Dave Richards for October 17th
--This just in, out-of-work NFL Quarterback Colin Kaepernick will not get a quarterback job this season. How do I know this? Well, I really don’t, I’ve just come to that conclusion after hearing that he’s filed a grievance against the league charging NFL owners with collusion because no one has hired him yet.
Talk about an attitude! He had a job. He quit his job. But he quit his job before being hired for his next job. That’s a mistake waiting to happen in my book. Then, (probably due to his controversial behavior, but who knows for sure?) no team was interested in hiring him. Maybe they didn’t want to take on that kind of public relations baggage. Maybe they were happy with the staff they already had.
Whatever the reason, Kaepernic is unemployed six weeks into the season and he says everyone else is to blame. He’s filed papers charging all NFL owners with a felony because nobody would hire the guy who started the “Kneeling for the National Anthem” protest.
I have my own opinion about the protests. I could never protest in that way. I’d choose another, more respectful way for myself. But others can do what they wish so long as they aren’t hurting anyone. However, I think Mr. Kaepernick has actually hurt himself. And I think he will not make anyone hire him by charging them all with collusion. Would YOU want to hire someone who accused you of that?
A worker’s stock in trade is their skills and reputation. The San Francisco 49ers put up with his attitude and the negative publicity because he has skills. They didn’t fire him. He quit on them and left the team. The reputation one earns by blaming everyone else for their mistakes is not an attractive one. I would think a 29-year old would have thought about that before quitting on a team who put up with a lot to keep him.
I hope this man gets work. Nobody who wants to work should be unemployed. But he’s not making it easy on himself, that’s my opinion.
--Now for this week’s rant. “Professional Democrats”, that’s what I call members of the Democratic Party whose public actions and statements only echo the party line regardless of what they may think. These party automatons are screaming at the top of their voices against President Trump’s executive action last week stopping federal subsidy payments to health insurance companies. They say the move ending what the president called a “bailout for the health insurance companies” will drive health insurance premiums higher and hurt people.
I have two things to say about this. First, I’m shaking my head because the Democratic party-line sounds like a bunch of Republicans talking, seemingly caring for large insurance companies. And the Republican president and his Republican associates are denouncing federal subsidies for business. This role reversal is even more puzzling when I add in my own personal experience into the mix. You see, my health insurance premiums nearly doubled soon after the “Affordable Health Care Act” (aka ‘Obamacare’) took effect. I have never paid so much for health insurance in my life as I do now.
For a time I thought maybe I had just fallen through a crack in the new system. Then I learned my brother-in-law, who suffered a brain injury in a car accident some years ago and who doctors monitor closely, can no longer get the required MRI tests because his health insurance no longer covers them.
It makes me wonder just how many other people there are out there who are being hurt by the federal insurance mandates which were supposed to make healthcare affordable for all. I began to wonder if the Republicans were telling the truth about Obamacare. When both sides in an argument lie, it’s hard to know if they ever tell the truth.
The Democrats originally told us that if everybody bought healthcare insurance the price would come down enough so that everybody could afford it. It is obvious to me that something has gone terribly wrong, that it has been wrong from the beginning, and telling us it we should just be patient while the bugs were worked out was poor advice for a public being hurt by a law which was bullied through congress without the moderating and improving effects of consensus.
I’m a patient and moderate man, but if the Democratic nattering nabobs of negativism prove to be right this time, and my health insurance premiums shoot up yet again under the present Republican measures, I believe I will lose my patience with the whole blessed lot of them.
For practical purposes we only have two political parties. The only thing either of them seems to be good at right now is hating the other party. It’s hate and spite at any cost. It reminds me of the horrible situation children endure as their parents fight toward divorce, each parent so focused on doing their hated spouse harm that the children become the actual victims of the fight. In this scenario, the American public would be the victims of the two irresponsible political parties.
--That’s what I think. What do you think? Comments to: dave@onworldwide.com or postal mail to Dave Richards, WOON Radio, 985 Park Avenue, Woonsocket, RI 02895-6332.
Thanks for reading!
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