One important fact that ALL Americans need to remember, especially on this day:
FREEDOM is NOT FREE.
It is earned.
Thank you to all the men and women who sacrificed their lives so we may remain free.
Over For Now.
Main Street One
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On Tuesday, November 8, 2016, the United States of America elected a new president. His name is Donald J. Trump. He is a billionaire businessman who was, basically, fed up with the direction our country was headed. Though the mainstream media did all they could to derail him, he beat the entitled Hillary Rodham Clinton.
And what did her followers do? They took to the streets and rioted, among other things. How is it that people become so unhinged because a candidate of their choice was not victorious? Or is it true that George Soros is paying people to commit these actions?
I do not recall this type of behavior from conservatives when Barack Hussein Obama was elected in 2008, nor in 2012, subjecting us to four more years of his socialist-leaning leadership.
One can only hope that the people who are rioting come to their senses, because their actions certainly do not paint a pretty picture for the supposedly “tolerant” left wing liberals.
Regardless of all of that, America does indeed have a new president.
What kind of man is he?
He has been called every horrible name in the book by those on the far and not-so-far left, and especially by HRC, at every opportunity. Indeed, they are very good at name calling.
Trump has been accused of being anti-women, yet Kellyanne Conway managed his successful campaign, Pam Bondi is on his transition team, and there are several women holding key positions in his businesses and his charity.
He has been accused of being a racist, yet Dr. Ben Carson is someone he definitely wants in his cabinet, especially to overhaul/repeal Obamacare. And what about Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke who is being considered for Homeland Security.
He has been accused of being a homophobe, yet a person who may be appointed as the UN Ambassador is Richard Grenell, an openly gay man, and then there is Peter Thiel, another gay, who is part of Trump’s transition team.
It would be great if people opened their eyes and looked instead of just listening to ugly rhetoric that is spewed about.
Trump is a man who knows that you best succeed by having the best people around you. And that is what he plans to do when he takes the oath of office on January 20, 2017. He will have the best and brightest in his cabinet and other key positions that must be filled between now and that time. And, with that, he will restore America to greatness.
Welcome Donald J. Trump, our 45th President of the United States of America!
Over For Now
Main Street One
The video below is priceless. Why do celebrities think that hard-working Americans care about their choice for US President, especially when they lean towards a life-long liar who deleted 30,000 emails but said she did not for months until evidence mounted against her. Then, her defense became blame Colin Powell. Responsibility taken, zero.
Hillary did not protect our citizens in Benghazi and months after their atrocious murder said, “What difference, at this point, does it make,” when being questioned about events leading up to the massacre. She has never taken any form of responsibility for her inactions that resulted in four deaths. For doubters, read 13 Hours or watch the movie. Or speak to Kris Paronto, one of the contracted former Rangers who helped save the day. Again, no thanks to Hillary.
Anyway, I digress. Please enjoy.
It is my opinion that the Clinton’s and the Obama’s are much more interested in being celebrities and hanging with celebrities than they are in being public servants, and actually serving those who elected them to public office, by ensuring that they will “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Over For Now.
Main Street One
With all the talk about Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation and bribes, and pay-for-play, and Benghazi, and emails, and people dying under mysterious circumstances, and, well, pretty much everything to do with the Hillary, one may be reminded about a president who did not last long, who did not like the kinds of games that the Clintons play.
On January 27, 1961, a week after he was inaugurated, then President John F. Kennedy gave a talk to the American Newspaper Publishers Association in which he openly talked about a conspiracy that, in all probability, got him assassinated.
He was a person who was not about to be a puppet for anyone.
These are some of his words from the longer, overall talk.
“The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings.”
“For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence — on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations. Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed.”
The full 19 minutes of the speech are below:
To deny that there are secret societies is simply ignorance, or, worse, living in denial.
That there are unknown people (or forces, if you will) behind the scenes, pulling strings, is quite apparent. Our country’s most revered words, contained in the US Constitution and its 27 Amendments, are being slowly eroded, where our freedoms and liberties are being taken away, almost without notice. Almost.
But there are those who do notice.
And there are those who do not want to notice. It is hard to confront such evil being done in the guise of “national security” or other such words, for they are designed to make us feel better, safer.
Don’t believe it? Do your own research to determine what rights you have already lost. And, yes, you really have lost them.
It would have been great to see what Kennedy could have achieved in two terms in office. Unfortunately, the power-brokers (those who make and break anyone at will) did not wish to see that happen.
November 22, 1963, stands as one of the biggest blemishes on this country’s leadership.
Over For Now.
Main Street One
For 16 days in August, the Games of the XXXI Olympiad were played in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. For all of those days, there were intense competitions where individuals and teams fought to be the Best-of-the-Best, to achieve winning a Gold Medal.
This post will not attempt to recap these Olympic Games, as that would be a massive undertaking. It is, however, paying tribute to prior Games and to all those who came together in Rio to compete.
The below video contains short clips of past opening ceremonies, dating back to London 1908.
It really is a journey through time and does capture the human spirit.
The next video is a behind the scenes video featuring Questlove and his production of a Rio Olympics 2016 Song by the Musical Olympians.
Artists including America’s Lenny Kravitz, British singer Corinne Bailey Rae, African artist NNeka and Asian artist Yuna are featured on the soundtrack.
Suffice it to say, while there were many, here are some of the highlights of the 2016 Rio Olympics:
Original Phelps image by Agência Brasil Fotografias CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The USA walked away with total medals, at 121. They were the tops in all three with 46 Gold, 37 Silver and 38 Bronze. China came in 2nd with 70, followed closely by Great Britain with 67.
Swimmer extraordinaire Michael Phelps grabbed five more Gold medals and a Silver, bringing his total to 28 medals overall, of which, 23 are Gold.
Lightning Bolt, Usain Bolt, added three more Gold medals to his count, racking up a Triple Triple. Three Golds in three straight Olympics. He set a record being the only person to win three consecutive 100m and 200m Olympic sprints, as well as winning the 100×4 relay for the third straight time.
Scottish tennis pro Andy Murray successfully defended his Gold Medal by winning in Rio, after doing so in the 2012 Olympics in Great Britain. The #2 ranked player is the only person to ever win two singles Golds. This year, he won after capturing the 2016 Wimbledon in July.
Singapore won its first ever Gold medal when Joseph Schooling upset Michael Phelps in the 100m Butterfly. The 21 year old grew up idolizing Phelps and beat him by 0.75 seconds.
Original Bolt image by Augustas Didžgalvis CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The 100m women’s hurdles saw three Americans sweep the medals. Brianna Rollins took Gold, followed by teammates Nia Ali and Kristi Castlin. American women have medaled in this event in the past five Games.
For the first time since 2000, the women’s soccer championship was not won by the United States. Instead they lost early and the German women defeated Sweden 2-1 to Capture the Gold.
Ren Qian of China, at 15 years and 6 months, is the youngest athlete this year to win a Gold, taking the 10-meter platform. However, she is not the youngest ever to do so. That honor goes to 13 yer 11 month old Fu Mingxia, also from China, in Barcelona 1992, for the same event.
Yes, there were more glorious victories, some disheartening losses, as there always are in the Olympic games. The beauty of the competition is bringing the world together in a peaceful, yet competitive setting (other than one).
So we wait another four years, for the XXXII Olympic Games which will be held in Tokyo, Japan.
Over For Now.
Main Street One
Several months ago Main Street One reviewed the Hawkesmill Camera Messenger bags. Since that time, and having now used the Sloane Street large bag quite a bit, it can only be said that the bags are better than described. Yes, better.
The quality of workmanship is simply superb. And, by chance, Hawkesmill just posted a video showing many facets of the hand-crafting that is done to create these beautiful, yet highly functional, pieces.
I am sure that you can see, while watching the video, the high quality workmanship, the attention to detail. These are not your run-of-the-mill bags. They quietly shout their caliber and character.
Do yourself a favor and pop on over to the Hawkesmill website and order one. You will NOT be disappointed.
As SLR lounge said so well in their quite positive review, “The Jermyn Street and the line it belongs to brings a little extra joy to a casual day out, and is a bit of a statement piece. But instead of stating to the world you’re a ‘photographer hear me roar’, it speaks of you more as an individual…”
As the bags will undoubtedly last a lifetime, they are worth every single penny.
Over For Now.
Main Street One
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
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, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
South facade of Independence Hall, Philadelphia, PA
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
Declaration of Independence & George Washington in front of Independence Hall, Philadelphia, PA
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
[The document was signed by 56 delegates from the 13 Colonies.]
It would be wise for all Americans to reflect upon the Founding Fathers and what they and so many people, then and since, have fought to bring about and defend. Freedom unlike any nation before has achieved for its citizens but now in danger of losing those very freedoms, slowly but surely, through the arrogant actions of career politicians who answer to their donors and not to the people of the land – those very same public servants who serve themselves, not the public.
Over For Now.
Main Street One
Scott D Welch
