BUCKLE UP…

      Happy New Year! We all woke up New Year’s Day to news of a reckless driver, barreling down Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, terrorizing all in his path, killing 14, injuring others, shooting and eventually being killed by return fire from local police offers quick to act.  A few hours later, someone sets a vehicle on fire, a Tesla, outside of Trump Towers in Las Vegas.  Due to the active crime scene and still unanswered questions, authorities make the decision on Wednesday to postpone the Sugar Bowl football match up for a day later.  As I watched the media coverage on the television and online, New Orleans law enforcement and political leaders seemed unprepared and inexperienced in their language, poor grammar and conflicting statements from one official to another.  To use an over used term, they looked “JV” (as in junior varsity, not quite the varsity or A team but the lower level, inexperienced team).  No they looked less than that. Whether the persons in charge were away on VACA or DEI had put the wrong person in the right seat, it was not far from Keystone Cops (Keystone Cops were fictional police officers in the slapstick comedies of the silent movies who were humorously incompetent), but this was no comedy and no laughing matter.  When the President finally made a statement, he appeared to be somewhat relieved to announce, that the perpetrator had been born in this country and was not an illegal immigrant, like many of the big crime stories recently.  As I went to bed, my head was spinning and I fell asleep thinking, “What are we in for in 2025 what will be the results of  the poor decisions made over the last decade or so?”  I thought to myself, “We better buckle-up.  This could be but the tip of the ice berg” and here’s why…

     Do you routinely think about your safety?  Of course we buckle our seat belts, look both ways before crossing the street, proceed through a green light making sure no one ram through their red light to broadside us, even though it probably wouldn’t happen, we all do these things.  I’m talking about, you shopping at the mall, sitting in a Starbucks checking your email or catching up with a friend?  Do you think about who is on your plane when you get on a flight for a few days away?  I really don’t do these things, unless I’m in a big unfamiliar city. We don’t because we ‘trust’ that everyone else on the plane, in the mall at the coffee shop has a similar mindset as we do, that they hope to get through their day and daily tasks safely. We count on that everyday as we go about our life. When we drop off kids or grandkids at school we think they are safe for the day.  Until the school shooting in Wisconsin a few weeks ago, I would have thought a small private school was somewhat safe from a shooter.  No, not really.  The school in Madison, Wisconsin that experienced a shooting just before Christmas is pretty much out of the news, with little detail.  We know it was a girl, we heard that her parents were cooperating and I remember reading that she had been communicating with a man in California, online for information as to how to carry out a school shooting.  We have seen all kinds of crazy behavior on airplanes over the past month or so and we have seen video online of people with bad behavior being escorted off by plain clothes Air Marshalls. And what about those drone sightings in the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut region of the country.  No one seems to be able to tell us exactly what’s going on.  They can tell us it’s not dangerous but they can’t tell us how they know that or where these crafts are coming from. Criminals running the streets and crazies in the subways of New York, setting people on fire, pushing people off platforms and those who might consider being a Good Samaritan and helping out, might want to think twice as the New York DA might decide to arrest you and put you on trial when you were only trying to help out  (We need Curtis Sliwa and his Guardian Angles). Remember the bodega owner who shot and killed someone attempting to rob him and then he was kept in jail on Rykers Island? While these politicians and political sympathizing government officials should be tackling crime, Ponzi schemes, a flood gate of unvetted illegals crossing the border and child trafficking they are diligently trying to keep their cronies in power and who suffers? The hardworking American citizens who pay their salaries.  No wonder the country is where it is and has the myriad of very solvable, intentionally created problems.  

     Well, Buckle Up my friends.  I believe we are in for scenes we have never viewed before.  In fact, I don’t think Hollywood could ever anticipate the drama we are about to see unfold.  No one could write the amount of corruption and Tom Foolery or the grand level that is about to be revealed behind the curtain of Oz.  The inmates have been running the asylum.  

     Back when this country was founded, and yes, it was founded by rich white men.  That’s who was here.  Women were wives, moms and took care of domestic tasks.  It’s history and that’s the way it was.  There is nothing to apologize for on that.  In fact, these were men who had made their money, build businesses, farms, plantations, shipping companies, they were the leaders of the time and they were looking to start a new country without the strong hold of a monarch taking their taxes without representation in the British Parliament.  In fact, the King was in their way of success.  From the King’s perspective, they had provided the colonists with protection in terms of the British Army and taxation was how that army was funded and the natural resources of the colonies were appealing to the British Empire. Slavery, although wrong, was part of American history and it’s part of world history in general.  It was Africans who sold access to their slaves.  No one is proud of it and no one alive today is responsible for this bad chapter in history.  As a remembrance of the wrongs in our history, leave the memorial in the town squares in the south.  The citizens of this country deserve to see monuments of our past, good and bad.  Seeing where the battles of the Civil War were fought in Gettysburg and others memorials, remind us of what our country has been through and how it healed these deep wounds.  

     As the Founding Fathers set up this country, they looked for inspiration from God for The Constitution and Bill of Rights.  They wanted to make this country unique from any other place on the face of this earth.  Those early leaders and governors were some of the smartest and most successful minds of their times.  In it’s inception, many of the leaders of this country had success before they came to government.  Not all, but many who go to Washington to “Work for the People” go to ‘get rich’, to make the connections to use their position for money and power.  One doesn’t have to look any further than our current President who used his position to gain money and favors for his family.  The behavior of the Biden family was the reason for a congressional investigation which turned up checks deposited into bank accounts, his son Hunter gaining positions on foreign boards not due to his experience in the designated area, but because of the access he had to his father the then, Vice-President. 

The Biden family isn’t the only one, others have been involved in insider trading, inside knowledge of FDA approvals and other information not available to the average American.  Certain members of political parties seem to be exempt from facing consequences for breaking the law or bad behavior, think cocaine in the White House, tax evasion, etc.  Look at New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez. In July of 2024, a jury found him guilty on all charges of conspiracy to act as a foreign agent.  He resigned from the Senate in August and he will be sentenced this month. 

High ranking government officials used to be role models and fine citizens.  People have come to NOT trust the government because of corruption from from previous leaders like President Richard Nixon and his administration during Watergate. As of late, look at what President Donald Trump and other conservatives were put through, for trying to drain the swamp of Washington of its corruptness. The corruption and the focus on keeping certain people in power may have led to missing dangerous criminal activity.  The FBI has focused on going after Trump, Trump supporters and ‘domestic white supremacists‘.’  Look at how the January 6 protestors were treated in comparison to others.  Read recently released reports in late December that tell who might have perpetrated the disruption to ‘set up’ Trump supporters. People in the know have said that as this investigation is released and more details are made known, the American people will be surprised to see who was involved and who instigated the turmoil.

The November election demonstrates that the American voters are aware of the charades that have been going on in the government and the lack of poor performance by many government agencies.  The November 2024 election shows a mandate to government officials that “YOU WORK FOR US!”  And they do!  We pay taxes for services to protect us and keep us safe.  With the technological advances and a digital footprint of most behavior and cameras everywhere, we have the capability to solve many crimes unable or more difficult to solve decades ago.  Again, some of the crimes committed are preventable if available resource are utilized.  Look at how the two assassination attempts on President Donald Trump’s life were allowed to happen.  Whether it was lack of leadership, DEI policies that put people in jobs when they weren’t adequately qualified for or hiring staff who didn’t meet physical benchmarks necessary, this is not how the United States does things and how we protect our former Presidents.  The debacles of the Secret Service, also looked “JV” or like mentioned earlier, an episode of the Keystone Cops.  How a shooter could get himself to a perch close enough to hit the President is unacceptable and anyone involved in such a dereliction of  duty and responsibility should loose their job, if not face criminal charges.  In the videos from the attack it is visible in the fumbling of the gun by one of the agents and another one looking out of sorts and untrained for such circumstances; just amateur and not to the standards the Secret Service had been known for in years past.  

     What this all boils down to, the crime, the terrorism, the absence of respect for law and order, insubordination from our government agencies is…Lack of leadership.  The lack of leadership is from the top down.  Think of a family or organization that has no clear leadership. What happens in those scenarios?  A family with no strong role model from a parent or grandparent, looses it’s footing.  The children don’t feel secure, they may perform poorly in school, withdraw from social activities or become unruly or poorly behaved.  An organization or business with poor leadership is less likely to succeed and may go out of business.  Strong leadership is needed in every part of society from the family to our country’s leadership. A family is the first formal unit of society.  Respect for authority and right from wrong is taught in the family.  A child goes to school and out into the world, hopefully with an understanding of these concepts.  Strong leadership is needed in our communities, our government from local to the federal.  Strong leadership sets the tone for law enforcement and all aspects of society.  All government officials need to do the jobs they are hired to do and when they don’t meet the standards they should loose their job just as anyone else in the private sector would. This new administration has their job cut out for them.  They will meet obstacles but hopefully they are able to make progress in getting America on track in terms of a secure border, law and order, financially and health wise.  

     Buckle Up America and get your popcorn.  This could be one of the biggest transformations in our history.  For Americans to have the curtain pulled back to see how their hard earned tax dollars are being spent and  how our government agencies have been performing.  Everyone else gets a report card or performance report.  Why not government departments and officials?  Americans deserve answers, “They work for us!”  We deserve better.  Who knows, it could lead to more great and prosperous days ahead for us all.