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.   

Sublime To The Ridiculous

With each passing day, we see more evidence that the republic is crumbling. University of Michigan dropping grades for first-year students to stem their mental health crisis. Sure, let’s pamper them some more; that will definitely help them adjust to the real world. The Washington Post criticizing Trump for using a ruse to conceal his air travel plans returning from Turkey after threats from Iran. Heaven's no, let’s detail our president’s travel itinerary so our enemies know exactly where he can be targeted. Idiots. An actual communist is leading in the polls in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary after proposing a 17% state income tax, elimination of the right-to-work law, tax deduction on union dues, abolishing the police, abolishing the presidency, government confiscation of private businesses, government running grocery stores, abolishing Congress and opening our borders. All this from a woman who claims to be a chef and drove her Ramen noodle restaurant into bankruptcy. Sure, pick her to run your state. 

DSA Abomination

I can understand the youth vote trending towards the DSA candidates, given the current popularity of the class warfare, pay your fair share, redistribution, give me free stuff mentality that has pervaded the Democrat party messaging. As Andrew Breitbart opined, “they divide, they divide,” separating us into the haves and have-nots in this case, disregarding and minimizing that which we have in common. There has been no better target in the age of social media than disaffected youth feeling as though they have been shut out of the American dream after being promised upward mobility with a six-figure gender studies degree. But what I can’t understand is the embrace of….let’s call it what it is…..communism by the limousine liberals: those older, well-educated, financially secure white progressives that have embraced the radical leftist, anti-American policies of El-Sayed, Piker, Hong and their communist ilk. Do they realize that when these candidates talk about redistribution, government control of personal property, control of housing, and business seizures, they will not be immune to the economic catastrophe just because they virtue-signaled at the ballot box?  Not yet, apparently. But we can only hope that the motivated 20% of registered Democrat voters that cast their votes for this level of insanity do not represent the 80 percent that stayed home.  Polls however tend to show that Democrat voters are considerably more receptive to communist ideals than their conservative counterparts, that leads to a concern that when faced with the option of a Republican candidate, who will undoubtedly be immersed in the perfume of MAGA association by the media, or a Democrat, even one with unhinged socialist policies, anti-constitution rhetoric, anti-semitism and adhering to the communist manifesto, they will reflexively pull the lever without weighing the consequences. This embrace of Communism, and in some cases what could be more appropriately labeled as Islamo-Marxism, is a frightening development, and hopefully a brief fling that will be squashed at the ballot box when cooler heads will prevail this November. But midterm elections have historically been problematic for the party in the White House, and just as the Obama and Biden administrations swung the pendulum hard to the right, the Trump era may have the opposite effect, swinging it dangerously far left. These wild gyrations are not good for the health of the republic, and should the DSA gain a foothold in the midterms, this will not end well. 

Rose By Any Other Name

These new wave DSA lunatics are all cut from the same cloth as Mamdani: privileged children of immigrants, well educated in the liberal arts, well spoken and adept at the coded speech of communism, overwhelming the listener with multi-syllabic word salads. When our default mode, our foundation, is our constitution, shouldn’t we question a wave of political candidates from the left that seek to destroy even the most basic pillars of our government?  Abolishing everything from the office of the president, the Senate, police, and punishment for crimes committed seems less like a remaking of America and more like anarchy. Listen carefully to candidates like Piker, Kiros, Al-Sayed, and, of course, Mamdani. We shouldn’t be dismissing them as simply crazy. We should consider them a viable threat seeking to attack from within. Not to get all biblical, but Thessalonians 2:3-4 speaks of “the man of lawlessness” exalting himself and taking his place in a seat of authority:  “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple proclaiming himself to be God.”I am not much of a theologian, but the parallels are interesting. Isn’t communism a promise that government will replace your family, your God, and supply you with all your needs, cradle to grave. And their first order of business is to destroy anything that competes with government. So the dissolution of the family unit and the abolishing of houses of worship the police and military is part and parcel of their grand Marxist-Socialist movement

Midterm Mania

Yikes, ahead of the midterms, the media is ramping up the anti-Trump rhetoric to record highs. An AOL/HuffPo piece on “precautions Americans need to take when traveling abroad” provided clickbait for the TDS-afflicted, prompting a vociferous response in the comments, blaming Trump and his “illegal war” in Iran for putting Americans at risk. Without an original thought, it’s amusing to see the simpletons on the left parrot the media talking points like good little comrades. Possessing absolutely no geopolitical acumen and perhaps having had democratic socialist fever dreams to tear down Western culture, these lefties long for the good old days of appeasement and kicking the can down the road so the next generation can deal with a weakened America and a nuclear Iran wielding a bigger stick to control the world energy supply and manipulate global markets and all the while throlling their neighbors and funding proxies intent on destroying Israel. Exactly how big does the body count have to get after 47 years of malicious behavior by a doomsday theocracy for the world to take notice and do something about it? 

Such Disrespect

Classless response to Lindsey Graham's passing. The Portland Tribune, an online adventure in leftist ranting, not that the first word “Portland” would have given you a clue, ran with “Good Riddance” as a parting gesture to an Air Force veteran who raised and cared for his young sister after his parents' demise. Not nice. And the first comment after a Washington Post article on how Graham's absence will “complicate” the Republican agenda was “whatever it takes to end the Republican grip,” followed by a slew of comments blaming Trump for the rise of socialism. So let me get this straight, to all of you apparently educated by the teachers' union: your response to conservatives and a return to constitutional rule of law is to embrace the most destructive, oppressive form of government ever devised, with no examples of prosperity in history?  With an estimated 85 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds choosing to get their news from TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, rating patriotism and pride in America at under 29 percent, and being the recipients of substandard public school education, is it any wonder that we find ourselves at this juncture?  We have failed our youth and allowed them to be swayed by a leftist media empowered by the internet and the promise of free stuff without the inconvenience of work.