rutgers. It is very difficult to walk in the footsteps of coaches like Tony Dungy and Jon Gruden, but the Glazers interviewed a lot of coaches before settling on Schiano. After making that hire they proceeded to hire a completely new coaching staff and picked up some key free agents.
It might seem strange to some who read here every day to understand why I enjoy the Tampa Bay Buccaneers so much. Well, aside from my love of pirates, the Buccaneers have a long history of innovation and thinking outside the box for a sports franchise, and even when they lose, most of the time they are exciting to watch.
The Glazer family operates their franchise from the front of the train. If you read here often you know what I’m talking about. If you don’t, then CLICK HERE to learn what I mean. It is a scary place to be at the front of the train, and sometimes you pick the wrong track, which is what happened when the Buc’s committed so much in Raheem Morris, who was a good coach, but had lost the team halfway through last season. But that doesn’t mean everything Raheem did was bad. He went out and found a lot of good talent, by thinking outside the box, and those players are now gathered in one place. What they lacked was leadership, which Raheem could not bring to the table unfortunately, I think because of his youth.
So the Glazers rather than overreacting from the back of the train and spending a lot of money on a quarterback to save the day, like a Payton Manning, or a Bret Farve type, stuck with their players and decided to invest in leadership instead of players. The Glazers chose to go against the knee jerk reaction of the status quo by throwing players at the wall and hoping they stick and instead found leaders who think at the front of the train.
It has been difficult for Tampa Bay to retain their identity after Monte Kiffin left to help coach with his son Lane. But Tampa had to deal with that problem sooner or later, and they have tried to find the right personnel who will help them regain that level of play.
The Bucs have a lot of great young players and statistically, they should be one of the best teams on any football field. But it takes more than just players to achieve greatness. Greatness is more than just throwing and catching footballs. Or running a football. Or stopping someone from doing those things against you. Greatness is in the heart, it’s at the front of the train of thought. It’s in the drive to always become better. And for young players to see greatness, they need to be around it, so they can see what it’s supposed to look like.
In Tampa Bay the Buccaneers organization under the Glazer family has seen many players retire as Buc players, notably, Derrick Brooks, Mike Alstott, and now Ronde Barber, and each of those players late in their careers took pay concessions in order to stay with the Bucs, so the organization could afford to keep them around. Ronde if he really wanted to could most likely double his price on the open free agency market, but Ronde like Brooks and Alstott, even John Lynch before he suffered a serious neck injury and Warren Sapp just before going to the Raiders as a free agent were willing to take significant cuts in pay to stay with the Bucs. This is how so much veteran leadership has been able to stay with Tampa over the years, and why it is such a relief to see that Ronde is going to stay one more year, so that the young Buc players can learn from him.
The people I might sit at the bar in Chili’s with on a Sunday afternoon watching football understand the economics of Ronde’s decision. They also understand that Payton Manning couldn’t stay with the Colts because the price tag to keep Payton was simply too great. Around the bar over beer, nacho’s and cheese dip, people understand that sports teams can’t afford to pay $20 million dollars for a player that might not play a lot and is likely to end up hurt before the end of the season, so they often cut their losses unless the player is willing to take major cuts in pay.
But in the next conversation with the same group of people, they will say that teachers and school administrators should be paid an infinite sum of money never to be capped off. Never to end. They will say that it’s OK for a school system to operate with a top-heavy payroll and that if more money is needed to balance the budget, then taxes should be increased.
Why are people smart about sports, but not about education—or government? I have a lot of theories, but for now it’s just an observation to consider. When I say that a school system, or a public service that charges taxpayers for their service requires more money, I wonder how many of those employees at the top of their pay scale would be willing to do as Ronde Barber has done so he could stay with his team, and take a cut in pay. To help his team out with leadership so he can play another year with the group he has known and loved for years. Or should he betray his fans, and his employers the way Labron James did in Cleveland, and just go for the big money and tell everyone else to go to hell.
One of the reasons I like the Buccaneers as an organization is because of players like Ronde Barber. There is no question as to where his loyalty is, or what his intentions are. And because he is a straight shooter he has a lot of leadership to provide the young talent who need someone to look up to for guidance. It’s too bad that people like Ronde Barber are so few and far between. I can only wish for a world that had more people like him, who put loyalty before a payday, and honor before ease of gain, because if more were like him, it’s likely that the world would be a much better place. School levies wouldn’t be required, politics wouldn’t be so dirty, and people would mean what they say.
But since there aren’t many people like Ronde Barber in the world, I will enjoy the only one I know of on Sunday afternoons as he plays at Raymond James Stadium for one more year, and thank God he is still there. Because someone must pass on the torch, and it’s a veteran like Barber who has the potential to lead a rag-tag team of youngsters into the next decade of domination because it’s leadership that does such things and leadership exists at the front of the train, not in the size of the paycheck.
To understand the truth it helps to view the world through Hoffman Lenses. To understand what those are CLICK THE LINK. If you can’t handle the truth, then don’t read here.
Ok, it’s official, this is my favorite Superbowl commercial of 2012. Clint Eastwood on behalf of Chrysler, proclaimed that America isn’t done, that it’s only halftime and there is time to come back and win. I loved the metaphor, and thought it was well said–and stylish.
As for the hate and blame that is going on, I agree. When all the stupid people get out-of-the-way, America can start winning again.
Many of my current friends are about 30 to 40 years older than I am, because it is during this phase once the body has withered away, and sexual fulfillment is not the primary objective of the adult mind followed by a sense of sacrifice to a child. (I’d put the order of necessity for women the other way around, for men, it is as I listed it) It is these older minds who finally begin to see things as they are, unfortunately death is breathing down the necks of these fine people, so it’s often too little too late. They contributed their share of madness into the fabric of social existence confusing necessity with their biological urges and now in their later years they wish to fix what they helped to wreck through the ignorance of their youth. To my way of thinking, “youth” extends well into the late 50’s of some of these people. Some people don’t get “wise” until their 60’s or 70’s. But most do get there eventually because as the strength of their bodies leaves them, their minds increase to compensate.
She wasn’t the first to make such a proclamation. Over the years people would say to me, “You are just like Thoreau.” They seemed astonished when I’d reveal to them that I had never read him, at least until fairly recently, after the encouragement of my daughter. The reason I never gave Thoreau a chance early in my life was because I partially blamed him for the Hippie Movement. It was high school English that taught me that Civil Disobedience was the model of the Civil Rights Movement and it was enjoyed by Ghandi also. Well, I thought Ghandi was a pacifist who should have led India to a violent conquest of his enemies, and this whole starvation thing never made any sense to me. The idea of self-sacrifice for a greater caused always seemed immature. Just as the idea that Christ died on the cross to relieve me of my sins never made sense either. I spotted a long time ago in those Christian studies a series of looters who sought to place themselves between the people and their God as a kind of toll keeper, and they use Jesus, the pacifist as a gate to collect the toll. Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience wreaked all these elements and I refused to read it in high school for that reason, again in college, and in my adult life until my daughter told me my rebellion was misplaced.
One of the great things about Glenn Beck is that he’s spent the money he’s made off his books, his subscriptions, and his shows and reinvested it back into the message he’s been committed to. You won’t find Glenn Beck running around with some stripper in a New York hotel,or find that he has used any of his money to abuse anybody in society. Regardless of whatever mistakes he may have made in the past, I sincerely believe the person he is today is a good person who just wants the truth, the same as me, and millions of other Americans who simply don’t like the progressive direction of our country.
A sign that Beck is achieving that success can be seen in President Obama’s new Attack Watch website, which I find disgusting, but also revealing, for it shows just how juvenile politicians as high-ranking as The President of the United States truly is. Listen to Beck discuss it from the set of his new show, totally free of any editorial censoring, which I believe has triggered this move by the president and his staff.
After I saw this episode with Beck I checked out the website for myself and the very first thing that came to my mind was the way that East Berlin used to engage in similar propaganda to prevent its people from trying to escape over into West Berlin. Obama is actively looking for dissidents to his administration so those dissidents can be targeted. Of course people like Beck will be targeted, but as I read the intent of that website it became clear that the goal of Attack Watch wasn’t so much after Glenn Beck, but it’s intended to target people like me and the material I publish on this site, which I stand behind proudly. But the nature of this type of information set my blood into a boil, so I contacted Attack Watch and turned myself in with the note shown below, which is the exact text that I sent to Barack Obama and his minions running Attack Watch.
Dear Attack Watch:
I will have to report myself. I am embarrassed at this administration and his support of public unionized labor. And he has put himself on the front line of Ohio’s Issue 2 and is very responsible for his own attacks and false information. The fact that he supports this site says everything about the guy.
Rich
Shortly after I did this I heard that Doc Thompson was covering this very issue on 700 WLW so I called in at about the 11 minute mark and confessed what I had done, that I had turned myself into Attack Watch. Doc and I had some fun at the expense of the President over his Jobs Bill and this tyrannical Attack Watch website, which the President deserves. CLICK TO LISTEN:
With the recent news that Chiquita is considering a move from Cincinnati to Charlotte, North Carolina, it has left Cincinnati in a state of panic as to why Chiquita or any other business would desire to do such a thing. Doc Thompson covers this issue with Cincinnati Magazine Executive Editor Linda Vaccariello in an illuminating broadcast about what Cincinnati has to offer, then considers why Cincinnati has a problem attracting and keeping business in the city.
Well, I have a bit of experience with doing business in Cincinnati that I’ve touched on before, but this topic lends itself to a bit more detail. Well before there was ever a Paul Brown Stadium or even a Great American Ball Park I was with a group who was trying to win the design for the riverfront development project. In fact, the guy I was with presented a wonderful plan to the city council of Cincinnati of which Dwight Tillery seemed to like, (Dwight was the mayor at the time). The plan included paving over completely the various roads that connect the highway system downtown, and put them underground to connect Cincinnati’s downtown with the riverfront. On that paved-over section would be a grassy park, various restaurants, movie theaters, shopping centers, new stadiums, and a plan for including Longworth Hall as a Historic District connected to everything else which would wrap around to join with Union Terminal. The plan received a rousing applause from the people attending this meeting. I thought at the conclusion that the group I was with would undoubtedly be the lead design team which would head the development of the riverfront development.
After the meeting found it odd that none of the city council members, or the media wanted to speak to anyone from our group, after all, we just had the best presentation without question, but we also didn’t have “formal” relationships with any members of city council. By formal that means “friendly” in the world of politics. I knew every member of council through my work at city hall where a friend of mine and I were at that monstrosity every day trying to get the Cincinnati Building Commission to approve plans for a development we were working on which required a simple change of use on an existing building.
Getting information out of any member of the CBC was like pulling teeth from a 4-year-old kid. I can’t even begin to illustrate without writing an entire book on the matter of how many engineers we fired for not moving at the speed we demanded, which was the speed of business. In fact I remember vividly a conversation I had with our architect and investor at the time. This guy had liked our business plan so much he put some of his own money into the project. Then one day he gave us a call and said, “I heard you guys were down at City Hall yelling at the guys in the CBC for dragging their feet. I want you to know that I have a good standing with those guys, and I find it offensive that you’d chose to do business this way.”
Our response was, “Hey, you’re our architect, you work for us. You don’t work for the CBC. If you are friends with them, that’s not our problem.”
The architect then said, “But you guys are trying to cut too many corners. They are telling you what you need to do and you are bucking them at every issue. They told you the type of HAVAC unit you had to install. They told you what the structural improvements were going to be. They told you how many restrooms you were going to have to install and on and on, and you guys seem to want to argue every fact!” “Buddy, you are supposed to be working on our behalf. You are supposed to do this arguing for us. We’re not supposed to even be involved in this kind of thing. We’re doing it because you aren’t. Anyone can just say ‘spend more money,’ which is what you are saying, and it’s what they are saying. They want a larger fee for the cost of the project. That is all they are after. They are deliberately driving up the cost to receive the larger fee, why can’t you see that?”
“It’s the cost of doing business and you guys don’t want to pay it. It’s cheap and classless. I’m embarrassed to be associated with you guys. I’ve known those people for years and I don’t know what to tell them when you won’t follow their guidance.”
“Who are they but a bunch of pencil-pushing government workers? If we did what you and the CBC are suggesting you guys would add a million dollars to the cost of this project, and that’s just not in the budget.”
“So put it in the budget!” Said the architect. “Just go raise more money. Isn’t that easier than all this?”
That’s why nobody would speak to us after the riverfront development meeting. We were in that class as, “radicals”who didn’t want to pay off their friends around the city. The result of course was that we took our business across the river to Covington. My meeting with their building division went something like this.
“You guys want to do what? Well, Ok. Sure, no problem.”
My friend and I looked at each other. “But don’t you want to contest HAVAC units, fire escapes, access ramps, structural improvements and fire easements.”
The man laughed, “Hell no, it’s your business. We want you guys over here. Give me a call when you’re ready to move on this project.”
This is why Cincinnati is in a state of decline, because it has been overrun by these types and all the people with bright ideas and money will take it someplace else, for all the same reasons that companies don’t want to be limited with unionized labor or to deal with companies who are driven by unionized labor. It’s not because they want to hurt a worker’s rights. Most companies don’t want to worry about that kind of thing, that’s why they hire human resource managers, so they can advise the company how to take care of the employees. Because the men and women of this world with ideas and the money to spend on them do not want to be tied down to the speed of complacency and network friendships. They want to move at the speed of business, which is what drives communities and countries to greatness, and is what the looters of the world simply slow down.
Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinborough , had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior.
“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith; 2. From spiritual faith to great courage; 3. From courage to liberty; 4. From liberty to abundance; 5. From abundance to complacency; 6. From complacency to apathy; 7. From apathy to dependence; 8. From dependence back into bondage.”
With the tragedy of 9/11 occupying almost every broadcast and social event of the weekend, the common theme which came to my mind was that I felt that the tragedy of 9/11, as terrible as it was, fails in comparison to attending a memorial service for your own country while it still lives.
As the NFL did its tribute, and the firefighters climbed to the psychological heap to lift the flag high about their heads, I thought of the unions behind those firefighters, concoctions of socialism hidden behind a mask of American Pride and I could only shake my head. “They don’t even know what they are,”I would think to myself in disgust. They have no concept of history. Their rituals are only a few generations deep and keep them stuck into a ritual that reminds them of the greatest defeat inflicted on American soil, an attack that went far deeper than buildings falling in the financial district of New York City, or even the terrible deaths which occurred there. The tragedy of the 9/11 attack is that it forced America to change, to become too introspective, and to meditate on the tragedy itself in a vain attempt at recollection.
I looked at the guy shifting gears, because the memorial event was touching and my mind was on it. “Yes, that’s right. I am that guy.”
“Well, I want to tell you, I grew up with firefighters, I’m friends with firefighters, and I stand with firefighters.”
I looked out the window as he spoke and looked at the long lines of firefighters gathered around their trucks and a group of motorcycles all propping up the American Flag from the backs, the riders showing AFL-CIO stickers on their windshields and fenders. “So because you grew up with them you have to think like them?”
The man looked at me with a challenging gaze. “I’m not looking to dispute you with a bunch of ‘fancy’ words. I just want you to know where I stand.”
The firefighters at the service I was at, along with all the armed forces personnel gave me the same feeling that I thought watching the start of all the NFL games, that the memorial we were all attending was not one for 9/11, it was for ourselves. And the events which led to that death was an elusive quality that nobody even saw coming. It is like a death by cancer as opposed to a gruesome death by a visible enemy on a remote battlefield. The death by cancer just eats you from the inside out and the death just happens quietly in a bed.
The men I was looking at were good people, but they are carrying within them something that is destroying their spirit without them even knowing it. It’s rotting them using their static patterns as camouflage. Many of them have no idea they even carry it within them, within their belief patterns which govern their lives.
On 9/11 the tragedy of The World Trade Center was just the needle which injected into the body of our American Culture a disease which would topple our society with apathy. For while we attend memorials and contemplate whether or not firefighters and police should be attached to communist philosophies in the form of labor unions, the enemy moves against us. It runs through the blood of our cultural bodies and is turning the elements of our body against itself, with the aim of destroying it.
The sad thing is, such as in the case of what that guy said to me, that he “stood with firefighters,” as though the prerequisite for supporting firefighters, teachers and police means you must support unionized labor. My question is, why can’t I support those public workers without supporting unionized labor, which is rooted in socialism? I wanted to tell that guy that, but he didn’t give me the chance. He walked off too quickly, and even if he didn’t it would have taken hours of conversation to even arrive at a place where his mind could accept what I was telling him. He is functioning from a static pattern that he spent over 40+ years forming, and that wasn’t going to change in an afternoon conversation with me.
As I watched the guy and his firefighter friends, I thought of the AIDS virus, how as HIV it attacks the immune system of the human body by disguising itself as a friend, then when it is near, it destroys the body’s ability to fight it off the virus, until it’s too late.
America has been infected, and the events of 9/11 has paralyzed America’s immune system and allowed the virus of our enemies to attack us, to overwhelm us, to turn friend against friend on a premise that was a virus to begin with.
On July 29th 2011 President Obama said “I don’t know why the Republicans in the House are voting for their own bill, it doesn’t have a shot at becoming law. We need to reach a consensus as a nation.” That statement is the reason for this post. What Obama is really saying is “play our way, or not at all.” The Democrats have been very resistant to doing the right thing also, but are misleading the nation with this game, that America can no longer afford. Be sure to watch every video of this one as well as read the text and take your time. This is a history lesson from our recent past that must be remembered right now. Now, let’s study the pattern of behavior which indicates what the true intention of this game really is about for the current President of the United States.
The General stated to Obama that according to the United States Code, Title 36, Chapter 10, Sec. 171…
During rendition of the national anthem, when the flag is displayed, all present (except those in uniform) are expected to stand at attention, facing the flag, with the right hand over the heart. Or, at the very least, “Stand and Face It”.
‘Senator’ Obama replied:
“As I’ve said about the flag pin, I don’t want to be perceived as taking sides….” “There are a lot of people in the world to whom the American flag is a symbol of oppression….” “The anthem itself conveys a war-like message. You know, the bombs bursting in air, and all that sort of thing.”
Obama continued:, “The National Anthem should be ‘swapped’ for something less parochial and less bellicose. I like the song ‘I’d Like To Teach the World To Sing.’ If that were our anthem, then I might salute it. In my opinion, we should consider reinventing our National Anthem as well as ‘redesign’ our Flag to better offer our enemies hope and love. It’s my intention, if elected, to disarm America to the level of acceptance to our Middle East Brethren. If we, as a Nation of waring people, conduct ourselves like the nations of Islam, where peace prevails – – – perhaps a state or period of mutual accord could exist between our governments ……”
“When I become President, I will seek a pact of agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity, and a freedom from disquieting oppressive thoughts . We as a Nation, have placed upon the nations of Islam, an unfair injustice, which is WHY my wife disrespects the Flag, and she and I have attended several flag burning ceremonies in the past.”
“Of course now, I have found myself about to become the President of the United States and I have put my hatred aside. I will use my power to bring CHANGE to this Nation, and offer the people a new path. My wife and I look forward to becoming our Country’s First black Family. Indeed, CHANGE is about to overwhelm the United States of America.”
The Overmanwarrior 