El-Sayed

America, are you listening to the blather coming out of El-Sayed’s mouth?  This man is dangerous with his slick “my guy” dude-speak and, as Dana Perino said, his “baby GAP” t-shirts and tough guy swagger. These Islamo-socialists have no shame, and beyond the typical politician's ability to exaggerate and misrepresent, they will outright lie to you to achieve their goals. Their allegiances lie elsewhere, and from their radical socialist policies, one has to assume that their secondary mission is to bankrupt this country. Like the Obamacare tactic of installing a healthcare program doomed to fail, hoping single-payer will rise from its ashes, the hope is that by destroying capitalism and Western civilization, a socialist state will supplant it and morph into Islamic-style fascism. There is no future of assimilation, and we only have to look to Europe to see how this is going to unfold. 

Blurring Nationality

World Cup: Many of the European teams- France, Belgium, the Netherlands- field teams that look more representative of Africa due to massive immigration. But that leads to the question:  if all the teams are composed of a majority of Africans, then what exactly is the point of having a tournament between nations?  Sure, the fans in the stands most often represent the ethnic makeup of the countries, and that adds flavor to the tournament: the kilted and often inebriated Scots, the Viking-rowing Norwegians, the Orange-clad Dutch, the English chanting en masse, for example.  But the teams on the field are largely becoming our immigrants against your immigrants.  Where’s the fun in that? And this isn’t some DEI exercise.  No example of meritocracy is more glaring than professional sports. These immigrants, or more likely children of immigrants, are citizens of the country they represent and are qualified to represent that country on the national team based on their excellence in the sport.  Kylian Mbappe is one of the most skilled soccer players in the world and represents France on their national team.  He was born in France to an Algerian mother and a Cameroonian father and is a French citizen.  But he obviously is not ethnically French.  That’s not a bad thing, but it does take something away from a sporting competition between nations.  On the contrary, Erling Haaland is an international soccer star from Norway and plays for his country.  He is a large man by soccer standards, a giant at 6 feet 4 inches, and he sports a long blond mane with shaved sides that would look at home on a Viking ship. Even the official national team photo dressed the team up in Viking garb replete with shields, breastplates, spears, and battle axes.  Their fans support their team by simulating synchronized rowing of a longboat to the beat of a drum. Now that’s embracing a national identity.  And that’s fun. But the French?  How does that joke go?  I went to Paris.  I saw the Eiffel Tower. I went to the Louvre. I saw Notre Dame. I ate a croissant.  And I bought one of those French hats.What do you call them? Oh yeah, a hijab. Ouch. But must progress involve the eradication of the native people and their national identity? I thought we were all critical of the conquest of the indigenous? Don’t we seek to eradicate invasive species? You know, Asian carp, the spotted lanternfly, emerald ash borers, stuff like that. You know, things that breed prolifically, offer no benefit in return, destroy the local habitat, and exhaust resources. Or maybe just a McDonald's franchise on the Champs-Élysées. Does that apply to immigration? Well, apparently, Bo thinks so, and it hasn’t been well received by the left, who opportunistically extrapolate the rantings of a Texas Railroad Commissioner into the platform for the entire Republican Party. 

But why shouldn’t we mourn the loss of national or even regional identity? Especially when it seems to go hand in hand with a myriad of things we should all rally against: corruption, crime, increased social programs, and increased taxation… to name a few.  It may improve the quality of your soccer team, but it doesn’t necessarily improve the quality of life in your cities.  Take the recent uprisings in Paris, for example. And why is it that the left endorses cries from minority groups that they need more people that ‘look like us' in healthcare and in government? As if your physician is somehow more qualified to assess your ailments if they’re of the same ethnicity.  Isn’t that itself a racist premise? And as far as your government representative looking like you…well, that appears to be more advantageous when they seek government assistance for the minority groups they represent.  That is not government competence; that’s electing a lobbyist. With 60% of the US population identifying as “White”, and with that percentage expected to fall below 50% sometime in the early 2040s, why wouldn’t a member of that group… soon to be a minority…be concerned about representation and shifting demographics?  Why is that considered a racist perspective when clearly minority groups that vote strictly along racial lines, or seek out businesses and healthcare providers of the same race, aren’t seen as doing the same thing?  Why is it considered racist to object to California providing upwards of $100,000 a year to immigrant families of five when American citizens who have worked their entire lives paying into the system are potentially facing a 20% reduction in Social Security benefits in 2035 as the program exhausts its resources? Every ethnic group or nationality will naturally seek to protect their own interests.  Unfortunately, when white people in Europe or the United States engage in such protectionism, or what may be called nationalism, it is twisted by the media into representing white supremacy, fascism, and racism.  But what is the end game according to the left? Is it the complete eradication of Western values and culture? Is it some utopian society where all races and ethnicities are represented in equal numbers, with equal pay and access to the same education, healthcare, and housing? Is it Globalism with a Marxist twist, each according to his needs?  Impossible. But it seems we are moving toward a proletariat class ruled by government overlords.  A recent Pew Research Center survey suggested that many Americans believe government should play a larger role than capitalism, providing affordable housing, access to healthcare, and limiting credit card interest, with a nearly equal divide, with Democrats favoring larger government and Republicans preferring less.  This would explain the rise in socialist candidates in the Democratic Party, a development that should concern anyone who has studied history.  And where has this proven to be successful?  Just slapping the word democrat in front of socialist does not make that system of governance any better, comrades. Can a country survive when it is nearly equally divided between one faction that favors increased government intervention, socialist policies like single-payer healthcare, redistribution of wealth, government control of housing and the government control of property and production with porous borders…… and the other side that favors capitalism, closed borders, limited taxation and a smaller government footprint? And when the socialists seem to favor what was once thought to be unthinkable: defunding the police, disbanding immigration enforcement, opening our borders to unfettered immigration, no identification required for voting, condoning corruption, and the confiscation of private property and businesses, does this not make their “affordability” platform an absurd premise?  And into the widening abyss that exists between the parties, you inject immigration and shifting demographics with populations that are not assimilating but coalescing to vote their own representatives into Congress.  Gone is the concept of assimilation. One might have to consider that the plan is to introduce nothing but chaos.

WSJ Betrayal

The Wall Street Journal is really trying my patience.  I don’t expect to be spoon-fed conservative-biased reporting like some Instagram algorithm, but I have come to expect them to offer some degree of support for conservative candidates, especially when one considers the radical alternatives offered by the democrats. But they've steadily skewed left, are distinctly negative when reporting on Trump policies, and don’t even get me started on Peggy Noonan’s weekly demonstrations of end-stage TDS.  Their latest editorial, seemingly ripped from the pages of the New York Times, claims that a segment of the Republican Party has become “hostile to ethnic and religious minorities” and uses the recent comments by Bo French as an example. Who, you ask? Exactly.  The author of this editorial, Mr. Sadanand Dhume, is trying to support his thesis based on the rantings of a candidate for the Texas Railroad Commission? But perhaps you are being a bit sensitive, Sadanand.  Or perhaps biased yourself. The aforementioned Mr. French does indeed have a history of making some racially controversial comments, perhaps the only reason anyone would even know that the TRC exists, let alone the fact that Bo French is a candidate for the office.  But this particular comment pointed out that the University of Texas student body, in a candid photo, appeared more representative of Mumbai's population than Austin's. So what. As an observation, that is a rational conclusion that would be apparent to any objective observer, albeit based on a single photograph.  And in a state that prides itself on football, oil, cowboys, cattle and the American frontier, wouldn’t it be disconcerting to an old Texan like Mr. French that the University that bears the state’s name may be losing its Texas identity? In the name of worshipping at the altar of diversity, must everywhere look the same as everywhere else? Now Bo could have left it at that, but he spun it as a negative by simply stating “it’s worse than I thought.” But if by “worse” he means not representative of Texas, he may indeed be correct.  The population of the state of Texas remains majority White at 53.93%, with Hispanics making up the next largest ethnic group at 39.3%. The University of Texas, however, does not reflect those state statistics, with 31.57% of the student body White and 28.28% Hispanic.  Surprisingly, Asians make up 25.37% of the student population, despite accounting for only 5% of the state population.  The University does not break down the racial groups any finer than that, so we might conclude that Indians (as in India) may be included in the group labeled as Asian. Also surprising is that the Black population of Texas accounts for 11.9%, whereas they make up only 4.67% of the student body. And that in itself is interesting.  If DEI policies have been abandoned, then perhaps meritocracy is the reason why high-performing Asian students are overrepresented, a phenomenon that has appeared at most Ivy League and highly selective universities, most notably Harvard, which have been accused of discriminating against Asians in their admissions process. Maybe by “worse than I thought,” Mr. French was actually lamenting the underrepresentation of white and Hispanic students compared to Texas’ population, which would suggest their academic performance is falling behind their Asian counterparts. Depends on how you spin it

The Ithaca Schism

I met a high school teacher yesterday from Ithaca… sanctuary city and home of Cornell University and, even farther to the left, Ithaca College, the bastion of lefty hippies, theater majors, and No Kings protests. Insanity at its finest. She had the day off as Ithaca public schools were closed in observance of Yom Kippur. Ridiculous, she said, and I’m Jewish. She went on to note that they also observe the Chinese New Year, Rosh Hashanah, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, and Diwali in addition to the traditional Christian Holiday of Christmas, Thanksgiving (surprised at that one), MLK Day, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Columbus/Indigenous Peoples Day and Labor Day. President’s Day gets incorporated into the mid-winter week-long recess, winter recess picks up Kwanza and New Year’s Day, and Spring recess is just there to keep Florida bars in business. If the school is a polling place, it's also closed on Election Day. Notably, they have eliminated the Monday after Easter Sunday as well as Good Friday. So roughly one month worth of days off, not including teacher “resource” days, superintendent days and other teacher benefits in what is already a short school year when you factor in summer vacation as well. No wonder our children are idiots. They’re never in school. And Kathy Hochul, in her infinite wisdom, eliminated New York Regents exams as a requirement to graduate. With underperforming students getting pushed through to graduate on schedule and grade inflation making grades essentially meaningless, the Regents served as the only indicator of student proficiency. Over the years, the Regents have even been dumbed down to compensate for deteriorating student performance and the phenomenon of educators simply teaching to the test to assure the appearance of proficiency in subject matter. The question remains whether the poor pass rate was a reflection on the quality of students or a condemnation of the quality of our educators… and the culpable teachers’ union. If the students aren’t being held to a standard and the educators, along with a top-heavy bureaucracy, are not held accountable, how exactly can we assess and improve what appears to be a failing education system in America?

Labor Day Lament

Why do we allow people who do not pay taxes, and thus have “no skin in the game,” to vote for candidates who promise them more “freebies” at the expense of people who go to work every day? The argument will be that all Americans pay taxes, be it sales tax, payroll tax, or state and local taxes, but that pales in comparison to the federal tax burden. Like virtually everything in the Constitution, the original intent has been watered down. The Founders originally proposed that only landowners should have the right to vote, and we once had a “poll tax” that was eliminated as well. And if you listen to the democrats, their platform continues to support expanding voting “rights” to include non-citizens and the incarcerated. In a country with the most progressive tax structure in the world, and socialist candidates in the Democrat party screaming for more punitive taxation on success, perhaps it’s time we revisited the issue. But alas, it would require Congress to get onboard and with 37.4 percent of Americans effectively paying no federal income tax…..yes, that’s nearly forty percent that pay no federal income tax or worse yet, receive more money in return than they paid…it would appear that we are well past the tipping point where there are more takers than makers. 

Big Brother Is Watching

Mike Skater on Breitbart was interviewing a tech specialist this morning, discussing the pros and cons of technology, with the cons mostly related to privacy issues. The proliferation of Flock cameras, small automated license plate readers (ALPS), is troubling, as they are widely employed by law enforcement to scan passing vehicles and upload that information to a database. So at any given time, they can access where your vehicle has been and, in real time, where it’s going. Granted, a useful tool if your vehicle has been stolen, or a crime has been committed, and the perpetrator escaped in a vehicle. Unfortunately, the data is also being used to track movement across state lines to buy fireworks or marijuana that is illegal in the state of origin, allowing law enforcement to lie in wait for when the vehicle returns home. Kinda petty.  Unscrupulous law enforcement officers have also used it for personal use, such as tracking ex-spouses or girlfriends. Not cool. The other concern, particularly in anti-Second Amendment states, is that the data can be used to track vehicles that frequent gun stores or gun ranges, essentially providing de facto gun registration in states where it is illegal to keep a database of gun purchases and ownership. Also not cool, as the net is cast so wide that it ensnares significantly more law-abiding folks than the criminal element.  And down the rabbit hole we go: Vehicles present at a Trump rally, vehicles that go back and forth to Republican Party headquarters, vehicles at a Turning Point USA event, vehicles coming and going from a politician’s home or even the politician’s personal vehicle. You get the drift. And who exactly has access to this database? Then there’s human error. In one state, a murder was committed, and the getaway car’s license plate was incorrectly entered into the system. The mistake resulted in an innocent woman being aggressively pursued and stopped on the highway, removed from her vehicle, and arrested at gunpoint. The error was discovered, and she was sent on her way. Oops, sorry about that. But the original error was not corrected in the system, resulting in her being subjected to yet another traumatic traffic stop a week later. Yikes. Orwellian stuff. What could possibly go wrong? For any of you concerned that big brother is coming, fear not. He’s already here.

Welfare Where Art Thou

The WSJ editorial “Why the Welfare Debate Went Silent” is spot on and enough to infuriate all but the most liberal taxpayers. As Rush Limbaugh summed up in a more simplistic manner: “Why don’t we feed the bears?  Because the bears become dependent on us feeding them.” But in searching for that exact quote, I came across an article in the “Religious Dispatch” by some obscure author named Ian Reifowitz, looking to say something profound and outrageous, but ultimately an example of unhinged bias, who opined shortly after Rush’s death that his “race-baiting and gaslighting of Obama paved the way for Trump.” He goes on to theorize that Rush “tribalized” politics and used religion to divide us, suggesting Obama was a Muslim when he was “in fact” a Christian. The only mention of his association with the radical preaching of Reverend Wright was by name, with no explanation, using the association as another example of being a faithful Christian. Only a passing reference to Obama’s Muslim father, his distinctly Muslim name, his Indonesian youth, his practicing Muslim stepfather….all glossed over by the killing of Osama Bin Laden as proof of his allegiance to Christianity. So in essence, the treatise is based on Obama being a Christian with no reference to his politics. Whatever omissions necessary to make your flimsy case. But calling Limbaugh a “hateful… lying gaslighter” is beyond the pale. Just using “gaslighter, a favorite term of the pseudo-intellectual left, suggests which side of the aisle you’re on, and using divisive rhetoric has long been the calling card of the Democrat party. Andrew Breitbart leveled the divisive accusation at democrats years before this twit Reifowitz wrote this fluff piece in an obscure publication. And trashing a deceased conservative pundit who would have eviscerated you in a confrontation reeks of cowardice. An internet search revealed Reifowitz in his burrow, naturally a faculty member at Empire State University in New York, supposedly a professor of historical studies. Yet another example of our biased education system indoctrinating our youth. Apparently, the rest of the media horde was unimpressed… we haven’t heard anything of substance from him since 2021.