Opinion

Good news and a riot

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

Good news and a riot

Yes there is good news out there in this great country but we hear little of it. Digging through TV news sources I’ve become aware that many business owners have done the right thing. Independent businessmen living in those Democrat-controlled areas of the country where Governors have locked down the economy their customers are barred from entering. Evidently, many of that small business kept their staff onboard by paying them from the owner's own capital resources. All too many of those private enterprises are now becoming financially broke so it is, unfortunately, time to close the doors permanently.

Enter a very successful gentleman named Dave Portnoy of New York. On his own initiative, Mr. Portnoy dedicated a half-million dollars of his own money to set up a “Barstool Fund” to help small-business owners across America. His fund is also structured so that others can donate and actually millions more have been added. Any small business can apply online but Portnoy has one rule. To qualify for the money that business has to still be paying their employees.

Yes, good people helping others out. There are probably a thousand other generous Christian people making a difference for their fellow man of which we have not heard.

Wow, I called it wrong last week. I predicted a two-ring circus and it turned out to be a three ringer. The third ring being a mob invasion of the U.S. Capitol building. A shooting with loss of life, windows broken, items looted the whole works. A sorry riotous mess.

The good news was that some sixty of the rioters were arrested and identified. Now it will be interesting to see if those detained will have their names released to the public. Have they been in riots before and what was their punishment for being involved prior? Will they be punished this time in any way? Personally, I suspect that any punishment doled out will be light and the perps will be released to go on and continue their bad behavior.

That whole lack of punishment for crimes committed seems to be a trend across our country today. Sure the police identify and arrest all sorts of criminals but it seems of late that the courts are falling down on the job and not awarding sentences that will deter future criminal behavior. Getting caught rioting, burning business, looting, destroying property should merit something like ten years in jail. It would give the convicted time to think about their wrongful actions and most likely deter others from following in their footsteps. Plea bargaining which seems to be the current trend just doesn’t cut it. We proudly boast that we are a nation of laws but when there is no enforcement of those laws what have we become?

I’m curious as to what was the motive of the little lady that was shot and killed in the Capitol for trying to break through the door to the senate chamber. She was a military veteran, Air Force National Guard, and evidently had served in the role of a military policeman. She came from California and seemed to have had no prior record of criminal activity. Did she just get caught up in the mood of the moment and wanted to get into the Senate Chamber to voice her displeasure of the fraud at how the election was conducted which resulted in President Trump being defeated? It will be interesting to know.

Over the months of riots this summer it seems that our Congressmen and Senators have had little to say. I find it interesting that when a riot came to their doorstep, breaking into the Capitol with them present, they all ran for cover. Maybe now they will have a little more empathy for all the store owners that had their properties and livelihood destroyed all across our wonderful country. One can only wish.

Yep I received my generous federal donation of $600 to make things right for the inconvenience of the pandemic in progress. I took it and a little more and marched right up to our county treasurer and relicensed my vehicles. Thank you very much for enabling me to use federal tax money to pay local taxes.

Speaking of such largess little notice has been made of the recent Cares Act that handed out money to all sorts of entities inconvenienced by the Covid 19 pandemic. I know not how much came to the City of McCook but our McCook Airport was granted $30,000 for the inconvenience and loss of business. All we had to do was list the appropriate expenses for the period and the $30,000 was supposed to be granted. Nice.

Then sitting on the State Aeronautical Commission I found that the sum granted to our neighboring Kearney Airport was $19,800,000, yes that is nineteen million. Kearney promptly filed their expense report but then dreamed up an expensive expansion of their terminal building plus a large related parking area to use up the rest of their grant.

Another fellow commissioner and I voted no on the terminal expansion boondoggle but we were outvoted by the three other members.

Their thinking was that if we withheld the money from Kearney it would just be granted to someone else and we might as well have it spent in state. Probably true!

Closing on a happy note history repeated itself last Sunday. My grandson took his first flying lesson courtesy of fellow instructor Dave Fulkerson. He will be the fourth generation of this Trail family to fly if he pursues his private license. My father Doane, me, son Don and now Jonathan. Makes me a proud grandpa.

That is how I saw it.

Dick Trail

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  • Congratulations on receiving your $600 federal donation. My wife and I have yet to see ours and are not holding our breath. The last donation we received was simply held onto until it came time to pay our income tax for the previous year and therefore served not in the intended purpose of economic stimulation. We will just hope that local taxes remain affordable for us and that the “tax scam” doesn’t overly burden us again with no check to simply send back to them as occurred with the previous one.

    -- Posted by nebraskamike on Tue, Jan 12, 2021, at 2:50 PM
  • Dick, I find it hard to believe that someone such as yourself buys into the "rigged/stolen" election conspiracy theory. Team Trump filed over 60 lawsuits that were ALL unsuccessful. The one thing they forgot to bring to the table was evidence. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF ELECTION FRAUD. It's people like you and President Trump perpetuating these lies that whip people like the rioters in DC last week into storming the US Capitol and killing cops. Wake up Dick and come back to reality.

    -- Posted by Livinginreality on Tue, Jan 12, 2021, at 6:42 PM
  • We are pleased to announce that Dick's finger was unharmed while it was extended during the most recent wind/dirt storm.

    -- Posted by hulapopper on Thu, Jan 14, 2021, at 7:37 AM
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