We've Been Punked

Can you believe this 4155-page omnibus bill that just sailed through congress with a $1.7 trillion dollar price tag? Believe it. For openers, there’s $45 billion to Ukraine. Maybe, in addition to military hardware to fight a proxy war, Zelinsky can afford to buy a suit for his next appearance in Congress when he’s begging for cash. $39 billion to the justice department.  Yeah, that justice department. $3.6 million for a walking trail in Georgia to be named after Michelle Obama. Uh-huh. $3 million for a hip-hop museum in the Bronx. Visit it if you dare. $424 million to the National Institute of Health to fund research on minority health and health disparities. Sure, let’s give Fauci’s NIH more research money. That worked well.  $410 million to reimburse middle eastern countries for border security. Really. Foreign border security. Maybe so they can build some walls. And the list goes on: A highway friendly to bees. Diversity programs for the Pentagon. Salmon in the Pacific Northwest. And even sneaky little expansionist Government perks like FDA control of cosmetics, Banning driftnets in the fishing industry, and allowing athletes in military academies to waive their service requirement so they can play professional sports. How nice for them. And how about a new office building for the FBI? Sure, reward those guys. Maybe they need more room to monitor social media posts by conservatives. Merry Christmas, America; you’ve been punked. And to add to the good news for New Yorkers, their state assembly just voted to give themselves a $30000 raise, leapfrogging California’s assembly to become the highest-paid state assembly in the nation. $141000 a year for a part-time position. Nice gig. Meanwhile, their genius Governor, she of the shattered glass ceiling, proposed a $21 minimum wage to combat……inflation. Huh? Surely Kathy Hochul knows how inflation works…….oh, never mind. So congratulations, America. With record inflation and recession looming, you voted the mentally deficient back into office in the midterms, signaling to them that they have the mandate to reward themselves with salary increases and boatloads of pork. Now tell me again, who’s really mentally deficient?

It Makes No Sense To Me

Did you read the article on population growth in the WSJ last week?  I don’t understand the infatuation with an ever-increasing population. Sure, if economic growth is the focus, then you need more consumers to buy your products and, therefore, a larger labor force to produce them. But surely, ever-increasing population growth is not sustainable. It has been postulated in the past that we would eventually run out of resources to sustain the population growth, but the current thought is that this is not true. As technology advances, say the pundits, we become more efficient and are better able to find new resources and efficiently use the resources we have to increase production. But logically, how can that be the case?  Sooner or later, you will have to reach the tipping point, especially if the non-productive segment of society continues to grow, as we have seen of late. And where do we put all these people without adversely affecting quality of life?  I, for one, do not find cities with expansive homeless encampments esthetically pleasing. The futuristic urban decay and overcrowding portrayed in science fiction works like Blade Runner are not that difficult to imagine for anyone who has seen the slums of Rio de Janeiro, Mumbai, or even Detroit. To suggest that we continue engaging in urban sprawl at the expense of agricultural land or green spaces seems absurd. Do we continue upwards instead, making cities high-rise beehives?  Will Americans tolerate the cubicle living and work-centric existence of the Japanese? Not as long as we continue to offer a generous welfare state as an alternative. And as we attempt to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels in favor of electricity, how can our aging power grid keep up? How exactly are we going to generate that electrical power to keep the growing population warm, their EVs charged, and the lights on? And the demographics don’t make sense. The population is indeed shifting as well, but it appears to be a political migration, moving towards lower tax havens without regard to the supposed existential crisis of climate change. Why, with headlines screaming rising seas and scorching heat, are we seeing migration from cooler climates like the northeast to the south, particularly Florida, the Carolinas, and Texas, all incidentally with significant amounts of waterfront? Is there something the elites aren’t telling us?  Is this some Orwellian ploy to have the working class live in squalor while the privileged political class continues to hypocritically live in their gated communities and jet around the world to their climate summits where they fabricate policy for the masses?  

The Fantasy of Carbon Neutrality

 I want to know who the “experts” are that dreamt up this fantasy of carbon neutrality. What expertise do politicians have besides spending other people's money? We have neither the infrastructure nor the technology for this to be feasible. Even the CEO of Toyota has publicly stated that a fleet of fully electric vehicles is not a good idea and hybrid technology makes more sense given the technology and the physics of a fully electric SUV, the type of car Americans want to drive. And once again, rural Americans will suffer more with longer driving distances, the requirement for larger vehicles, and less developed infrastructure. This is getting stupid with politicians dappling in science, technology, and economics, drawing laws and regulations that defy logic, all motivated by a social reform agenda based on the cooperation of a banded together minority groups of malcontents, socialists, and anarchist biases. The people's voice is not being heard for the clammer of these lawless benefactors of this anti-American movement. The left has successfully pitted us against each other, never at a loss to divide. We appear too timid to call them out, content to stew in our complacency. I cringe at the outcome. New York today, a Blue State near you tomorrow.

Hochul’s Boondoggle cont.

The more I read about it, the crazier it gets. She is trying to install California-style cap-and-trade laws and eliminate gas-powered vehicles by 2035. Part of the plan calls for a “per mile” vehicle fee to make up for a loss in gas tax revenue. Once again, all well and good for city dwellers but economically disastrous for rural New Yorkers who routinely drive long distances to acquire basic necessities. And exactly how farming will be affected as they attempt to squash diesel fuel is unclear. Electric tractors? And who questions these plans for renewable energy sources will likely affect upstate New Yorkers disproportionately as well? Where exactly do you think they are going to put their solar farms and windmills?  And again, how is all this electrical energy going to be generated from solar and wind power alone? Technology tells us it is impossible in this time frame, if ever! It’s pure insanity! Get a grip, New Yorkers; your political choices have courted you for disaster.

Hochul Boondoggle

So to reward loyal democrat voters in the people’s republic of New York for allowing Kathy Hochul to break through the glass ceiling and become their first female governor, she has offered up some stunning proposals to battle climate change. Beginning in 2025, no new construction can use appliances and furnaces that burn fossil fuels. That’s right, oil, natural gas, and propane are all out in favor of electricity. And to further appease the climate zealots, after 2027, if your existing carbon-spewing unit fails, your gas range, your furnace, or your hot water heater, must be replaced with an electric unit. You know, those ultra-efficient baseboard electric heaters, those energy-saving electric hot water heaters, and those electric cooktops that are the choice of professional chefs all over the world. And the recommended option for your furnace?  Heat pumps. Uh-huh. Heat pumps in upstate New York. Surely football fans recall the five feet of snow that fell on Buffalo a couple of weeks ago, causing the game to be moved to Detroit. Or the 10 feet of lake effect snow that buried the Tug Hill plateau north of Syracuse a few years back?  And skiers commonly refer to the Lake Placid ski area Whiteface as Iceface. It gets cold there. And it snows. A lot. So let me get this straight: when rural New Yorkers are buried in snow, and it’s ten below zero outside, they want you to keep your family warm with heat pumps and electric baseboard heat?  Morons. Even the heat pump industry states it is an “ideal way to heat and cool your home if you live in a MODERATE climate.”  Lake Placid is not a moderate climate. It’s farther north than Toronto. That’s in Canada, Kathy. And as New Yorkers freeze to death, content that they are saving the environment with their EV charging in the garage, soup simmering on the electric range, while wrapping their electric hot water heater in yet another layer of insulation and taking shorter duration showers, they will be left to ponder exactly how all that electricity is being generated. Surely not solar in the middle of a snowstorm. And as the rolling blackouts hit as hard as the next nor’easter, you can’t even fire up your banned propane-fueled generators. Your home’s temperature may not be going up in the winter of 2025, but I guarantee your electric bill most certainly will.

Woes Unlimited

Can you believe this end-of-the-year Biden victory tour?  “Ends the year with a series of wins,” trumpets HuffPo, and Janet Yellen in the WSJ, proclaiming that Biden’s economic plan is kicking in. Look, inflation is falling! Sure, after rate hikes we haven’t seen in decades, it still remains five times higher than it was under Trump’s guidance. Five times. And gas prices are coming down as well, all part of Biden’s plan. No, they have gone down from historic highs because of a fortuitous decrease in demand. That won’t last. Nothing to do with the Biden plan, if there even is one. What a load of hooey. The economy is surviving despite Biden. And finance experts are predicting doom for 2023 if these economic policies continue. If the stock market is any indication of the future, tending to be predictive of economic climate six months from now, we are in deep trouble. But sending a few more billion to Ukraine and now the consideration being given to reparations……not just to Americans descended from slaves, but to African nations as well……should drive the economy deeper into an inflationary cycle and punish our economy here at home. Despite Yellen’s claim of Biden’s skilled navigation through troubled economic waters, we are a ship adrift. Without a rudder.  And most notably, without competent leadership. Which begs the question: with the majority of Americans unhappy with the direction the country is taking and with Biden’s approval ratings hovering at 40%, why did voters choose to re-elect incumbents and, in particular, reward democrats for their destructive policies?

And lest I forget, the democrats are back to considering making Puerto Rico the 51st state. Surely injecting 3 million welfare recipients into the economy will help balance the budget. 

Justice Adrift

I just read an online report rejoicing in the “lengthy prison terms for the Whitmer kidnappers.”  Another threat to our democracy Once again thwarted. Seriously. These mental midgets couldn’t have kidnapped their neighbor’s cat. But what is really frightening are the comments, one even praising law enforcement for “dealing with people who are set on harming our public officials.” Like Supreme Court Justices, for example? Hypocrisy anyone? And every time a comment suggests that this was another example of FBI malfeasance, they are barraged with accusations of being conspiracy theorists or QAnon operatives. Please, someone, show me an example of QAnon as an actual organization rather than a Huffington Post fantasy. The only fact I can derive from this exercise is that the left controls the media, and apparently, the minds of simpletons transformed into political zealots. 

What Is Happening To Us

How could our government agencies be weaponized to subvert our Democracy by political dissidents? We know why, but how? Our laws prohibit it! Government officials flouting our constitution; colluding with the media and Big Tech to control the Public Square through censorship and misinformation is both astounding and frightening. Third World antics at their worst. These politicians and their minions are nothing more than lawless subversives. The question now that they have been so blatantly outed is, what are we going to do about it-, I fear nothing! As a country, we have seemingly lost our soul; like myself, we reek of indignation, appalled at the aggression of these malcontents, yet do little more than our impersonations of Chicken Little while remaining firmly in our place, impotent to do anything definitive about it. The death throws of a failing society, I'm afraid. Tom Sowell’s premonitions are coming to pass.

Cynical

I'm so incensed over these Twitter reveals that my emerging holiday spirit has been nipped in the bud. I never was much of a conspiracy theorist, but after this Twitter dump, I may be a believer. Recall the adage that whatever the democrats are currently accusing the Republicans of doing, it is in actuality precisely what they are doing…..and getting away with it. It’s easy when you control the media, and apparently Twitter as well. Undermining democracy, colluding with the Russians and interfering with elections, you know, trivial stuff like that. Let’s control our education system and make this generation of students so stupid and confused that they won’t even know what sex they are. How else do you explain nearly 25% of Gen Z identifying as LGBTQ or non-binary? We will give them cell phones and get them hooked on social media, essentially an algorithm designed to be addictive. We will legalize marijuana which has been shown to alter brain chemistry and increase the incidence of psychosis. How else do you explain marijuana surpassing alcohol as the abuse of choice for our youth? We will then make them so reliant on government handouts and healthcare that they will continue to vote democrat in perpetuity. How else do you explain the fact that 85% of Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction, and that survey incidentally is courtesy of CNN, yet only one incumbent Governor was defeated in the 2022 election?  Complacency? Stupidity? Or perhaps priorities. Perhaps the government check may be more important than the direction the country is taking. Far fetched? I used to think so. 

The Twitter Revelations

So much for your holiday reprieve from my ranting and raving. These Twitter revelations have me beside myself. You expect this level of conspiracy, censorship, and propaganda from the likes of China, not from what was once the beacon of democracy. But as we rail against it, as if to prove the depth of corruption, none of these revelations are being reported in the mainstream media. Then to top that, our. Commander-in-Cheat pandering to the LGBTQ Community trades the world's most notorious weapons dealer for a weed-smoking, tattooed, America-hating, lesbian person of color while an American marine rots in a Russian prison. And our similarly hyphenated White House press secretary praises her as a role model. I’m not sure what impresses me more, how far we have fallen or how fast. 

A Reprieve

I surmise the last thing you need from me, with the holiday season upon us, is my incessant ranting and raving of our society, our country, going down the tubes. So I have relented, giving you a reprieve. However, know I intend to return to my Slants soapbox with a vengeance just as soon as the dust settles from these mid-term elections. I'm observing, taking names, and keeping my eye on these Democrats, Republicans, and their dissident memberships. Rest assured, my small voice will be heard again. Wait for it. In the meantime, keep the faith and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Collecting Myself

I have been in Recovery, whimpering along, as you might have noticed, since the elections, trying desperately to recover from the Red Ripple. I had convinced myself we had enough of the woes of the Biden administration, that the Dems had overplayed their hand, and that the silent majority would rise up and smite our detractors. Alas, it was not to be. I don't know what to attribute it to. Complacency? Ignorance? Timing?What? Or, could it be that I can't face the reality that the silent majority doesn't exist? Has the character, the societal aspirations, and tenets of our brand of a representative democracy no longer relevant in the minds of our citizenry? Is the Socialist brand now the preference of the majority? I can't bear to think so. I find myself grasping at straws that suggest all is not lost, that in the wings, a unifier of galvanizing charisma will suddenly emerge, gather our numbers, and lead us back to the promise and ways of the great American Experiment. Is Trump that unifier? I, for one, have trouble with his persona, his vitriol. Yet his agenda, his record speaks mainly to my liking, a conundrum. However, I persist in the premise we are better as a nation and as a people to put our Democracy asunder and that we will come together as Americans and do the right thing. And, it can't be soon enough!

The Dumbing Down of America

And now, law schools are dropping the LSAT, the law school admission test, as a requirement for admission. You know, the exam that tests reading comprehension and reasoning known to be directly correlate with academic success in law school. Sure, we need this. Like lawyers aren’t dumb enough already. The reason why, diversity, of course. Not enough women and people of color. The fact of the matter is “people of color,” and let’s not beat around the bush here, they mean black people, do not perform well on the LSAT, so obviously, it must be eliminated to achieve a guaranteed result. How insulting. Anyone who scores well on the exam and therefore possesses the ability to reason will see this for what it is: racism. Medical schools are eliminating the MCAT, and the airlines are handicapping admission scores to flight school, and now law schools are falling in line to achieve their bizarre definition of equity. Does anyone on the left see this as problematic?  How does one now distinguish between a truly competent pilot, physician, or lawyer when they are a person of color?  Were they accepted based on academic excellence or a quota?  And if a white person dares to pose that question, and when your life is on the line, it is certainly a reasonable question, you know the result will be accusations of racism. It’s not fair to the consumer of services, it’s not fair to white applicants, and it’s certainly not fair to people of color who were accepted to the programs on merit alone. 

Climate Change Spin

Did you hear the latest Woke nonsense coming out of the climate summit in Egypt?  So these elitists hop into their carbon-spewing private jets and wing off to the land of pyramids to dine on caviar, Wagyu beef, drink French Bordeaux and discuss climate change. None of these climate geniuses have heard of carbon-neutral Zoom meetings? Their conclusion this year is that developed nations that produced the bulk of carbon emissions should pay reparations to third-world countries that contributed little in the way of carbon emissions (little of anything else!) but have suffered greatly from the effects of climate change. Bellying up to the bar was the delegate from Somalia, who argued that the US should pay for the drought and searing heat that has plagued her country. Interesting that regardless of the country, we all have the same arrogant, Woke activists willing to spend somebody else’s money. News flash: Somalia is an African socioeconomic sewer seemingly unwilling to change its ways. If you think otherwise, I've got one word for you, Mogadishu. Anyone wanting to give these people any money should watch Blackhawk Down. Their agenda has nothing to do with climate change other than as a  ploy to extract more money from naive benevolent nations moved by the plight of their oppressed citizenry. 

Ding Dong

Ding-dong, the wicked witch, is dead. Again. Nancy Pelosi has announced that she will not seek a “leadership role” in the Democrat party. Like the starting quarterback who announces he is just fine sitting on the bench to let the new generation take over for the good of the team. Uh-huh. Given the opportunity, she’ll be back.  Like the zombies in the Walking Dead. Sorry, so many analogies to choose from. But you have to hand it to the shifty old bat, even with the new wave of progressives and the “squad” stealing headlines, she kept the troops in line, and the democrats voted en bloc when it mattered most, unlike their hapless republicans' colleagues who are best at forming circular firing squads. With that kind of power, she has to know where all the bodies are buried. She is also quite adept at amassing a personal fortune, estimated at over $125 million, that includes a mansion in SanFrancisco and a Napa Valley estate with a vineyard. Pretty impressive on a $175000 salary. But her husband Paul, he of the recent drunk driving and bizarre hammer assault fame, is an astute investor, shrieks the left. Sure he is. Pillow talk is apparently very lucrative in Congress. But even as Chuck Schumer, with a tear in his eye, waxes poetic about Nancy’s storied career, I can’t help but recall all the good she has done for our nation. Think hard now. Think about the heavy-handed partisanship. Think about the number of times she “reached across the aisle.” Think about the strictly enforced mask mandates when she brushed them aside for her private trip to the hair salon. Think about voting for Obamacare so “we can find out what’s in it” and the current state of healthcare premiums. And most of all, close your eyes and picture her making a show of tearing up Trump’s state of the union address in one of the most disgustingly disrespectful displays of partisanship ever to stain the floors of congress. And to channel Matthew McConaughey’s character in A Time to Kill; now just imagine if she was a Republican. 

Crypto Clipto

Have you been following the recently uncovered Cryptocurrency story? The cliche you can’t make this stuff up doesn't do it justice. A 29-year-old son of a lawyer and finance expert from California living in a luxury condo with seven roommates in the Bahamas with a company worth an estimated 32 billion, reported having donated 10 million to the Biden campaign being the number 2 donor to the Democrat Party behind Soros. Suddenly having helped the Democrats stem the red wave, he goes bust, and the entire fortune vanishes, leaving his investors high and dry. There are photos of this little twerp seen rubbing elbows with Bill Clinton, Jeff Epstein, and Joe Biden. Then comes to light the circular path of capital transactions, where Democrats send money to Ukraine; Ukraine invests in this crypto company, which donates lavishly to the Democrat party to elect candidates who support sending money to Ukraine. It’s insane, and nobody is raising an eyebrow. When you think back to the high-profile cases of money laundering, insider trading, and Ponzi schemes, the perpetrators, the likes of Franklin Jurado, Bernie Madoff, and Martha Stewart, pale in comparison to the level of corruption that our politicians are engaged in…..and getting away with it. 

Pardon My Candor And Language

I read an alarming exchange online where an apparent abortion zealot was continually commenting with the usual activist bumper sticker claims of “my body, my choice,” “a right to choose,” and the old standard argument that it’s just a fetus and only is a baby once it’s born. One contrarian quipped: Really?  When was the last time you heard a mother say: “Oh honey, we’re having a fetus!” It’s astounding that at the slightest sign of a sniffle, the lefties are sticking swabs up their noses to test for Covid, but if they are sexually active and skip a period, they are too damned lazy to pee on a stick. I haven’t menstruated in three months, I’m putting on weight, I’m always tired, and I have morning sickness; I wonder what’s up? Duh. So much for sex education in public schools. And if they do actually test positive, they apparently prefer to procrastinate until we get fingers and toes in the suction canister. I don’t get it. 

Abortion

The rabidly partisan Huffington Post ran the headline that Amy Coney Barrett “cracks joke about abortion protesters.” Heavens, doesn’t she know that’s not allowed? Alas another example of progressive online click bait to roil their serfs. What she actually said to a supportive conservative audience was “It’s nice to have a lot of noise made not by protesters outside my house.”  Wow, how offensive. But it is yet another example of how Republicans have to realize by now that the abortion issue is a loser, as our privileged public school educated heathens, devoid of religious affiliation and ignorant of biology, come of age and are able to vote. The most cynical among us will shrug our shoulders and declare that abortion is only practiced by democrats and serves to cull their own herd. But the more logical option is to divorce the issue from the party completely and, like the Supreme Court, turn the issue not only back to the states, but back to the people. Studies have shown that Americans are not as radical on the abortion issue as the media would like you to believe, with most supporting very early termination of pregnancy, certainly not beyond the first trimester. So why not throw up our hands and put it on the ballot?  A simple multiple choice question, check one of the following options:  1. I do not support abortion, 2. I support abortion up to the 15th week of gestation, 3. Up to 24 weeks, or 4. Up to the moment of birth. Each state can have its own ballot referendum. The result is the result, regardless of party affiliation. Isn’t this an example of the democracy the left claims to defend? Both parties are divorced from the issue and the disgruntled have only their fellow citizens to blame. The media can go wild in the months leading up to the vote, one side trying to educate and the other trying to mislead. Pick your side. But the real result will be the elimination of that single issue voter, those ideologues that reflexively vote for the pro-choice candidate regardless of their stance on other issues far more important to the health of our nation. It’s those voters that give us the cognitively impaired in the Senate. Yeah, Pennsylvania, I’m talking to you.  And Amy Coney Barrett may finally have some peace at home. 

Arizona Disappoints

I can’t believe that the winner of the Jaba the Hutt look-alike contest, Mark Kelly, got in over Blake Masters, and it appears that Kari Lake is in trouble as well. Arizona has apparently been infiltrated by disgruntled Californians. As a border state, one would have expected voters to say a resounding “no mas.”Yet poised to retain control in the Senate and with Biden pledging to do “nothing” to change his destructive progressive policies, it looks like we are doomed to a future of high crime, mass illegal immigration, and exorbitant fuel prices. Another two years of Biden’s bumbling and Trump vomiting in the petunias before we get to do this dance all over again. And it’s getting worse every time. The analysis that in every irregular voting scenario, be it delays, accounts of harvesting, ballot dumps, or mail-ins, the democrats win 77% of the time. Hmm. And nobody has looked into Pennsylvania’s election officials contacting voters whose ballots were rejected to come in and make corrections. I wonder what the distribution was regarding the party affiliation of those that were contacted?  And with all these irregularities, anyone who questions the result is an election denier and a threat to democracy. Why don’t we try to correct the irregularities? You know why. I'm in a funk.

The Divided United States

Look at us. What have we become, a nation consumed by our differences, differences that once made us great in diversity? A strength now seen as a weakness exploited by our detractors as the seat of systemic racism and social inequities. They have turned us on ourselves. Our Constitution, from its founding, promised equality to all its citizens. Albeit requiring greater clarity in our maturation as a nation, we had risen to those occasions and done so. But we are now told not enough has been done, that racism and injustice remain festering in our society and that retribution and affirmative action must be taken. Our meritocracy compromised, assuring endless strife as we are a nation of ethnic and racial differences. Enough of this self-flagellation; we are united as Americas, having more in common than differences; let's start acting like it. Don’t let special interest groups, dissidents, and anarchists, whatever their stripe, do asunder.

NPR Voice Of The Left

Listening to NPR always gives me a fatalistic view of what appears to be the looming apocalypse. Yesterday they were fielding calls from listeners voicing their opinions regarding the election results. They were understandably jubilant over the failure of the red wave to materialize. What was interesting, however, was the panel’s strategizing about how to mount an assault on Florida, seemingly the last Republican stronghold. Even more telling were the female callers that stated it was a “one issue election” for them, and that issue was abortion. So, in essence, let the country burn, allow crime to run rampant in our streets, dissolve our borders and go ahead, keep printing money but dammit, preserve my right to kill babies above all else.   Even if it requires electing an intellectually impaired candidate to the US Senate in Pennsylvania. The end justifies the means. Clearly, insanity on display. Another caller, a Florida resident, chose to attack Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, claiming he is nothing but “a more palatable racist than Trump,” allowing Nazis to fly the swastika at his rallies, and claiming he has “decimated” Florida’s public school system. No questions were asked by the panel, of course. Imagine if those same charges were leveled at Democrat presidential hopefuls by a publicly funded news source. That’s right; you can’t. So my point is: there was no red wave, just as there was no blue wave in the last election. There will be no more waves. We are a partisan, divided nation with crazed leftist activists and a complicit media that will keep us divided by fanning the flames of extremism. And it does not bode well for these United States.

Vote the Record

All Liberals are Socialists. All Conservatives are Fascist. It is merely a question of who has the biggest megaphone to refute or advance their label. Really? Aaaaa, the foolishness of the human condition. The misinformed among us seems to be growing expediently. We have got to look beyond personalities, beyond inflammatory rhetoric, and get better educated on the merit of the policies and mores being proposed by these politicians. Will they right our wrongs, make us better or worse? I, for one, think the notion that Republicans are going to destroy our democracy is preposterous. Whose democracy are they talking about? Certainly not our American Republic’s representative brand of democracy. Listen closely; Obama and Biden’s version of a Democracy is not a Democracy at all but a one-party Autocracy where essentially one person has absolute power. Get real people. Look at the record; where have we been? Where are we now regarding inflation, the economy, immigration, crime, employment, and debt? Were we better off back then, or are we better off now? Let the record speak for itself. I know I've been repetitious of late in my rants, but I'm paranoid in suspecting we are so sure we’ve got this election, that, in our complacency, it gets away from us. We don't need just a win; we need a resounding win!

Equity Redefined

It is interesting to see that the Supreme Court has taken up the diversity issue in regard to admissions at Harvard and UNC. The WSJ has echoed my Slant’s sentiments that noted the progressive alteration of the term equity from its original definition, meaning equal treatment, to the currently coded implication of equal outcomes. Equal outcomes, regardless of satisfying requirements that, are predictive of success. The fact that Asians are handicapped by over 400 points and whites some 300 off their SAT scores when compared to Black applicants should be enough evidence to give anyone pause. Meritocracy must still have its place in America if we are to succeed on the world stage. Who chooses their heart surgeon or their airline pilot based on skin color?  Apparently, we do. Both medical schools and the airlines have admitted to lowering their standards for admission to their programs for applicants of color solely for the purpose of achieving diversity in their ranks.  The argument that the community demands people that look like them sounds hollow in the real world. Who on their deathbed refuses the services of the white chief of cardiothoracic surgery because he doesn’t look like them?  Who, upon boarding an aircraft, turns back because the pilot is white? Yet the horrible side effect of all this is that truly well-qualified people of color in those positions will now be looked at askance, automatically assumed to have benefitted from race-based admissions. Knowing admission preferences occur to this extent, how many will be branded racist for unease when encountering people of color in positions for which they may be less qualified? Yet another example of progressive policy that will further sow division in America. 

Ever Dividing

After my comment yesterday about the Republicans being overly optimistic: have you seen the latest democrat ploy?  They are now claiming all the polls predicting a red wave are Republican-sponsored when in actuality, the non-partisan polls show that the democrats are “still in it” with a chance of holding the Senate. And in an act of piling on the racist theme, they are accusing Conservative candidates of anti-semitism, notably Herschel Walker, for not publicly denouncing Kanye West, who apparently supports his senate bid. So now conservative Republican candidates are not only responsible for the views of their millions of supporters but are being criticized for not standing up and articulating the obvious. Of course, I denounce anti-semitism; of course, I denounce cruelty to animals; of course, I denounce fill-in-the-blank. How devious and preposterous. Hopefully the last gasp of a failed administration.

11/8 A Day of Reckoning

After Fetterman’s poor showing in the 0z debate, the Republicans seemed practically giddy in predicting a Red Tsunami come next Tuesday, November 8. But if you read the comments of democrat stalwarts, those hardcore partisans who would vote for Genghis Kahn if it would hold their majority, it would give you pause. They are not going to go quietly into the night. Party dominance is paramount regardless of how many mentally deficient candidates in empty suits are required to occupy seats of power, to hell with their constituents. Their agenda must be promoted at all costs. Be aware there is no effort beyond them to silence the indignant voices of reason, morality, and patriotism, no shady tactics to low to besmirch those who speak out against the tyranny of socialism, bloated ineffective government, and soaring national debt. We are besieged by an anti-American movement masked in social reform, international strife, and climate hysteria that threatens our very existence. We must rise up en masse at the polls, or all is conceivably lost. If our collective voices are not heard loud and clear, the promise of the Great American Experiment will pass into the annuals of history as unsustainable. Just listen to their bleating lies and distortions to the sheep among us that the economy is strong, that inflation is a figment of our imagination, that our borders are secure, that defunding the police has merit, and that we are systemically racist. And, of course, Trump is a misogynist, a fascist, as are his followers, a.k.a we the deplorables; that Republicans are bent on taking your Social Security, Medicare, and abortion rights from us, that the rich, by their definition, that's near all of us earning a living, are not paying our fair share of taxes. Come on, people, with an economy of words: Cut this ambivalent, complacent crap out. It's crunch time. Get with the drill. Take nothing for granted. At every level, it's Democrats (D) out, Republicans (R) in; to be safe, bullet your ballot accordingly! The Dooms Day Clock is ticking!

Let's Hear It For Luke Bryan

Country music star Luke Bryan was asked by Governor Ron DeSantis to play a benefit concert to raise money for those affected by Hurricane Ian after it cut a devastating swath through Florida. Mr. Bryan, to his credit, answered the call and invited DeSantis on stage to rousing applause. Cue the outrage. The democrat trolls on Twitter are now calling for his cancellation, vowing to never listen to Luke Bryan’s music again. Seriously? Bryan, who rarely responds to social media outbursts of insanity, simply stated that he has never been politically active and simply and respectfully responded to people in need in a state that has been good to him. But here’s the bigger picture: Mr. Bryan answered the call, but where is the rest of the entertainment industry?  Did democrat darlings Beyoncé, Johnny Legend, Madonna, or Bono step up and lend their talents to help Americans who lost everything to the storm?  Of course not. They are elitists who defend their progressive causes and will view Florida as a conservative stronghold and take a pass. In other words, suffering by Republicans is not nearly as important as pandering to their liberal urban fan base and their social activism: Bravo, Luke Bryan, and a rousing raspberry to those who put politics above compassion. It just never ceases to amaze me that the big liberal entertainers never, ever get called out for supporting preposterously leftist candidates and engaging in activism, but one conservative even suggests affiliation with the Republicans, and the outrage is seismic. 

Debate Fallout

After Lee Zeldin ate Kathy Hochul alive in the debate last night, some interesting information emerged. She has been a big champion for building the Buffalo Bills a new stadium. After all, Buffalo is her hometown. And guess who owns the rights to the concessions for the stadium?  That would be Delaware North, whose senior vice-President and general counsel is none other than Governor Hochul’s husband. She must be taking marriage advice from Nancy Pelosi. And she was widely criticized for wasting the taxpayer's money by giving the state Covid test contract to a company that charged taxpayers roughly twice the going rate. How could that be? It turns out the tests are provided by the company that is one of Hochul’s leading campaign donors.  $637 million in Covid tests in exchange for a $300000 donation. Pay-to-play is the Democratic way. Ask the Big Guy. The only person not raising an eyebrow over this is Kathy Hochul herself. With that much Botox, she probably can’t. 

Am I Blind, Hearing Impaired?

Last night’s debates should have been declared a disaster for the Democrat party. If we played word association, it would go something like this:  Whitmer: liar. Hochul: dull. And the most uncomfortable of all, Fetterman: impaired. And yet the Philadelphia Inquirer claimed Fetterman won the debate. Granted, that newspaper is most often used to wrap fish, but the New York Times claims Fetterman scored some “made for TV one-liners”.  Seriously? Maybe on Comedy Central but certainly not anything for prime time. What debates were they watching? Or are they so blinded by partisanship that they’re willing to overlook seriously flawed candidates?  

An Affront To Humanity

As the November mid-term elections draw near, it is interesting to note that the Democrat candidates appear to be offering no solutions to that which ails us. Polling indicates that Americans are mostly concerned about the economy, inflation, crime, energy and the security of our borders whereas the Democrat focus remains centered on the tired old tropes of social justice and above all else, abortion “rights”. And of course, the January 6 committee will also make an attempt to subpoena Trump just before the election in yet another sideshow to distract voters from the real issues.

In that, today I will restrict my comments to the topic of abortion, a longstanding pillar of the Democrat party platform, a topic so often distilled into the simplistic bumper sticker slogan “The Right to Choose”. Although that has become the rallying cry for abortion activists, it is almost insulting in its simplicity. As Andrew Doyle suggests in his book “The New Puritans”, it may be simplistic by design, another example of the left’s co-opting and redefining language that corners the opposition. Who can honestly object to supporting a woman’s right to choose, or the statement that Black Lives Matter, or social justice when in fact those statements mean something else altogether? All are simplistic morally positive statements, serving as a cloak for much more complicated issues and agendas. The media spin that somehow the Supreme Court has banned abortion rather than honestly report that the Justices had merely followed the Constitution in repealing the constitutionally flawed Rowe v Wade opinion and returning the decision to the states is a perfect example. And as science advances, it is interesting to note the mainstream media ignoring any science that suggests the fetus is viable, or at least reactive to its environment, long before the time at which abortion activists continue to support termination of the pregnancy. This coming, after all, from the party of science. Right. Only when science is a convenient fallback position. Are they purposely seeking to withhold information from the electorate to dumb down the issue? After all, if its just a “bundle of cells” and not actually a baby, abortion at any time prior to delivery will be much less morally repugnant. Why isn’t the issue ever discussed with the honest input from the scientific and medical community? Where are the 3-D ultrasounds, the fetal heart sounds and the pathology results? Why do we only hear from abortion “providers” with a monetary incentive to continue to provide these services? Why do our liberal colleagues rally around Planned Parenthood when the organization has a history of profiting from the procedure and the sale of organ tissue while preying on inner city minority communities, a topic all the more intriguing when you factor in founder Margaret Sanger’s belief in eugenics?

In this Slants entry, I'm going to deviate from my traditional short burst rants to the news cycle, and for the first time even veer away from my periodic essays, to venture into an interview format, so bear with me. My participant a long standing friend and medical professional who has inside knowledge of abortion procedures as both a research scientist and a healthcare practitioner and is therefore able to offer insight into the issue based on what he experienced during his training. I'll refer to him as DR:

TS: Good afternoon, doctor and welcome to Conservative Slants. To get started, why don’t you tell us about your background and your training in the health sciences without getting too specific.

DR: Sure. I grew up in the northeast where I attended both undergraduate college and professional school. I took a gap year after completing my undergraduate studies and worked in biochemistry research to pad my resume before applying to professional school. I currently practice in a surgical subspecialty.

TS: Tell me about your research experience and how abortion factored into that research.

DR: I worked as a laboratory technician in a research facility affiliated with a major university medical school. It was at the time, and I’m talking about the early 80s, cutting edge research in lipid metabolism, specifically the proteins that carry fat and cholesterol in the blood. We used animals in the studies, mice, rats, rabbits and monkeys and we harvested blood from human volunteers as well. But we also used fetal organ culture to produce the proteins for study.

TS: As I understand it, you would essentially grow fetal tissue in the lab, is that correct? And where did you obtain the fetal organ tissue?

DR: Yes, that is correct. The fetal organ tissue was grown in a medium in a petri dish under rigidly controlled conditions. The tissue was obtained from aborted fetuses.

TS: And how exactly is that obtained? How far along were the fetuses that were used?

DR: That was my first eye-opening experience. I was 21 years old at the time and like most kids that age, I was fairly oblivious as to the details of abortion. Abortion was presented as a procedure to terminate a pregnancy, the simple removal of cells, or at the most detailed, described as a D&C, dilation and curettage, whereby the uterine lining is essentially scraped and suctioned. The words fetus or embryo never really conjured up images of babies because of how the information was presented.

TS: Don’t you think that is done on purpose?

DR: Of course. I think a lot of young women are ignorant to the stages of fetal development in pregnancy. That is why when laws have been proposed to mandate that pregnant woman be made aware of the presence of a fetal heartbeat or, at the most graphic, are shown an ultrasound, those proposals have been met with vehement opposition from abortion activists. They know that statistically a woman is more apt to refuse an abortion procedure after seeing and hearing what’s actually going on inside the womb, in some cases rates as high as 80% have been reported. Those studies tend to remove the political from the “right to choose” narrative and interject a decidedly human factor.

TS: Sorry I interrupted your story. You were talking about how the fetus was obtained by the lab.

DR: Right. We were in a large medical complex with a separate hospital that cared for pregnant women, mostly poor and indigent, those unable to afford medical care. Being the young laboratory technician, I was the runner. I was given a beeper and told to go to the operating room at the hospital when summoned, deliver the specimen to pathology, and return to the laboratory with our tissue sample. That was it....no other explanation. So I got beeped, and showed up at the OR where I’m told to wait in an ancient tiled hallway with the double doors and frosted windows leading into the OR suite. Stuff right out of a movie set complete with the hospital green walls. The doors finally swung open and a middle-aged nurse in mask and gown, presumably right out of the OR, handed me what looked like a paper paint bucket with a green towel draped over the top. “There you go’ she said and turned and disappeared back through the double doors. So there I was alone in this desolate hospital hallway having just been given a mysterious paint bucket. I don’t know what I was expecting to receive but that certainly wasn’t it. So I did what any 21 year-old would do, and lifted the towel to see what was inside.

TS: And......

DR: Yeah, it was a baby. It was pink with opaque, thin translucent skin but it was unmistakably a tiny human all curled up and lifeless inside the bucket.

TS: And what happened after that?

DR: I prided myself on some degree of professionalism and that part of me took over. It was shocking, but having never seen a human fetus at that stage of development, I suppose you could say it was clinically interesting. I proceeded directly to pathology where I was met by the pathologist, a kindly bespectacled, bearded man probably in his late forties. He asked me if I wanted to see the autopsy, and considering I was striving for a career in medicine, I thought it would be educational. We proceeded into the lab where he gloved up, adjusted a dictation microphone, removed the fetus from the paint bucket and laid it on its back on a disposable blue paper absorbent towel on a lab bench. He proceeded to dictate the examination, recording the appearance of the fetus: male, 10 fingers, 10 toes, normocephalic, without deformity, etc. He noted that the appearance was consistent with the gestation of 24 weeks; I believe the legal limit at that time was, and still is 24 weeks in that state.

TS: 24 weeks? That’s six months. That’s the end of the second trimester.

DR: That’s right. In that moment, with a 24 week-old fetus on the table, it all clicked. Six months into pregnancy, two-thirds of the pregnancy, at this stage of development...... that was just shocking. The fetus is 7 to 8 inches long and weighs about a pound. And this particular fetus had nothing wrong with it. It was most likely an inconvenience, or as they casually refer to it, an unwanted pregnancy. .

TS: What happened next?

DR: This is where essentially the fetus is “parted out”. I felt badly for the pathologist who was obviously emotionally distressed by the procedure. He was breathing heavily and seemed upset. He made an incision through the soft skull and essentially shelled out the brain. He made an incision in the midline from the pubic bone vertically through the sternum and with a combination of scissors, pickups and scalpel, dissected out all the organs. Each organ was divided up and placed in specimen containers with my lab receiving a portion of the liver. It seemed like every department had requested a piece of an organ of interest to them.

TS: This sounds like the Planned Parenthood representative who was caught on tape selling body parts.

DR: It appeared to be the same sort of thing where scientists had placed dibs on body parts for research purposes. But at the time I was unaware if there were any financial arrangements to what I was witnessing.

TS: Where you appalled that this was going on?

DR: Actually no. My attitude at the time was if this sort of thing was going on, meaning abortion this late into pregnancy, then at least the fetus should be used for something beneficial, and at the time we were doing pioneering research. I did have a problem with how heartless the whole operation seemed to be, and I definitely do not agree with parting out fetuses for profit. Once you introduce a financial incentive into the equation, it seems morally corrupt to prey on young women in crisis and convince them to have an abortion so you may profit from marketing the baby parts.

TS: But what was your opinion at that time regarding the procedure being legal so late into the pregnancy?

 DR: At the time I was a small cog in the giant wheel of medical research with my goal to gain experience, publish some research papers and enhance my resume to apply to professional school. It never occurred to me to rock the boat and voice any opinion contrary to the powers that ruled the research lab or the hospital. This was in the 80s; I kept my head down and did my job. I wasn’t about to derail my career by questioning the ethics of the doctors that led the research team. No one ever questioned it and 24 weeks was the law of the land. In hindsight, I would have been interested to know their personal opinions, as they were all physicians and PhDs, well-educated people who were also upstanding members of the community and family men who I respected enormously. It was an education, that’s for sure. My personal opinion was altered in that what I previously had given no thought to at all, suddenly took on a whole different perspective. It didn’t make me a pro-life activist but it certainly made me question the wisdom of a 24-week allowance for the procedure to be performed. And I had no exposure to the procedure itself, so that compartmentalized the issue as well.

TS: But you did eventually have exposure to the procedural part of it? DR: Yes, that occurred much farther on when I was in my residency. TS: Were you actually performing the procedure?

DR: Thankfully no. My program required a period of training in anesthesia and, at the time, we were assigned to short duration procedures mostly in urology and OB/GYN. It was in an inner city hospital and every Tuesday was TOP day: Termination of Pregnancy. Dark humor is common in the OR and the nurses referred to the assignment as the “baby killing squad.” They weren’t particularly fond of the assignment.

TS: Understandably so. How many of these were performed?

DR: I don’t recall the specific number and as I said, they were short duration procedures and we turned them over pretty quickly. I remember on my first TOP day, looking down the hall towards the pre-operative suite and seeing gurneys lined up with young black women in their hospital johnnies and blue disposable hair covers all the way down the hall and around the corner, most looking scared to death.

TS: You mentioned that they were black women.....

DR: As I said, it was a city hospital. 100 percent of the abortion procedures that I witnessed were performed on black women.

TS: Was the hospital patient population majority black?

 DR: No. The patients in general were mixed race. The more expensive elective procedures that were not covered by insurance or required higher levels of insurance coverage were mostly white patients. The demographics were mostly based on economics, and the city was predominantly lower income African- Americans. The surrounding suburbs were majority middle class and white with some very wealthy communities. As you would expect, elective procedures such as plastic surgery would skew more white, reflective of socioeconomic class whereas trauma and TOPs were a higher percentage black, again reflective of the socioeconomic status of the city population. All the other procedures in the middle, general surgery, appendectomies and that sort of thing were more apt to follow percentages consistent with the racial make-up of the population at large.

TS: And what about the racial make-up of the hospital staff?

DR: At that time, and again I’m talking about the 1980s, the OR nursing staff was majority white, the floor nurses were mixed black and white, orderlies and maintenance staff were majority black.

TS: And the doctors?

DR: Again, at that time, the doctors were mostly white with a smattering of Indian and Asian. The doctor that performed the vast majority of the abortion procedures was a black female. I think that was mostly reflective of where her private practice was located, in the heart of the city’s black community.

TS: And what was the average abortion procedure like?

DR: It really was a production line. The patient was wheeled into the OR and transferred to the operating table. They were often young, 18 to 22 years of age, and very apprehensive. There were, however some “frequent flyers” that were less concerned with the unknown as they had done it so many times before. The majority of cases were simple D&Cs whereby the uterine wall including the attached embryo and placenta is aggressively curetted, or scraped, and the contents evacuated by suction. You will sometimes see the procedures divided into Suction-Aspiration which is less aggressive and usually occurs in the first twelve weeks, and Dilation and Curettage which is similar but deals with a fetus up to 24 weeks, so much further into development. You will also see Dilation and Evacuation which is also a procedure at later stages of pregnancy post 24 weeks where the fetus is essentially dismembered and the parts are removed by forceps and suction as well as Dilation and Extraction, sometimes referred to as partial birth abortion whereby the fetus is delivered breech, feet first, leaving the head inside the uterus where it is cut into and the contents suctioned out, allowing the head to then pass through the cervix.

TS: None of it is very pleasant but it appears that the later into pregnancy, the more barbaric it becomes.

 DR: My feelings exactly, but there seems to be a disconnect between the clinical names for the procedures and what is exactly being done. I think the general public is totally unaware of the distinctions.

TS: And what procedures were your hospital performing at that time?

DR: We were mostly Dilation and Curettage with the occasional Dilation and Extraction. I don’t recall any late term partial birth abortions. I do remember watching the nurses wince when a chunk of suctioned material would make a sickening thunk when it hit the bottom of the suction canister.

TS: Suction canister?

DR: Right. The curet, a scraper type of instrument, was attached to a suction tube that emptied its solid contents into a clear plastic container.

TS: You mentioned frequent flyers. What do you mean?

DR: I think I can best answer that by recalling a specific patient. This patient aside from being pregnant was morbidly obese wheeled into the OR, sitting bolt upright on the gurney and exclaming, “I want more babies, don’t tie my tubes” over and over again. The nurses were kind to her but just rolled their eyes. This woman was huge, weighed in at over three hundred pounds. The nurses filled me in: apparently this was her eleventh abortion procedure and although consenting to tubal ligation in each of the last five procedures, she had refused each time at the last minute. I perused her chart and sure enough this was abortion procedure number 11 with an additional six live births.

TS: With that many it had to be on the taxpayer’s dime?

DR: Of course. Back then we called it what it was: Welfare. As opposed to Benefits or Public Assistance.

TS: Married?

DR: No. I was amazed she could even get pregnant, the woman was absolutely immense.

TS: And how did the procedure go?

DR: She signed off on refusing the tubal ligation and we proceeded with the D&C. The only potential disaster was getting her situated on the table. We put her to sleep, draped her and for the procedure the patient is placed in Trendelenburg position to allow the doctor better access and visibility. That is essentially the table tipped in a head down, feet up position. But with the patient in stirrups, legs up and spread open, and head position down, it was a precarious position given the woman’s size. It was an older table and required me to bend down with my head at the same level of the table to access the controls. I was at the head of the table and the surgeon kept on saying a little more, a little more, and suddenly we reached the point where physics took over and her breasts, thighs and belly all shifted in my direction. I thought she was going to bury me as it all came tumbling in my direction like an avalanche of flesh, but thankfully it all stopped short and she stayed on the table.

TS: That is some visual.....

DR: I can close my eyes and still see it. But I lived to tell the tale and was able to get the woman through number eleven. So essentially this woman, and a lot of women like her, were using the generous state welfare program and abortion as their form of contraception. And there is no excuse for that kind of behavior. There is plenty of access to affordable contraception and Planned Parenthood should live up to their name by providing contraception counseling and outreach to prevent this sort of thing from happening. They receive government funding to provide services to the community and the fact that so many abortions are still being performed is representative of an abject failure on their part. And granted, it’s not entirely their fault. Young men and women have to take responsibility for their actions, and engage in prevention rather than pretend that abortion is a viable option for reproductive health. Between sex education in schools and punch bowls full of condoms in the student health centers on college campuses it seems like we are not doing a very effective job of educating our youth as to how pregnancy happens and how to prevent it. The often repeated but largely ignored statistic that more black babies are aborted than born in New York City is staggering.

TS: And your feelings participating in all of this?

DR: I was a surgical resident. It was a competitive, macho, mostly boy’s club back in those days and emotion was almost looked upon as a weakness. You had to maintain your composure in the OR, in the morgue or when faced with horrific trauma. You did your job and carried on with your training. Did I find it abhorrent? Of course, particularly those procedures performed later in the pregnancy, especially with me having had the experience of seeing what the fetus looked like at that stage of development. But again, it was the law of the land and who was I to question the law and deny a patient their legal rights? At least that’s how I looked at it then when I was pretty low in the hierarchy.

TS: And now?

DR: Well I am not involved with anesthesia or OB/GYN at all, having migrated into another unrelated surgical specialty. If it was a component of my specialty now, I would simply not elect to participate. And if asked my opinion, I would gladly give it without fear of retribution. But I am older, more financially stable and I now practice in a more conservative leaning part of the country.

TS: Are you anti-abortion then?

DR: Actually no. I am anti-stupidity and pro-responsibility. Mistakes happen and I don’t feel you should be unduly punished for them. But be responsible. Make your decision early. Technology has reached the point where we know how far along the fetal development is. We have 3-D ultrasounds, we can detect fetal heartbeat. Early intervention benefits the mother in lessening the surgical impact with a less aggressive procedure and simultaneously satisfies the moral issues by lessening the potential for potentially causing pain and suffering for the developing human inside her.

TS: About that. I hear conflicting reports from both sides of the issue on when a fetus is a baby.

DR: So do I. It is a topic that is influenced by politics, science, ethics, emotion, religion, and money. Some scientific papers within the OB/GYN community suggest that the fetus feels no pain before 24 weeks and some have suggested even later, 32 weeks. That seems to me unlikely. No pain, no sensation at all? But some science has shown that pain may be registered as early as 15 weeks. Take thumb sucking in the womb for example. That has been shown on ultrasound to occur as early as 10 to 17 weeks, yet many in the scientific community claim that it is reflexive and there is not enough brain activity to support it. Reflexive? Wouldn’t you suspect that the fetus does it for the sensation? And recently it has been shown that at 30 to 32 weeks the fetus reacts to food that the mother eats, showing facial expressions in response to kale versus carrots. Apparently nobody likes kale, not even fetuses.

TS: I agree. What about fetal heartbeat?

DR: That’s a more difficult issue in my mind. I think the pure physiologic condition of functioning heart cells is not necessarily an indicator of the developing fetus being human per se. Heart cells will beat regularly in a Petri dish in the lab. I think brain development is a more accurate predictor of a viable human in progress but is much more difficult to assess. A heartbeat can be detected by ultrasound as early as 6 to 8 weeks but it is generally accepted as beating at a regular rate at 6-7 weeks according to Mount Sinai. This has become quite a hot topic after Georgia Governor Kemp proposed banning abortion after a fetal heartbeat could be detected and the issue became more of a conflagration after Georgia’s candidate for governor, Stacey Abrams, suggested that the heart sounds were manufactured by doctors to convince women to decide against abortion, for men to control women’s bodies and to deny women full citizenship in the state.

 TS: Preposterous partisan bickering by someone who has no medical background. And apparently Planned Parenthood weighed in on the issue by stating that it was simply a cluster of cells.

DR: I saw that. I think Planned Parenthood and their doctors should be immediately disqualified from the conversation as they have a financial incentive to support abortion anytime, anywhere. Money corrupts.

TS: So even though you are not an expert in the field, you have inside medical exposure to the procedure. What in you estimation is the solution?

DR: I am not a legal scholar either, so I am going to stress that this is my educated opinion. I think the Supreme Court got it right. Rowe v Wade was flawed and they should have returned the decision to the states. Let the voters decide. I find it ironic that the most vitriolic right to choose protests seem to be occurring in states where abortion access will not only be unaffected, but perhaps may become even more accessible and lenient. We all recall then Virginia Governor Ralph Northum suggesting that we deliver the baby then “have a discussion” as to its fate. How preposterous is that, and from a medical professional?

TS: Perhaps those terrible twos are too much for you and you decide you made a mistake......

DR: Hopefully an over-the-top suggestion but it clearly makes the point: where do you draw the line? When is a baby a baby?

TS: And again, where do you draw the line?

DR: I think compromise is going to be a requirement. And neither side is going to be happy. A state-by-state decision by voters may be just that compromise. Like gun laws and for a time, the legalization of gay marriage, it may be up to the voters. We are a big country and what plays well in San Francisco may not be at all palatable to folks in Fargo. Based on 3-D ultrasound, the suggestion of early pain sensation, the activity of the fetus in the womb and the physical appearance of aborted fetuses, I would compromise to no later than 10 to 12 weeks. The access to care exists such that sexually active women should be more attuned to the potential for pregnancy, and show some responsibility for their actions by accessing that care. Mistakes happen, but own up to them. And I’m not giving men a pass on this issue either, you should be a part of the decision making process.

TS: Thank you for your honest take on the abortion issue. I think it’s helpful to hear from someone who has been exposed to the research, the science, and the medical side of the equation with no financial incentives, political gain or career advancement potential to affect your position.

DR: You’re welcome. After 35 years, happy to tell my story.

So there you have it, an insider’s views on abortion unfettered by monetary gain, political grandstanding or fear of retribution. Again I return to Mr. Doyle’s observations in “The New Puritans.” We can’t distill complex issues into simplistic slogans, especially Right to Choose, Open Borders, Black Lives Matter or Support Social Justice. It appears that these bumper sticker sized blurbs target the ill-informed by dumbing down the issue for the simple minded and boxing into a corner any that may have opposing views and may actually truly understand the complexities. And perhaps even more insidious, these slogans may be designed to purposely mislead, gaining adherents that may not truly understand the implication of the policies. For example, although everyone agrees that Black Lives Matter, few will also agree that the nuclear family should be abolished, or support the mainstreaming of the alphabet soup of redefining gender and sexual orientations, let alone the blatant Marxist leanings of the parent organization. Similarly the distillation of abortion into “The Right to Choose” is another oversimplification. Disagreement results in charges of sexism and misogyny, just as disagreement with BLM policies results in accusations of racism, views contrary with the Social Justice narrative result in charges of white supremacy and concern over Open Border Policies is labeled as white nationalism. Doyle quotes psychiatrist Jay Lefton regarding leftist slogans as “thought terminating clichés, those brief, highly reductive definitive-sounding phrases that become the start and finish of any ideological analysis.” We should take heed, and resist becoming intellectually lazy by being misled and coerced by the simplicity of the slogan, instead delving into the thought process behind this purposeful act of misdirection. Know the issues. And come November vote with your head and not your heart.

A Quandary

It’s quite a conundrum when you think about it: White people are in the unenviable position where they cannot criticize a person of color for incompetence or whatever for fear of being labeled racist, yet black activists may paint all white people as being inherently racist, a racist generalization itself, with impunity. Whitey just can’t win for losing in that mindset. Using the NFL and the NBA as an example of skewed racial participation. Yet, neither league has invested in base race equity. Their professed reasoning is that the better-skilled athlete wins out, the color of his skin not a determinate. That mindset, if so, should prevail across all societal boundaries.

Vanity Unfair

The media just keeps serving up hypocrisy. Vanity Fair, another example of bird cage liner posing as a news source, ran the headline: “Surprise: Trump, a pathological liar, reportedly asked his lawyer to lie to the government.” Need you insert “a pathological liar” into the title? Doesn’t that immediately disqualify the reporting as a biased opinion piece? And if we are going to bandy about the whole liar narrative, shouldn’t we look no further than our Puerto Rican raised, Jewish, truck driver, chain wielding vanquisher of Corn-Pop, professor Joe Biden whose son died in Iran. C’mon man. And let’s not forget his weed smoking sidekick and perpetual embarrassment Kamala, KaMAla, Karmella……whatever. You know our border czar. She’s “been to the border.” Obviously they can make this stuff up.

Kamala, Kamala

Did you hear Vice-President Spaceshot’s  assertion that prisons are chock full of folks serving time for just “smoking weed?” Hilarious. Especially when Harris herself bragged about doing just that in SanFrancisco. But it turns out those serving time for “possession” have most often pled down the original charge of trafficking to the lesser charge of possession even though the average amount possessed was 48 pounds. That’s one helluva joint, Kamala. 

The Unaccoutables

Isn’t it interesting that a jury awarded the Sandy Hook families  $965 million in damages from Alex Jones for his lies and conspiracy theories that “prompted unrelenting harassment against them” and “mangled the lives” of the plaintiffs. Hmmm. Brings to mind another hoax that for over two years harassed and crippled a president’s administration and subjected his family’s lives to relentless “mangling.”  In no way am I defending the despicable Mr. Jones who clearly is unhinged, but he is no more reprehensible and abhorrent than James Comey, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, the FBI cast of miscreants, and their facilitator Hillary Clinton who hobbled the Trump administration, subjected the Trump family to unfounded accusations, wasted government resources and misled the nation over partisan  Russia collusion conspiracy theories. They, on the other hand, are all enjoying government pensions, book tours and a fawning media for their misdeeds. Hypocrisy anyone?

No Humorous Political Satire There

Resent news about the demise of late-night TV show ratings is no surprise to me. All of the liberal Democrat talking heads are tanking in the ratings, so much so that the rotund little Brit Corden is finished, as is Trevor Noah, a South African who just was a trendy mouthpiece to read democrat talking points and was never funny despite the media hype. Yet admittedly, Colbert continues his unparalleled level of arrogance and remains tone deaf in the face of his ratings in free fall has shown himself to be dismissive of conservative viewers. He has been relentless in his criticism of Trump, resorting to attempts at humor that are, at best, references to debunked Russia collusion theories and, at their worst, crude and vulgar. Again, not particularly funny and indulging in political commentary with no particular expertise aside from vehement partisanship. And the most tragic demise, in my estimation, maybe Saturday Night Live, suffering from a dearth of talent yet riding the coattails of Alec Baldwin’s tired Trump impersonations while openly mourning Hillary Clinton’s election loss. All the while ignoring the made-for-comedy buffoonery occurring daily in the Biden Administration. As  quoted by former SNL member Joe Piscopo: “the comedy writes itself.”

The Ian Spin

Hurricane Ian hadn’t even made landfall when it started. 3-2-1…..Cue the climate change hysteria. In this, the least active hurricane season in recent memory, the climate lobby has gone so far as to suggest that voting democrat is the only way to prevent an existential crisis. Like those idiots can control the weather. We will now hear that this is somehow nature’s wrath inflicted on yet another red state for their climate-denying rhetoric. Never mind the fact that red states most often border hurricane waters. And it is indeed hurricane season, so named for a preponderance of, well, hurricanes. We will hear how republicans’ climate policies caused the weather events, how they failed to prepare, and watch as they get crucified in the liberal media for their response. Florida Governor and Republican presidential heir apparent will be scrutinized and roundly criticized for managing this crisis in the hope that the democrats can nip his candidacy in the bud long before the presidential primaries. Meanwhile, Joe Biden has suggested that the best thing you can do to prepare for a hurricane is to get vaccinated. Seriously? Sure, I have nothing to eat, no potable eater, and I can swim in my living room but damn, good thing I’m vaccinated. Really, Joe, I think batteries and plywood rank higher. So rather than show concern for the actual Americans affected by this monster storm, let’s instead continue to bicker over partisan policy and engage in more political theater. Perhaps tune in to The View. Sure, that will be helpful. 

Shame On Us

It is not emigrants, illegal or otherwise, nor the remnants of The Greatest Generation, the Baby Boomers; it's Gen X and Z and the Millennials, privileged young Americans that have taken Counter-Culture, Wokeism, Socialism, and Whatever as their cause and are running with it. It is our own pampered progeny that has turned on us. In the final analysis, we too, their predecessors, have failed in not keeping our eye on the core of our democracy; the preservation of our Declaration of Independence granted rights of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness as governed by our Republic’s Constitution. In complacency we have raised generations of Snowflakes and Malcontents.

Again I'm Flommaxed

I have grown weary of trying to reach you on an intellectual plain, lost all patients with the mealy mouth RINO among us who posture ambivalence in light of the Democrat's onslaught of lies and deceit. What are you afraid of hurting their feelings? They have given you no quarter, reciprocate you, ninnies. This is politics; there are no Queensberry Rules in play. Call them out on their distortions, fabrications, and misdirections; put their feet to the fire! Let no propaganda of theirs go unchallenged. Get some steel in your spine; tell it like it is. They have apparently come to the realization we don't have the stomach to meet the absurdities of their socialist agenda and civil order, too cowardly to speak out in defense of our American culture, society, and country. Well, we damn well better, or we will surely go down the tubes come November.

California 2035

So what do you think, Glen T, my automobile buff friend, is the combustion engine and its fuel source the bain of society; obsolete in the advent of EVs? That's what the Progressives want us to believe while stoking the fires of climate hysteria. Yet the technology and economic  circumstances of its purview belie that supposition. To me, a promising technology to soon exploited. It appears inevitable its time will come, but to rush it has the potential to destabilize today’s fossil fuel-dependent economy; raise havoc on the mobility and general competencies of societal order and the international balance of power.  Look at the consumption rates of energy sources. Renewables are barely a contributor of note in the grand scheme of things, for a good reason. Get a grip, you well-intended Greenies; you are getting ahead of yourselves.

Plain Mean Spirited

Partisanship is not just detrimental to our country, but sometimes it’s just mean-spirited. Lauren Boebert, the Republican representative In Colorado’s third congressional district, rose to prominence when she and her husband established Shooters Grill in Rifle, Colorado. The grill was known for its servers openly carrying pistols on their hips, a Second Amendment theme of sorts that infuriated the left, especially in increasingly blue-tinged Colorado. Ms. Boebert then parlayed her notoriety into a successful campaign to unseat the incumbent Republican representative in her district. Young and fiery, she had further enraged her detractors by adopting a position diametrically opposed to the “squad” as a staunch supporter of Second Amendment rights. She is widely known for poking the bear when woke activism ascends to heights of absurdity. So what. The left has the increasingly shrill AOC and Omar, and the right has Boebert and Green. Point and counterpoint. Ying and Yang. But recently, the successful Shooters restaurant was forced to close its doors when the real estate owner elected not to renew their lease. Cue The schadenfreude. The liberals are in full celebration mode over Ms. Boebert’s misfortune. Now hold on there. The party of the everyman, the downtrodden, the working class is rejoicing over the closing of a business and the loss of jobs?  Really? Their waitstaff, busboys, cooks, bartenders, hostesses, and dishwashers are now unemployed, and you find this a cause for celebration?  Because you don’t like their politics? And the real estate owner, despite claiming the decision was purely business and not political, is the proud owner of Rifle’s marijuana dispensary. Hmm. Wonder how he votes. So once again, we don our hip boots to wade through the sea of hypocrisy. The party of the people was positively giddy over the loss of jobs when those jobs belonged to conservatives, the loss of business on the supply side, and the suppliers that relied on Shooters for the purchase of food and drink, paper goods, and cleaning supplies. The loss of traffic into town by customers who spent their money at other local businesses. But what do you expect from politicians who never held jobs in the private sector other than a complete lack of understanding as to how the economy works? 

And another thing: the media chiming in to join in the revelry is in poor taste. Remember when Newsweek was considered a reliable news publication? Well, sort of. Their online outlet, as part of the story on the restaurant closing, saw fit to re-post tweets from insignificant internet trolls, to use their own juvenile millennial terminology, positively ecstatic over the business’s demise. Nice. So as California invades Colorado, residents fleeing from progressive policies, they bring their voting biases with them and will now turn Colorado into the same disaster that they left. I believe Agent Smith said it best:  “there is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. It’s a virus.” Brilliant. But I digress. There has to be some level of civility if we intend to remain a republic. It should be evident that we shouldn’t rejoice in the personal misfortune of those on the other side of the aisle, we should not protest in front of the homes of Supreme Court justices, and we should not destroy personal property in the name of protest. Alas, ethics, manners, and civility all seem to be casualties in the post-Covid era. Anything to further a political ideal. It’s just mean-spirited. And it does not bode well for our future. 

Before Our Very Eyes

This is how an empire dies, and we’re watching it in real-time. In the news: fourth-grade test scores, considered to be a “crucial indicator for educational and economic success,” have plummeted, with math scores recording the most significant drop to a level not seen since the 90s. The average lifespan dropped for a second consecutive year, an additional 0.9 years, after a steep drop of 1.8 years in 2020. The average American can now expect to live 76.1 years. California is expecting a heat wave to strike this weekend that will “likely stress the electricity grid and raise the risk of wildfires.” Authorities have responded by urging residents to avoid going outdoors, drink water, check in on your neighbors and never leave children and pets alone in cars. They have additionally requested residents to voluntarily conserve energy by keeping thermostats no lower than 78 degrees, avoid running major appliances, and do not charge electric vehicles. You know, the vehicles they are making us buy. In Jackson, Mississippi, an estimated 150000 residents are without reliable running water as the city’s crumbling water infrastructure struggles to provide clean drinking water and sufficient water pressure. What happened to us? Alas, when a country fails to educate its children, keep its population safe and healthy, is unable to provide clean running water and a reliable electricity grid, it has devolved into a third-world crisis. The usual excuses abound, with Covid leading the list, followed by climate change and, of course, racism. How long are we going to allow the democrats, the party in charge, to harangue us with these tired old mantras?  Perhaps we should consider a different set of excuses: the unfortunate appointment of idiots to positions of authority, the demise of meritocracy in favor of race-based appointments, the mismanagement of natural resources, and the demonizing of the fossil fuel industry to worship at the altar of green energy initiatives, the wanton destruction of the nuclear family with children reliant on educators more concerned with their own well-being and a curriculum that no longer emphasizes a real-world skill set and a government that completely mismanaged and politicized a pandemic. November is the tipping point where we choose success as a nation or continue our decline into third-world status.

We Are Scorned

This sudden tactic by the Biden Administration to declare “MAGA Republicans” fascists and a threat to democracy are a bit unhinged. Speaking from a podium in front of a starkly red-lit background with flags and Marines at attention, last night’s venue was peculiarly reminiscent of another angry, fascist totalitarian orator in style, tone, and demagoguery. However, it appears from recent democrat election success in New York (of course) and Alaska that those wins were based solely on single-issue campaign strategies, simplifying the abortion issue into an all-or-nothing vote, a trend that is concerning. The democrat party may have finally, with the help of a compliant media and the teachers union, succeeded in a tactic of dumbing down the electorate sufficiently to get them to believe virtually anything.  Such hypocrisy and lack of self-awareness to have declared Trump a serial liar when we now have such blatant fabrications as “semi-fascists,” “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” “transitory inflation,” “inflation reduction act,” “zero inflation,” “Russian collusion,” “Putin’s price hike,” “Russian disinformation,” “peaceful protests,” the “deadly insurrection,” the Secure southern border,” not to mention virtually everything they told us about managing the Covid outbreak. All their talking points are condensed into simplistic bumper sticker-sized sound bites to appeal to a mesmerized TikTok generation. Always be cognizant of the observation that the democrats are experts in the art of projection: what they accuse you of is generally what they themselves are practicing. The end result will be what they have long been preaching, a fundamental transformation of America. We best take notice.

John Harvard’s Body Molting In His Grave

My incessant reading of Democrat manipulations, deceptions and transgressions are killing me, but I can't help myself. The latest: Bill de Blasio, former NYC mayor, avowed socialist, supporter of the Sandanistas, child of communist sympathizers, Hillary Clinton campaign manager, who honeymooned in Cuba, welcomed Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe to New York’s City Hall and was so tone deaf that he once chanted Che Guevara slogans at a Miami political rally…….yeah, that Bill de Blasio, ended his congressional campaign run last month and has been appointed to a position as senior leadership fellow at Harvard University. Seriously. Maybe he and Liz Warren can get together for tea. After all they have the time to teach only one class apiece. The WSJ reports that Mr. de Blasio, formerly William Wilhelm until he chose to reject his father’s family and take his mother's maiden name, will hold office hours, meet with students, and teach at least one class at the T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Sounds super taxing. And how interestingly appropriate that he lands a position at the Chan School, named for its benefactor that contributed the largest single donation to Harvard in history, enough to get them to change the name of the place. According to an article by Guillermo Hava of the Harvard Crimson, the donation is not from the Chan family directly but from the Morningside Foundation, a 591(c)(3) non-profit entity founded by Gerald and his brother Ronnie. Morningside apparently derives their income from three sources. The first two sources are benignly named after East Asian Teas, Bancha and Keenum, and coincidentally occupy the same address in Iowa. That address is linked to Morningside Private Investors, yet another tentacle of the Chan corporate octopus. The two entities, according to the Crimson article, donated precisely the same amount: $1.05 million apiece. Interestingly, Mr. Hava reports that neither entity has an internet presence, with no mention in the public domain, thus having all the earmarks of a shell corporation. The third income source is Echo Enterprises International Holdings Group, Ltd, located in tax haven Monaco. Echo is linked to Stealth BioTherapeutics, which is, you guessed it, yet another part of the Chan corporate empire. 

While Gerald Chan seemed to be the frontman for the donation, his brother Ronnie was also involved and is a much more interesting case study. Both brothers serve both the Hang Lung Group as well as Morningside with the distinction between the two corporations described as being blurry. Pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai was quoted calling Ronnie Chan “ a pawn of the CCP.” Ronnie, as Co-chair of the Asian Society’s Hong Kong Chapter, has been accused of defending China’s incursion into Hong Kong, supporting pro-China censorship, and is purported to have close ties with Beijing. He appeared to be instrumental in the firing of a Forbes contributing author who penned an article critical of Chan, an article that mysteriously was removed from their website. Interesting to note that a Hong Kong investment firm purchased a majority stake in Forbes in 2014. Also, under Chan’s tenure at the Asian Society, the NBA came under pressure to censure tweets supporting pro-democracy demonstrations. Joshua Wong, leader of Hong King’s pro-democracy Umbrella Movement, suggested that Chan was “behind decisions to build connections with US universities while suppressing dissent at home,” wondering if Chan plays “a supplemental role in China’s global propaganda campaign.”  Adding further credence to Chan’s Beijing ties, Mr. Hava reports that he serves as governor of the China-US Exchange Foundation, a registered foreign agent chaired by Tung Chee-Hwa, Vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Orville Schell, yet another Harvard man serving as the Ross Director of the Asian Society New York Center on US-China relations, suspects Ronnie Chan’s motives “may be purely economic” but goes on to call the Asia Society’s Hong Kong Chapter “insufferable and quite repellent.”  Further, he states, “Ronnie Chan seeks to appease an increasingly authoritative government for money, and Harvard renames an entire school after his family-all with just enough legal and financial opacity to make it impossible to ascertain the fund's origins.”  

So is Harvard purposely moving farther to the left and supporting the CCP as it makes inroads into American educational, financial and government institutions?  Or are they, like Robbie Chan’s lesser detractors imply, simply sleeping with the enemy for purely financial motives? Either way, I fail to see how America benefits, how our public policy improves, and how our students will continue to receive a superior education. What does yet another socialist like Bill de Blasio brings to Harvard?  Certainly not diversity in public policy. Harvard, for all its claims of Ivy League elitism, is beginning to lose its luster. You will be judged by the company you keep, the faculty you employ, and the donations you accept. And,the policies of those you choose to honor. 

The Spin

So the democrats, in defense of their student loan debt cancellation program, are comparing student loans to PPP loans doled out during the pandemic. Specifically, they target Republicans who had their PPP loans forgiven but who have been critical of Biden’s latest vote-buying scheme. Apples and oranges, people. Recall PPP is an abbreviation for paycheck protection program, payments made to businesses crippled by pandemic shutdowns to pay their employees and keep the lights on. A requirement existed that businesses had to retain staff, and it served as a bridge to keep the business afloat in the midst of massive government-mandated shutdowns. How exactly does that compare to college students making poor decisions in choosing expensive schools where they pursued unmarketable courses of study or graduate students seeking professional degrees or MBAs who will soon be high earners? It doesn’t. Whatever happened to that “pay your fair share” mantra that the democrats wheel out every time there is a progressive tax increase? The end result will be higher tuition, higher inflation, and higher taxes as everyday working Americans struggle to pay off the $300 billion price tag. I don't know about you, but this whole sham has my knickers in a twist!