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Jul032019

The Lesson

The alt-Left group, Antifa, and the alt-Right group, the Proud Boys clash in Portland this weekend. And, as usual, the innocent are the ones that get hurt. Conservative journalist, Andy Ngo, was assaulted and hospitalized when he was reporting from the protest. Three Antifa rioters were arrested.

Andy Ngo

The Proud Boys are an alt-Right racist group. Their founder, Gavin McInnes, is a well known racist and fascist. There is no question that this group is bad and should be rejected by civilized society. They are a terrible group. The media pushes this image of the groups and they should.

But Antifa is a different story. For some reason, the news media refuses to condemn this violent group that has done nothing but disrupt daily life and assault those they do not agree with while pushing to try to overturn the United States government. Most of Antifa hold the same basic beliefs: the United States a a racist, sexist and unfair government that needs to be shut down. People who say things they do not agree with must be shut down at any cost, including through violence if necessary. What is ironic is that, though they accuse everyone else of racist,including blacks like Candace Owens, most members are twenty-something white people.

So, why does the media defend them? Let’s listen to dumbass Don Lemon give a stupid reason to defend Antifa:

This stupidity is exactly what CNN has been peddling. Chris Cuomo said the same thing. Well, Antifa is a hate group, terror organization and promotes fascism. But I think we need to know what fascism is and how it compares to communism and socialism. Are Trump, his supporters and conservatives really fascists?

Political vs. Economic System

One thing I want to go over is the difference between a political system and an economic system. A political system is how a government is run. Our government is a democratic republic. That mean we have the ability to vote for representatives in the House, Senate and for President (that’s the democracy part) and those representatives create and vote on laws (that’s the republic part). Contrary to popular belief we are not a pure democracy. Our economic system is capitalism. Capitalism is basically a free market of lightly regulated economy. So we are a democratic republic with a capitalist economy.

So why do I bring this up? For two reasons. First, because all my definitions define each of these as an economic and political system. That’s just not true. When we talk about Hitler and refer to him as a fascist, that does not mean he ran a fascist government (i’m not sure there is such a thing as a fascist political system). Nazi Germany was a dictatorship with a fascist economic system. It’s important to see the difference. The next reason is because it will clarify terms that are being thrown around like “democratic socialist”. Basically, a democratic socialist believes that the government should have a democratic political system, where people vote, and a socialist economic system, where the government controls the means of production and all business.

Fascism

Vocabulary.com defined fascism as, “Fascism is a way of ruling that advocates total control of the people.” Fascist governments believe in the collective over the individual and are typically dictatorships. Speech is suppressed, they are typically atheist and are militaristic. Those that do not fall in line face imprisonment or worse. What is different about fascist governments from socialist governments is that the economics system still remains private but heavily regulated. Also, race may or may not be a factor. Germany was a fascist country that was heavily racist but Italy did not persecute other races or religions until after it had allied with the Nazis.

It was mistakenly believed that Nazi Germany was the first fascist. Government. But that’s just not true. Germany was a socialist country that became fascist. Italy was the first fascist country under dictator Benito Mussolini. In his book, The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left, Dinesh D’Souza describe Mussolini as “half-assed” when it came to implementing a socialist system. Mussolini was a socialist but thought that nationalizing business in Italy would be way too hard to do and way too unpopular to stay in power. So he decided just to allow businesses to be privately run and just placed heavy regulation.

Hitler was a socialist. He wanted to nationalize business so they were all government run. But he saw how well the fascist regime in Italy was doing and decided to do the same thing. The United States under Franklin D. Roosevelt also leaned toward fascism. One of the agencies established by the New Deal was the National Recovery Administration (NRA). The goal if this was to eliminate the “vicious” competition of capitalism. It was suppose to set codes of “fair practices” (regulations) and set prices. Companies that abide by the regulations and set prices were made a member of the NRA and could put a sticker in their windows. Businesses that were members of the NRA were sponsored by the government and citizens were suppose to be encouraged to frequent those businesses. This is a prime example of a fascist policy. The U.S. Supreme Court thought so to. They unanimously found to be unconstitutional in 1935 because the declared the government infringed on the separation of powers.

In conclusion, fascism is an economic system that allows for private industry that is heavily regulated by the government.

Socialism

Merriam-Webster.com defines socialism as, “any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods. 2a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property.” Essentially, socialism does away with private business and the concept of the individual. The collective or the community is what owns and controls business (whatever that means).

Essentially, all business is controlled by the government as a proxy to the people. In a true socialist economy (impossible), money is collected from the businesses run by the central government and then being redistributed in the form of money and services. No one in a socialist economy is, theoretically, above anyone else (we know that’s not true). There are only a few truly socialist economies in the world and they are not healthy. Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea are the main examples that come to mind. And we see just how terrible those places are.

Socialism is a great idea on paper but can never work. Why? Because of people. Human beings aren’t robots. People are competitive animals that want to be rewarded when they succeed. Socialism takes the competition away. That’s socialist economies do not innovate. They create nothing and what they do create is trash. Look at the disaster that was the Soviet Union. The economy, even with all the resources it had, was not much richer than Italy. That’s why the United States was able to choke them out and force their collapse. The Nordic countries that lefties point to as socialist models are actually not socialist. Countries like Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands are actually free markets with distributive (socialist) policies. But even those countries are beginning to feel the bite of the nanny state and are dialing back on re-distribution. China, which for the longest time was a socialist economy when Mao took over, has started embracing private industry since the 70’s and 80’s. Private companies open factories their and sell to the Chinese. You can find a McDonald’s, a KFC, Taco Bell and other United States businesses operating in China. The remaining socialist’s policies still make the country far weaker economically than the United States.

In conclusion, socialism is an economic system where the means of production and business is controlled by the government. The government controls distribution of wealth, market prices and production.

Communism

Quora.com defined communism as, “a political and economic system in which the major productive resources in a society—such as mines, factories, and farms—are owned by the public or the state, and wealth is divided among citizens equally or according to individual need.” Sounds familiar, right? When some asks the difference between communism and socialism, the common answer is a firing squad. And that’s what it is.

Communism is a totalitarian government. People own nothing and any property, from land to a bike is property of the government and can be taken for whatever reason. Those that resist in any way including talking bad about the government, religion or even reading the wrong book can lead to arrest, imprisonment, torture or worse. The citizens are not seen as people but as commodities that can be assigned tasks which must be completed. If those tasks are not completed as expected, you can be sure a punishment is on the horizon.

In conclusion, communism is a political and economic system that in totalitarian in nature. The government controls all production and can seize, forcibly if necessary, all property for the good of the state.

So What’s This Got to Do With Antifa?

Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin did not do it alone. That had a strong, violent force. Hitler had the Brown Shirts. Mussolini had the Black Shirts. Stalin had the NKVD. These secret and personal police worked outside the local police and the army. They were the strong arms of these tyrants. These people would imprison, torture and kill any dissenters, whether they were guilty or not. They would break up any protests with extreme violence.

The left has the same force: Antifa. And it’s in the guise of being an anti-fascist group. Well, it’s not. The discourage debate. They shout down opposition. And they are militant and violent. They are the left’s Black Shirts. They are the left’s Brown Shirts. The are the left’s NKVD. And they are being encouraged to continue. In Seattle and Portland, Antifa is not restrained in any way for fear police intervention will increase tensions and violence. Well, let’s look at what happened to Andy Ngo and ask ourselves if police would have made things worse.

But we continually see this. At UC Berkeley, Antifa disrupted a speech by Milo Yiannopoulos. The police were told to stand down and Antifa did a $1 million in damage. And as usual, the media throw half-hearted condemnation and then, in the same sentence, justify the violence as a counter to “hate speech”. Listen to another video by Fleccas talking to a bunch of Antifa and you’ll get an idea of the thought process of these people.

Not only do these people want to shut down speech and thought and want to eliminate opposing idea through violence, the cease to be a group that protests. They are now a fascist hate group trying to control their opponents through fear.

So, Is Trump a Nazi or Fascist?

Nope. He’s not.

He can’t be a fascist because he’s a capitalist. He doesn’t control the media (Obama did). They can say whatever they want and they do. He doesn’t regulate business. In fact, he’s cut regulation and government interference in business (democrats increased regulation). He doesn’t jail his foes (Obama did).

Is Trump a Nazi? Well, Nazis were socialists that became fascists. So no for the same reasons as above.

This is a bigger problem. It means that the political left and the moderate right is growing farther apart. This means less discourse. Less reason. We are now talking about open boarders, medicare for illegal aliens, socialism, gun confiscation, the destruction of religion, the addition of infinite pronouns and abortion to the moment of birth and beyond. Donald Trump is only going to be President for another six years but this fight is going to be here for much longer. And we need to hold our ground. Because we are on the right side.

Follow me on Twitter @RunninFewl
Download and listen to my podcast on iTunes, Podbean, Podcast Addict and YouTube

https://www.foxnews.com/us/antifa-conservative-protests-turn-violent-as-demonstrators-throw-milkshakes-of-quick-dry-cement-at-police-and-onlookers

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/fascism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Recovery_Administration

Jun082019

Getting Warmer…

Bob Mueller has a surprise press conference and says absolutely nothing new but Dems decide it’s time to impeach. Guy sets himself on fire in front of the White House. And the dumbest story of the week.

The news cycle is heating up.

I Bid You Adieu

This is a story I don’t care about but I’m going to go over because it is the biggest one of the week so far. Bob Mueller decided to hold a surprise news conference yesterday. It was short (about 10 minutes) and he took no questions. I will summarize it since he didn’t really say much but you can watch it if you want.

In a nutshell, Mueller explained what he was doing for the last two years, how and why the report was written and that he’s done. He said he would not answer questions or appear in front of Congress because everything is in the report. He would not answer any questions that go beyond the report. He was done, finito, kaput.

But he did not give Trump any love. He said that his office never exonerated him. Then he said something amazing. He explained the Office of Legal Council (OLC) memo on not being able to indict a sitting president. So he says: “Charging the president with a crime was, therefore, not an option we could consider.” Wow! He’s basically saying that he couldn’t really investigate because he wasn’t allowed to. He says he wrote the report, he stands by the report and people should read the report.

This is a dog whistle to Congress.

Of course, the Left flips. Jerry Nadler releases a statement that pretty much sums up why Mueller had this press conference.

First off, I don’t understand how anyone is lying here. I read the report. There is nothing in the report that proves anything. How Trump or Barr can lie about what is in the report is insane because anyone can read the report. It makes me wonder whether this dunderhead actually read the report.

The Nadler goes over Mueller’s three points: no exoneration, Trump may have obstructed justice and that it is Congress’s responsibility to take action. The no exoneration thing is in the report. Not sure why it’s a thing. Trump may have wanted to obstruct but he didn’t. He never fired Mueller, nobody took him serious when he ordered others to fire Mueller, he never prevented anyone from being interviewed by Mueller and the Trump administration handed over millions of documents. Alright, he bitched about it a lot, threw temper tantrums and wanted to fire him. So what? Also, there needs to be intent to stop the investigation to cover up guilt. That’s the law. There wasn’t any because there was no crime to cover up.

The third point about Congress needing to get involved is exactly right. He wants Congress to impeach. He said it in the report and he is saying it now. And the Dems all know it. Listens to Nancy “Jaws” Pelosi talk about Trump after the press conference:

Ah, yes. The old everything’s-on-table cliche. I do want you to notice something about both responses? They both seem kind of nervous and they have good reason.

Here’s the truth. Mueller had this press conference to wake the Dems up and remind them that his report is a blueprint for an impeachment. And it is. The Left seems to be waiting for Mueller to pull a unicorn out of his butt that will get Trump out of the White House and into a jail cell. Basically, Mueller has nothing else and he’s telling them to go forward.

Mueller hates Trump with a passion. He’s wants to make a mess of his presidency. And he did for two years. But now he’s done and wants Congress to take the reigns. I also think that Mueller may want to create chaos to protect his buddies at the FBI and CIA. Comey and Brennan are in trouble or, at least, one of them is. And now, the DoJ is investigation into some of the possible questionable behavior that includes the FBI, CIA and Obama Administration. Some, like Dan Bongino, even think the Mueller investigation may have been put together to clean up that mess. I would say this is probably more conspiracy theory except it is curious Mueller wrote the report basically telling Congress to impeach Trump and the lack of acknowledgement of the dirty Steele Dossier which led to the FISA warrants. So I’m not sure it is a conspiracy theory anymore and have a feeling we may find out the truth when Barr gets finished.

The reality is Mueller really screwed the Democrats. He put them in a corner. The reasonable Democrats, like Pelosi, remember what happened when Republicans impeached Bill Clinton and he actually committed crimes which he was punished for after his term (he was actually disbarred). Clinton became more popular. This will happen to Trump, especially since the Mueller report didn’t find any evidence of a crime. Impeachment would be a disaster for the Dems. Republicans would keep the Senate, the Executive and, probably, retake the House.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens. I have a feeling the Democrats will slow play this and just talk about impeachment without actually doing it.

Tragedy in Washington DC

Yesterday, I mentioned that a man set himself on fire in front of the White House. I didn’t say anything about it because I didn’t know if he was going to survive or why he did it. Well, I’m glad I waited. Here’s the video below. It’s brutal so you’ve been warned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA5UMNxLQgM

Well, I’m glad I didn’t talk about it. The man died last night and, it sounds like, he may have been mentally ill. His name was Arnav Gupta from Maryland. His family had reported him missing yesterday morning and feared for his physical and emotional well being. Authorities don’t have reason why Gupta did this.

Dumb Story of the Day

Donald Trump just got back from Japan just in time for the New York Times to reported that Trump ordered that the USS John McCain needed to stay out of his sight. Pictures of the ship show it partially covered by a tarp. As usual, they kind of got the story wrong.

Apparently, and I am assuming here because several stories I have read are different, someone from the White House asked the Navy to hide the ship. Trump didn’t know about it. The ship is in Japan for repairs. The ship did have a tarp on it and the crew did have the day off. What unclear is why. But the ship was docked and not really hidden. Trump had some comments about the “controversy”.

Ugh! Why, why, why?

Couldn’t he just say, “John and I had our issues but I would never do that,” and move on to the next question. Stop telling the world you don’t like the dead war hero. I didn’t like McCain either but I wouldn’t trash him every time he was mentioned. And a White House staff member telling the Navy to hide a destroyer is not “well meaning”. It’s stupid and makes the White House look petty. That person should be demoted or fired.

This is where Trump is going to get himself into trouble. All he has to do is stop saying and Tweeting stupid things. The Democrats will bury themselves with all their insane ideas.

Follow me on Twitter @RunninFewl
You can also listen to my podcast on iTunes, Podbean, Podcast Addict and YouTube

Resources:

https://nypost.com/2019/05/30/arnav-gupta-man-who-set-himself-on-fire-near-white-house-dies/

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/us/politics/trump-mccain-ship.html

May292019

Flash Blog: Happy Memorial Day!!

It was Memorial Day yesterday! I spent the day with Josie so their were no screens. I didn’t even say anything on Twitter. Today, I’m going to wish all a Happy Memorial day and let Dan Crenshaw express it in a way only a soldier can.

Happy Memorial Day!

May242019

Missing the Boat

Abortion is a right and tax payers should pay for it. Nancy Pelosi says there is a nefarious cover up being perpetrated by Trump and the DOJ. And Juliana Margulies, Robert De Niro and Jeff Daniels don’t like the bad orange man. And non of this crap is important.

Let’s talk about the real news where real people are really suffering. Let’s go outside the box today.

First Off

The above is not unimportant. But the problem is these pretty irrelevant stories really aren’t going to change much. I listen to several podcasts a day and watch the news. It doesn’t stress me out. I actually enjoy. And it gives me fodder for my podcast and blog. Before I talk about what is important, where people really are dying, let’s go talk about the subjects in my introduction.

Abortion seems to be the only thing people can talk or Tweet about. I don’t know why everyone is flipping out. And I mean flipping. I’m not saying the debate is not hot but we have been debating this for fifty years. I also just wrote about it so I don’t feel anything in the news is new.

That whole Trump obstruction/collusion/is-that-a-hair-piece thing continues on. This is a stupid story. There have been a thousand investigations on this garbage and all have lead to the same conclusion: the is no crime. The Left has lost their narrative and just can’t find the courage to let it go. They know there is nothing else. Even Trump’s tax records are probably not going to go anywhere. His tax returns may be embarrassing for Trump but that’s about it. Articles of impeachment are supposed to be introduced today but we’ll see where that leads. It’s just stalling. Nothing is getting done.

A bunch of actors, which I mentioned above, are pissed off at Donald Trump. This is nothing new. For some reason the media, including right wing outlets keep reporting their temper tantrums. I’m going to do something different. I’m going to complement one.

Keanu Reeves has gotten himself a bit of a reputation. No, we don’t really know about his politics and he probably isn’t as dumb as everyone seems to think. It’s that he’s a regular guy. He flies commercial, rides the subway and goes to the movies like a regular person. But more, he’s a nice guy. Watch this video filmed by a fan on a New York subway.

Wearing regular clothes, not hiding himself, being a gentleman. This guy is a class act. And many have said it about him. But, this week, something happened that just cemented this opinion. I won’t go over it. I’ll just let you read the Tweet from a star-struck fan of Reeves:

You know, if the rest of Hollywood acted like this guy, maybe people would listen to them. I just thought this was a nice story about a nice guy.

But what I am a little miffed about is what is not being talked about. Though there really aren’t a lot of stories the are new or relevant, there are things going on in the world that are actually kind of important. But they are being completely ignored. Why?

Venezuela

The crisis in Venezuela continues and things are just getting worse.

The socialist government and Nicholas Maduro are under siege from the true president and opposition leader Jaun Guaido. The people, sick of being starved and dealing with the loss of basic needs like toilet paper and medicine, have take to the street upon Guaido’s request and are beginning to protest. The aim is to force Maduro out. The unrest has been going on for over a month. So far, the two sides are at a stalemate.

Venezuela was once the richest country in South America and has more oil than the Middle East. But Hugo Chavez, the first socialist president, started nationalizing business, taking away rights such as speech and gun ownership and making friends with some really bad actors like Cuba, Iran and Russia. In response, the United States placed heavy sanctions on the country. Those sanctions, along with lousy government management of business, have brought the country to chaos. Starvation, disease, unemployment and extreme inflation have made the country a craphole.

But the media says nothing. So I will tell you what is happening today.

The stalemate continues. The government is using force to make the unarmed civilian population suppressed and compliant. China, Russia and Cuba are in the country, trying to protect the Maduro regime. This is dangerous for the United States because it actually puts the enemies of the United States within shooting distance of the Motherland. Guaido has a lot to lose and must continue his attempt of reclaiming the government. This may be his only chance and he must make the most of it. Failing may cost him his life and keep the country under Maduro’s twisted reign.

So, how is Maduro keeping the country afloat or, the more precise question, how is he paying his army?

According to TheHill.com, the military says the government has become a hive of organized crime much like the mafia. They are illegally selling gold to other sympathetic countries. They are also a a heavy exporter of illicit drugs, selling to other countries. For a while, they were exporting oil to friendly countries but that has made it difficult to bring money into the country. Mismanagement has lead to far lower oil production and the lowering of oil prices has made their oil reserves worth very little. They are in such peril that the German company who sold them oil tankers have repossessed three of their tankers. Things are going south in Venezuela. Yay, socialism.

So, why isn’t anyone talking about this? Well, duh, socialism. With media darlings like AOC and Bernie Sanders pushing us toward socialism and, recently, a poll said a lot of Americans are beginning to hear their words. It was reported that 40% of Americans, especially young Americans, believe socialism is the way that will make this country great. If the Left-leaning media reported about Venezuela, people would realize that it sucks. Can’t have that! So it’s ignored.

Homeless Problem

Well, homelessness has finally become an issue in the state of California.

Gov. Gavin Newsome (D- CA) held a press conference on Tuesday revealing plans on how to combat the homeless problem in California. That’s right, he’s finally going to do something about it. What action is he going to perform to end this problem? That’s right! He’s going to create a commission! Because nothing will solve a problem better than throwing bureaucrats at it. I’m excited! These guys are going to do research. Then their going to analyze data. Then they’re going to debate on solutions. Then they won’t agree. Then they’ll created another committee to determine what data they’ll need. That committee will need more research. Then they’ll analyze that research. And there’s more. By the end, By the end, this will take two years, cost $100 million and, in the meantime, the homeless population will go from 65,000 to 130,000. And the solution will be: waste more money putting band-aids on this gaping wound. They’ll create housing projects and indoctrination…um, sorry… education programs that attempt to get people on the right track.

Oh, I forgot. The commission of bureaucrats will not be broken up because when… I mean, if… this whole thing fails.

Ugh. So dumb. Gavin Newsome might of well said he would solve the homeless problem by sticking his thumb up his surgically enhanced butt.

This is what really bothers me about politics: no one want to solve the problems. Because they will be seen as mean, cruel and not compassionate. This is garbage. To solve this problem requires a little tough love. And they should show this tough love because people who are being productive are suffering. The streets are filled with human waste, drug needles, trash and rats. This leads to disease. But, at least, illegal aliens get driver’s licenses, free education, free healthcare, home assistance, food stamps all without paying taxes. Nice!

But I digress. I’m going to tell you how to solve this problem. Two ways, I came up with on my own and the third I got from Ben Shapiro. Great podcast, listen to it. Subscribe to the The Daily Wire. I do.

There are three reasons people are in the street: mental illness, drug addiction and just because. In the case of mental illness, I think it is time to bring back the asylum system. I know why they were closed in the past but we know so much more now. The mentally ill need to be taken care of because not only can they not care for themselves, they can be dangerous to others. Some can also be treated and returned back to society. But doing nothing is just irresponsible and cruel.

Drug addiction is the same way. I know this because my son was a drug addict and it cost him his life. With the drug addicted, jail or prison is hardly a way to treat them but they need far more than just a visit to a treatment center. We should build facilities that are like jails but are made for only treatment. They will be housed, will not be allowed out and will receive detox, counseling and job training. Those facilities will monitor them and keep them working so their minds to wander to drug use. Once they have completed treatment, the patients must still be monitored through outpatient treatment and if they relapse, back to the inpatient treatment facility.

These two options are expensive. But I don’t think they are more expensive than the disaster of just letting them be. There are a lot of details that would need to be worked out to verify these services do not become like the VA hospitals.

Finally, there are those who are homeless because they just are. This can be seen in San Jose. People who work live in RVs and cars simply because they can’t afford rent. Well, too bad. If one can’t afford to live someplace, they need to move. And the police should be able to tell them that. I understand they have “rights” but so do I who lives in the same neighborhood. And I shouldn’t have to step over some guy in the street or have to worry about my kids dealing with strangers in a park because hundreds of people are living there. Visit Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

So why is no one talking about this problem? It is a huge problem and it is continuing to grow? Take a look at the top ten cities with a homeless problem and I bet you’ll figure it out.

That’s right, eight of the ten cities are Democratically run. See, Democratic policies don’t work well. In the case of New York and California, their policies border on socialist policies. I know this because I live in California and I know Bill de Blasio is an idiot. The media sees this and know it is a huge problem so there are reports. But they report it as a national problem. They don’t report it as a failure of Democratic policy. They just won’t.

Fun Stuff

I finished reading two books and listening to another. I have an Audible account and spend two hours a day listening to fun books. I actually read history and other non-fiction books because I like to go slow.

The book I listened to through Audible was called The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. I really enjoy horror and ghost stories but I have better stuff to read. That’s why I joined Audible. Reedsy.com rated this book number 14 in the 100 best horror stories so I went for it. It was written in the fifties and was alright. I wouldn’t say it was a horror as much as it was a psychological suspense novel. Written well but I could tell it was written in the fifties by a woman. The characters were really over-the-top. The writing is beautiful. I wish I can write like that. There is a Netflix series with the same name but it is about before the actual story in the book. For me the book didn’t work.

The next book that I read was The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*** by Mark Manson. I bought this one by accident. I thought it was a comedy but it is actually a self-help book. I put it on my shelf for a while. But, I was waiting to get another book from Amazon, I decided to read it because it looked to be easy to read. It was excellent. Manson talks about how people are way too emotional and get upset about the dumbest things. He says we should recognize when this happens and just not give a f-. It’s a great book and it is really funny. Read this one.

The last book is The Right Side of History by Ben Shapiro. This book is about the two main philosophies of the political history of Western Civilization: Judaeo-Christian morality and Greek reason. It discusses how the two philosophies were born, how they came together, how the Founding Fathers used them to create the Constitution and the counter philosophies, such as existentialism, are suppressing those philosophies, essentially destroying Western Civilization. But panic not! Ben tells us how we, as individuals, can save what we had. It’s a great book and very easy to read. Basically, Shapiro crams 3000 years of political philosophy in 218 pages. This is a must read.

You can follow me on Twitter @RunninFewl
You can listen to my podcast on iTune, Youtube, Podbean and Podcast Addict.

Resources:

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/keanu-reeves-fan-posts-viral-tweets-about-actor-buying-ice-cream-cone-just-to-give-him-an-autogrpah

https://thehill.com/policy/international/445127-top-us-commander-says-maduro-mafia-poses-threat-beyond-venezuela

https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Gov-Gavin-Newsom-says-he-s-serious-about-13867950.php?psid=6fL7k

May222019

Time to Get Back to School!

Josie and I go to a college graduation and I get today’s topic. Let’s talk about the dysfunction of today’s colleges.

Celebrating Diversity

Josie, my fiance, and I were heading to her niece’s graduation from Cal State San Marcos. She is graduating with a B.S. in Biology. And she worked her butt off to get it. Josie is very proud of her. So proud that I wore slacks, a nice shirt and shaved. It was raining and I wasn’t looking forward to this. But I love Josie so I just got ready and buried my misery.

On the way to the graduation, Josie brought up something out of the blue. She said, that at Mira Costa, where she goes to school, the graduates who were Black and Hispanic were allowed to have another ceremony. It wasn’t a graduation but it was a celebration of their race. They received a sash that is representative of their “native” land. I put that in quotes because most are actually born in the United States.

Josie was pissed off about it. She thought it should be celebrated how hard she worked to accomplish her goal. Her as an individual. Not her as a Mexican (Josie was born in Mexico and is a legal resident alien). I asked her if she was going to go and she said no. She wanted to be recognized as Josie. When she asked what I thought about it, I let her have it.

Either way, it is racist. And it is racist for a couple of reasons. First, the school is being racist against the race they are supposedly celebrating. Notice that white people do not have these little ceremonies that Blacks and Hispanics are having. White people aren’t wearing sashes that represent whiteness. Is the college system celebrating Hispanics and Blacks graduating because they didn’t think people of color could actually get through college? Were the colleges surprised by their success?

And why not celebrate white people? Are we white people not any more special as the people of color? Did I not work as hard as they did to get my degree? Why is my work being minimized simply because I’m not a person of color? That sounds pretty racist to me.

The reality is, our college system is falling apart. They are becoming indoctrination centers for the Left. They embrace intersectionality and identity politics. They spit on the Constitution by rejecting free speech and dismiss on religion. They teach what we are suppose to believe and use science when it is convenient. They pamper our youth with safe spaces and rejecting speakers that will trigger their stress through violent, hate speech (yet they know nothing of the speakers for the most part).

Hell, they came up with words like “safe spaces,” “triggering,” and “speech is violence.” They also came up with the concepts of intersectionality and identity politics. They push globalization, socialism and reject American identity and exceptionalism. It is not uncommon to see some Lesbian Dance Theory teacher burning an American flag because her half-caf-half-decaf carmel amontillado was served by a barista with an “I Love Babies” pin on his apron.

Let’s break some things down and look how the colleges are dealing with this crazy stuff.

Answering the Demands

One of the biggest problems with today’s colleges is that it is the students that are running them. The patients running the asylum is never a good idea. And there have been some really bazaar demands by the students. The Daily Beast has a list of weird demands like segregated safe spaces and thee abolition of poetry classes the focus on white authors. That’s right. The students basically are looking to eliminate the Western Civilization. You can read the article below.

But the big problem with letting the students control is the lack of discipline. See, the colleges have bitten into the belief that self-esteem is everything. But this leads to near hysterical reaction by the students when they don’t get there way. An example of this can be seen when students confront a professor about his belief that students should be free to choose their Halloween costumes. What school did this temper tantrum occur? Yale University. That’s right, one of the best universities in the world.

Can you believe the disrespect? Can you believe the school did nothing to discipline these spoiled brats? What’s going to happen to these children when they get out of college and need to get a job?

I can tell you what’s going to happen. They’re going to fail. And it will be the fault of the parents and the school system. These children are not prepared for the fact that the world doesn’t give a damn about them. The world is cruel and will not care about their self-esteem. Adversity is exactly something the schools should be teaching them. Because that’s reality.

That will lead us to our next collegiate issue.

The Death of Debate

In recent years, it has been alleged that “speech is violence”. Of course speech is not violence. No matter how hateful it may be, it is not violence. I wouldn’t say calling me a jerk is the same as punching me in the face. But this has lead to bigger problems, especially when it comes to open debate on highly charged topics.

The problem with the speech-is-violence thing is that it has lead to violence countering “violence”. It gives students the justification to commit violent acts against speakers they do not like. After all, we are a country that believes in the right to defend one’s self. But that should not extend to students because they don’t like what I’m saying. But that exactly what’s happening today. Here’s an example of something that happened about a month before. Michael Knowles of the Daily Wire is assaulted while giving lecture about sex and gender. He had the audacity to say that men are men and women are women when he was attacked by a student with a Super-Soaker filled with some liquid:

Now what is really messed up here is not the attack itself. What’s really messed up is the response from school officials. Instead of apologizing to Knowles for the attack, the dean actually took the side of the assailant and blamed Knowles for putting himself in that position by expressing his beliefs. That’s like blaming a woman for getting raped because she wore a revealing dress. Just incredible.

When the schools continue to support this chaotic behavior by these turtle dove students, things can only get worse. And they have. Protesters are getting brazen, loud and violent. All because someone is saying something they don’t like. What’s funny is half the time, the protesters have no idea what the speakers have ever said. They have all the buzz words nailed like misogynist, racist, homophobic and the such. But, when asked what that particular speaker has said that was hateful, they have no idea. He just is.

No one gets more of this garbage than Ben Shapiro. Watch as Austin Fleccas interviews people who are protesting a Ben Shapiro speech at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

I love Austin Fleccas. Follow him on YouTube to see more of his videos. But this just proves the point that college students are out of control. They complain and protest just to complain and protest and feel victimized without actually knowing the stance of the speakers.

Adversity Score and the SATs

Now, you’d think with all the problems in colleges today, someone would do something to help the students grow up and shake off this victim mentality the the students have. After all, these are suppose to be adults and will have to enter the workforce right out of college. But, no. That’s not what are colleges have become. Instead of trying to fix the problem, colleges want fill their classrooms with more “victims”.

The company that runs the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), called the College Board, has decided to add something known as an Adversity Score. What this does is take census data and will apply a 15-point analysis of the area in which the test taker is from. That score will then be attached to the SAT. The idea is that this will allow colleges to weigh supposed adversity a person goes through when making the decision on whether to admit that student into the college.

This is not the first time this stat has been used. The pilot program was released last year. Fifty schools, including Yale University, have used the score last year (the chick screaming in the first video probably got in because of that).

There are problems with this besides the most obvious which is admission is not based on individual merit but where you lived. It also looks at the area based on census data and rates a group. It doesn’t look at the individual adversity. Students do not know what their score will be, how they came up with that score and cannot protest or appeal their score.

This is just terrible. Once again white and Asian students will probably be the losers in this because they live in the better areas with less crime. Asians especially. Asians in this country have a higher income, higher grades in high school and higher SAT scores. But, because colleges have become “woke”, they will have to be left behind no matter how qualified they are.

In Conclusion

I have a college degree. I hardly use it. It is in English Literature and I work as a computer engineer. I use it all the time, though. I’ve written three books (none published yet but I will change that soon) and maintain two blogs. I also read a lot. So I do use it and companies do respect it even if it has nothing really to do with my career.

I am also very proud of my degree. I worked full time and was the bread winner, had three kids and went full time. It was challenging and the teachers did not baby the students like they do today. I would do homework at night when I got home and would spend weekends doing homework and studying. Though I do not use the degree for my career, it prepared me for my career. It toughened me, taught me to take criticism, taught me work ethically and manage my time. Those years in college were the toughest of my life.

Our children don’t go through that anymore. They’re babied and pampered. Their self-esteem is more important than preparing a child to enter adulthood. Kids in colleges are taught about being triggered and being stressed. Colleges teach about violent speech and build safe spaces. They discourage debate that goes against their narratives and encourage the suppression of speech from those that go against those narratives.

What do we get from this? A bunch of kids that get out of college and can’t handle real life. A group of kids who can’t handle rejection or criticism. A group of kids who do not have the skills to be productive because, surprisingly, a Gender Studies degree does not have a lot of career opportunities.

And, what happens in the end? They can’t survive in the real world. That means they have to start depending on the government to support them. I believe this is the goal of the Left in the long run.

You know what also builds self-esteem? Accomplishment through hard work. I don’t need to be told that I’m a person of worth to have my emotional tank filled. My self-esteem is boosted when I complete a project at work, finish reading a book, write a blog post or publish a podcast. I feel good about my life and don’t need the drug of complements and reassurance, which gives self-esteem only a temporary boost, because I have worked at it and I know I can do anything.

I think the world of the college education is on thin ice. I even tell Josie that her kids ought to skip college and go to a trade school. Learn a usable skill. Something that will make them stand out in the world. Because these children coming out of the universities are truly worthless.

Follow me on Twitter @RunninFewl
You can listen to my podcast on iTunes, Podbean and YouTube.

Resources:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-craziest-demands-of-college-kids-in-2016

https://www.dailywire.com/news/47300/sat-adding-adversity-score-judge-students-social-emily-zanotti

Apr262019

The Economy Keeps Rolling On!

Today was a busy day. We got some really good news about our economy and some kind of scary news. The warning is coming about our economy. New York has finally found the solution for climate.

The Economy

There’s good news and bad news about the economy. The good news is we had 3.2% GDP for the first quarter of 2019. The Gross Domestic Product measures the value of economic activity within a country. Strictly defined,GDP is the sum of the market values, or prices, of all final goods and services produced in an economy during a period of time (Sparknotes.com). This is huge. Right now, the Trump economy is averaging over 3% for each of the two years of his presidency. To make a comparison, Barack Obama never averaged 3% and I’m not sure his economy even reached 3%.

Now one of the big arguments is that this growth is was from the repairs that Barack Obama made when he took office. He did inherit a crappy economy (he told us every chance he could) and the economy could only go up. It did but very slowly. Usually between 1.5% and 2.5%. This didn’t even keep up with inflation. The thought that the economy is flying because of Obama is horse-pucky. Trump made active changes to the economy including lowering taxes and eliminating regulations that allowed for job growth. His America first attitude also encouraged people to buy American and he has been re-writing trade deal with Mexico and Canada along with going into a trade war with China (though I still hate tariffs).

That’s the good news. But there is some bad news. We are heading toward a debt cliff. We all know that our national debt is at about $21 trillion dollars. But, according to an article on TheHill.com by Shiva Rajgopal, the real national debt is between $70 and $80 trillion. That’s because nanny state programs like social security, Medicade, Medicare and student loans are not calculated in the national debt we know. This is bad. That needs to be paid back.

I cannot remember the last President, including Reagan and Trump, that has taken spending seriously. Trump’s spending is very high also. We need to start becoming fiscally responsible before we end up like Greece did a few years ago. It will change everything about this country.

New York Does It Again

Hey, New York is really trying to embrace this Green New Deal thing. You know, that garbage program that was dreamed up by that hot but really dumb congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Bill “Einstein” de Blasio decided to ban any processed meat including sausage and hot dogs.

No kidding.

They have already banned bags, straws and soda. They are losing almost 200 people a day because of the highest taxes in the country and the heaviest regulations, choking off business. They are planning to ban buildings made of steel and glass because they aren’t climate friendly and want to force land owners to retrofit before 2030. Now they are banning food.

The mayor believes that the banning of processed food will improve air quality by eliminating the carbon from the processing process and eliminating the carbon from grilling the food. Awesome! If grilling causes carbon, that means non-processed food like steak and chicken will be on the list next. or worse, you won’t be allowed to grill at all!

OK, OK…I’m leaving a little something out. They are only banning processed meat with government programs such as schools. They already have “Meatless Mondays” for the “health” of the kids. Now, the kids can’t even have a frigging hot dog on the other days. But de Blasio says if he doesn’t see an improvement in the carbon output, he will expand his ban. Considering one will see a hot dog vendor every fifteen feet on New York City streets, I’m sure that’s going to go over well.

This is so f-ing stupid, I can’t even believe it.

First off, the carbon from food processing and grilling is so little, expansion of de Blasio’s stupid program is inevitable. Next, does anyone already see the problem with the Green New Deal? Our freedoms are being taken away. Now the government is telling me what I can and cannot eat? I don’t need the government telling me what to eat. I understand when I get fat, I should take care of myself. If others don’t, not my problem. Those people should learn a book.

Finally, and most important, there’s another country that banned food. I bet socialist Venezuela probably has great air.

Resources:
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/407633-think-our-20-trillion-debt-is-bad-get-a-load-of-the-real-number

https://www.dailywire.com/news/46431/nyc-considering-banning-hot-dogs-and-other-emily-zanotti

Follow me on Twitter @RunninFewl

Apr252019

Biden Is In

In probably the least surprising development in the Presidential race, Joe Biden has made his announcement that he is going to be a candidate. He made the announcement through a video that he released today. You can watch it below.

Of course, President Trump had his own thoughts about Biden joining in. He Tweeted nice and early this morning:

Initial polls look a little scary for Trump. As of now, Biden is shown to be 8 points ahead of Trump if the election were to take place today. Biden is a moderate Democrat and I think that could be embraced by a lot of Democrats and Independents.

He also has a lot of experience. He’s been a senator from 1973 through 2009 and served as the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He served as Vice President under Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017. He has run for President, and lost, in 1988 and 2008.

He comes across as a regular guy which has always made him popular with blue collar workers and he is very popular with the unions.

But, with that being said, he definitely has some challenges. And that might be why he doesn’t make it past the primaries.

First off, Joe Biden can’t seem to get out of his own way whenever he runs for anything. He’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer and will say some of the most insensitive, crude and just stupid things. Watch a little video on some of his more prolific gaffes:

He’s been making stupid statements since he got into politics and I find it hard to believe that he will stop over the next couple of years. This is going to lead to a lot of apologies. Heck, it’s even started before he even joined the race. He has already apologized for his stance on the Anita Hill testimony against Clarence Thomas, about his support for the crime bill in 1994 and for his creepy conduct around women (more on that in a second). But he also had to apologize for just saying that Mike Pence was a “decent guy”.

I have a hard believing that all this stuff isn’t going to dog him throughout his campaign. The Washington Examiner has a great article about Biden’s “apology tour” over the last few months. I posted the link below. All those gaffes are going to be used against him by all his opponents, both Republican and Democrat. And his apologies are going to get old.

The other challenge is going to be his #MeToo gaffes. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, Joe Biden has a history of getting too cozy with people. He’s been like this for years and this is nothing new. Take a look at the video below:

Listen, I don’t think he is a sexual predator or harasser. I just think he’s a touchy-feely guy. I am too. But I have learned to change with the times. He hasn’t. And this is going to be a problem. He doesn’t understand about the new rules that men have to follow in society. He shouldn’t feel bad about it. I don’t think anybody knows about the new rules because they change so often. There is no standard for behavior anymore. But he problem is that, in his apology for this, he had to admit he did not understand and he had to change with the times. This may not be something the Left will tolerate. Watch his apology video below:

Another problem Biden has is that he is not squeaky clean. He has a checkered past. He lied about his standing at law school. He said he was at the top of his class when, in reality, he was at the bottom. He actually had to end his 1988 Presidential bid because he plagiarized a speech. I don’t think the law school thing is a big deal but the plagiarism could be a bit of a problem. But he has much bigger problems than that.

In April of 2014, Biden went to the Ukraine for a negotiation of some kind. After he left, that very same month, his son was named to the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company. No wait, it gets better. Money was being funneled to his son’s company. Ukraine started investigating the transactions and Creepy Uncle Joe came to the rescue. He went to Ukraine and threatened to pull $1 billion in U.S. loans to Ukraine. The investigating Ukrainian prosecutor was fired. How do we know any of this is true? Because Biden admitted it in 2016. Don’t believe me? Watch this:

Oops. That is definitely going to come up during this election cycle.

Finally, Biden’s biggest challenge is going to be from the Left. Joe Biden is a moderate. He is going to remain a moderate. I believe he does not embrace all that crazy stuff the Left wing socialists are peddling. He has 45 years of past records that are going to show this. And the Left knows it. Here’s a Tweet sent out by Justice Democrats reminding people of Biden’s past record.

The question will be: What is he going to say? What is he going to do? Is he going to try to bring some sanity to the Democratic party and stay moderate, trying to explain his positions or is he going to move further Left to satisfy the crazy and loud Left by adopting these same crazy positions? If he decides to do the latter, it will look disingenuous and his run will be a short one.

Listen, I thought the video was good. The same platform as every other person running, but good. His point that this country is not what the Trump administration is about is right on. Trump has moral and ethical issues. He’s crude and brash. And he doesn’t seem all that smart. That’s not what the United States is about. That’s why he’s a very unpopular President. Also, adding all of the stock video of the history of the United States was very effective. It showed the the United States was and is a great country. It was a really good video.

But it also showed some things that will not work and may hurt him. The video never said anything about how he was going to fix the country. Nothing about why people should vote for him. And this is ungood for what people care about. If Biden is going to ride on the Trump-sucks-so-go-with-me platform, he’s not getting through the primary.

He’s an old, straight, moderate, white guy. He doesn’t have a chance. As Ben Shapiro said, “Today is going to be his best day.” But, gosh, wouldn’t watching a Presidential debate between Trump and Biden be pure comedy?

References:

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/joe-bidens-apology-tour

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/436816-joe-bidens-2020-ukrainian-nightmare-a-closed-probe-is-revived

Apr232019

The Insanity Continues

So the Democrats continue all their insanity. I can’t decide whether this stuff is scary or just really funny. It’s scary for two reasons. The first is that these people want to completely remake this country. They want to eliminate the electoral college, kill babies after they are born, have open borders, nationalize the economy, allow 16-year-olds to vote, allow criminals to vote, ignore terrorists, restrict speech and decriminalize just about everything accept conservative thought. And I know I have missed far more. The second reason this stuff is really scary is that the young people today actually believe this stuff. They believe in suppressing speech and getting free stuff from the government.

Though the above is really scary, they say such stupid things. It’s hard to take them seriously and believe that most people in the country would take them seriously. In fact, I hope they keep it up because I know that President Trump will win in a landslide in 2020.

Ant Trump is playing this pretty well so far. He’s keeping quiet and letting the nut jobs talk. The attention is not on him. He just needs to keep it up for the next year and a half and let the Democrats bury themselves. Let’s take a look at some of the insanity that’s been coming up this week.

Bernie Sanders

Stupid ideas and Bernie Sanders go hand-in-hand. And he really hit one out of the park with this answer during CNN’s Town Hall. The question was asked by a Harvard law student about allowing terrorists and rapists vote while still in jail.

This is so insane, I can barely believe it.

Criminals are institutionalized. Their crimes have forfeited their rights including their freedom. They have no rights when in prison. They gave them up when they committed their crimes. They are not part of society. So why should they have a word in the direction it goes?

Also, they are in jail for making bad decisions. Do we really want this person making decisions about our society? Are they going to make political decisions on what’s best for the country or just for themselves?

Listen, I think there could be a date letting a felon vote after he has gotten out of prison (though I still don’t think they shouldn’t). They have served their time and paid the price they owed for society. But while in prison? And letting terrorists vote? Don’t terrorists are try to harm this country? Why give them a say on the direction we go?

Well, we know the answers. They will vote Democrat because the Dems want to legalize everything, hate the cops and hate the justice system (even though it is the best in the world).

Bernie had lots of awesome things to say during this town hall. I suggest watching it. It was hysterical.

Bill de Blasio

Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York City, is really worried about climate change. Now, he is thinking of becoming the 637th Democrat to join the presidential race, so it is going to be important for him to stand out. He needs to come up with an idea that will stir the base. Something will drive a conversation with the Left. Well he has. And he’s got a definite answer on how to end climate change. Listen to what he said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe:

One word: Idiot.

This is another pipe dream over this over reaction to climate change. He wants to retrofit every building in a cirt that is nothing but tall buildings. And he is not going to fund it. He’s making make the building owners do it. Can you imagine the owners of the Empire State building having to retrofit a building that is almost a 100 years old and is a 120 stories high?

Yeah, good luck with that. I’m pretty sure any law he gets passed will be found unconstitutional. But, he will raise some eyes. Might be what he needs to encourage him to run for President.

Ilhan Omar

Freshman Representative Ilhan Omar is in trouble again. No she didn’t say she hated Jews. No she didn’t say something anti-Semitic. No, she didn’t dismiss the 9/11 terrorist attacks. No she didn’t say that America was built on genocide.

This time, she compared the soldiers who participated in the Black Hawk Down raid in Mogadishu, Somalia to terrorists. She Tweeted the following some years ago (this was not a recent Tweet):

Let’s go over the Battle of Mogadishu. First, this was not an attack on Somalia. This was a a humanitarian mission. The country was not a nation but broken up into factions led by warlords that were constantly at battle. The warlords controlled their areas through violence, threats and starvation. The worst of of these warlords was Gen. Mohammed Farah Aidid . When supplies arrived, Aidid confiscated it from the people, even killing the starving citizens who tried to get something. He was an animal and his soul is in Hell now. To this point, the United States soldiers watched these massacres but could not do anything.

Finally, President Clinton decided to do something about it. He learned about a meeting with Aidid’s top advisors and decided capture them.

But things went wrong. This is the reasons politicians should not be creating military plans. The politicians decided the attack should be done during the day instead of at night which is when exercises are usually done. Aidid was alerted and was able to prepare for the battle. Two Blackhawk helicopters were shot down and there was no real plan to get out of the hostile and well-armed city. Nineteen soldiers died and 73 were wounded. One of the most horrific scene was when these animals were dragging around one of the dead U.S. soldiers through the streets.

These people are animals. They care nothing for human life. And neither does Ilhan Omar. These soldiers were there and dying for her piece of shit country. It couldn’t have been that great for her there. She lied and said she was married to her brother to get him into the country. She became a citizen, became political and is not a congressman. Hopefully a one time congressman.

By the way, thousands weren’t killed by the soldiers. Though no one can really know how many were killed, the Somalis said about 130 troops were killed.

This gal is a terrible human being. She hates the United States even though it’s philosophies gave her a very successful life. I have never hoped for bad things to happen to someone as much as I hope bad things happen to her. She’s an unappreciative, hateful human being.

Ugh! Getting worked up but there have been so many reasons to.

Follow me on Twitter @RunninFewl.

Reference:

https://www.dailywire.com/news/46285/ilhan-omar-blamed-american-military-alleged-crimes-josh-hammer

Apr232019

A Big Nothingburger

The Mueller report was released on Thursday and I have been struggling with how to present this. Guess what? I give up. I read the thing. Just finished tonight (Saturday) and don’t think a lot of it. At first I was going to actually go through the bloody thing line by line and give my opinion.

Guess what? That’s been done by everyone and a lot better than I could ever do. Ben Shapiro looks at it from a legal perspective and it all makes sense. Dan Bongino looks at it from the “deep state” perspective. That may sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I have read his book and listen to his podcast and he has yet to be wrong. I suspect he’s not going to be wrong about what’s coming. Finally, the news media, depending on the channel, gives the listener whatever he wants to here (sorry, my litereature degree taught me to use “he” when no gender is defined on the subject).

I just can’t live up to that because I already have my opinions, which I think you want to hear, and my analysis would be limited to what I am interested in. So I’m going to give out the basics about the report, the arguements, the media reaction and my opinion will be left to the end. So here we go.

The Report

I have read all 480 pages of the report. I did not read the footnotes (I learned that was a mistake) but I read the body. The report is broken up into two volumes. The first addresses collusion or conspiracy. This section addresses the Russians attempts at influencing the elections through social media and hacking, their work with Wikileaks and Julian Assange. It also addresses the “crimes” of Paul Manafort, George Popadopoulos and Michael Flynn.

This was not the most exciting part of the report. It was interesting. It showed that Robert Mueller really did investigate this. One learned how the Russians hacked the DNC computers and how they propagated the information. But that’s about it. Their social media infiltration seemed very flimsey. It looked like they barely tried. Spending a $100K in advertisements and posting 86,000 memes doesn’t seem to me like a lot of effort. It just wasn’t that interesting. But there was one thing that 194 pages made clear: there was not collusion or conspiracy.

OK, that’s awesome. Our President isn’t a Russian agent (or so you’d think).

The second volume of the report dealt with obstruction by Donald Trump. This was part of the report where Donald Trump may face a few issues. Apparently there were several instances when Trump told his advisors to do things that would really change the direction of the investigation. It was mentioned in the report that a lot of the demands were ignored by the advisors to no interfere in the investigation and were done because Trump was angry at being investigated. It was even pointed out that Trump said, “F***, this is going to be the end of my Presidency (sic)”. This is going to be important later.

I have to admit, I did not think any of this was obstruction. Especially because there was no crime. But it does look like he was trying to make things difficult for the Mueller probe to do its job. For me, this looks like he was trying to interfere with the probe. Even if there was no crime, could Trump still be legally obstructing the investigation?

Luckily, I’m not a lawyer. Mueller did not reach a conclusion. He said that he did not find any evidence of obstruction but he could not exonerate the President of obstruction. Ugh!

The report is very easy to read and the redactions were minimal. I don’t think I lost a lot because of the redactions. The one thing I would need to do is actually read the footnotes. Mueller really showed his bias in the footnotes. Not for what he said but for what he did not say.

What’s Going on Legally?

As far as Trump being a Russian agent, something that the media has been living on for the last two years, that’s done. He did not collude or conspire. That’s over. No reason to talk about it anymore. Trump has been exonerated. Period.

Obstruction, that’s a different story.

I always thought there needed to be a crime for someone to obstruct. It didn’t make sense that he was guilty of obstructing a crime that didn’t happen. But the law doesn’t always make sense. Now I’m not going to quote laws or anything. I’m not a lawyer. Listen to Ben Shapiro’s podcast on April 19th and he’ll give you the laws. And he’ll explain the scope of the laws in ways I cannot. What I mean by that is there are several different definitions of obstruction. Apparently, Bob Mueller used the most liberal definition of obstruction (we’ll get into that later or just listen to Ben Shapiro’s podcast.

Here is the definition according to 18 U.S.C. § 1503:

…an act that “corruptly or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication, influences, obstructs, or impedes, or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede, the due administration of justice.”

The big word here is “corruptly.” That word means that Trump had to have some intent to obstruct the investigation because he was guilty. That’s what it means. Let me say that again: Trump obstructed because, and only because, he was guilty of conspiracy with Russia.

This is where stuff gets really muddy. Trump was pissed off. His presidency was in peril over a long investigation. He did not feel it was fair because he was innocent. He told people to do things that would have stalled or halted the investigation. None of his orders were followed for fear that there might be another Saturday Night Massacre (a term used during the Nixon administration’s Watergate debacle).

Though nothing happened and Bob Mueller was able to continue his investigation, were Trump’s ignored orders still evidence he obstructed?

Mueller concluded his second volume by saying there was not enough evidence to conclude that Trump obstructed justice but there was enough evidence that Mueller could not exonerate him. This leaves a big question. Did Trump obstruct or not. We have no answers.

Here’s the question: why don’t we know? After two years and thirty million dollars, Mueller’s best answer is, “I don’t know? You figure it out.” What the f***?!

Let’s get to the conspiracy portion. A lot of things cleared this up for me.

Putting on My Tin Foil Hat

The report had a lot in it that really did not need to be said. It could have been shortened by quite a bit simply by leaving out things that really were irrelevant. Here are a few examples of this.

Trump was not happy that Jeff Sessions recused himself. He told Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself. He had several advisers talk to Sessions about not recusing. When Sessions did recuse himself, Trump tried to get him to un-recuse himself. He did this directly, through social media and with his staff. Sessions never reversed his recusal until he resigned. There are several paragraphs about this. Yes, Sessions recusing himself hurt Trump but this is not illegal and not obstruction. It does make Trump look unethical and kind of weak, but that’s it. Why is this even in the report.

Another example was when Trump told Dan McGahn to tell the Justice Department to fire Mueller. McGahn decided to ignore the order stating that sometimes Trump, “thinks out loud.” At the time, Trump was angry that his presidency was under siege by the investigation. When asked if he relayed the information, McGahn said no and he would resign if he was asked to do so. The message never got relayed to the Justice Department. Again, no obstruction (nothing happened) and no intent to stop the investigation because he was guilty. So why is this even in the report?

But not only do I question what was in the report, I have big questions as to what was not in the report. There was no mention of Christopher Steele, the FISA warrants and Fusion GPS. The Steele Dossier, the document that started the whole investigation, was only mentioned twice in the 480 page report. What? Why not?

Could it be that Russian collusion, which was soundly disproved, was not what Mueller was going for? Is it possible Mueller was hired to protect the FBI and the Hilary Clinton’s bad behavior? The dossier is a killer for Clinton and the FBI.

Clinton paid for the dossier which was assembled by Christopher Steele. Where did Steele get the information? Mostly from Russian spies. You see the problem? It was actually Clinton and the DNC that were colluding with the Russians and the dossier is proof of that.

The FBI is in bigger trouble. Well, certain members and former members are. Christopher Steele got the dossier then leaked it to Yahoo news. When the FBI received it, they used the dossier to get a FISA warrant against Carter Page. The FBI used the leaked Yahoo article as proof that the dossier was valid evidence. And it turned out the dossier was crap. And looks like the FBI was trying to pull a fast one to get a warrant to spy on an American citizen. This is ugly stuff.

So, What Do I Think?

This report is a whole lot of nothing. Something most people thought for a long time. And it only took $25 million dollars to have all our thoughts confirmed.

As far as the collusion, or conspiracy, that was a big zero. Not only did Trump not collude with Russia or Wikileaks, Wikileaks did not even know that they were working with the Russians. When Julian Assange said that he had nothing to do with Trump or the Russians, he meant it. The Russians were so good at hiding their identities that they tricked everybody.

Obstruction seems to be a different story. Though there was no crime, Trump could still obstruct the investigation and be prosecuted. But it is very hard to prove obstruction. Remember: intent matters here. Trump had to have wanted the investigation to end because he was guilty. His intent needs to be proven. Mueller knew he couldn’t prove intent, so he said that. But he also said that he couldn’t prove Trump didn’t try to obstruct.

Listen, Trump is not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree. He’s brash, self-centered and clumsy with his language. Just looking at his Twitter feed will tell one that he doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut. He’s also extremely emotional and wants to control everything. But is he the modern day Nixon?

Not at all.

Volume 2 of Mueller’s report was bullshit. He accused Trump of attempting to end his investigation but the investigation never ended. Trump could have fired Mueller at anytime. He can do that. He wanted others to do it. They didn’t. Why? Because he has a good cabinet and they know what is good for him. He was never guilty. He was pissed. Being pissed does not mean he had the intent to end the investigation because he was guilty of a crime. He wanted to end the investigation because it was f-ing up his presidency. Period. That’s not corruption. It’s stupid, but not corrupt.

This is going to keep going. The media is all hot and bothered by the obstruction portion of the report. The radical Democrats want impeachment proceedings started based on the obstruction. Though it is going to be very difficult to prove because they have to prove corrupt intent, a lot want to get it started anyway.

It ain’t over yet.

Apr052019

I Got Away with It

I was cruising through Twitter yesterday and I came across this Tweet from the ACLU.

Now, I thought this was probably the dumbest Tweet. I could tell this one was not written by one of the ACLU’s lawyers. Heck, I wasn’t the only one who saw it. Can you see it?

I wanted to respond but was a little afraid. I have been suspended on Twitter for twelve hours for calling the traitor Bradley Manning (aka Chelsea) a “him” instead of a “her” (which he’s not). I decided I’b be brave and risk it. I replied:

“Boys who say they’re girls are still boys because they CAN’T HAVE PERIODS.”

Well, good news: I didn’t get suspended (though my Tweet was deleted). And there were dozens of replies saying pretty much the same thing. I’m pretty sure the Tweet got ratioed (that’s where there are more replies than Likes). But, considering I was suspended in the past, why would I risk getting suspended again?

Because, a long time ago, I was against gay marriage and changed my mind. My reasoning for being against gay marriage was not because I hated gays and was a bigot. I have gay people in my family and a very close family member is getting married. I was against gay marriage because I was detested the militancy of the LGBT community. These people were forcing us to believe that it is “normal” to want to sleep with one of the same sex. I didn’t want to live in a world like that.

But I found my belief was very negative. I didn’t really care if gay people got married. I am religious and think it’s a sin. But they can’t get married in most religious institutions so it’s more of a civil union than a marriage. So when the Supreme Court allowed gay marriage, I just shrugged my shoulders and said, “whatever.”

But the militancy I feared has gone so far off the rails, if I had known, I would have remained against gay marriage. Because, it wasn’t just gays and lesbians, but, eventually, transvestites and transsexuals. This is disturbing in itself only because I worry that, one day, pedophilia will just be seen as another “gender” and could be another protected class. This may seem a bit far-fetched but it’s already being talked about.

But what really gets me is how people, who are supposedly intelligent, think that gender and sex is a cultural norm and not a scientific fact. Watch this stupid video that was released this week by Teen Vogue:

What in the… are they talking about? No, no, no! I understand these people may be intersex but that is very rare. Sex is biological. It is scientific. If you are a man and mutilate your penis so that is looks like a vagina, you are a man with a mutilated penis. The “vagina” on a transsexual woman needs to be cared for because it is considered a wound.

But let’s go deeper. No surgery out there is going to change one’s DNA. If you are a man, you will have an XY chromosome. If you are a woman, you will have an XX chromosome. Mutilating one’s genitalia is not going to change that.

But it gets worse! We are so intimidated by the crazy Leftist ideas that we are not raising our hands when craziness can actually hurt people. Now, men are able to compete against women in sporting event at the collegiate, Olympic and professional levels. Including mixed martial arts and boxing. Look at this:

Why aren’t feminists upset about this? You have a boy who is beating the garbage out of women. That’s OK? Fallon Fox, a transgender woman, is an MMA fighter. He broke a woman’s skull during a match. That’s OK?

Listen, I don’t care if you’re gay, straight or trans. It doesn’t bother me. But don’t try to change nature and and force me to believe in something that just isn’t true. There are biological differences between men and women. That’s the real fact.