Read the Fine Print Before You Buy

President Biden’s speech to Congress last night was long on platitudes as he lulled many to sleep with the Lullaby of the Left.  (See "Lullaby of the Left" here)   What it was short on was specifics.  It was also a bit short on honesty.  And it left out important facts and issues. 

First, what was left out.

The speech didn’t deal with the border crisis or Biden’s problem of migrant hoarding (See essay here )  Yes, he gave some nod to the divisive issue of amnesty and to the Vice President’s alleged leadership on the crisis (even though she has yet to visit our southern border or hold a press conference or answer questions about what she is doing).

Biden did not mention the radical Left plan to pack the Supreme court or to make Washington D.C. a state.  Both these plans are blatant political acts designed to ensure permanent power for the Democrats.

He also said little about H.R. 1 which is the Democrats’ bill that is intended to remove state control of elections, placing full control in the hands of the federal government.  He did not discuss that bill’s provisions that essentially destroy any election integrity: simply another Democrat power grab.

The speech failed to give credit to the work that went before him to get a vaccine ready and distribution started or that the return to normal (due in large part to efforts that began with the previous administration) will hopefully return to the booming economy achieved by the prior administration. 

Beyond the obvious omissions, the speech was short on honesty.

Ian Haworth examines this problem in detail HERE.   Let me just mention a few of the more glaring dishonest moments. 

The President repeatedly misstated figures, including: the amount of our GDP that we invest in research and development; the amount of time/travel/discussions he has had with China’s President XI; the gun violence and mass shooting numbers per year;

Biden often fudged to imply something that he did not say.   For example, he bragged that everyone is now eligible to get vaccinated right away.  What he left out was that just being eligible to be vaccinated does not mean one will be able to do so or that vaccine will actually be available for that person.    

Similarly, Biden seemed to take credit for a current booming economy while not mentioning that all he has done is remove some of the economic blocks enforced by Democrats or that the job increases under his administration pale in comparison to the 12.6 million jobs that were added by the Trump administration after the initial pandemic caused collapse.  He lamented the number of women who have left the workforce but ignored that a driving factor behind that statistic is the closure of schools due to Covid.

There were many more moments of intentionally misleading statements.  But that is just part of the lullaby – it all sounds good, and so people don’t notice.

The big stuff and the small print.

What is really disturbing are the grand Leftist plans that the President put forth without any specifics or any honesty about what they will cost this nation.  Again, the platitudes are lovely, but the reality may very well be quite different; it is that reality that the President and the Left do not want you to notice and which they try to cover with their soothing bromide.

I am not an economist, and you can yourself find a number of articles online that explain the devastating details of Biden’s latest money giveaway plan.  But just a few things of note.

The $1.8 trillion (that’s $1,800,000,000,000.00) American Families Plan comes on top of the $1.9 trillion ($1,900,000,000,000.00) Covid relief law and the $2.25 trillion ($2,250,000,000,000.00) “infrastructure” plan.  That is a total of $5.95 trillion in new spending in just the first 100 days. 

This money comes from taxpayers.  Yes, Biden says that it will not affect the middle class, but the reality is that it must, and it will.  He promised that he will only tax corporations and the wealthy, wealthy apparently being any family that makes more than $400,000 per year.  He ignores the fact that large corporations have ways of moving their tax base out of this country.  Then where does that money come from?  If not the middle class, then from the small and family-owned businesses that do not have the options that large corporations do.  And what will that do to employment opportunity and for the economy? 

Our national debt is currently around $28 trillion ($28,000,000,000,000.00).  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist (or an economist) to see that we are likely headed for economic collapse if Biden’s Leftist wish lists are passed.  It doesn’t take a genius to see what effect this debt will likely have on our children and grandchildren.

The President’s comments on his climate change and “infrastructure” agenda focused on how they will build jobs.  Yet he failed to even consider the research as well as real-world examples of how what he is proposing destroys rather than creates jobs.

Perhaps the worst is the continuing lie of “unity”.

By the end of the speech, those who were still awake heard a lot of platitudes about unity and America and how great we are.  Except that the entire speech that was given to that point was full of divisiveness and clear partisanship.  To that point the agenda that the President put forward would not maintain American greatness but would drastically remake this country and likely not for the better.

Read the fine print.

I look at this speech as something of a sales pitch by a deceitful salesman.  I want to see the fine print and read it carefully.  Every American should do the same.  Platitudes and pretty words might make us feel good but the Devil is in the details. 

And then there is the rebuttal.

I think that Senator Tim Scott said more in his 15 minutes than the President said in over an hour.  Sen. Scott seemed to be truly speaking from his heart, not just reciting a list of campaign promises that would lull the audience into ignorance.  If you missed his rebuttal, you can watch it HERE. 

What does Sen. Tim Scott get for his honest rebuttal that disagreed with the Biden agenda?  An attack from the Left calling him “Uncle Tim”, an obvious reference to Uncle Tom, a derogatory reference for a subservient Black person.  But that shouldn’t surprise us:  you will recall that candidate Biden said to Blacks that “If you don’t vote for me then you ain’t really Black.” 

The Biden-Left agenda has no room for dissenters.  It is about power and not really about America or her people.  Read the fine print before you sign on. 

Is the Biden Administration Guilty of Migrant Hoarding?

Today’s excellent blog post is by guest author Susan Sobaky.

Is the Biden Administration guilty of migrant hoarding?

As an animal lover and advocate, I can usually find an animal analogy for most human situations and behaviors. In the case of the crisis President Biden has created at the southern border I can only compare it to the same behavior that results in animal hoarding. So I will call it migrant hoarding. Please note, I am talking about behavior; I am not comparing people to animals.

Let’s look at a definition of animal hoarding:

“An animal hoarder is defined as someone who has accumulated a large number of animals and who: 1) fails to provide minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation, and veterinary care; 2) fails to act on the deteriorating condition of the animals (including disease, starvation or death) and the environment (severe overcrowding, extremely unsanitary conditions); and often, 3) is unaware of the negative effects of the collection on their own health and well-being and on that of other family members.”

Frost RO, Steketee G, Williams L. Hoarding: A community health problem. Health Soc Care Comm. 2000;8:229–234.

To characterize what is happening at the border we could define it as migrant hoarding and use the above definition, just exchanging the word “migrant” for “animal,” change “veterinary care” to “medical care,” and change in 3) "other family members" to "the entire country."

Not convinced? Let’s look at some pictures (taken from Google Images).

These 2 are animal hoarding situations:

These 2 are migrant conditions at the border:

Animal hoarding generally starts with good intentions. As stated on the ASPCA website, “Animal hoarders often appear intelligent and clearly believe they are helping their animals. In addition, many hoarders possess the ability to garner sympathy and to deceive others into thinking their situation is under control. They often are blind to the fact that their animals are suffering under their care.”

Hoarding, whether animal or migrant, may start as the caring, humane thing to do but in both cases can get out of control quickly. I think the Biden administration thinks they are doing the humane thing by continuing to let thousands of migrants into the United States, and they are trying to deceive us into thinking the situation is not a crisis and they have it under control. They have lost sight of the potential damage this action is doing, not only to the migrants, but to the citizens of the United States, not to mention the billions of dollars in cost and resources.

An animal hoarder could be arrested and charged, potentially with animal cruelty or abuse. They could go to jail or pay a hefty fine. As I consider the similarities of animal hoarding with what is happening at the border, migrant hoarding, I wonder how is the Biden administration getting away with it? 

Equity Destroys Humanity As We Know It

Equity is just another way of saying dumbing down.  Like the many other politically correct euphemisms (integration vs. assimilation; containment unit vs. cage; etc.) it may not have the negative connotation of the original, but that does not change the reality of what it refers to.

Supposedly in the new lexicon of the Left, equity means uniformity:  everyone ends up with exactly the same thing.  That is, distribution of both the tangible and intangible is not equal but based on some external factor such as group identity or circumstance.   That unequal distribution intends to create a uniform result for everyone.  The problem is that such vision of equity, of uniformity, does not take into account the uniqueness and diversity of human nature.

Equity may sound nice, but let’s look at the reality.  One example comes from Virginia where schools are removing advanced degrees and eliminating advanced math classes.  The reason is that there are more of certain ethnic groups (primarily Asian and White) than other ethnic groups (primarily Black) in the advanced courses.  This, screams the Left, is not equity. 

Other schools remove the requirement of correct answers in math class because some groups find this standard more difficult.  Therefore, the Left’s equity demands that we must eliminate that which some students strive for or may have more talent for in order that all will be equal.  Essentially the students whose talents may lie with the advanced academics are now punished for having that innate talent or interest. 

Other examples come from hiring requirements that mandate a certain number of people with identifying factors be included in employment roles for specific jobs.  When current hiring criteria do not create that “equity” those criteria are often changed, removing certain competency factors in favor of other “equity” factors. 

So, the best pilot may not be chosen to fly your plane if equity determines factors other than competence to be more important.  For example, United Airlines has announced that 50% of the 5000 new pilots it plans to train in the next decade must be people of color.  What does that do for the aspirations of those with talent and qualifications who are not persons of color?  They can not be fully the person they were perhaps created to be but must dumb themselves down to fit within the equity codes.

The professionals who serve you may have been admitted to their medical or law or engineering or business schools to ensure equity of the class to the detriment of others with perhaps equal or more talent.  Your symphony orchestra may not include the most talented musicians if it has an equity code.  Your plumber or car mechanic, your children’s teachers, anywhere you look you will see “equity” but perhaps not the best and brightest that could be.

Equity is also discriminatory.  When President Biden announced he would select a woman of color for his VP he immediately excluded all men and all women not of color from any consideration.  Apparently, he and the Left determined it was OK to leave those people out of any equity distribution, even though many may have been highly skilled and competent, perhaps even more competent than any of those considered. 

That is, equity denies equality of treatment.  It does not equally consider each individual but rather treatment is based on some identity criteria that awards more or less favorable treatment to certain groups.  That is not the same as the equality that is promised and aspired to in America as she has existed for over 200 years.

Martin Luther King Jr. asked that we look at the quality of one’s character rather than the color of one’s skin – that is equality.  Today in the name of equity we do just the reverse.  We place people into identity groups based on skin color or other superficial characteristics and then we use things like Critical Race Theory, the 1619 project, equity training, etc., to discriminate.

Equity is also demeaning to those it allegedly intends to help.  It assumes that certain categories of people cannot achieve certain things unless they get special advantages.  This implies that without such special treatment they are individually incapable of succeeding.  Equity does not even consider that different individuals may have different interests and aspirations. 

Equity does not believe in the individual.  It would rather bring everyone down to the lowest common denominator at which everyone can function with equal result.  I like to sing but I cannot carry a tune. I don’t expect to be in a choir but what if I wanted to and equity said I could have a place, taking the place of someone who actually has a voice to sing?  Not only is that plainly not fair, but would you really want to listen to that choir?  And if the real singer is left out because we want choirs to only be at the level that all can achieve, then doesn’t that punish the real singer for having a good voice?

I can write a coherent sentence.  Should I stop doing so because some others cannot?  Should Mark Twain or Frederick Douglass or Maya Angelou or Rudolf Anaya have stopped writing because not everyone could write the sentences they could? The answer is NO.  For if they had stopped excelling at what they could and did excel at just so that there would be equity among them and other less gifted thinkers or writers, we would all have been left without their wisdom from which we continue to learn.

What equity does is demand that no one excel, no one can be too good.  It may protect from failure, but it also guarantees that many individuals will not achieve their full potential. 

Americans used to be able to dream of soaring to and maybe even achieving the greatest heights.  The flight of that soaring eagle that we each could imagine was unique to each of us.  And while some of us dreamed and aspired, and did great things along the way, some even actually achieved their entire dream.  But equity does not allow such dreams or their reality.

Rather, equity demands uniformity.  Instead of letting us soar to heights that only we each can imagine, it forces us all to the ground, like chickens in a coop just waiting for their next meal, all living the same existence but having nowhere to soar.

One of the great promises of America is opportunity – opportunity to be oneself and to aspire to and perhaps achieve one’s dream.  It is the promise to soar (or to choose not to soar) as our spirit takes us.  Its promise is equality – of opportunity but not necessarily of result.

Equity would make us all the same.  It dumbs us all down so that no one shines above the others.  There will be no role models to aspire to.  There will be no point in following one’s unique dreams or talents.  Equity will define us.  We will all have exactly the same and will then be exactly the same.

Equality on the other hand demands that each person will be recognized as an individual entitled to equality of treatment and understanding.  It refers to the uniform distribution to everyone of the tangible and intangible. In other words, each person receives the same amount of whatever is being distributed, rather than having such distribution be based on group identity or circumstance.

Equality does recognize that each individual’s circumstances, both innate and external, are unique and requires individual responses.  But it believes that everyone should get the same opportunity, not more or less of some tangible or intangible distribution based on one’s external identity.  It also recognizes the right of the individual to do as he or she chooses with whatever is being distributed.

Equality acknowledges that every individual has his or her own talents, strengths, and weaknesses and that sometimes these may be amplified or diminished by individual circumstances.  Equal treatment rewards the strengths and perhaps helps to correct the weaknesses.  But it does not try to remake humanity by abolishing the individual in the name of equity.

What equity does is dumb us all down; it demands mediocrity.  It destroys American excellence along with its equality.    In the end, equity joins the Left’s euphemism words of inclusion and diversity; the three together actually mean discrimination, exclusion and conformity. 

Equity is a nice sounding word, but it supports actions that destroy our humanity.  That should not surprise us since destruction of the individual is necessary for the “great new world” that the Left seeks to create. 

 

Facts Don’t Matter, Not Even To The President

So, we had the Chauvin verdict.  Rather than seeing that verdict as justice served – a trial, a jury, a verdict – and time for healing, the President continued racial divisiveness by asserting that this is not over, and again proclaiming systemic racism and making other statements that sound more like anti-American propaganda than what should be coming from America’s President and from someone who continues to say he wants unity.

The Chauvin trial was not about race.   The prosecution did not mention race.  It was a murder trial plain and simple.  Yet, led by the President, the country ignores that fact and makes it about race and the Left’s current favorite cause:  eradicating the illusive systemic racism.

Now we have a police shooting in Ohio.  The 911 call included the words, “It's these grown girls over here trying to fight us, trying to stab us, get here now!"   A large teen girl holding a knife and attacking another teen was shot by police, thus saving the life of the teenager being attacked.  Sounds to me like it might be a police officer doing his job, protecting and serving.

What do we hear from the media, from the Left, and sadly from our President?    We first ignore the fact that the person shot was armed with a deadly weapon and in the process of using it against another human being.  NBC omitted the above words from the 911 call.   We ignore the fact that the officer saved someone from a violent and quite possibly deadly attack. 

What do we focus on?  The attacker whom the officer shot was Black.  So, that apparently makes it a racist and unjustifiable shooting no matter what the circumstances, proof of the alleged systemic racism that seems to now be the cause of any and everything that displeases the Left.

Did I (and others) not say that the Chauvin verdict was only the beginning?  The fact that, again led by our President, America misunderstood what a trial is and made the murder trial of Derek Chauvin instead some sort of trial of all of America has empowered the anti-police oratory.  The verdict which addressed the actions of one man is proclaimed by the President and others to be a verdict on America itself. 

Led by the President, much of America seems to think that verdict justifies anti-police rhetoric if not violence, as well as any number of statutes, rules, and regulations creating any number of actions that will allegedly rectify the “systemic racism” that they assert the Chauvin verdict proclaimed. 

This allows any member of the public to second guess a police officer’s actions in the heat of a violent and dangerous situation.  It allows the public to take bits and pieces of information about police action and use it to justify their narrative, even if the full factual picture does not support that narrative.  It means that any police officer who takes action that the mob, led by the President, does not like, is subject to condemnation by both the President and the mob. 

It means that any police officer now must not only be thinking about protecting the people he serves, but also be fearful that if the action he takes, even if justified, may result in threats and charges of murder against him.  And, led by the President, if that officer is charged with murder simply for doing his job it will be perfectly OK to threaten the jury via protests and rioting.

Contrary to the President and the mob beliefs, every action in this country is not about race.  It may be convenient to say that it is because it allows the President, the Left, and certain interest groups to push through their agendas claiming they are all about correcting systemic racism.  Anyone who opposes those agendas is simply disregarded as racist. 

The fact that there are more Whites than Blacks killed by police (both numerically and proportionately) or that some Black criminal offenders are killed by Black police officers are facts that don’t seem to matter.   The fact that some killing of Blacks by police are justifiable and happen in the course of the police officer carrying out his duties are facts that don’t matter.  The fact that many police shootings of Blacks have nothing to do with race but rather simply involve violations of criminal statutes or failure to obey police commands during a criminal stop are facts that don’t matter.  

We used to be a country that cared about Truth.  Facts are a part of Truth.  But now it seems we care not about Truth but Narrative.  Facts that do not fit a narrative are simply dismissed.   Any thought that is different from that approved by the President’s administration and the mob is dismissed.

Here is an apt description of our country today: “It is a system without an independent press; a system without an independent judiciary; where the people have no influence either on external or internal policy; where any thought which is different from the state is crushed.” 

Both sad and chilling is that the above quote comes from Alexander Solzhenitsyn describing Soviet Russia.   And so now you know where we are headed as we become a nation of narrative rather than facts.  

Another quote of relevance comes from Aldous Huxley: “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”  You will recall that amongst the books authored by Huxley is Brave New World, another prescient view of where our elevation of narrative over fact is leading us.

Facts do matter.  Truth does matter.  And a President who is willing to ignore them, to choose to push a narrative even when that narrative is proven to be false, certainly does not have in mind or heart the best interests of the Country and Constitution he has sworn to protect.  And a country that allows this to happen, that simply falls into place as told, is in the process of destroying itself.

The Verdict

I am troubled by the Derek Chauvin verdict, though I will not second guess the jurors.  My concern is that the circus atmosphere of the trial puts our entire justice system at risk.

Let’s review a few facts about the circumstances surrounding and leading up to this trial which took place nearly a year after George Floyd’s death.  During that year we have had a continuing barrage of not just laments over Mr. Floyd’s death, but of Black deaths in general, and especially police shootings of Blacks.  There have been riots not only in Minneapolis, but across the country supportive of Black Lives Matter and Police Reform, Defunding of Police, and allegations of systemic racism in both policing and the justice system. 

The jurors, unless they were in a coma for the past year, had to have been subjected to the repeated assertions by the media that George Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin and subjected to showings and re-showings of a short but ugliest portion of the video of the entire somewhat lengthy event and incidents surrounding Mr. Floyd’s death.

The jury for the trial, once selected, were not sequestered though they were cautioned not to listen to or read stories about the Chauvin trial.  Well, these jurors left their homes each day and traveled through streets with protestors and national guardsmen, went through heightened security at the courthouse each day, and traveled home again.  There is a 24-hour news cycle that blasts around us daily.  That news cycle had for the most part already tried and convicted Derick Chauvin of murder.  If those jurors were not aware of the threats of violence surrounding the case they were hearing, then again, they must have been in a coma.

They were not sequestered when new riots broke out over a different police shooting with more assertions of police racism.  They were not sequestered when pig’s blood was smeared on the former home of a Chauvin defense witness.  They were not sequestered when threats were made of riots and worse if the verdict was not guilty.  They were not sequestered when the city settled the Floyd family case for $27 million during the trial with the surrounding narrative that this must mean Chauvin is guilty.  And they were not sequestered when Rep. Waters uttered what was essentially a threat for the rioters to “become even more confrontational” if the jurors did not return a guilty verdict. 

The jurors were sequestered at the end of the trial for their deliberation, so they did not hear the President’s admonition that the evidence was overwhelming, and he prayed they would get the verdict right, nor did they hear the news of his call to the Floyd family to support them.  But by then they had heard enough. 

The jurors had significant but limited knowledge about the events before they became actual jurors.  They swore to render their verdict only on the law and the evidence presented at the trial.  Much new evidence came out at trial that the media had not shared – evidence that might raise reasonable doubts about the narrative.  But was it, after a year of daily hearing the media’s narrative, too late to look at new and contrary evidence objectively?  Was it too late to honestly determine there might be reasonable doubt about that narrative?  We don’t know, and perhaps even the jurors themselves don’t know.

Was the threat of violence to their city, their hometown, even their own homes and their families a factor in the jurors’ deliberations?  We don’t know and they may not really know that either.

And that is the problem.  This trial was turned into some sort of proceeding on the state of social justice in America.  But a trial is not about a concept or a cause.  A trial is about a very specific incident and the facts and law that are exclusively relevant to that incident.  When one tries to make a trial about something else then those involved in that trial’s proceedings do not get justice.  And the irony here is that if you don’t have justice then you can’t have social justice.

We know that the jurors were bombarded with publicity that included information, misinformation, and disinformation about George Floyd and his death for close to a year before the trial began and that the publicity continued to surround them throughout the trial.  We know that they deliberated for only 10 and a half hours which did not provide much time to review three weeks’ worth of evidence and to make sure they were looking only at that evidence and not the year’s publicity. 

We know that despite the complexity of the laws involved and legal interpretations of terms therein, that the jurors asked no questions of the Judge during their 10 and a half hours of deliberation.  We know that it took the jury only 10 and a half hours to elect a foreperson, to review the law and evidence, and render unanimous guilty verdict on 3 counts, all requiring different criteria be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

As I said at the start, I will not second guess the jurors, but it is hard to have the confidence in this verdict that I usually have in jury verdicts.  My experience as a lawyer and a legal observer has generally been that jurors try their best to follow the law and the facts and reach a fair verdict and I will trust that is what the Chauvin jurors did.  But was that possible given the circus that surrounded them for the year prior to and then during this trial?  We will likely never know the definitive answer to that question. 

And that is why this is so troubling.

Because, if you cannot fully trust our legal and especially our jury system, then you cannot trust the law.  And if it even appears that a jury can be swayed by media narrative or by threats of violence then that is what we can look forward to in future litigation.

When we look again at the specific defendant in this trial, there is more to trouble us.  Derek Chauvin is a police officer.  I know that he is entitled to a jury of his peers, and apparently the lawyers and the court were satisfied with the jury, but I don’t know if there was even one police officer on the jury.  I do know that defendants who happen to fall within certain identity groups often demand that their juries consist of members of that same identity group.

The fact that this was the trial that resulted due to actions of a police officer during a criminal stop and detention means that the verdict here will have ramifications that will affect police behavior in the future, especially if there is the possibility or perception that this was not a just verdict.  If police feel that whenever someone is injured during a difficult arrest that they can be tried, possibly unfairly, then they will hold back on some actions that are necessary for them to do their job and keep the people of their jurisdictions safe.  This does not serve any of us well.

The ramifications of this verdict will also resonate with the social justice warriors.  We already have assertions that this trial has proven that systemic racism exists.  Just a note:  this was the trial of one police officer for one action; it was not the trial of whether or not systemic racism exists.  Yet apparently those calling for remaking or removal of police generally, see this verdict as a hefty bonus to their cause. 

Many believe that their demonstrations, rioting, and threats of violence are what resulted in this verdict.  Even the President suggests that it was the people coming to the streets that gave us this verdict (of which he approves).  Essentially this is a belief that the mob, not justice, won.  President Biden now calls on the country to continue to “listen to the activists” who have protested about police brutality since George Floyd’s death.  

But this was a trial.  It was not a judgement about the message of activists. Activists have their role.  But that role does not include swaying a jury trial.  Indeed, attempts to do that are usually considered to be jury tampering and subject to severe penalties.  Yet when even our President, with his encouragement of following narrative not fact, shows us that he does not understand the separate roles of activist and  juror, then we can certainly expect more demand for mob rule and less respect or support for the rule of law.

There were only 12 jurors at the Derek Chauvin trial, and I was not one of them.  Nor was the media or the President.  I did watch parts of the trial and I am left with some reasonable doubt.  The jurors have told us there is no such doubt and we must respect that verdict.  But no matter how seriously those jurors took their oaths of objectivity and to follow only the law and evidence presented at trial, given the year long circus leading up to and surrounding this trial, I question whether it could ever have been fair.

I will always wonder if Derek Chauvin was truly guilty of the crimes charged or if he was simply the sacrificial lamb that had to be slaughtered to assuage the guilt for the systemic racism that allegedly exists.  But anyone who thinks that with this verdict the anger and violence, the hatred and claims of racism will end is dreaming.  My fear is that this verdict will add to increased belief in and reliance on mob rule while justice and the rule of law become the ultimate victims. 

Thoughts Provoked by Prince Philip’s Funeral

 

As I was watching Prince Philip’s funeral yesterday, I was struck by what a beautiful display it was of Tradition, Faith, and Family.  These are the bedrock that holds us together, that makes us whom we are, that gives us strength, especially in troubling times.  These exemplify core principles that allow society as well as mankind to grow.  And these foundations for a healthy society are rapidly disappearing if not gone in America.

America used to be a land of Tradition, Faith, and Family.  Now those values are derided by the Left.  What the Left does not understand is that with those values comes a tolerance and a respect for others, as well as a stable society able to address its shortcomings and better itself.  Those principles do not hold a society static but give it the power to grow.

               Tradition

Tradition is defined as “the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or the fact of being passed on in this way.”  But the goal of the Left seems to be to completely cleanse America of the customs and beliefs that built her and made her great.  (Note I do not say perfect, but the beauty of America is that she aspired to a perfection and addressed the problems that stood in the way of that aspiration.) 

But now we have Cancel Culture which, in collaboration with identity politics, is a horribly destructive process.  The goal of the Left seems to be to rid the world of any trace of America and her traditions.  The Left has designated “winners” and “losers” in their identity labels.  If one is not a member of a favored identity group, they are being trained to deny and apologize for their heritage – for their customs and beliefs.  We have heard that White people are evil as are Christians or political conservatives. 

Just yesterday Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters told protesters in Minnesota to "get more confrontational" if Derek Chauvin isn't convicted of murdering George Floyd. (We’ll save the discussion of how this is a direct threat on that trial’s jurors as well as our concept of a fair judicial system with verdicts based on facts, not emotion or political agenda.)

This threat came on the heels of CNN’s Chris Cuomo saying “White people’s kids need to start getting killed” so there can be police reform.  And a Mercer Theology Professor writing and publishing a prayer in which she asks God to “please help me to hate White people.”

Yes, Whites, along with other unfavored identity groups would happily all be cancelled if not killed by true Left believers.  This while they select other, favored groups, to receive benefits denied to Whites simply because of the color of their skin.  Haven’t we been here before?  Racism is racism and, while this country has had a history of racism, it has also, because of its customs and beliefs, not to mention its form of government, been able to address those problems and move forward without turning around and destroying some other identity group.

               Faith

Faith is defined as “complete trust or confidence in someone or something.”  Generally, this means one’s God or religion or more generally a belief in something greater than oneself.  It is based on “spiritual apprehension rather than proof.”  But now it seems that the predominant focus is not on others or something beyond oneself, but rather simply on the self and making that self feel good.

We have self-love, self-care.  We have access to all sorts of material pleasures, all designed to make the self feel good.  Church attendance is at an all time low.  Respect for others (something every legitimate religion teaches) is becoming non-existent:  that is probably most reflected in the ease with which so many take the life of another as both a way to solve problems and a way to make oneself feel good. 

The Left’s new religion of “Wokeness” of which a part is their proclamation that this is some sort of humanitarian effort, is just the opposite.  Take one trip to the border to see the “humanitarian” efforts of young children so crowded (into what once when far less crowded were called cages) that they cannot even leave their “beds” (which are nothing more than a cover as they sleep on the floor).  How humanitarian is it when the Left’s border policies encourage child traffickers, coyotes whose greed often gets the border crossers they are “escorting” killed, or the huge increase in drugs which will end up destroying the lives of so many?

With the dismissal of Faith comes the end of true humanitarianism.  With the dismissal of true Faith comes the religion of self.  And we see that flourishing now as the real motivation of many in power as well as many of the Left acolytes is simply their own pleasure and power.  Faith gives a person, a family, and a country strength.  Its absence puts that country on the road to destruction.

               Family

Family is both “a social group made up of parents and their children” and “a group of people who come from the same ancestor.”  The family is the basis of all civilization and the family group, because it shares ancestors and customs, will include the elements of Tradition and Faith as those have developed within that family history. 

The Family – parents and children – is the basis for broader groups.  Families form tribes or villages.  Villages form towns.  Towns form cities.  Cities form countries.  What each of these groups will have in common is a similarity of Traditions, customs, and Faith.  They will not be identical, but they will be tolerant and find a way to live with one another to achieve goals that are common to their individual customs and values.

That is what America used to be.  But that is being destroyed as the Cancel Culture Left and its hate for seemingly everything that is, also is attacking the family.  Children are no longer a part of a family’s history and future; rather, they are simply something of convenience to be disposed of if they are inconvenient.  That includes not only early abortion, but late term and even post-birth abortion.  The current administration has just made fetal tissue approved for far more scientific studies.  That fetal tissue in large part comes from aborted children; demand for that (and thus for necessary abortions to provide it) will now increase.  And we’ve already mentioned child trafficking, and here we will include child pornography as more evidence that children are for many nothing more than a convenient furtherance of their own self pleasure

But the Family is also under attack in other ways.  Somewhere between 40 to 50 percent of marriages end in divorce in this country.   I suggest that is because of the loss of Faith and Tradition that make the sanctity of marriage less meaningful and condone ending that union when it becomes inconvenient or interferes with one’s personal pleasures.  And there is no question that the children of destroyed marriages suffer in so many ways.  Again, what is happening to the Family in this country is the result of a culture of self-love as not just the dominant but indeed the only important value.

               In Conclusion

Holding Tradition, Faith, and Family dear does not mean that a society is static or bound by intolerances of the past.  Great Britain, with it strong traditions, is not the same country that it has always been; it continually evolves yet maintains its Tradition, Faith, and Family.  Those foundations give a society the strength to evolve.

Those who care about this country should take a minute to reflect upon what we are losing as we allow the Woke Cancel Culture to ride roughshod over our Tradition, Faith, and Family.  The road we are on does not have a pretty ending, and, when we get there we will have lost something beautiful.

Silence – of the Lemmings

To my friends and others who did not support Donald Trump’s reelection bid and were so vocal until Jan. 20 of this year, but since then have gone silent:  What happened to you?

While Donald Trump was president every day all you could do was make ugly statements about him and his supporters.  You couldn’t wait until Joe Biden and his “unity” took over.  All would be well.  And you all rejoiced when he was sworn in, taking that time to also get in some final digs at President Trump.

Then…..silence.

No daily support for the actions of Biden and his administration like the daily tirades when Trump held the office.  Not even a whisper of support, or of opposition to what he is doing.

Do you know what he is doing?  I realize that the mainstream media (who through the voice of CNN just this week admitted that their goal had been to remove Trump from office but now they have moved on to other targets) has not reported much of anything about what Biden and his administration are doing.  But bits and pieces do come to the surface. 

You were so delighted when he was sworn in.  Are you equally delighted by the border crisis, the record number of daily crossers and the surge that increases daily, or the money such as 60 million per week to house unaccompanied minors that might otherwise be spent on American citizens and legal residents? 

Are you content with the fact that in effect we now have two different justice systems:  one for those favored by the Left and one for those despised by the Left?  Are you delighted by the ongoing riots in Minneapolis and Portland?   And how do you feel about that unity that doesn’t exist and that seems to be defined as simply silencing anyone whom this administration does not like?

Are you delighted by Biden and the Democrats’ tax and spend bills that will put your children and grandchildren in debt forever?  And by the fact that rather than helping legal residents of this country, much of our tax dollars and other resources are going to those here illegally or to strengthen borders of other countries? 

Are you content with cancel culture raging?  With corporations deciding what you should think, and if you don’t behave as they wish (their wishes being the same as those of the Left) they will take action against you.  That action may be cancelling the All-star game to the detriment of a large minority population; it may be requiring you to attend some sort of racial justice training where you must admit your blame for being who you are if you are not among their chosen racial groups. 

Speaking of racial groups, are you OK with benefits, jobs, even medical care being meted out based on race with Whites being summarily excluded?  How about the fact that Disney and other large entertainment providers will now not even consider scripts that do not include the preferred quota of specific ethnic groups?

Are you OK with reparations?  With infrastructure that includes benefits that have nothing to do with the traditional definition of infrastructure?  Are you OK with executive orders that limit your Constitutional rights and freedoms?  What about packing the Supreme Court in order to make it just a political rubber stamp for the Left?

I know that if Donald Trump were doing one iota of what President Biden and the Democrats are doing that you would not be silent, especially because the media would be drilling into you every day how horrid it was and filling you with so much hate that it had to spill over.

So I have to assume that one of two things is true:  either you are perfectly OK with fundamentally transforming America from the Democracy that it is to a Socialist country in which your freedoms will be greatly diminished and the power of the government greatly enlarged, or you simply have no idea of what is going on. 

Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his “Warning to the West”, noted that following turmoil a very dangerous state of mind can arise in which people will give up and give in quickly in the belief that it will bring about national unity. 

Let’s remember that, as some Left-leaning media (including NBC and CNN) are now admitting, they stirred up fear beyond what was necessary.  CNN admits its goal was completely anti-Trump.   So, after four years of fear mongering and of having the media daily drill down on what they decided was crisis after crisis, it may not be a wonder that many of you believed some wonderous unity would appear if you voted against President Trump.

Perhaps what you are thinking is that some sort of blessed silence exists.  Afterall, the media make it seem that there are no problems anywhere, and especially not in the current White House or the policies of the Democrats.  But, in the words of Solzhenitsyn, “I would not wish that kind of blessed silence on my worst enemy.  I would not wish that kind of national unity on my worst enemy.” (Speech to Americans, June 30, 1975).

So, if your silence is because, out of relief from the mostly media manufactured turmoil of the past four years, you are no longer paying attention believing there is some blessed unity and peace, please wake up and pay attention.  Let people know what you think.

If your silence is because you are fully supportive of the Leftist Socialist agenda, then why are you not daily asserting your delight?  I would like to hear you speak out about how and why you find that is something worth supporting.  I cannot understand why anyone who truly understands what socialism is can support it.  I would argue that you may be “woke”, but you are not awake.

The Socialist agenda is being implemented at such an accelerated speed that there is daily less and less hope that America, once the greatest nation and beacon of freedom to the world, will soon be much more than some historical relic that no longer exists. 

You who did not support Trump, your voices were loud and frequent for four years.  But now the cat has your tongue.  And if you don’t speak out soon, the America that allowed you to speak your mind will be gone and you will become nothing more than one of the many lemmings following the Left to the detriment of you and all those you will leave behind as you fall to your death in the sea of despair that is the ultimate result of socialism.  It is those who seek power through this transformation to Socialism who are leading you to your and your nation’s demise.  Please wake up.

Drop by Drop Freedom is Lost

Today, President Biden, by executive order, has expanded the restrictions on the Constitutional rights of the people.   This was not a law passed by Legislative procedures.   There was no legislative consideration by the people’s representatives in Congress.  This was executive fiat. 

For the record, I am not a fan of guns, but I am a fan of the Constitution. 

Regardless of my personal feelings about guns, the Second Amendment protects the right of American citizens to keep and bear arms.  That Second Amendment is part of the Constitution, and importantly is part of the Bill of Rights – the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution.

The Bill of Rights lists specific prohibitions on governmental power, its intent being to provide for greater constitutional protection for individual liberties.  The First Amendment includes protections for the rights of freedom of religion (both exercise and establishment), freedom speech, of the press; of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.  The Second provides the right to keep and bear arms.  The Fourth protects the people from unreasonable search and seizure and the Fifth provides that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.  The Amendments provide for a variety of rights to criminal defendants.  And Amendment Ten provides that powers not specifically delegated to the government are reserved to the people.

These are important Amendments.  Yes, reasonable and necessary restrictions can be placed upon these rights, but the standard for such restrictions is both narrow and requires significant showing of extraordinary necessity. 

The 2^nd Amendment is part of these protected rights.  Regardless of what you think of the right to keep and bear arms, it holds equal place with such rights as freedom to worship, to speak, to be protected from unreasonable searches, and the many other individual rights protected for the people by the Constitution.  No one right is more important than another; people cannot pick and choose which is or is not to be defended.   

If the President thinks he can, and does, restrict these rights simply by signing an executive order, then all of the people’s rights are in peril.  What is to stop an executive order from restricting your right to worship?  To write a controversial op-ed?  To demand a search warrant before your home is searched?  

The President takes an oath to support and protect the Constitution.   How does a unilateral decision to diminish certain rights simply because he does not like them square with that oath?  Answer:  it doesn’t. 

Today’s executive order may seem harmless enough – tighten restrictions on “ghost guns” (untraceable individually constructed firearms) – but to stop with that thought misses the more important point.  This is the Constitution, the document that protects to the people the rights that are fundamental in making America the country that it is.  The document that protects the many freedoms that Americans take for granted. 

Yet, what the President has shown us today is that he believes that he, with the mere stroke of a pen, has a right to cancel and restrict whichever of those rights he chooses.  That is not America.  And while this one order will not end America as we know it, it does put us on the road toward that end.  What hastens our pace on that road is the acceptance of the right of those in power to unilaterally remove the rights belonging to the people.

Those who have lived through the rise of a dictatorship will tell you that it happens in a way that you don’t notice until it is too late.  Little by little your freedoms are taken away.  Drop by drop until the bucket of freedoms is empty and you have no freedom at all.  This executive order is just one of those drops.  But it is important to notice what it means.

 

Of Communists, Artisans, Conformity, and Freedom

 A few years ago when I was taking a Russian class we were studying vocabulary associated with apartments and their furnishings.  My teacher, who had grown up in Soviet Russia, was able to draw on the board a perfect diagram of a Soviet apartment in which most Russians lived.  Unofficially called Khrushchyovka, they were all alike:  same entry, same location of kitchen and main room, same hall to bedroom, same basic furnishings, even the same location of the mat on which to put your snow boots.  The only difference was whether or not a particular apartment had more than one bedroom (something that the State decided for the individual residents).

This of course was part of the Soviet Communist plan to change human nature from individualistic to communal.  Essentially, communism destroys individual initiative in its effort to make the individual a cog in the greater governmental machine.  The individual mind and soul ultimately become fully subject to the Communist State.  And conformity is a necessary part of losing oneself to that “greater good.”

The other day a friend was looking to replace some floor tile from about 20-plus years ago.  The tile had been hand-crafted.  After visiting not only the original source but similar vendors, one tile shopkeeper explained to her not only how such tile was made but that the reason it is no longer made, the reason such artisanship is dying if not dead, is that now the demand is for mass-produced items that will all be identical. 

Somehow this seems to put us in a similar place as the Soviet apartment dwellers.  No unique, individualistic style available.  This is underscored when one flips through a decorating magazine.  Everything is rather impersonal and certainly mass produced.  Not unlike the Soviet apartments where one could feel equally at home in a neighbor’s apartment as their own, when one looks at contemporary and popular decorating design, there seems to be little room for individual style.  One might easily adapt to a neighbor’s house as their own.

The major difference seems to be that while the Soviets were forced to accept this dehumanization, this removal of individuality, contemporary Americans are seeking it out.  But why?  What is the appeal of giving up one’s individuality to simply become one of the mass-produced humans?  Why would one voluntarily give up individuality for conformity?

This question is not limited to how one decorates one’s surroundings.  We see everywhere a disinclination to stand out as oneself.  And if one does, one is often bullied in one way or another into conformity. 

Of course, it is always easier to conform.  It is easier to simply follow what someone else has decided for you. But it also means giving up your individual humanity – that which makes you unique and whom you are.

Growing up in the 50s and 60s I and my peers did anything we could to break from conformity, from a predetermined pronouncement by some other of what we should think and how we should act.  It allowed us to become more fully whom we each were meant to be.  Artisans not only flourished but were appreciated, as was individual creativity and individual thought.  Making one’s own decisions is a very special form of freedom that is perhaps not well appreciated in America today.

Today, individual thought, and especially thought which counters the views of someone else, is considered unacceptable.  Groups, especially those in power, feel that it is perfectly OK to silence those with opposing views until they are willing to conform.  And too many seem more than willing to do so without giving any thought whatsoever to what they are doing.

I realize the pendulum swings, but why would we allow it to swing back to the limiting place of conformity?  Do those who conform and demand that others similarly conform to their politically and socially correct agenda realize what they are doing?  Not just to themselves, but to our society as a whole?  I think that President Kennedy said it well:

If we want to maintain our freedom, if we want to not stagnate, if we want to be all that we can be, then we must retain our individuality and with it our humanity and our very freedom to be the unique self that we each are meant to be.

Here is an example of the Soviet Khrushchyovka apartment blocks and interior plan, home to most Russians during the Soviet era:

Grown-Up Bullies

Today’s Democrats.  What are they?  They are not statesmen.  They are not leaders.  They are certainly not uniters or peacemakers.  I think they are nothing but grown-up bullies.

Consider:  When you disagree with them or don’t do what they want, they call you names – racist, deplorable, bigot, Neanderthal, and any number of others.  They try to stop you from doing what they don’t like by telling you that if you do that you are [and here they will label you with more name-calling].  They intimidate those who might speak out into not doing so because of the verbal and sometimes actual assaults that they may face.

This is bullying.  A bully is “a person who habitually seeks to harm, intimidate, or coerce those whom they perceive as vulnerable.”  Bullying often occurs out of some form of insecurity, envy of those more secure, and a need for recognition and power.

What better explanation of today’s Democrats?  Consider the current uproar over the Georgia voting law, a law that in reality expands voting rights.  (You can read the full text of the law HERE) 

Despite the reality of the law, the Democrats don’t like it (and apparently then don’t like election integrity) so they seek to punish those who passed it.  First, they call them names:  racist, etc. because they have inaccurately given the law the characterization of Jim Crow.  That not being enough, they move on to boycotts.  The President urges MLB to move the All-star game from Atlanta.  MLB complies. 

But that is not enough.  Now the President and the Democrats urge other large and private entities to threaten boycotts and other actions against other states that are considering similar laws to improve voting security and integrity.  This is nothing more than a bully’s attempt to coerce and intimidate those whose actions the bully does not like.  And those being bullied are indeed vulnerable to the bullying because the threatened actions, just like the MLB cancelling of Atlanta, cost the people of the threatened states millions of dollars in jobs and other income which they need.

This bullying is being used by Democrats as a way to make themselves more powerful, not unlike the schoolyard bully who uses intimidation to rule the playground.

But more frightening than the simple act of bullying that is occurring daily is what it is doing to our country, to our Constitution, and to our Democratic Republic.

Under the Constitution, the federal government has limited power.  Rights are retained to the people and protected from the government.  States have more power than does the federal government and those with the most power are the people themselves.

But look at what is happening.  The Democrats, led by President Biden, are inserting themselves and the federal government into state legislative actions as they attack the legitimate work of the Georgia Legislature and as they intimidate other state legislatures as they try to go about their work.   Democrats work daily to create laws and regulations that will govern every aspect of one’s daily life.  Rather than see themselves as a government of the people with limited power, they try to make themselves into a power structure that creates (and thus has the power to remove) every right and freedom of individuals.

This President and today’s Democrats are turning our country on its head.  They want the federal government (i.e. themselves) to be all powerful, with less power to the states, and virtually no power to the people themselves.  That is not America.

Yes, today’s Democrats are nothing more than schoolyard bullies.  They want to rule.  They want full power – over everyone and everything.  And like a good bully they will intimidate, coerce, and harm anyone that does not cave to their wishes and do what they say.  I do not need to tell you that is not democracy, that is not America.  Most of the migrants crossing our border can tell you what sort of a country that is and why they are fleeing it for America’s dream.  The problem is that the Democrat bullying is making that America truly nothing more than a dream.

We tell children who are bullied to tell an adult.  Well, we are the adults.  It is our job to put a stop to this and save not only our children, but our very country.  We need to no longer tolerate the Democrat bullying.

The Power Hungry Are Never Satisfied

I want to begin by recommending the well written and highly thought-provoking article by Mark T. Mitchell entitled The Death of God and the Death of Higher Education. LINK HERE 

I want to use one paragraph from that article as the jumping off point here.  That paragraph reads:

This quest for power is the characteristic feature of modern “higher” education. Students are taught that the world is divided into various groups whose primary identity is reducible to power differentials. A common pursuit of truth is replaced by overt and covert power struggles. In this new and barren world of power, the pursuit of the good, true, and beautiful is replaced by grievance and accusation. Concerted efforts to locate and correct injustice (a concept derived from a theistic account of the world) have been replaced by sweeping claims of “systemic” injustice, in which the entire civilizational edifice must be destroyed in the name of justice. But justice torn from its theistic grounding is merely a blunt instrument of power disguised in the moral language of a rejected world. Such a notion represents a self-refuting enterprise that will usher in not justice but unrestrained power cloaked in the God-haunted language of equality, social justice, and anti-racism.

I find this to so clearly encapsulate the social culture in which we are living today.  Everywhere one turns it seems to be all about power, with those in charge disguising their hunger for power as some sort of humanitarian and social justice that must be complied with to avoid showing yourself as some sort of anti-humanitarian who must be cancelled from the approved culture.

               Ramping-up Hatred

What are identity groupings about other than to create one group that holds power over another?  Rather than see all humans as one’s brother, identity politics teaches one that they are either a member of a victim group or of an oppressor group.  The oppressors are accused of working to maintain their own power and are encouraged to apologize for and relinquish it, while the victim groups are led to hate and attack their perceived oppressors in an attempt to obtain more power for their own group and then to wield that power over other groups whom they are taught to hate.

The President, who ran on the promise that he would unite us as one, has instead ramped up the identity hatred.  Now we have government programs that specifically exclude one race from their benefits, simply because of that race.  When we did similar things to Blacks a century ago, this country worked in a bipartisan fashion to correct that and treat all people as equals, regardless of race.  But now that those in power can benefit and retain their power by pushing identity hatred, they argue that the same sort of discrimination is OK because they have deemed the White race, against whom these new laws discriminate, to be members of an offensive identity group solely because of their race. That is racism pure and simple, a hatred created to benefit not the oppressed, but those currently in power.

Democrats claim that this discrimination is humanitarian and equitable.  It is anything but.  It is not humanitarian or just, but simply an ugly power grab based on hate.

               Silencing Voices and Facts

Those in power (including government, big tech, and corporate America) can tighten their grip on power if they silence opposing voices.  So we have cancel culture in full force, not based on facts, not based on equity or fairness, not based on humanitarian ideals, but simply on exercising and retaining power.

Consider the Georgia voting law.  It actually increases opportunities to vote, especially for rural and minority voters in that state.  Despite it being the very opposite of Jim Crow, President Biden, most Democrats, most of the mainstream media, many corporations are calling it just that.  Their claims are lies. 

Anyone who does even a cursory reading of the Georgia law will see that, contrary to our President's assertion, the new Georgia voting law does not prohibit giving water to voters waiting in line; rather it requires that poll workers be the ones to distribute it.  It also requires all 159 counties to have at least one vote drop box for mail in ballots.   It expands early voting access for most counties. It does require verification of identity for those requesting and returning mail in ballots which does not deny authorized voters the right to vote but does insure the integrity of their vote.  This is all a far cry from the Jim Crow label that the Democrats including the President and many in the media have placed on it.

But facts do not matter to those who are governed by their own quest for power.  The lies about the Georgia law have been exposed.  Nonetheless, led by the lies of the President and his urging, MLB has pulled the All-Star game from Atlanta.  That of course will hurt the largely Black population there, so the lie-based grab for power is hardly done in the name of standing for minorities or humanitarian efforts in their behalf.  It is simply a show of power and a punishment for passing a law that requires more standards of election integrity than would benefit those seeking to retain and strengthen their power.

The power hungry do not care about facts or about the consistency of their own values.  When it was convenient to attack the Trump administration the Democrats and their cohorts the mainstream media, big tech, big corporations, were all about decrying deplorable conditions at the border.  Now, when the border crisis is over 100% worse than it ever was under Trump (or any other president) these same people don’t even notice.  Trump was bad.  Biden was good.  Only facts supporting that narrative will be acknowledged.

               Powerful Join Forces Against Individual Rights

There is a frightening coalescence of government with private sector as both seek to cement their hold on power.  For example, President Biden cannot Constitutionally require “Vaccine passports” for internal movement of our citizenry.  But rather than stand for the Constitution and its protections for the people, he instead is urging big business to create such requirements, something that they can and likely will do.  They can withstand those who oppose such curtailment of our rights, and the President and the rest of the Democrats can deny responsibility but retain power.

Similarly, corporations make statements, cancel or refuse to sell certain products including books, make hiring decisions, censor, and take other actions based on the pronouncements of the “woke” Left.  Their actions, many of which would be unconstitutional if done by a governmental entity, are allowed because they are not the government.  Yet their actions are supportive of and fully in sync with those holding office and seeking to keep it and the power that goes with it.

               Equity Is Not Equality

Equity and fairness are not equality.  It is the equality, the extent to which it exists in this country as well as this country’s continued aspiration to ever improve its existence for all, that makes this country what it is.  Being equal, having equal opportunity, does not mean that results will be equal.  It does not mean that life will be fair.  But it does mean that everyone will have a fair shot at being the best they can be.

Equality does not divide people into identity groups, some of whom are given more equality than others.  Today this is being done in the name of things like “systemic racism” or similar perceived systemic injustices.  I have yet to be convinced that such systemic injustice exists, but if it does, it will not be cured by creating new systemic injustices.

               It’s Really All About Power, Not Humanitarian Ideals

I also have yet to be convinced that this president and his progressive administration really give a damn about any of the causes they claim to be pursuing for humanitarian or social justice reasons.  This is the party that created a minority underclass in our cities, dependent on, and therefore voters for, Democrat power. 

This is the party that is creating dangerous and inhumane conditions at our southern border while claiming that opening the borders is somehow humane.  Tell that to the trafficked children, to the Americans who are being displaced from jobs and homes and other due to the influx of illegal migrants that cities and towns simply cannot handle. 

Tell that to the taxpayers and to the next generations of taxpayers who cannot pay for these inhumane policies.  Just as they cannot pay for the trillions of dollars in spending that is supposedly for the good of the populace but in actuality simply furthers the power goals of the progressives.

It is not humanitarian to deny human individuality.  That is what cancelling those who disagree does.  That is what perpetuating lies does.  That is what identity politics does.  And that is what we are teaching our children to do:  deny human individuality, indeed make those who do not somehow benefit you and your power into inhuman caricatures and place them in a group that you can then justify as worthy of inhuman treatment. 

Power is a heady thing, and those who hold it right now seem to be willing to do anything to keep it.