GrumpsReport Now On GETTR

Dear Readers. Things are moving so fast (still downhill I’m afraid) that to comment and remain current on breaking news and the vast array of insanity infecting society, we have elected to (gulp) dip our toe into the mayhem of social media by establishing an account and presence on the relatively new platform called GETTR. (https://gettr.com/). Enroll and look up Grumps and/or @GrumpsActual. There you’ll see all our commentary.

As our blood pressure rises and corpuscles boil, we’re able to respond/comment/rail quickly using this medium. The jury is still out as to whether we’ll stay on this platform, or any of the others for that matter: GAB, TruthSocial, Rumble, Parler, etc. but we’ll give it a try for a while.

Let us know what you think!

And hang in there!

Grumps

“I Was Wrong”: Words You’ll Never Hear From The Left

As fond as Joe Biden is of quoting his father, I thought I’d write about an aphorism MY father taught me. It is: “The hallmark of a powerful man is the ability to admit when he is wrong.” In my opinion, one of the biggest problems the Democrats have is their unwillingness to do just that. That they’re wrong on most everything is undeniable except by die-hard leftist delusionists, pedants and sycophants. The last thing I want to do is give them a formula for righting (.sic) their sinking ship, but how jarring and rejuvenating would it be for the Democratic leadership to come up to the microphone and say the words, “America, we were wrong. We were wrong about the economy, about the border, about COVID, masks, lockdowns, about therapeutics and mandates, about defunding the police, about energy independence, about wokeness in the military, about selective prosecution, about lying for political gain, about the means and methods we used to manufacture and count illegitimate votes during the 2020 elections, about unconscionable gerrymandering, about packing the Supreme Court, about ending the filibuster, about Russian collusion, about the Afghanistan withdrawal, about the sham impeachments, about apologizing for and defending anti-American, antisemitic, anti-Christian bigots, about transgenderism, about deviant behavior (e.g. pedophilia), about critical race theory and the 1619 Project, about kowtowing to the unions, about conflict of interest investing with impunity, about suppression of dissenting views and canceling voices that disagree with us or don’t preach the leftist orthodoxy, about supporting fake news, fake polls and ignoring the will of the Silent Majority, about an ambiguous, flaccid and indefensible foreign policy, about China, about Iran, about North Korea, about Venezuela, about CUBA, about Russia…”

They will of course never admit any of this nor claim to be wrong on anything.

Much as I detest the content of the nonsense that spews forth from the mouth of the White House spokesperson Jen Psaki every day, I have to give her credit for her mastery at the podium. She has that skillful facility to deny, decry, defend, deflect, divert, dissemble, detract, and dismiss. “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is”. Contrast her with two other equally talented spin doctor/press secretaries: Kayleigh McEnany and Dana Perino. The difference between Psaki and the other two is that the former can ONLY use the list of ‘d words’ above while McEnany and Perino had truth, facts and fundamental honesty on their side. They too spun the messaging so as to cast as positive a light on both successes and shed the spotlight on the failures of their administrations. But the successes so far outweighed the failures the preponderance of messaging was straight up truth. By contrast, Psaki has to cover, “circle back”, postpone, attempt to belittle valid questions, launch ad hominem attacks or just outright lie to cover the failures of the Biden administration. And of course, she NEVER admits Democrat wrongdoing.

Over the years I’ve had to admit I was wrong many times. It always stabs me in the gut to do it, but I WILL admit mistakes when I make them. Oh that we had leaders that could and would do so as well.

I’ve been reading Dwight D. Eisenhower’s book written shortly after World War II, “Crusade in Europe.” In it he describes the character attributes that would disqualify potential commanders: “Foremost among these was the one who seemed to be self-seeking in the matter of promotion.” Another was evidence that a man made any effort to ‘pass the buck’. Pessimists were eschewed, as were men who made every decision himself, i.e. who was unable to delegate both authority and responsibility. In the book he recounts numerous incidents when his own estimates or judgments were faulty or just plain wrong. The consensus building, the arbitrating, the therapy he had to administer to get the Allied commands to work together was superb preparation for leadership not just of the military, but of, as it turned out, the Country. Admitting he was wrong when he was garnered deep respect and support from the Allied command.

Lay these attributes up against what we have now. Self-aggrandizement on the part of all politicians is inveterate but the narcissism of the celebrity-addicted Left is manifest and amplified by a makeup-laden media. I’ll posit that the Left’s pre-occupation with celebrity has infected and damaged the two youngest generations to the point where social media (a euphemism to be sure) has created an almost universal self-centeredness among them.

Passing the buck or blaming everyone but oneself is commonplace, a REAL pandemic, but especially among the Left (Did you hear Kamala Harris the other day blame Congress for not fixing the border?!).

Weak-kneed positions on crime, on our duty and responsibility to be the beacon of freedom in the world (Nancy Pelosi: “Go compete at the Olympics but be careful not to offend the Chinese.”; “We will boycott the Olympics by not sending any diplomats.”), on supporting not tearing apart the American dream, about the rule of law, about the Constitution itself…the Left and Democrats have deliberately sought to “transform our country” according to a Rules for Radicals (Saul Alinsky), frankly, communist way.

I’ve been encouraged of late that there is more talk among the Republican leadership of fashioning a Contract With America version 2.0. I think they’ve figured out that it is not enough to expose and openly denigrate the idiocies of the Democrat Left. It is imperative that we provide an alternative vision of what America can and should be. Unfortunately, the Democrats have so mucked things up, it will be necessary to enact harsh measures to eradicate the detritus they have scattered across the political, social and economic landscape.

We need to distribute “No More Mr. Nice Guy” coffee cups to every elected or appointed, conservative-minded, constitution-supporting Republican now or prospectively in office. The true fabric of our nation is frayed and, in some cases, hanging by a thread. If we screw up along the way, we need to admit our mistakes and make course corrections that keep us on a path leading up the slippery slope down which we have so lamentably slid.

And by contrast let’s NOT encourage the Left to admit their mistakes. Let’s continue to point out their fallacies and destructiveness while also adhering to Napolean’s maxim: “Never interfere with the enemy when he is in the process of destroying himself.”

And let us fashion a positive, seductive message that begins to restore America to the greatness her people deserve.

A Profound Essay on Post Truth

I find it’s increasingly difficult to have a rational conversation with ANYONE! There is so much falsehood, so much unbridled emotion and so much bitterness in communication today that it’s even hard to have a civil chat with members of my own family. While there are many topics on which we agree, there are many on which we disagree depending on what media we’ve consumed or exposure we’ve had to flak in the air! Now I’ve come across someone who has articulated the reasons for the conflict. Donald Williams, PhD is a Professor Emeritus of Toccoa Falls College and I think he nails it:

I frequently encounter people who do not seem to understand the difference between a fact and an assertion. To them, a “fact” is simply an assertion with which they agree. A “false fact” is an assertion with which they disagree. And “evidence” or “argument” mean repeating the assertion more loudly, more passionately, and/or with fancier rhetoric. These people appear on both sides of the political divide.

This kind of inability to participate in valid forensic reasoning has always been with us, of course. But I think at least two current influences are making it worse.

First, social media amplifies the idiocy. There used to be gatekeepers you had to get past to inundate the masses with your message. In so far as social media makes it easier (until it gets “community standards”) to make an end-run around the censors, it is a good thing. But the multiplication of mindlessness in public discourse is a huge downside. The old gatekeepers were not perfect, but they did as much good as harm. At their best, they did more good than harm. They helped to keep the grosser forms of illogic in public discourse to a minimum.

Second, the dominance of Post-Modern “theories” of various kinds in the academy has been an environmental factor that has caused this malady to mutate into even more virulent strains. Like social media but in a different way, this has neutralized some of the natural predators that used to keep it in check. Today’s students are constantly taught that objectivity is so impossible of attainment that it is dishonest to have it as a goal or even an aspiration. It is endlessly drummed into them that no one can escape the deterministic perspectivalism supposedly created by race, class, and gender.

Truth claims are automatically reduced in knee-jerk fashion to mere cynical attempts to assert power. It is not surprising that people come away believing that we really do live in a “post-truth” world. It should not be shocking that they will eventually act on that belief. Thus education, which used to inhibit the kind of thoughtlessness I am describing, now not only encourages it but actively foments it.

THAT is why rational conversations are no longer possible. Call it brainwashing, call it attention deficit, call it lack of emotional energy…the madness continues.

For my part, I have buried myself in history books. I’m rereading the texts on world history I didn’t pay much attention to when in grade, high school and college. Having traveled to many places described in those texts, I’m reading them with a renewed interest and comprehension. Moreover, it’s giving me perspective. Great civilizations have been down the road we’re traveling before. All were eventually purged of evil and in context, what we’re experiencing now in 2022 is but a blip in history. The great journey of our own civilization – call it The Western World or America, its archetype, is following the course of all great civilizations: struggle to prosperity to a breakdown of traditional values to indolence to jealousy to war to chaos to demise.

We’re in the chaos stage. In the future as we look back on the turning point and what happened, I predict we’ll say that the post-World War II period of relative calm and “normalcy” gave rise to a “fat and happy” indolence which gave rise to the 60’s breakdown in traditional values which gave rise to the Korean and Vietnam wars as well as the more recent hegemonic quests to the chaos we’re now experiencing as the deterioration of values and moral relativism reach their peak and chaos prevails.

What do we have to look forward to? If we don’t learn from history and not just arrest this slide down the slippery slope but return to virtue, eternal truth and traditional values, we will see America continue its decline and eventually either be surpassed and taken over by an ascendant China, a militant Russia, or Armageddon will occur.

On the other hand, if we can wake up, grow up and pay attention to what I will for lack of a better term call “real reality” vs. “manufactured reality”, we can turn the chaos back into a better world for all.

Alas, I’m not very hopeful. I fail to see the leader or leaders who can inspire us sufficiently to turn the corner. I hope I’m wrong, for my children’s and my children’s children’s sake.

2022 Will Be Crazier Than The Last Two Years

What more needs to be said about how bad things were, not just in 2021 but in 2020 as well? On a positive note, the Silent Majority of grounded, traditionalist Americans started to speak up and speak out, throwing the BS flag, as it were, on the field. The Left so overreached, their stupid and destructive ideology was so exposed, we could remain silent no more! Previously quiet citizens and formerly reserved pundits took off the gloves and began to call out the idiocy and treason for what it truly was and, going into 2022, still is. Even some, albeit still a minority, of Trump-hating, head-in-the-clouds Democrats took down their Biden-Harris and Black Lives Matter virtue-signaling, lawn litter signs.

A rehash of all the moronic policies, actions and lies that saturated our lives isn’t needed here. It will be said many years from now that if in retrospect you didn’t remember 2020 and 2021, “you weren’t there”.

We must look forward and not just bemoan all that has transpired to “fundamentally transform” our country, but paint a new picture of what “could be”. The reason the Right in 1994 was successful in taking back the House after 40 years in the wilderness was The Contract With America. Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey’s positive message is what carried the day, not a continued condemnation of the destructiveness of the Left.

We need to give people one-liners and mental images of What Could Be in America. And while an old timer like me would suggest a return to what was, for my kids and grandkids the vision has to be one which takes into account the changes (some would say advances, but I question whether they were!) that have occurred over the last ten to fifteen years.

Technology, for better or for worse, has marched inexorably on, invading every aspect of our/their lives. In my opinion its impact has done more to transform our society than all the Leftist nonsense. However, it gave the Left an unprecedented platform from which to manipulate the increasingly addled minds of what have become known as “The Sheep”.

We must show how fundamental principles of honesty, self-reliance, meritocracy, thrift, traditional families, uncensored history, the Golden Rule and all the rest of the traditional norms and values that made America the greatest country the world has ever known, can and will create a more prosperous, peaceful and equitable society. Slowly, but increasingly evident, this is happening.

We need new heroes. I’ve said this many times before, but the reality is that peoples’ attitudes are shaped by pop-culture and celebrity figures. We need to draw clear distinctions between the Good Guys and the Bad Guys. Pull heart strings and create gut reactions that reinforce traditional values, not seek to destroy them. The Good Guys need to expose all that’s wrong with the utopian fantasy and triumph over the encroachment of Evil represented by Leftist tyrrany. They need to be the kind of heroes who Gen Z’rs can tweet about, establish memes about, get excited about, align behind.

These heroes should NOT be politicans. Nor should they be reality show celebrities, pundits, Hollywood actors or flamethrowers. They will be more like Edward Durr, the 62 year old union truck driver who last November toppled the longest-serving Democrat Senate president in New Jersey history after spending pennies on his campaign. Or they will be like the eminently brilliant and sober Condoleeza Rice, a patriotic American woman who cannot be pigdeon-holed as a political operative. They will be John Wayne for the New Millennium. While Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz and similar outspoken Republicans will still bevvery much needed to draw headlines and bring attention to the failures of the Left, a new breed of leader is needed.

They need to be worthy of celebrity status but not because they seek it. They need to be attractive, articulate, positive, strong, quick-witted, exceptionally knowledgeable, tireless, patriotic, plain-spoken…a tall order to be sure.

I’m not sure what will happen this coming November. I fear the Right is being far too cocky already – a recipe for disaster. And speaking of disasters. It’s clear the Left/Democrats will do ANYTHING for power, American values, traditions and proven successes be damned. Just wait. Perhaps it will be “The Fungus”, or something external like an actual invasion of Ukraine or Taiwan, the Iranians testing a nuke or some other crisis. The Democrats will exploit it mercilessly and without reservation. And since the ends justify the means to them, they will lie, cheat, steal, and use every vicious and deceitful tactic in their arsenal to fight for their malicious agenda.

Gird your loins traditionalists.

2022 is going to be one hell of a ride as well but if we can use technology and social media to create that positive agenda, we’ll prevail in taking our country back!

The Left Doesn’t Build – They Only Destroy

I just read an article by Dennis Prager entitled “A Brief Guide to Leftist Destruction“. It makes the point that the Left never produces anything of value. It only destroys things and has done so since the first evil-doer walked the earth. It’s the age old conflict between the givers and the takers, of the producers and the indolent, of the haves and have nots. The Left are takers, indolent, have nots and all their whining and complaining is a product of their own making and choosing. Why work, why strive, why achieve when they can just take from those who DO produce, work hard and thus ‘have’.

I reproduce Prager’s article in full. It lists all the Left’s destructive results brilliantly.

To understand the modern world, perhaps the most important rule one needs to know is this: Everything the Left touches it ruins.

This first became clear to me years ago during my radio show. I was talking about the Left’s war on the Boy Scouts (for not accepting announced gay people). It was becoming clear that this would ultimately lead to the decline of the Boy Scouts, which led me to ask: “Will the left replace the Boy Scouts with a left-wing Boy Scouts?”

Then I answered my own question: Of course not. Because the Left only destroys; it doesn’t build anything (other than government).

In support of that observation, here is a list of many of the things the Left ruins and often destroys.

No. 1: Art. The Left long ago conquered the art world. Consequently, since the 20th century, most modern art has been ugly, meaningless and nihilistic — the opposite of what Western art had always been.

No. 2: Music. What the Left did to the eyes in art, it did to the ears in music. As a part-time conductor, I can say with some knowledge that since the invention of atonal music (an oxymoron if there ever was one), most contemporary classical music is also ugly, meaningless and uninspiring. The people who like such music are almost all music critics and, of course, music professors. Most lovers of classical music never listen to the stuff.

No. 3: Journalism. Journalists were once highly respected. Unless a piece was listed as “opinion,” people generally believed they were getting, to the best of a journalist’s ability, as truthful a report as possible — “just the facts.” Today, on virtually any controversial issue, they are getting opinion, not truth. The purpose of nearly every major newspaper and other “news” outlet is the same purpose Pravda had in the Soviet Union: to transmit the party line.

No. 4: Colleges and universities. The Left has destroyed universities as places of learning devoted to seeking truth and therefore welcoming, even cultivating, diverse opinions. Virtually every left-wing idea was born at a university.

No. 5: High schools and elementary schools. Most schools in America — private as much as public — teach children that America is systemically racist and that they are not born male or female, but at a later age will choose whether to be one or the other — or neither. And increasingly, American educational institutions deny objective truth exists, even in mathematics.

No. 6: Happiness. You can meet happy and unhappy liberals and happy and unhappy conservatives, but you are unlikely to ever meet a happy leftist. The only question is whether the unhappy gravitate to leftism or whether leftism makes people unhappy. Both are probably true.

No. 7: The family. People on the Left increasingly choose not to get married and not to have children — in other words, not to make families. And their welfare policies serve to disincentivize the creation of families.

No. 8: Women. The rates of depression among young people, especially young women, are higher than ever recorded in American history. One reason is that for half a century, women have been told, as one famous feminist saw put it, “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.” But the fact is that the vast majority of (heterosexual) women need a man to be fulfilled, just as the vast majority of (heterosexual) men need a woman to be fulfilled.

No. 9: Childhood. One reason young people on the Left don’t want children is that the Left doesn’t particularly like children. The teachers unions’ adamant refusal to open schools for over a year has opened many Americans’ eyes to this fact. So has the war on children’s innocence – like prematurely talking to them about sex and having schools introduce them to drag queens from the age of five.

No. 10: Black life. Like the Democratic Party historically, the left is racist. And it is so in precisely the way the word was always used — the Left believes in black inferiority. That is why leftists advocate lowering standards for blacks. That is why they advocate policies that always result in more blacks dying at the hands of other blacks. That is why they believe the state must take care of blacks more than any other group. That is why left-wing policies, from the Great Society to today, have destroyed so much of black life, especially its family life — and they don’t care.

No. 11: Black-white relations. According to polls and according to just about every American who remembers life from about a decade ago, black-white relations were far superior then and both groups were optimistic about relations continuing to improve. The Left shattered that with its anti-white, “America is systemically racist” propaganda shouted from almost every major media and relentlessly pushed in almost every school and big business. The Left knows that when blacks and whites feel good about one another, the Left loses its appeal and loses elections.

No. 12: The military. As the military gets more and more woke — recall the testimony of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff testifying before Congress about the need to teach the military about white racism — soldier morale declines. Add to this the utterly gratuitous and cruel mandate that every member of the military get vaccinated or be discharged and you understand why military morale is in steep decline.

No. 13: Late-night television. Americans who remember the titans of late-night comedy — Johnny Carson and Jay Leno — remember how their sole aim was to bring some smiles and laughter to Americans before they went to sleep. Few people had any inkling of the political views of either host. That is now history. The Left has destroyed late-night comedy. It now consists of little more than angry rants against conservatives.

No. 14: Superman. Superman was an iconic American hero. Thanks to the Left, he is no more. About a decade ago, Superman stood in front of the United Nations to announce he was renouncing his American citizenship to become a “citizen of the world.” And the Left has now changed his motto from “Truth, Justice, and the American way” to “Truth, Justice, and a Better Tomorrow.”

No. 15: Free speech. Never before has freedom of speech been threatened as it is today. As has been true since the communist revolution in Russia, everywhere the Left has gained power — from Russia in 1917 to the university and social media today — it has suppressed free speech. There is no exception.

No. 16: Sports. Until last year, sport was a great American unifier. It was one place Americans could go and, leaving politics behind, Left and Right, Democrat and Republican could root for the same team. No longer. The Left has ruined it by radically politicizing baseball, football and basketball.

The great American tragedy is just about every liberal knows the above is true, but nearly every one will still vote for the Left.”

Couln’t have said it better myself.

Thanksgiving

Ah, turkey day 2021. I am thankful to have my family around the table with me today, 16 of us, and thankful that this tradition hasn’t yet been cancelled. I’m grateful to have a roof over my head, clothes on my back, an abundance of food on our table. I’m reminded that today we celebrate and mark the day when those who sacrificed so much and came precariously close to perishing thanked almighty God for a successful harvest and the preservation of their very lives so that we could have what we have today.

I am also thoughtful, however, of the forces that would destroy Thanksgiving, our history, our traditions, fundamentally transform our nation and society in a way that can only be described as evil. As they pursue their authoritarian, one world order nightmare, the writhing hydra of the Left is engaged in a Banzai Charge. I pray the result will be similar – the defeat and surrender of the human wave of hellhounds who maniacally rush to overwhelm the Right, the just and the good.

I wish I had a magic wand and could instantaneously make everyone as comfortable, happy and content as I. But no-one can, not the least a bunch of arrogant, megalomaniacal Leftists who think if they have all the power in the world that they can create a utopian society. THAT concept, is, in my opinion, inherently evil.

The war is engaged. The BS flag has been thrown down on the field. The Silent Majority is increasingly less silent as the blood from a thousand cuts, the heat from the flame underneath the frog in the pot have both reached the tipping point where we’ve had enough. In talking with people around the country and observing the countenance and behavior of the blue-state sheep surrounding me, I’m convinced that more and more people have now awakened to the reality of what is happening to us. More importantly, in more organized ways, the rugged, self-reliant and mind-my-own-business individualists of which we on the Right are made, have been united and begun to speak up in places like school board and town meetings. And now that the Left’s election lies, deceit and fraud have been fully exposed, we will see, thankfully, more of what occurred in Virginia and elsewhere during the elections earlier this month.

As the Leftist mob faces opposition for the first time, they, squealing and reluctantly, are starting to back off and stand down. Yes, there are still huge swaths of swamp yet to be cleared of infestation, and in the absence of an outside shock such as a World War III, it may take a couple of generations, but I sense a turning of the tide. It is slow, almost imperceptible, but it is turning.

And for that I am thankful.

I had a “heavy” conversation with one of my apolitical, extraordinarily busy, focused-on-fundamentals family members recently who, though aware of what’s happening, has the attitude that there is little any of us can do about it, that it’s the next generation’s world now and they’ll have to deal with it, that they have enough to worry about. Her implication was that no such principles exist, that change is inevitable and it is for each generation to decide for themselves what principles will or will not guide their lives.

I, on the other hand, believe that mankind is best served, and the greatest happiness, prosperity and peace has been in the past and will in the future be achieved by adherence to certain inalienable truths. MY attitude has always been, even when I was working 24/7/365 with my hair on fire, that it is my obligation, my duty, and my fundamental purpose now in my twilight years to do what I can to impart traditional values and teach those inalienable truths that persist and endure through all generations of time to my family and community.

What are these Inalienable Truth/Principles?

Let’s start with the Ten Commandments. I’m going to restate some of them in my own words.

There IS a God, and only One.

Don’t worship material things in lieu of God.

Don’t blaspheme.

Set Sunday apart as a day when you don’t work.

Honor your father and your mother.

Do not murder.

Do not commit adultery.

Do not steal.

Do not lie.

Do not be jealous of what others have. Be grateful for what you DO have.

There are many inalienable principles but the last one in the Ten Commandments goes straight to the heart of what Thanksgiving is all about.

Today, I’m grateful to be reminded of it.

Remember The Russia Hoax

Hoax is too gentle a term as it suggests something lighthearted. The Clinton Campaign, authorized no doubt with no more than a nod of the head for plausible deniability by Hillary Clinton herself, conceived and executed “the most ambitious dirty trick pulled in an American election and its aftermath.”[1] While America’s attention was focused on last week’s election, the indictment of Igor Danchenko became the third and most significant in the Trump-Russia collusion inquiry led by Special Prosecutor John Durham. As Charles Lipson summarizes in the above-referenced RealClear Politics article and as Kim Strassel of the Wall Street Journal wrote, the so-called “Steele Dossier” should be called the “Clinton Dossier”, since “Hillary commissioned it, paid for it, and had her aides feed it to the media, the State Department, and the FBI. It was a full-scale disinformation campaign — coherent, well-organized, and well-funded. It was rotten to the core.”[2]

The media, of course, is trying to sweep all of it under the rug as “old news”. Like my previous post, “Remember November 3, 2020” we must not let this happen.

We’ve all known about this archetypical political trickery and misinformation for years. As time softens the harsh reality and truth about the whole affair, we must tenaciously pursue the investigation for a couple of reasons: First, this was no normal-course-of-business set of campaign tactics using opposition research. It was, indeed, a full-fledged conspiracy to undermine and destroy Trump not just in advance of the 2016 election, but also afterwards, to hand-tie and cripple his administration. Second, unless and until there are consequences and incarceration for the perpetrators of this assault not just on Trump but on the American people, the Democrats will keep it up.

The strength of the conspiracy stems, in part, from garnering the Leftist troops to read off the same page of the hymnal. It may take seconds to expose the smoking guns, but years to amass so much evidence as to change the narrative, change the perception to reveal and cement the truth. The latter is obviously due to the crushing verbal diarrhea emanating from the Leftist dominated media, complicit in the lie. It’s not enough to expose the truth. It’s not enough to have a 5 minute segment on Fox News. The Truth must be crafted onto to a batman searchlight and projected on the clouds so brightly that it is impossible to ignore, and everyone sees it, once and for all, for what it is.

The genius of the Democrats is they have almost perfected the “Art of the Steal”. The lies, deceit, misinformation, denial, libel, deflection, misrepresentation, dissembling, bludgeoning, silencing, cancelling and physical, felonious activities are so well coordinated now that exactly contrary to what they are saying about the Right, it is they who act like terrorists, with all of their clandestine and covert techniques, cells, secret meetings and funding, etc.

Yeah, yeah, I know. “The Republicans do it too.” Having personally spent time in the political ooze in various capacities over the years, I can regrettably report first-hand that yes, the Republicans engage in all of these shenanigans as well. So, if you put a split screen on the television you could show examples on both sides of the political spectrum.

But, as with most facts and truth, IT’S A QUESTION OF DEGREE! The Democrats have abandoned even lip service to fairness and truth. They have shown over and over again to anyone with their eyes open that there is no length to which they will not go to achieve their megalomaniacal ends. Their use of malfeasance in seeking power and control dwarfs, as the sun dwarfs the moon, anything the Republicans have EVER been able to mount.

Thus, to perpetrate their lies takes only a fake dossier and the conspirators run with it. To counter the lies, it takes us on the Right years and years of painstaking effort, research, documentation, and exposure in the face of “nothing to see here”, shiny objects there, “old news”, and continuing cover-up, lies and disinformation (“that was debunked”) to overcome the BS emanating from the Left.

And still we may not be able to turn hearts and minds. One would think that adjudication in the judicial system of the evidence of the Left’s evil doing would suffice. But it doesn’t because the judiciary is also biased, corrupt and sometimes wittingly and sometimes unwittingly part of the conspiracy. PysOp, Coercion, Threats and Extreme Peer and Political Pressure has polluted our courts all the way up to the SCOTUS.

So, the only remaining avenue to correct the record is the collective chant of “Let’s Go Brandon” which translates, figuratively, to “Down with this Leftist BS” and “We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore”.

We must not forget what the Democrat National Committee, Hillary and her acolytes and minions perpetrated on America in 2015 and 2016 and thereafter. We must continue to shine the batman beacon exposing the corruption and evil for all to see.

Let’s Go Durham!


[1] Lipson, Charles, RealClear Politics, November 8, 2021 “John Durham Is Getting Close To The Jugular”

[2] ibid.

Act Now Or Forever Hold Your Peace

Some of my readers have asked recently why my posts come in bursts and why they seem to have tapered off in recent months. The answer is simple. Actions speak louder than words. I have markedly stepped up my activities that, for lack of a simpler description, consist of championing the “Let’s Go Brandon” movement. And if you don’t know what that slogan means, you have your head in the sand and should pull it out and look it up. It’s not just an anti-administration motivation that drives me. It’s the recognition that despite my reservations, despite the impingement on my time and energy, I must actually DO something, not just talk about it.

So I have. I have worked to expand my network of like-minded people also disgusted by what they see transpiring before their eyes. We meet regularly and discuss the atrocities of the day and what our extended networks are telling us about leftist overreach and right-minded push back. We talk about contingency plans. We speak in public settings (e.g. in bars, restaurants, at the grocery store) openly and unabashedly about the toxic drivel coming out of the Biden administration, the lies, deceit, misinformation of the main stream media, and we openly applaud those who sport patriotic tee shirts and hats.

And here’s something I’ve learned. As angry as I am about the Democrat daily atrocities, I’ve found that the Democrats who surround me respond better to subtle encouragement rather than overt condemnation. As much as I’d like to grab them by the neck and rub their noses in the excrement they’ve left all over the ground, I’ve found a better formula, one that doesn’t corner and confront them, but that gives them an escape route.

For example, the other day I was deployed as a member of our community emergency response team and as we worked on setting up our equipment I overheard one of the members say something about attending a Democrat meeting of one sort or another. As the conversation ended and the Democrat and I came in close proximity to one another, I said to him, “Wow Bob, I would have never pegged you for a Democrat.” His expression was priceless. It was clear he was embarrassed to have been outed!

My statement was, of course, both a compliment as well as a dig. I acknowledged he was a good guy, with smarts and skills and organizational ability, while also pointing out my surprise that anyone possessing these attributes could be a Democrat!

I’m encouraged by the fact that there are more and more traditionalist/conservative blogs, videos and other forms of media published every day. As I’ve often stated, there are many who’s ability to articulate the outrage we all feel far surpasses my own, and it’s clear, reading or viewing their work, that we all have similar sentiments. Thus, I’ve frequently begun a post only to find that someone has already covered what I want to say, and far better than I could.

I’m tempted, and may in fact act on this, to add a curation feature to GrumpsReport. Curation, by the way, is one of those terms, usually applied to the selection of displays in a museum, that the tech world has co-opted and abused. But its apt. What I’m suggesting is the establishment of a section with links to specific articles, videos, tweets, etc. that are particularly intriguing, thought-provoking or bile-inducing. Thus, my readers will have a sense of what I’m made up of.  As we all know, “we are what we consume”, and that goes for what we read, watch and listen to as well.

In the meantime, please understand that the fewer hours I spend writing the more I spend actually doing something about the stuff I’m so pissed off about!

I hope you’ll join me in DOING SOMETHING. Speak up, act out, join with, and by all means, help the unfortunate (I’m being extremely generous) Democrats and independents who think that everything’s just swell to wake up, open their eyes, filter out the bs they’re consuming and start thinking with their heads instead of other parts of their anatomies.

Perception, Reality and Alternative Reality

I’m going to be uncharacteristically charitable and start with the premise that the Left (choak) and the Right truly believe in their positions, both ideological and political. Further, I’m going to argue that people’s behavior is a function of their perception, that perception is reality and perception derives from experience. In other words, I’m going to suggest that because of their life experience peoples’ reality is that everything that’s happening in our country is, in the case of the Left, just peachy keen and in the case of the Right, diabolical and destructive. And both honestly and sincerely believe their views of the world are correct.

Here’s the well-known exercise that demonstrates what I’m talking about with respect to perception. Look at the following picture:

You see a young woman.

Now look at this picture.

You see an old hag.

Now, the way this experiment actually works, an audience is divided in two and each half is shown ONLY one or the other picture. This is the EXPERIENCE.

The entire audience is then shown the following picture.

The argument that ensues is that one half of the audience can only see a young woman and the other an old hag in the composite picture.

I submit the Right has a life experience that is diametrically opposed to that of the Left. The Right has grown up and experienced the good in tradition, virtue, self-determination, self-reliance, hard work, meritocracy, limited government, strong national defense, preservation of life, and so on. The Left has grown up seeing big government, authority, the State, collectivism, globalism, atheism, self-indulgence, insolence, indolence, the means justify the ends, pleasure over pain, narcissism, and so on.

How do these experiences happen?

For some, it is actual, physical experience. The traditionalist/conservative who grew up in a happy home, was taught and earned the rewards of hard work, etc. inevitably sees the world one way. The Leftist who was raised in a broken home, or in a so-called ‘alternative lifestyle’, taught throughout his or her life that the world was an oppressive place filled with people out to get them, that they are entitled to the fruits of ALL labor, taught to follow their heart strings rather than their heads; they see the world the opposite way just as the two halves of the audience are certain they see either the young woman or the old hag in the third picture above.

Since the advent of the Internet, for many experience is vicarious. By that I mean that their lives have been impacted not by actual experience, but by what they’ve heard from people with loud and popular voices (actors, actresses, politicians, etc.), read in the paper, seen on television, heard on the radio, absorbed from clicking on social media. This “experience” is just as impactful as real experience. Witness, for example, the impact teachers preaching Critical Race Theory or pushing the LGBTQ deviance and similar ideologies is having on our children. The kids are repeating things at the dinner table that are revolting and abhorrent to traditional parents. But the kids’ “experience” is coloring what they see and believe, and day by day it is becoming reality to them. For example, see: https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/warner-media-cartoons-woke/2021/09/15/id/1036621/. For the record, I’m revolted and repulsed by this blatant indoctrination.

It’s dismissed as silly that “it’s the Media’s fault.” BUT in large part, IT IS! The ‘Media’ creates what I’ll call “substitute” experience for many people, perhaps even most people, and thus determines both perception and reality. Because the Media preys on the baser instincts of human nature such as approbation and validation, sex, peer pressure, gluttony, pleasure, leisure, the herd/lemming instinct, etc. and generates revenues and profits from it, it creates a reality that feeds on itself and grows. By feeding on itself I’m suggesting that those who control and direct the media are themselves, addicted to and invested in the memes and reality they’ve created. And like any addiction, the lives they concoct get more and more perverse and masochistic until the people who believe them to be reality blow up, for example, by suicide or drug overdose. Think about all the violence, destruction, homicides, suicides, that so many have actually or vicariously experienced and how it escalates. Think about teen character destruction and the pandemic of them taking their own lives, of anger stemming from depression and lack of self-worth resulting in gang violence, drug abuse, sex trafficking. All of this can be attributed to the perceptions created by the Media and those who control it. And so long as revenues and profits persist, so too will the junk reality being put out by the Media.

The antidote?

Change perception and we change reality. We can’t just eliminate or eradicate evil from our lives. It has to be replaced by stuff that appeals to those baser instincts of human nature in a productive, positive way. An extremely tall order. Many conservative/traditionalist media outfits have tried and God bless ’em, continue to try. There seems to be some evidence that the tide is turning, but we have a long way to go!

The assault by the predominantly Leftist Media and the grip Leftist politicians now have on the minds and hearts of approximately half of our population is so strong that it can’t be broken by fiat or legislation. Overturning Roe v. Wade, for example, will not end abortion. It will just drive it underground. Counter the “my body my decision” position with enough “life begins at conception and is precious” using the same techniques and production values that the Left uses to push its agenda and we might have a chance of changing reality for so many who have been indoctrinated and brainwashed by the Left that abortion is just a procedure used in lieu of contraception or continence.  

As I’ve noted many times before, we need new heroes. We need attractive, articulate, persuasive, actors, actresses, politicians, leaders who can inspire and persuade those who believe their Leftist reality is ok that there is a better, happier and more satisfying reality than what they’re experiencing.

Many on the Left are seeing where things are heading and at least starting to scratch their heads. Unfortunately, the tsunami of Leftist reality is so strong and so pervasive in our society today, the peer pressure so great, that it’s a tough war. Many of my generation are giving up and suggesting that “it’s their world now.” I, however, feel it a responsibility and duty to try to move the two generations behind me to a course that thousands of years of history and REAL experience has taught is better than the one society is currently following.

We’ll never reverse the decline to destruction of our civilization unless we can change hearts and minds. For whatever time I have left on this planet, I will keep trying.

PSYOP

A Psychological Operation or PSYOP is one which conveys information and indicators that are intended to influence audiences (enemies in military parlance) in one way or another. The information may be true, selectively true, deliberately false, surreptitiously false, deliberately vague or misleading, intended to incite behavior of one sort or another…you get the idea. We’ve all seen enough movies that involve PSYOPs in the plot to understand what it is. Applying the term to what the Left does may seem inflammatory, but perfectly describes what they’re doing.

I’ve referred previously to the term “production values” as the elements of a message that when skillfully put together evoke strong emotions: heart string pulls, angry reactions, deer-in-the-headlights behavior, etc. Those elements include everything from powerful rhetoric and diction to mood music, visual effects, other “special effects” coupled with the gazillion-watt amplification of social and main-street media, and the allure of money and power that unfortunately drives so much of human behavior.

Production values are a key component of PSYOP. And it works on both sides of the ideological aisle. Go ahead, click on msnbc.com I just did and this is what comes up, among other things:

Now, click on Beitbart and this is what you get:

I place both these sites in the category of what I call “PSYOPs for Money”. These are profit-seeking entities both using PSYOPS to stir their readers/audiences to frequent and patronize their sites so they can maximize advertising dollars.

But what about the PSYOPS that are NOT seeking profit but are intended to mislead even the most plugged in, most savvy investigators, not to mention the public at large. Remember that graphic we saw last November depicting data flowing around the world, supposedly proving that Hammer and Scorecard were used to steal the election?

This and the accompanying data was a fundamental element of Mike Lindell’s exposé “Absolute Proof”.

Turns out, the analysis was provided by a huckster with a checkered past named Dennis Montgomery. (For a full explanation of this whole affair, read the reporting by Gateway Pundit here and here.) Among other skullduggeries Montgomery swindled more than $100k out of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. We still haven’t found out who paid (if anyone) Montgomery to create this narrative, but some day maybe we will.

I am of the firm belief that both Mike Lindell and Joe Arpaio (and Sydney Powell, Michael Flynn, Tom McInerny and others) are among many ardent patriots who were and are trying to get to the bottom of what happened last November 6th. No sane, critical thinking, reasonably objective person believes that Basement/Addled Joe legitimately won 81 million votes.  But my point is that there is so much PSYOP produced information and misinformation out there that we still have not been able to prove without a doubt, or at least prove sufficiently such that it would stand up in court, all of the fraud and shenanigans we rationally believe stole the election for Biden.

And this is what the Left cleverly and evilly want – they can’t prove the election was legitimate so they’re aim is to delegitimize any honest inquiry concerning its illegitimacy by creating CHAOS. THAT, I submit, is exquisitely executed PSYOP.

Unfortunately, as a result of the Left’s success at creating chaos no justice will prevail concerning the 2020 elections for president and the two Georgia senate seats. Admonitions that “the Truth will prevail” represent wishful thinking. It may, but not likely in our lifetimes. Historians will someday, I pray, look back on this episode with conviction that the elections of 2020 were the most corrupt in U.S. history. But the chaos has been so effective that “truth” has gone the way of moral relativism. It doesn’t really exist at all in the minds of many!

So where does this leave us?

1.            The old maxim, “You can’t believe everything you read or see on television” still holds true.

2.            We must stop echoing what we “wish” to believe. Even if true, the general public, including persuadable independents and democrats with brains, don’t want to listen to chest-pounding and angry epitaphs from the Right. It just turns them off.

3.            The Left won’t listen to facts or reason, of course, but at this point that other old maxim, this one from Napolean is also wise: “Never interrupt the enemy when he is making a mistake.” I believe the Left has, characteristically, overplayed their hand and are starting to make complete fools of themselves. Let ’em do it.

4.            Finally, we MUST, on the other hand, selectively throw the BS flag on what the Left is spouting. Be careful not to expose just how pissed off you are about what they’re doing. Rather, let the Leftist you’re talking to think you’re either a Leftist yourself or independent and simply ask questions. Scratch your head and ask, for example, “What do you think the implications are of letting in all these illegals through the Southern Border?” Resist the temptation to rip your debate opponent’s head off, but firmly call out their nonsense. And when they devolve into calling you a racist (as they will inevitably do) just express concern and sympathy that your antagonist is suffering from the psychological disorder called Projection. It will both belittle him or her, although I hasten to point out that Leftists are impossible to shame because as collectivists their hive-minds deflect any sense of it, but pointing out their illness will make you feel better as you walk away. Alternatively, you can play the “I know you are but what am I?” children’s game. Either will probably enrage them and at that point, you can also feel good about having kept your own cool and having won the debate.

As an aside, I want to refer my readers to a couple of articles that I found helpful and instructive. The first, How to Fight the Left Effectively, discusses in so many words how PSYOPS have prepared the battlefield for the conflict we’re engaged in, and how not to get conned. The other, The Six Steps To Dealing With Liberal Friends And Family written back in 2008, ( a decidedly different time ) deals with how to walk softly when dealing with Leftist friends and family.

Finally, as I have been preaching since the Spring, don’t be lulled into thinking that the Truth Cavalry is coming or that people will be going to jail for the treason they’ve committed against the country, or that you and your buddies are going to “suit up” for a REAL insurrection. Rather, keep your powder dry, your heads in the game and on a swivel and continue to educate yourselves, using critical thinking to see through the PSYOPs. That, and GET INVOLVED locally. Don’t just stand there and gripe. DO SOMETHING to push the pendulum back the other way like those courageous parents are doing at school board meetings in Loudon County, or Tatiana Ibrahim in Carmel, NY (if you haven’t seen this, you MUST, it’s truly inspiring!)