In a recent post I noted some of the positive things that have or will emerge from the Coronavirus pandemic. One of the MOST positive is the impact that social distancing, closed schools and quarantining is having on COMMUNICATION among family and friends.
While I will admit that I texted my wife the other night while
she was sitting in another room in the house instead of getting off my butt and
going to speak to her directly, I partially justify this because it’s actually
far more efficient.
Let me explain. Were I to wander into the room where she is
to ask a question directly, one of two things would occur: either a) I will ask
my question and no matter how clearly I do so, she will ask me to repeat it, or
b) I will speak loud enough to get her attention so she will hear me the first
time immediately to be told, “I’m right here, stop yelling at me!”
This is in GOOD times. Now that we are both stuck at home,
essentially quarantined, and have had to figure out how to communicate with one
another, we had to have a conversation about YELLING! She thinks raising my
voice above normal conversation is yelling. I think anything less than speaking
at a normal decibel level when the tv or microwave are on constitutes mumbling
under one’s breath. She refuses to “yell” and we both get frustrated having to
ask one another to constantly repeat ourselves. Texting, on the other hand, has
that blissful silence about it while still getting the question out and/or the response back! And ALL
UPPER CASE is only ‘virtual yelling’, not ‘actual yelling’!
So one of our first conversations as we sat at dinner since being quarantined involved talking about talking. Yes, talking about talking. With no ambient noise except for the dog panting nearby we could actually hear one another, and despite having vastly different definitions of what constitutes communication, yelling, mumbling, etc., we, in fact, actually TALKED to one another! How cool was that?
We agreed to disagree, but when she did start “yelling” at me I COULD HEAR HER! Yay! Now, if she could just take that “I’ll speak up but I’m going to kill you” tone out of her voice, we may be able to avoid texting to one another while in the house altogether!
On a serious note, having families confined to quarters is
forcing us to interact beyond email and texting. It’s forcing us to deal with
one another in what are now unusual ways. Used to be we talked over dinner
routinely, or had one-on-one time with our kids at some point before bedtime.
Now we talk in both these cases, and even over breakfast…and sometimes even
during the day. What a novel idea!
As for friends and family. We still use email, text and
Facetime or something similar, but we do so deliberately: to check in, to coordinate
plans, to engage in one-on-ones by phone because we’re really concerned about
one another. We’ve always been concerned about one another…but now we mean it!
And that’s a good thing. We’ve relearned that what really
matters are family, and friends, and neighbors. We’ve relearned that when we’re
all in deep yogurt, we can and need to help one another out. In our community I’m
partially surrounded by Leftists who in good times have warped values and moronic
ideologies. But today, they’re just neighbors sheepishly venturing out on their
front lawns to say hi from afar.
Let’s take this opportunity to get to know one another again.
Let’s try to remember that we like one another even when communicating may
require us to YELL! And, let’s hope that when this is all over we’ll not forget
whom we got to know while we were fighting the virus war together!
The stock market has crashed. Unemployment is skyrocketing.
The number of confirmed Wuhan Virus (that’s what I call it) cases is
growing exponentially. Grocery store shelves are bare. Gun sales are going
through the roof. Office buildings in Manhattan are empty. People are walking
around with masks. Schools are cancelled. The internet is bogging down because
so many people are home its vaunted capacity (bandwidth) is proving to be
inadequate for the demand. California is “locked down”. Hell has
broken loose.
However… “The wonderful thing about Tiggers is,
tiggers is wonderful things. Their tops are made of rubber, and their tails are
made of springs. They’re bouncy, flouncy, trouncy, pouncy, full of fun, fun fun.
The wonderful thing about Tiggers is, I’m the only one.” Substitute Americans
for tiggers and you’ll have a hint as to why despite the misery and impending
doom I’m optimistic for the future.
My thoughts…
1. As bad as
the pandemic is, it’s not as bad as you think. Simple arithmetic coupled
with basic critical thinking points to the conclusion that greater than 99% of
everyone who contracts the disease will recover, and we don’t know of course how
many people WILL or WILL NOT contract it. Thousands get sick and many die each
day from heart disease, cancer, jaywalking, ‘regular’ flu and chronic lung
disease from smoking, etc. As of this morning, ~a quarter of a million people WORLDWIDE
have been confirmed to have the virus, ~10,000 people WORLDWIDE have died from
the virus, and ~86,000 have recovered. These numbers are DWARFED by regular flu.
In the U.S., ~15,000 people have
confirmed cases and ~100 people have died. This flu season alone (roughly
from October 2019 to the present) 31MM people IN THE UNITED STATES (!) have had
the flu. Somewhere around 275,000 give or take have had to be hospitalized, and
as many as 30,000 (vs. 100) have died from run-of-the-mill flu! (See https://www.health.com/condition/cold-flu-sinus/how-many-people-die-of-the-flu-every-year
for a plain language discussion.) Translation – this isn’t anywhere near as
bad as the media and politicians would have you believe.
2. Despite
what you hear or see, the government is doing the right things. They may not in
all cases being doing things right, but the medical, logistical, economic and
societal response is “gettin’ ‘er done”. I expect the response is
even overdone if you look at the statistics in the previous paragraph. So,
for example, NOT EVERYONE NEEDS A TEST! If you get sick, sure, go get a test.
But it’s self-centered, selfish and “looking out for number one” just
to confirm you’re NOT sick, and may deprive someone who really needs to be
tested from getting the help they need. Testing is NOT a cure, and satisfying
statistical number crunching is nowhere near as important as preventing and
treating the actual disease. Mobilization and coordination among all the health
care agencies, departments and the private sector is exactly what is needed,
and again, no matter what you hear, there are very competent people who care
about others and this country hard at work on the problems. Have some faith in
them!
The backstopping of employers in various ways and the anticipated
support given to individuals and families is being matched by lenders,
landlords, tax collectors… you name it. Everyone’s in this and making
accommodations following the lead of the federal, state and local governments.
Just remember that “the government” is made up of
people who have the same hopes, dreams, fears, constraints, problems as
everyone else in the country. The vast majority are working their asses off to
help and do what’s right within their on organizations and spheres of influence.
I had to go to the department of motor vehicles the other day. Everyone there
had taken a large dose of patience pills and I was both shocked and thrilled to
see how both the people behind the counter and in front of it were behaving.
The government, of course, is damned if they do and damned
if they don’t, but on balance, its response to this crisis has been overwhelmingly
appropriate and helpful. Its communications, despite the handwringing and
teeth-gnashing of a “if it bleeds it leads” media has been solid,
optimistic, informative and suitably cautionary as to get virtually the whole
nation (except the Florida beach Spring Break party animals) to respond as it
should. This all happened in a matter of days, unlike the responses during the
H1N1, SARS, MERS and other pandemics.
3. Gas
prices and interest rates are falling. The one commodity everyone needs is
fuel, and the stimulating effect of a drop in gas prices to the ~$2.00 – ~$2.50
level is incredibly impactful on regular budgets. This will benefit us all,
except of course for oil producers. But Washington is on to the Russian and
Saudi’s game to try to destroy our energy-independent status and crush our
shale industry, and are NOT going to let them get away with it. Similarly,
we’re not standing idly by while China spews its propaganda and stomps its feet
and blames our military for what they caused or worse, threatens us with
withholding drugs such that we become “awash in a sea of Coronavirus”.
We’ve thrown the bull#%*& flag on that already and will continue to rub
China’s nose in the mess they’ve created and left on the world’s floor. Xenophobic?
No, just highlighting the truth in the face false accusations.
4. One of
the silver linings in this mess is the awakening that has occurred among
government, industry and the American people that we must no longer be held
hostage by foreign manufacturers and suppliers. The Globalist agenda has been
thoroughly trounced by this exposure of its flaws, and bringing our
manufacturing and supply chains home may result in higher priced goods, but
we’ll all benefit in the long run.
5. Kids are
getting educated again. Home schooling is exposing the inadequacies, biases and
absurdities of the current state of our education system. Parents are waking up
to what is being taught, and what is NOT being taught to our children. I predict
that for whatever time period home-schooling prevails, our kids will get a
BETTER education than what they’re getting at school, and teachers will be
astonished when students return at how far they’ve advanced. You heard it from
me first.
6. Neighbors
are helping neighbors. Our little local email chain is lit up with offers of
help and assistance. People are getting outside and checking on each other from
afar (i.e. more than six feet). Kids are teaching parents and grandparents about
Facetime, Skype and Zoom. And Animal Planet is running shows about carefree kittens
and puppies. Come on…how much better is it to watch than the gloom and doom
on broadcast tv?
7. People
are learning who their leaders are. Not the ones with the titles, but the ones
who are true leaders as opposed to managers and demagogues. True leaders step
up in times of crisis and go to the front of the crowd, carry a light and turn
back to shout encouragement and instill confidence in others. People who may
have labored in the shadows or punched well below their weight are now emerging
as the shepherds of our society. This separating of the leaders from the
followers can only be a positive development.
8. The Silent
Majority is silent no more. Having to adapt to the situation, conservatives and
the Right who normally are head down working and caring for themselves and their
families are speaking up and speaking out. They are not just throwing the BS
flag on politically correct nonsense, they are ignoring social engineering and
all its related evils and practicing true philanthropy and real, beneficial community
activism.
9. Complacency
is evaporating. It’s amazing what being forced to rely on fundamentals and
things that matter will do to a spoiled and coddled population. In the face of
what’s going on, do people really care what the Kardashians think?
10. Faith is
making a comeback. It’s sad but true that there are no atheists in foxholes.
We’re rediscovering our faith despite not being able to attend Church. And
whether it’s one religion or another, it’s the common principles of right and
wrong, goodness versus evil and a belief in a set of universal truths that are
moving back into the public consciousness. This is a good thing.
11. Families
are getting to know one another again. Yes, we’re cooped up and hunkered down.
And things get testy at times as we bumble around in each other’s way. But for
many of us, we’re forced to seek virtue: patience, understanding, caring for
one another, and learning anew about each other. It doesn’t take a village, it
takes a family, and families are binding together out of necessity and love.
And finally, THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON I’M OPTIMISTIC ABOUT
THE FUTURE is that America has the most natural and other resources of any
nation on earth. We can produce enough of EVERYTHING to take care of
ourselves and help the rest of the world to boot. We have the smartest people.
We have a spirit of “can do” that is unparalleled on the planet. Many
nations think we’re brash, loud, obnoxious, overly proud and nationalistic and
hate us for our bad manners and profligacy. So be it. I’d rather live in the
United States than in any other country. We will not only get through this, but
emerge stronger than ever and once again, we’ll be the city set on a hill
letting our light so shine as to be a beacon of freedom and prosperity to the
entire world.
I’m a pragmatist, and I recognize the challenges that lie
ahead to recover from this mess. But I believe with every fiber of my being
that things are going to be better than ok, and sooner than the so-called
experts predict. I’m not suggesting we all go Hakuna Matata on this, but let’s
put things in perspective shall we?
May God continue to bless us. And may God continue to bless America.
In the coming months there’s going to be a lot of talk about
the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms, the NRA and “assault rifles”. The
limp-wristed Leftists who think a gun magazine is something you read will stomp
their feet and gnash their teeth crying “we have to get guns off the streets”
and “Republicans want guns so they can kill our kids” and similar nonsense.
The ignorance on the subject of guns is truly astounding. Hollywood
has had much to do with creating false perceptions, and hypocritical, power-hungry
politicians, many of whom have armed bodyguards, try to use this to their
advantage. It’s a subject that can and will be discussed far beyond this
election cycle, and there are so many facets to it, from the constitutional to
the economic, to the ethical and moral, to the pragmatic…this article is only a
tiny toe-in-the-water attempt to dispel some of the more glaring falsehoods and
mis-characterizations of both guns and gun owners that permeate the airwaves.
First of all, guns are only one means to either inflict
injury or death. In the hands of a determined killer a gun is actually one of
the least efficient ways of carrying out an evil act. A bomb or driving a car
into a crowd is far more deadly. Just ask Timothy McVeigh or Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Similarly, guns are only one means of self-defense, but
they’re an equalizer. A trained, 115 pound gun- wielding mom defending her
children against a threatening 250 pound home invader has a far better chance
of protecting them with a gun than without one. Yes, locks, alarms, pepper
spray, a fireplace poker or baseball bat and “retreating to a safe place” are
all possible defensive alternatives, but they’re hardly as effective as a gun against
a perpetrator intent on harm.
The constant whining about “assault rifles” is sickening to responsible gun owners and enthusiasts. From Colorado Democrat Representative Diana DeGette’s idiotic statement that if there is a ban on magazines eventually the number of bullets would diminish “because the bullets will have been shot and there won’t be any more available,” to Nancy Pelosi’s bill to ban “assault magazines”, I could go on and on but I’ll simply point you to this article entitled “Top Ten Most Idiotic Anti-Gun Quotes from Politicians”.
For those of you who are NOT knowledgeable about guns, a
magazine is the part of the gun that holds the bullets or shells, and is
continuously re-used, so banning magazines doesn’t ban or reduce the number of
bullets! And, by the way, the difference between bullets and shells is the
difference between rifles and handguns and shotguns. Shotguns use shells, the
others, bullets. Magazines can hold either but each is specific to the precise
ammunition used!
Another common absurdity spewing from the mouths of Leftists
is the suggestion that the AR in AR-15 stands for “Assault Rifle”. In fact, it
stands for ArmaLite, the company that has been around since 1954 and that
designed all kinds of rifles, each named with the prefix AR.
An assault rifle is a weapon that is capable of ‘select’ or
in other words, fully-automatic fire…essentially, a machine gun. That’s what
the police and soldiers have hanging from the straps around their necks. The
Left would have you believe that ANY gun that looks scary, i.e. one that looks
like a military rifle such as the AR-15, or the most widely available gun type
in the world…the AK-47 and its variants, is an assault weapon. No! Fully-automatic, true assault rifles are
already illegal. The kind of AR-15 or AK-47 that can be bought and used
are semi-automatic. The difference is that pressing the trigger of a
real assault rifle when in fully-automatic mode will cause it to shoot bullets continuously
until the trigger is released. On a semi-automatic rifle such as the kind owned
by hundreds of thousands of gun-owners, the trigger must be pressed once for
each firing of a bullet. The infamous “bump stock” used by the Las
Vegas shooter was a device that allowed a semi-automatic rifle to simulate a
fully-automatic one, but such a device could be used on lots of different
semi-automatic rifles, including ones that don’t look scary!
Ironically, the M-1 Garand – the principal rifle used by the
U.S. military during World War II, seems to be ok with the Left because it
doesn’t look like scary but rather more like a classic hunting rifle. However,
just ask many a dead German or Japanese soldier whether they considered the M-1
to be an assault weapon!
The justification for owning an AR or AK style rifle should
not be, as some pro-gun advocates suggest, for hunting. Sure you can hunt with
one, and many do, but for pure hunting purposes, a specific hunting rifle like
the Winchester Model 70 with a scope on it will likely fill your freezer with
venison more efficiently than an AR-15.
No, the justification for owning an AR or AK
“assault-style” weapon is that they are dual-purpose – they are
effective both for hunting AND self-defense. As the Winchester Model ’94 (the
lever-action saddle “Gun that Won the West” featured in Western
movies) was the dual-purpose rifle of the late 1800 and early 1900’s, the AR-15
and AK-47 are the dual-purpose rifles of today. Can any of these be used in a
mass shooting incident? Yes, and so can a pressure-cooker bomb!
Under the heading PROPAGANDA, you may have seen a spot on television
from the Ad Council where a little boy talks to his dad about the handgun
hidden under the sweaters in the father’s closet. The clip is intended to shock
the viewer into thinking “Oh my God, the child has access to a handgun and
could do so much harm to himself or others! We simply have to ban guns.” What’s
so ridiculous about this portrayal is that no responsible gun owner leaves a
gun in a place accessible to children! And while there may be some
irresponsible gun owners who have an easily accessible loaded gun in the house,
they take other precautions, of which there are many, to ensure it doesn’t get
into the wrong hands.
But this is but one example of the ignorant bias of such
“public service” depictions. The barrage is continuous and serves no-one save
the felons who would like nothing more than the assurance that they won’t
encounter an armed citizen when they perpetrate their crimes.
I once sat at dinner with a conservative Englishman with
whom I agreed on just about every topic except guns. “How could you allow so
many guns in America and pass legislation supporting their ownership? That’s
absurd”, he said. In reply I calmly pointed out, “Let’s say we were
instantaneously able to get all 350 million plus guns in the hands of American residents
off the streets on a Monday. How many guns do you think there would be on the
streets by Friday, and in whose hands would they be?”
The suggestion that all guns are inherently dangerous is
analogous to saying that all cars are dangerous! It is a true statement,
irrespective of whether it’s uttered by the NRA or an individual gun-owner,
that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. And
while rarely publicized, the number of times annually that guns in the hands of
responsible gun-owners have stopped crimes dwarfs the number of times guns are
actually used in the commission of a crime. What is never reported, because it
can’t be, is how many times the presence of a good guy with a gun DETERS a
crime, or the times a criminal abandons a crime and flees when confronted with
the barrel of a gun in the hands of a good guy.
In summary, it is absolutely true that “guns don’t kill
people, people do”. In the U.S. there are far more responsible gun owners
than criminals with guns, and that in and of itself deters many more crimes
than might otherwise occur.
So demagogue politicians can and will denounce guns, and
fracking, and cow farts and whatever else comes along that is the “cause du
jour”. Their stupid memes and crusades aren’t going to help anyone but
those who live off the grant money and donations of people trying to “feel
good” about “doing something”.
There, I feel slightly better now. Someday I’ll tell you how I really feel!
TODAY IS
Thursday November 21, 2024
Quips & Quotes
January 2, 2024 "As we enter 2024, there is widespread public agreement about two things: (1) something big is about to happen, and (2) whatever that something is, it sure as hell won’t be pretty! While it may get pretty ugly pretty fast, though, there is an upside to what’s coming: as a country, we can finally pull this disgusting Band-Aid off, face reality for what it is, and stop pretending. However bad this year might prove to be, it might also be tremendously liberating.
Why? Because, one way or another, things will soon change. For too long, those who “run” America have had two things in common: (1) a hatred for individual freedoms, and (2) an even deeper hatred for the one country on the planet explicitly founded on their protection. As a national security surveillance State superseded the U.S. Constitution, leftists have controlled academia, journalism, the legal system, and entertainment. They have shoved anyone with a working brain out the door while assuring themselves that they deserve their privileged social positions and unearned accolades. They tell themselves that they are smart and enlightened, but anybody capable of self-examination knows this not to be true. Leftists are not happy people. They have not figured out any special meaning to life because, to them, life is meaningless. In other words, for too many years, a collection of the most depressed, least curious, morally relativistic, and intellectually homogenous people on the planet have been given pampered positions in exchange for acting as nihilistic and narcotic-dependent sea vessel captains willing to steer America into an iceberg of decline and failure." J.B. Shurk, American Thinker, January 2, 2024 "Do We Hit the Iceberg or Finally Change Course?"
November 3, 2023 "There’s a subtext to nearly all American political trends today. It’s hardly ever spoken about overtly and explicitly. But the topic is nonetheless always there. All insiders know about it. It’s also the central and critical debate concerning America’s future.
The question is as follows. Will the United States continue the present system whereby representative democracy persists as a mere veneer to keep the public distracted and defocused on the real rulers in the nation? Or will something dramatic be achieved whereby the swamp is truly drained, the administrative state gutted, the agencies disempowered, and we return to an actual constitutional system in which the people truly rule themselves through their elected representatives?
These are the two paths. It’s one or the other. They’re mutually incompatible." Jeffrey A. Tucker, November 3, 2023, Epoch Times, p A22, "Are You an Institutionalist or Anti-Institutionalist?"
October 30, 2023 "If you want an indicator of how lost Western civilization has become, go to your kids’ school and check their rules on fighting. Most likely, you’ll find out if two kids get into a fight, both get suspended, regardless of whether one was a punk bully who started it and the other was simply defending himself or some little kid. This is a moral disaster, of course – violence in the defense of what is right is a moral obligation and a symbol of a greater rot within society."
"The world's true nature is that good is forever pitted against evil."
"We must learn again to be ruthless in defeating our enemies. The big lie that Western civilization tells itself is that there are no real enemies, that there are no bad people – except the people of the West themselves, who bear some sort of original sin for not being corrupt and inept Third World barbarians."
"We have forgotten our strength and our courage. We have forgotten that we survive not through gentle hugging but through sword-swinging.The idea that Israel should somehow give these Hamas barbarians food, water, and electrical power even if it surrounds Gaza and prepares to attack is mind-boggling insanity. The moral illiteracy of expecting Israel to care more about the Palestinian people than other Palestinians do is simply bizarre."
"The hard truth is that the world contains bad people who must be crushed through ruthless violence, which shocks and horrifies modern sensibilities. But it is reality nonetheless. When people want to kill you, you are at a decision point. You can either let them kill you or stop them. But stopping them often involves aesthetically displeasing actions, such as blowing them into little bits with bombs or shoving a bayonet into their guts and watching them die in agony. And it necessarily means inflicting death and damage on the noncombatant camp followers around them. That’s why they say war is hell. And that’s why starting one is probably not a good idea. But when someone else starts one, you have to choose them or you. Someone’s going to die badly, and you know, I propose it is those other guys."
October 16, 2023 "Though around the world sociopaths stabbed some folks, the Day of Jihad fizzled in America – how many bummed patriots slammed in a mag hoping some mutant was going to choose his small town to prove Jason Aldean right? But it is only a matter of time. When you allow millions of military-aged males to come unvetted into your country, including many from bizarre hellholes where hatred for Americana is more common than food and indoor plumbing, there is a non-zero chance that some of them are part of sleeper cells waiting for the signal to murder Americans here at home." Kurt Schlichter, Town Hall, October 16, 2023, "We Are Sitting Ducks And Our Leaders Do Not Care"
August 22, 2023 "When arguing in federal court in HI in 2020, I had to get permission from the governor to enter his precious state to argue that his silly COVID lockdowns violated the Constitution. I lost. This same state, in real life, has shown how little respect for life its leaders really have. My perfectly healthy clients were not allowed to travel from one island to another to visit their own property. American citizens were turned away at the airport because they got the wrong COVID test on the mainland. The hotel gave me “parole” from the one way card key rule only to do my legal business and leave. I could not call an Uber or take a taxi at the airport. The National Guard met me at the gate to escort me to Hawaii COVID immigration to provide my information, which they verified with the hotel. I was to keep my phone on at all times so that they could track my location. This same police state didn’t turn the water on in Lahaina, didn’t have sirens, can’t begin to tell you how many children died from their incompetence. Or begin to explain it. Remember all this the next time you are asked to comply with farcical, unjust “laws” made by dictators. They are lying when their lips are moving about how much they care about you and your little life and your paper constitutional rights. Americans are beginning to realize how much we are on our own. Such a betrayal." Harmeet K. Dhillon, on "X", 8/22/23 12:44 AM
August 17, 2023 - A MUST READ!!!! The following is a transcription of Newt Gingrich's comments on Hannity last night. "“I think what you’re seeing tonight is one tree in a forest, and I think we are drifting towards the greatest Constitutional crisis since the 1850s, uh, and the rise of secession and the Civil War. I don’t mean that as hyperbole. Uh, if you read Andy McCarthy’s remarkable book, Ball of Collusion, which came out in 2019, he makes very clear that it is Barack Obama who corrupts the Justice Department, it is Hillary Clinton who routinely breaks the law and gets away with it. And now we have Joe Biden who’s learned, he’s learned from Obama that is doesn’t matter what you do, if you’re a liberal Democrat, you will not be prosecuted. He learned from Hillary that a person in high public office can get millions and millions of dollars. And they learned from watching Donald Trump that a true outsider, willing to take on the entire system, could destroy their entire machine. So what you’re seeing across the country, is a desperate, last-ditch effort by a corrupt machine to destroy their most dangerous opponent in a way which not only breaks the Constitution, destroys the rule of law, and establishes a moment of bitterness, uh, which I think will last for a generation or more. I think this is gonna be a horrendous period and we just need to understand: The people who want to control America and dictate to the rest of us will break any law, lie about any topic, and manipulate the system any way they can, and that includes a lot of the elite news media.”
August 10, 2023 "The fact that young men are getting more conservative is a cause for optimism. Remember, if you grew up male in the last ten years or so, every institution has been deployed against you. You’ve been told you are bad and horrible and evil and worthless. In contrast, every girl is an empowered girlboss ready to take her rightful place at the pinnacle of society. And to facilitate that, they must displace the dudes. And it’s no secret – that displacement, that consignment of men to second-class status, is not merely admitted but celebrated by our trash ruling class." Kurt Schlichter, August 10, 2023, Town Hall, "Angry Young Men Are Going To Disrupt The Garbage Paradigm"
Articles/Writings We Think Are A Must Read
Who Will Say No More to the Current Madness?
Once again, Victor Davis Hanson has nailed it. In his article there is a list of the most egregious crimes and failings of the Left and this Administration. Stronly urge readers to read the whole article. Here’s an excerpt of the most salient points:
“America is in existential danger.
The Biden administration has utterly destroyed the southern border — and immigration law with it.
Biden green lighted 7 million illegal aliens swarming into the U.S. without legal sanction or rudimentary audit.
China spies inside and over the U.S. with impunity. Beijing has never admitted to its responsibility for the gain-of-function COVID virus that killed a million Americans.
President Joe Biden printed $4 trillion at exactly the wrong time of soaring post-COVID consumer demand and supply shortages. No wonder he birthed the worst inflation in 40 years.
In response, interest rates tripled, gas prices doubled.
Our military is thousands of recruits short. It lacks sufficient munitions.
Following Biden’s humiliating pullout from Afghanistan, vast troves of arms were abandoned in Kabul. Billions more in scarce weapons were sent to Ukraine.
The Pentagon’s woke agenda trumps meritocracy in promotions and advancement.
Our enemies — Russia, China, Iran, North Korea — are on the move, while the U.S. seems listless.
The Biden renegade Department of Justice, CIA and FBI have become weaponized. Ideology, politics, and race — not the law — more often guide their investigations, intelligence operations and enforcement.
The downtowns of our once majestic major cities are becoming unlivable.
They are mired in refuse and trash, violent crime and homelessness. Stores and businesses leave. Millions each year flee the blue urban coasts to the red west and south.
To even say there are still two biological genders, that global warming may not be entirely manmade or necessarily destroying the planet, or that class, not race, is the proper barometer of inequality is to face ostracism and career cancellation.
The public assumes that Biden is severely cognitively challenged, likely corrupt, and a serial fabricator.
Most know what must be done, but few will tell the truth: Balance the budget. Return to legal only immigration. Restore a well-funded, but unwoke Pentagon.
Insist on racial unity. Curb the overweening administrative state. Enforce the rule of law.
Produce more gas and oil. Reestablish civic education. Insist universities protect free speech and due process — and stop proselytizing.
In other words, restore what until recently made America the strongest, most prosperous, and freest nation in the world. And quit undoing all the great good that eight generations of prior Americans bequeathed to us.”
Victor Davis Hanson saying it better than anyone. Perfectly describes the childish, impetuous behavior of the Left. A quick and incredibly accurate take on everything we see before our eyes.
An excerpt:
“Cry-baby tantrums won’t win over the public. These nonstop puerile meltdowns have turned off most Americans who tire of whiny narcissistic hypocrites.”
Strongly recommend the artful summary of what the Left is trying to do with the Disinformation Governance Board canard written by Michael Walsh in “The Pipeline”, May 2, 2022. You’ll find the whole article here. Some excerpts:
“So now the mask has dropped and, for the first time, the American people can see the modern Left in all its hateful, unadorned, vituperative, spiteful glory. Case in point: the announcement last week that the Department of Homeland Security—one of the excrescences of the Bush administration, cobbled together in its panic over 9/11—has created the “Disinformation Governance Board” in order to combat what it has, via its hitherto little-known Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, already dubbed “mis-, dis-, and mal-information.” Otherwise known as alternative points of view, but shut up, citizen.”
“Let us now remind ourselves of the late historian and Soviet scholar Robert Conquest’s third law of politics: “The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.” At this point in American history, that is not only a theory but a fact. Having narrowly “won” the 2020 election by stealing it fair and square, the Left is putting pedal to the metal to accomplish as much of its anti-foundational agenda as it can before the clock runs out on its tiny congressional majorities this fall.”
On the Subject of “Things happening in the background to purge the illicit Biden administration“
The article in American Thinker by Dr. Brian Joondeph entitled: “Nothing Can Stop What is Coming. What if Nothing is Coming?” lays out the case for the increasingly skeptical that anything is going to halt the Leftist Leviathan. Strongly recommend this article not to throw cold water on all the hope so many of us have of there being some justice on the horizon, but to lay out the stark possibility that it’s all wishful thinking and we’re stuck with what we’ve got at least until January 2023.
On Climate Change Fraud
One of the best debunking articles/videos I’ve seen recently on the revolting fraud being perpetrated by the climate alarmists. In very calm, easy to understand terms the author shows how graphs and picking the right starting point for data visualization is being used to create the narrative that they rely on for their funding, their power, their nefarious attempts to alter society and our world. This same manipulation occurs with ALL kinds of data and the Left is expert in obscuring truth, altering perception and brainwashing a lazy, non-thinking mass of sheep to believe what they want them to believe. Strongly recommend watching this…12 minutes long and a must see!
Featured Friends
Straight Line Logic
Robert Gore’s blog. I put Gore up there with Victor Davis Hanson, Jordan Peterson and Thomas Sowell. His theses are chock full of substance.
The Burning Platform
Unabashedly conspiracy-theory driven, but thoughtfully so and well-written. Makes one think, “could this really be what’s happening?”
