Amendment 2, don't be fooled...!

Written by David DiCrescenzo on . Posted in Op-Ed

If you’re not aware of what it is, Amendment 2 is just that, an amendment which is being voted on by Florida voters and requires 60% plus one to become a part of the Florida Constitution.  That is significant because if it was simply a new law/statute, it would be relatively easy to undo it down the road with enough pressure; whereas an amendment is nearly impossible to repeal.  On the federal level, only the 18th Amendment, (alcohol prohibition) was repealed via the 21st Amendment.  On the state level, one doesn’t need a calculator to count how many amendments have been repealed nationwide, or even more than one sheet of paper to list them.

I laid the groundwork above because Floridians are going to be voting on Amendment 2 which would increase the minimum wage drastically, and that will have devastating consequences for businesses, the economy, and the very workers that it “promises” to help.

Before I discuss why drastically higher minimum wage is an unworkable, pie in the sky method for politicians to garner votes at the expense of working Americans, I think a brief synopsis of what kind of jobs are generally “minimum wage jobs” is needed here.  These jobs are mostly for the first time job seeker who is usually a very young person such as a high-schooler getting a part time job for pocket money.  They are designed to be a learning experience in which the new member of the workforce learns the responsibility of showing up on time and doing assigned “menial” tasks such as general labor to include everything from maintenance, stocking shelves, and bagging groceries to flipping burgers and countless other jobs which require minimal skills, and therefore do not command a higher wage.  I.E., with rare exceptions, such jobs are not meant to be career paths.

So let’s look at some of what happens when such measures are put in place.  Paying unskilled workers more than the job is worth results in employers, (business owners) having to raise their prices to cover the added costs, which results in many customers going elsewhere or simply staying put at home.  Additionally, many employers have chosen to replace hourly workers with job eliminating kiosks which pay for themselves fairly quickly, never take a day off, never give a customer a hard time, and don’t have a distracting electronic device glued to their hands.  

A stark example of the results of such measures is Seattle where they implemented a $15.00 minimum wage.  Many owners were forced to cut back on worker hours and as a result, many of the workers wound up making $125.00 less per month, which is a significant loss of income at such levels.

Among the hardest hit industries are the restaurants.  To begin with, most of them fail in the first year under the best of conditions.  Adding the covid pandemic and the new burden of increased wages, and many existing venues will certainly close while many others won’t even open in the first place.  Not to mention that a good server can earn much more than $15.00 per hour and a minimum wage hike would put a major dent in their earnings for all of the reasons listed above.

It gets worse from there.  Clearly first time job opportunities will disappear and therefore on the job training will become a thing of the past.  Supply chains will be affected, and the domino effect will be chaotic.

Before you vote for any outrageous minimum wage hike, do some homework and see how it always turns out and you’ll find that the best way to make more than any government mandated minimum wage is to work hard at whatever job you have, and become an asset to your employer.

Take it from a guy who’s been around the block a few times, higher minimum wages leads to fewer jobs and less opportunity for everyone, and not state, especially a service driven economy state like Florida can afford the chaos that would ensue.

Work hard and the money will follow.

Eighteen Years Of Tears

Written by David DiCrescenzo on . Posted in Op-Ed

I had never wept like that before, had never felt so overcome with grief and raw emotion.  Like so many, I will never forget where I was or what I was doing when the news started breaking about the singularly worse day in US history, the day that time stood still.

When I heard about the first plane, I briefly considered that maybe it was some sort of freak accident; after all I was aware that a military plane did crash into the Empire State Building many years before.  After the second plane hit I along with most of America understood that we were under attack. 

We didn’t have a TV in the office, nor did we have any sort of online newsfeed.  All we did have was a couple of radios to which everyone in the office glued themselves.  I called home and woke up my son to have him turn on the TV and he spent much of the rest of the day watching and listening as the horror of that day unfolded.

When I finally did get home I had all I could do to keep from vomiting as I watched the replays of the footage.  The planes crashing, people choosing to jump to their deaths rather than be incinerated, the soot filled streets and destroyed fire trucks, the posturing of politicians, and all the rest.

So I wept, sobbed actually, and developed an immediate and visceral hatred for the monsters and the ideology that committed those heinous acts.  I might add, much time has passed and I have learned much about them and what drives them to perpetuate such evil.

And I have sadly watched as they have become a political force in this country and are bringing us to our knees under the guise of political correctness.  They have largely stopped the terror acts in this country because blowing things up is so 9/11, however, now, right according to their plan, of which the first half is in Arabic and the second half in English, they have literally infiltrated every aspect of our culture from school teachers and EMS to becoming seated in political office at every level, to infiltrating our military.

At the end of the day, they don’t need to blow anything else up, because they are following the plan and convincing far too many liberal thinking Americans that they are just like us, and I might add, most of them are as far as they have jobs, families, and normal responsibilities.

There is also no doubt that the majority of them, (somewhere between 75% - 93%) are not jihadi minded.  However, and this is where the rubber meets the road, those who are NOT of a jihadi mindset do nothing to stop those who are, rendering them as irrelevant as so many other “majorities” of groups in the past.  As a recent example, I offer that the vast majority of Germans not only weren’t Nazis, they hated them; but not enough to even to stop them.

My friends, as we remember that horrible day eighteen years ago, let us never forget who did it and why.  Beginning today and a large part of tomorrow, we will revisit the images and recordings of that day, and those old visceral feelings will once again be churned up, and I will weep yet again. 

Today’s tears are not just for the day, but for what has been happening ever since and the future I see for my country, my grandchildren, and all the other grandchildren out there.  For the sake of them, let’s resolve to turn those emotions and tears into action.

God help us and be with us.

What Would I Say To The Families Of Shooting Victims..?

Written by David DiCrescenzo on . Posted in Op-Ed

The other day I came across a FB thread which was a photo of a scene at a Nazi concentration camp which rightfully inferred the result of disarming a citizenry.  Upon viewing it, I simply concurred by commenting “Damn right”.  Then, a woman named Ruth who I don’t know posed this question to me; “So what do you wish to tell those who have lost children and family members to mass shootings?” 

I think it was a fair question and the following was my response which I decided to post on this forum to answer all of the “Ruths” out there as well as those directly and indirectly affected by mass shootings.  Also, I didn’t insert the many statistics which support my reasoning, however they are easy enough to find if one looks.

“Ruth, I would tell them how much I grieve with them and that I pray not only for them, but for our nation. And I do understand the desire for “something to be done” about it. However, banning a tool that some deranged individuals might use will not stop the carnage.

Here is why I say that. First of all, as horrible as it is, we live in a fallen world and people have been killing each other since Cain killed Able. There is no way to count the probably hundreds of millions of people who were slaughtered through the annals of history long before firearms were ever conceived. Individual murder or mass murder has nothing to do with the weapon used, it is a matter of the heart. If every gun on the planet suddenly and miraculously vanished, people would find a way to kill others.

If you go back in history you will find countless cultures where the citizenry were enslaved by the ruling elites of the day because among the first things that elite did was to disarm them, even when the sword was the weapons technology of the times.

But let me bring us up to “recent” times for a few moments since firearms entered the historical stage. The list of despots who have disarmed and enslaved their citizenry is almost endless, but I will name a few and even start with one group who used mostly swords, and that was the Armenian genocide conducted by the savage Ottoman Empire when 1.5 million Armenian citizens were systematically exterminated. Let’s not forget the socialist and communist regimes under the likes of Stalin, Lenin, Chairman Mao, Paul Pol, the Red Chinese, N. Korea who have collectively slaughtered well over 100 million of their citizens. Then of course there are the Nazis who systematically slaughtered closer to 12 million, of which the Jews are about half of that number. In every case, they were only able to do so AFTER they disarmed the populace, which they invariably said was for their “protection.”

And now let’s visit America and our failed attempts at “reasonable gun control.” Across the nation there are in excess of 20K anti-gun laws with some of the most extreme in places like Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, DC, etc. The result of those extreme laws has been to disarm law abiding citizens who have been left unable to protect themselves against wanton criminals who care nothing about such laws and those places have some of the highest murder rates with firearms in the nation and probably the world.

Simply put, as “well meaning” as some of these proposals are, they do NOTHING to stop crazy people from doing what they do and serve only to create victims. On that point, consider this. Most mass shootings take place in so called “gun free zones,” and the reason for that is that most law abiding citizens choose to observe those signs, but the crazies read them as “target rich environment zones” because they know there isn’t much chance of return fire. You’ll notice you never hear of a shooting at a gun show or a police station. We protect our politicians, celebrities, and money with armed men and women and we protect our most vulnerable with useless SIGNS. Think about that.

My final thought for right now is that you may want to consider getting a copy of a book titled “More Guns, Less Crime” written by John Lott, Jr.

Anyway, I hope that answers your question.”

And I hope it answers a lot of questions by a lot of people.  It isn’t the choice of weapon, it is the condition of the heart, and all the “gun control” measures in the world aren’t going to fix that. 

Never have, never will...!

Take This Fraud And Shove It

Written by David DiCrescenzo on . Posted in Op-Ed

There is a lot of complaining about voter fraud.  People who have witnessed it and have been victimized by it first-hand lament about it, and people who perpetrate it or support those who do deny it exists.

I’ve witnessed it first hand and I’ve done my share of griping about it, however I’ve also given the subject a lot of thought over the years and I have come up with some potential solutions.  I might add, I have tried for many months to bring these ideas to the attention of the governor of Florida Ron DeSantis to no avail.

So I have decided that instead of now continuing to lament about how his staff has ignored every request, I need to share this outline of what I would present to the governor IF I am ever able to meet with him.  Maybe together we can all see some of these changes put into place in time to save what promises to be the most contentious election in our nation’s history.

To begin with, I absolutely want FL to remain RED, however, it is more important to me to see and believe we have an honest tally of ALL the votes regardless of the outcome.  As I’ve said in the past, I am not happy when any of my preferred candidates loses, but I would bite the bullet and congratulate the winner if I believed they won fair and square.

This list is by no means exhaustive; however, all of these steps and more must begin immediately here in FL and hopefully catch on in other states as I believe we have until roughly next June to get this done before it will be too late.

The system has become very over-complicated and politicized and too many SOEs believe it is their job to make sure that everyone votes, too often for their preferred party/candidate.  I believe the main job of an SOE is to ensure not that everyone votes, but that the list of eligible voters is clean and accurate, and that the elections are conducted fairly, legally, and without so much as the appearance of foul play. 

STEP ONE.  If we change nothing else, I think the most important item to ensure checks and balances is that we need to have three, (3) SOEs in each jurisdiction.  One from each party and an independent; all of them being co-equal and co-responsible so that if one of them does something askew of the law and the others don’t uncover and report it, they all fall together with harsh penalties.  I believe that would go a long way in keeping them honest. 

Also, Part of the reason that many SOEs continue to oversee the fraud is that there is no punishment for violators.  Therefore a penalty structure needs to be set up to include prison and/or stiff fines for these serious crimes.   

•    This step outlined above should be the first priority and is why it needs the governor’s blessing since he would have to authorize an agency to see to it.  As a side note, I personally believe the entire system should be privatized with citizen over-sight and review boards.

•    Part and parcel to having three SOEs would be the immediate and new focus on all staff at all SOE offices to clean up the eligible voter list.  This would include checking for and removing those who are now deceased, moved away, etc.  A sticking point would be snowbirds who illegally vote up north and down here in national elections.  Until we are able to get a national registry up and running, which I also believe is crucial, that is going to be tough.  However, for now, we should have a statewide registration which would at least prevent anyone from voting more than once in any election in FL.

•    Additionally, all SOE activity should be accessible to any/all members of the public wishing to monitor it. 

STEP TWO.  Given that it is and always has been an invitation to commit fraud, early voting should be eliminated outright or at very least, curtailed significantly with a max of three, (3) days.

STEP THREE.  We MUST strictly enforce Voter ID laws and should initiate a first in the nation bio-metric system using iris scans, fingerprints, etc.

STEP FOUR.  Just like any other transaction, every voter should be issued an electronic “Walmart style” detailed receipt upon submitting a ballot which shows/proves who and what he/she voted for.  “Walmart style” as opposed to only a barcode so that the voter could plainly see that it reflects his/her choices.

STEP FIVE.  All ballots should be transported from the individual polls and up the chain to the SOE office by either Police or Armored carrier instead of by poll workers.

Among other issues, beyond the executive order scope of any singular governor is that nationwide there are numerous differences in voter laws and methods, when they should be as consistent as traffic laws and a “best practices” system should be established.
 
Certainly, under no circumstances should any non-citizen, (legal or otherwise) be able to vote anywhere or allowed to work in an SOE office.   

The governor needs to repeal the new law which allows ex-cons with felonies to vote.  This was a measure by the democrats to add a voting bloc for them.  Nothing more, nothing less.

All violations should be subject to costly fines and penalties, up to and including loss of voting privileges for life.

As I said at the beginning, this is by no means exhaustive, however it is a major step in the right direction and I believe it could drastically reduce institutionalized voter fraud.

Time is of the essence and every fair minded citizen regardless of party affiliation should be screaming for this sort of accountability.

Leave Our Children Alone

Written by David DiCrescenzo on . Posted in Op-Ed

I feel ridiculous to even think I should add this precursor, however, I want to be very clear that I do not and am not bashing any specific individual, nor do I hate anyone.  I am however, along with probably the vast majority of Americans angry and fed up with the agenda of 'big gay’ and their blatant sexualization of our children, and that is what this is about and who it is addressed to.

Back in 2013 I wrote about something I clearly saw on the horizon, and that was that they were and are pushing, now more than ever, to make pedophilia somehow acceptable, to add another letter to the acronym, and maybe add another stripe on their flag, and many thought I was crazy.  As I’ve often stated since that time, I never wanted to be proven wrong so desperately.

However, here we are, five and a half years later and the LGBTQ community, marching under their rainbow colored flag that was clearly designed in an attempt to mock God and the covenant for which He created the rainbow in the first place, witnessed by the constant badgering of Christian businesses by 'big gay’, has pushed the abomination of pedophilia ‘normalization’ almost to fruition.

One cannot read a news feed on any of the various media, or simply go about one’s day without seeing the latest item about a male child performing in drag, without hearing of a library, school, or liberal ‘church’ hosting a program where men garishly dressed in women’s clothing are going to be reading sodomite themed books to children as young as kindergarten aged.  All of this is done in the name of tolerance and any opposing viewpoint is labeled as hateful.  When questioned as to why small children are being exposed to this, the answer is just as scary as what they are pushing; because they want to reach children while they are still impressionable or something along those lines.

As I write this, we are witnessing “gay pride month” and there are parades everywhere with mostly adult men either scantily leather-clad, dressed in various S&M regalia, walking on all fours on the end of leashes, full drag, and various other bizarre gear.  We are “treated” to videos from the crowds of pre-pubescent boys adorned in rainbow colored gear gyrating seductively to the delight of surrounding grown men, photos of grown men kissing little boys on the lips, and much more abhorant behavior.  In a way, I’m actually glad to see it, because you are once again displaying your true colors with pride in your displays of degradation and debauchery.  The message to the observing world seems to be that this is the way you behave and you have sexual encounters with others who behave the same way, and all children should know every lurid detail of it.

Over the years, and through incessant badgering, you have force fed the idea that “love is love” and all of that, and frankly, I don’t really care how two or more consenting adults choose to defile themselves; however all of you, yes all of YOU have crossed the line and are either actively going after our children or turning a blind eye to those who are.  You are forcing your will on public school administrators and politicians telling parents that their child has 'gay’ or 'transgender’ tendencies because of something they believe they “observed” and the parents have to now begin treating these children to conform to your way of thinking…!  Beyond that, and just as unsettling, there are parents who are buying into your agenda and refuse to identify the natural gender of their new born children.

Since the late sixties, society has slowly bent to your wishes.  We stood by as your fanaticism went from taboo to tolerated, to begrudgingly accepted, to forcibly embraced and celebrated, to now indoctrinating our children and attempting to teach them your ways. Even some ‘churches’ have welcomed your lifestyle, which is fine for them as they don’t have to answer to me or anyone else on this side of Eternity. 

You may be huge and well-funded, but you cannot have our children.  We are not offering them up on the altar of 'big gay’ and allowing you to warp their minds in conformity to your agenda; not without a fight anyway.