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This is too good to not print!

O. Henry couldn’t have written a story with a more fitting surprise ending. The “hero” of this tale is 71-year-old Lawrence John Ripple, of Kansas City, Kan., who up until last September suffered under the weight of a bad marriage. It was then that he hatched a plan to escape from his wife. He entered a local bank and handed the teller a note that read, “I have a gun, give me money.” She complied, giving him all the cash in her till — $2,924 in total.

But instead of fleeing, Ripple did something unprecedented. He sat down in the bank lobby and waited for the police to arrive. When they did, he calmly announced,  “I’m the guy you’re looking for.”

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Here’s the question that never gets asked: “When is enough, enough?”  The corollary is “With constant wage and benefit increases when is high, high enough?  At what point do you say ‘Enough!’?”  I recently posted on how Illinois’s budget crisis is so bad that Powerball will no longer let Illinois participate.  Much of the budget problem they are facing is due to underfunded pensions.  Given that it IS Illinois/Chicago land, much of that is due to politicians having made expensive promises to union/govt workers that, wait for it….wait,  that they could never pay off.  And the courts have said, pay it anyways.  Just like California where towns are having to cut services to citizens because they owe too much to govt retirees who are often making more, much more, than the taxpayers paying for it.  It’s almost as if taxpayers exist only to pay for someone else’s wages.

Pravda on the Merrimack has the story in Concord (really, is the Monitor going soft on socialism??) where wages and pension costs are now eating into services that should be delivered (reformatted, emphasis mine):

The prediction was right. Over the course of the day, the page would issue two more warnings that the city’s three ambulances were simultaneously occupied. These familiar posts receive a reliable response: commenters electronically rolling their eyes at the city’s decision not to add an additional ambulance in the upcoming budget year.

But their suggestions that the city council has been stingy on public safety aren’t backed up by the numbers. The budgets of Concord’s police and fire departments have increased by more than $7 million combined – or 37 percent – since 2010.  That expense has been driven almost entirely by salaries and benefits, which on average over that time increased more than $800,000 a year, crowding out new requests for things like ambulances and K-9 units.  After salaries and benefits are paid, the amount left over for each department – less than 6 percent of the bottom line – will be smaller next year than it was eight years ago.

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After all,

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Emphasis mine, reformatted:

Sununu presses Trump officials for continued funding of NH programs

In a series of meetings with top Trump administration officials on Monday, Gov. Chris Sununu pressed for continued funding of environmental and education programs that are targeted for cuts in the President’s budget, but considered essential for New Hampshire. “

Essential, eh?

absolutely necessary; extremely important.

So let me get this straight…

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Illinois’s budget process (or rather, a lack of one that most adults would recognize) has been a joke for decades and they STILL can’t get it right.  And now this:

Powerball, Mega Millions to drop Illinois due to state’s budget crisis

The popular Powerball lottery and Mega Millions games will drop Illinois at the end of June without a budget agreement, Illinois Lottery officials said Thursday. Concern over the state’s fiscal condition prompted the Multi-State Lottery Association to drop Powerball in Illinois, according to internal Illinois Lottery communications obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

 

…A spokesman for the Multi-State Lottery Association said the group “is focused on protecting the integrity of its games and the experience of its players.”

Concern?  Sure is – concern that Illinois will take in the ticket payments but can’t pay out the willings?  Without a budget in place, Illinois has no way to give the lucky lottery winners their prizes. The Association is fearful that Illinois would give the game a bad reputation.  Illinois, on the other hand?

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The Alexandria Shooter was “Radicalized” by Mainstream Media.

Yes, conservatives believe in individual agency – James T. Hodgkinson is the only one responsible for shooting Republicans.  However, was his political outlook (and later, moral failure) fanned by the MSM?  Over and over again?  After all, how often has the MSM been the cheerleaders for strictly the Democrat Party (and donating almost entirely to the Dems……and using that revolving door that separates “journalism” and “Progressive” politics?

Let me get your engines’ reving -isn’t that one of the current memes in another area –

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“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me”  (John 14:6)

Apparently, with Govt as his God, Socialist Bernie decided that his secularism was going to trump a Christian that has been nominated for the Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director that had to come before him for confirmation.  He has decided that Christians, standing up for their faith in living and expressing it publicly, should not be permitted to serve (Apparently Bernie doesn’t seem to care much about the First Amendment’s “freedom of expression” nor of the Constitution’s Article VI that expressly prohibits any kind of religious litmus test for serving:

No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

Russell Vought is such a Christian and is an alum of Wheaton College – a small Evangelical Christian college that has a Statement of Faith which also included that Jesus is the Son of God, died for our sins on the Cross, and that only by accepting this sacrifice can one go to heaven. This is not secret stuff – it’s pretty much standard Christian orthodoxy.  As an Evangelical, I do believe that my theological faith matches up with it well but certainly put Sanders into orbit.

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Americans’ Net Worth Hits $94.8 Trillion, Up 1.4% in First Quarter of 2017

In the first quarter of 2017, Americans’ net worth hit $94.8 trillion, which was up 1.4 percent, the Associated Press reported. According to the Federal Reserve, stock and mutual fund portfolios increased by $1.3 trillion in value and home values were up $499 billion.

Before the recession, which began in December 2007, household net worth stood at about $66.5 trillion. Household net worth has greatly increased since then.  “Record-high stock prices are the primary driver of greater household wealth,” the article states. “The Dow Jones industrial average has more than tripled from its recession-era low of 6,547 to 21,174 on Wednesday.” “Yet just 10 percent of the U.S. population owns 80 percent of stock market wealth,” the article explains. “Meanwhile, middle-income households derive most of their wealth from their homes.”

We are a rich nation but to be sure, private debt is also sky high as well (about $12T).  What bothers me the most?

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The Declaration of Independence

…We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…

To secure and preserve these Rights – what other country was founded to protect Rights and the ideas surrounding those Rights?  The answer, plainly, is none ( in the case of many “passed” Communist countries that tried to profess the same, they turned out to be shallow if not outright false if you read their former Constitutions).

Frankly, Gillibrand is being true to her brand – Democrats/Socialists believe that Government has been instituted, since the time that German socialism infected America, strictly to “help” people by giving them things with the dirty little secret

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As Conservatives, we are used to knowing that the MSM is biased both on the news they report, the way they report it.  However, we generally only hear “oh, we are objective!” knowing full well they are lying through their keyboards.  That said, it has been clear that they have moved on from being the “who, what, where, when, and how” journalism to one of “The Narrative” – what is the end they wish to push and achieve and the articles are written to that standard.  We’ve suspected that for years but this last Prez election, they all seemingly dropped the facade and their red eyes blinked on – and many outwardly said as much.

John King of CNN (I’ve written about his anti-Republicanism non-objectiveness here) let it drop again over the John Comey testimony this week (emphasis mine):

While the Comey hearing into Russia was and remains a big story, CNN’s John King admitted Thursday afternoon that the media will not give much (if any) attention to Jim Comey stating that he was disturbed by then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch telling him in the midst of the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal that he should refer to it as “a matter,” not “an investigation.”

“A number of significant things. One, this won’t get much attention because it’s in the rearview mirror but a pretty damming account from Jim Comey there about Loretta Lynch, the former Attorney General in the Obama administration and her handling of the Clinton e-mail investigation. It won’t get much attention, but that was pretty damning,” King admitted.

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People like NH State Rep Katherine Rogers don’t believe that phrase “Good guys with guns stop bad guys” should ever exist, is really just “fake news”, part of a mythology that has to be put down, and never misses an opportunity to advance the cause of killing off the Second Amendment and Article 2A here in NH.  Unfortunately, real examples of that phrase actually do happen and I’ve posted a few here at the ‘Grok from time to time.  This one, however, is different; this time, it’s personal.

No, not me – this happened not once, not twice, but three times with The Eldest and I just heard his story this past week as we drove down to pick up the now elderly Saab from the garage.  They took place just after he finished his hitch with the Marines and came home.  A friend of his, female, was working the overnights at a local convenience store that, at the time, was the object of a number of robberies.  The Eldest has ALWAYS been very loyal and protective of his friends so knowing the manager well, he used to dub around the store doing little things (not an employee) to help out, especially in the coolers but always keeping an eye on his friend at the register.

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Ben Sasse On What The Republican Party Stands For: “I Don’t Know”

I hate almost all of the MSM, as any long term ‘Grok reader knows, as over the years I have blogged about specific instances of MSM bias against presenting news stories straight up without insipid (or gratuitous condescension) commentary slapping around half their readership (or better put, former readership).  But for the GOP to think that targeting the MSM is a great idea that will get voters to go “YES! I’LL VOTE REPUBLICAN” is about as idiotic as all get out (emphasis mine):

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