The Duke- Tampa Base: Labor Day

The Duke- Tampa Base: Labor Day: Yesterday while most Americans were hitting the beach, the park, a neighbors back yard or just sitting on the couch, I would guess that many...

Labor Day

Yesterday while most Americans were hitting the beach, the park, a neighbors back yard or just sitting on the couch, I would guess that many don't have a clue of why we have the day off.  Sure, some of us still have to work but a great many have to day off. June 28th, 1894 the US Congress, see at one point they did do something, passed a "Holiday in honor of workers" and chose the 1st Monday of September as the official date.

The Labor Day Holiday had its beginnings in New York City, the carpenters union, wanted to celebrate the work that they did. New York State was 1st to pass a bill designating a "Labor Day Holiday" in 1882 by 1894 23 states had adopted a Labor Day Holiday.

Today many Americans are losing ground, fighting just to pay the bills. Not bills for the extras: A Boat, a 3rd beach Condo or a vacation spot in Europe, but everyday bills.  The way of life our parents set up for us is slowly sliding away.  The American people have watched the American Labor Movement die a slow death.  Fast food workers are making a small attempt at improving wages, it will lead no where, but a attempt all the same.  The only person or group to blame for this is not the greedy business owner, although they do deserve some of the blame, is the Unions themselves.  The UAW and others priced themselves out of work.  The connection with organized crime didn't help either, but in the end unions destroyed the pricing power of the american worker. 

I believe in unions or organized labor and believe that they have a opportunity to improve our economy as well as our workforce.  Partner with businesses as a stake holder, instead of fighting for a few extra dollars a hour, while important, look at training.  Take a equal stake in providing health care to its members; what insurance company would want to cut a deal with 300,000 customer vs. 50 at a local shop.  Why not offer basic medical care on site at the work place with the employees & management having a equal responsibility for the cost. This idea is not too far fetched, many employers already offer child care on site.

At the end of the day; most people who but a product don't buy it on cost alone. The buy for its quality.  We all have forgotten that.

The life of the Duke

The Duke awakes to a cold beer and a couple pills, ad that's just to walk to the bathroom.  The pain in his legs, his knees actually, make small steps as painful as as rail nail thur a human foot.  Those overly large feet you in Ron Jon shirts, don't come close to the pain the Duke feels each and every morning.

The Drinking & Drug were only used to kill the pain, knees, gout, family which every was the cause that day, something was used to kill the pain.  Pain that drove the Duke was also the pain that propelled  him forward. 

Now the day begins with a rainbow of colors, reds, blue,sea-foam and others that a man you should never Ingest. The afternoon brings beer, and lots of

It, followed by Gin. It becomes harder to walk with each day and even harder to function in the day to day world.  But the Duke don't care, for one day we all end up in the same place.  No preacher can stop that, no doctor can...but the right folk will say at $10,000 a pop it can be slowed.   Yes we are all fighting the same issue.   

TBA.     

For you know it's true

The Dream

A dream that has no end, with no one saying no it can't be

A dream that is yours and yours alone

A dream that can be true if you let it be

A dream that can go wrong if you you leave it alone

A dream is no different than a soul

It needs to be watered like a plant

From time to time

Or else it will die

Feed your dreams with hope

Feed it desire

Feed it pain

Feed that dream or dreams 

Until it feels like its full

A dream is more than just a dream

A dream is your soul

What once was

Electronics Parkway, Electronic Park, Electronic Softball Fields, Electronics Pool.  All those public parks/spaces were so named and still named after this building in Liverpool, NY.  This building has been vacant for 20 years. It's like a guardian of the Liverpool of old, standing ready to help when ever it's called on. 

The Duke- Tampa Base: Syracuse, Lansing, Tampa the USA

The Duke- Tampa Base: Syracuse, Lansing, Tampa the USA: I had the opportunity to go back to my hometown last weekend for my 25th High School Reunion, Liverpool High School, at one time was one the...

Syracuse, Lansing, Tampa the USA

I had the opportunity to go back to my hometown last weekend for my 25th High School Reunion, Liverpool High School, at one time was one the Nations Largest High Schools-how many of you can honestly say you graduated with 1,000 or more classmates every year? Not many of you.  Liverpool is a suburb of Syracuse, NY in the heart of Central New York State.  The "Salt City" as it is known as, in the early 1800s salt production was a major industry and until the salt mines out west were found Syracuse was the King of Salt.  The Erie Canal went through the city, its now Erie Blvd., and the city grew.  Ford, GM, General Electric, Schlitz Beer, Miller Brewing as well as Carrier Corp-the nations biggest A/C company, came to town bringing jobs and building the middle class.  Carrier even made Syracuse its Home/Headquarters.  General Electric had 4 plants, one that had a road through it, and was a major employer as well as a World War II Air Force testing ground.  Other companies, Allied Chemical & Crouse Hines, came to town and settled the northern side of Onondaga Lake.   But by 1988, many of those employers started to look for cheaper shores.  The Unions, they said, caused these employers to move on.  It was cheaper somewhere else.

The folks of Lansing, MI are a proud group.  GM is King in this Company town, at one time the City of  Lansing had 7 GM plants within its city limits.  They too had a plant so big a city street ran/runs through a plant. Good Union jobs provided a home, a vacation home, a boat, a college fund for their sons or daughters, oh and a retirement too.  The city of Lansing and the state of Michigan sucked the Auto-Industry for all it could.

Ah the Redneck coastal town of Tampa...Home of the Best Strip Clubs in the World...The folks who escaped the Auto Jobs Leaving them or the people who wanted to escape the snow, 200"+ Inches of Snow, in Upstate NY cam here.  Florida, the land of the New America.  Wal-Mart at every corner and a strip club at every bend.  The future of America is in these parts, the seedy under side that no one likes to take a photo of.  Those high paying BS jobs that the unskilled used to rely on.  Those BS $55.00 an hour jobs, with all the benefits rolled in, paid for Homes, 4 cars, a snowmobile, a motorbike, a vacation home on the lake and one heck of a drug habit.  Now the $55.00 an hour drug is gone and finding a cheap high to replace all the garbage they grew to love is all thats left for them.   Welcome to Tampa Sucker!  You are not in your little city/town anymore.

Just face the facts, the younger set is already messing their very own future up.  They Believe Ron & Rand Paul are really going to lead the way to a better America!!  These kids don't have the Beatles, The Who, Public Enemy or Live Aid to shake them out of the trance.  The Trance music its self seems to only deepening  their Chemical driven run to the Right of everything that gave them this great life!

You dumb-ass, that college loan is a Gov't program...no matter where your Mom or Dad got it-cuz the Gov't is backing it.  Think Home Mortgage, same rules in theory apply.   As a recovering "libertarian," Hell I did a whole Book Report and got 10 votes in 5th grade by making the case for Ed Clark.  Who is he, hell if I remember now, but he was the Libertarian Candidate for President in 1980.    The ideas that they stand for sound great...Sure who likes Taxes?  Not many people I'm sure.  Heck, Make all Drugs Legal, Cant be all that bad....I guess many of these same folks weren't alive in the late '70's and '80's...Coke was not addictive and hey look at all the stuff you could get done when taking it.
Sorry Guys, I like roads, Cops, the Army, basic rules.

The funny stat that we seem to let pass, don't blame a political party because they both have blood on their hands, income keeps growing for one group (and one group only) while the other loses ground.  Too many women are working these days, not just because they want too but in other to live the same standard of living their parents had, these ladies have to work Full-time, just to have the family break even.  That is not a winning plan, I've yet to ever have anyone say 'having 2/3's of the population at a point where if they lost a job today they could be on the street next week is a good thing.

Heck, Nixon was crook but he did it for power, not to get rich.  It's a sad day that you can honestly say that Nixon was most likely a better person than a few of our more recent Presidents.  Come on, Nixon didn't sleep with Interns, he didn't sell Missiles to thugs, he didn't sell America out.  He was not a nice guy and not the person you may want to hang with but he believed in America.  It's sad, really, like looking back at the 70's & white guys wearing Perms and saying at least I had hair.

25th High School Reunions are always good fun.  That one girl who was a goody-goody, always turns into a whore and the whore always becomes the perfect mother with 3 kids and the president of the PTA.  Its where the former star football player is now a bagger at the local grocery store.

Never look at the world the same way.  Make each day a new viewfinder in this ride called Life. Put the past away and move on. Treat each day like a new ride.

At some point you must face the facts; you are either a follower or leader or that super exclusive club- a Maverick.  A maverick is the type of person who takes the path no one else will.  Looks at others as a stockpile of ideas to make better, improve and make their own. A maverick doesn't fold to pressure.  A maverick is someone who treats each day like a new start.  It isn't always pretty but it leads to many new and ground break ideas or processes.  Steve Jobs was one.  MLK was another. President Lincoln was yet another.  Mavericks make our lives better and at times they are not loved themselves by us because they are forcing change on us.

Wake up each day and say I'm gonna do something different today....freak someone out.

The Duke- Tampa Base: 113th Congress/112th/111th/110th...On So On

The Duke- Tampa Base: 113th Congress/112th/111th/110th...On So On: A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infri...

113th Congress/112th/111th/110th...On So On

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

That's the 2nd Amendment....Just read it don't comment on it...read it.....


Well the 113th Congress is now seated and it looks alot like the 112th which looked alot like the 111th, you get the point.  The folks we are sending to do OUR business seem to like doing their own business, as in their pockets being lined with Cash.  The most recent passage of the "Fiscial Cliff" BS Bill was filled with Tax Breaks for the Rich (NASCAR Track Owners/Oil & Gas Companies/Pork producers etc) and rounded out with more Spending, so any rev created by the higher taxes is already spent.  Great Job Boys!!   Its starting to look like the only people who will be enjoying 2013 are the Exc's at Fox/MSNBC/CBS/CNN and the Blogs.  The 113th Congress can't even Pass a Clean Bill for Hurricane Sandy Relief. For Christ Sake whats wrong with you people?!?!?!?   The Only good part of all this is the Tea Party may finally be able to get back to what it was...in the Beginning- The People.  The Tea Party of the pass election was jumped and twisted into a Right Wing  Attack Machine completely funded by large Corporations or Super Rich 1%'ers.   Its a joke that a Grass Roots group can start fine and make a name for its self only to run over by a larger group.  But Such is Washington, I guess.

Remember, this is OUR Fault!  We elect people based on one issue instead of the "what's best for our country"

Back to the top, Did you read it?  That is the actually wording of the 2nd Amendment....Notice the word "Regulated"....