Comments by Gene Scarborough | Eastern North Carolina Now

Is it possible that your understanding or "The Constitution" and his are somewhat different. Remember, his law specialty is "Constitutional Law." He has the degree / he has been a community organizer in Chicago / from his words, he has some gifts in speaking that only wise and well-trained Black Preachers possess.

Just saying, Stan ---

Commented: Monday, November 24th, 2014 @ 9:16 am By: Gene Scarborough

While I appreciate all the previous article, they are most philosophical with the intent of rousing people to Conservatism.

My question encourages you (or any other contributor) to think about the DREAM of the Founding Fathers. Thanksgiving is a great time to be thankful and use our mental "time machine" to travel back to 1776 when documents were penned to put it into words. We had to fight a vicious war of Revolution to bring this nation into being.

Most interestingly, many of those battles were fought "down South." Every time I travel I-85 before it reaches Charlotte is Kings Mountain / Cowpens / other places where blood was shed for freedom!

What did the founders think about FREEDOM?
What were the Whigs / Tories / Patriots / Colonialists / etc."
What about the Halifax Accords that preceded the Declaration of Independence?
NC was, perhaps, the real locus of Independence even though the document was signed in Philadelphia. Discussions took place in Boston, but NC was a big battlefield.
Frances Marion, The Swamp-fox, is passed over as I travel down I-95 near Florence and cross over the swamps before getting there.
What were those men of the south fighting for?

Just a few points of thought any writer might consider. Our Southern Heritage should help us be more accurate than most in thinking about the struggle to found an "Experiment in Democracy."

You touch the subject with the declaration that Beaufort County is a Republic rather than a Democracy --- explain the difference to readers, if you please.

Commented: Monday, November 24th, 2014 @ 9:04 am By: Gene Scarborough

Then you, of all people should sympathize with the President as an object of hate and frustration. He went in with tons of expectation out of minorities who gladly voted for him. They were expecting more free rides and he didn't do such.

He missed a perfect opportunity to step to the mic and tell people of color and welfare that the jig was up and money was out so "get a public works job" we can provide of get one from private business. Either way you will work the same 40 hours minimum taxpayers do or you can do the same thing they have to do--starve!

He had little to no effect over war expenditures forced onto him by the Bush lies on WMD and the Middle East. How dare a President avoid war. The cost of such with Kennedy and Viet Nam was more than high on this anniversary date.

I'm just saying~~~ quit the labeling and hating / work toward some kind on consensus / offer constructive criticism when appropriate / make the best decisions you can to make the most people happy with tax money spent.

In some cases, the people who hate and oppose you are the best measure that you are on the right track of public service!!! As a Baptist minister, the ones who often hated me most were the very ones the average church member knew to be an impostor ~~~ there for business purposes rather than integrity of character and service!

Commented: Sunday, November 23rd, 2014 @ 6:53 pm By: Gene Scarborough

Stan---how well did you do in changing the Beaufort Commissioners in your many years?

Had you gone in and magically changed it all to your way, I could see your point. You DIDN'T / the President didn't either.

He inherited a totally busted economy from George Bush. It has been put into place from Reaganomics --- which you errantly claim is "old news." He DID NOT give the Tax Code. Congress makes such! It, further, has no penalties for overseas banking nor corporate building when they get breaks the working people of America do not!

I'm a little confused that you would be so confused and hard-headed ~~~ BUT the classic reaction of someone who eats poison is "I didn't do that and it's someone else's fault!"

Nobody wants to ever say, "I was tricked into a false conservatism that just isn't working for America." Neither does anyone want to admit it is little different from the tricks used in Nazi Germany as "conservatives" ruled that country prior to WWII.

Those who fail to grasp history and it's lessons ~~~ are doomed to repeat their mistakes. If you dare to think outside your narrow box of Conservatism, you might get better. Otherwise, you will soon run out of air and die a miserable middle-class death to the rich and favored these days.

Commented: Sunday, November 23rd, 2014 @ 1:10 pm By: Gene Scarborough

I am a hard-working / well-educated / small businessman living now in America. I paid for my ticket with my house / all my retirement / all my tree surgery customers who can't afford to get needed work done in a busted economy.

The movie I paid dearly to attend was is entitled: "Conservative Takeover of America." It is a horror movie starting during the Reagan years and into today. I guess you might describe it also as a Docudrama.

The first act shows how conservative and religious folks were deceived by the Moral Majority and how other formerly good religious denominations were taken over by their conservative "lusters for power." They all got bulletin inserts to put in their Sunday-before-Election Day printed program. Strangely, the Republicans were depicted as sprouting halos and angel wings / the Democrats were growing horns and had tails and forks in hand!

The second part dealt with how rich and corporate heads worked behind-the-scenes to bring about their favoritism as Ronald Reagan sold "Trickle Down Economics" to the naive public~~~assuming him to be helpful to them. After all, he sold 20 Mule Team Borax and GE before he became Governor of California and then President.

The middle scene showed how all those favored by taxes built new enterprises overseas and did all their banking offshore. In that same chapter we had a monster Recession and 9/11--over which George W. Bush presided. At the same part suddenly 1% of Americans owned 80% of all the money in the economy. The Congress, unlike that of Franklin Roosevelt's era, "helped" only the rich and corps along with banks and investment firms to "get over their problems with working taxpayer money." Meanwhile, the working taxpayers still had to pay full price for GM cars when they actually owned 61% of that corp!

The final chapter covered how a dark-skinned man was elected as President and all the white and rich citizens refused to accept nor help him try to make things better after the white President made a bigger mess by leading the US to make war on Iraq over a lie about weapons of mass destruction--er, distraction. Meanwhile, the churches were still passing out those bulletin flyers at each service during the elections that followed. Somehow, the US did not take away their tax-exempt status over turning their 501(c)3 corps into profitable mega churches!

The last scene was in seca plain color --- of barbarians taking over the Roman Empire and burning all the books and "witches" that dared to oppose them. It morphed to Germany after WWII as the conservatives there burned books and cremated Jews, Gypsies, and the mentally afflicted citizens.

The end of the movie was preceded by a statement on the screen from Martin Nemoeller: "I kept quiet when they came for the Jews, because I was not a Jew. I still kept quiet when they came after all the intelligentsia and protesters, I was a common man of no protest. When they came for me there was no one left to utter a word."

I hate you missed the movie which cost me so much. Did you sneak in the special Conservative unlocked door for a free look? NO---you were in line for the latest animated feature entertaining with distracting blood and gore along with blood flowing in the streets --- it seems to me!

Commented: Sunday, November 23rd, 2014 @ 9:07 am By: Gene Scarborough

When I was growing up my uncles and cousins used to play a checker game called "Tough 'um move 'um / blow 'um jump." What it meant was that if an opponent put his checker so you had to jump into a triple death, you were stuck with making the move or he could blow your checker and take it anyway!

The President has just set things up (with total reference to the similarity to both Bush Presidencies' take on Immigration) so what are they gonna do ~~~ try and jump him or take the blow from his smiling lips????

Commented: Saturday, November 22nd, 2014 @ 2:33 pm By: Gene Scarborough

Thanks, Stan, for the help in making this come alive!

Commented: Saturday, November 22nd, 2014 @ 2:18 pm By: Gene Scarborough

The Networks are selling ads rather than bothering with politics in prime time. HOWEVER, they are following this cat fight now on EVERY NEWSCAST.

I bet their Nielson ratings for news are increased by some 20% so they can make up for losses in advertising after the election is over.

It is time now for voters to see if we get Progress or Regress with Congress gearing up to "control the monster." Already the old adversaries are threatening, but know they can't act immediately to put in a vote for Impeachment. They say they want to "Censure" the President. I suspect they can't do more than try to offset this cold winter with hot air.

I also bet Abraham Lincoln is smiling from above. He heard the same threats over his Emancipation Proclamation.

Commented: Saturday, November 22nd, 2014 @ 7:28 am By: Gene Scarborough

I shall reserve my "from the middle" comments until tomorrow at the least ~~~ possible 3 days as the ass kicking to Conservatives sinks in

Commented: Thursday, November 20th, 2014 @ 5:59 pm By: Gene Scarborough

Great story of caring ~~~ thanks for sharing.

A connection to Emory University Hospital for Ebola treatment and meds would really be a great "other project."

news.emory.edu

Commented: Thursday, November 20th, 2014 @ 10:32 am By: Gene Scarborough

Am I mistaken, but isn't Charlotte now a Republican-run city?

I totally agree that government, like wise parents, has to treat all its children equally ~~~ and go out of its way to make sure they understand just that!

Commented: Wednesday, November 19th, 2014 @ 10:23 am By: Gene Scarborough

What's with the survey and it's strong words with which I find I can't really vote?

I would encourage you to post about the recent Green Beret now making money on a book and becoming a public speaker for hire. He is saying, "I shot ben Laden twice in the head and watched him take his last breath."

I have a couple of good friends, one was in Viet Nam as a SEAL, the other is more contemporary and cannot divulge what he did. Both these brave men who sneak out of the dark and killed with their bear hands are bound by the code of silence over National Security matters.

This is the REAL contemporary issue, although we should never forget 9/11. Just don't use it as a tool to bash the current President. If George Bush were so great, why did he double --- by Executive Order --- the time to sequester any National Security Matter? It is still quite a few years until we can open the Archives on the Assassination of JFK. What does "W" and his fellow Conservatives have to hide for so long? Surely, it could not be an investigation into the fumbling of Intel which allowed 9/11 to happen.

My question still is: "How did 4 clearly hijacked commercial jets overfly the most densely air-based parts of this nation and not one single interceptor practiced the Standing Order to bring them down with whatever means necessary?" The jets launched went far out over the Atlantic Ocean and far away from the hijacked jets.

Commented: Wednesday, November 19th, 2014 @ 9:27 am By: Gene Scarborough

For some crazy reason the link in the article wants to come back to BCN. Let's try it this way and see what happens ~~~ bear with me and Stan, folks, "temporary network problems" as they say in TV-land!

www.rawstory.com

Commented: Tuesday, November 18th, 2014 @ 8:00 pm By: Gene Scarborough

The real secret to any economy is money flowing throughout its businesses. Our current tax code is based on a failed theory of "favor the rich and corps so that it trickles down to the bottom (minimum wage earners) and is healthy enough for expansion of self and production."

It has been years since Reagan sold this pig-in-a-poke to us and it clearly has failed. Slavery is supposed to be a thing of the past, but it isn't as long as the 1% own 80% of all money flowing in this economy. GREED is the goal right now, sad to say.

Commented: Monday, November 17th, 2014 @ 5:56 am By: Gene Scarborough

This is most insightful on the new ACO concept. Thanks.

It is done with a critical eye on what is trying to be put in place by the new "Obamacare" approach. Any new thing has its drawbacks and that is repaired as it it comes into use. Someone quipped that "a camel is a horse created by a Government Committee."

Here are the critical things for NC Healthcare right now: (1) Why did this state reject Medicaid funds already paid for with our citizens' federal taxes? (2) What impact does this have on rural healthcare addressed by the funds? (3) Belhaven is trying to put into practice an ACO and in a terrible dispute with Vidant Corporation over their withdrawal from their hospital takeover~~they now offer NO EMERGENCY CARE to the many citizens of Hyde County and eastern Beaufort County in this hooray!

The real problem, as I see it, is "medicine for bucks over service."

The other problem is NOT restricting and capping costs under the new National Healthcare program legislated to this point. Private Insurance is the "sharing of risks and costs." When costs are rising at 3-4 times inflation with "all things medical" ~~~ we have a problem UNLESS some caps to costs for Pharma / Hospitals / Doctors gets into the picture of providing a ministry under the Hippocratic Oath.

Commented: Sunday, November 16th, 2014 @ 12:09 pm By: Gene Scarborough

Stan, the more accurate words are PROGRESSIVE vs. REGRESSIVE, in my view.

I come from the Conservative takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. They used "liberal" to describe people of my friendship, but our word of "moderate" sounded so bland that it really didn't fit. We founded the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship with a word of cooperation as its core. That fits and is now growing where the old SBC is falling apart each year. They conserved NOTHING but hate and a mega church mentality.

The "Conservatives" of the SBC now are doing exactly what they accused us of ~~~ honoring women with a calling to preach. Ministering to homosexuals and other outcasts of society / sending missionaries with the Gospel and not a Fundamentalist pamphlet to jerk them to Jesus where only numbers of "converts" count is part of our task as well as letting women have their place in churchworld.

I would just appreciate your seeing this world in a more mature light of Progressive/Regressive dichotomy. You are like my grandpa's mules with blinders on, sad to say.

Commented: Sunday, November 16th, 2014 @ 11:41 am By: Gene Scarborough

Why do you always have to rant in such a fashion?

I am listening to the News Interview Programs this morning and it's not that simple by far. What amazes me most is we share the same concerns over the Regression of the last 15+ years and blame exact opposite causes for such.

I think Reaganomics is the cause of the economic collapse. You say that is long ago and far away, but I strongly disagree. You do not deny the collapse into Recession under George Bush. You continue to blame President Obama for it not being solved. I see a House of Representatives with majority of Republicans and the Tea Party blocking every move and calling it "Obummer's fault."

I refuse to be dismissive and openly hostile to Republicans. They have some good ideas as do the Democrats. The worst thing is refusal to compromise and acting as if the President is a Dictator~~~which no president is!

The working class is the ideal of success for America. Our forefathers left behind the control and wealth of the Old World to found an "experiment in democracy" where all men were created equal with the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

We may simply "agree to disagree" on certain matters. For you to continue to put out this hostile drivel is to demean only YOURSELF, Stan.

Commented: Sunday, November 16th, 2014 @ 10:50 am By: Gene Scarborough