Have you had enough of the hypocrisy of BLM (Black Lives Matter) yet? This dubious, racist organization that sprung up after the George Floyd incident, has played victim by using race as the cudgel to scam money from guilt ridden white liberals, feckless corporations and race obsessed politicians.

It has been estimated that BLM, run by three Marxist/Socialist black women, has raised at least $90 million, supposedly to help disadvantaged black people.  The only problem is that little, if any, of that money ever reached the people they purported to help.  Instead, much of the money was used by the lady “grifters” for their own personal use, which included buying very expensive homes and property around the country. It was a clever shakedown by using black victimization as the selling point of getting funds by using “white guilt” as the major talking point and the unspoken threat of economic boycotts.

Even today, the new black mayor of New York, Eric Adams, has come out and called BLM a bunch of hypocrites for ignoring the plight of blacks being killed by other blacks.  It seems that BLM and their sympathizers are only concerned about black deaths when a policeman in involved in a killing, which is very rare, but for which they use as a rallying cry to gin up hatred for the police.

BLM and their “evil” counter group, ANTIFA, have been causing havoc and mayhem around the country for the past three years, with practically a free hand as the liberal elites jump on the bandwagon of “white supremacy”.  Even President Biden has joined the chorus by claiming that the biggest threat in the country is “white supremacy”.  He never mentions BLM or ANTIFA for their roles in the burning, looting, and murdering that has taken place by those groups.  Yes, there are “white supremacist” groups, but they are not the ones burning down towns and cities. Their members committing crimes dwarf in comparison to both BLM and ANTIFA.

It seems that no matter what happens in the black community, the word “racism” is bandied about willy-nilly to describe anything negative affecting the black community.  Even the white liberal elites in Congress throw around that epithet in trying to justify the bad behavior of both BLM and ANTIFA.

When will the leaders of the black community face the fact that crime against other blacks is mainly not from the white population and the police, but by other blacks in their own communities?  And, when will the liberal elites stop using race to try to generate support in the black community?  It seems the so-called leaders of the black community like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Maxine Waters, Jim Clyburn, Stacy Abrams, Joy Reid of MSNBC, etal. like to stir up animosity between blacks and white folk, thereby generating money for their coffers.

Our country has come a long way since the days of slavery and we will (must) overcome this misguided exercise in stirring up animosity between the races, and the politicians must stop the pandering and the denigration of one race over another by using the overused term racism.  Common sense should prevail and both blacks and whites must respect each other and not be drawn into a fight by the "Disciples of Deceit”.

Conservative Commentary by Chuck Lehmann 

​The biggest health care problem in our country is not a lack of affordable health insurance, it is that too many Americans are obese (in other words, too damn fat) and no amount of affordable health insurance will make the situation better.  To be totally upfront, I must admit that I am about 20 lbs. overweight, so in some ways, I am also part of the problem.

If you have a chance and want to relax, sit down on one of the chairs or benches in a shopping mall or flea market, and watch the people walk by.  I’ll bet you that over 50% of the people walking by have a weight problem and that more than half of them could be considered obese.  Those people come in all ages, all colors and both genders.  It is quite a sight.  The way some of these weight-challenged (obese) people dress it looks like they are trying to put 10 lbs. of potatoes into a 5 lb. bag. It defies the law of physics.

How did we get into this mess?  Well, it seems that our entrepreneurial American spirit for innovation in making life easier for us to conduct and live our lives, have added significantly to our tendency to put on the blubber.  We don’t walk, we drive even around the block; we don’t eat home-cooked meals at home, like in the past, instead we order take-out or eat in fast food restaurants; we don’t play vigorous games or participate in sports as much as we did in earlier times; and the kind of food we eat regularly is chock full of weight producing calories that could and should be avoided. Add in the phenomenon, the excessive use of I-Phones, by both young and old,  in other words, we are becoming too soft as well as too fat.

Obesity is quite evident in our young people and especially in the poor minority communities.  It seems that the lower the income of people the bigger the girth around the middle as compared to higher income people – you’d think the opposite would be true, but look for yourself at the “Mall observation testing lab” – it’ll confirm what I’ve just said.

Physical education in today’s schools is not what it used to be either.  Due to the fear of lawsuits and the “politically correct” police, schools are afraid to have students exert themselves by doing meaningful physical exercise or playing physical games (ex. Dodge Ball, tag etc.).  Youngsters today spend too much sedentary time playing computer games and by sitting in front of their computers and TV’s for hours on end.  That routine is not a healthy regimen to follow.

One result of pursuing this unhealthy lifestyle is the burgeoning incidence of Type II diabetes, especially in young people.  All the talk about reforming healthcare will be meaningless if we can’t control the out-of-control obesity problem that is causing the cost of healthcare to mushroom.  A government-run healthcare option, which former President Obama and Congress passed,  only exacerbated the problem and did not alleviate it.  Since healthcare rationing always comes about when the government gets involved, a person’s access to quality healthcare has been dramatically reduced as more and more sick people will be using our medical facilities as the pool of doctors, to treat these sick people, decrease in number.

So, in Shakespeare’s time the question was, “To be or not to be”, but in today’s frenetic times, the question is, “Obese or not Obese” and it will not be cured by government decree, or by government-run healthcare.  We’ll need a significant dose of private enterprise and self-sufficiency as we wean ourselves from the “nanny state” mentality and by taking control of our own lives without the inhibiting aura of “big brother” hanging over our heads.  Remember what former President Ronald Reagan once said, “Government is part of the problem, not the solution”.  Now, you go do the right thing!

 Conservative Commentary by Chuck Lehmann

"Revisionism" has been developed by neoliberal elites, replacing family
values, to define their concept of truth, and discount what has always 
been accepted by society.

Taken out of the realm of the three Rs, to accommodate acronymic
groups advocating their narrative, controversy has flourished. One of
them, LGBTQ has been adopted by many a public school's curriculum, 
to indoctrinate children as young as kindergarten age, without parental 
consent, that gender is a matter of choice and acceptable. The laws 
of nature discount this absurdity. Save for birth abnormalities, gender
confusion is a mental disorder and should be treated as such, through
psychiatry, not through hormonal injection and surgical methods that 
mutilate the body, although the plumbing remains the same.

Today's Frankenstein is a doctor who creates superficial female
mummies that can never be mommies. Changing a pronoun is verbal
and not factual, because gender is determined by a Y chromosome,
the type of gonads, sex hormones, internal and exterior genitalia

God's original product may be altered, but it can never be recreated.
Advocates for the LGBTQ group want homosexual activity to be
acceptable and the bathhouse lifestyle shoved down our throat as a
normal healthy activity.

When and where do we draw a line between ponography, pedophilia
and transgender teaching to minors, when talking to young children
about genitalia and sexual urges? It's like a session for people posing
as teachers, getting their jollies? 

Conservative Commentary by George Giftos

Definition of “Gringo”:  Is a male person (Gringa for a female), especially an American, who is not Hispanic or Latino. It's use can either be a term of endearment or a slur, depending on its use.

After an absence of 3 years because of the pandemic and 19 years all told coming to Costa Rica, I returned to the Central American country to conduct some unfinished business etc.  After the 3 year hiatus, the country is still the same with little improvements except the much needed widening of some of the roads to ease the indelible traffic tie ups.

The country is a two-sided coin, one of beauty and one of poverty for many and economic privilege for others.  In other words, Costa Rica is a nice place to visit, especially the resorts on the Pacific coast, which are run mostly by American, Canadian and Europeans, but on the other hand, it is not , in my opinion, a great place to retire to or to do business in or to live permanently. 

For the past 19 years that we have been coming to Costa Rica, we have been trying to sell some beautiful property on the side of a dormant volcano overlooking the Central Valley ( a “finca” in Spanish).  It has been a nightmare, with all the bureaucratic red tape along with a corrupt, slow moving judicial system and a host of unscrupulous lawyers.  Sounds like some of our Democrat run cities, doesn't it?

Being a “Gringo” in a Latin country automatically puts a big target on your back as an American.  The impression being that all Americans are wealthy and should be taken advantage of, mainly financially. 
 
The country has no standing Army, which is unusual in a Central American country.  It is basically a Democratic capitalist country.  I believe that 3 out of the past 5 presidents have spent some time in prison for corruption, which seems to be quite the norm in Central American countries, Costa Rica being no exception.

For many years, Costa Rica has been advertised as a great place for Americans to retire to. That might have been true 20 or 30 years ago, but not today.  The cost of living has increased a lot during the past few years, so someone on a pension or social security would have a difficult time making ends meet.  As an example, the cost of renting a car is a big problem, as the taxes levied and the fees (mostly mandatory insurance) attached are almost the cost of the rental itself.  Once you have a car to drive, especially in the capitol city of San Jose and surrounding towns and villages, you have to be a genius to figure out where you are going.  Street numbers and signs were just added over the past 5 years, but it is difficult to see them.  Additionally, some of the main roads and streets are in desperate need of repair, potholes galore. Sometimes you have to rely on landmarks like a McDonald's or a KFC to find out where you have to go.

In contrast to San Jose, most of the resorts along the Pacific and Caribbean coasts are modern and beautiful, with some some areas noted for their surfing and beaches, and unfortunately, for their drug use.  Many of the biological areas, which the country is noted for, are intriguing with many different species of animals and fauna, like volcanoes (Arenal volcano) which produce warm thermal water for bathing in.  Those areas are a plus for Costa Rica. One mention should be made about the hordes of motor bikers, mostly young males, who drive around cars and trucks with abandon, delivering whatever they have to deliver. Accidents are a pretty common occurrence.  You could call them an “Uber-like biker Army”. An interesting note, if you have an accident, you must leave the vehicle where it is at until the police arrive.  That means a blocked traffic lane will cause an immediate back up of cars and trucks.  Insanity rules.

As I said before, Costa Rica is a two-sided coin.  Some ramshackle dwellings and areas along with some high end, ultra modern new shopping malls (which make some of our malls look average by comparison) and office buildings that dot the capitol and surrounding areas. A friendly, reliable “Tico” source (Tico being a nickname of a male Costa Rican, Tica for a female), told me much of the money used to build these beautiful, modern structures comes from “laundered” drug money from nearby countries.

On the positive side, Costa Rica has a thriving area of medical and dental tourism, with foreigners flocking to the country to get their medical and dental needs taken care of at about one-third the cost of what it costs in the United States.  Most of the doctors, dentists, and hospitals are top-notch, with most of the professionals trained in the United States and Europe.  The hospitals are equally equipped with all the modern up to date machines and facilities.  There's a reason why so many foreigners come to Costa Rica for their medical and dental needs, they get excellent, competent service at a very affordable price. 

On the downside, the country seems to “nickle and dime” you to death.  With oppressive taxes (your restaurant check contains an automatic 13% VAT tax besides a 10% gratuity service charge),also on the rental cars and hotel stays.  In addition, private parking charges are an essential necessity as parking space is very limited.  Even the malls and hospitals charge you to park your car to use their services, along with the numerous road tolls scattered throughout the country.  You need a bag full of coins and bills to pay these added on costs of living in Costa Rica.  An big annoyance to say the least.

Up until the present time, the country has mandated that everyone must wear a mask in all public places like malls, public buildings, super markets, banks etc.  They might be lifting that order as the pandemic has subsided.  Coming from Florida, it was quite annoying to have to comply. 

So in conclusion, Costa Rica is a nice place to visit, but not a nice place to permanently live or to do business there. If you have any questions, you can contact me at the email address below.

Commentary by Chuck Lehmann  (chucksright@gmail.com)