Monday, November 4, 2024

Bee-otches of the Day: those who won't vote for Kamala Harris


Name: various
Ages: various
Occupations: various
Last Seen: various
Bee-otched For: not voting for Kamala


Once upon a time, if you had a problem in your house, a simple trip to the neighborhood True Value Hardware store was the perfect fix-all.

The local True Value store was owned by your neighbor, not shareholders. They had one job and one job only: to give you knowledgeable advice to fix those items around your house that needed fixing. Thanks to them, you could do everything from nailing a picture to your wall to seeding your lawn. To us Xennials, many of us remember those commercials featuring Pat Summerall and Willard Scott.

However, in recent years, True Value has been to hardware what Kmart was to retail. Some stores have switched over to either Ace or Do It Best (formerly Hardware Wholesalers, Inc. (HWI)) or have closed altogether. Some store owners had a gut feeling that True Value was finished. And they were right... for now.

Recently, True Value filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, blaming inflation and poor home sales. Apparently, many of its locations were notified months ago that the company was not doing well, and some stores even took the liberty of switching suppliers. True Value even announced that it was planning to sell itself to Do It Best, but nothing has been finalized.

The True Value name has been around since 1932, although the company traces its current roots to 1948 when John Cotter organized a co-op of 12 stores. The chain grew over the years, even acquiring other chains such as Value and Service (V&S), which they converted into a variety store chain that sold everything from arts and crafts to inexpensive toys and magazines. True Value sold V&S in 1996 to the similar Ben Franklin chain. In 1997, True Value merged with ServiStar to become the TruServ Corporation. However, by the early 2000s, True Value began suffering from mismanagement, and over the years, many longtime affiliates switched to other wholesalers.

In Grand Rapids, Kingsland Hardware was a True Value member but switched to Ace about 20 years ago. Currently, Ivanrest Hardware in Grandville is the only True Value store in the immediate Grand Rapids area.

In 2018, True Value was sold to private equity firm ACON Investments, whose assets include Igloo coolers, Goody hair care products, New Era caps, Borden Dairy, Spencer's gift shops, Spirit Halloween, and Funko, known for its pop culture bobbleheads. Recently, True Value launched a series of television ads that I've only seen online so far. In these ads, they have reverted to their old oval logo with the tagline "Hardware Hero" with a matching jingle set to Foreigner's 1981 butt-rock anthem "Juke Box Hero."

However, like any private equity firm, ACON seems to want to blame everyone but itself for the failure of its business. Ditto with Red Lobster, which claimed that its "Endless Shrimp" promotions threw the restaurant chain into bankruptcy. The truth was that when Darden Restaurants, the company that founded Red Lobster, sold the chain off in 2014, it decided to sell 500 of its buildings to a firm called American Realty Capital Partners, which leased them out to whoever owned Red Lobster at the time. At the time of its bankruptcy, Red Lobster's parent company, Thai Union, which also owned Chicken of the Sea and King Oscar sardines, was paying $200 million annually in rent, which was a bigger factor in its failure than a bunch of fat guys sucking down a few hundred shrimp in one sitting.

Granted, I have very little against True Value's actual stores. One of my best hardware experiences was at Mattson's True Value in Howard City, 30 miles north of Grand Rapids. Many years ago, the plug to my Sirius receiver broke off in my car's cigarette lighter. I tried to have a guy at a local Radio Shack here in Grand Rapids fix it, but he wanted me to buy a whole new system. I was stuck with bland Grand Rapids radio to Howard City. Thankfully, I went to Mattson's, a Radio Shack retailer, and they rigged together a plug that ultimately fixed my radio problems for less than $10. Sadly, my receiver didn't last much longer, but Sirius equipment is pure junk as it is.

Today, Mattson's is still there, but all references to True Value have been removed from their building. But, they are still listed as a True Value location. I wonder if the family knew that trouble was ahead for True Value. Usually, when a family-owned store removes all references to their suppliers from their building, it means that they might be not in good standing with them. 

It's funny that earlier, I mentioned Funko and Spirit Halloween, which is a chain of stores known for leasing out abandoned storefronts. Funko products are sold not just at the previously mentioned Spencer's, but another shopping mall staple, Hot Topic. Years ago, Hot Topic was the place where those who hated boy bands and slutty pop singers could buy shirts that read "NSuck" and "Spear Britney". Plus, they sold clothes that promoted cool rock bands of the day and other awesome goodies.

However, Hot Topic went public in 1996 and, in 2013, was bought out by private equity firm Sycamore Partners, which also owns department store Belk, plus-size women’s retailer Torrid, and Staples, the office supply chain whose name once christened the arena where the Los Angeles Lakers play. Over the years, Hot Topic went from counterculture to proudly selling Justin Bieber CDs and being an epicenter for anything Japanese manga. 

Recently, Hot Topic received some unwanted controversy when most of their workers at their location at the Apache Mall in Rochester, Minnesota walked off the job. A sign on the store's entrance gate read, "Almost all of our staff walked out due to the inability of the Hot Topic Company to support and give a living wage. We cannot support ourselves and our families. We have worked so hard and cannot do this any longer. You cannot pay your workers in passion. Sorry for the inconvenience."

It's worth noting that Sycamore is a $10 billion company, yet judging by that sign, they don't want to pay their employees a living wage. The same goes for other private equity firms like Roark Capital, who own dozens of restaurant chains such as Arby's, Subway, Carl's Jr./Hardee's, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Dunkin' Donuts, to name a few. Several years ago, the company lobbied Congress to stop talking about raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour. And yet, that firm's assets are about $37 billion, while many of their fast food workers only make $10 per hour!

What's nauseating is that when Red Lobster and True Value filed for bankruptcy, people on social media were quick on the trigger to blame one person: President Biden. They blame him because the price of everyday items is going up due to inflation. In reality, the owners of both companies were private equities that blamed their failures on leftist politics and not greed. 

Look at groceries. When I was a little boy in rural Antrim County in northern Michigan in the 80s, our family had to drive for several miles for food. If we went south to Elk Rapids, there was a mid-sized Spartan Store (Village Market) and a small IGA (Ed and Son's). If we went north to Eastport on US-31, there was a Viking Food store, Eastport Foods, that was in between the sizes of the Elk Rapids stores. Since my family worked and went to school in Elk Rapids, going to Eastport was a rarity. 

Today, Ed and Son's is long gone and the main IGA distributor for Michigan, Alpena's Great North Foods has gone out of business. Eastport Foods is now Eastport Market and has long been expanded and remodeled. Viking Foods was bought out by Wisconsin-based Roundy's in 1989. Roundy's also bought out Illinois-based Scot-Lad in 1984 and merged their operations. However, Roundy's got out of the distribution business in the early 2000s. Apparently, most of their stores were now affiliated with a company that had a distribution hub in Bridgeport, by Saginaw. That company was Nash Finch. And as many in the grocery business know, Spartan and Nash merged in 2013. 

However, Eastport Market is not with SpartanNash, but with Associated Wholesale Grocers (AWG), which supply the Best Choice and Always Save brands. Meanwhile, Village Market is still a SpartanNash store, and unlike Ed and Son's and Eastport Market is still owned by the same man who purchased the store 50 years ago this year, Rick Young. 

Now, instead of four major grocery suppliers in Michigan, there are just two: SpartanNash and AWG. Plus, the mom-and-pop stores that they supply have to compete with big box giants like Meijer and Walmart and even those elephants in the room known as Dollar General and Family Dollar. Of course, grocery stores have come and gone over the decades. Most baby boomers and older will fondly remember getting their groceries from the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P), which had stores in towns big and small over 50 years ago. 

And by the way, Biden was not our President back then. 

The same goes for gas and oil. Over the years, oil companies have merged to the point that there are only a few companies that control gas prices. People cry that it's Biden's fault that gas prices are too damn high and that under Drumpf, it was affordable. But let's remember that part of the reason why prices were low then was due to the pandemic, which Drumpf obviously did not handle well at all. 

Earlier this year, it was announced that Marathon Oil was being sold to ConocoPhillips for $22.5 billion in stock. Here in Michigan, there are a ton of Marathon stations, most of them are independently owned. Coincidentally enough, Marathon was once part of the monopoly known as Standard Oil. When the government forced Standard to break up in 1911, the company ran on its own, even being owned by US Steel from 1982 until 2001. Meanwhile, ConocoPhillips is one of the largest oil companies in the world and helps determine what gas prices are, not the President of the United States. The company is worth nearly $100 billion, Shell is worth over $400 billion, BP is worth $280 billion, and ExxonMobil is worth $380 billion. Recently, it was announced that Japanese-owned convenience store giant 7-Eleven was closing over 400 locations. No word on if any of them are their Speedway gas stations, which have a heavy presence in the Grand Rapids area. Within a two-mile radius from where I live, there are three of them!

Also here in Grand Rapids, there are a ton of pharmacies that have closed. Close to me at 52nd and Eastern, the CVS closed last Halloween. As of now, construction crews are working on the building; what they are turning it into is anyone's guess. I remembered talking to an employee at that CVS and they claimed that the company was focusing more on their relationship with Target and less on their individual stores. Rite Aid, on the other hand, filed for bankruptcy and has closed most of its locations here in the state. Walgreens also announced that they would be closing some 1,200 locations recently. Years ago in Elk Rapids, Walgreens proposed building a location there, but the residents all cried NIMBY since they are not fans of chain stores. Today, the village has two drug stores, including Village Drugs, which has been filling scripts since 1901. 

It's worth noting that ER once had an A&P for 30 years at the corner of River and Dexter. It closed in 1968 because their bigger stores were far more profitable. A former manager at that store bought it and converted it into an IGA, which finally closed in 1974. Coincidentally, the A&P/IGA was in the same building as the town's hardware store, which closed in the early 2000s after being in business for over 100 years. There's an interesting story as to why its fate was sealed: over 30 years ago, Elk Rapids had three hardware stores. They were Elk Rapids Pro Hardware (the century-old store), Alden Lumber (affiliated with Golden Rule Lumber, which is now part of Do It Best), and HWI-affiliated Morrison Lumber. In the mid-90s, Morrison's was sold to a local builder named Ron Shaw who almost immediately decided that the old downtown lumberyard needed to be replaced. So, he built a new, state-of-the-art hardware and lumber and a plaza next door that housed several businesses, such as B.C. Pizza, Horizon Video, and the biggest fast food chain to ever come to Elk Rapids, Subway. The old lumberyard was demolished for what is now a Huntington Bank branch. The hardware and lumber was now known as Hometown Hardware and they had other locations in Traverse City, Gaylord, and Petoskey to name a few. 

As it turned out, Hometown's owner was a Jebus freak. In the late 1990s, he was a member of New Hope Community Church, located several miles south of Elk Rapids off US-31. The church's pastor, David Standfest begged his followers to give him $1.7 million on just one Sunday. Two members donated the most: Shaw and Nick Ascione, who owned Nick's Restaurant in Kalkaska. Nick's was demolished... for a Rite Aid that's now closed. 

Shaw ended up selling Hometown to Gill-Roy's Hardware, a chain based in Flushing, a suburb of Flint. Today, Gill-Roy's has 40 locations, all in Michigan except for one in Georgia. Gill-Roy's is known for buying up small hardware stores and slapping its name on them. Despite all this, many rave about the good service at the Elk Rapids Gill-Roy's. Their closest location to Grand Rapids is in Hamilton, over by Holland.

Stores have been coming and going since the beginning of time. Take a look at this list of Spartan Stores in northern Michigan from 1960: 


(Note: you might need to right-click on the image and click on "Open image in new tab".)

Now, some of those stores are still in business. Dingman's Food Market in Central Lake is now Merrie's Market (whose owner ironically also owns a chain of True Value stores). Don's Super Market in Elk Rapids is now the aforementioned Village Market. Ebel's Grocery in Falmouth is not only thriving, but they also bought out the old Vic's Super Market in Reed City, demolished it, and built a newer and nicer store in its spot. N.J.'s in Lake Leelanau is still strong after 114 years. Leland Mercantile has been around longer with 118 years. Shelby's Cherry Hill Super Market is still proudly supplying that town's citizens, though it's no longer with Spartan, but with Associated Wholesale Grocers and their Best Choice brand. 

As expected, not all the stores listed are still in business. For example, Angell's Super Market in Alden (and yes, Alden had other stores than Higgin's, which started out as a drug store, believe it or not). It started in the early 20th century in the Carter's Candles building, which also housed Mr. Angell's brother's hardware store. In 1948, Angell moved his grocery to the building across the street, which now houses Harvey's Trading Company, a clothing store. In the 60s, Angell retired and sold his store to a young couple, who flipped it to IGA. In the 70s, they sold it again to another couple who flipped it again to Viking. By the late 70s, they wanted a bigger store and one that didn't just serve Alden, but two towns that didn't have regular grocers: Torch River (Dan Way's Market, which was a Spartan Store, is AWOL from this list; that store sold in the 70s and became a party store called "The Marketplace" and again to Village Market's Rick Young in 1981. However by then, Spartan refused to supply that store due to its small size; it is now Fabiano's Torch River Party Store) and Rapid City, which never had a full-service supermarket. They ended up opening a newer and bigger grocery store in 1980, which became Alden Foods. Rick Young bought that store in 1990 and converted it into a Village Market. 

Granted, many of these grocers were indeed a small minnow in a huge pond of bigger stores and have since ringed up their last sale. Thrift Super Market in East Jordan was bought out by Glen's, who later built a newer store in town. It later became (surprise) a True Value and is now (bigger surprise) a Gill-Roy's. Shooks Economy Market in Ellsworth was in at least two buildings that I knew about, and both have been demolished (the store's founder was rumored to be a founder of Associated Grocers, which Spartan bought out in the 50s). Today, Ellsworth has no grocer and relies on a Dollar General to get its people by until a bigger shopping is needed (I'm not sure what the deal was with Vander Ark's and Atwood Thrift Market was actually in Atwood, which has no postal code; it's now an antique store). Pleva's in Cedar is now a Polish Museum, Ely's in Beulah is now a party store, Hank's in Fountain is now a gas station/convenience store, C&O in Mesick was demolished in the 60s for a more-modern supermarket (which later became Ken's IGA and then flipped back to Spartan as Mesick Market), and sadly, Maxbauer's in Traverse City - which dropped Spartan some years back - closed their doors earlier this year.

And there are the stores that have been demolished: Davies in Bellaire, Deering's in Empire, Neff's in Charlevoix, Dickerson's in Indian River (which was bought out by young employee Ken Swadling in 1968 and became Ken's Village Market, which moved to its current location some years later), Super A.G. in Lake City (which became an A&P and lastly an IGA), Harrison's in Manton, and the Oleson's on State Street in Traverse City, which was knocked down for a parking lot. And there were a few that burned down: Smallegan Smith in Central Lake became an IGA in the 60s and flipped to Viking in the 70s. It burned down in the 80s and a bank was built there. Bishop's in Elberta burned down in the 80s (though they're literally down the street from the Family Fare in Frankfort, whose Fairchild's burned in 1973; that Family Fare was an old A&P and has maintained some of its 1960s design). Also in 1973, the Glen's in Kalkaska burned to the ground; it was the chain's second location (founder Glen Catt grew up there). Thankfully, a new store - currently the town's Family Fare - opened a year later. Jabara's in Mancelona closed in 1971, unable to compete with Johnson's IGA (now where Family Dollar stands). Glen's came to town right around that time, first operating in the old A&P store (now the Ellsworth Farmers' Exchange, which also maintained the old school A&P design) and then building their current location in 1974, which is now - you guessed it - Family Fare. After it closed, the Jabara's building became a few other different businesses, including a pizzeria. Sadly, about 30 years ago, that building and the whole triangular block at US-131 and State and Maple Streets were destroyed in a fire caused by a natural gas leak. At the time, most of that block was occupied by Johnson's Furniture. Dame's in Northport was also destroyed by fire in 1988 but was rebuilt. Store founder Eldon Dame sold the store shortly afterward and died soon after. It became a Tom's in 1993. Kenny's in Onekama had been in that village since 1887 but was sold in 1978 to Ray Franz, who flipped it to IGA. Sadly, in 1990, the store burned down, but Franz rebuilt. He sold it when he became a Michigan House member in 2010. After two failed owners, it is back to being a SpartanNash affiliate as EZMarket, owned by Blarney Castle Oil, which also owns the EZ Marts and Louie's Markets up north. Last but not least, the original Jack's in Traverse City burned in 1978 and became a popular party store that recently closed.

Some of the stores I'm unable to truly identify, or have little info on the internet, except that they are indeed closed, like Boyne City Superette, Bill's Superette in Filer City, Brastrom's in Harrietta (I did see a picture of a Clover Farm Store there, so I wonder if it was them), and Snow's in Walkerville, though I know that they were a general store. From the 1960s until the early 2000s, that tiny town had M&M Spartan Store, owned by Max and Mary Knowles. They had a hardware department, which made me wonder if it was Snow's. Eventually, the Knowles family sold the store which would become Kar's Market, and closed some time after, leaving Walkerville without a suitable grocer. 

The truth is that NONE of these stores closed because of Biden. They closed because of various factors, such as some mega store opening down the road that sold milk for 99 cents as opposed to $2.99. When Foster's Super Market in Lake City closed a few years ago, the owner blamed a roof he had to replace and locals going to Walmart or Meijer. According to the comments on social media, Mr. Foster was simply a jerk. And no, Biden had nothing to do with their closure. Today, Foster's is now Roger's, which is based in the tiny Alpena-area town of Glennie. That chain, which started in the owner's father's tiny IGA store, has experienced major growth in the past several years. 

There are reasons for grocers that fail. Competition from big box stores, store size, and ownership matters are all reasons. Not Biden. Here in my neck of the woods in Grand Rapids, I live between two Meijers, two Targets, a Walmart, and two Aldis. In terms of a traditional grocery store, there's a Family Fare, but I rarely go there. The Big Lots by me was an old Duthler's, but that closed. There's also a Planet Fitness in my neck of the woods that was once a Family Fare that closed ten years ago. Family Fare also closed a store on Breton Road a few years ago. I shopped there in the past and bought an expired item. Usually, expired items are a barometer of things to come at any grocery store. 

Two of the giant elephants in the room have long been Dollar General and Family Dollar. Several of the towns on the 1960 Spartan list—i.e., Ellsworth, Empire, Manton, McBain, and Vanderbilt—no longer have a full-service grocery store. But all except Empire have a dollar store or two. In Empire’s case, the small town of 362 once had a few versions of Deering’s Food Market. The one on the list was in business from 1947 until 2018. According to the family, competition from Traverse City and other area towns played a major role in its closure. They ended up selling the 7,000-square-foot store to Joe’s Friendly Tavern next door (which was also founded by store founder Mark Deering, who died in 2016 at the tender age of 100), who demolished the store for outdoor seating.

However, DG felt that they had a license to build a store in Empire because of the lack of a proper grocer. But the community came out in droves to tell them NIMBY. Today, the closest thing to a grocery store Empire has is the EZ Mart convenience store.

Central Lake nearly lost its grocery store due to DG. In 2011, Rick Young's children, son Kevin and daughter Kelly, purchased the old Dingman's Market, which became Central Food Center in 1968 when it was sold to two partners. At the time, they had a store in Bellaire (now Bellaire True Value) and wanted to focus on that store. One of the partners sold his share to another, and his son took over the store in 1990. That man, Gene Plaggemars, retired and sold the store to the Youngs in 2011. Kevin and Kelly wanted to expand the 8,000-square-foot store, but the village rejected that idea. The store lost money, and Kelly sold her share to Kevin. The store was finally starting to break even when DG came to town and took its business. When they announced their "Going Out of Business" sale, Chris and Merrie Corbett, who own the chain of True Values, bought the store and renamed it Merrie's Market. And if you did the math already, yes, the former Dingman's Markets are not co-owned again (the Bellaire location moved farther out on M-88 in 1986 and is now Family Fare).

However, in fairness, DG does have its advantages regarding small towns. Up the road from Central Lake is Ellsworth. In the early ’90s, that town of 367 had two grocery stores and a Pro Hardware store. Eventually, the hardware store closed, as did Shooks Market. In 1994, Ellsworth Viking Foods, the town’s largest grocer, downsized to a convenience store because of poor sales. After years of being bought and sold many times, it became Needmore Storage a few years ago, putting the possibility of any type of grocer in town in doubt. The town’s gas station is also the local farmers’ co-op, which carries little or no food. Not long afterward, DG came to town, so at least the locals don’t have to drive all the way to East Jordan, Charlevoix, Central Lake, or elsewhere for essentials.

Dollar General stores are definitely hit or miss. Some are newer and clean, while others were converted from other stores. Here in Grand Rapids, the DG on Division by 44th Street used to be the old Gordy's Supermarket. Over in Saranac, the old Adgate Supermarket is now a DG. In Martin, their DG is a new building, although it's on the site of the old Boysen's Supermarket. In Kentwood, the DG on Eastern by 52nd is in a strip mall and looks like a hurricane went through it. I went in there recently, and they still had Easter decorations up! I even told someone there, and they told me they didn’t have a ladder to reach the ceiling. The store is cramped, and there are always boxes all over the place. Right next to this DG is an abandoned Family Video, and next to that at the intersection is a former CVS that's being renovated. I wonder if DG will move into one of those buildings.

The biggest problem with DG is that they are always understaffed and, allegedly, the pay is terrible. Plus, workers—like most retailers—cannot work a millisecond over 40 hours. I heard that the minimum wage at many DGs is $11 per hour. I bet you the reason for the poor pay is because they have some 20,000 locations and are still growing. I also see that they are opening more DG Markets, which are full-service grocers, complete with meats and produce, plus the usual cheap items DG sells.

I'm from the Traverse City area and yes, I was saddened by the news that Macy's is closing their store at Grand Traverse Mall. Back in the 90s, the mall was one of the few places up north where one could spend a full Saturday and still be entertained hours later. It had a massive Pocket Change Arcade, plus, a nine-screen cinema and 100 stores that sold a little bit of everything. However, the mall's owner, General Growth Properties, went bankrupt in 2009. Two years later, GGP spun Grand Traverse Mall to Rouse Properties. In 2018, Brookfield Properties bought out both GGP and Rouse. Eventually, they sold many of their properties to other firms, including Kohan Retail Investment Group, which is known for mismanaging their malls. Recently, Brookfield sold their mall in the Grand Rapids area, Rivertown Crossings to POAG Development after years of mismanagement. Today in the state of Michigan, they only own two malls: Grand Traverse Mall and Southland Center in Taylor, a downriver suburb of Detroit, which they announced is for sale.

When Grand Traverse Mall opened in 1992, Traverse City did have Cherryland Mall down the road, which had Sears, KMart, Younkers, Tom's Food Market, plus some 40 stores. But, it was built in 1976 and was somewhat outdated for the times. General Growth felt that the area needed a good-sized mall that didn't just attract locals, but had a downstate feel as well. So, they bought out Oleson's buffalo farm and built Grand Traverse Mall, which had more than twice the stores than Cherryland and twice the size. It was the biggest mall within a 100-mile radius and people would drive from all points north to do good shopping.

And then came the internet. 

As the years passed by, Grand Traverse Mall saw stores leave, including current mall staples like Journey's, Foot Locker, Hollister, and H&M. The movie theater closed when owner Carmike Cinemas decided to build the new Cherry Blossom Cinema at Buffalo Ridge. Recently, that development took the mall's TJ Maxx store, which is now in the old Bed Bath and Beyond. Pocket Change left the mall and was replaced with several failed restaurants such as Garfield's, Bagger Dave's, and Agave Mexican Grill. Today, they are Frida's Mexican Grill, the sole sit-down restaurant at the mall, especially since longtime staple Jonathan B. Pub closed after the owner retired. 

Today, Grand Traverse Mall has 48 stores, though they list 62, which include vending machines, ATMs, and offices. Granted, they still have decent stores, such as Hot Topic, Spencer's, Old Navy, FYE, and Victoria's Secret, but only time will tell how long those stores will even want to stay in the mall, especially since both TJ Maxx and Macy's are on one side of the mall while Target and JCPenney are on another.

For years, most of the Target wing was vacant. As it turned out, GGP was going to remodel that section of the mall in the late '00s. The story was that they were trying to lure Dunham's to the mall, probably from the old Giantway Plaza on Munson Avenue. So, they told those stores to vacate; as a matter of fact, Spencer's moved to their current location across from Hot Topic and Auntie Anne's moved to a kiosk. Well, somewhere along the way, the deal fell through and the cinema moved out. The mall tried to attract Dick's Sporting Goods, but (bad joke alert) Dick's pulled out. So, Dunham's was back in and they built their new store where the cinema and several smaller shops used to be. As for the abandoned shops by Target, they all were replaced with Shoe Dept., a successful shoe store chain that sadly supports so-called "pro-life" causes. 

Granted, when Rouse purchased the mall for $66 million in 2012, they tried their damnedest to revitalize it. They lured H&M, a new local bookstore called Bookbrokers (the mall previously had a B. Dalton where Carter's is now), and Victoria's Secret was remodeled. But yes, they also lost several stores due to bankruptcy, such as Express, Vitamin World, Justice, Christopher and Banks, and a few others. 

And yes, some in the Grand Traverse region are crying that it's Biden's fault that the once-prosperous mall is now failing. In fact, after the 2008 economic collapse that was caused by the idiotic policies of Dubya, the area itself started seeing itself as just another Florida where the only people who could afford to live there were the elderly.

Perhaps that's why when it was announced that Drumpf was running a little late for his rally in Traverse City recently, many in the crowd at Cherry Capital Airport stood up and left. The rally was supposed to start at 7:30 p.m., but he was still in Austin, Texas, because of an interview conducted by Joe Rogan. He finally arrived in TC at 10:30 p.m.

Of course, many, such as Jill Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Harris's VP pick, Tim Walz, have all visited northern Michigan to stump for Kamala. As a matter of fact, Sanders's audience at Northwestern Michigan College was standing room only. It's unknown if the Vice President will actually visit Traverse City, but she did lambaste Drumpf for being three hours late to his rally there.

With a population of 16,000, Traverse City used to be the last town in America that any president would ever want to visit. But the last three sitting presidents have. Dubya visited in 2004, Drumpf visited twice, and Biden came to town in 2021 to enjoy some Moomer's Ice Cream and then traveled up to King Orchards in Central Lake to buy some cherry pies. The last time a sitting president came to northern Michigan was Michigan native Gerald Ford in 1975 when he appeared at the Cherry Festival. Before that was way back in 1930 when Herbert Hoover came to town. 

Undoubtedly, Michigan is a swing state, and Drumpf knows that northern Michigan, an area notoriously famous for being loaded with former big-city folk who left Detroit and other towns to get away from the "n"s, is his people. But northern Michigan tends not to be a top priority for high-ranking people, celebrities included. After all, northern Michigan has had a long history of concert cancellations due to poor ticket sales, or in rapper T.I.'s case, watching his daughter perform at the BET Awards.

A few years ago on his show, Howard Stern made it clear. Drumpf is successful because he knows that he needs to reach the people who would never be allowed to go to Mar-A-Lago. He knows his supporters have low IQs and low-paying jobs if they have them at all. Sometimes, you need to get yourself into the gutter to get on top. That's why the Mafia is so successful and so are garbage men. Northern Michigan has had a long history of being a turn-off for 20 and 30-somethings because of the lack of decent jobs and education. NMC -- mentioned earlier -- does offer a few four-year degrees, but it's no University of Michigan, Michigan State University, or even Grand Valley State University. Because of this, the area does have some leftists, but it's also loaded with old people and worse, drunks. The area is known for its amount of drunk driving arrests, thus the nickname "Tragic City". Plus, the average citizen of TC only makes around $37,000 per year, yet property up north can be prohibitively expensive. Here in Grand Rapids, it's $33,000 yearly, but housing is a lot cheaper, depending on where you want to live. 

Many who work in TC tend to live out in the country in part due to a lower cost of living. My parents were shining examples. As a matter of fact, when my father moved out of my childhood home in 2000, he sold it to an older couple from the Detroit area who had hoped to get a decent job where I grew up and where they now lived. They did not, and the house fell into foreclosure. The house next door, which was a lot bigger, also fell into bank ownership and ended up selling for a meager $102,000. Not shabby for a house with two floors, four bedrooms and I think two bathrooms. 

Just two days after the rally that almost wasn't, Drumpf held a mega rally at New York's Madison Square Garden. Every seat in the house was packed with his MAGA faithful and even some Z-list celebs. Sadly, having a good sense of humor doesn't seem to be important to Drumpf's people. No-name comic Tony Hinchcliffe angered many when he joked that Puerto Rico was "a floating island of trash in the middle of the ocean". You know, in all my years working at my job, one of the nicest ladies I've ever worked with was a Puerto Rican. Tragically, she was royally fucked over by my ex-boss and a machine operator who wanted her to fail miserably. Sadly, she quit and I haven't heard from her since, and this was almost 20 years ago. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of our nation's best Congresspeople is Puerto Rican. So is Rosario Dawson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jose Feliciano, and yes, J-Lo. Bad Bunny even told his fans to vote for Kamala. But since Drumpf's idea of aiding PR after they got hit with a hurricane was to throw paper towels at them, having a hack poke fun at them is to be expected. 

Also at the rally was none other than washed-up wrestler Hulk Hogan, who made headlines several years ago for using the n-word multiple times in a private conversation caught on tape. He was fired from the WWE, only to be reinstated after wrestling fans pointed out that now-former boss Vince McMahon used that very word on an old episode of Monday Night Raw. After Hogan, Dr. Phil McGraw took the stage and rambled about bullying, something Drumpf is known for doing. Speaking of bullies, it turns out that Dr. Phil now owns his own TV network called Merit Street. Guess who's helping to distribute that very channel? Why, it's none other than the Trinity Broadcasting Network, who's putting MS on the subchannels of their stations. Funny how Dr. Phil often taught women how to fight abuse and rapists and now he's using the services of an organization that swept the drugging and rape of their founders' 13-year-old granddaughter by a 30-year-old male employee in a hotel room in 2006 under the rug. What's also sad is that neither Dr. Phil nor Dr. Oz would be nothing without Oprah and she's on the Kamala bandwagon.

Drumpf took the stage and it was pure vitriol from the get-go. He repeated his remarks about illegal aliens and Springfield, Ohio, plus made the bullshit claim about not taxing those who work overtime. To me, what he's doing is trying to convince Americans that OT is a good thing as opposed to the one thing that needs to happen: RAISE THE FUCKING MINIMUM WAGE TO $15 PER HOUR! To me, a lot of employers use OT as a blatant excuse to not give their employees a much-deserved raise; my ex-boss was a shining example. 

Many are comparing the rally to a Nazi rally at MSG in 1939, where 20,000 attended. A mural of George Washington with swastikas was presented at the rally, with one of its speakers yelling that if Washington was alive that day, he'd be friends with Hitler. It was presented as a "pro-American" rally, kinda like Drumpf's rallies. 

Eighty-five years later, it's scary to see that the things that Drumpf stands for are in fashion for many. They bragged about "preserving the First Amendment", yet, Republicans have had a long, horrible history of wanting to take that out of the Constitution. After all, they made it illegal to say the word "fuck" on regular broadcast TV, they tried to ban rock music in the 1980s, they increased FCC indecency fines in the 2000s because of Janet Jackson's accidental nip-slip during the Super Bowl Halftime Show, they've pulled books out of libraries and so on. Sorry, but to me, the Repukes - Drumpf included - are not friends of the First Amendment. The Second Amendment, however, is a different story. 

Folks, I've told you for years. I've never voted Republican and I never will. My father, a Drumpf diehard, has even tried to get me to vote for him. Sorry, but I've seen what Rethuglican leadership does. I fondly remember the bad 'ol days of seeing too many people in their 50s working at Walmart instead of their intended job because the Repukes shipped their jobs overseas. I don't want to be another statistic, having to make chicken-shit wages and having to dive into my retirement to get by. I've seen it happen to one of my uncles. He's now 68 and still working at Meijer because he had to use his retirement after he got fired from an auto dealership in his 50s. 

The people who believe in Drumpf's bullshit all believe that lies are truth. It's sad that I came from the county where all the conspiracy theories about Drumpf winning the 2020 election started. The county clerk, Sheryl Guy only noticed the errors made after she accidentally revealed that Biden had won Antrim County, a place that's long been a Republican stronghold. She recently told NBC that it broke her heart, considering that she herself is a Republican who voted for Drumpf twice. She wanted to retire but decided to put herself back into the race only because the woman who wants her job, Victoria Bishop is an election denier. Bishop, 78, is the wife of a convicted felon, talk radio host, and former Antrim County Republican Party chairman "Trucker Randy" Bishop. Mrs. Bishop owns radio station WCHY 97.7 in Cheboygan, which airs Randy's show, Your Defending Fathers. Randy cannot own WCHY since the FCC has banned felons from holding radio licenses. He's also pro-gun, though he cannot own one. 

Because of Guy's error, it led to a wave of denial from her fellow Republicans. Everything from January 6th to another felon, Dinesh D'Souza, producing the lie-filled flick "2000 Mules" where he claimed that Biden's voters were all part of a group of people who used fake people and even the dead to elect him. D'Souza and a group of hosts from the ultra-right-wing Salem Radio Network watched footage of people inserting multiple ballots in a box, some with gloves. Ummmm... ever heard of COVID-19, Dinesh? Honestly, if I lived in Antrim County, I would be pissed if I had to choose between a Repuke or an even worse Repuke.

However, the Dems are on Guy's side because she's now running as an independent write-in. I visited the Antrim County Democratic Party headquarters in Elk Rapids recently and they were handing out signs for Guy. I even asked the lady there and we talked about how evil the Bishops are. Hell, I hate seeing Vicki's photo, which looks like it was taken by Glamour Shots, the long-defunct store at shopping malls that made one look, well, glamorous. 

Folks, I love women. That's another reason why I voted for Kamala. I was disgusted when Drumpf stacked the Supreme Court with far-rightists who ended up telling millions of women that they're fucked. The infant mortality rate has risen tremendously because of the revocation of Roe V. Wade. Women and their doctors have been thrown in jail all because if the woman didn't have her abortion, her life would be in danger. And yes, too many women have died because they live in a state where abortion was made illegal, even if the woman's life was endangered. 

As I mentioned in another BOTD, Drumpf is a fan of the monstrosity known as Project 2025. It was written by the far-right Heritage Foundation, which wants the next President of the United States to do everything from force schools to stop teaching slavery to force public schools to teach religion to outlaw abortion outright and outlaw pornography. Sad, considering that Drumpf banged a porn star and paid her hush money, plus the fact that he went into the dressing room of his beauty pageants while the girls were naked, and the fact that he groped women.

I watched some of Drumpf's shitshow at MSG and cringed at his speakers talking about him "protecting the First Amendment". Yet, I heard about him wanting to go after Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert for mocking him on their shows. Hell, he wants to severely fine NBC, ABC, and CBS for only reporting the bad things he's done.

When I hear about what Drumpf wants for us Americans, the more I think about this country being run by the Russians, or worse, like Hitler. And whom else does he unleash his hatred onto, but the gullible. People who think that giving their paycheck to some preacher worth hundreds of millions of dollars will help the world's problems, who think that people of color are the problem, who think billionaires like Elon Musk are our friends, and so on is the problem! We can't have anything nice because of stupid people! 

I'm not very religious, but, sadly, the Jebus freaks look up to Drumpf as their savior. Kinda odd that they worship a man who told a rich man that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to Heaven. The right cries about the left's wealthy, such as Taylor Swift and Oprah, but both are in the poor house compared to Elon Musk, the Waltons, and the Kochs. Wealthy people control this country, and many of them like Musk got it from inheritance. This is why I'm particular when it comes to what I buy and support. I prefer Costco over Walmart or even Meijer because they treat their workers well. Same with Aldi. We need to stop supporting companies that screw over American workers and support those that give them a quality of life.

In closing, tomorrow - if you still need to vote - you have a choice. Move forward or backward. If you want good-paying jobs, women’s rights, better healthcare, and an overall strong economy vote for Kamala. But if you want this nation to end in disaster while the wealthy get a nice, fat tax cut, you know the drill. Ditto if you don't want to vote or if you want to vote for a third-party candidate like Jill Stein or Kamau Bell. A vote for them is a vote for Drumpf. 

I've said enough. Vote. And tell 'em King Chuck sent ya.



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Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!

CHUCK69.COM IS ALWAYS ON!


Friday, October 11, 2024

Bee-otch of the Day: Duane Vander Klok


Name: Duane Vander Klok
Age: 71
Occupation: bible thumper
Last Seen: Grandville, MI
Bee-otched For: mixing oil and water


According to their website, Resurrection Life Church was founded in 1967 by Pastor James E. Bugg in a motel conference room in Grandville. 

Now, the only thing that the church has shortened is its name. 

ResLife Church is one of the largest houses of worship in the Grand Rapids area today. It is headed by the Reverend Duane Vander Klok, whose church attracts over 7,000 attendees every Sunday. Vander Klok is also a televangelist whose show, Walking By Faith, airs on several TV stations in Michigan and GOD TV, a British-based religious channel with an American version that also features Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, and other televangelists who solicit donations.

Vander Klok is proving why many people are moving away from religion. 

In a recent sermon, the pastor raised eyebrows when he told his parishioners that the devil was a homosexual and people must flee from the Democratic Party. 

During the speech, Vander Klok made comparisons between the Republicans and Democrats. "Here’s God’s original design: one man, one woman," he said. "Should you vote for a party that’s for all sorts of sexual perversion? Vote for a party that accepts transgenders into women’s restrooms and showers and in sports? Should you vote for a party that wants to cut off little girls’ breasts and tell them they're a boy? The antichrist is a homosexual," he said. "It’s part of the antichrist spirit is sexual confusion."

Vander Klok also trashed the Dems for their treatment of Israel and abortion. 

ResLife has become political before. In 2020, the church invited Trump's son, Eric, to use them to push his father's presidential campaign. In 2015, the church made headlines when it refused to return money stolen by a Ponzi scheme that had been given to it.

Vander Klok is also an author. For fun, I've read some of his excerpts and groaned when I saw that he wrote something along the lines of "This world would be a better place if we could rid it of bigotry, racism, pornography..." etc. When I read that, it reminded me of the anti-drug commercials I saw as a young boy where they grouped marijuana in the same category as heroin, crack, and cocaine. But unlike those three, cannabis has never killed anyone.

Because of Vander Klok's statements, many wonder if his church needs to start paying taxes. Under federal law, non-profit businesses, like churches, are forbidden from endorsing political candidates. Since they are a house of worship, Reslife does not pay taxes. 

For years, churches have been under fire for being tax-exempt while their staffers -- especially their pastors -- have lived in luxury. Many megachurch pastors have been known for living in mega mansions, driving luxury vehicles, and even flying in private jets. Some have been known for condemning their poorest parishioners for not tithing enough money to their church.

What's funny is that while Vander Klok is known for spreading hate regarding the LGBTQ+ community, many churches in West Michigan embrace their presence. Not only that, but some churches even acknowledge that the Bible verse where Jesus allegedly says that homosexuals are not allowed into Heaven is poorly translated. Some Bibles claim this in 1 Corinthians 6:9, but others use words like "sodomites", "effeminate", and "male prostitutes" in place of "homosexuals". That is because the Greek texts that the Bible was translated from had a word that could not be properly translated. 

Because the right has always been gung-ho against anyone who is not white, straight, or male, Vander Klok simply acts like he feels like he can use his pulpit to attack anybody he wants. He attacks the Democrats while it's the Republicans like Drumpf who all want to give the wealthy a tax break. Since I assume Reslife is yet another church that only preaches from certain sections of The Bible that reflect their business strategies, then I assume that the story of Jesus telling the rich, young man that "it's easier than for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to Heaven" means nothing to him. The same goes for Jesus expelling the Den of Thieves from the temple. 

I'll betcha that churches like ResLife and others will and have rebuked their critics over the years for being blasphemous. In reality, it's pot calling the kettle black. When I think of such places, I don't think of Jesus or God. I think of the Catholic Church and its long, disgusting history of yanking young Indigenous people from their homes and making them suffer in their schools, forcing them to eat spoiled food, plus raping and even murdering them. I think of the same Catholic churches, that also molested young altar boys for generations and covered it up. I think of televangelism and the destruction they've caused over the years. I think of the old woman with cancer who donated her life savings to Kenneth Copeland because his wife proclaimed that if anyone with the disease gave them money, the cancer would go away. In the end, the woman died. I think of the Trinity Broadcasting Network and the fact that for years, they preached against homosexuality, yet founder Paul Crouch paid a former male employee $400,000 after he claimed that Crouch ordered him to perform sex acts on him or else he'd lose his job. Plus, TBN hid the fact that for years, Paul's then-13-year-old granddaughter Carra was drugged and raped by a 30-year-old male employee in a hotel room and they never pressed charges against the guy. Thankfully, after Carra's side of the family was fired from TBN, her sister, Brittany Koper became a whistleblower against the religious broadcaster and revealed that her grandparents were using the channel as a front for their excessive wealth. A judge then ordered TBN to pay Carra Crouch $2 million for failing to report her rapist. 

In a future BOTD, I will write about why even left-leaning churches are problematic, too. Sorry, but because of experiences I've had with both churches on the left and right of the political spectrum, I ain't going back. Thanks, but I have a dog who needs to go to the park at that time.

Hopefully soon, in one way or another, Duane Vander Klok's time will run out. 


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Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!

CHUCK69.COM IS ALWAYS ON!

Thursday, October 10, 2024

Bee-otch of the Day: Shell Shock II


Name: Shell Shock
Age: 2
Occupation: rock music festival
Last Seen: Orlando, Florida
Bee-otched For: inviting a conservative crybaby to their event


The dictionary defines shell shock as "a condition with psychological and psychosomatic symptoms resulting from exposure to active warfare, first identified in soldiers undergoing bombardment in the trenches in World War I. Shell shock would now be regarded as a form of post-traumatic stress disorder."

Over the years, awareness of PTSD has been raised, including through a music festival in Orlando aptly named Shell Shock. However, the event organizers made a poor decision by hiring someone who actually caused PTSD in some people to speak at the festival.

That person is none other than murderer Kyle Rittenhouse. 

During the protests regarding police brutality in the wake of George Floyd's murder in 2020, Rittenhouse decided to march on the wrong side of history. At 17, the native of Antioch, Illinois drove across state lines to Kenosha, Wisconsin, and stayed with a friend who gave him an AR-15 rifle. Rittenhouse was a Drumpf supporter and an ardent supporter of the police. Rittenhouse learned about a potential riot in Kenosha, 20 miles away, so he went up to "protect" some buildings from protesters. 

The Kenosha riots were in response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old black male who is now paralyzed from the waist down. According to the officer who shot him seven times, he claimed that Blake was about to stab him after he tried to enter the SUV that belonged to the mother of his children. The officer, Rusten Sheskey was not charged and has returned to the police force. Needless to say, Sheskey's actions led to rioting in Kenosha, and Rittenhouse thought that he and his trusty murder machine would benefit the police force. 

Rittenhouse and his friend, Dominick Black went to protect a used auto dealership called Car Source. During the Kenosha riots, Rittenhouse was confronted by several people, in which he shot three and killed two. The two men Rittenhouse murdered were unarmed, though the man whom he injured was. 

Rittenhouse was charged multiple times for the murders, though two of the charges - possession of a dangerous weapon by someone under 18 years of age and not obeying a curfew - were both dropped by the judge in his trial, Bruce Schroeder. He was sentenced to a juvenile detention center on $2 million bail, which was posted by outspoken ultra-conservative Christian MyPillow inventor Mike Lindell. During the trial, Schroeder, a Democrat in name only ruled that the people Rittenhouse murdered were not "victims", but "arsonists" and "looters". It was no secret that Schroeder pressured the court to not convict Rittenhouse, even by admonishing prosecutor Thomas Binger. During the trial, Rittenhouse cried crocodile tears, claiming that the two men he killed were attacking him. Ultimately, Rittenhouse was acquitted and became a spirit animal for the right. 

Since his acquittal, Rittenhouse has worked on multiple projects and has even written a book called "Acquitted". However, many feel like Rittenhouse is using the fact that he was innocent of killing two people to boost his celebrity status. 

And because of that, Shell Shock is facing major backlash.

Since they booked Rittenhouse, several bands pulled out of the festival, including metalcore band Evergreen Terrace (named for the street The Simpsons live on). The group posted on their socials that they don't want to be associated with Rittenhouse or any events aligning with them. Other bands that have pulled out include Southpaw, Let Me Bleed, and American Hollow. 

Now, Shell Shock II's headliner is (SiC), a Slipknot cover band from Texas. No word if Corey Taylor and his ilk will lawyer up to stop them. The concert is scheduled for Saturday, October 19 in Orlando.

Shell Shock II is hosted by The Antihero Podcast, which claims to help those battling PTSD and other disorders related to it. They also claim to help first responders and military personnel. 

Now, as someone whose grandfathers were both Navy men during World War II, I feel that fighting PTSD is a good cause. My maternal grandfather lost his dad when he was only nine and his mother kept marrying and divorcing throughout his young life. He lacked a good father figure. He was humble and enrolled in the Navy, fighting in WWII and the Korean War. However, his military experience left him with what was then called shell shock. Because there wasn't much science behind it back then, the only cure for his PTSD - and with other people as well - as being told, "Go home, grow up, and be a man". Because of this, my grandfather became an alcoholic. Together, he and my grandmother had a daughter, my aunt, ironically born on July 4th, 1945. They should have divorced not long afterward, but ten years later, my mother was born. Because of her, my grandparents' marriage lasted another 12 years.

When she was a little girl, my mother would have nightmares. She would come into my grandparents' room and tug on my grandfather to wake up. However, my grandfather had many nightmares himself of being attacked by the Japs and his Navy ship being torpedoed. As he was being awakened by my mother, he ended up slapping her until she cried. Because of this, my grandmother told my mother to simply be gentle with him if she needed him to help her fight the evil monsters along with those Japs at the same time. 

Yes, my grandfather was a drunk, but he was a super nice guy. I was told that his drinking was so bad that he should have died around the same time I was born, but he beat the odds. Hell, he outlived my paternal grandfather by seven years. Now, my paternal grandfather did drink, albeit more moderately. He did smoke heavily up until about 20 years before he died of lung cancer in 2001.

As someone whose family had a military past, I'm very disappointed that the organizers of Shell Shock II decided to politicize the event with Rittenhouse's presence. What's even more disgusting is that the festival is supposed to be loaded with artists from the metal genre. 

To me, mixing metal with conservative politics is like mixing oil and water. Let's remember that back in the 1950s, the right tried their damndest to kill rock 'n roll, but failed. In the 1980s, they condemned everyone from Ozzy Osbourne to Judas Priest and wanted to "protect our children" from this type of music. Today, I see more people wearing T-shirts displaying those acts, plus Metallica, Slayer, Guns 'N Roses, and other acts that the right condemned back then than people wearing anything advertising Amy Grant or Sandi Patty. 

So, if you call yourself a metalhead and you want to cry that the bands pulled out of Shell Shock II were being too woke, guess what? CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS HAVE DONE IT FOR DECADES! "oH! bUt GeOrGE FLoYd WAs a JunkIE wHo ROBBeD a LiqUOR StORe!" "thE pEOPlE kYlE RiTTenhouSE KillED weRE aTTACKing hIm!" 

Yes, I understand. Rock has its fair share of conservatives like Kid Rock, Sully Erna from Godsmack, Staind's Aaron Lewis, and (ugh) Ted Nugent to name a few. However, what these people stand for - destroying women's rights, gun rights even for felons, making sure that Americans don't get single-payer universal healthcare, and so on - is a poor representation of what rock 'n roll is really about. Granted, there are plenty of lefty rockers out there: Rage Against the Machine, Green Day, Pearl Jam, and others who lift the genre and unify rock fans from all backgrounds. 

To me, PTSD organizations need to unify people instead of breaking them apart and making sure that they have no place at the table. These assholes getting a lunatic like Kyle Rittenhouse to speak at this event is just as bad - or maybe worse - than someone with PTSD living in a place where the Blue Angels fly overhead all the time, like my birthplace of Traverse City. Kyle Rittenhouse is no hero, folks. He's a murderer and deserves to rot in prison for what he did. He protected a building and not people. If that car lot he was guarding burned down, the owners would have simply rebuilt bigger and better. People, however, cannot be replaced. Granted, the two men Rittenhouse murdered had mental issues, but unlike Rittenhouse, they would have never murdered a soul.

Inviting Kyle Rittenhouse to a concert is like inviting Hitler to a synagogue.

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Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Bee-otches of the Day: KOMP and KXTE Radio in Las Vegas


Names: KOMP and KXTE
Ages: KOMP: 58, KXTE: 38
Occupations: radio stations
Last Seen: Las Vegas
Bee-otched For: saying "Good Riddance" to Green Day



Christ, I'm getting old.

It's been 30 years since I was a 13-year-old lad watching MTV when I saw the song " Longview " video by a new band called Green Day. The group's major debut album, "Dookie", was a 1990s cornucopia of polished punk rock that has stood the test of time.

In those 30 years, they had their good hits with the ballad "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)" and the blockbuster "American Idiot" album. They had their low points, too, like the follow-up to "Dookie", "Nimrod" (although "Brain Stew" would become a rock radio standard with or without "Jaded") and the experimental "¡Uno!", "¡Dos" and ¡Tre!" albums. Their current offering, "Saviors", has been called one of their best albums.

If you want to hear any of their new album or even their classics in Las Vegas, you're SOL.

Two of Sin City's radio stations, active rock KOMP 92.3 and KXTE X107.5 "Xtreme Radio" have pulled the iconic punk band's music from their playlists because of comments made by lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong at a recent concert at Oracle Park in San Francisco. Armstrong, who was born in nearby Oakland, voiced his anger over his hometown baseball team, the Athletics, moving to Vegas by calling the city a "shithole" on stage. 

No word on if the band's opening act, Rancid - also from the Oakland area - is still on those stations' playlists. On stage, guitarist Lars Frederikson attacked A's owner John Fisher because his family makes money off of the backs of Bay Area people only to abandon them. Fisher, whose net worth is $3 billion, is the son of Donald and Doris Fisher, the co-founders of the Gap clothing brand. Fisher, a Republican, has owned the A's since 2005 and is considered one of the worst owners in sports. The team finished with a 69-93 record this past season.

For decades, Oakland had the A's, Raiders football, and Golden State Warriors basketball teams. The Warriors, who played in the aging Oakland Arena, moved to the Chase Center in nearby San Francisco five years ago. The Raiders moved to Vegas in 2020 and now play at Roomba-shaped Allegiant Stadium. 

The big elephant in the room for Oakland was its stadium and arena. Oakland Coliseum opened in 1966 and has long been considered one of the worst stadiums in sports. As a matter of fact, the Raiders moved out of Oakland for Los Angeles from 1982-1994 only to return. The Coliseum was one of many cookie-cutter multipurpose stadiums built in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, along with The Kingdome in Seattle, Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, and Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. While most cities successfully replaced those embarrassing relics of late 20th century America, Oakland failed miserably to replace the Coliseum, noted for its design flaws. 

When the A's played their last game in Oakland recently, Fisher wrote a letter apologizing to their fans. Fisher blamed the city of Oakland for not pulling through in building a new stadium which would have kept the A's in town. However, many in the community and even a few in the sports business all agreed that Fisher is a man of multiple excuses. He could have financed a stadium with his own money but chose to abandon his hometown because another town was willing to build his stadium for him, free of charge.  

The proposed Las Vegas ballpark is scheduled to open in 2028 on the site of the soon-to-be-demolished Tropicana Hotel and Casino. The stadium, which some people joke about looking like the Sydney Opera House, will only seat 33,000. If it's built, it will be the smallest stadium in Major League Baseball next to the Tampa Bay Rays' Tropicana Field. Until then, the A's will be playing their home games at a minor league ballpark in Sacramento, where the team will simply be known as the A's.

After Armstrong's verbal bitchslap of Vegas, the programmers of KOMP and KXTE - a former affiliate of Howard Stern's - decided to punish him by doing the same thing country stations did to the Dixie Chicks when lead singer Natalie Maines trashed Dubya on stage years ago: dump their music. KXTE midday jock Carlota confirmed the purge on her show last week. On the station's website, they detailed some of her anti-Green Day speech, stating that what Armstrong said was "inflammatory" and "crossed the line". Carolta even pointed out that the Raiders were only worth "a billion or two" while in Oakland, but are now worth over $6 billion. 

KOMP announced the ban on their Instagram page. KOMP 92.3 has pulled any and all Green Day from our playlist. It’s not us, Billie…it’s you. #vegas4ever, said the statement.

In the radio ratings, KOMP is in 11th place with a 2.8 share while KXTE is at a 2.2 in 16th place, its lowest book in months. KXTE made headlines last year when they temporarily flipped to a hot talk format with Stern clones loading up the schedule, including the godawful Grand Rapids-based Free Beer and Hot Wings Show. The format was a ratings bust and it returned to alternative rock, a format it had since 1996. 

Not all Vegas stations have banned Green Day; IHeartMedia's classic rocker KYMT 93.1 The Mountain still has the band on their playlist. 

Radio stations banning artists and certain songs from their playlists are nothing new. It even happened before the days of rock 'n roll when the BBC in England banned certain tunes because of everything from sexual innuendo to product placement. The Kinks' "Lola" was originally banned until lead singer Ray Davies flew from New York to London to rerecord the line "Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like Coca-Cola". The Beeb had him replace the name of the beloved soft drink with "cherry cola".  Throughout the 70s, some American radio stations banned certain songs all because of various reasons, such as The Buoys' "Timothy" (cannibalism), Billy Joel's "Only The Good Die Young" (sacrilegious), and Chuck Berry's sole #1 hit, "My Ding-A-Ling" (guess). Let's not forget that when MTV played music videos, they heavily edited some songs- even more than some radio stations- and banned some music videos. Madonna's "Justify My Love" was banned for being too racy and it shot to #1 on the pop charts. 

Remember during the pandemic when "WAP" by Cardi B. and Megan Thee Stallion went to #1 on the pop charts? Interesting to note that the song was not a huge hit on Top 40 radio. Maybe it was because of the fear that if radio stations played it, even the edited version might have gotten them a fine from the FCC. Just my guess. You never heard of any announcements from any radio station that they had banned "WAP" because 1) it would make them uncool and 2) it would have made people buy more records. 

IMHO, KOMP and KXTE are nothing more than attention whores and they think that banning Green Day will help their image. In reality, I think most true rock fans have abandoned terrestrial radio long ago for SiriusXM, Spotify, and other areas of digital radio. As someone who grew up in a part of Michigan where the radio sucked ass, I'm entitled to my opinion on whether or not I want to listen to crappy radio or not. I'm a grown man who doesn't need someone to tell me that this band is bad because they badmouthed my hometown or they did this or that. Let's remember that Ted Nugent had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl in his 30s decades ago and classic rock stations still blare his music. Creed's Scott Stapp threatened to kill President Obama and many rock stations still play "Higher". Phil Anselmo of Pantera screamed "white power" at a concert a few years ago and stations still play his music. And yet, Green Day is bad because Billie Joe's hometown baseball team moved away and he's bitter about it. 

Personally, I think every town in America has its problems. I grew up in Elk Rapids, Michigan, a beautiful town. But, there are buildings across from the Village Market that are run down. I know one of them was or is inhabited by a child molester I worked with in high school. Ditto with nearby Traverse City. Recently, Michael Moore wrote about an encounter he had with actor James Earl Jones several years ago. Moore told Jones that he now lived in Traverse City and Jones told him that TC was racist. Back in the 1940s when he was a teenager, one of his teachers took him and his classmates to a nice restaurant in town. As he was sitting down, a staffer at the restaurant told Jones, "No colored people will be served here." 

Yes, this shit happened in Traverse City, a town that's far, far away from the Mason-Dixon Line. After all, the town is 92% white, and in the surrounding areas, racism is everywhere. Hell, I have family that live on a farm up north and they're HARDCORE racists. I'll never forget a convo with them where they compared President Obama to failed Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. When their little butt buddy Drumpf freed him from jail, I didn't know whether to laugh my ass off because of what they said, or cringe because of what he did to the people of Detroit. 

Last year, I was on Facebook when someone posted that the band Trapt was playing a show in Kalkaska, over by Traverse City. I posted about how their lead singer, Chris Brown (no, not the douche who beat up Rihanna) was a racist and the average rock fan has abandoned him and his band. I even posted a video where they're playing a small bar and the place only had a few dozen people. Regretfully, a few folks poured Hatorade all over me, bitching that people in Kalkaska should be excited that the band behind "Headstrong" was coming to do a show in their town of 2,000. 

Folks, this is why I started this site. It was because when I was a teen, I felt like I had no place at the table. I wanted to go to concerts and other things that involved going to Detroit. Instead, I got stuck living in a place where you had to be over 21 to do anything remotely exciting. Hell, some people call Traverse City "Tragic City" because a few years ago, a study proved that the town had the highest amount of alcoholics in the state. Not only that, I fondly remember when the former mayor Jim Carruthers was arrested for drunk driving. 

Because of this, there's a part of me that wants to call northern Michigan a place loaded with racist, drunk losers. I don't mind visiting, but I don't want to live there, especially since I read that the average person in TC only makes $33,000 per year and I make WAY more than that here in Grand Rapids. Now, is somebody going to ban me from going up there? Not really. But, I hope someone will think about what I said and hopefully, they can make positive changes.

Personally, I don't think Billie Joe meant to truly hurt the people of Las Vegas. However, I think he should clarify his remarks about calling the town a "shithole". Kinda like how when John Lennon said that The Beatles were "More popular than Jesus" some sixty years ago, people went ahead and burned their records. He then said that he wasn't knocking God and apologized. However, there was one Christian that he offended and it sadly would bite him on the ass. That man was Mark David Chapman. In Billie's case, he should say that he didn't mean to hurt the people who call Vegas home and that his statement was directed at billionaires like John Fisher, who cares more about his personal wealth than the people who made him wealthy. 

Until he makes that clarification, people in Sin City will think that he's the American Idiot.

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Sunday, September 29, 2024

Bee-otches of the Day: Ronald Reagan worshipers


Names: various
Ages: various
Occupations: various
Last Seen: everywhere
Bee-otched For: kissing Reagan's ass



Thanks to my job, I go to bed a wee bit early. 

Thursday night, I was watching the tail end of Inside Edition on WOOD-TV 8 here in Grand Rapids. After the show ended, they aired a commercial for Kamala Harris, showing a young woman who had an abortion at 12 after being raped by her stepfather. She added on to the way too many reasons why I will definitely be voting for Harris.

However, as 8 p.m. approached, i noticed something was wrong with TV 8. They were supposed to air Law and Order: SVU at that time. But instead, they aired a documentary on Ronald Reagan produced by NewsNation. Both NewsNation and WOOD-TV are owned by Texas-based Nexstar. I went straight to bed and didn't waste my time. I woke up at 3:30 a.m. and WOOD-TV was showing that episode of SVU they pre-empted earlier, probably to please NBC and to throw a bone to fans of Mariska Hargitay. 

Now, granted, it seems fashionable nowadays to like the 40th president of the United States. After all, a recent indie movie about his life starring Dennis Quaid has done quite well at the box office, grossing over $26 million on a $25 million budget. Critics have panned the flick, saying it breaks itself from reality and history. The movie is also noted for its abundance of rightie actors, such as Jon Voight, Pat Boone, Kevin Sorbo, and Creed lead singer Scott Stapp, who plays Frank Sinatra. 

Despite bad reviews, audiences love the film. But chances are that many who have seen it are Repukes themselves and look to Ronnie as their spirit animal. But as someone born five months into his first term in office, I shake my head thinking about how my life could have been if he wasn't president.

When I was born, my father was a bus driver for the local school system in Elk Rapids, Michigan, and my mother worked as a secretary at a local machine shop. When I was about five, my mother lost her job. The company packed up and moved to southern Michigan because of Reaganomics. My mother ended up working the overnight shift at the Shell gas station down the street. There, she became friends with the manager, a heavy-set woman who also had significant financial problems. Fortunately, my mother found other secretary jobs, both in Traverse City. If she lost a job, the Shell station was her safety net.

However, at one of her jobs, she met her future husband. She also worked with the fat bitch at the Shell station to move into the top flat of her house. On May 18, 1993, my mother dragged me away from my Nintendo to live with the bitch. The place sucked. The kitchen had no working stove (we had to get a hot plate from KMart), the shower curtain only covered part of the tub because it was right next to where the ceiling sloped, and worst of all, there was no heat. I remembered having to go to my dad's because he had heat. 

In the 80s, Reagan championed shipping jobs overseas and busting unions. Because of him, my mother lost her job and so did hundreds of people in Elk Rapids. Because of him, I got stuck with a 6-foot, 300-pound whore who forced me to listen to Bonnie Raitt's "Luck of the Draw" album and the soundtrack to "The Bodyguard" while she was giving blowjobs to anyone who wanted one. Also because of Reagan, my mother traded my father in for an alcoholic douchebag who not only squandered her family fortune on a failed computer repair shop, but left her for another woman as well. Personally, I wonder if my parents would still be together if her shop in Elk Rapids stayed open.

When I was young in the 80s, Elk Rapids had a problem. A chunk of its downtown was abandoned, and the marina was up for sale. In 1986, beloved businessman Joe Yuchasz became the town's village president, or, in other words, mayor. Joe, who owned the Elk Rapids Cinema and Ye Olde Music Shoppe, was forced to move his music store to his theater's lobby because he couldn't afford the taxes. Under his leadership, Yuchasz transformed Elk Rapids from a town littered with "for sale" signs to a tourism boon. I visited Elk Rapids last spring, and the sole abandoned building I saw was the old T.J. Charlie's Restaurant, whose proprietors retired last year.

It's nice to see my old hometown flourishing, especially with mostly local businesses. The sole supermarket in town, Village Market, just celebrated its 50th Anniversary under Rick Young's ownership. Young also owns the adjacent gas station to his 15,000-square-foot store, one of only three in the town of 1,600 people. The EZ Mart/Mobil station is owned by Blarney Castle Oil, which is based in Bear Lake, 60 miles away. The Shell Mini-Mart is owned by Ohio-based True North Energy but was previously locally owned by Traverse City-based Schmuckal Oil. Most of the restaurants are locally owned as well. However, Elk Rapids has no fast-food chains. It used to have a Subway located in the EZ Mart, but that closed a few years ago. The Village might be one of the largest towns in the state without a McDonald's (the nearest one is in Acme, nearly 10 miles away). 

Aside from McDonald's, Elk Rapids has been known for crying NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) when big businesses want to come to town. Years ago, the village rejected Walgreens' proposal to build a store at Ames and US-31. The same goes for Dollar General, who wanted to build a location on Elk Rapids' east side.

But Elk Rapids—and other resort towns—have a huge problem: the lack of good-paying jobs. Homes in the village aren’t cheap, and because of this, it has become a factor in the closure of some restaurants. Two recently closed restaurants, Vasquez Hacienda and Elk Harbor Restaurant, have been repurposed as a liquor store and veterinarian clinic, respectively. Granted, ER does have Shorts Brewery, and it is close to Traverse City, but there are some factors that hurt the community’s image. One of them is the lack of 20- and 30-somethings in the area. The evidence is the fact that since the economic meltdown of 2008, Elk Rapids Schools has lost a great deal of attendance. As a matter of fact, Mill Creek Elementary is now a charter school. It’s sad considering that I remember it being built because Elk Rapids’ elementary school, Lakeland, was once overcrowded.

But, Elk Rapids isn't alone.

Recently, Suttons Bay voted 776-628 to demolish part of their school because the district is half the size of what it was 20 years ago. Today, only 600 students attend the village's school, situated in a town that's also around 600 people. Suttons Bay has the same problem Elk Rapids has: a lack of affordable housing. 

It's true that every town in America has its pluses and minuses and some situations are easier to solve than others. And usually, that problem can be solved with high-paying jobs. Tourism is nice, but when the biggest employers in town don't pay jack shit, then that employer may end up realizing that their loser jobs need winning wages. 

It's worth noting that the aforementioned Joe Yuchasz died last year at the age of 82. He willed his beloved Cinema to his niece and nephews, who then sold it to the nonprofit Chalfonte Foundation. Chalfonte was founded by Father Jim Meyer, a Catholic priest who, unlike far too many people in his occupation, supported gay marriage and Black Lives Matter. Yes, he was a liberal, as are the people now running his organization three years after his death at the age of 86. Chalfonte was founded to alleviate childhood poverty. Father Meyer's parents owned a home in Elk Rapids. When they died in the 1980s, Meyer decided to turn the house into a camp for children.

Since Chalfonte purchased the Cinema, they have shown the community that they are not Joe Yuchasz. Joe was known for waiting a month or two to show popular films after they peaked in popularity so he could get a one-week contract. Chalfonte, however, knows that there are many films where they can get a two-week contract in the first week of release. Recent examples include "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" and "Wonka." They also show classic films once per week; this month, it's the 1951 film "An American in Paris" starring Gene Kelly.

However, as I type this, guess what movie the Cinema is showing? Yup, "Reagan."

Now, when Joe was alive, he was known for listening to what the people wanted. He also mentioned that most of his audience was over the age of 50. When I visited the cinema last spring for a matinee showing of "Arthur the King," I was the youngest person in the building. It was just me and a bunch of elderly folks. One person even asked me if I knew how long the cinema had been in business (of course I knew—1940)! Obviously, the people who came to the cinema that afternoon were not from the Elk Rapids area.

There is a part of me that the new, old folks who now call Elk Rapids home never knew about—the once-good jobs the town had. And yet, they went and saw a movie about the reason why those jobs moved away. It's interesting to know that the Cinema's manager, Marianne Burrows, is a Realtor during the week. I have to wonder how she feels about the fact that in 2000, my childhood home was sold to a Detroit-area family who really wanted to have a good, full-time job up north. However, during the economic meltdown of 2008, it fell into foreclosure. It wasn't even a big house, either; it was only one floor, with three bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, and a pole barn in the backyard. The house next door also fell into foreclosure, and despite it being much bigger—two floors, four bedrooms, and two bathrooms—the bank sold it for just over $100,000.

On my father's bus route, he passed a TON of houses. Some of those were simply summer homes, and others were occupied by old folks. Some of the kids were dirt poor. One rumor I heard was that one of the families was so poor that our elementary school principal had to buy clothes for them. There were wealthy folks, too, including a family whose mother's family purchased the house for them.

Well, I grew up and entered the workforce. I wanted to be a radio personality when I grew up, but I threw that dream away. Why? Because I learned that there are too many radio personalities who were fired because even though they had ratings, the owners were all about the almighty dollar. I realized that you have to be a corporate puppet who pretends to like the artists you're playing. Not only that, I cringed knowing that local talk radio stations were all leaning to the right thanks to Reagan's FCC eliminating the Fairness Doctrine.

I finally got my first "adult" job in 2002 a year after I graduated from tech school. I spent that year washing dishes at a restaurant and stocking shelves at a convenience store. There were no real jobs up north. I had to move to Grand Rapids to make real money and live a normal life. 

The first ten years at my job were rough. I had to work with a Bosnian who bullied me and my boss was a bigger asshole. Thankfully, the Bosnian quit because his wife could no longer work and he couldn't afford to work there anymore. As for my boss, I had to face ten years of no raises. Instead, we got Dave Ramsey videos and visits from the bank, teaching us on how to save money. If we were lucky, we got a $25 Meijer card.

Things were so bad at my shop that a woman who worked for us who was anti-union told us that she wished we were a union shop. Some years before, there was a guy who also worked for us who talked to us about doing a strike. But, that never materialized because he ended up quitting. My father never worked a union job and neither did my mother. As a matter of fact, she told me that at her in-laws' machine shop, if someone came in with a union, they would be fired. Because her idiot husband gaslighted her into thinking that unions were the devil, she discouraged me from joining one.

Over the years, my boss treated my position like that of a fast food worker. I saw a lot of people sitting on their asses playing on their phones who made more money than me. However, my boss thought I was lazy despite wearing a drenched shirt. 

However, it was the 2000s, and people were lucky to have jobs. Some of my cousins had to move back in with their parents because they didn't have good jobs either. I didn't have that option because both my parents were in their second marriages and living in other states. By the time my boss finally retired in 2012, I was living off three nearly maxed-out credit cards while he was going on vacation every other month.

Thankfully, my life changed for the better when my company changed hands with my ex-boss's business partner. I got plenty of raises and my debt melted away. Part of it, too was that when my ex-boss was in charge, people were either retiring early or finding out that they could make more money doing something else. Also, it was 2013, and America was finally healing from 2008 thanks to President Obama's policies. 

Today, I'm much better off than I was 22 years ago in part because of policies created by Presidents Obama and Biden that have helped the middle class. Even better, the sole debt I have is my mortgage. Thanks to them, my bosses have to give me a wage to stay competitive against the competition. However, I do wonder what my life would have been like if Reagan hadn't been president at all. Chances were that I would have had a good-paying union job, better wages, better benefits, and more competition so if I didn't like the job I had, I could have gone across the street. Instead of trying to pay off credit card debt at 30 years old and living in a shitty apartment that caused embarrassment for me, I would have probably been able to buy a house and start a family. But because the media was busy trashing Jimmy Carter in 1980, I was stuck being told that no matter how hard I worked, I was a failure. 


My shop just happens to be just down the road from the old 36th Street GM plant in Wyoming. It was demolished during GM's restructuring 15 years ago. Now, after all those years, a new battery plant by German-based Benteler will soon emerge from the empty concrete meadows, employing 500. But being the Debbie Downers that they are, The Repukes are all crying because some of the battery plants being built here in Michigan are Chinese owned and the people bringing those jobs to the state are all Democrats like Governor Gretchen Whitmer. 

There's no doubt that the Repukes hate China to the point that they're trying to outlaw TikTok, though some argue that it will infringe on freedom of speech regarding the internet. But, guess who championed outsourcing of jobs in the first place? Why, it was none other than Reagan himself!

Thanks to Reagan, millions of American jobs were shipped out to countries where standards are much, much lower than here. Much of our clothing was now made in sweatshops. As a matter of fact, in 2012, a massive fire at a Bangladesh garment factory killed 124 and injured 200. The cause of the fire was exposed wires. Among their clients included Walmart. 

In the 1998 Michael Moore film "The Big One", he went to Nike's headquarters and talked to founder and CEO Phil Knight. Knight told Moore that Americans didn't want to build shoes. So, he went to his hometown of Flint, Michigan where people signed a petition to build a factory there. Moore showed Knight the video of Flintstonians telling him that they wouldn't mind making Air Jordans. Without saying a word, Knight stood up and walked out of the room. 

By the way, Knight is worth $38 billion. 

“The Big One” also jabbed at President Clinton for his weak economic policies that did nothing to help American jobs or the middle class. Although he did raise the minimum wage (Reagan did not) and balance the budget, in reality, he was the most conservative Democrat in the White House in the 20th century. I fondly remember that before he left the White House, too many companies were laying off workers.

True, Reagan left office in 1989 and he's been dead since 2004. But the fuck-ups he created while in office still survive. When he took office in 1981, the wealthy were paying 70% of their earnings in taxes. Today, some billionaires hardly pay a dime. In 1981, some unions protected American workers from crooked bosses. Today, that's only a pipe dream.

A few times a week, I take my dog to a park down the street from my house. There's a picnic area where a few homeless people hang out. Recently, a young husband and wife moved into the park. The wife is a cancer survivor, while the husband has had to deal with the fact that some of his family members are or were addicted to drugs. They had been living in his grandmother's house, but his family had them evicted because the grandmother was on Section Eight and the husband and wife were not. Then, they moved in with her sister, who had a small two-bedroom apartment in Grand Haven. However, her landlord threatened to raise their rent, so they decided to leave their baby with the sister while they were forced onto the streets. The husband works in a factory and makes $500 per week, while the wife is currently unemployed.

And to think that once upon a time, a family of four could make it on only the father's income.

I have a cousin who works for a temp agency, and he told me that America is evolving into a gig economy. Our family had three generations of dedicated school teachers. Today, we have none. I've heard the horror stories of teachers having to go to food banks because they live in poverty. Some even quit because they made more money as bartenders. I know of one person who teaches during the week and works at a small restaurant on the weekends, but she does it because she loves making her children smarter. The world needs teachers, and they deserve a living wage.

"thEY onLY wOrK 9 MoNThs a YEar!" 

True, teachers do have benefits and they do get paid year-round. But the pay sucks. My aunt was a schoolteacher for 30 years, but she had a husband that got paid quite well. However, I had another teacher who I remember working at a bakery during the summer. It depends on the situation and the town the teacher works. 

Look, my late friend, beloved Flint radio talk show host Dave Barber once said of the Republican Party that they only care about the peanuts while the elephants walk by. And that, my friends, is Drumpf to a tee. He wants us to feel that illegal immigrants are the biggest problem in America. His campaign is putting out stupid ads featuring people whose family members were murdered by illegals. So? Blacks murder. Are the Repukes going to put out ads telling people to support their local neighborhood KKK? Whites murder. Should we round up every last white person and throw them in jail? 

I'll tell you what the real problem is, and it's corporate America. When Reagan took office in 1981, the wealthiest man in America was a shipping tycoon named Daniel Ludwig, and adjusted for inflation, he was worth $6 billion. Back then, America only had 13 billionaires. Thanks to Reagan's policies and the protection they got from just about every president since him, there are now more than 700 billionaires in America. Today, the wealthiest man in America is Elon Musk, who is worth $272 billion, a lot of it from inheritance. It's also noted that Musk is butt buddies with Drumpf. 

Yes, even the Democrats aren't doing enough to combat excessive wealth. After all, Oprah is worth $3 billion and the man some cry about the Dems being too wealthy themselves, George Soros, is worth over $7 billion. Granted, it's nice that Biden and Harris are combating some folks, but then again, there's a lot that needs to be done to fight income inequality. 

If there's anything I'm happy about regarding the Democratic presidents in my lifetime, they've gotten more liberal. After all, Biden sat with striking GM workers not long ago, the first of any president. His office also cracked down and questioned monopolies like Facebook and other facets of social media. However, the Drumpf supporters have spun Biden's policies, claiming that inflation was his fault. In reality, when you only have six oil companies running gas prices and small towns losing their grocery stores all because there are fewer places to do a full week's shopping, well, there you go. 

You see, I give Michael Moore a lot of credit for exposing who Reagan really was in his movies. Not only that, on Larry King Live years ago, he apologized to the people of my generation and younger for voting him in, plus others who made things tougher. The fact that he was a Jebus freak weakened his image, especially when it came to the AIDS crisis in the 80s. He even allegedly said, "They that live in sin die in sin". 

What's sad is that in recent years, Moore has kept a somewhat low profile. He discontinued his Traverse City Film Festival and his State Theater no longer shows first-run films while his other cinema, Bijou By The Bay mysteriously closed earlier this year. Many in the Grand Traverse Area are wondering if there's anything truly wrong with Mike, though he still has a podcast, Rumble, and maintains a blog at MichaelMoore.com. However, he recently wrote a very thought-provoking article about James Earl Jones and why he was refused service at a Traverse City restaurant as a teen. I read it, and it does make me cringe about northern Michigan in general.

If I owned a TV station, I would show Moore's movies because people need to know the truth about Ronald Reagan. He hated the middle class and forced my generation to move back in with our parents. As a matter of fact, if Reagan ran for president today, the Republicans would consider him too moderate. At least early on in his presidency, he was pro-choice to ease poverty. 

But, what do you expect from a man whose full name, Ronald Wilson Reagan, had six letters in each name?

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