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.

 

Not Really Much Pressing Going On At Today’s Presser

 

Today I watched President Biden’s “press conference” if you could call it that.  This was frightening on so many levels.  Let me touch on a few.

First, it was clear that Biden was not really present, not in the moment and not in the bigger picture of the issues about which he was supposedly talking.  He lost his train of thought too frequently and too often read an answer to a different question than that which was asked.  And yet this man is our president, the leader of the free world.  That should alarm us all.

A commentator before the press conference noted that Biden had been practicing for this event for several days.  Wow.  If he had been practicing the names of those reporters who were listed in his notes to call on, he did not do very well.  If he were practicing the canned answers that he clearly had available in his notes, he did not do very well.  If he were practicing receiving signals from some aide in the room or otherwise connected to him, he did not do very well.  And, on another note, how can one practice answers to what are supposedly spontaneous questions?

The syrupy answers he gave were full of nothing more than campaign talk and promises.  He said he would address and fix any number of things but gave specifics to none – no details about the problem or the nature of the promised fix.  Just promises:  I will get to that, I plan on making progress on that, I will get to all those problems, don’t worry.

He said his focus was on Covid and seemed to tell us that he could only address one issue at a time.  Yet it was not clear what he is actually doing for Covid.  He had no problem taking credit for the number of vaccines given, something that is possible primarily due to the previous administration’s Operation Warp Speed.  The number of vaccines promised by the end of his first hundred days just continues that which Trump began; we should note that administration of the vaccine began prior to when Biden took office.  Yet Biden did not have the common decency to give any credit to his predecessor, even though he kept telling us that he himself is a “nice guy.”

Any actual seemingly factual information that Biden presented was for the most part erroneous.  For example, the surge at the border is not the same as it has been in years prior to his taking office.  Unaccompanied minors have come to the border in far greater numbers than those stated by Biden. According to statistics published by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, authorities encountered 9,457 children without a parent in February, a 61% increase from January, not 28% as Biden stated.  Moreover, while some seasonal trends in migration do exist, migrants interviewed by The Associated Press have expressed their understanding that the country would be more permissive to migrants under Biden than under Trump, and thus they come.

Biden kept telling us that he is such a humanitarian, a good guy.  He seemed to deny that there is any problem at the border.  Yet the cages are overflowing.  Unaccompanied minors are being sent by the thousands to large spaces like convention centers to live in crowded and unhealthy conditions.  Covid positive migrants are being bussed throughout our country.  Illegal immigration is off the charts.  Migrants are being bussed and dumped around the country in cities and towns that do not have the resources to care for them or the issues associated by this sudden influx.  This is not nice, and it is not humanitarian.

In campaign, not presidential, mode Biden made sure to trash the previous administration as well as current Republicans.  His figures about the Trump tax cuts were inaccurate and then he used those misleading figures to make a case against Republicans and their concern for the working class, a class that was in many ways lifted by the Trump administration and a variety of Republican policies.

Similarly, he claimed lack of bipartisanship of the Republicans while admitting that he, by his own choice, is not meeting with them.  He completely distorted the substance of the Voting Bill and what it is that each side is really fighting for.  (The reality is that Democrats would remove all state control and nearly all methods of ensuring only legitimate voters vote, while Republicans would maintain and strengthen a variety of procedures that ensure election integrity.)

Beyond the many misstatements (some would say lies), some of which are noted above, Biden seemed to take credit for what is already going on as if it were some great accomplishment of his own.  I mentioned the vaccines above.  Another example is his promise that he would now require that calls regarding minors at the border would occur within 48 hours.  According to Border officials, that requirement is already in place and was followed throughout the entirety of the prior administration’s control.

Biden wanted to show us he is a nice guy.  In fact, he told he is a nice guy – over and over and over.  That he is not like his predecessor because he is so calm and nice.  Well, great.  But that does not mean that he can lead the country or that he has any clue about what is really going on.

But the press conference is not solely about the president.  It is also about the reporters.  Anyone who watched a Trump presser is aware that the press core would not let him finish a sentence without attacking him with one or another allegation.  There was little if any respect shown for the man or the office.  Despite the press hatred for him, Trump called on reporters from both the Left and the Right, as well as the foreign press.   He answered their questions directly along with their antagonistic follow-ups and was clearly on top of what was going on, whether you liked his answers or not.

Here, we had very few reporters called on, and apparently someone (Biden or his handlers) had listed the names of whom would be called.  They were on one of the papers on Biden’s podium.  Whether these reporters’ questions had been vetted beforehand we will likely never know. 

What we do know is that the reporters were not the same attack dogs that attended Trump pressers.  Where was the Jim Acosta style reporter to harass and interrupt before the president could get a word out?  Indeed, where were any interruptions or meaningful follow ups?  Today’s “reporters” allowed the President to ramble for as long as he wanted, even if what he was rambling about had absolutely nothing to do with the question asked.  And those questions – could they have been any more friendly and soft?  Perhaps the press lost its ability be assertive in its questioning when faced with this clearly fragile and perhaps senile old man. 

In the end, this presser was about what I expected it would be – a big lot of nothing.  Biden knew nothing.  Biden said nothing – nothing that was true or specific or more than a fluffy promise.  The reporters asked nothing.  It was to some extent (how much we will never know) rehearsed.  Just a big lot of political show.

Which brings me to perhaps the most frightening thing of all:  why don’t the people see what is going on?  Why don’t they see this presidency for what it is?  Do they really fall for Biden’s syrupy smooth talk and his promises that he will make us all happy?  C’mon Man!  Wake up.  Biden is cluelessly destroying America but we the people are allowing him to do it.  And no one seems to notice or to care. That is terrifying.

 

Lullaby of the Left

A lullaby is something that is sung to someone to get them to sleep.  It calms (lulls) them with soothing sounds.  When we want children to sleep we sing them a lullaby.  Once they are sleeping we can perhaps do some things that their awake presence would keep us from getting done.

What I think is that we are all being lulled by the media’s lack of hysteria about political issues and specifically in contrast with the previous administration.  For four years we were kept awake with the constant frenzy of hyperbolic claims about the dreadfulness of the president’s words and actions.

Now, we hear calm words like “unity” and “humanitarian”.  There is no frenzy, no turmoil, no histrionics.  In fact, there is almost nothing.  A calm.  Nothing to see, nothing to hear.  Just go to sleep.  Pay no attention to what is really going on.

So what is going on?  First, there is a crisis at the border.  A humanitarian crisis as well as an immigration crisis.   We have a border which President Biden has insured is so porous that it in effect does not exist.  Even his advisor, speaking in Spanish so apparently not primarily to Americans, “mistakenly” announced that our borders are open.   Pay no attention though.

Hundreds of thousands of unvetted immigrants, many unaccompanied minors, are released into our interior without even a cursory check on health (including those whose state tests later show as positive for Covid) let alone any real questions about reasons for entering.  What Biden once called cages are now overflowing at over 100% capacity.  While admitting anyone who actually gets to our border, we are also sending millions of dollars to those who remain in countries that do not provide for them what is available to American citizens. 

We are told this is just Biden the humanitarian, taking care of the world.  Nothing to wake up over.  Don’t concern yourself with the very unhumanitarian effects of overcrowded cages, unaccompanied and trafficked minors, deadly consequences of huge caravans and lengthy treks, along with the overwhelming effect on this country and its citizens.  Things are fine.  Afterall, detention centers are now “welcome centers.”   Just go to sleep.

Cosmetic changes abound as part of the lullaby’s pretty pictures.   The Act which destroys women’s sports, mandates radical curriculum in schools, denies the scientific distinctions between sexes replacing them with gender choice and other similar mandates, is called the “Equality Act.”  If anything, it destroys the equality that is supposed to exist of and for all Americans.  But nothing to see, the name should calm you, go to sleep.

The 1.9 Trillion Covid Relief Bill primarily has nothing to do with Covid Relief.  Fewer Americans will get stimulus checks.  But it provides funding for any number of Leftist agenda items.  Just one example: there is a “racial justice” portion that provides 4 billion in debt relief to farmers of color.  Apparently white farmers with debt are not entitled to relief.  This seems a blatant violation of the Civil Rights Act which prohibits discrimination based on, amongst other things, race, color, and national origin.  But beyond that it is in effect a payment of reparations and some activists are celebrating it as just that.  But, go back to sleep, nothing to see here.

The Voting Rights Bill effectively destroys any hope of election security or integrity.  Any efforts to insure that only those entitled to vote actually vote are referred to by the Left as attempts to disenfranchise people of color.  That’s like saying enforcing a no cheating rule on a test is wrong because it prohibits everyone from getting an A.  But, just accept the cosmetically pleasant title: “Voting Rights.”  Ignore the fact that it actually disenfranchises legitimate voters by diluting the effect of their vote.

Moreover, this act fundamentally changes voting in that it takes away a state’s power to control its own elections as it creates a set of national voter registration and mail-in voting standards with the feds, not the states, keeping those rolls up to date.  It is grand dictatorships that allow the central power to govern elections; America is built on the concept of very limited federal power and a retention to each state of those powers not specifically designated to the federal government.  But, no worry, nothing to see here, move on and go back to sleep.

Last night in his first speech to the nation since his inauguration, President Biden did not mention anything about the above actions taken while you were sleeping or the rest of the Left agenda lurking for when you awake.  He has yet to make himself available for questions on any of these matters, including whether it is his agenda or if he is just providing his signature.

His speech only addressed vaccines and possible opening following Covid.  After essentially blaming his predecessor for Covid and giving then-president Trump no credit for his Operation Warp Speed that got us the vaccines in early December, Biden essentially took full credit for ending Covid as he told us we would unite and be able to have small groups gather on July 4^th – maybe.  He made a big deal of telling us that every American would be registered for vaccine by May 1; he more softly admitted that it did not mean that we would get the vaccine by then and there was no indication of when that might actually occur.

The above are just summaries of some of the more major “accomplishments” of the Left while the people have been sleeping.  They have put us to sleep with their cosmetic coverings and their soothing words, words like humanitarian, unifier, good, quiet, peaceful.   But if you really listen, their lullaby is less sweet than some we may be more familiar with; it seems rather more like this old Icelandic song:

Beeum, beeum, bambalow, Bambalow and dillidillidow.

My little friend I lull to rest.

But outside

A face looms at the window.

That face is the Left. But don’t look there. Just go to sleep.  Pay no attention to what the Left is doing while you sleep.  Because if you do, you are likely to find yourself in shock as you awake to Biden and the Left’s “Brave New World,” a world that also had a pretty cosmetic motto (“community, identity and stability”) for its dystopian existence.