Are We Over?

Are you Progressives in your various guises of the mind we have run our course as a society, as the world's preeminent superpower? It's called Societal Collapse; look it up.  If so, may I ask who would you suggest replace us on the world stage? Therein lies the rub. Who would the most likely successor be, in your estimation, for the better, of course-, China, Russia, an Arab Caliphate? You know of these aspiring pretenders of whom I speak, their societies, their histories: Communist Socialism, an economic philosophy that has repeatedly failed the world over; a Theocratic Republic where an Islamic deity rules supreme? Do you see them in their emergence as international leaders, better arbiters, better benefactors to the community of nations than the United States served in that capacity? Tell me, what is it that you see that seemingly favors your preference for their brand of governance over that of ours: 250 years of lives lived in relative freedom, liberty, and prosperity? I'm at wit's end trying to figure out your perspective. What do you know that I can't seem to fathom? Or, are you just anarchist in Progressive clothing calling for the abolition of the United States as it stands simply because you want change for change’s sake? I'm inclined to think the latter, with self-serving animus as a further motivator.

Orwell Realized

And so it goes. It is an Orwellian 1984 landscape where history is rewritten, and the government tells you not to believe your eyes, believe their interpretation of what is happening. The Democrats, in their many stripes, have succeeded through indoctrination and a progressive dumbing down of education to make half of us into compliant socialist puppets. It seems to have happened so fast but has been their long cloaked game all along, accelerated by the convenience of the internet to disseminate their modern-day propaganda. And, to hear that addled New York Senator Nadler prattle on about “human infrastructure,” making immigrants into something inanimate, lumping them in amongst roads, bridges, and sewer systems. The ultimate Orwellian prediction of dehumanizing people into objects, mere numbers to be utilized by the Democrat Party. All, while we the opposition, the GOP in disarray, wring our hands in a benign fit of peak, allowing ourselves to be bullied by these insurrectionest.

The Peter Principal

Fumbling, bumbling Joe Biden, what has our electorate wrought! Our president is a study in ineptitude. If ever there was a president-elect not up to the challenges of the office, Joe Biden fills that bill in spades.  Long tolerated as an employed  affable political hack has finally reached his maximum level of incompetence, exemplifying the Peter-Principal prophecy. And, as a result, we are to endure, in full measure, that prophecy for at least two years if we can survive that long!

It Never Ends

 And now the medical journals all calling for something to be done about climate change because of its effects on health, especially that of ethnic minorities, of course. Had to get that in there. Even the Journal of Psychiatry is blaming an increase in suicides on, you guessed it: climate change. Couldn’t possibly be social media, could it? Or maybe Covid lockdowns?  Or the recession? Not even the old standby: racism?  Nope. Climate change. Why can’t these liberal, ivory tower dwelling, pointy headed twerps stay in their own lane and report on medical science. Like maybe some actually helpful data on the effectiveness of Covid vaccines for example. But no, they have to wade into the political arena. Didn’t they try this not too long ago by declaring gun control a medical issue?  I have an idea: how about reporting on something you may know something about?  Like reproduction. Specifically how humans continue to reproduce at an alarming rate, resulting in an abundance of carbon based life forms that not only expel more CO2 into the environment, but require places to live that gobble up more of your precious natural resources. There’s the solution to climate change staring these medical morons right in the face, but somehow the geniuses fail to report on it. It’s population control, dummies. And as an added benefit, it would also result in less people living in poverty, less territorial disputes, less damage from wildfires, less damage from hurricanes, the preservation of natural resources, less overcrowding, less disease, and more access to healthcare and services for the rest of us. Progress need not be synonymous with population growth. If you are truly interested in conservation, then control the numbers of the beasts that are consuming our planet. Humans. 

Are Entitlements Making America Anemic?

An interesting editorial appeared in the Wall Street Journalwhere Anthony Gill, a professor of political science, attempted to explain the success of the Taliban through an economics prism.  He referenced economist Laurence Iannacone, who argued that “organizations are “club goods” wherein members share many collective benefits such as welfare provision and fellowship.  Those benefits depend on active contribution. If everyone participates willingly, the organization is vibrant.  If many members are free-riders-receiving the benefits without pulling their weight-the quality of the good dissipates and the organization becomes anemic.” Perhaps this can be extrapolated and applied to western democracies as well,where religious and traditional beliefs have been replaced by government mandates and reliance on the state. With 61% of Americans paying no taxes in an era where the current administration is intent on increasing entitlements, most notably the $3.5 Trillion domestic spending billworking its way through Congress, are we ourselves becoming anemic?  With free pre-K, universal child care payments, paid family and medical leave and free community college setting the stage for the next push for single payer health care and guaranteed universal income, more beneficiaries will likely choose to remain on the sidelines and take a pass on “active contribution” without any disincentives.  Professor Gill observes that “to limit free riding, strict religious groups (like the Taliban) require members to prove their loyalty via costly and visible behavior that deters the lazy…”  In other words, they employ a carrot and stick approach, something that progressives in this country continue to move away from by removing disincentives that would otherwise keep the “lazy” productive.  Witness the Obama Administration that removed the requirement that an able bodied recipient had to prove to the welfare office that they were actively looking for work, or when a clean drug test was eliminatedas a requirement to receive benefits.  Reward sloth and,surprise…..you get more sloth.  Iannacone again: “stigmatizing behavior also limits the outside opportunities of group members and binds them to the organization.”  The welfare stigma has long been eliminated where even the term “welfare” has been replaced with “benefits” and the embarrassing food stamps and welfare checks replaced with credit cards.  And with the stigma removed, the immediate result was benefit cards being used in strip clubs and to purchase booze and cigarettes. Stigma eliminated, replaced with pride in being able to “work the system”. Not cool.  Especially not for the 39% of us who are actively contributing.  You know, the ones pulling the wagon. And with the most progressive tax structure in the world, where the top 10% of earners pay 71% of the tax burden, the Democrat party’s rallying cries of “tax the rich” and “pay your fair share” become even more repugnant in their outright misrepresentation of the facts. Professor Gill closes with a nod to the Taliban: “despite the seeming irrelevance of religion in the secular West, policy makers and military strategists would do well to understand its power elsewhere in the world.”  Perhaps we should consider a little religion as a potential cure for our anemia here at home.

Despondent

Sorry about this rant but it's raining and I’m depressed. I look on with a combination of amazement and disgust as the Taliban, appearing to all the world as a bunch of primitive, illiterate, goat herding, pajama-wearing, with a turban on one end and either decidedly unfashionable sandals or an absurdly out of place pair of white high-top basketball sneakers on the other, parade around Kabul with our military gear. Now I don’t doubt their resolve as a fighting force, but how can it be that our guys look like Robo-cop and these scruffy characters look like they just rolled out of bed and remained caught in the bedsheets. And yet we are the ones that turned tail, and they rule the day. What’s wrong with this picture? And even more infuriating is the fact that they now are in possession, gifted by our hapless government, of the latest in assault weapons, complete with high tech optics, thousands of dollars in hardware, that I as an American am banned from owning despite my Second Amendment protections. Once again, playing out on network television, a level of irony and hypocrisy that is apparently lost on the public. Like the thousands of illegal immigrants allowed into and dispersed across our country unfettered by Covid testing, vaccine passports, mask mandates, and all the other edicts American citizens have to endure, here we have the Taliban parading around Afghanistan with American made assault weapons that Americans are not allowed to own. Given to them by…..America. And if you really want to blow a gasket, head over to your local gun shop and price out an AR fitted with a Trijicon scope and a pair of night-vision goggles. Merry Christmas, indeed. And that won’t even be the fully automatic version. We haven’t been able to own those bad boys since 1934. Not that you’d want one. With ammo shortages continuing to plague sport shooters in the US, apparently, the only folks not concerned with keeping their magazines topped off are, you guessed it, the Taliban. Why? Because we left them enough ammo to last for years. Genius. So as we Americans sit here watching our country disintegrate and our rights dismantled, we may want to consider to whom can we turn for guidance. Maybe we should consult with the Taliban.  

Is there no end to this administration’s folly!

Both embarrassing and dispiriting, but what would you expect from a nation that boasted about having brought a master's program in gender studies to Kabul’s Stone Age university? We have been stripped naked on the world stage, our elite political class seen as the incompetent, self-serving boobs that they really are. Humiliating does not even begin to describe it. The WSJ made an outstanding observation that President Biden was somehow able to to dismantle every single President Trump agreement and accomplishment except the one he made with the Taliban. And with both President Trump and Vice President Pence now voicing their version of the actual agreement, it appears that President Biden’s blame game is just more posturing and finger pointing from this foreign policy dunce. Again from the Wall Street Journal: former defense secretary Robert Gates wrote in his 2014 memoir that then Vice-President Biden “has been wrong on nearly every foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades”. Thus President Biden’s only real achievement appears to be having attained a remarkable level of consistency to our detriment.