Flag Burning and the First Amendment

I think this is all rather funny.

President-Elect Trump, as we all know by now, is an opinionated man and he’s still 100% better than anybody else who ran to be in the White House. I've traveled to see Mr. Trump speak on two occasions and am not worried about my choice in the least.

And really, nothing is going to change despite what the president elect said about what should happen to people who burn the American flag. Nothing.

After all, the American flag is made to burn. That’s what it is there for. It is a thing, an object, a symbol. And being a symbol, just a symbol, it is never going to be as important as what it was made to represent: FREEDOM.

The American flag is the most burned flag in the world. The Arabs in Gaza burn it, the Iranians burn it, Venezuelans burned it during Chavez' rule and now they burn it mostly to keep warm at night but most importantly, American’s burn it.

I really have no issues when I see protesters burning the American flag. If it’s overseas I always wonder where the heck they got all those U.S. flags so fast to respond to the latest "outrage". I mean, who sells American flags in the Middle East? There must be a concession just for people who want to burn them.

But when I see a U.S. government flag burned in America by Americans, all I think of is Freedom, the U.S. Bill of Rights and that our Constitutional government, despite its sometimes glaring misdeeds and indiscretions, still works on a level that no other country in the world does. A country that can stick to the rules set down by people who knew well the dangers of runaway despots and tyrant wanna-bes who would pass laws over the people with just their pen and their phone.

When I see a U.S. flag burn at the hands of the indignant, I think “This is what it’s all about.”

In fact, everybody should get out and burn the American Flag! 

But I realize that some people get confused. They think this symbol of our nation is MORE important than the nation itself and the principles upon which it was built, that this flag, this THING has importance unto itself over and above what it was meant to stand for. 

This is clearly wrong thinking. 

I have to laugh at all this since EVERYBODY seems to be all for the Right of Free Speech right up to the moment they hear something THEY don’t like. Then “There ought to be a law!”

And there is a law:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or of the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

And there you have it.

Nice speech needs no protection. There is no "but" after the sentence "I believe in freedom of expression..." You either have freedom of speech or you don't. 

There is no such thing as "Hate Speech" or "Free Speech Zones". It is all Free Speech and it can be spoken anywhere one wishes to speak it. The "Free Speech Zone" is the United States of America. 

Where else you going to find it, Cuba?

In fact there are many so called "First World" nations that don't have free speech protections. France for one, Japan for another. Forget about China, no free speech there and Russia? Fugettaboutit!

In Canada, a country where nobody wants to burn their flag, free speech is a "fundamental freedom" but the government is allowed to pass laws limiting free speech when justified, whatever that means and it doesn't mean much. 

But in these United States, it's not just The Law, it's on the top of the list of the first Ten Laws of the New Republic and it's there for a very good reason. 

You may not like it, Barack Obama may not like it, Donald Trump may not like it and Hillary Clinton, she certainly doesn't like it but that's not the point is it?

The point is, it's there.

And tens of hundreds of thousands of Americans have died over more than 240 years so far, to defend it.

Is that important enough for you?

So other than giving both right and left wing radio touts another reason to flap their gums and for people with nothing better to do with their time to call them up and give their opinions, nothing is going to change. There isn’t a Supreme Court Justice sitting today no matter who appointed them, who would vote to change the right to burn the American Flag.

So just go live your lives and use your time here on God’s Green Earth for better things than jumping through hoops laid down by partisan media types who's only real interest in the story is selling advertising for their stations at your expense.

Go out and live. 

Election 2016: Hollywood Elite, GOP Faithful Flood Canadian Border

The last thing Canada needs is more Socialists. They’ve got enough problems without more flooding over their borders. Of course, try going to the Canadian border and telling them you’re there to look for a job and see the way they’ll treat you. I can save you the trouble and tell you that you won’t like it one bit.

So Donald Trump is now “President Elect Trump” and the Government Media and their Socialist brethren are already plotting their distractions. “What is he going to do about North Korea?” asks one NPR wag this morning. Like THIS is the most important thing President Trump has to address as soon as he takes office. Like he’s going to deal with that before he’s going to straighten out our decimated healthcare system and undoing all those executive orders President Obama signed as his way around Congressional approval. I can only hope that in his first week, Mr. Trump’s writing hand is going to be sore.

Mitt Romney Vanquished

Not only did the American People vanquish the reprehensible and arrogant Hillary Clinton but also the losing spirit of the establishment GOP and their most recent “Face of Failure” Mitt Romney. Mitt had the chance to help but he refused.

How stupid people like John “I never met a war I didn’t vote for” McCain, the spineless Paul Ryan, Smarmy Ted Cruz, that idiot Leftist John Kasich and the RNC in general must feel for not getting behind the Republican Nominee now President Elect. Donald Trump owes these people nothing and although he will take the high road, I hope he reminds them in private the first time they come to him for anything.

Why Buy a Newspaper Ever Again?

The New York Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, The LA Times and The Washington Post are all just wastes of good paper and not even suitable to wrap a fish in. Other than lining a bird cage, what are these “Icons of the 1^st Amendment” good for? They did nothing but distort the truth, disparage and ridicule and outright lie to the American Public. They were calling the race for Hillary Clinton two weeks before the Vote and even speculated if she was going to break the record for most electoral votes. How absurd has that turned out to be?

We are lied to every day, day-in and day-out. They lie to us in the government schools, lie to us on government radio stations like Bloomberg and National Public Radio and lie to us especially on Television and you can name any station, they are all the same.

To most of America, to our enduring credit, we can tell the difference. But now, in the aftermath of such overwhelming propaganda, vitriol and yes, hate, can we ever listen to these Apparatchiks again? They have proven to be blight on the American landscape and are doing nobody any favors with their Unions and Programs for the “Poor”. They want to keep you stupid and broke and heaven help you if you want something better for yourself or your children because you will have to beg for it.

These people ought to feel ashamed for their behavior but Socialists have no shame. They are right and the rest of the country is wrong and Socialism will rise again because NEXT TIME they will get it right.

Such is the arrogance of the Leftist, Anti-Capitalist Mentality.

The Easy Part is Over

Now that most of the people in the key stats of Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio have voted for at least a chance of an opportunity in the future, the future hurdles that the still entrenched GOP and the united but stung Democratic Party will throw at President Elect Trump will make the bumpy run up to the presidency seem like a kiddie ride in an amusement park.

The job of putting money back into American’s pockets will not be easy if anyone can remember the hard time Ronald Regan had doing it. He was able to get the tax cuts but he never was able to cut as much of the equally important spending cuts through Congress to correspond with these cuts. Still, the economy, ravaged by Jimmy Carter’s unimaginative stewardship, responded quickly and grew.

The Supreme Judicial Court

It would be nice to give Clarence Thomas a companion or two that will hold the U.S. Constitution in as high a regard as he does. This looks to be the most important and lasting contribution President Trump can do for the United States and its people.

Audit the Fed

It's time to let Rand Paul at the Federal Reserve. This "Pillar of the Republic" has resisted scrutiny since the beginning. It's time we know how much dough this country has at its disposal and how the place works. It won't be pretty but it needs to be done. 

Russia, China and the Rest of the World

It is my profound wish that we can find some way to at least normalize relations with the Russian Republic. There may be too much bad history to think we’d be friends but if we can start today, perhaps there can be established a mutual understanding and, of course, free trade and peaceful relations.

China, on the other hand, has to be impressed upon to stop their economic cheating. They have distorted free trade and manipulated their currency to their advantage and until they play by the rules of the Marketplace like most other countries, I don’t see how we can continue to let that go on.

I hope the United Kingdom, Germany and France can pull their heads out of their asses long enough to strengthen international trade without imperial interventions around the world. Old habits die hard but it’s time to recognize the sovereignty of other States and respect them.

And lastly it’s time for the United Nations to get the hell out of New York City and set up their interventionist hateful organization somewhere else. I don’t expect President Trump to do anything about that but they should stop screwing with their bullshit Climate Change Ponzi schemes, Rules for Others but not Themselves and their military support of radical groups with the unlawful intent of destabilizing sovereign nations.

Will this all change suddenly because Donald Trump is president? Obama isn’t Santa Claus and neither is Donald Trump BUT there is cause for renewed optimism since we already knew what we were in for had Hillary Clinton gained the White House; more shortages and hardship.

Susan B. Anthony Spinning in Her Grave

To think that someone as corrupt as Hillary Clinton not only gained the Democratic Party’s nomination but came within the margin of voter fraud from the U.S. Presidency is remarkable. That so many people were willing to look the other way on all her arrogance, dubious financial dealings and her willingness to live outside the rules of office and laws of the land tells more about the people who voted for her than about the candidate herself. Is this how bad people wanted a woman president? They are as morally bankrupt as she is. Let history show that Shirley Chisolm, back in 1972, was by far a better, more sincere and honest candidate than Hillary Clinton. 

Love it or Leave it

For people who think the American flag is a symbol of oppression, for those who feel that America is a land of hate and imperialism and for those who think that anybody other than a Democrat is the embodiment of Adolph Hitler, all I can say is that there is nothing keeping you here.

There are no walls keeping people in. You are free to move around the world if you like, to search for Valhalla. You are welcome to try. The United States, like other nations around the world, doesn’t have the greatest track record in many ways but in one way we have an advantage: We are very introspective. 

We examine what we have done repeatedly, minutely and document everything. There were 100 depositions taken after the Boston Massacre. There were drawings done from many angles. We know the names of everyone there and where they were standing. The whole event was documented beginning from the time the last echos from the British rifles died out. This is how we are. We question, ponder and with any hope, improve.

Freedom is fought for every day not in the rice paddies of an Asian country, not in the sands of the Middle East nor in the hills of South America but in the homes, the workplaces and the schools right here at home. Sometimes we wonder what the hell is going on, that the people who go to work every day, pay our taxes and work towards a brighter future for ourselves and our own are the true forgotten ones in Washington. But every now and then the elastic snaps back and just maybe, perhaps, we get to pull some freedom out of the “America the Oppressors” crowd’s bonfire of hate.

Avoiding Venezuela’s Fate

Despite the deficits, the debt and the damage of a Socialist President, the U.S. still has a chance to pull itself back into the black. Our economy, when allowed to function as it should, can blow past such things. Hell, we’ve had crap for an economy for 8 years and we’re still tops in the world. What does that tell you? 

It's times to turn things around.

You ready?