State Governors Killing the Economy

By now people should have figured this out. The lockdowns are not about public safety. They are about purging the optimism of the Trump Economy. They are about destroying what the last four years has built. 

It isn't the Virus that is doing this, it is the actions of the Governors and especially the Leftist Governors in the states of Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Michigan etc. They are purposely killing their economies with their shutdowns, rollouts and then return to shutdowns. They have just dangled hope of opening to these businesses for months when initially they said "three weeks". It's all bullshit and quite illegal since none of these actions have been taken with approval of the state legislatures. But the governors own the courts, they appoint the judges and they authorize their pay so when citizens appeal to the judicial branch, they get BUPKIS!

Living in Fear

There's very little truth being told over the airwaves and this is just the way things are going to be from now on with the recent overthrow of the Republic. You still have the same remote chance of succumbing to the Virus as you had 9 months ago which is less than 2%. The idea that nobody is dying from anything else these days should be a point for pause. The regular flu used to kill about 35 to 55 thousand people a year in the USA but I guess that it doesn't any more. 

As Dean Wormer said back in the movie Animal House, "Fat, Dumb and Stupid is no way to go through life, son." and I have to conquer. You call this living? Living in fear of your fool life and afraid to live it? This is what this country was built on? I'm frankly surprised at how many Rubes bought into this scheme so quickly and so totally to the point where they'll walk in the street with their back to traffic just to avoid walking past me on the side walk. I say to them "You know, you can be killed doing that." and they never say anything back or change their stride. It's one big con and here we are 9 months on they STILL haven't figured it out! 

Quite frankly, I'm appalled at the behavior. Yes, you can get sick and die. But you can do that every day of the week every year of your life. Death stalks the human race every day. 

As social-psychologist Sheldon Solomon said in Michael Moorer's great environment scam expose' Planet of the Humans, "You can step out of your house and get hit by a fucking meteor!" And he's right. Any time you step off the curb to cross the street could be your last time. So you don't stay huddled in your house because of that? Concern for your life (or others for that matter) isn't causing you to drive the speed limit and almost 40 thousand people die each year driving. And many are not pleasant deaths. 

It makes no sense to me, this abject, all-consuming...fear.

Moving the Goal Posts

Another action that should turn on the bell in you noggin' is that first the Vaccine will help us return to "a normal life" but now that it's actually been discovered and is being rolled out, the tune about it's restorative effects has changed. It's no longer the Elixir of Normalcy that it was touted as. Why? 

Because the election isn't quite over yet. Until President Trump is actually out of the White House, this isn't going to let up. AND since the lockdown orders has worked so well on the dutiful public, they will want to see how long they can keep this going. 

We could be wearing masks come this time next year. And we already know the people who will NEVER take them off again. 

I am not my brother's keeper but you all don't know how silly or craven you look when I see you all on the sidewalk, OUTSIDE or driving INSIDE YOUR CAR with the windows rolled up WEARING A STUPID MASK. 

Why the Governor's aren't wearing masks or staying home.

This is because they know something you don't. That the chances of them keeling over from the Virus is remote. That's why they're ordering restaurants and businesses to shut down one minute and the next they're either in the hair solon, dining out with friends or in a meeting with 20 people without masks. They aren't worried one whit!

You wanna be a drone and live like that, have at it. But your being played and have been from the beginning. Don't know when you all will smarten up but for the sake of the soon-to-be-lost Republic, I hope it's sooner than later. 

Our loss of Freedom

You're not going to like the future if the future is going to look like this. I don't people have gotten it yet, the implications of what has just happened. They're still saying "We'll beat them next time!" when there will be no next time. No fair time next time any way. If allowed to stand, this Conspiracy of Leftist States will become the routine. And once a group convinces themselves that this was the right thing to do, they will forever delude themselves that their next step will be right also.

Voting with your Feet

New Yorkers have got the right idea. They're leaving the city and the state in droves in a Dysphoria of the Affluent. The people who can't work from home or afford to just pick up and leave will be stuck with the bill. 

This has been happening in California also and is spreading across the country. The U.S. will stratify, I think, leaving the blue states very blue and the red states very red. Finding a place where there are people who think like you will be the main attraction and also not be picking your pocket every other day. 

The Coming Fallout

You can't defy gravity for long. There will be a corresponding crash of some kind as a result of all this government spending and no money coming into the tax coffers. It's simple accounting that nobody is counting on to rear it's ugly head. They think the Federal government will just write a check and they'll be fine. But the Feds are $30 Trillion in the hole already. What ever check they write is borrowed. The states, like New York, were also in the red and what ever check they get will not be enough. Here in Massachusetts, they've not laid off one public services worker. Nobody is riding the trains, few are working in the city of Boston. They're not spending money to park, ride the trains, at restaurants, going to movies or plays, it's mostly stopped. So where is the city or state going to get the money to pay all these people? 

Just wonder. So should everybody. Especially the Governor. 

Mail-in Voter Fraud

Having the U.S. Postal Service administer a mass mail-in voter ballot-by-mail distribution project on a national level is like having your local Parks & Recreation Commission running the Mission to Mars.

As an alternative to this I suggest bringing back the Pony Express. Or perhaps we can implement Vote by Telegraph. THAT would be faster.

While the cash-strapped, massively debt-ridden, disorganized and antiquated postal service can still get a letter across the country for what amounts to a pittance, an email still beats them by four days, 23 hours & 58 seconds. While UPS and FedEx, two massive private enterprises run circles around them and make a profit, the U.S. Postal service hemorrhages money yearly by the Billions. Today USPS is just a massive, government-mandated money pit that has undergone cutbacks, austerity programs and reductions in workforce to try to stop the bleeding. 

This is the organization we are going to entrust to suddenly send millions of ballots to every registered voter in these United States? I’m always getting other people’s mail in my mailbox even though their mailboxes have their names clearly on them, can the rank and file postal service employee, mostly non-employee “casual” staff who are paid a lower salary than the regular carriers and have fewer benefits, care enough to even try? They have recently requested $25 Billion to pay for the delivery of the Mail-in Voting ballots but the Feds could give them $50 Billion and they're still not going to get the ballots delivered on time and there is nobody still connected to this organization that is happy. 

Rather than throwing good money after bad, the Federal government should finally allow the U.S. Postal Service to finally face the huge financial reckoning that should send it the way of the Dodo bird and the Dirigible. 

This is how this is going to turn out

Having heard the reports of people receiving mail-in ballots for people who last lived at particular addresses for up to 16 years, I can’t help but believe that the country is already being flooded with ballots. When these ballots are returned en mass, the local town and city clerks, who rely heavily on volunteers during votes, are going to have to verify each one. It is apparent that each municipality could potentially receive a much higher number of ballots in comparison to registered voters. The process of verifying these voters will drag on for a substantial period of time, not days. The ensuing chaos and lack of result will give incentive for the Leftist Media to declare old Joe Biden as the winner and start their screaming campaign for President Trump to immediately vacate the Whitehouse.  

Doubt me?

One doesn’t have to look far for an example. Take the state of New York’s 12^th Congressional District primary election. It took over a month to determine incumbent Representative Carolyn B. Maloney to win over challenger Suraj Patel in a race that saw 1 in 5 mail-in ballots or 20% of the approximately 65,000 votes cast, invalidated. This lead Mr. Patel to state “A 1 in 5 disenfranchisement rate is far too high for a developed democracy.”

And of course, this has now gone to the courts.

And this to me is actually what this is all about, the creation of potentially invalid votes aimed not to win an election but to throw the election into chaotic dispute, to make the outcome impossible to determine.

The 15^th and 16^th Congressional Districts also experienced the same delay and murky endings leading observers to speculate this obvious omen for the November election.

Not looking good if this is how the primaries are turning out.  

Undermining the Vote

The California Motor-Voter bill of 1993 was the first overt effort of the Left to undermine the vote. Conservatives have had a hard time there ever since. This was set up to insure that while you are getting your illegal drivers license, you can also register to vote. And as a result, a Republican presidential candidate hasn’t won California since the bill was implemented. Bill Clinton carried the state in 1992 and the Democrats have been dominant ever since. 

And it shows.

Constitution on the Ropes

Our democracy, already hanging by a thread and facing this latest “Attack of the Governors” who seem far too comfortable telling people what to do, where they can go, what to wear and determining what businesses are to succeed, balances on the precipice of a Totalitarian Regime.

But this time the threat doesn’t come from the Federal Government. This time it’s the Leftist state administrations that are driving the take-over and there seems to be little the Federal Government can do to counter this Economic Suicide mission they are on since the Governor’s don’t appear to care how much money they’re states are losing or how they ever hope to recover…after.

If there is an after.

The Anarchism of the American Left

Usually, Anarchism, by definition, is the desire and execution of far left elements of society to bring down governments in an anti-authoritarian revolt, to bring chaos due to a breakdown of government's ability to enforce its laws.

But what if your Anarchists ARE the government? What happens when they move to destroy their own states in an effort to destroy the over all economy and Federal government?

Well look no further!

The Leftists on the state level are exercising their own version of Anarchy by ignoring the Federal government and purposely sinking their state economies in an attempt to cripple the sitting President and exert jack-booted control of  all business in their domains.

This certainly turns the definition on it's head.

Understanding Anarchists 

Regular folks have a hard time understand how Anarchists think. Like Suicide Bombers, why would somebody destroy themselves just to get at someone else? If the state Governors crash their economies, wouldn't that hurt them and their supporters also?

Yes but...they don't care!

The goal is to reach the target. The costs will be only be weighed AFTER, win or lose. The point is to tear down, disrupt and destroy and if they are blown up in the turmoil they cause, well it will all be worth it in the end. To them, Martyrdom is a desirable achievement for the cause.

You, me, family, friends....all just collateral damage, means to an end. After all, this is War. Not for the hearts and minds of the people but for the fleeting opportunity to control them regardless if they want to be ruled or not.

Who thinks like that?

THEY do. And the sooner you figure it out, the better off we'll all be.

Crashing the States

How else can one explain the economic destruction being forced upon the United States by Leftist Governors like California's Gavin Newsom, Illinois's J.B. Pritzker, NJ Governor Phil Murphy, Connecticut's Ned Lamont, NY Governor Mario Cuomo, Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island and Massachusetts own Charlie Baker, who are closing businesses, giving orders, making demands and sending the Men with Guns after, not the criminal element, since the state courts are actually releasing convicted criminals back into society during this lock-down but sending them after ordinary taxpaying citizens.

This is for everybody, not just people who are at risk.

Is this for the Public Health?

Even if it saves JUST ONE LIFE, it'll all be worth it, won't it?

Well poverty has it's own health downside. And if people can't open their businesses, can't work, can't travel and if the hospitals are seeing nobody but people with the virus, we're going to have poverty.

So why would the Governors want to crash their own economies, it makes no sense.

Already told you, they don't care. All that matter is the goal.

Get Trump

The President can't run on the economy anymore, it's gone. The highest unemployment since the first Great Depression. The states are running record deficits, many even before this happened. Very little tax money coming in, hospitals laying people off and right now, I can confidently say that every town in the state of Massachusetts this week will be holding meetings about how many town employees they will have to furlough or lay off. The longer this goes on, the less and less there will be for everyone.

Still think this is to protect the populous from the Virus?

No Bailouts from the Feds

President Trump must stick to his guns about not rewarding this behavior and the chances are very good that no bailouts can even be possible before January since he has already vowed to veto bailout legislation. The Republican controlled Senate will not override a Presidential veto during an election year.

Should the Leftist opposition candidate, by some happenstance, prevail in November, they would not be able to write a check until they take office late January of 2021.

So...not gonna happen. The decision, should he actually sign such a bill, is the President's alone.

Square Yourself with God

We won't live forever and I for one am not interested in living like this. What an incredible waste of time it is running around being afraid you are going to die since, well, you're going to die, sooner or later. Most of us expect it to be later but we like to temp the Fates by seeing just what situations we can wriggle out of.

There is a daredevil in all of us, some more so and less so. Some people's idea of adventure may be hiking New Hampshire's Lafayette trail and for others, they aspire to jump out of a balloon at the world's highest edge with space. But each experiences the same thrill when they take that very first step.

After all, life is too short to live in fear.

Bringing Our Troops Home

The United States has approximately 800 military bases spread out across the world in 70 countries which cost somewhere between $85 and $100 Billion dollars per year to operate and even more in a war zone. Some are quite large and others are merely just outposts but the cost is substantial and in many cases, no longer necessary.

Take the recent report that President Trump plans to withdraw 9,500 U.S. troops from Germany. They're upset about it because to the German government and the businesses located near the U.S. bases there, it's not about the loss of military protection, it's the loss of their consumer dollars.

When all those men and women in foreign bases get paid, they're gonna spend it in where they're stationed. That also includes the families of the service people living with them so the economic impact is greater than just the 9,500 troops.

Ultimately, we do not need a military base in Germany any longer. We don't need military bases in Italy, France, Afghanistan or Iraq either. If they speak ill of us, or want us out, we should leave and take our dough with us. Germany does not have a right or any claim to U.S. Taxpayer money. That money comes from the sweat of the brows of the U.S. citizenry and therefore should be spent with better discretion than keeps some other country's economy afloat.

Germany disparages President Trump while they kissed Barack Obama's ass and he was a waste product who did nothing, delivered nothing and with one exception, everything he's done has been reversed. Now we have someone in office with some backbone and they don't want to deal. So we don't have to deal either. See ya later, bye!

Stagnant Leadership

It is obvious that Angela Merkel has been around too long. Her tenure in office is approaching that of many Socialist Dictators. She has overseen a systemic stagnation where the only way she sees to solve a problem is to do more of the same. Instead of solving Germany's economic woes, she opens the borders. Instead of energy solutions, she doubles-down on more of the same; import, import, import. Both roads lead to a dead end.

Nothing is going to get any better over there until she is out of office. I thought letting in one million unmixable Muslims into the country would have been enough for someone to step to the fore to oust her but nope, they all just took it. That's when you know something is wrong. Perhaps they're just too trusting. Perhaps they've all swallowed that "my brother's keeper" bullshit.

Who knows? But it's not our fault and it's not our problem. If they don't like us, let's take our money and find something better to do with it than to keep Germany's drinking establishments afloat.

Germany's Need for Energy

Germany isn't nearly as Green as they make out to be. They need more oil. Germany's demand is the highest in the EU. They need more natural gas too. Germany is the world's 7th largest consumer of natural gas. I guess the solar panels and the wind turbines ain't cutting it.

So they make a deal with Russia. You remember Russia? The big Red Menace of Europe that our troops are in Germany to protect them from? Yes, THAT Russia. So now they are doing the Libertarian thing of turning a potential combatant into an economic ally. Nothing wrong with that. That is what we like to see.

But you don't need a foreign army to protect you from an economic ally. It's just that simple.

Hard Working Americans

Two weeks vacation. That says plenty. That's what most of us get. If you stay at a company for 5 years, you could get another week. After 10 years you may get 4 weeks off. A rare few places will offer 5 weeks after 15 years on the job. but that's the top end of it. For many small businesses, time off isn't even an option. We also have Over-Time. We all have worked over-time. That's extra. We get Time and a Half for each hour of overtime. For many, that's where the money for buying all our stupid stuff to make the world go around gets made. And have I mentioned all the taxes we pay?

Ultimately, we bust our BALLS for that money. We work longer hours than any industrialized nation. That includes Japan where the average Japanese worker will cram 8 hours of work into a 12 hour day such is the state of their economic incentive these days. The U.S. is the biggest economy because the people in the U.S. put in the most productive hours. There's no shortcut.

Bring Them All Home

It's time we empty out. Bring our troops home. Leave them in the tough spots like Taiwan and Japan but if there's no inherent danger like Germany, France and Italy, empty the place out. Out of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Time to draw down our forces and stop fighting everyone's battles for them AND being their gravy train. It's more than just wasteful.

These deals we make aren't forever. We have been told that we are not the world's police and we should take that to heart. We certainly shouldn't be. Perhaps these countries would appreciate us a little bit more if we weren't there.

After all, they can't miss us if we won't go away.

Protesting vs Looting

In 1963 the late Reverend Martin Luther King organized a march on Washington DC, where he made his "I have a Dream" speech, to foster change in the United States. Louis Farrakhan organized a march on Washington DC in 1995, the so called Million Man March, to also elicit personal pride and change in the country.

Some say nothing much has happened to change things in this country since then.

I can see why marching on Washington isn't doing much to change things. Our Constitutional Government, by design, is geared for measured change. So it stands to reason that frustration can occur when groups, hungry for acceptance, decide it's better to take a shortcut.

But why, instead of marching to City Hall, The State House or head to Washington, do today's protesters head straight to the Mercantile Districts?

If a march on Washington isn't going to do it for you, I can't see the political advantage of tearing into an Apple Store or a Macy's Department Store. All I can get from this is that, rather than this being about the careless murder of a man by the callous police, it's about getting free stuff for yourself. In fact, it's ALL about YOU, isn't it?

Here in the city of Boston, last evenings "Protesters" marched right past the State House, where the State Legislature meets and where the Governor has his offices and headed instead down the street to nearby Downtown Crossing, where there are department stores, jewelry shops and other businesses big and small.

Why pick there to do your protesting?

Across the street from the State House is the famous Boston Common, which has been a traditional place to hold protests and rallies. The British garrison stationed on the Common, back when Boston was locked down and closed off by the British Empire following the Tea Party, watched Samuel Adams ride by on his way to the 2nd Continental Congress in Philadelphia to urge independence for the Colonies.

But this place too, was overlooked for the expression of the personal moral outrage felt by those marchers who only wanted to show their solidarity with the spirit of George Floyd, I'm sure. The city common is just not a suitable place to fully communicate their view on race relations in these United States circa 2020.

No, they have to go to the Shops!

This is where they can best be heard.

We just can't understand what it's like to be them! We can't walk in their shoes because we don't know, won't know, CAN'T possibly EVER know what it's like to be where they are at this very moment in their unrelenting grief.

Which at the moment is standing outside the window of the Shop & Save with a brick in their hand and a firebomb in their backpack.

"NOBODY knows how we FEEL!" they scream. "You racist, leave us alone to protest the only way we can to express our feelings."

"After all, they're only stores and shops, they're not people. They have insurance! So whats wrong with tearing them up? "

I've heard this lately from media people and Liberal politicians and it's unbelievable the lack of support for the people who risked their savings and put in the time to start a small business. Whole families depend on the income of many of these places and they all work there. With the taxes they pay, this is what they get? After being arbitrarily shut down and thrown out of work for 3 whole months, this is what they get?

Contrary to popular belief, it is the Small Businesses that drive employment in this country. Businesses that employ under 100 people employ the most people in the U.S. and not the big corporations. And between the bizarre shutting down of "non-essential" businesses and now the direct burning and looting attacks directed, not at the seats of government but at them, small business in this country is suddenly very much on the ropes.

This isn't an accident. This is by design to make sure the small businessman, a vulnerable pillar of our economy, is injured beyond repair. This is the double-whammy of being denied revenue combined with a guarantee of increased overhead because their insurance premiums will be going up, that is, if they're insured at all which many are not. It's not free money.

And once they're gone, who will risk taking their place?

Our local governors and mayors better wake up and drop the political game to stop this now.

This is not a protest and these are not protesters.

Time for the Governors to quit dragging their feet and open up the States already.

Let's get back to work!

Media Spreading Virus Fear

Turn on the Television: Death!

Turn on the Radio: Death!

Listen to the news conferences, what are the reporters saying?

"Mr. President, what can you say to the people who are going to DIE!"

Are you kidding me? Who says things like that? Crazy people, that's who. Members of the National Media. Talking like the Virus is a virtual death sentence. You get it, you die!

Dead, you, now, it's over!

It's not a death sentence. Far from it. Yes, people are dying from it but the longer this goes on, the more people like myself are suspecting that there are other motivations behind the news beyond the concerns for public safety. The numbers just aren't adding up.

Governors Shut State Economies

Although by law it is supposed to take an act of the legislature, the Governors of many states have simply closed almost all businesses in their states with a wave of their hand.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, Mario Cuomo of New York, Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island and here in Massachusetts, Governor Charlie Baker have all crashed their state's economies in an effort to contain the virus. Well, I hope it's worth it because poverty has it's own health consequences, lots of them. Will there be someone keeping track of that?

Whether you believe Self-Isolation works or if you are a fan of Herd Immunity, you've gotta admit that what is going on is over-the-top extreme to shut everything down in the states for over 2 months and counting. No sales, no taxes, no demand and no income.

But the bills, they're still out there.

My landlord has yet to call me saying not to worry about anything and I'll bet the phone hasn't rung for many of these business owners either. Deferring the payments isn't going to help since they aren't going to actually go away. But their income has and it may not be coming back. And if it does, chances are they won't be able to cover the loses. But we won't know for a few months down the road if they ever free us up from these open-air prisons we're living in.

I don't have the time or the fortitude to list how all this shit is rolling downhill. From leases, to lien-holders to banks to tax revenue, liability insurance, auto and homes sales...don't get me started. But it all has to get paid back.

The names of these Governors will live in infamy if they don't get off their political high-horses and get people back to work sooner than later. If it goes on past May, who knows where they expect to get the money to cover the public service payrolls. Or will they actually cut the state budgets? They can't get the money out of all the private-sector unemployed they created. Good luck trying.

Invoking Science!

When someone says, "Listen to the Science!" or "People aren't listening to the Science!" I know that they are trying to pull the wool over my eyes. There's nothing to believe about science these days. There's always a political or monetary motivation behind the lions-share of scientific reporting that there's really no relying upon any of it for truth. Scientists have been caught cheating and colluding to "fix the problems" with their findings. We were better off with the Alchemists.

So when these knuckle-heads predicted 2.2 million people dead, 200,000 in the U.S, how on God's Green Earth can you believe this in the first place? How stupid are you? You're obviously being PLAYED!

And yet people just jump through the hoop every time the Media holds it out for them. Like circus animals. They're out there right now thinking wearing a mask is going to help, waging a finger at you for not "Social Distancing" like some Virus Nazi, or they leap off the sidewalk into the street when they encounter someone walking in their direction. Like if they do catch the Virus they'll say, "Perhaps I got it from that guy I passed on the sidewalk last week?".

Turn off the television you stupid twit, you'll feel a whole lot better.

And when this is over and the truth comes out, and it will come out, there are going to be quite a lot of people who should be totally ashamed of themselves and their behavior.

I said SHOULD be ashamed of themselves since we all know many of these people do this sort of thing all the time for a living and so it's just a job to them. Nothing personal. The others will just rationalize it all away until something else comes along to make people look in a different direction. (Cue the Water-skiing Squirrel!).

Depending on Government

Since the closing of the state businesses and the calling for bailouts, the Governors have forced President Trump into becoming FDR, to a point. The Feds were already running $26 Trillion in deficits before this happened so there's no money there either. They will have to print it if they want to hand it out. It won't matter how much they print, it won't be enough to cover the damage done.

Mitch McConnell came up with a great idea, to let the states file for bankruptcy. That drew howls from the Governors since that's the signal that it's time to open up their economies because the Feds will not be writing checks to bail them out. They don't like the idea because should they file for bankruptcy, that will void all the municipal union and public pension contracts and they would all have to renegotiated and, most likely, adjusted downward.

Time to open things up or face the music, Guv'nor.

The American Diet

The studies coming out of New York City in regards to the 12,000 plus people who have been counted to have died of the Virus, 89% of them had other life-threatening conditions including coronary artery disease, hypertension, obesity and diabetes. The two studies I read pointed squarely to the American diet of takeout-food, high-fat, high-salt and high-calories combined with a sedentary lifestyle. This explains why Japan, with the worlds oldest population, doesn't come close to the numbers of NYC alone never mind the whole country. Even though they smoke like chimneys and drink like fishes, they don't eat like crap! Very little fat in the Japanese diet and they aren't that into sweets either.

Living in Fear

Yes, pneumatic flu is a danger. It seems to ignore most but some people get it bad. And if you get it bad, you could die from it, like dozens of other things you could die from any time.

Do you really want to live this way? Do your really think this is a new normal? I don't. The sooner we get out there and start living, the sooner the virus will disappear. I am not going to live this way. I refuse. I resent the Governors destroying my livelihood by royal decree and becoming a law unto themselves for whatever the motivation. I think it's political frankly, and it stinks.

Time to give up the charade and get back to work. This is now not a crisis of epidemic but a crisis of government. The Virus didn't close down all the businesses, President Trump didn't close down all the businesses. The Governors, THEY closed down all the businesses.

Nobody should forget this.

Icon of the New Religion

Love her or hate her, believe that she acted on her own or was manipulated by her social-activist parents or whatever, one has to see with clear eyes how Greta Thunberg has gained a more than mere cult following among the new wave of religious zealotry that is permeating the world at large.

This is not a new thing as we know and although none of us living today were around when the last couple of religious cults started, perhaps we're seeing how it may have happened way back when. Young Ms. Thunberg didn't happen overnight, of course, since world society is heading into its third generation of people brought up as climate cultists.

Many point to Rachel Carson's 1962 book "Silent Spring" as the "Bible" of the movement which had it's roots back in the 1950s when Ms. Carson, a trained Marine Biologist and nature writer, became interested in the effects of synthetic pesticides used in agriculture and DDT in particular. This book got DDT banned and sparked a movement that lead to the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Given this sort of social success, the Climate Cult has grown larger around the world to the point where it is now in direct competition with the older more established cults of the past 2,000 years. In the same fashion that Paganism, which deified storms and other actions of the natural world, was eventually swept away by the Monotheists, so now the circle will be complete and society is again embracing natural phenomena as acts of the new, angry God.

The Mural in San Francisco

So this Argentine artist, Andres Inglasias, is painting a 60 ft by 40 ft mural of Greta on a building in San Francisco and the non-profit group that commissioned the work has gone out of it's way to make any detractors aware that they only use water-based paints with eco-friendly spray cans and use electric vehicles, etc since there are two groups of people they have to be concerned with.

On the one hand they have the Conservative Unbelievers who will point out any hypocrisy in materials and deeds that they should slip up on right down to getting coffee in a Styrofoam cup and on the other is their fellow Orthodox Environmentalists who will do the same thing but with more shaming.

Greta the Spiritual Icon

To me, Greta Thunberg has an interesting face, not pretty, not ugly, more determined and always it seems unsmiling. This is the kind of face, with it's strength of conviction, that leads a cause. She's done her penances, she's made her pilgrimages, coming to the United States and even speaking to the United Nations. Who gets to do that? Not everybody.

Although soon to be 17, Greta took Earth's Plight into her life when she was 8 years old and although welcoming of her strong stance, I don't believe her parents were behind her religious devotion to the cause of Climate Activism. We all know how young children can get fixated on an idea and even though she has adopted the religion of her parents, I believe it was she alone that chose to take the next higher step of the truly devout. She has transcended her mentors. 

She has organized strikes, gained followers and established her disciples to whom she has proven her devotion. She's now become the face of the new expansion, an icon for the new Masthead.

Think of her as the young Mother Theresa of Climate Change, sacrificing all for her dedication to her cause, answering the call of her God and now, with divine light, they are ready to take over the world.

How to Spot Cyber Fraud

In a somewhat related note, most of the working world who use computers and work on the World Wide Web have read about or taken training on how to spot what has become one of the worlds most prevalent dangers, Phishing Scams! So, as a sort of Public Service Announcement, I'd like to take this moment to point out the one glaring giveaway to look for as a sign that that you are being set up for fraud...

a Sense of Urgency.

Fraudsters are just using human nature against you. They know that most people just want to do the right thing and so they seek to exploit a person's sense of wanting to be helpful.

By using call to action statements like; "We Need to Act Now!, We Can't Afford to Wait!, Time is Running Out!" and "There is No Time to Lose!", the fraudster is looking to hurry you into making a mistake that they can take advantage of and so stands as a clear sign that the person or people you are dealing with are trying to manipulate you.

Hope this helps.

Can China Oppress Its Way to Prosperity?

Remember Tibet? It used to belong to the Tibetans. Not any more. China took over. The outrage lasted minutes while Chinese policemen kicked protesters to death in the streets.

How about Taiwan. It's a sovereign nation, right? Not to China it isn't and they never stop threatening to take it over. By force, of course.

China's Claims

To determine ownership of a territory, China it seems merely has to claim it. "It's ours by right, stay off!"

And that's all their is to it. Tibet...is China's. The South China Sea, well, it has the word China in it, see? Therefore it belongs to China. Nobody else gets to use it. It's China's.

Taiwan is China's. Why? Because China says so!

Taiwan may have something to say about that. "No they don't, it's ours!"

Hong Kong wasn't China's for a long time. China was very different then. Different government, different economy and Hong Kong too is different, like a different country.

But China claims Hong Kong just the same.

Where do China's claims stop?

There's a rumor going around this country that China wants to go to the Moon just to see if the American flag is really there. If it isn't, China will claim the Moon too.

How Will the World React?

Hong Kong is, in my opinion, the last frontier of true economic freedom left in the world. A place where you can rent a storefront, put up a sign and call yourself a business. Very little red tape involved in comparison to say, anywhere in the United States. It's a city just teaming with commerce and ambition. Ambition for success and for something few on mainland China enjoy, Freedom!

But don't worry, China will fix that. They'll eventually kick their way in and crush the local pro-democracy lunatics, killing the most resistant and sending the rest to be re-educated or harvested or both. They'll then look to their European enablers for signs of disapproval.

But they won't see any.

I mean, what nation cut ties with China over Tibet? None. Nobody did. If they do the same thing to Hong Kong, will it score a ripple on China's economic radar screen? Will they pay a price?

Well, perhaps the UK may have had enough and actually speak up about what China is doing given it's past ties to Hong Kong but don't expect France, Spain or Germany to make much of a fuss. They all need the low cost manufacturing they've grown dependent upon. They're tied too tight economically to China to open their cringy yaps and do anything beyond a grandstanding speech or some-such.

To them, Hong Kong is just another Tibet; "Pass the Bearnaise Sauce will you, my Filet Mignon is not as moist as it should be." "Send it back Angela, the cook will make you another!" "Good idea Annegret, I'll send it back."

"Oh, those unfortunate people of Hong Kong." they will say. And that will be the end of it. It will take people marching in the streets of those nations to get a bigger reaction. But since it's only people getting killed and a major global economic engine being silenced and not something REALLY important like "Global Climate Warming Change", will they get much of a turnout?

China Roads

China is good at taking over. They've bought their way into Africa although there are rumblings from South Africa about the deal they've made with the Devil, but they'll all regret taking the money China dangles in front of the impoverished nations of Africa.

Nobody really TRUSTS China. They're serious as a heart attack and as funny as a crutch. They have a chip on their shoulder so big the Iranians can only look on in envy and they are out to pay back ALL the slights of history they feel have been directed at them because they are Chinese.

China now says, "If the world will not love us, by _________, (*whatever Godless Idol Chairman Xi worships) they'll fear us!"

And surely, where ever China goes these days, they make everyone around them nervous.

And they should be.

Tienanmen Square Redux

But China is at it's best at oppressing it's own. From the untold millions who were purged in the days of Mao to the extension of that control to the long segregated Muslim population. The control and subjugation of them and Christians too, is all just by rote these days. Nobody escapes and everybody is subject to social controls. The Muslims just get it worse, of course.

It's all about control. China controls it's population. Telling them what they can see, what they can say, what they can do and where they can go. In this fashion, the government can feel secure that they will not be overthrown. With the country contained, they will feel much more secure as they expand and try to take over the weaker territories nearby and give them the same treatment. And then, they surmise, they will expand from there spreading the subjugation model they've perfected at home.

The Question

Can China's economic business model sustain it's ambitions?

Already being challenged on the economic battlefield, China's weakness is evident. The other major nations of the world must keep buying their cheaper products and feeding the Dragon. If they should decide to go elsewhere, the Chinese Juggernaut could hit the wall.

But that would also help out the United States and President Trump. What to do, what to do?

What will it take for the other nations of the world to decide to stop buying Chinese goods?

If China should decide to go into Hong Kong with guns a-blazing, the reactions or lack thereof of the European nations will tell us a lot.

At What Point Do You Stop Listening?

The press just can't get enough of the "feud" between President Trump and The Squad of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib and that overt Jew hater, Ilhan Omar.

It's the media corps that have elbowed Nancy Pelosi to the back of the room and put the spotlight on these four Horsewomen of the Apocalypse and it is they who are the reason that this is all a big deal.

It's not a big deal.

If you're worried that people may be believing all the zany things these people are saying just because they're all over the airwaves, I wouldn't be.

It isn't like the political arena lacks for want of crazy, prescription-drug crazed politicos because there seems to be no short supply.

I don't blame the Socialist Sisters for being camera hogs, I blame the people who are supplying the cameras. It's Fox News and "The World is Coming to an End" Drudge Report that are making the most political hay out of this. Talk about "It's all about the Benjamins".

All the accusations of "Racist" and constant media deluge of media hate towards the president, the wobbly GOP who would still rather have Hillary Clinton than prosperity and a good economy, the radical leftist states that every day announce another reason for their working citizens to get the hell out of there, it's all for naught. It's just the constant stream of nothingness and minutia that the "News" has become today. Nothing more than an incessant drone of negative energy, causing no good and if you listen too long, will cause mental instability.

In the Oppressive Ogres Corp where I work I share an office with another person. He's a political guy and a Trump supporter and each day he can't help but peruse MSN, CNN, Politico and other such non-sense media sights and read me some of what they say. He gets upset about it. I say, "I don't understand why you do this to yourself, you already know what they're going to say." But he can't help it. He gets even more upset when Fox says the same thing.

"Stop reading that crap!" I insist, "You're going to drive yourself Koo-Koo!"

And here we are.

I've checked out. I don't give a flying Phitt about what any of these people have to say or the so-called "conservative" media outlet that gives them a forum because I know it's all just about ratings and the advertising dollars they bring. Fox isn't in business to "Defend the Republic", they're in business to make a buck and if you're stupid enough to jump through a hoop or run into the streets in outrage every time they come up with a "Crisis' then you have nobody but yourself to blame. It's all just Street Theater for the Rubes.

As my older brother used to say to me all the time...

"Don't be an idiot."

It's not going to make one iota of a difference when it comes time to vote. Nobody is actually picking up what they're putting down and all the dead people in the country won't be able to out-vote the living when the time comes.

Because, quite frankly, even though we are not all "Brothers under the Skin" like most whackos want you to think, we do all want the same basic things.

We all want a roof over our head. We want a good livelihood for ourselves and a future for our children. This includes an acceptable level of education and opportunity for them to pursue their interests when they are old enough to decide and choose.

We all want...stuff! Whether it be a nicer car than most people drive, a boat, a nice house with central air conditioning and nice patio furniture. Oh, and a patio!

And we're all too willing to work for it, to drive great distances daily to get to our chosen places of employment and to withstand most daily torments of American life to get this...stuff!

Now I don't care where you're from originally. If you grew up here, you'r ruined for any place else anyway. Once you are "Americanized" you're screwed. No, we should figure out what to do with the Dreamers because even though your name may be Hernandez and you're parents are from Mexico, you'd be fucking lost in Mexico. I have black friends that went to The Gambia for a visit. They're like, "Wholly shit, I couldn't live there!" Of course not, your a friggin' American. You haven't washed a dish by hand since childhood never mind having to live on rice and beans. They don't even have cable!

So anyway, no matter what your background, if you're working for a living, trying to play by the rules and putting up with hearing all this whacko bullshit on the television and radio, when you finally get to the voting booth this November are you really going to pull the lever for what these nutjobs are trying to sell you?

No, I don't think so.

Like me, you may not have the best setup but it's working. You can go out every so often, have dinner and drinks, maybe once a week, take in a show, go for a hike, hit the gym and have some semblance of a decent career and life. You're hanging in despite the effort. But you know as well as I do that if you let this group of Quarter-Stalins get a hold of the means to your paycheck and livelihood, it could all turn to shit in a hurry.

There'll be no place to go but down...

And everybody knows it.

They're Not "Migrants"

They're being called "Migrants" but they're really not. These people crossing the boarder are the farthest thing from "Migrants" you can get.

A better word would be "Goths" as in "Visigoths", the destroyers of mighty Rome, the most successful Republic before this one. It might as well be old Alaric himself crossing the Rio Grande as far as I'm concerned. These people are no less dangerous as when the Goths crossed the Rhine back in 400 AD. We all know what happened after that.

These "oppressed masses" aren't here for asylum, although they'll take it if we're stupid enough to give it to them. They're economic refugees coming from the Continent of Failure that is South America. And they're here to put their thumb on the scales of our economic future. The nation's prosperity is not a given, it's not assured and there are many burdens on the other side of the equation that aren't as brightly lit when talk of the robust growth of the United States is discussed.

These are the burdens of the Welfare State, the social insurances of Medicaid, Medicare, SSI, Food Stamps and the Affordable Care Act. Then there are the public service pension administrations both federal and state. These are massive programs and all fall on the Accounts Payable side of the ledger.

Now add all these people to the welfare rolls, the food stamps, putting their kids into the public school systems, the hospital emergency rooms and WIC programs. Who will be paying for all this?

Not THEM!

Add to those costs the added price of fighting the diseases, some thought long gone, that have made their dubious return. Afflictions like Whooping Cough, Measles, Mumps and even the Plague. Find a bean-counter to figure that one out.

A Nation of Laws

We have immigration laws and they're pretty much like those of other countries and U.S. Citizenship takes about as long as does most countries: About 7 years.

And it takes a bit of work. You have to know about our system of government, how it works and how the people who run the country get to where they are. This is on the up and up. You have to learn a bit about our democracy and how it works. But the bottom line is...

You can't just walk in and start working. Or at least you shouldn't.

And one of the reasons you shouldn't is because there are thousands of naturalized U.S. citizens here already who played by the rules and waited the time it took and learned the things they needed to become a citizen of these United States.

And why would they do that?

Because they LOVE this country and want to be citizens. Because of that desire, they were willing to do the right thing. They didn't come here to just make a buck to send back to Whereverlahara so they could build a bigger house there. They want to build there house right HERE in the good 'ol US of A.

The Migrants Pay Taxes Myth

If you're working under the table and doing your shopping at flea markets, how much in the way of taxes are you paying? And if you're collecting housing benefits and going to the emergency room for free treatments, how much are you taking in exchange? Plenty. Add your non-English speaking children to the local public schools in enough numbers that there won't be much learning going on for anyone as schools scramble to not only teach the subjects but to bring up the language skills of these kids so that they can be taught at all. And who'll pay for that?

Not THEM!

It's you, the legal, working American working stiff, the taxpayer who'll get the bill. I'm sure you'd rather have the money to put your own kids through school but heck, these people need it more than you do you rich, white sons-of-bitches! And so what if the rising costs and deductibles of healthcare under the ACA make you think twice before you get that lump on your side checked out, these people have a RIGHT to HEALTHCARE! Yeah, so they can't pay for it, now sit down and shut up, you racist bastard!

Crashing the Welfare State

With all these illiterate, indigent masses crashing the gates of the kingdom, we will reach a tipping point in the costs of taking care of there "essential needs", meaning the people footing the bill will either get irate enough to rebel or the welfare systems will just go broke.

In the Theory of Anarchism, this is a desired result of the political Left. I don't see how anyone will escape the pain to follow should this be allowed to happen but Anarchists don't really think about the future in those terms. They only wish for the downfall. What happens after that is not important.

As a Libertarian, I too would like to see the end of the Welfare State as we see it today but would rather avoid an economic reenactment of the Hindenburg.

Trump Represents American Success

You wonder why all the vitriol, hatred and bizarre contrarianism the Political Left has directed towards President Trump and every move he makes. He tries to cut taxes and they try to block it, he tries to secure the border with Mexico and they block him. He tries to make a trade deal with China and the European Union and he's immediately branded a failure. For an American president acting in the best interests of the United States and it's citizenry, it's all seems so upside down.

Why?

Because the President was a successful businessman prior to the presidency, remains a successful person in the White House and the United States is a successful country full of people working and striving to get the things they want in this life. They have goals they want to reach and are willing to put in the work to get them, the right way.

Everyday we see Americans, from the newly naturalized to those here for generations, working, paying taxes, contributing to society and playing by the rules.

And the Socialist Democrats HATE that.

And they hate you.

Don't Bomb Iran!

At least not yet anyway.

It's pretty clear the Iranian totalitarian regime is looking to goad the U.S. into a first bloody strike.

Shooting down the drone was a brilliant move since there won't be any grieving families on the television. Nobody got hurt. Then, by muddying the waters over the location of the drone when it was shot down, there will be uncertainty over which party is telling the truth. Is this a case of the "Bully of the World", the United States, looking for an excuse to attack Iranian or is it a war-like Iran attempting to start an international military conflict by shooting down a U.S. drone in international airspace?

The world will ponder since both sides are keeping a straight face.

On the U.S. side, there are calls for reprisal but extreme caution should be observed if past experience will be given attention. If the U.S. should actually fire missiles into Iran or Iranian targets, you know the pictures coming back will be those of civilian casualties and the hurt looks of Iranian diplomats.

Even if we should hit nothing but sand.

It's a miracle of nature that the U.S. can't seem to hit anything but civilians in these Middle Eastern countries. We bomb a military installation and the pictures come back as women and children. In a past experience we bombed a toxic gas manufacturing facility in Iraq and, surprise, it was a children's formula processing plant! Amazing how, with the most advanced tracking systems in the world to date, we can barely hit a terrorist.

But subsequently, the pictures aren't going to look good if we don't wait for further escalation from the ancient brain-trust of the Mullahs.

And wait we should.

We could send them the bill for $ 130 million, the cost of the drone. Then we could threaten to seize Iranian assets if they don't remit the balance within 90 days. That would be the businessman's answer.

Besides, what's one lost drone to the Pentagon? It's a drop in the bucket in their massive secret budget which is most likely larger than 90% of the world's economies.

They'll just order another dozen.

War Mongers to the Front

I'm starting to see the roll a person like John Bolton plays in the Trump administration. With a guy like him always calling for the destruction of "Name-Your-Adversary", if I was sitting in Iran, I could never be sure if the President would be seriously listening to him or not. It would be hard to think he would but there he is chanting "kill, kill, kill" all the time. And President Trump is saying "I don't know how long I can hold this guy back." It makes one wonder if it's a tactic.

Would that it were but it's a deadly game both the U.S. and Iran are playing and it reminds me very much like what happened at Fort Sumter back in 1860 to bring the North and South to begin the American Civil War.

It was important to Abraham Lincoln for the South to fire the first shot in the war. You know, that's important in politics so he decides to just send an unarmed supply ship since North Carolina, having already seceded from the Union, had stopped suppling the fort which was on an island in the harbor. So the southern garrison on the shore, seeing the ship, launched an attack on Fort Sumter and the result was the "War of Southern Aggression" with just about every adult male alive at the time ending up dead.

Iran Becomes North Korea

We know the sanctions are killing the Iranian economy, for what it is, and if we want to pursue any kind of retaliation, the U.S. would do well to keep it economic. The Iran government is trying to find a way to break out of this blockade and save face while doing it. A tall task. So they are rattling away and causing, in reality, minor destruction.

Planting mines above the waterline of a ship tells me they didn't want to actually sink it. They wanted a good fire but again, nobody got killed. I don't think anybody even got hurt unless they fell off of a ladder or something. The ships are insured for this sort of thing. Even the Japanese are downplaying the whole affair since the ship was bound for Japan. So this sort of non-aggressive aggression is mostly designed to bring attention to Iran's 'plight". Not enough there to start a fight.

Plus, it was not an American ship so just leave it to the insurance company accountants.

What to Do

It's pretty obvious. With the pundits all describing Iran as playing a "Long Game", that should also be our strategy as well. The North Korean playbook as been to do just enough to make people nervous and Iran is making people nervous alright but that in itself does not constitute grounds for war. Also, just like North Korea, Iran has threatened destruction of the economic means of their neighbors should the United States intervene militarily. In the case of the Middle East, that's the oil fields.

So standing back and waiting to see just how far Iran is willing to go in this game of chicken will serve the United States interests. Meanwhile it's Iran's economic issues that will continue to work against them. They've squandered their meager GDP over the years on guns for the military and not butter for the people. And now it's come to bite them in the ass. Mullahs and Economics don't mix.

I don't see any other nations stepping up and offering any support for an armed solution to Iranian skullduggery so instead of putting on our "Defenders of the World" hats yet again, we should just wait until Iran does something to piss SOMEONE ELSE off.

Until a major country like France, Japan or Spain steps up and says "Something should be done" about Iran, we should just keep working on closing our southern boarder. It isn't like we've got nothing better to do.

So until Iran decides to definitively fire the first bloody shot at the United States, we should wait it out. But if they do decide to pull the trigger first...

That will spell the end for them.

Venezuelans Continue to Suffer

And they should. They deserve it.

"Oh!" You may say, "Wal Man, you're so heartless and cruel. Don't you have any sympathy for the poor people of Venezuela who have suffered under the Socialist Dictatorship of Nicolas' Maduro?"

Nope.

As I recall, Hugo Chavez didn't just materialize as the Dictator of Venezuela. The people VOTED him in on more than one occasion. They even came out into the streets to protect him when they thought he was going to be overthrown. All these people, they WANTED Hugo Chavez.

Any Why?

He promised them everything they wanted. They were poor. He promised them money and things like appliances, free healthcare and free schooling for their kids. They were jealous of those who had more. He promised to bring them down. Chavez promised to make them pay. They wanted security. He promised them the security of the State. Venezuela under Chavez will take care of all their needs.

And they all went and pulled the lever for Chavez.

And he did what he said he was going to do. He gave them stuff. He punished those who had more. He took away the businesses of the successful and nationalized foreign manufacturing plants as he took total control of the country, it's means of production and it's economy.

This is what the people of Venezuela wanted and they were happy...for awhile.

The funny thing about the motivation to bring down others. When people covet the possessions of others, they are looking up. They only see what lay just above their reach. What they don't think about and therefore do not see are the other people. The people below, looking up at them.

The people who vote for a totalitarian strongman do so in the expectation that it will be they who will be part of the controllers, that they will be a taker under the protection of the king. But as they reached up for what they felt was theirs, the people below reached for them for what they also felt now belonged to them.

And chaos ensued.

And here we are.

So now the people are fleeing the country they made. They are crossing over into Columbia but Columbia doesn't want them. I would have thought Columbia would do something to change things but they haven't and perhaps they feel it's not up to them to fix what the Venezuelan people themselves have broken...namely their Morality.

And although they lament their fate, you won't hear a word against Hugo Chavez, the architect fo the nation's downfall. They have no idea how things got this way and point to Maduro, Chavez's hand-picked replacement, as the source of all their ills. They maintain they are blameless and make no apologies.

But if Venezuelans want to right the wrong they've done to themselves and try to keep this from happening again, they can start by taking responsibility for their roll in their predicament. A lesson can be clearly drawn from all this.

The people wanted to rob from the rich and give to...well, themselves. They wanted something for nothing. They wanted what someone else had taken risks and worked to have that they did not.

They were trying to bring themselves up by bringing others down.

Now they have succeeded, in a way. They have achieved the ultimate in equality:

Everybody has nothing.

They should be celebrating their Socialist achievement for this has always been the result of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."

They got the government they deserved. 

Elizabeth Warren is Out

It was over before it began. Whether someone dropped a dime on her and paid for Ms. Warren's Texas Bar application to be made public or not, the appalling part is that she never admitted all the rumors were true until they were.

Warren, the Senator from my state of Massachusetts knows how many times she had claimed to be of American Indian heritage on her college professorship applications and yet denied EVER doing so every time she was asked and is only now apologizing because she was finally outed and ONLY because she was outed.

Otherwise she would have never taken a step backwards from her false claims, now proven so, that she had indeed claimed "Other Than White" privilege while applying for work. She had been lying about this all along.

Lance Armstrong could take a few lessons from Elizabeth Warren. Lance came clean about his sports doping with less evidence.

And if White Privilege is such an important factor in getting a job, why on God's Green Earth would Senator Warren feel the need to lie about not being white? Are there privileges to not being White?

Don't be absurd. We don't do such things in American Academia, favoring one race over another...do we?

Warren's Presidential Bid...Toast!

But at any rate, Senator Warren might as well forget about launching her bid for the U.S. Presidency. She hasn't a snowball's chance in Hell of making it to Super Tuesday. She won't have any money. Whatever campaign war-chest she has now is all she's every going to get. Who will back her financially when another half-dozen of these documents can show up at any time?

The big one of course is her application to teach at Harvard. The college administration at Harvard has refused to release it and it's probably locked in a desk somewhere where only the Head Chancellor knows. But it exists.

And should that document somehow emerge at a strategic period of the race? Ka-plow!

How could she survive?

She obviously is facing a long road where every question will be along the lines of "How do you think admitting you lied on your job application qualifies you to be president?"

Can you imagine?

Warren's Anti-Wall Street message, for what it is, will be lost in the wind. Nobody will want to hear it and eventually nobody will come.

Still a Senator

No, it's best to just say now is not a good time, bank all that cash, since she really is a greedy person to begin with, and keep it for the next run for Senator since being an outright straight-faced lier does not disqualify someone from the U.S. Senate. Especially if your from Massachusetts.

If Senator Warren doesn't resign her position in the Senate, and some have resigned for less, she will still have an iron grip on the job due to her fervent politically-left following in the City of Boston and her vast local resources. Her recent re-election versus the energetic Republican candidate Jeff Diehl was called in her favor just 5 MINUTES after the polls closed on election night. If this proof of her claim on Indian Heritage was out before the election perhaps it would have been 6 minutes.

After all she didn't kill anybody like Ted Kennedy did and he kept getting re-elected.

It reflects more on those who vote for such people rather than the people themselves.

Venezuela Over and Over

It's a lesson the world never seems to learn. Collectivism spells certain doom. The slogan: "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need" has proven to be a death sentence for the populace at large.

It's all there for the clear minded to see.

But we're not talking about clear minds are we? We are talking about Class Envy, Want and Revenge.

You can explain the economics of it and they don't care. You can show them the pictures of the people in Zimbabwe drinking out of mud puddles, the Venezuelans standing in hours long lines in the hopeful anticipation that there will be something on the shelves to buy when they get into the store. It makes no difference.

No, no, it's all about seizing power. The chance to tell those rich bastards what to do and to make them pay for the gall they had to take a risk and give people jobs. It's about taking that which they've built, not because they don't deserve it but because we now have the power to take it away from them.

And don't think for a moment that the "Poor" are going to see a farthing of these confiscated resources. No, they are spoils that only go to the victor.

Was Stalin concerned that people were starving? Was Mao? Pol Pot? Chavez? Castro didn't care one whit that his country was stuck in 1956 just as long as HE was the boss of it. Castro was king of a backwards impoverished land. He must have been so proud.

And what about now with Nicolas Maduro, is he even remotely sympathetic?

Hell no. Just as long as he's in charge. That's what its all about.

And once Maduro is dead, and he most certainly should be executed for his crimes, there will be another who will rise to prominence on the slogan power of their promises of Equality for All, for the Rich Paying Their Fare Share, and of Justice for the Workers!

And so the cycle begins again. The producers walk, the people want and the bloodshed escalates as the resources dwindle.

Nope, nope, nope, no use talking about it when you deal with such ignorance. The new young crop of Leftists in the U.S. Congress have already shown how little they know about history. But they do know Class Envy, they do know that their constituents are dumber than they are and are easily swayed by promises of fixing their problems by first creating class demons and they promising they'll be punished. No need for personal responsibility. YOU have been wronged by the Society Haves and you will be Compensated by them. How dare they sign your pay checks!

It's a mindset.

If Hugo Chavez came back to life and drove into Venezuela and said he was going to make everything right again if the people just vote him back into office, they would vote him back into office again in a heartbeat. Most of the people never blamed him for the slow circling of the drain that began in 1999 when he was first elected. They loved Chavez. They blamed everything else but him.

And here we are.

Although the nation has become increasingly Socialist since the 1950s, this latest surge of "Progressives" rivals U.S. Socialism's heyday of the 1900s. Popularity of the party dropped dramatically once the Bolshevik revolt was underway and their intentions of spreading the "Revolution" around the world became evident and was known as the "Red Scare".

You see, once people see what happens when the Collectivists take over, almost always by force, they want no part of it. The tough part about that is that once they are in power, it's tough to put that Genie back in the bottle. The whole country turns upside down and right is wrong and wrong is wrong and there's a whole lot of nothing to give out. And then things get out of hand.

So follow your peer groups latest charismatic leader. Believe them when they tell you that "this time will be different". I promise you will be disillusioned. I promise you will regret it. I promise that you will pay dearly along with most of your group as well as your family and the nation.

We've seen this all before, hindsight is 20/20.

Trump Ending Frivolous Wars

Can this even be happening?

Not since Richard Nixon has an American President actually managed to end an armed conflict that wasn't just won outright. Let's face it, this country no longer fights wars with winning them in mind. Not at all, we fight them to keep the military arms industry afloat.

The United States is the top seller of military arms in the world. We sell twice as much weaponry around the world as #2 Russia. For our weapons industry, PEACE is the enemy. Having peace break out anywhere in the world is bad for business. And because of the diligent efforts of past Presidents and war industry Senators in the U.S. Congress, business has been very, very good.

Since the end of WWII, the war strategy of the U.S. has changed from winning to a constant rotating presence that hasn't proved a bit effectual in winning, stopping or preventing further pain and misery to the countries we occupy. It's really about not killing the job. And if some people get killed along the way, well, that's just business.

Finally out of Syria

We had no business being there in the first place. It was not our conflict since Syria is and remains a sovereign nation. That's supposed to mean something. If it wasn't for the Obama financed "Arab Spring" and his blatant arming of ISIS in the region, the Syrian civil war would have been over years ago and much less blood would have been shed. This intervention only prolonged the war and the pain war inflicts. Russia has every right to defend it's interests in the country since it has had a strong and legally binding relationship with Syria and Assad since at least WWII. That's supposed to mean something too.

Colonial interests drive Europe to press for Syrian intervention. The French in particular remain keenly interested in getting their hooks back into the region and have been behind much of the information surrounding the phony "gas attacks" that seem to serve as an excuse to deplete Syria's dictator Bashir Assad's ability to defend his government from the outsider-backed insurgency.

We were only in Syria so that Bashir Assad and Russia would not win. But legally and in the eyes of the world, there was only so much we could do. Our government and that of France kept trying to manufacture a reason to commit more resources to ultimately overthrow Assad to plunge the country into Libyan style chaos in the hopes that Russia would find their base on the Mediterranean no longer tenable but U.S. public opinion and independent voices in our government would not support such subterfuge.

Now it's time to end the charade.

The United States efforts to overthrow world powers "we don't like" has no basis or support in our laws. It has no reasoning beyond those of a tyrant and have brought us no satisfaction or good results for all the money and time we've spent.

But the U.S. military machine has plenty of time and plenty of money, doesn't it?

Enter the War Hawks.

Representatives of the Military Industrial Machine have come out against President Trump's move to end a military conflict. Florida Senator Marco Rubio has been a big supporter of armed conflict in the Middle East in his 8 years in office. It didn't take too much checking to find out why.

Florida has the largest war industry machine in the nation with 20 major military installations and nearly all of the nation's leading defense contractors. Florida also boasts $13.6 Billion in Department of Defense contracts. In fact, the scope of the state of Florida's involvement in the American "War Effort" is outright staggering.

Now what are they going to do if we stop fighting in the Middle East? Doesn't America know that all those bombs feed people?

At least now I know how Senator Rubio got elected. He's made a deal with the Devil.

A quick search on North Carolina, home to Senator Lindsay Graham, another sudden war hawk, brags on it's "Invest in North Carolina" brochure that they have the Third Largest active duty and reservist population in the United States and yields a skilled workforce pipeline for the defense industry. It has 5 major military bases and is #4 in military economic output with $11 Billion in Department of Defense contracts.

This is why Senator Lindsay Graham supports continued fighting in the Middle East. After all, it's only uneducated non-American poor people we're killing.

The Longer We Stay, the More We Fight

I originally hadn't bought into the "We're making more Radicals" argument when it was originally posed, incidentally, by the Democrats who now suddenly want us to keep our military presence in the Middle East, but over time I find that the region just never seems to run out of people wanting to throw themselves at a tank with a bomb strapped to their body. It reminds me of Major Colonel Bill Kilgore's line in the Vietnam movie "Apocalypse Now" when he asks rhetorically, "Don't these people ever give up?"

It's easy to convince people that the United States is coming for them when they are in your country shooting the place up.

Getting out of Afghanistan

After 17 long, long, long, long years in this country, are they any better off? Are WE? I mean all the "good will" we have sewn over there will come back in Spades, right? They still hate us. They hate us when we are there and they say we've abandoned them when we leave. All they want is our money and they'll never become an independent nation if they take it. It's a circular paradox that is no longer our problem.

We defeated the Talaban when they blew up the Twin Towers in New York way back when and now they've undergone a number of reformations and they either are still a force to be reckoned with or they aren't but frankly they aren't. They are a bunch of armed radicals that will exist whether the U.S. is there or isn't there but without us being there, they will have less guns and weapons to be anything but a group of Muslim killing Muslims since there will be no more Americans to shoot at.

We can't stay there forever and at some point either they will have to take care of themselves or they won't. It's been 17 years. GW Bush spent 7 years trying to get the Afghans ready to fight for themselves. Obama spent 8 years trying to get them ready and they've had 2 years under President Trump. How much more time will they need if they still aren't ready after all this time?

Anyone saying we are "abandoning" Afghanistan now after spending more time there than anywhere in the United State's history of warfare, is just trying to stay on the War Gravey Train that being on the side of Rome often provides. It's a spurious argument.

The Kurds

There is no easy, cheap or quick solution to the Independent Kurdish State issue. The Kurds have always helped out the U.S. in the region. They've fought under both GW Bush and Obama and they're helping now but the glaring fact remains that the United States has neither the authority to establish a Kurdish State or the resources to defend one should they try.

Turkey will not allow an independent Kurdish state under any circumstances and will bring their considerable might against one if established. We weren't in Syria to help the Kurds establish an independent state. They know this. They will have to keep fighting for their independence.

We Have our Own Problems

And a major problem right now is Security at the U.S. Boarder. There is no logic in fighting foreign wars for foreign interests when are going to end up losing the nation here at home.

The American Taxpayer shells out more money than most people in the world produce in a year on defense and welfare spending and both are out of control. The working U.S. citizen scrimps and saves for their retirement and most workers try to sock away dough for their later years. This becomes increasingly hard to do when so much is taken out of your paycheck before it even gets to you.

War is frivolous when it accomplishes nothing. As an industry, it is immoral at best. At worst, it's industrialized murder and whether it is waged in a "humane" fashion or not makes no difference if we are just going about it by rote.

Time to think of the people who fight our wars. We owe it to them and the military families that when we fight, we will fight with purpose and to ultimately win and not so that a military corporation can keep it's stock numbers up. We don't need to have a war for every generation to keep military traditions alive. We should try to interrupt this pattern one time just to see what happens.

Peace could become a habit.