Hypocrisy

 Hypocrisy is the necessary burden of villainy.

-Rambler #76 December 1750

Today’s theme is hypocrisy.  And before the left attempts to redefine that as well, reference Mr. Webster, a despised member of the “old white man” class, but currently considered the gold standard for definitions:  Hypocrisy is defined as “a feigning to be what one is not, or to feel what one does not feel; a dissimulation, or a concealment of one’s real character, disposition, or motives; especially the assuming of false appearance of virtue or religion, a simulation of goodness.”  Remarkable in that “Democrat” is not listed as a synonym.  Rather than a lengthy dissertation on my part, oftentimes giving me the distinct impression that I am railing into the wind, think of this as a homework assignment, or at the very least a thought provoking exercise whereby logic, rationale and common sense are prerequisites.  Let’s begin.

On Climate Change

If sea levels are rising precipitously, with some estimates predicting as much as two feet by 2060 and another at 7 feet by 2100, President Biden commented in his presser: roads that “used to be above the water level, now we’ve got to rebuild them three feet higher.” Really. No follow-up? With plans already underway in Miami suggesting that a mere three feet is not high enough, residents are wondering exactly how that will affect their property that borders those roads.  Think of the strip on Miami Beach, for example.  Are we going to raise all the properties three feet as well, or is the road going to be like a giant dyke, turning Miami into a sunnier version of Holland? And if climate change and rising sea levels are such an “existential threat”, why did Barack Obama drop some $13 million on an oceanfront compound on Martha’s Vineyard?  Why does Hollywood’s liberal glitterati have Malibu oceanfront palaces? Why are beachfront homes still commanding staggering prices on Cape Cod and in the Hamptons? Why would anyone have a home in the Florida Keys or the Outer Banks? Or perhaps a $2.75 million Delaware beach house, Joe. 

If CO2 is a greenhouse gas, a designation being actively pursued by the EPA, and we are naturally seeking to reduce our emissions, then why are we allowing 100,000 CO2 emitters into our country every month across our southern border with Mexico? And they’re not just CO2 emitters.  They need places to live, places to shop, increased infrastructure, more strip malls, more urban sprawl, more destruction of habitat for whatever wee beastie du jour Greenpeace is trying to save from extinction this week.  They will drive more cars, burn more fuel, heat their homes and most egregious of all: they will propagate and make even more CO2 emitters.

If the Paris Climate Accord is in place to combat global climate change, why does it disproportionately punish the United States, a country that, having withdrawn from the agreement, continued to reduce its carbon emissions on its own?  Why did Biden hitch our wagons back up to that economic recovery-busting train? Meanwhile, China and India, two of the rising stars in increased global emissions are allowed to go about their business of polluting on an epic scale to the year 2030 unchecked.   And not only at home. China has expanded its influence into South America where it is actively engaged in building ports to export raw materials and minerals from their mining operations, undertakings that are ravaging the land and producing astronomical amounts of greenhouse gases as a byproduct.  Right under our noses and in our own hemisphere.

On Race

Why, when the police repeatedly explained that the Atlanta area massage parlor shootings were not motivated by race, did the media, the Asian community and the Biden Administration continue to promote the theory that the attack was motivated by anti-Asian sentiment?  In a painfully uncomfortable exchange with the press, the chief of police had to repeatedly explain that he had questioned the perpetrator specifically on the motivation and he had stated that the attack was based on a warped perspective that the establishments were feeding his sex addiction.  No matter how many times the reporter rephrased the question in an attempt to lead the law enforcement officer down the chosen path of racial motivation, he was met with the same response.  The best exchange was hilarious: Question:  “How do you know it was not motivated by race?”  Answer: “Because I asked him.” But this is the way the media rolls, and it’s getting worse.  No longer the beacons of truth, it is all about sensationalism and promoting a liberal agenda.  Take the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando in 2016.  The media leapt on the premise that the club was targeted by Islamic extremists because it was a “gay” nightclub.  Not many recall the retraction when the actual story emerged.  Apparently another club with no LGBTQ label was targeted first but passed over due to having a higher level of security.  The Pulse Nightclub was merely a less secure target of opportunity.  And now we have the Boulder, Colorado King Soopers shooting.  Jumping on the tired old “disgruntled white man with an assault weapon theme”, you could sense the disappointment when the perpetrator turned out to be a Syrian immigrant, a Muslim with a history of paranoia and mental illness as well as a history of assault.  Posts online include references to having his phone hacked by his high school and being followed and chased by unknown assailants.  Alas, the perpetrator will become the victim as CNN is already reporting that he was made fun of because of his Muslim name, becoming more anti-social and isolated, fueling his mental illness.  And of course, when asked why he knew his phone was being hacked: “I believe part racism for sure”.  Not a word of condemnation as to why he shot only white people.  

If Black Lives Matter, why did Chicago post the second-most homicides in 2020 in more than two decades without a peep from the media?  Detroit, Washington DC, New York and Milwaukee all recorded increases in killings from the previous year.  The carnage is staggering.  Chicago alone reported 769 homicides in 2020.  As a comparison, according to Statista, in the first two months of 2021, police shot 132 civilians nationwide, but only 16 of those victims were Black.  Coincidentally that means 12% of the shooting victims were Black, reflecting fairly accurately their 13.4% of the population.  Hmm. That’s not exactly the narrative put forth by the media. But the left argues that proportionately by population, the chance of being killed by a police officer is greater if Black, whereby 35 per million members of the population will succumb, as compared to only 14 per million of whites.  But that math is fuzzy at best and absent from the discussion are statistics related to the type of crime, where that crime occurs and who is committing that crime.  Is it more likely that one demographic may have an increased probability of interfacing negatively with law enforcement?  Americans who identify as White make up 76.3% of the population, Blacks 13.4%.  Overall arrests broken down by race according to the DOJ breaks down as follows: 69% White and 27% Black. But more telling is the data on violent crime by race.  The DOJ reports that 58% is committed by Whites whereas 37.8% is committed by Blacks, punching well above their population percentage. Further breakdown reveals a much more disturbing trend: With a total of 11,970 crimes falling into the “murder and non-negligent manslaughter” category, whites accounted for 44.1% but Blacks are far overrepresented at 52.3% of crimes committed.   Of course rarely do they mention that in Chicago 79 officers were shot at in 2020 compared to 22 taking fire the year before.  10 officers were struck compared to only 5 in in 2019.  Who wants that job? Maybe after the cops are defunded, they will get more applicants.  Sure they will.

Returning to the theme of Black Lives Matter. Why are more Black babies aborted in New York City than are born?  The Guttmacher Institute reported in 2017 that Black women abortion rates were 27.1 per thousand as compared to 10 per thousand for white women.  Naturally, the report comes with the caveat that “lack of access to health insurance and health care plays a role as do racism and discrimination.”  Of course, access to condoms, oral contraceptives, Medicaid and the old stand-by abstinence must be a racial issue for the lefties.  Making up 13.4% of the population, Black women accounted for 32% of the total abortions. Isn’t Planned Parenthood a staple in minority neighborhoods?  You know, the progressive darling, the Margaret Sanger-established organization designed to further the founder’s eugenics-based principles of keeping minority populations in check.  Yeah, that’s the one. 

On Health Care

If Medicare for All is the ultimate goal by the left to achieve fair and equitable health care for all Americans, why is it that our elected officials are exempt, instead getting high quality private healthcare at taxpayer expense for life?  Surrounded by National Guard troops, Capitol Police, fences and razor wire the elite class all but proclaims: “let them eat cake”.  Tell me again how we are all equal. 

On Taxes

If “pay your fair share” is the progressive rallying cry for increased taxation on the wealthy, why does the US already have the most progressive tax code on the planet? Fairness doesn’t even enter into the equation. Recall, the top 10% of earners pay 70% of the tax burden. That seems less like a fair share and more like a punishment for success. The top 1% pays 38.47%, the top 5% pays 59.14%, the top 25% pays 86.1% and remarkably the bottom 50%, half of all earners, pay only 3.11% of the tax burden. Our “poor” have the highest standard of living on the planet and are the envy of the world.  Witness the line forming to get in at our southern border. Contrary to the liberal complaint that the Trump tax cuts of 2017 only benefitted the wealthy, the nature of the tax code became even more progressive by shifting more tax burden to the top earners.  Despite Biden’s press conference claim that “close to $2 trillion Trump tax cut-83% going to the top 1%”, it is far from the truth.  According to the Western Journal, what Biden chose to ignore is that 82% of middle class Americans received tax cuts, earning him two Pinocchios by none other than the Washington Post.  But the Democrats continue to repeat the falsehood, a narrative so effective that the New York Times reported that only 40% of Americans believed they received any tax cut at all. And they intend to use that narrative to rationalize the sweeping tax increases that are on the way. Hunker down folks, it’s going to be a long four years.

Gun Control

If guns should be banned, then why are our elite elected officials surrounded by them?  National Guard, Capitol Police and private security supply them with multiple layers of armed protection.  But you?  You’re on your own, pal. And those evil weapons of war, those assault rifles, designed only to kill people according to the phenomenally clueless network talking heads, should be banned altogether in the name of public safety to prevent mass killings.  Hold the phone.  Let’s look at the inconvenient data.  Rifles, of all types, including the preposterously demonized “assault weapons” are responsible for approximately 3% of all homicides with assault rifles making up one-tenth of 1%.  One tenth of one percent. Of the 10,265 murders that occurred in 2018, 6603 were a result of a handgun. In 297 of the cases, a rifle was used and in 235, a shotgun.  Remarkably knives were used in 1515 of the cases, blunt objects in 443, and hands, fists, and feet responsible for 672.  We should probably ban those too. With knives accounting for five times the numbers of murders as compared to rifles, it would make more sense to ban cutlery in the name of public safety rather than a rifle. 

Walls

Walls don’t work.  And they’re racist. Are they now?  They seem to work well when they are surrounding your gated community.  Or Nancy Pelosi’s Napa Estate.  Or the Green Zone in Baghdad.  How about the Berlin Wall?  That worked well for the communists for years.  I don’t recall a flood of immigrants into West Germany.  How about that wall the Israelis built, you know the one that the terrorists keep trying to tunnel under.  I don’t hear our elected officials chastising Israel on the ineffectiveness of that structure. And how about that razor-wire-topped monstrosity surrounding our Capitol and the White House. The one designed to keep you out.  Working to perfection. But the wall at the southern border with Mexico?  Nope. And it works less well when you broadcast to the migrant caravan the sections that aren’t finished, the construction you Democrats put a stop to.  Walls work, especially when your border security is stretched thin.  And what about all that “technology” that you Democrats were screaming about when Trump proposed a wall?  Where did that discussion go? As Candace Owens astutely pointed out: “This isn’t a border crisis, it’s a border plan.”

Covid

Wear a mask.  Don’t wear a mask.  Two masks are more effective.  No, three masks are even more effective.  Six feet social distancing.  No, only three feet is required. Get a vaccine. But still mask and social distance after you get it. You can still be a carrier. And a group of vaccinated people is allowed to get together without masks indoors.  But not too many.  Unless you’re Governor Gavin Newsome at a 5-star Michelin restaurant in Napa.  Or Saint Fauci at a ballgame. Masks and social distancing both optional in those cases.  But if you’re unvaccinated and unmasked, as long as you are protesting for Black Lives Matter, or are a member of Antifa, go ahead and assemble. In fact, go ahead and riot.  Burn some stuff.  Loot a few stores. And throw bottles at Police officers.  It’s all good.  And you immigrants flooding across the border? Rules don’t apply to you either. Americans may have to get the swab treatment stuck up near their pituitary gland somewhere to travel, but you folks? Nah. Even though we estimate you to have as high as a 50% Covid-positive rate, we’re going to pack you into crowded facilities and then fly you all over the country. But you Trump supporters that attended rallies, crowded together, some of you not wearing masks.  You are “superspreaders”.  And you “insurrectionists” are too.  

Women’s’ Rights

You do recall the public, disgusting, politically motivated attacks on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh?  The nation was forced to endure those partisan hearings with the star witness, Christine Blasey-Ford, she of the leftist university set, a research psychologist from Palo Alto with her huge smudged glasses and hazy recollection of fantastical gang rapes at alcohol fueled elite private school parties some thirty years ago.  Nothing specific, mind you and certainly no corroboration whatsoever, but it was definitely Brett Kavanaugh.  Uh-huh. And we must believe all women. Right.  Especially when they get awards from the ACLU for courage for supporting your leftist agenda.  And we also believe porn stars like Stormy Daniels, even when represented by shady, crooked, arrogant attorneys looking to turn a buck. Especially when the target is Donald Trump, the “misogynist”, one of many    “–ists” the left has thrown at him.  You know him; he’s the raging sexist that hired more women, and women with children, to high-ranking positions in his administration than any previous President.  The brute. But come on, we definitely don’t believe all women, now do we?  We don’t believe Tara Reid, even though she had a witness come forward that corroborated her story of a Joe Biden assault from 25 years ago.  We don’t believe Juanita Broderick, Leslie Millwee, Paula Jones, or Kathleen Willey, all part of Bill Clinton’s stable of sexual misdeeds.  We even dismissed and ruined then 22-year-old star-struck Monica Lewinsky for her affair with Clinton.  He suffered the indignity of impeachment, a monetary fine and having his Arkansas law license suspended for five years, but he remained in office with his power intact.  Two credible women came forward to accuse Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax of rape. They too were largely dismissed by the media and Fairfax continues to serve as Lieutenant to Ralph Northam, coming close to assuming his boss’ job until Northam was also given a pass for a “blackface” photo that started with an apology then morphed into a denial that it was even him in the photo.  And currently we have New York Governor Andy Cuomo amassing a sexual harassment resume that would make Bill Clinton blush.  After Republicans rallied, calling for his impeachment, it took a total of seven accusers to get the State’s Democrats’ attention with Senators Gillibrand, quiet for too long given her outspoken position in the #MeToo movement, and Chuck Schumer finally calling for his resignation.  But Governor Andy continues to play the denial game, and even apologized in that peculiarly paced “I’m talking to idiots” manner of speech for acting “in a way that made people feel uncomfortable”.  He stated that he has no intention of resigning and wants to wait for the full results of the investigation.  Of course we all recall what happened when his Moreland Commission was set up to investigate state corruption: his right hand man got caught in the net, and Cuomo shut down the his own ethics watchdog commission, presumably because it was sniffing too close to the throne. And what do all these women have in common, those that came forward and risked their careers only to be dismissed?  All accusers of Democrat politicians.  It seems only Al Franken took one for the team, but then again, he was always an outsider. And much like this level of hypocrisy, he wasn’t very funny either. 

And while on the topic of sex and women’s rights:  if women’s’ rights are so important, then what’s going on with this transgender nonsense in women’s sports?  I am barely able to keep track of all the letters in LGBTQ, now apparently bequeathed with addition of I and A, when we have the NCAA and Amazon extorting South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to alter a bill that passed through the overwhelmingly conservative assembly to protect women’s sports from transgender-identified males.  According to the National Review, “the bill upheld the biological definition of sex, ensuring that any team or sport sponsored by a public school, school district, qualifying association, or institution of higher education would have to be expressly designated as either a male, female or co-ed team.”  Seems logical, doesn’t it? But Noem, under pressure from Amazon and the NCAA was essentially threatened with having her state blackballed if she didn’t bend the legislation to their whims.  So cave she did.  The NCAA was essentially threatening to bar any athletes from South Dakota from their sanctioned competitions and would not hold any events, tournaments or playoffs in her state, a potentially huge cash incentive. What Governor Kristi did was alter the bill so that it did not apply to collegiate athletics and essentially removed its teeth by eliminating biological sex verification.  Despite the myriad of sexual variants proposed by the left, there remains only two biological sexes, aside from some aberrant mutations.  For those of you that are biology impaired, and especially you, the self-proclaimed party of science, a boy is no more a girl than he is a penguin, just because he thinks so.  Nature is a horrible thing and you play the cards you’re dealt, or the chromosomes in this case. No Barr Bodies in your epithelial cells? Congratulations, you’re a dude, regardless of the hardware or lack thereof down under. But these inconvenient truths have not stopped the state of Connecticut who declared transgender athletes may compete as a member of the sex with which they identify.  Using track and field as an example, two transgender athletes took first and second place at the state 100-meter championships collectively winning a total of 15 girls state championship titles, all previously held by biological females.  Although their times are not enough to win against males in their age group, these transgender athletes are shattering women’s records and denying biological female athletes their place on the podium and their ability to compete for scholarships.  As an measure of physical disparity, the US 2016 Olympic Silver medalist in the 400-meter dash is Allyson Felix, whose time can be bested by some 300 male high school athletes today. In the 1970’s Renee Richards, a male ophthalmologist and excellent club-level and collegiate tennis player, underwent sex reassignment surgery, eventually winning a court case to allow her to compete on the women’s professional tennis circuit.  Although she only reached a ranking of 20, one has to couch that with the fact that she was a lanky 6’1” tall, a more impressive height for a woman tennis player in the 70s, but also she was far older than most of her competitors, having had sex reassignment surgery and starting to play the women’s circuit when she was 42 years of age, long past retirement for most women of that era. Chris Evert, the world number one ranked female tennis player in 1975, was often quoted for saying her husband, John Lloyd ranked as high as #20 at one time, could easily clean her clock, alluding to the advantage males hold over their female counterparts. Martina Navratilova, also a former women’s’ number one and longstanding advocate for gay rights, was actually coached by Renee Richards.  She has raised the ire of the LGBTQ establishment despite being a lesbian herself, by denouncing the policy of allowing transgender athletes to compete against their cis-gendered counterparts.  “It’s insane and it’s cheating,”said the tennis great. “I am happy to address a transgender woman in whatever form she prefers, but I would not be happy to compete against her.  It would not be fair.” So do we really want our daughters competing against biological male counterparts who are bigger, stronger, and faster?  In contact sports like soccer, do we want to risk their injury with men on the field of play? Do we want to have them compete against males for career-making scholarship opportunities? After all the successes of Title IX, do we want to undo that success and deprive young women of the self-esteem and reward that comes from success in sports?  Why are we placing the rights of transgender males above the rights of women? Perhaps we should listen to female athletes like Martina, Chris and the brave young women in Connecticut who are challenging the policy in court.   Perhaps they have more insight than most. 

Here It Comes

Here it comes.  And you’ve been waiting for it.  Delirious over their success with ramming home a budget busting, ill-advised Covid-Relief package filled with all sorts of pork by-products in the form of blue state cash infusions, a subway for California, cash for Amtrak, a boost to extend the reach of Obamacare, union gifts in the form of right-to-work restrictions, not to mention a big fat smooch on the lips for the teacher’s union, what could be next on the progressive wish list?  Oh yeah, gun control.  The socialist brass ring.  With our attention diverted by the Covid behemoth working its way through congress, the progressives managed to float a test balloon in the form of two gun control measures that will, of course, do nothing to prevent gun violence.  The first bill aims to close the “Charleston Loophole” where apparently Dylan Roof, the knuckle-dragging perpetrator of the Charleston Church shooting, legally obtained a firearm when the government wasn’t able to complete his background check in three days.  The bill will now extend that waiting period for our incompetent government officials to do their jobs to ten days.  No, let’s not hold the inept bureaucracy accountable.  Let’s not make the process more efficient.  And God forbid, definitely do not hire people that have intelligence above the third grade level because we know how that hiring system works under this administration: competence replaced by race and sexual identity based quotas.  Let’s just give these mental midgets more time to do a job that, in the computer age, should take a chimpanzee less than twenty minutes.  And in the most socialist of fashions, rather than fix the system, which is inefficient and most likely redundant, let’s place the burden on the citizen and subject them to more inconvenience while the government drags it’s flat feet.  Furthermore, Mr. Roof may be a deranged cretin, but I suspect that if he had been denied access to a legal firearm he would have resorted to one of the illegal variety, or chosen any one of a number of vehicular, pyrotechnic or explosive alternatives.  Never underestimate the creativity of the sociopath for producing mayhem. But Representative Jim Clyburn (D-SC) who introduced the bill rationalized the measure by stating “there’s nothing more sacred in the lives of most people than their church”.  Hilarious.  Suddenly, when it’s convenient, the left uses religion as a bludgeon to further their cause when in most circumstances religion is an inconvenient barrier to their agenda, particularly when the religious right “clings” to it.  Witness the abortion and same sex marriage debates. 

Although the first measure passed along strict party line votes, the second measure lured eight Republicans across the aisle.  Good luck in your next primary. This one brought to you by Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) who is chair of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force and it had three GOP cosponsors.  This legislative folly would require universal background checks on all commercial gun sales.  Seems logical doesn’t it? Not so fast.  This bill seeks to make all transactions on all firearms subject to background checks.  In some blue states, New York being the most glaring example, all pistol transfers are already subject to registration.  But this goes one step further by making all firearm transactions subject to registration. Grandfather’s heirloom shotgun passed down to his grandson: background check.  Loaning your hunting rifle to your brother: that’s a gun transfer: background check.  Inheriting dad’s museum quality gun collection: background check.  We all know where this is going.  This is the path to national gun registration.  And historically, every time a government imposes registration, it is always followed by confiscation.  Always. It is the socialist playbook under the guise of “common sense gun control measures”, an endorsement that flew out of Biden’s mouth shortly after the bills sailed through the House. Great Britain did it, Australia did it.   And why not give it a try?  After all, it worked before; both Hitler and Stalin used it to perfection.  Now there’s a real endorsement.  And it was insidious and incremental. “These two pieces of legislation will go a long way in improving gun violence”, proclaimed Thompson.  No Mike, they won’t.  And you know it.  This is just another incremental step in disarming the public, a step that will turn law-abiding Americans into criminals by chipping away at their Second Amendment rights and fostering non-compliance.  But that works out well for you too, doesn’t it?  Non-compliance will be a crime and if you get caught, you will lose all of your firearms.  The end justifies the means.  This, boys and girls, is tyranny.

But the Democrats have been moving towards this goal for decades, never letting a single crisis go to waste.  They have recently implemented an all out assault on the National Rifle Association with the tip of the spear residing in New York, where Attorney General Leticia James (yes, Andy Cuomo’s current nemesis), who called the NRA a “terrorist organization” and a “criminal enterprise” in her election campaign, saw an opportunity to go after them for financial malfeasance.  Granted, the NRA has recently suffered some internal strife where a power struggle occurred between the executive director and the board for questionable corporate perks.  Seeing opportunity, and with the government’s power and taxpayer capital supporting her legal shenanigans, the goal would appear to be bankrupting the NRA or, at the very least, diverting their funds from lobbying efforts for gun rights to having to defend the organization in court against a frivolous lawsuit.  In response, the NRA is seeking to dissolve its charter in New York and reincorporate in Texas. But in a move not unlike California’s attempt to continue to tax residents after they leave the state for more tax friendly climates, the government is similarly attempting to prevent the NRA from leaving New York, requiring them to remain in the ring against the ropes while the state pummels them financially in court. Your tax dollars at work. 

On another front, Mensa will certainly not be petitioning Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) for membership after she recently held an embarrassing presser in which she regaled reporters with her vast knowledge of firearms, pontificating at length: “I held an AR-15 in my hand.  I wish I hadn’t.  It is as heavy as 10 boxes that you might be moving.  And the bullet that is utilized, a .50 caliber, these kinds of bullets need to be licensed and do not need to be on the street”.  What an idiot.  Blaze Media’s Jason Howerton asked the question that all of us were thinking: “How are these people qualified to write legislation on this when they demonstrate such cluelessness?”  Indeed. More to the point, how do these legislators even balance their checkbooks? For those of you who are firearms impaired, the AR platform is the most popular sporting rifle in America.  It is modular, making it convenient to tailor its features to your requirements, it has manageable recoil, and it is reliable.  Its weight varies depending on features, but to suggest it is as heavy as 10 boxes? Boxes of what?  Probably manure, because that’s what Ms. Lee is slinging.  And although the AR-15 is adaptable to many different calibers, the huge .50 caliber round is not one of them. If it did, not only would it likely knock you on your ass and leave an impressive bruise on your shoulder, but it would cost you a small fortune just to purchase the ammunition.  And as any firearms enthusiast knows, after WalMart stopped selling ammo, followed by the BLM riots, then the Democrats sweeping into power, then the Capitol riots, ammunition has all but disappeared off the shelves nationwide as gun owners hoard stockpiles in anticipation of increasing threats to our liberty and a wave of restrictive gun legislation. Even the more affordable firearms have been flying of the shelves, making Democrats once again, the most prolific gun salesmen in history. 

And right on cue, amidst this attack on our gun rights comes the conveniently timed Atlanta Massage Parlor shooting.  Despite local law enforcement and the FBI repeatedly asserting that the shooting does not appear to be racially motivated, the liberal media and government officials immediately labeled it a hate crime because 6 out of the 10 victims were of Asian descent. Even Biden leapt on the opportunity, although “leapt” may be an unfortunate description after he fell repeatedly while attempting to mount the steps to Air Force One.  Ignoring the real crisis occurring at our southern border, Biden instead chose to create a more politically expedient crisis in Atlanta by meeting with the Asian community to promote the narrative that Asians have been targeted for violence after Trump referred to Covid-19 as the “China Virus”.  Following that logic, Brazilians, South Africans and Brits should brace for violence after the media announced virus variants from those locales. Ridiculous. In these troubling times, nothing helps promote your radical agenda better than waving the race card.  NPR spent the two days after the shootings interviewing members of the Asian community regarding their impression that they are being targeted as a result of Trump’s anti-Asian rhetoric. I wonder if they interviewed Harvard?  Even the Wall Street Journal led with “As Atlanta Mourns, Asian-American Feel Under Attack”.  Remarkably there was no mention anywhere in the media of the probability that these massage parlors were fronts for the sex trade, likely employing immigrant women in the usual work off the debt of your passage scheme. Where is the outrage?  After the exertion of the Kavanaugh hearings, the #MeToo movement and women’s’ rights groups must be taking an extended vacation.  Bob Kraft would have begged for such a glaring omission of business practices when he was caught frequenting a similar establishment. And so goes the proven modus operandi:  keep repeating the falsehood until it is accepted as fact.  Be it the “deadly Capitol insurrection”, the “I can’t breathe” narrative, or the “hands up don’t shoot” lie, it has been shown that the media can control the storyline, perpetuate a myth and spawn a movement. So they will ride the wave of public outrage over yet another shooting, this time convincing the uninformed masses that it is racially motivated.  

Meanwhile our elected officials surround themselves with fences and razor wire, armed Capitol Police, private security details and the National Guard, as they hypocritically work to disarm the American public by incrementally chiseling away at our Second Amendment rights.  In addition to the usual cast of anti-gun characters, we have new recruits in the Biden Administration.  Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court by Obama in 2016 was opposed vehemently by the NRA for what they pointed out was a history of belligerence towards the Second Amendment. Yet here he is again, this time emerging as the chief law enforcement officer of the land, our newly minted Attorney General. In 2000, Garland as part of a three-judge panel, sought to uphold the Department of Justice’s illegal practice of retaining records from the National Instant Criminal Background Checks System after firearms purchases.  See paragraph one for the proposed 10-day definition of “instant”.  According to Federal Law, these records are to be destroyed to preserve the privacy of the gun owner.  Garland again found himself on the wrong side of the Second Amendment when he worked unsuccessfully to overturn a ruling that struck down the District of Columbia’s total ban on private citizen gun ownership, his interpretation being that the Second Amendment is not an individual right.  Biden also nominated California’s repugnant AG, Xavier Becerra to head the Department of Health and Human Services.  Becerra is best known for his abhorrent treatment of the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of nuns who care for the elderly poor, when he sued to prevent their religious exclusion from Obamacare mandates that they subsidize contraceptives and life-ending drugs.  He is also an aggressive supporter of abortion rights up to the moment of delivery. But on the gun-control front, he made his career on aggressively defending California’s draconian gun control laws in court, arguing that gun control is “a public health risk”.  He has lobbied for the elimination of laws that would protect the firearms industry from being sued for “product misuse”, a ploy to bankrupt the industry as they are forced to defend against frivolous lawsuits.  Imagine suing Ford for being struck by an F-150.  Absurd. Vivek Murthy, Biden’s choice for surgeon general, is a retread from the Obama years, where she also served in the same capacity.  She too supports treating gun ownership as a public health crisis, akin to a virus that needs to be eradicated. The goal of course is the elimination of gun ownership.  Amazing that after all her years in medical training, she has come to the conclusion that an inanimate object is the cause of an organism’s behavior, instead of the organism itself.  No wonder she didn’t specialize in psychiatry. Kristen Clarke is Biden’s choice to head the DOJ Civil Rights Division.  According to the NRA, her Twitter feed is rife with references to eliminating the Second Amendment, ironic given her job title.  Perhaps she needs a refresher on the definition of civil rights. 

But hypocrisy is the Democrat’s calling card as they seek to defund the police, overwhelm our Border Patrol with unaccompanied minors and allow our porous southern border to Mexico to be overrun with illegal immigrants, among them gang members, terrorists, and drug cartels.  Between 2008 and 2014 according to the Department of Public Safety, illegal aliens committed 611,234 unique crimes in Texas alone, including thousands of homicides and sexual assaults.  And that was prior to Biden rolling out the welcome mat.  While the EPA seeks to designate CO2 a greenhouse gas and a pollutant, we are ironically allowing 100,000 carbon dioxide emitters into our country every month.  Housing them in hotels and giving them plane rides all over the country at taxpayer expense.  All without that pesky swab inserted into their nasopharynx.  You know, the one you have to endure when you fly. Crime is skyrocketing nationwide and our elected officials are sitting in their high castle while the peasants fend for themselves.  Gird your loins gun owners, it’s going to be a long four years. 

Mr. President . . .

 As a man of years, I’m embarrassed for you, Mr. President. I know what it’s like when you feel scattered; your sentences find themselves in search of a paragraph. Those who put you in this position for their political purposes are to be admonished not only for the disservice to you, a supposed revered compatriot but also to our country. Nothing seems to be beyond these seditious Democrat enablers. Not even the decency to avoid their mentally challenged candidate, now President, from ridicule in displaying overt incompetency in our country's service. It's painful for me, even as an ardent Conservative proponent, to watch our President crumble before our national eyes and those of the world.

No Free Lunch

If it were not for a violation of parliamentary procedure that voided its inclusion, we would be adding a new dimension to that old axiom, “there is no such thing as a free lunch.”

Hidden within the $1.9 Trillion Covid Relief Bill passed by the House resided yet another preposterous Democrat proposal to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.  Interesting in that a body of elected officials, the majority of whom have never worked in the private sector let alone ever run a business, are essentially telling business owners how to run their businesses.  Absurd. You should know if this indecent proposal was acted upon what the ramification would have been, who would be most adversely affected? The service industry, particularly restaurants that are currently reeling under the yoke of pandemic related shutdowns.  It would be,Welcome America, to the era of the 50-dollar sandwich.

 The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and has been the standard since 2009.  In the restaurant industry tipped workers, such as waitstaff and bartenders, may be paid a sub-minimum wage as low as $2.13 an hour.  

Appalling, shrieked the liberals! But little known is that if the employee fails to reach minimum wage with tip subsidy, the employer is required by law to make up the difference.  Granted, this can create a roller coaster of income troughs and valleys but servers fare well under this system. 

Mr. Swift’s college age nieces are known to bring home $800 a night on busy weekend shifts at more upscale establishments, and gentleman waiters at his white tablecloth haunts in the city have retired well to their lavish homes in seaside communities. And how much of this cash reward is actually reported on income tax returns or is subject to creative accounting?  Who wouldn’t enjoy a tax-free revenue stream? Not a bad deal.

The restaurant industry is not for the faint of heart, and proprietors operate on a slim profit margin.  Rent, insurance, licensing, equipment, food spoilage, and staff salaries all take a huge bite out of the bottom line. Throw in horrific hours of operation, dealing with a fickle public, and managing a staff of mostly twenty-something malcontents, and the risk often outweighs the benefit.  Once a restaurant gets past it’s first year in business, the failure rate tends to drop, but still, according to Cornell University, 26.15% will close their doors before their first anniversary.  The median lifespan of a restaurant startup with fewer than 5 employees based on US Bureau of Labor Statistics is 3.75 years.  According to Forbes, the larger the restaurant, the greater the chance of success, yet the failure rate overall in a CNBC study “seemed to settle at around 60%.”  Yet, here we are in the midst of a pandemic where 1 in 5 restaurants have closed their doors, many forever, average revenue for those that remain open is down as much as 20%, and our government is seeking to increase their overhead.  Genius. 

As the owner of Joe’s Diner in Phoenix observed in a Wall Street Journal article: “Dang if they don’t kick us when we are down.”

The WSJ reports that the wage increase would have the effect of increasing direct labor costs by $5 to $10 an hour. 

Consequences of such an increase in operating costs would result in more restaurant closures, or at the minimum, cost cutting measures that strike at the largest operating cost, and terminate workers.  Again, in that same WSJ article, the CBO reports that raising the federal minimum wage could deliver raises for up to 27 million workers, lifting 900,000 of them above the poverty threshold but at the cost of 1.4 million jobs. And what about other effects downstream?  Will restaurant patrons respond to higher prices on the menu by lowering the traditional tip scale? And armed with the knowledge that the full time waitstaff is being paid at a rate that equals $30000 a year, will diners feel less inclined to fork over an additional 18% in gratuity, especially after being gouged for that 8 ounce sirloin? So add it up: increased cost of items on the menu, and a tip inflated by that increased tab will result in a reduced tip or, here’s a novel idea: let’s stay in.  Reduced traffic, reduced revenue, closed business. And what about the quality of service? With a guaranteed income, and potentially facing a public less likely to reward you for merely doing your job, will the quality of service decline proportionately now that the server isn’t required to grovel for tips? And how about the other long term workers on your payroll that have been loyal and worked their way up to a higher salary? How is it fair that a new worker will start at $15 an hour when the old battle-axe, who has been toiling in the trenches for years working her way up to $10 an hour, will receive the same $15 an hour as the new recruits? She’s going to want more and she has a valid argument in her favor.  Ka-ching!  Did you hear that?  That’s the sound of your profit margin getting squeezed.

We can see what the result would be, like all the other socialist proposals coming out of Washington: we will become Europe, where dining out is a rare event, the dominion of the wealthy, and an expensive proposition at that. The statistics will worsen, where larger restaurants will stay afloat, but the smaller mom-and-pop eateries, the places that are affordable, unique in offering what is often adventurous ethnic cuisine, the places that give a neighborhood charm, will become few and far between.  And ironically, who owns these smaller start-ups? Immigrants and people of diverse backgrounds, precisely the folks that Democrats claim to protect.  NPR interviewed an Hispanic restaurant owner in Boston yesterday, unable to make ends meet in this era of pandemic- forced shutdowns and reduced in-person dining capacity, and now expected to face a $15 minimum wage: “I can’t charge $50 for a sandwich”. We came close to that litany becoming a reality! 

The Point

So what are we to make of all this, my previous six posts: David Frum, a Republican, espousing his views on dismantling the Republic. Arguing to install mob rule as the new order, lamenting the fact that if we had only abolished those inconvenient impediments to majority rule like the Senate, the judicial branch and the Electoral College, we could have installed the right choice, America’s choice to the presidency. And that would have been Hillary. You can’t be serious. And Joe Walsh, the conservative, afflicted by all accounts with Trump derangement syndrome, reversing his course mid-career to pare his conservativism down to a “fiscal-only” status, while supporting the Democrat party line on social issues, including support for Joe Biden. How would losing those three Supreme Court appointments have satisfied the Republican base or supported conservative values moving forward? Is there any true conservative that would trade those three seats for four years of Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office, which, by all accounts, would have been Obama 3.0 much like what we are seeing now from the Biden Administration? The short answer is no.  David Frum is no more a Republican than Joe Walsh is a conservative. And by identifying as such, they are merely providing the leftist media with trained seals to roll out and perform on command as an example of what they would like all Republicans to be: progressives. So we should take this media exercise for what it is: yet another example of an attack from the left with a new tactic, a new spin.  This time it’s a trusted voice whispering in your ear, one of your own leading you basket of deplorables to the promised land and enlightenment. A brief review of Mr. Frum’s writings would lead anyone to conclude he is certainly not a Republican.  At best he’s a RINO and he barely qualifies for that. And regarding Joe Walsh, bitter over the lack of Republican Party support, enraged that over 50% of registered Republicans would support Trump as a third party candidate, is no more than an opportunist in seeing a social liberal stance as a way to advance his career in the media in a progressive market. He will certainly not endear himself to conservatives with his vehement anti-Trump rants and violent swerve to the left on social issues. We see you for what you are.  

 

 

Venting My Frustration....

Do we really understand the psyche of this President, of this Democrat Party? In our conventional conservative thinking have we overlooked the real possibility they are out to do our country harm in maliciously fostering their own brand of a "palace takeover" a subversion of we the people, these United States of America? I tell you of late these "carrying-ons" have given me pause, the unsettling feeling that something sinister is happening. I never thought myself naive, always feeling I had a grasp of how the game is played and when, and if I was being played, but my interpretation of the rule's of the game appears to be doing me asunder.The absence of any semblance of scruples, of a baseline of common decency and honesty, has me flummoxed. Are there any rules? Worst there doesn't appear to be any desire to be more discrete, more ethical , more circumspect, more truthful. When discretion and honesty are questioned, the crassness and hyperbole is just ramped up another notch or two to lend further confusion and angst. No apology rendered, no truth check demanded. Ugly stuff this, a swamp of innuendo, deception and boorish behavior. Not only is there no discernible code of honor, a bond of common decency among men, but a prevailing sense of-, do on to others before they do unto you! Few seem to be willing to give his or her adversary the benefit of the doubt, his or her adversary the time to recant, to reconsider in retrospect before launching a retaliatory act of their own in equally harsh words and/or offensive deeds. And if one does take a step back, it is perceived as a sign of weakness, an opportunity to inflict yet greater harm and injury by the more aggressor. And to complicate our search for truth and honesty in one another, in our governance we react like mice in a labyrinth of false passageways destined to endless, fruitless and frustrating forays down thought to be paths of escape; poked and prodded in one direction or another along the way by gifted protagonist of political satire! What to believe, who to believe perplexes us in our seemingly daily challenge to ferret out the truth, in trying to find our way back to the America of our fathers, our forefathers! We appear to be in the grip of a would-be totalitarian government, that's got us by the neck and is shaking the life out of us.

Political Theater

I know, you must be weary of this political theater, he says/she says antics; manifested in a deluge of facts and fictions, contradictions and hyperbole! Seemingly there are no boundaries, no integrity, and no above reproach arbiter to sort the wheat

from the chaff, to affirm the truth from the lies! Please don't get discouraged! Know we are on our own, we must take the time to ferret out what is happening, what is not happening in the political process governing us; discern the good guys from the bad guys, the pretenders from our supposed champions, to have a sense of history! I have said it before and I'll say it again, don't take my word for it or anyone else's for that matter-, let our constitution be your touchstone, be your guide! Take the time to clearly understand the unprecedented rights and liberties it affords us, than ask yourself are those rights and liberties being subordinated, worse usurped by would be politicians, by

duly elected politicians! If so, you must by every and any means available to you, act decisively to protect your interests! To be submissive, to be arbitrary, is to be un-American! As a nation, as a society, this is our most crucial hour of need! And, I implore you committed John F Kennedy Democrats of old, time to take one for your country!