SCOTUS Tested

And now Maine joins Colorado in perpetuating the myth that Donald Trump is an insurrectionist and, therefore, ineligible to be on the 2024 ballot. When this case finally makes its way to the Supreme Court, where many pundits claim it will be defeated 9-0, we will get an accurate measure of our state of division. Ketanji Brown-Jackson is surprisingly considered to be the most moderate of the liberal justices, but as a recent appointee of Joe Biden, it will be interesting to see if she rewards his confidence with a vote to remove his chief political opponent. Elena Kagan, a former Harvard Law faculty member, is purported to be farther left in ideology than Brown-Jackson. Still, given her past performances, she appears to skew towards progressive causes over the application of constitutional law, surprising in that a former academic wouldn’t tend to be more impartial as her colleague Dershowitz has been. Sotomayor, an Obama appointee and former activist for Puerto Rican causes, is considered to be the most liberal-leaning member of the court by far, never failing to bend any decision into a racist narrative. It is with her that Americans should have the least confidence, as she rarely breaks with liberal doctrine regardless of the application of the law. The decision should be a 9-0 “slam dunk” based on constitutional law. But this case will offer a rare glimpse into whether the members of the Supreme Court have become partisan representatives of the liberal presidents who appointed them or justices sworn to uphold the Constitution. If the liberal justices fail this test, it is a frightening foreboding of the power a stacked court, long a dream of progressive activists, could wield in this age of judicial activism. 

The Power Of Ignorance And Complacency

Never underestimate the power of ignorance and complacency. Too many of us don’t read and or lack ambition. We get all our information and pleasure fed to us from the little screen. As long as we have our recreation and leisure time, we are content. Again, too many of us pride ourselves on gaming the system, working as little as possible but squeezing management for more benefits. I’ve heard more than once the benefits of working from home, being the ability to satisfy the minimum work requirements while going to the gym, running errands, napping, or pursuing one's hobbies while on the clock. Is management so desperate for workers that they turn a blind eye to apparent sloth?  So, concerned the employee will bolt for greener pastures if their workload is too rigorous? It is devolving into a race to the bottom, and the Democrats are using it to their advantage. 

New York Exodus

Did you hear about the workings of the well-oiled Democrat political machine in New York State?  Apparently, in the last election cycle, the Democrats set up a commission to redraw congressional districts. The commission was composed of democrats and republicans in equal numbers. Fair, right? Not quite. Knowing they would never come to a consensus, the state put in place a tie-breaking panel that would have carte blanche to gerrymander the districts as they saw fit. Naturally, the tie-breaking reserve panel was composed of progressive partisans, resulting in districts drawn to overwhelmingly favor the democrats. Not so fast, shouted the Republicans. Off they went to court, where the judge found in favor of the republicans. The democrats appealed and were defeated again. The result was that Republican voices were heard, and New York sent 10 Republican representatives to Washington. But here we are, four years later, and the Democrats found yet another pathway to assure that no Republican ever wins an election in New York again. Ever. They packed the courts with progressive judges. And lo and behold, the original rulings were overturned.  New York is now redrawing congressional districts once again, attempting to send only Democrats to the House of Representatives in the hope of tipping the House back to democrat control. So much for taxation with representation. Let the out-of-state exodus resume.

Jewish Incongruity

Listening to NPR again, Do these people hear themselves?  They were interviewing Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of Atlantic Monthly who devoted an entire issue to the dire consequences that will happen if Trump is re-elected. This said of course after he and the compliant interviewer, I believe it was Sara Innskeep who never fails to spin it far left, praised the magazine for its non-partisan reporting with a staff that represents all political persuasions. Surely you recall that they’re talking about writers like David Frum, who identifies as Republican despite hit piece after hit piece trashing the party and Trump in particular. What’s with these leftie Jewish guys continually praising the increasingly anti-Semitic Democrat Party when the Republicans, and most notably Donald Trump standing arm and arm with Israel? I don’t get it. And Goldberg rationalized devoting the entire magazine to Trump-bashing by saying he owed it to his children, to tell the truth about the threat to America. Really?  The truth?  He just got through telling us that he is speculating on what he thinks will happen if Trump returns to the Oval Office based on his and his leftist staff’s optics. It’s preposterous, it’s inflammatory, it’s partisan, it is slanderous editorializing, pure and simple, posing as news.

Dubai COP28

Cataclysm! The apocalypse! The sky is falling! Such is the news coming out of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai. You know, the posh event where world leaders fly their Gulfstreams halfway around the world to stay in luxury accommodations, and dine on caviar and Wagyu beef while simultaneously attempting to convince the rest of the world’s population to accept austerity measures to save the planet. Tagging along for the ride, like pilot fish on a shark, are representatives of third-world nations vying to fleece the wealthy nations for cash payments for climate damage they claim disproportionately affects them. Call it climate welfare. What a repulsive bunch of hypocritical maroons. Ultra-maroons. Their latest and greatest solution to global warming is punitive taxation and regulation to punish livestock farmers to ultimately drive up the price of beef, making meat an unaffordable food choice for the masses. The reason?  Flatulence.  Yes indeed, cow farts. These pesky ruminants are apparently quite gassy, expelling 11-17% of total carbon emissions and upwards of 38% of methane into the environment. Sheep are on the chopping block as well and pigs, despite having only one stomach,  apparently live up to their filthy reputation and are somehow four times more carbon-intensive to bring to market than cows. No word yet on how to manage goats. But deer, giraffes, and elk probably will get a political pass because they’re “indigenous”. And that’s a protected class. As we’ve said before, they’re coming for you. The administrative state wants to control your movement, control how you heat your home, control what you cook with, and now wants to control what you eat. All in the name of existential climate change. How the climate is a threat to our existence when climate-related deaths have fallen some 98% since 1920 remains a closely held secret amongst the elitists. And who is preaching this new religion to the ignorant masses? Bill Gates, King Charles, and John Kerry to name a few. All preposterously wealthy yet ironically unfamiliar with the concept of a Zoom meeting. Wouldn’t it be fascinating to know the accumulated carbon footprint of their multiple residences and palaces alone, not to mention their aforementioned private jets? Recall John Kerry once had the city of Boston move a fire hydrant from in front of his swanky Beacon Hill residence so he could park there. Hypocrites, all.  Does anyone think that the proposed restrictions will have any effect on the lifestyle of the pampered elite?  Of course not. Despite John Kerry’s reputation for stiffing bartenders at Boston’s prestigious purveyors of fine spirits, I doubt he would even notice if he had to pay twice as much for his filet mignon. Maybe that’s because his wife Teresa Heinz, she of the Heinz ketchup empire, is picking up the tab. Even Obama appears unconcerned about catastrophic sea level rise at his Martha’s Vineyard estate. But I digress. The point is Johnny, Charlie, Barry, and that dork Billy will continue to jet around the globe, maintain multiple residences, and eat whatever the hell they want while they impose restrictions on the rest of us. You know, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Yeah, “those” people. So what they’re basically telling us is: “Let them eat cake.” And you know how that worked out for Marie. 

HuffPo Indigestion

 Reading HuffPo at lunch today I was astounded by the comments after an article reporting on the House moving toward impeachment proceedings against Biden. Lots of attacking Trump, Republicans in general, and constant cries of “they have nothing” for evidence of wrongdoing. Not one mention of the two-year slog through the Russia collusion hoax. One comment went so far as to defend a Hunter-to-Joe money exchange as a car repayment. What car?  And why was the money drawn from a shell company account that received direct payments from the CCP?  What do all these companies produce?  Why is the entire Biden family receiving money while not providing any products or services? Any banker will tell you that money exchanges of this magnitude immediately raise the concern that money laundering is taking place. The entire fandango stinks to high heaven but not a single democrat raises even a skeptable eyebrow. Goings on oh so scary.

Times Are A Changing

No question that times have changed since the days of “it’s the economy, stupid.” The Democrat Party is overrun with single-issue voters…..not necessarily a bad thing when that issue is crucial to sustaining the republic ……but it’s the activist and social warrior arms of the party whose issues are all related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, supercharged to encompass abortion as an extension of women’s rights, unencumbered immigration posing as equity for people of color, defunding the police as some form of racial equity allowing lawlessness, the abolition of meritocracy in favor of racial quotas, and wealth redistribution. And now we can add a ceasefire in the Palestinian conflict into the mix. How can the economy and national security take a backseat to social issues?  One would have to suspect that for the 50% of the electorate that favors Democrat party policy, they are living comfortably enough on the government dole, be it jobs in the public sector or outright welfare, that the private sector economy has no importance in their lives. The government continues to grow, the unions are seeing a resurgence, particularly in the auto industry, and the welfare state continues to expand with hoards of illegal immigrants added to their ranks. The private sector is under siege by the left as they progressively move towards a Marxist brand of socialism. Distracting their voting base with social issues, the left is insidiously gaining more control over an increasingly dependent populace, simultaneously harnessing our economic engine to feed their growing welfare state and government expansion.  Is it sustainable?  Of course not.  Again, we must recall Thatcher’s prescient warning:  “The problem with socialism is you eventually run out of other people’s  money.” 

DeSantis vs Newsome

Interesting that in the Apple Newsfeed this morning the only mention of the DeSantis v Newsome debate was a report from a publication called Cal Matters. Gee, I wonder if they’re at all biased.  Naturally, they stated early on that Newsome predicted it would be a “two-on-one pile on ……teaming up to make their liberal foe look bad” and “in the end he wasn’t wrong.”  They accused Hannity of framing the questions by highlighting what he believed was wrong with California. Really. So topics like failing public schools, out-of-control crime, a population exodus, homelessness, and unchecked immigration with their sanctuary state policies should have been ignored?  These are policies that Newsome wants to export to the rest of the country, topics that concern the American voter and should form the backbone of any presidential campaign. Perhaps the only topics Newsome wanted to cover were related to LGBTQ rights, abortion, and climate change, hoping to receive the typical softball questions that the leftist media lobs at their favored candidates. And deny it all you want, Newsome is setting himself up as the heir apparent. Maybe to come off the bench if necessary in this election cycle but surely as the democratic nominee in 2028. And isn’t it ironic that the liberal media accuses Hannity of bias for asking the tough questions and engaging in partisanship after the Republicans have repeatedly been subjected to mainstream media-sponsored debates that have seen the liberal moderators actually participate in the attack on conservative candidates? The debate was framed as a battle between the policies of a conservative versus a progressive state governor and that’s precisely what we got. DeSantis was well prepared and appeared to have been underestimated by Newsome, who resorted to denying statistics, spinning the data, dodging the questions, and outright lying. He appeared shallow and lacking substance, yet another shill for Biden’s progressive policies. And like it or not, this is the first debate we have seen in the last two two election cycles that has actually pitted conservative against progressive policy. The Republican debates this year have been nothing more than a sideshow with the main event, Mr. Trump, refusing to participate. We have been left with the remaining field bickering over degrees of separation on policies with which there is some consensus. The leftist media sits back and feasts on the carnage that has been reduced to the obvious personal animus between Haley and Ramaswamy, the vitriol spewed against Trump from the windbag Christie, and a preposterous speculation about whether DeSantis is wearing lifts in his cowboy boots. Irrelevant noise, all of it. What we actually saw last night was the only opportunity the American public is going to get to see a debate between potential presidential candidates, DeSantis running in this cycle and Newsome queuing up for the next. But most importantly we are seeing two candidates who are not cognitively impaired and should be able to articulate their positions. If you think the Democrats intend to roll out Joe Biden for an hour of gaffs, smirks, guffaws, and cringe-worthy malprops against any conservative nominee, you’ve got another thing coming. It’s not worth the risk. Trump will eat him alive. On the contrary, they will sequester Biden in his basement once again and rely on yet another wave of Trump derangement syndrome, media compliance, perhaps a pandemic scare, a deluge of unverified mail-in ballots and unsecured drop boxes. And why not, it worked last time. Face it, DeSantis took all the risk last night and emerged the clear winner. Yes, it was contentious and at times unruly, but finally in the light of day failed liberal policies were laid bare for all to see. Kudos to Hannity for hosting the event and arriving prepared. Congratulations to DeSantis for representing conservative values and comporting himself well. He was on top of his game, feisty, and combative but backed up with facts, figures, and most importantly: results. Newsome was……well, Newsome. Hollywood on display, full of swagger, cockiness, and camera ready with a hint of swarmy. He appeared on his heels for much of the night, overwhelmed by facts and figures, and mostly in denial. Not a good look. He has plenty of time to recover before 2028 but he did no good service to his party in this presidential election cycle.

Speaking Of the Absurd

I was listening to NPR praising a congressional plan to not just gerrymander districts but to allow more than one representative to be appointed that will be representative of the racial makeup of the district. They call it “proportional representation.” Even more disturbing is the fact that a Republican is championing the cause and is concerned that he won’t garner support from his conservative colleagues. What? So every racial group gets their own representative? Does this mean that in Chicago, or Baltimore perhaps, the city will carve out positions to represent conservative white males? I don’t think so. It’s preposterous, it’s unconstitutional, and it is not even close to being representative of a democracy. How many ways can they think of to divide us?

An insatiable Appetite For Control

While I’m on a government intrusion rant: have you seen the latest proposal by our government officials to require vehicles to have installed erratic driving software that will move the car to the shoulder and shut down the vehicle should the computer decide that the operator is driving in an unsafe manner?  Well-intentioned as it may be to prevent drunk driving, how does this system take into account chronic drunks with passable motor skills who don’t drive erratically but have impaired reflexes sufficient to be unable to avoid collision?  And how is the computer to differentiate between erratic driving and a deft maneuver to avoid a squirrel?  I don’t know about you, but given the choice between being disabled indefinitely on the side of the road, where I’m sure my turncoat car will rat me out to the authorities, and likely my insurance company as well, versus flattening the poor squirrel, I’m sorry to say PETA, but that squirrel is toast. And who exactly is the arbiter that determines what is considered erratic driving anyway? And don’t tell me it’s AI.  As the internet reports: I think we should leave artificial intelligence alone until we’ve figured out how to manage natural stupidity. Does it consider swerving, dodging animals, or potholes? How about accelerating too fast in your Italian sportscar or slamming on the brakes to avoid the aforementioned critters or maybe to avoid another speed trap sprung on you by uniformed government employees using equipment purchased with your tax dollars to squeeze even more revenue out of the driving public?  Government is suddenly everywhere, feeling cocky after their Covid lockdown success. And now they’re intent on taking it one step further, by suggesting we install governors on our cars to prevent us from exceeding the posted speed limit. I think they’re going to rely on that foolproof GPS technology for this one. You know, the technology that often isn’t kept up to date on speed limits or road construction and tells you to take the next left onto a snowmobile trail so you can “navigate off-road.”  Sure, that will work. And sign me up to purchase that 500 HP sports car so I can accelerate as fast as humanly possible to reach the preposterously posted 35 mph on that four-lane divided highway stretch of Route 2 outside of Hartford. Might as well take the Prius. Or just shoot me. And they’re even proposing the “15-minute city”. Where everything you could possibly need; work, groceries, the gym, and leisure activities, is located no more than a 15-minute walk from your government-sanctioned cubicle. I assume these people have seen Blade Runner, haven’t they? But buried in this concept is your access to your own personal vehicle which will be programmed to limit your excursions to that 15-minute radius, thus keeping the climate change folks happy and simultaneously keeping John Kerry’s favorite beaches all over the world less crowded so he can kite-surf unimpeded by you and your snotty children. So when they say they’re coming for your filthy internal combustion vehicle to save the planet, don’t believe them. What they’re coming for is control.

The Case Of Baby Indi

Government intrusion and overreach have always been a concern of ours and there has been no greater example of where we’re headed than the recent case of baby Indi Gregory in the UK. It is fascinating that when it comes to abortion rights, the left seemingly has unlimited latitude in granting a woman’s “right to choose” to terminate her pregnancy at any time and for any reason. Further, they want the taxpayer to foot the bill for services rendered. And yet when it comes to treatment to extend life, to grant access to experimental treatments, the so-called “right to try”, the government chooses to exert control over not just the payment, but over the access to the treatment altogether. Such is the case of baby Indi. For those of you not familiar with the case, I will provide a short synopsis as reported in the WSJ: 8-month-old baby Indi, was tragically born with a rare genetic disorder and even more tragically was born in the UK where the National Health Service administers their brand of socialized medicine to the public. The NHS determined that there was nothing more they could do for the child and elected to remove her from life support. The parents objected and sought relief from the courts who sided with the NHS and ordered the child moved to hospice care. The parents sought medical second opinions, eventually finding a children’s hospital in Italy that specialized in pediatric genetic disorders and determined that there existed a treatment plan that could extend the child’s life. The Vatican-affiliated hospital offered the treatment free of charge and even made baby Indi an Italian citizen to facilitate a transfer.  But again, the NHS intervened and determined that it was in the best interest of baby Indi to die in the UK. The courts agreed yet again. Not only was the child transferred to hospice care, but she was moved under police escort just in case the parents tried to pull a fast one. With life support withheld, the parents stood by helplessly and watched the child die two days later. So in analysis, one can understand that the NHS, socialized medicine by any other name, determined that it was not cost-effective to continue to treat the child. A roomful of accountants in cubicles essentially reduces the lives of you and your loved ones to a spreadsheet where they balance the cost of saving a child’s life with what they deem a more beneficial application of those funds to, for example, drug abuse programs, abortions, and the treatment of preventable diseases like emphysema in chronic smokers and cirrhosis in alcoholics. Not to mention all of Gen Z who apparently require funding for their anti-depression medication. And in this age of equality, you all must wait your turn, whether you’ve paid exorbitant taxes into the system your entire working life or have suckled at the government teat as a welfare recipient since birth. Just a cog in the wheel. I wonder how this would have turned out if it was the child of a member of Parliament.  But I digress. If cost analysis was the only reason for denying care, then why did the government intervene and deny the parents the option to seek care elsewhere? Control has to be the answer. Was it a concern that the child would still require long-term care if her life was extended and she returned to Britain? Or was the government sending a message: do what you’re told and don’t question us, comrade? I suspect the latter. Recall back in the Obama years, you know those halcyon days of fundamentally changing America, the days when Obamacare was to be the stepping stone to socialized medicine, when if you liked your doctors you could keep them, when the average family would save $2000 a year on healthcare.   Yeah, that's nonsense. When Medicare for all became the rallying cry for the left when our own politicians would be exempt and continue to receive a privately administered, superior level of healthcare to that of their constituents. Remind me how has that worked out for you. Once again, the government exerts control over you while the elite political class basks in privilege. You know who they are, the ruling class of oligarchs who recently paid $40000 for the privilege of rubbing elbows with the authors of progressive policy and bending a knee to the dictator who rules communist China. Putting themselves in good stead for the new world order. And part of their ploy is to assume the public has no memory, an inability to remember broken promises, and a way of life consistent with the original constitutional premise of limited government. Again, I ask you to recall when Republicans were mocked and ridiculed for suggesting that socialized medicine would result in “death panels” that would decide our fate. And like all the failures of the progressive left here it is in the case of Indi, laid bare for all to see despite their denials. A child is given a death sentence by the government that’s supposed to protect her. Lastly one more recollection: reference Saul Alinsky, he of the “rules for radicals” playbook. In another treatise, he put forth the eight steps for converting from a democracy to a socialist society. Amongst them: “Control healthcare and you control the people.”  Americans aren’t there yet, but we sure appear to be taking the exit, driven there by leftist socialist policies that continue to erode our freedoms and eat away at the core of our democracy.

Democrats Are Delusional

I grow weary of the Democrats claiming the Tuesday election results were a mandate for Joe Biden’s misguided policies. Democrats, the party of no personal responsibility: baby killing as a form of contraception and free handouts. I’m rapidly reaching the point where I don’t care what these progressive liberals do with their lives…..so don’t work, kill your unborn, smoke your weight in weed, shoot heroin, men posing as women and women posing as men. So be it, I don’t care. I just don’t think I should have to pay for somebody else’s transgressions. Further, know my kind shouldn’t be ostracized or even criticized for being conservative. When did that become a bad thing?  You’re the party that’s seeking fundamental change to traditional morals, ethics, and common sense. And, I deeply resent the complicit media making it appear that these issues are divided into right and wrong when in fact it is often a matter of opinion. You have every right to think what you like but I don’t have to be party to your delusions. You may cast ethics aside and try to convince me that a developing fetus is just a bundle of cells at 25 weeks when the scientific evidence leads anyone with a functioning cortex to see that it clearly is not. You may claim that the border is closed when it is glaringly open, that the Ukraine/Russian and Israeli/Hamas wars are being deftly appraised by our peerless leader and his minions. I don’t believe any of it. And not the government propagandists or the mainstream media are going to convince me otherwise.

Handwriting On The Wall

Look at Virginia. The GOP campaigned on crime, public safety, the economy and a compromise on abortion with restrictions at 15 weeks with exclusions for rape and incest, a compromise that pundits keep telling us is consistent with what the majority of Americans want. But all the voters heard was the word “restrictions” and the democrats once again posted historic wins against the odds, taking control of the state legislature in both houses, effectively blunting Governor Youngkin’s conservative agenda. Sound familiar? Republicans need to understand that the abortion issue is a loser. Did you hear me?  A loser. Americans have been radicalized, secularized, and dumbed down to accept simplistic bumper sticker solutions to complex issues. And our youth, perhaps the worst educated generation of simpletons ever created, is rabid in their understanding that terminating a developing baby is nothing more than a “right to choose.”  It’s just a bundle of cells. Uh-huh. Not at 24 weeks, you idiots. Look at Ohio actually enshrining abortion into their state constitution. How ridiculous. Coincidentally they also voted to legalize recreational marijuana giving us yet another glimpse into the leftist mindset: it’s all about sex with no consequences and access to mind-altering drugs. This stuff ain’t your daddy’s weed. And then we wonder why 71% of youth aged 19-25 are unfit for military service. Duh. America is in a tailspin from which we cannot possibly recover. The Marxists are winning and the majority of the electorate is too dull to anticipate the consequences. Public schools run by the radical teachers union, gender confusion, race-based selection replacing meritocracy, legalized drugs, defunding police, revolving door law enforcement, open borders, and the progressive destruction of voting integrity with mail-in ballots, drop boxes, same-day registration, and elimination of voter verification all contributing to the chaos whittling away at the fabric of our nation. Note to Republicans: abandon the abortion issue and embrace the sophomoric concept of libertarianism as it applies to the uterus…..do whatever the hell you want as long as it doesn’t affect me. Allow them to cull their own. Meanwhile continue to focus on fiscal responsibility, military preparedness, the economy, and world affairs, you know, all the adult policies where the Biden Administration has shown itself to be completely incompetent. Perhaps it will resonate. But we are evolving into a starkly divided country, the kind that cannot “coexist”, despite all the lefties with their Priuses proclaiming it on their bumpers. They actually mean coexist only if you agree with me. There is no compromise. The left keeps telling us.  But the Republicans aren’t listening. 

Healthcare

I'm at that age when the quality of healthcare is in question I take notice.

For instance, an article appeared in my newsfeed talking about burnout in the medical professions reporting that nearly 25% of medical students are considering dropping out or working in an area that doesn’t require patient contact.  Similar stats in nursing. It shouldn't come as a surprise, what did we expect? Lawyers, the government, and the insurance industry have conspired to make the profession unrewarding, requiring more documentation, more continuing education requirements, more licensing fees, higher malpractice premiums, an increased workload, and a steadily decreasing amount of reimbursement with the constant looming threat of government-run healthcare. The three tenets of any job desirability are being tested:  1: Security is still present to a degree, albeit with onerous requirements to maintain your practice lest you succumb to malpractice, OSHA, or just mind-numbing documentation after seeing hundreds of patients a week. 2: Recognition still exists,  but the amount of respect healthcare workers receive from patients is steadily in decline, largely due to their bristling at the requirement for cover-your-ass medicine resulting in the experience becoming less personal. Further, assembly line practice is necessary to compensate for lower reimbursement from the insurance industry and government plans, making the appointment more of a business transaction. Lastly, 3: Reward has probably been the most affected. Given the cost of education and the time involved in receiving training, the compensation has failed to keep up with the negative impact the profession has on lifestyle. Government intrusion into healthcare and increased insurance penetration into the market have adversely affected reimbursement. Lower gross receipts, coupled with the requirement for a larger staff to cope with unwieldy paperwork,  and skyrocketing overhead contributes to less take-home pay, a situation that has resulted in many physicians choosing to migrate to associate positions, large group practices, or hospital staff positions where they can work regular hours and get a check, forgoing involvement in the business aspect of medicine. The price they pay is a trade-off: lower salary but an improvement in time constraints. This has been a trend, particularly with women accounting for an ever larger percentage of medical and dental graduates. Even with the introduction of PAs and NPs to augment the practice of medicine, the availability of a healthcare practitioner to treat our aging population is increasingly becoming problematic, particularly in rural locales. The choices will be stark: lower standards to cast a wider net, subsidize medical education, or the most unlikely, an increase in reimbursement. With the insurance industry and the trial lawyers engaging in significant lobbying efforts in Congress and the mere fact that our lawmakers are often attorneys, it is unlikely that we will ever see tort reform or legislation that will improve reimbursement at the expense of corporate profits. And the public is yet to acquiesce to increasing funding for government-run healthcare or anything that resembles “Medicare for all” but the prospect of socialized medicine is surely not going to drive an increase in medical school applications. Sure, just hand the government control of another fifth of the economy while simultaneously giving them control over our health. What could go wrong? So there you have it, the proverbial impasse. However, the short-term consequences will be a steady decline in the availability of healthcare and a reduction in the quality of that care. We shall see how the public reacts when we reach a tipping point. 

How Did This Happen

Have we actually acquired a stand-up conservative, politically adept speaker of the House? In the past, it always appeared that the Democrats held the line and forced the Republicans to compromise allowing them to feign bipartisanship. Can it be Representative Mike Johnson may be just the one to turn the tide and for once present a unified conservative front? The Turtle “ McConnell over in the Senate has already registered concern along with Schumer whining the need to “reach across the aisle”, warms the cockles of my heart. I just hope Speaker Johnson drives them crazy and the Republicans for once, in unison rally behind him.

Financial Ruin

Is it the Biden plan to just bankrupt us, it certainly seems that way. Strassel’s column in Friday’s WSJ  outlines the massive amount of pork offered up in Biden’s latest “supplemental appropriation request” for “emergency” spending. The Progressives are on a spending spree like no other. And with Ukraine and the Middle East dominating the expenditures, it’s interesting to note that no money has been set aside for our domestic crises, like East Palestine, Ohio, or Lahaina, Hawaii. And, illegal immigrants continue to command a living wage and require healthcare services having never worked or paid taxes in this country. Meanwhile, our military budget remains on the chopping block while the world burns and we continue to delude ourselves into thinking that we can still be the global policeman. Either the American public wakes up to this ruse or by the time we realize we are a nation in decline, our very survival being in question, impotent to deal with international crises, it will be too late.

Lewiston

As expected all the ante-gun liberals are queuing up to once again demonize “assault weapons” as opposed to analyzing the perpetrator’s state of mind. Masking the government's massive failure to keep firearms out of the hands of the mentally deranged. In this age of data mining, when your spending habits, interests, financials, and even your travel are being tracked, monitored, and stored, you mean to tell me that this mentally impaired individual’s two-week stay in a mental hospital couldn’t have triggered law enforcement to limit his access to firearms?  It’s one thing to have been prescribed medication for depression, but a lengthy stay in a mental health facility is quite another. What an epic failure of the government to access readily available data and use technology to protect, rather than harass the public. 

NPR

I was listening to NPR again…..I know, it’s self-flagellation…… but this time I was actually looking for entertainment rather than hypertension. The weekend “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” segment hosted by Peter Sagal is a current events trivia game show that is generally amusing in that supercilious, urban, over-educated, trendy, elitist sort of way that progressives tend to project. Sure the show leans liberal…..okay, more like hurls itself to the left, but the panel is generally well-read, quick-witted, and Sagal is more than proficient at snarky commentary, enabling me to overlook their stereotypical liberal superiority complex. Almost. Last weekend’s episode made me cringe. The panel was selected out of the DEI handbook consisting of a liberal college-educated female, a person of color, and a representative of the alphabet soup brigade, you know the one that never fails to remind everyone as to their sexual orientation. Like we care. Wonder how that panel votes. But the barbs directed at the Republicans' inability to select a speaker of the house began early and were repeated often. With a compliant audience that would likely poll farther left than Hillary, the panel wallowed in their accolades, and like good little Pavlovian puppies they directed their lefty snark at the conservatives in Congress. Guffaw and chortle, aren’t we so clever? But wait a minute. The Republicans may be forming their typical circular firing squad, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, and generally displaying a lack of unity and infighting for which they are infamous, thus providing comic material for the demagogues on the left, but at the same time members of the “Squad”, particularly Tlaib, Omar, and AOC have taken to the streets to preach their particular brand of anti-semitism and support for Hamas. You know those good-hearted freedom fighters that just murdered some 1300 Israeli citizens, men, women, and children, in a most barbarous fashion. They then mutilated the bodies and even paraded one woman’s half-naked corpse through the streets of Gaza like a trophy where she was spat upon. Nice. Where’s the witty commentary on those current events, panel?  Or do we just chortle over our glass of Pinot when we select only the low-hanging fruit from one side of the aisle to ridicule?  Get your own house in order. Heckle us all you want, lefties, but I’d rather have my side dither over an appropriate selection for the seat third in line for the presidency than listen to another anti-Semitic diatribe from a thoroughly repulsive member of Congress, including one who steadfastly rejects assimilation into our culture and identifies with her middle eastern roots by flying a foreign flag in our halls of congress. The flag representing a people who chose to vote for terrorists to represent them. You saw how that worked out for you heathens. And how about Joe Biden stumbling through his response to the incursion? I support Israeli, or a cease-fire, or maybe we’ll talk when we get the hostages back. What?  And where has Kamala been? Surely she’s good for a few laughs when she responds to a crisis. But no. As the party in power, having aided the terrorists with repeated cash infusions continues to project incompetence as we lurch towards a global conflict, Sagal and company can find no other source of humor than the Republicans. Surely you jest. 

Jewish Mystic

I remain perplexed by the Jewish community’s politics. Witness the occupation of the capital rotunda by Jews calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. When dealing with animals, the only thing they respond to is the projection of power. Giving them a pass on this recent atrocity only guarantees that you will get another. Breitbart recently interviewed a staunch supporter of the Jewish state who opined that Jews in this country tend to be city dwellers, and are increasingly secular or so-called “non-practicing” Jews, two categories that tend towards liberalism, particularly when it comes down to progressive social issues. It would therefore appear that support of liberal social causes is more important than financial stability, business climate, or even traditional family values all qualities that the Jewish community would seem to embrace. We all recognize that the citizens of Gaza are not all Hamas. But unfortunately, the citizens of Gaza overwhelmingly voted them into power when they had an opportunity to elect a more moderate alternative. A party, if you would call them that, that plainly makes their platform a campaign of terror to eradicate the Jewish people is not a government with whom you negotiate, and it certainly makes the Palestinians complicit in the misery that is yet to come. 

The Taiwanese-Iranian Straw

I realize that we are polarized, but can’t fathom that anyone thinks this Biden administration has our mounting crises under control. A disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, a porous southern border, rampant crime, lowest rate of labor participation, military unable to meet enlistment quotas, inflation, loss of energy independence, staggering national debt, depleted strategic oil reserve and military munitions, navy ships, serviceable military aircraft, being a reality. Yet here we are funding two wars and sending money to terrorist regimes. What’s it going to take for the American public to realize the potential invasion of Taiwan by the Chinese and or an expanded war in the Middle East could very well deplete our resources and resolve, be the straw that breaks our back? How can that not be in the minds of our enemies?

Olympics Defamed

Flag football in the Olympics?  How ridiculous. What’s next, frisbee, stickball, kick-the-can, perhaps?  Oh, but the US has the best flag football team in the world. Well of course they do because nobody else cares to play it. It’s time we returned to traditional Olympic sports of running, jumping, and throwing things. I know the international committee on Lawn Darts will probably protest. And hasn’t the US seeded the Olympics with enough of our homegrown sports?  Basketball, volleyball, beach volleyball, softball, and even baseball. It’s like we have to keep inventing games that we’re good at. Until the rest of the world catches on and we have to invent new ones. Like flag football. Enough already. Instead of everybody gets a medal, the Olympics is fast becoming everybody gets a sport. 

Teetering On The Brink

Never underestimate the stupidity of third-world primitives whose medieval religious fervor is so easily whipped up by their overlords, the puppet masters living in splendor far from the battlefield. Any excuse for jihad? A documented missile misfire by Islamic jihad, confirmed by intercepted communications and video, blows up a hospital but is spun to make Israel the culprit. NPR and some of our Democrat elected officials still claim that the evidence hasn’t been substantiated and stand by the Hamas’ propaganda, further inflaming tensions in the region. And the result: attacks on the American embassy in Beirut whilst Palestinian authority leaders and the Jordanian president snub the feckless American President Joe Biden. Who incidentally brought New York Governor Kathy Hochul along for the ride. Perhaps Kamala wasn’t available for the role of phenomenally vacuous female sidekick. But I digress: Our response will predictably be to pour more money into the conflict, money we don’t have, meaning we either borrow it or print it. Two distasteful options for our economic well-being. Meanwhile, China is allowed to comfortably sit back and make measured strategic moves that will benefit them on the world stage, using Russia and Iran as proxies to deplete our wealth and military stockpiles with their eye on the prize: Taiwan and replacing the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Alas, the US can’t continue to operate as the global policeman and a piggy bank for global conflicts. Not without planning for the future in an increasingly dangerous world. Step one: China cannot continue to benefit from US technology and innovation. Our yielding chip manufacturing, pharmaceutical production, battery technology, and LED technology are glaring examples. We need to bring manufacturing home, reclaim the pharmaceutical industry, and bolster our own economy. That may also require making work a far more attractive alternative for the non-productive members of our society suckling at the government teat by eliminating our generous social programs that enable sloth. Step Two: We also need to return to a state of energy independence. Importing oil from hostile state polluters who can’t extract energy as cleanly and efficiently as we do is a ridiculous policy that sends more capital to the bad actors in the Middle East, South America, and Russia who seek to do us harm. 17 days left in the strategic oil reserve is not strategic at all. It’s self-defeating. And step three: Stop appeasing Iran. When they say they want to annihilate Israel and destroy the Great Satan, perhaps we should take them at their word. Return to punitive sanctions and choke their economy. Their population has increasingly become restless and daring in their protests against the regime, but as long as we continue to release billions to the mullahs, their stranglehold over the people will increase and their ability to fund the quest for a nuclear weapon will continue in earnest. We can’t rely on Israel alone to prevent that impending catastrophe. Step four:  replenish our depleted munitions. The war in Ukraine is draining our munitions stockpiles faster than we can produce them. And with promises to send more munitions to Israel will further deniers our reserves. If China moves on Taiwan, we have insufficient munitions to support a sustained conflict. What happened to America’s manufacturing might?  And lastly step five:  let’s get our own house in order. We are led, or at least purported to be led by a noticeably impaired president who stumbles and mumbles his way through scripted appearances that hardly instill confidence in the American public and certainly don’t instill fear in our enemies. And the B team, be it Kirby, Kamala, Austin, or Sullivan, aren’t much better, all excuses for their ineptitude provided by the outrageously empty suit, but historic box checker,  KJP, an embarrassing Kewpie doll without any ability to think on her feet. Her nickname “The Binder” is so apropos. This entire administration has to go. And stop smirking, Republicans. Your house is in similar disarray. We are facing an unprecedented world crisis on the heels of our disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, facing the prospect of yet another military quagmire in the Middle East and you idiots are quibbling over who to elect as speaker of the house, showing the democrats once again in lockstep but you, with a slim majority, unable to form a consensus. Why would anyone consider returning you dopes to power? Nice move Matt to introduce chaos with no follow-up plan. Another useless idiot. Nancy Pelosi may have been the devil in a pantsuit, but you gotta hand it to her, she got the job done and brought her detractors to heel. Don’t let her make a curtain call. And speaking of repeat performances: let’s not make the same mistakes we made in Afghanistan. The world is watching. And the stakes are getting higher. 

Perpetrating Ethnic Hatred

The Democrats are really pushing the envelope with their unwavering support for the “Squad”, expressing their solidarity with Hamas in the wake of this barbaric attack on Israeli citizens and, as it turns out, some unfortunate Americans caught in the violence as well. Never underestimate the cohesion of “the party” even when faced with unpopular opinions in their ranks. The message: we will support you no matter what, but we expect your allegiance to the cause when the votes are counted. It’s like a blood oath. The Republicans surely would have been called to oust the reprobates immediately. After prominently displaying a Palestinian flag outside her congressional office Talib was supported by a fellow congressman who rationalized the display by stating that  “she is Palestinian” and he explained that he flies a Danish flag “at his home.”  Moron. You can fly whatever the hell you want at your personal residence but when you represent the United States of America, there’s only one flag you fly. So where do we draw the line?  Ukraine flags? Taiwanese flags?  How about the Chinese flag? Russia?  Iran?Maybe the Nazi flag?  Why not, that symbol appeared at a pro-Palestinian rally in New York. And based on the protests in support of the Palestinians springing up on college campuses, it appears that anti-semitism is back in style. And enough of this I’m Danish, she’s Palestinian nonsense. You serve in Congress. You may be of Palestinian descent, but when the bullets fly, you better damn well be an American first. If you’re having trouble with your allegiance, I have a ticket to Gaza for you. And that goes for the raging anti-Semite Omar as well. Zip it, sweet cakes. I’m sure your opinion would be valued in the streets of Mogadishu. So the democrat playbook, coincidentally spawned by none other than Saul Alinsky, calls for further division, separating us into tribes that attack one another and sow discord, ultimately undermining the Republic. We cannot unite as a country against evil perpetrated by those who wish to harm not only America but who also choose to attack humanity and all that is civilized. The Palestinian people will suffer for this incursion, but it is they who allowed it by voting a terrorist organization into power and allowing them to speak for themselves. The civilians who died in the inferno that was the bombing of Dresden, those who lost their lives in Hiroshima, paid a similar price for supporting murderous regimes that committed unspeakable atrocities. The Palestinian people have been misled and misrepresented for decades by terror organizations and charlatans who placed violence, ethnic hatred, and perpetuating conflict for their own self-aggrandizement above the needs of their own people. May the voices of reason rise up to right this wrong and prevent history from repeating itself. 

I am Distraught

Just looking at the headlines on the Apple News feed makes you want to barf. “older trans people fear for their future in red states”. Really?  Newsflash: conservatives don’t give a fig about your mental illness. Keep it to yourself and don’t subject my children to your perversion. Nobody’s coming for you. Nobody cares. And the Pope: “Slams Western lifestyle and climate skeptics: the world is collapsing”.  Please. If it’s so bad out there how about you open the Vatican doors to house all these climate refugees?  Maybe spend a little Vatican fortune on the poor, perhaps?  Socialist hypocrisy in Prada slippers at its finest. How about NBC News: “I’d vote for Biden if he were dead: PA voters react to Trump-Biden rematch”.  Sure, let’s take political advice from the cretins that bought Fetterman’s common man narrative and voted a mental defective into office, the man responsible for hoodies and gym shorts on the Senate floor. Classy. And a Biden corpse in office might be less damaging to the Republic than the empty suit that’s currently ensconced in the Oval Office. And surely it would be a better choice than Kamala. 

UAW Irony

Isn’t it ironic that UAW leader Shawn Fain railed against Trump in a recent speech saying: “every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriched people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers. We can’t keep electing billionaires and millionaires that don’t have any understanding of what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to get by and expecting them to solve the problems of the working class.”  Either he is hilariously tone-deaf as to the political climate that has brought about this strike or he is getting greased by the democrat machine. Wonder which. Newsflash Shawn: Biden is that segment of the millionaire class who doesn’t understand the problems of the working class and his party hasn’t for decades. And come on, man we know what this strike is all about. As the automotive industry struggles to transition to Electric Vehicles to satisfy government-imposed mandates, they will be forced to modify their plants, move operations, and perhaps lay off workers to remain profitable. And EVs require less labor to manufacture than IC vehicles. The handwriting is on the wall and surprisingly, you cretins can read it. So Shawn wants to essentially reduce the number of hours worked as well as increase salaries and benefits while guaranteeing union workers will have a job. Sweet. To anyone with a functioning cortex, those parameters would appear to be untenable for a business to survive in this increasingly green environment. How exactly is that business going to increase overhead, and guarantee employment to produce a product that requires fewer workers and is currently operating at a loss? Yes, the big three are losing roughly $60000 per EV sold, with Ford recording a 700 million dollar loss in its Ford e division in the first quarter of 2023, hardly a recipe for financial viability in a marketplace where they are competing against non-union shops and foreign competition. So when NPR broadcast a story about a woebegone auto worker forced to choose between staying in Detroit and becoming unemployed versus moving to a plant five hours away to keep her job, criticizing the automaker for not retooling her local factory so that she could remain in Detroit, they show inexcusable ignorance of how business actually works. An industry that is moving towards a smaller workforce to build government-mandated EVs and forced to consolidate resources should not be spending billions to retool a local plant to satisfy workers’ geographic preferences any more than companies that have moved overseas to escape corporate taxes, union demands, and inflated wages should be obliged to move back to America. Their first responsibility is to the shareholders, and to do that, they must remain financially viable and relevant in the marketplace. Sure, treat your workers well but you must produce a superior product and offer it at a competitive price. But the big three are failing on both counts. Their product is of inferior quality and the price tag is too high. And the reason for that is government. Government mandates, government emission standards, a high corporate tax rate, OSHA standards, disability insurance requirements, minimum wage increases, raging inflation, and the Democrats’ unrelenting support of union labor’s demands are all making America a difficult place to do business. All working in concert to make the American automobile industry unable to compete against non-union competition and foreign imports who are beating us on quality, value, or both. And if millionaires are at fault then look no further than Joe Biden and his administration’s policies. More than 45 years in public office having never worked in the private sector and yet Fain suggests he has insight into the working class. Blame Trump all you want, but he got one thing right: he predicted the demise of the American auto industry if “crooked Joe Biden’s crazed concept of all-electric cars goes into effect.” How will that benefit the “problems of the working class” autoworkers?

Appearance compromised

The demise of the formality of the tie, then the suit and jacket as we slide into a perpetual casual Friday malaise in the workplace. And now we have the announcement that the Senate, no less will abandon its dress code, a move that most suggest is an accommodation to the hopelessly impaired, freshman Senator Fetterman. Impaired mentally and sartorial challenged as well. Hoodies and gym shorts on the floor of Congress?  Who better to serve as a poster child for America’s descent into a distorted abandonment of tradition and decorum, embracing an appearance purposely contrary to your station, perception over reality? Fetterman is no more a common man of the people as is “Scranton” Joe Biden, and the democrat voting base, obviously attuned to this subterfuge falls in lockstep.

UAW Piling On

It’s frustrating to see the media fawning over labor unions who are flexing their muscles in a tight labor market and making outrageous demands for increased salaries and benefits. Witness UPS workers holding that company hostage to secure a new contract. Of course, they cite the inflationary prices that are increasing the cost of living, effectively decreasing the value of the earned dollar, but they also point to the tight job market, a manufactured crisis aided by the government’s handicapped unemployment statistics, brought about by enabling able-bodied potential workers to sit on the sidelines and suckle from the government teat. And how naive of them to suspect that corporate CEOs and business owners will suddenly join the collective in a socialist epiphany and share their wealth and their businesses with the great unwashed who are demanding less work and more pay. Didn’t we learn anything in the last recession when UAW jobs were guaranteed so much so that when there was no work to do, they played checkers at the union hall and continued to draw a salary while the government bailed them out? That’s not smart business. That’s why Trump, no stranger to the art of the deal, has predicted the demise of the big three. And who loses?  The consumer of course. The taxpayer bailed out the automotive industry in the last recession and now the public will pay for increased wages and less productivity with a corresponding increase in the cost of their goods and services. And that will perpetuate the inflationary spiral. Duh. Did any of these media pundits take a course in economics? 

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

The clown show in New York City starring Mayor Eric Adams has been extraordinarily entertaining, with special guest Governor Kathy Hochul, and in a cameo appearance, the Biden Administration, all forming a circular firing squad blaming each other for failed policies on immigration. Credit Dan Henninger in the Wall Street Journal for pointing out this most welcome exercise most often performed to perfection by their Republican counterparts. But with nary a Republican in sight in this deep blue city, the Democrats have nobody else to blame except themselves.  Oh, the delicious irony. As has been widely documented, Mayor Eric Adams recently flew into a rant for the ages, supplanting Larry Elder for the left’s hilarious title of being “the black face of white supremacy.”  “This issue will destroy New York City”, he railed.  “We’re getting 10,000 migrants a month.  The city we knew, we’re about to lose.”  “We have to feed, clothe, house, educate their children, wash their laundry sheets, give them everything they need, health care.  One time, we were just getting Venezuela.  Now we’re getting Ecuador.  Now we’re getting Russian speaking coming through Mexico.  Now we’re getting western Africa.”  Poke me and tell me he didn’t just say that.  And without a local Republican to blame, he attempted to demonize Texas Governor Greg Abbott by claiming it all “started with a madman down in Texas, decided he wanted to bus people up to New York City.”  This hypocrisy came on the heels of Adams in concert with the hopelessly inept Governor Kathy Hochul attempting to spread New York City’s pain by busing migrants to small towns in upstate New York where local Republican leadership had been resistant.  They have gone so far as to ignore local leadership, cutting back-room deals with underutilized motels to house migrants while the New York City taxpayer foots the bill to move their problem elsewhere.  Interesting that Adams and other northern cities are quick to jump on the sanctuary city bandwagon and trumpet their liberal policies when the border is thousands of miles away, yet when the problem comes knocking at their door, they are equally as quick to adopt a “not in my backyard” mentality.  Adams even went so far as to point to the Statue of Liberty, where Emma Lazarus’ 1883 sonnet proclaims; “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”, as representing the American ideal, the New York City invitation for welcoming immigrants into the country……that is until they actually arrived.  How about those huddled masses camped out on your streets now, Eric?  And to blame Governor Abbott for your immigrant crisis is preposterous.  With over 1.6 million migrants pouring into Texas, Governor Abbott bused a paltry $13,300 to New York.  Meanwhile, $110,000 have shown up in the Big Apple, ostensible by other means than a Texas chartered bus, punching a $12 million dollar hole in the city’s budget, just after Adams awarded the city uniformed unions a $4 billion 5-year contract.  But apparently, this perfect storm was created by New York’s liberal policies and budgetary malfeasance.  When they decided to liberate mental health institutions and turn the mentally ill out into the streets with the claim that they could be managed with outpatient care, they put in place a safety net of sorts that allowed the homeless to benefit from guaranteed housing at the city’s expense.  Alas, it turned out the mentally ill were content to avoid those outpatient clinics and were free to exercise their mental illness-induced proclivities by living on the streets.  The migrants, however, preferred a roof over their heads and three squares a day, finding the perfect policies in place to grant them their golden ticket to life in America.  With a government-supplied cell phone, health care, room and board, and unable to become employed due to a mandatory waiting period before a work visa, could be issued they found themselves with a suddenly improved standard of living with a life of leisure on the taxpayer’s dime.  Now Adams is scrambling to somehow issue temporary work visas to expedite their path to employment.  And exactly what are they qualified to do, Mayor?  With the vast majority of the migrants possessing poor language skills and no education, the only available jobs will be unskilled labor, mostly in the service industry.  Meanwhile, with work-from-home policies still lingering, vacancies in commercial real estate remain at record highs and foot traffic has been drastically reduced in commercial sectors of the city.  Restaurants, hotels, and shops that catered to the commuters have experienced unprecedented hardship and many have failed.  Where exactly are these people going to find work?  Kathy Hochul has proven inept in responding to Adams’ requests for assistance, pandering to the federal government for aid and going so far as to blame the feds, stating: This crisis originated with the federal government.”  So in other words, the border policy by the Biden administration has been an unmitigated disaster.  Is that what you’re telling me, Kathy? In yet another moment of hilarity, Homeland Security Secretary Majorkas, he of the “border is closed” party line, retaliated by accusing the state of New York and the city of making “structural” migrant mistakes.  Adams has even accused the Biden administration directly by stating, “We need an emergency action down at the border.” Adams even turned on Hochul, criticizing her for not forcing upstate communities to share the burden by taking in migrants, putting the Governor in the peculiar position of having to institute a liberal policy in rural upstate New York where the cities along the thruway, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo, remain blue sanctuary city islands surrounded by a sea of deep red rural farmland.  And they are all suffering through the inner city decay and crime that is sweeping urban America, poorly positioned to take on a financially devastating migrant burden.  

 

So Republicans sit on the sidelines and gleefully watch the fallout.  And where is the mouthy Representative Ocasio-Cortez, recently back from her socialist tour of South America where a high percentage of these migrants originated?  So concerned is she with the quality of life in the city, so much so that she submarined an Amazon deal that would have brought high-paying jobs and increased tax revenue to the region, yet she appears unfazed by migrant detritus in the streets and a raging crime wave. Maybe they haven’t migrated into her Brooklyn district yet, and they most certainly are not sleeping in the foyer of her tony Georgetown apartment complex. When they do, perhaps she will get the NIMBY fever that has afflicted her formerly woke sanctuary city proponents. In the meantime, the result, unfortunately, will be disastrous for New York City and the state of New York, only adding to tax increases over and above the exorbitant rates already imposed, a reduced standard of living, and a continued exodus of working-class families.  All because of failed policies, partisan posturing and an inability to connect woke ideology with financial reality.

A Cry In The Wind

Admittedly of late, I'm besotted with vast left-wing conspiracy theories. The Democrats continue to bleat the Afghanistan withdrawal as a success, January 6th as an insurrection, Hunter and  Joe Biden as innocents, while our faltering economy, open borders, anarchy, the persecution of Donald Trump, and  China, Iran, and Russia as existential threats to world peace, as Republican aberrations. And, the media in the main, steadfastly either complaint or silent. What's become of us as we quake in the wrath of the amassing malcontents, criminals, and anarchists, seemingly impotent to stand our ground and say enough is enough? Has our once indomitable  spirit been so eroded in socialist indoctrination that we have lost sight of the virtues of our American heritage that allowed us to be all that we can be devoid of government oppression in the countenance of our 

Declaration of Independence and Constitution. We seem to be floundering in indecision, reeling between complacency and frustration, baffled as to what to do or not to do. Yes, I do grow weary of venting my well-worn diatribes, my angst that our country, our society is over. I just can't bring myself to believe it is over and go silently into the night. So, I rant on, even but a small cry in the wind.

The Reality Of It All

Sit back, turn on your TV, surf the news networks, and witness the crumbling of the Great American Experiment. Graphic scenes of smash-and-grab robberies, burning and looting, murder and mayhem, violation of our borders, dishonorable retreat from conflict, civil unrest at every pillar of our society, and a  corrupt government administration flaunting our constitution, rules, and regulations.  And in cameo, a preview of our eventual demise as a society in the ever-increasing list of our degenerate major cities: San Francisco, New York, Chicago, etc, etc. All this peaking in the advent of the post-2021 elections. Make no mistake the tipping point, the point of no return for our Republic looms large come the elections of 2024 if the Democrat Party reign prevails.

The Blue Northeast

It never ceases to amaze me, living immersed as I am in the deep blue Northeast when the great unwashed regale me with their take on the political parties and the partisan political landscape in general. On one hand, they lament the sorry state of contemporary American politics and often go so far as to compare our current crisis in government with the kind of corruption on display in autocratic socialist Latin American countries. You know, those third-world despots that rule over what we so often disparagingly refer to as banana republics. Those guys. Then, on the other hand, with me poised to expect a condemnation of the corrupt Biden family money-making enterprise operating at the top level of government, they take a sharp left turn off the obvious path and launch into parroting the mainstream media talking points that Donald Trump is destroying our democracy and seeks to control everything through corruption and collusion…… just like our Latin American neighbors to the south. Huh?  They continue: in their opinion, the Democrat Party has remained consistently true to their cause of supporting the working man, the middle class, and minorities, and President Biden represents those values and commitments and “means well.”  Uh-huh. The Republican Party, however, has morphed into the party of radical right-wing zealots, intent on destroying democracy, stripping us of our freedoms, and controlling the people of this nation in perpetuity. Wow. Where to start the rebuttal, as I stand mouth agape, mind racing, having just purchased a handful of groceries for $200, filled my tank at nearly 4 bucks a gallon, unable to find employees with an artificially enhanced unemployment report  paradoxically in a county with a third of the population collecting some form of government assistance, a wide open southern border streaming millions of unskilled welfare recipients into my country, having paid an ever increasing tax bill knowing only pennies are going to my fellow Americans in East Palestine, Ohio and Lahai, Hawaii while billions go to Ukraine and more tax dollars slated to forgive student loans to privileged gender studies majors from elite universities, public school education producing the lowest achievement scores in decades while they try to recover from absurd Covid restrictions yet are intent on supplanting essential studies with CRT and instilling gender confusion into young minds warped from the influence of social media and an epidemic of depression and anxiety, universities, medical schools and airline pilot training programs dropping the requirements for achievement-based admissions in favor of “lived experience ” and race-based quotas, commercial real estate teetering on the brink of collapse, having seen my regional bank downgraded and the local branch closing, the inner city vacant with failing businesses and empty office buildings after work from home policies decimated the foot traffic that supported those businesses and then liberal DAs with their bail reform, so called equitable application of the law, and defund the police policies turned a trip to the mall into a  potentially life threatening adventure in urban warfare, and my government using its legal powers to harrass and attempt to imprison the leading opposition candidate in a national election…….I snap back to reality as the liberals drone on. But I come to a realization: The democrat-controlled mainstream media has proven effective beyond their wildest dreams when their propaganda is unleashed on an unwitting public.

We Are About To Be Duped

Wait for it, this has gone beyond ridiculous. Hunter Biden is as guilty as sin of being the facilitator of the Biden family influence peddling scheme. And all of the President's men can not forestall the inevitable, his indictment. However, as I have predicted, in the final analysis, Hunter will fall on his sword in a perceived heroic attempt to exonerate his father, portraying him as an unwitting participant in his drug-induced criminology. And this horrific scandal that it is, an indelible stain on our nation's reputation will be mitigated in our national embarrassment; a loving father's valiant efforts to protect his drug-addled son from the harsh penalties of his crimes. And Joe, our intrepid 46th President will skate!

Manipulation

This appointment of a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden is a more cynical, corrupt manipulation of the law by the DOJ and the Biden Administration. Trump had his foibles, but keeping Merrick Garland off the Supreme Court may be one of his signature accomplishments. Credit also goes to Mitch McConnell on that one. What this counsel is effectively doing is kicking the can down the road, conveniently past the 2024 Presidential election.  If we can slow-walk the investigation long enough to keep it from being a campaign issue goes the strategy, we can then get Biden back in the White House and deal with the Hunter Biden issue later when we still control government. Hell, we can even pardon him if the investigation goes south. Cue the cackling in the smoke-filled back room as the deal is done. Further, while the investigation is ongoing, Biden can defer comment while on the campaign trail. Brilliant. And the gullible American public will eat up the headline: “DOJ Appoints Special Council to Investigate Hunter Biden.” It’s corrupt. It’s dirty. It’s politics in America. And unfortunately in every other banana republic. My, how far we’ve fallen. 

Partisan Politics Trumps Corruption

Partisan politics apparently trumps corruption. In talking to staunch leftists they are willing to overlook blatant examples of corruption on their side of the aisle with a shrug, parrying those criticisms with the argument that they’re all corrupt. So what? To them it seems like Hunter Biden’s antics are no worse than Jared Kushner’s business dealings, Chuck Schumer’s partisan rants are in the same league as Mitch McConnell’s diatribes, Ocasio-Cortez’ grandstanding a  mere reflection of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s, Biden’s overseas influence peddling no worse than Trump’s foreign business ventures……and on it goes. Depends on your news source. While Trump is roasted continually in the mainstream media, supplied by a weaponized Biden Department of Justice in a never-ending feast of exaggerated charges, you hear nary a peep about the Biden crime family, a news story that is now a mainstay on conservative radio and FOX. As long as their issues are being addressed, the partisan base is apparently willing to overlook your foibles. And they know it. Simply apply a little spin, a heaping dose of demagoguery, and some outright lying, condense it into a digestible sound bite, and feed it to a gullible, if not self-serving electorate. Who do you believe?  We see video of immigrants streaming over the border and statistics show that millions of undocumented migrants have infiltrated into America’s heartland. Yet we have Majorcas: “The border is closed.” Is it?  Millions of dollars from foreign governments are funneled into shell corporations and distributed to Biden family members for no apparent services rendered. We have photographs of Joe with Hunter’s business associates. Yet we have Biden: “I have never discussed business with my son.” Really? But one issue voters seem oblivious. As long as I get my “fill in the blank”, consider me a supporter. Insert “abortion rights” “EBT card” “SNAP benefits” “paid family leave” “unskilled workforce” “gun control” “climate change initiatives”….whatever. But is it good for the country? Does it benefit the republic?  Will our children inherit a functional government?  I’m going to go partisan on you fur a moment. More than usual. The answer is no. While the Republicans, for the most part, are promoting broad conservative ideals, economic stability, market forces to grow the economy, support business and keep government influence and regulation at bay, their progressive counterparts seem to be focused on the individual, on dividing us into tribes, then bribing those tribes into becoming partisan soldiers with promises of “rights” and special interest perks that benefit only them to the detriment of business and other productive members of society. It’s destructive and only widens the partisan divide. But let’s not beat around the bush with semantics and call it what it is. It’s socialism, it’s Marxism. This evolution into a ‘classless communist society” by the overthrow of capitalism and authoritarian government control over everything is precisely where we’re headed. And who will benefit the most? Why the ruling class of course, free to engage in corrupt accumulation of personal wealth and power by redistributing the wealth of the underclass to achieve equity amongst the serfs. ESG, BLM, DEI….all these acronyms are just vehicles to rebrand socialism to achieve the utopian ideals of equality and inclusion by punishing the productive members of society and pacifying the ever-growing unskilled, uneducated workforce with redistribution schemes. Read Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. again. They have commandeered language, they control our healthcare, they control education, their social programs control the flow of income to millions of dependents, and they have divided us and pitted social classes against one another. They have altered voting as we once knew it. The signs are there for all to see. Our national debt is untenable. Our budget is in deficit. Our military is failing to meet recruitment goals, their infrastructure is crumbling. Our banking system is teetering as more banks are downgraded. Our bond rating was also downgraded and we risk losing the dollar as the world reserve currency. Our border is open. Our cities have deteriorated amidst waves of crime and homelessness with liberal policies releasing criminals and the mentally ill back onto the streets where they terrorize the populace, unprotected by defunded and demoralized police.  Commercial real estate is dragging down investors with record low occupancy as a result of government-sanctioned work-from-home policies instituted during the Covid pandemic. We are no longer energy independent with gas prices, diesel fuel and home heating costs skyrocketing. We are again dependent on foreign oil and now,  even dependent on foreign-sourced uranium for nuclear power and Chinese-controlled rare earth minerals for battery production with a virtual moratorium on mining through climate change initiatives and cleverly disguised monument designation of mineral-rich lands in the western desert. It doesn’t bode well for the Republicans.  We are clearly an empire in decline, disturbingly in an increasingly hostile world. But as long as the individual continues to accept gifts from the ruling class, as a no incentive to overlook government corruption, then you vote at your own peril. 

What Is Happening

One could frightfully surmise that Biden and his minions are purposely driving this country to wrack and ruin. Looking at our national debt, budget deficit, inflation, and poor economic growth coupled with green initiatives and most recently preventing. uranium mining on indigenous land, added to our moratorium on mining rare earth minerals and fossil fuel curtailments. All to support his administration’s reliance on batteries for electric vehicles, and you have the perfect storm brewing. Putin and Xi and a host of other despots when they are done laughing at the historic level of incompetence being displayed by the Biden regime will thank him. Or more likely continue to funnel cash into the Biden family coffers. 

Abortion: Take Heed GOP

This may come as  news to a majority of conservatives, but listen to me carefully: abortion is a losing issue. Period. Despite the Supreme Court kicking abortion rights back to the states by overturning Roe v Wade, the altar on which the democrat party worships, the electorate continues to skew left on the issue, driven largely by our doggedly dull, one-issue, progressive youth vote. And vehemently so. The recent litmus test vote on a state constitutional amendment to require a 60% threshold to pass legislation was turned into a referendum on women’s rights.  Specifically abortion rights. The democrat’s ginned-up vote by mail apparatus and early voting turned what should have been a sleepy August turnout into a robust referendum that easily surpassed primary election turnout. Repeatedly, polling suggests that America is moderate on the issue and the current average of 22 week abortion limits are favored by a majority of voters, with older voters skewing conservative towards stricter abortion limits whilst younger voters favor more liberal, later term allowances. Regardless of the complete lack of unbiased input from the medical community clearly demonstrating that even 22 week procedures border on barbarism, we are stuck with the fact that the left has effectively marketed the concept that it’s not a baby until birth. As preposterous as that sounds when said out loud, we’re stuck with it. Face it: The democrats are better at getting their message out, aided in large part by a complicit media apparatus and a malleable dim-witted activist youth movement, a product of our failing public school education system. But in order to turn this country around from our inexhaustible quest to become the next Venezuela, the Republicans have to start winning elections with superior candidates, a winning message that appeals to our youth, and a get-out-the-vote campaign to combat early voting, vote by mail and ballot harvesting. And based on the evidence that shows the left is energized by a threat to their anytime-anywhere abortion agenda, we have to decide if we’re willing to die on that hill. On this issue it would be wise for our candidates to move decisively to the center and make abortion a non-issue. Witness the phenomenally impaired Joe Biden, able to skate by his supposedly strict Irish Catholic views on abortion by conveniently compartmentalizing politics and personal beliefs, bowing to the left and supporting radical abortion policies that would make the Pope blanch. So too, Republican candidates should voice their personal opposition, but support the purveying public opinion.  Compromise. Granted the media will still not grant them the pass that the left enjoys, but it’s a start. In modern politics, there is regrettably no room for personal beliefs, especially religious beliefs. Go with the polls on this issue and morph into what is needed to win the election. Don’t be disingenuous, but be smart. Live to fight another day. It took 50 years for the Supreme Court to correctly overturn Roe v Wade. Play the long game. To steer this country back onto a path of prosperity and integrity we must occupy the influential positions to make it happen.  And to do that we have to prioritize the issues that will appeal to the electorate. And the current conservative stance on abortion rights is not one of them. 

Cuddled Woke Darlings

It is interesting to watch all the liberals covering for the miserable performance of USWNT’s underachievers. One report left out Rapinoe’s missed PK entirely, whilst another source criticized the conservative right and Trump for suddenly being concerned about soccer as if it is the exclusive domain of the left, quibbling over their mistakenly calling the “round of 16” the “16th round” and referring to a “penalty kick” as a “free kick.”  They even called out the pundits, chastising Carlyi Lloyd for her criticism and for not knowing what these women have been through. They blasted former men’s national team player Alexis Lalas a frequent network commentator, for his critique because the US men have never reached the level of World Cup success that until recently the women enjoyed. That was a cheap shot. So now that they have equal pay I guess we can expect equally abysmal results on the world stage. 

I am Compromised

I am not particularly proud to say that I am tolerant of the US Women’s National (soccer) Team performing poorly at the World Cup, barely making it out of group stage play to the knockout round of 16. And it appears that they may face Sweden in the first knockout game, a team that has been their nemesis on the Olympic stage, and the only team internationally that has tarnished an otherwise sterling record of victories. But they’ve brought this on themselves. Years of incessant whining about equal pay as compared to the less successful men’s team, followed by the outspoken star forward Megan Rapinoe seemingly leading the charge into leftist politics including national anthem displays of solidarity for Colin Kaepernick that featured kneeling, and stony-faced refusal to place their hands over their hearts or sing the national anthem. Putting on your “game face” is one thing, but when representing your country, an honor, and a privilege, you should demonstrate national pride and patriotism when on the international stage. Rant and rave all you want at home but don't tarnish your country's international reputation when abroad. Witness the men’s game where grown men at the apex of competing in the world’s most popular sport bawl their eyes out and sing their anthems at the top of their lungs before putting their bodies on the line for World Cup glory. Moving. Our women should give it a go. Instead, they appear arrogant, disrespectful of their opponents and of those that came before them, and more interested in financial gain and virtue signaling. Even their promotional advertising makes them look cocky, when in fact this team has aging stars in Rapinoe and Morgan and a slew of talented but as of yet, untested younger players.  And the rest of the world is catching up. Quickly. They barely escaped a loss with a 1-1 tie with the Netherlands where they were clearly outplayed, and they narrowly tied Portugal when they were saved from a loss by the width of a goalpost, winning their only group stage game against hapless Vietnam where they were unable to convert on multiple chances. And then the display of dancing and celebrating after the tie…..the tie!….. with Portugal sent them into the next round. Retired players were not impressed and the media did not give them glowing reviews. Read the room. Perhaps they will get the message that humility will win them more fans and this fascination with monetary gain and woke, LGBTQ ideology is not what soccer fans are looking for. And Rapinoe is a fading star who has moved into the realm of scoring less on the field and is more concerned with scoring points for political causes. Like when she came out in support of biological men competing in women’s sports even after they were thrashed by the Dallas Texas boys under-15 team in a scrimmage. They can't distance themselves from that. Rapinoe is an unlikable figurehead despite her glorification on the cover of TIME magazine. She is not winning you, followers. Alas, they may pull it together, as they have in the past, and there might be some magic left in the veterans to rise to the occasion. Hopefully, by then they can figure out how to play better on the field as well as play to their audience. Until then, I for one will remain on the sidelines. 

Empty Pantsuit

Kamala Harris was interviewed on ABC’s Prime Focus where she was lobbed the usual softball questions, this time from Linsey Davis, “a graceful advocate of political and social rights of people of all races and genders” and “the first black woman to hold a prime-time show on ABC in 18 years” according to Chetana of Biography Host. Does anybody want to offer up their partisan agenda? Right. The most egregious example was asking if Kamala thought her historically deplorable favorability ratings were based on “race and gender” now at record lows for a sitting vice-President. Hilarious. The reason she was selected as Biden’s running mate was precisely because of her race and gender, you idiots.  I can’t determine whether these media shills are really that intellectually impaired or if they think we are. And what followed was yet another stellar interview performance from Kamala, perhaps the most dim-witted ponderously slow-on-her-feet politician imaginable. Like the rest of America, I cringe every time Biden face plants for fear he won’t get up and leave us with this vacuous, empty pantsuit. 

What’s Become Of Us

This whole DEI initiative that has infiltrated our educational institutions is warping the minds of our youth. It is indoctrination at its most sinister. And I don’t see an easy way back. We are way too far down the road of insanity driven there by identity politics that effectively divides us into tribes, then panders to those idealogical groups to buy votes. And meanwhile, the political class silently gains more power while the liberal media rails against any perceived slight to their leftist agenda. 

A perfect example of the nonsensical ramblings of the left is the recently cosmetically remade Jessica Tarlov, the token liberal on The Five, who explained to us simpletons in her pseudo-intellectual vocal fry that children can’t comprehend the subtleties of Florida’s new black history curriculum that seeks to replace CRT with historical facts. So it’s just easier to just engage in demagoguery and further promote the divisive narrative of the race hucksters?  Recall this curriculum was developed and approved by a panel of scholars that included black descendants of slaves. Interestingly, the left wants to spoon-feed the simpler narrative of CRT instead of “complex facts” to these children but somehow feels that these same kids can comprehend gender studies and LGBTQ topics. Historical facts will confuse the little darlings but not topics that suggest their gender differs from their biology. Nor will promoting books that feature explicit instruction on gay sex and transgender themes. The left wants to have it both ways, so to speak. And all the better that ground zero is in Florida where Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis can be tagged as racist and anti-LGBTQ.  In the same manner that “whistleblowers” are praised when they attack conservatives but dismissed when they reveal the corruption in the Biden administration, children are used as pawns when the mood suits them. On one hand, their brains are not fully developed to handle mathematics too early in the morning, because the developing brain needs more sleep, say the experts. Nor can they grasp subtle nuances in Black history according to the aforementioned Tarlov, yet they are mature enough to decide to subject themselves to life-altering transition surgery as early as age seven. These are the same kids that are exhibiting rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide that are off the charts.  And let’s add social media, SSRIs, and ready access to potent legalized weed into the mix. No wonder they’re confused. So it’s full steam ahead to further the liberal agenda with conservatives and children nothing more than speed bumps in the road to progressive utopia. And the sooner we recognize the damage being done, the better the chance that there is a way back. 

Generations Amiss

I have little hope for the next generation’s ability to hold a job, become productive members of society, or care for the elderly. So obsessed they are with their own sexual orientation and gender identity. Enough already. It’s no wonder we have to import functioning reproductive organs across the southern border. With as high as 38% of Ivy League students identifying as alphabet soup, sustaining our population is impossible given the sheer number of testicles and uteruses destined for either the incinerator or to be used in an “off-label” fashion. And recall this is the same generation who is setting records for anxiety and depression and are being medicated accordingly. Surely this must be an example of either mass hysteria or virtue signaling at its most extreme. Look at me, they scream from their Instagram accounts, I’m a member of an oppressed minority group. Bravo. With gender and sexual orientation classes becoming common on college campuses it is no wonder that only 25% of incoming Princeton freshmen identified as “other than straight” but seniors had increased that percentage to 35% after four years of indoctrination. It’s ridiculous. So the lesson to be learned from these statistics is: if you want your child to get an Ivy League education, send them to the University of Pennsylvania where only 15% identify as LGBTQIA. They must be doing something right. 

New York Blues

The apocalypse may indeed be upon us, but New York is in a race to get there faster. The dysfunctional city of New York has awarded 5200 Black and Hispanic teacher candidates $1.7 billion after they failed to pass the Liberal Arts and Sciences Test, determining that the certification exam was racially biased. The reasoning is that more white applicants successfully passed the examination as opposed to their Black and Hispanic peers. I’m sorry, but the exam is not biased against people of color, the exam is biased against stupid people, regardless of their color. This is yet another redistribution scheme masquerading as diversity, equity, and inclusion. What an embarrassment. Perhaps we should look at the silver lining. At least the city didn’t acquiesce and dumb down the standards to allow the failed applicants to become teachers, further degrading the quality of the already substandard public school system that already spends $38000 per student. But there’s more.  These failed applicants will be eligible for teacher's pensions when they reach retirement age, pensions rewarding them for years they never worked. You just can’t make this stuff up. Congratulations New York City taxpayers, you’re well on the way to making your city uninhabitable. 

Alas, there’s more. New York Governor Kathy Hochul issued a statement that her state is proud to announce that it has set a “record” when it comes to New York’s “landmark” paid family leave program. And I quote: “When I signed New York's paid family leave expansion into law, I reaffirmed our state’s commitment to ensuring workers have the protections they need to bond with their parents, children, and other loved ones. Now workers are responding with rising enrollment and record high utilization, particularly among fathers. Our nation-leading paid family leave program is a testament to our efforts to make New York the most worker friendly state on the nation.” Worker-friendly but apparently business averse. Gee, I wonder if that program will suffer from any fraud?  And by record utilization, that translates into record numbers of workers who are not on the job, sucking capital out of the businesses that employ them who must either suffer a decrease in production or the expense of hiring a temporary replacement. And further, where do you think the money comes from to subsidize this boondoggle? The businesses of course. Tacked onto the state’s already exorbitant mandatory workers compensation insurance is now the paid family leave assessment, a charge that in most cases costs the business more than double the cost of the workers compensation premium alone. And why would that be the case? Because the insurance industry has already done the math and knows that the program will be over utilized. And the remarkably tone deaf Kathy Hochul, yet another career politician with no experience in the private sector, continues to double down on failed democrat programs, policies, and taxation that punish New York businesses and exacerbate the flight of productive taxpayers and their businesses out of state.

Dem’s Arizona Spin

Our liberal elected officials are the most dangerous threat to our national security than anything Vladimir Putin could have possibly imagined. Witness the recent spat over Arizona GOP representative Eli Crane, a military veteran, attempting to make a point that our military must be held to standards of preparedness not woke ideology. In his statement, he, unfortunately, used the phrase “colored people.”  Not in a derogatory fashion, but referring to “people of color.”  Cue the outrage from the left. He quickly apologized for having misspoken and asked that the phrase be amended to “people of color”. But no, that’s not enough. Rather than address the actual issue of military preparedness, the conversation naturally devolved into race and white nationalists. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, you know that inclusive group of African-American congressional members that suggests there exists a Congressional White Caucus…..which there isn’t…..immediately asked that his comments be “stricken from the record.” And of course, the amendment passed. Another sideshow to distract from the actual issue at hand that truly affects America. Now hold the phone. Somebody has to step up and clarify this word salad for the rest of us White Americans. Perhaps issue a handbook. Now I know it somehow is, but how exactly is “colored people” offensive but “ people of color” is not?  Really, I’m asking. Isn’t your representative organization the National Association for the Advancement of …….Colored People? Sorry, that doesn’t make sense. And the goalposts keep moving. Black was acceptable, then it had to be capitalized, then it moved to “African-American.”  But even that doesn’t make sense as it implies all Black people come from Africa. What about Caribbean islanders or Black South Americans? Do we just default back to our supposed origins? Should we recognize Neanderthal-Americans?  And to broadly label people of African origin African-Americans, we are casting a net that includes Elon Musk and Charlize Theron. African yes, but notably deficient in melanin. But isn’t that like calling an Englishman and a Hungarian European-Americans?  Africa is a big place, made up of a lot of countries much like Europe. Should we get more specific and use Nigerian-American and Ugandan-American?  That seems accurate but unwieldy. And that brings me to a recent article about what Europeans find irritating about Americans. Not that I care what Europeans think about us, and frankly they would all be German if it weren’t for us, but they found it ridiculous that we identify as hyphenated Americans or by the origins of our family name You’re not an Italian-American or even Italian they opined, you’re just an American. Maybe of Italian descent, but American nonetheless. You don’t see Europeans gong about referring to themselves as German-Belgians or Italian-Scottish. Point taken. And what if a Black man, born in England emigrates to the United States?   Is he British-American, or does he suddenly become an African-American?  All so very confusing, this labeling. But back to my original discussion. Negro was at one time acceptable and even widely used by Booker T. Washington, but is thought to be offensive. Why is that?  Isn’t it essentially Spanish for Black?  Perhaps it is too closely associated with the dreaded N-word. But if the N-word is so repugnant, then stop using it yourselves. Why is it so prevalent in pop culture? You certainly don’t see people of European descent calling “yo, my spic” or “what’s up dago” to their compatriots, do you?  Stop it. It sends the wrong message. So what I ask for us is consistency. Pick an identity and stick with it. Stop using a constantly changing fluid state of self-description as a starting point for more discussions on racism, tribalism and that which divides us. Relegate outdated words you find offensive to history’s trash heap and don’t keep recycling or rearranging them to suit the narrative. Finding the term “colored people” offensive but “people of color” acceptable is absurd wordplay. Explain it, and don’t use that race-baiting, huckster Al Sharpton to do it. It’s confusing and only divides us further.