What if the “Impeachers” are successful?

The people who are offering everything “free” if you just elect them, are the same people who are afraid to face our Great President at election time. They prefer impeachment. (Though few actually know anything about the process).
So if they’re successful in that effort, think about this: They’re also impeaching record minority jobs and opportunity;
They’re impeaching a burgeoning stock market and business activity (components of the markets are a reliable measure of a nation’s economic health);
They’re also impeaching the important interactions and agreements with world leaders which are essential if we’re going to walk the path toward world peace and prosperity. Not an easy job, but no one else has even made that effort!
They’re also impeaching efforts to create a system of education that recognizes the innate talents and abilities of potential students and will honestly guide them to the right path. A lot of very smart people are not being served under the current mindset.
They’re also impeaching the idea that a reasoned and measured approach to “climate change” and other phenomena will actually yield better and more permanent results, over time, as opposed to an hysterical “shut down the world, and do it today!” approach. Change doesn’t happen overnight, but when it does, the change is usually disasterous.All this plus the democrat socialists are also impeaching organized religion, a real education and unborn children.
We need a president who indeed, puts America and Americans first, and will put a stop to the inane practices that reward those who would do harm to us and our way of life. If we’re going to offer “foreign aid”, we need to know, with certainty, what we can expect in return. When these agreements go bad, then the flow of American taxpayer dollars needs to end! This may mean getting the hell out of the so-called United Nations. Many of those “nations” actually hate America and work in opposition to our goals.
OK, this could go on forever, but Trump has us on the right track. A stronger America will make for a stronger and more prosperous world coalition. I Think!W

Expanding Social Security

Once upon a time in a far away land, the idea was put forth that SS was designed and meant to be a SUPPLEMENT to your own money, savings, investments, pensions, etc. and NOT meant to be your sole source of income in your retirement. It seems that at every step, people are actually encouraged to eschew personal responsibility and become even more dependent on an unreliable government. To our peril!

US/China Trade Agreement

Now the word is that the Chinese may hold off on finalizing a trade agreement with US until the 2020 elections. They’re gambling that a squishy, malleable, “flexible” democrat socialist will get elected and that they will be better able to “negotiate” a much better deal with that mindless little person. But, they’re making a deadly mistake. By November 2020, their economy will be in complete shambles and there will be no need for “negotiations” at any level. And, as a side benefit, they won’t be doing nearly as much polluting!

Police Brutality…

Let me get this straight….You’re a felon in a stolen car with illegal drugs stuffed in every nook, you resist arrest, try to shoot the cop with his own gun, YOU wind up getting shot, and then you and the rest of the dismal left claim POLICE BRUTALITY??!!

Sublimation Printing…

The process of dye sublimation printing has been around for a long time, but  only in relatively recent times has it jumped to the forefront of techniques used to decorate sportswear like t-shirts and polos, as well as hard goods like trophies and awards, plus many other items offered by the promotional products industries. (That list is almost endless, with more items being introduced daily. See catalog offerings.) The versatility of the process is evidenced by the hundreds of products that have been, or can be decorated using dye sublimation printing. At Star Graphics, we regularly decorate t-shirts, white aluminum photo panels, patches, fiber reinforced plastic panels, custom license plates, etc. Sublimation will work only on man-made cloth materials like 100% polyester, polymer products and on polymer coated hard goods like signage, photo panels, awards, etc. The coating is done in a factory setting  where the substrates are coated with a liquid polymer coating then baked with strict control over environmental conditions like dust control, heating time and temperature, etc. In other words, it’s not a do-it-yourself project. From a decorator’s standpoint, it’s quite easy to get into sublimation printing. All you need is an inkjet printer that’s capable of printing with sublimation inks, the sublimation inks, sublimation transfer paper, a heat press and the sportswear or hard goods designed for sublimation printing and design software.  Let’s go over these items one by one: The Printer – Since this information is aimed mainly at the newcomer or small shop owner who will be using a desktop size printer (as opposed to a specialty shop using wide format printers). I would recommend almost any one of the Epson line of desktops. They are relatively inexpensive and are ready to print with sublimation ink right out of the box. Plus, they are inherently well suited for sublimation because of  their piezo printhead technology. Two main characteristics set Epson’s technology apart from other inkjet printing systems. The first is that Micro Piezo printing systems do not use heat to eject the ink droplets. The second is that they precisely control the volume of ink contained in each ink droplet. This is particularly important because sublimation ink is activated by heat and you want the heat to come from your heat press, not your printer. The end result of the sublimation process is a nearly permanent, high resolution, full color print. Because the dyes are infused into the substrate at the molecular level, rather than applied at a topical level (such as with screen printing and direct to garment printing), the prints will not crack, fade or peel from the substrate under normal conditions. Sawgrass inks is trying to manipulate the market to Ricoh printers, and many believe this in an effort to keep a strong hold on it’s sales of sublimation ink at very high margins. Their vendors are now saying things like “upgrade” your system to Ricoh printers or “better than Epson”. These claims are mainly based on the experiences of new users who have not followed even the minimum maintenance practices required for success. So, the bottom line here is that if you want to try your hand at sublimation printing, with the least initial expense, buy an Epson desktop inkjet printer, search the web for some inexpensive sublimation ink along with an inexpensive continuous ink supply system (CISS), some sublimation heat transfer paper ( it has to say “for sublimation”, and an inexpensive entry level heat press. The Ink. – As I said above, Ricoh, Sawgrass and their vendors will try to tell you that if you don’t spend and arm and one or more legs, on their products you are doomed to failure in the sublimation effort. NOT TRUE! There are many sources out there selling sublimation ink at reasonable prices. Since no matter what system or inks you use, there will always be a period of experimentation involved in the process. Along with that experimentation, a good deal of self-education is necessary. Fortunately, as sublimation grows in popularity, there is a wealth of good information available on the net. Forums can be useful but you need a very keen BS filter. There is a lot of conflicting information to be had there. For a desktop printer there are basically two ways to supply ink to the printhead: buy cartridges filled with sublimation ink to fit your printer; or, buy an empty continuous ink supply system (CISS) configured for your printer, buy the sublimation in in bulk containers and fill the system yourself. The picture here shows a typical CISS setup before installation. The set of cartridges snap into your printer, replacing the existing cartridges and the ink bottles are positioned outside the printer with the supply lines going to the cartridges inside the printer. Desktop printers come with 4, 5, or 6 cartridges depending on your model. You’ll use a plastic syringe to suck ink into each cartridge through the supply lines. Google searches and YouTube are excellent sources of supplies and information about these systems. The next consideration is the use of color profiles. Simplified, profiles tell your printer how to distribute the ink on your transfer paper depending on the substrate you will be printing on. Each class of substrate requires a matched setting to yield the best results. For instance if you’re printing on a hard surface product like ceramic mugs, the profile would be different than one for a polyester t-shirt or mouse pad. Cobra Ink (www.cobraink.com) is a good source for supplies and a free download with instructions of color profiles. Now, having said all that, here’s the deal: If you really don’t feel up to configuring your own system from scratch, so to speak, you  may want to consider a basic “turnkey” system from someone like Conde Systems (www.conde.com) so you can get started right away while learning how the whole thing works, at your own pace. Whatever you decide, these two sites can be very useful whether you buy from them or not. YouTube is another invaluable resource. The Transfer Paper – Paper for dye sublimation printing is offered in cut sheet sizes for desktop printers as well as in rolls for wide format printers. For this conversation, we’ll stick to the cut sizes for desktop printers. For all the years I’ve been engaged in sublimation printing, making ceramic plates, mugs, t-shirts, aluminum photo panels, etc., I’ve used many “brands” of paper for my Epson printers. My only rule of thumb has been if it said it was for Epson printers, was reasonably priced and offered in the size I needed, that’s what I bought. The paper itself is coated on one side (which is visually whiter than the back side). The coating is to control ink absorption into the paper and the release of the ink as it’s going through the heat transfer process. All these different brands bought from many suppliers worked very well on everything that I printed. So it’s my position that no matter what brand of sublimation transfer paper you choose, time and temperature are the most important variables in the process. So that means gathering all the time and temp recommendations out there for the various substrates you’ll be printing and use these as guidelines as you begin to experiment and keep records of the various results. The most noticeable differences in the time, temp and pressure equation will be between printing on soft goods like a polyester t-shirt and printing on hard goods like ceramics or aluminum photo panels. And, since these variables are not exact, you’ll need to experiment, within the guidelines, to find the right formula for your situation and equipment. (More to come)

 

Slackers vs. Workers…

When you continue to reward the slackers and punish the workers, before long, you’ll have more slackers than workers. The liberals know this and have been “chipping away” for decades. Now, I fear, through indoctrination and importation, the slackers outweigh us and will continue to grow because of fear of personal responsibility. A society of dependents is much easier to govern.
The real problem is with the workers, who continue to shake their heads in wonder, rather than attack the real problem.
The liberals have made “political correctness” the most potent weapon in their arsenal, and the pathetic moderates and conservatives fear that label more than they fear the ultimate destruction of their country and their way of life.
Nicey-nice guys like Romney wouldn’t say “shit” if they had a mouthful. We need a true firebrand who is not afraid to speak the truth and who will not rely on the idiots like Limbaugh and Hannity to stammer and stumble and “cute boy” our message. Ultimately, they will drive away more potential moderate voters than they will garner.
I know that health care is a huge problem, but I also know that government involvement is the problem, not the answer. Government does not know when to stop. They don’t know when to involve the recipient in their own care rather than removing all personal responsibility. Just give them your vote and all your money and they will take care of you. When we realize the fallacy of this premise, it will be too late to turn back.

The discussion about “Bullying”

The current and ongoing discussion about “bullying” is just one more example of out of control, inept government invading your life. (They are not able to do the job they are charged to do, so they find all these little diversions to make it look like they really have something to do.)

Every kid has been “bullied” at some time, or perhaps many times, during his or her school career, from kindergarten through high school and beyond. And for the most part it is merely a learning experience with many lessons about life.

We all have our limitations, weaknesses and strengths. And, along the way, we learn who among us is smarter, bigger, stronger, faster, and, well, better. We also learn who is weaker, less intelligent, smaller, slower, and so on. The way we learn these things is through interaction with all the different kinds of people during our formative years.

All these experiences, good and bad, help us to know where we are in this scheme. An example might be the 10 or 15 kids on a ball field choosing up sides for a baseball game. Almost everyone there knows who’s going to be chosen first and who’s going to be chosen last. Most of them are somewhere in the middle and are happy just to be chosen. And, they know that it goes right back to the bigger, stronger, faster thing. The things we can’t control.  Out of that same group of kids, there will be a couple who everyone knows can and will perform beyond their physical expectations.

Leave kids alone and they will find their own level, find their own place.

Only in the rare extreme cases should the heavy handed bureaucrats get involved.

Liberals make gains one “chip” at a time

The socialists know the art of “incremental change” very well. Chip, chip, chip, get a small compromise then chip, chip, chip. Before long they’ve had their way and we don’t even know how it happened! The conservatives have yet to learn this “art” so they keep doing the compromising. Maybe we should do some conservative “chipping” and turn the tables on these clever devils.
The libs know full well that they won’t get everything they want in one fell swoop, instead they accept the small gains. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and socialism won’t happen overnight. Chip, chip, chip

Congress in charge of health care…

How in the world can thinking people even consider putting something so important as health care in the hands of the government? Think about the people who are currently running the “government”; the people who have barely a 30% approval rating. The same people who have put the postal service in a financial quagmire. They are not statesmen, they are not patriots, they are career politicians who will do and say ANYTHING to keep their position. Even destroy America. With all the really bright, honest people in this great country, how do we keep winding up with these dolts?

Obama’s policies will continue to squeeze the middle class…

This socialist administration continues to squeeze billions of dollars in taxes from hard working middle class Americans so that they can provide goods and services for millions of people who are unwilling to take the steps necessary to provide for themselves.  This same bunch allows members of congress to enrich themselves and their friends at the public trough.

Those who refuse to get an education, or refuse to be parents to their offspring, should not have access to the results of the hard work and discipline of of the good people of this still great country.

I am sick of the professional excuse makers and whiners whose expectations are so low that by their whining  seek to legitimize the lack of action by the slackers. Welfare, in all it’s forms, should be reserved for those who absolutely cannot provide for themselves.

If the fact that you are poor is a result of your lack of effort, then so be it! You’ll forever be poor. Hard core? Maybe, but hunger is a great motivator and will do more to solve the problem than taking money from those who are already stressed (because of government meddling in the markets) and giving it to a group who are not worth the effort.

Government’s solution to our problems seems to be to sacrifice the many in a futile attempt to save the few. Classrooms and teachers are held hostage by the few bad apples that constantly create problems and rob decent students of the chance to learn without these distractions. Good teachers become frustrated to the point that they simply go with the flow dictated by the bureaucracy rather than use their considerable skills to teach attentive students.

Welfare programs that are designed to kill incentive and to keep in line a whole new block of voters who will elect those who will promise even more welfare are destructive to our great country. These programs need to be eliminated, not reformed.

Having said all that, I am firmly in favor of programs that are designed to help those who are making a genuine effort to work and better themselves and their children. That help should be based on need and should be withdrawn gradually as the recipient gains education and earning power, not eliminated totally at a point decided by another mindless bureaucrat.

Common sense can solve any problem we have. Common sense that demands effort and accountability. Common sense that knows when to sever the cord.