Current Day Publius

The elites on the left are quick to throw around the term “American Values” without ever saying what they mean. My several requests of my representatives who have used this term, have yielded a form letter telling me they get a lot of inquiries, but no answer to my question. I’m going to take another crack at this by outlining what I believe are our American Values and see if I can get them to respond. I welcome your take as well.

American Value 1 – God gives us our life and rights, not men. Our Founders knew this when they codified it in both the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. We believe that God is the ultimate “president” and our allegiance is ultimately to him. It means we are to follow the commandments which in turn, makes us good human beings and citizens.

American Value 2 – Everyone has the right to think and say whatever they want. This includes yelling “Fire”, just not when it’s inappropriate. Sticks and stones may break bones, but words never hurt in our society. Those offended by words need to think about real hurt of the atrocities of war that assure this value remains.

American Value 3 – The individual is paramount. No group or body is more important than the individual and therefore, his freedom is the basis of all governance. Every government action must be put up against the impact on the individual. It is each of ours’ duty as individuals, that we take responsibility for our well-being and actions. You have the right to try, and succeed or fail without assistance or assured outcome.

American Value 4 – Every human being is equal and thus, every American has the same potential. How they use it goes to value #3. No individual is to be put ahead or behind another in terms of governance. Any actions, (and there have been many), that subvert this value, only serve to undermine the very tenets of our Constitution and country fabric.

American Value 3 – Representative democracy requires elected officials account for EVERYONE within their purview. Most often, this requires governance compromise as competing positions exist within most districts. Indeed, our system of checks and balances was designed to force compromise and thus, encourage EVERYONE to feel ownership and engagement. The minority must always be represented and acknowledged.

American Value 5 – We have compassion for those who cannot help themselves. We are the most charitable country in history and where a need is, we are there. That need must be predicated on a hand up and not a hand out, again, back to value 3.

American Value 6 – We believe in the use of written laws to govern. The adherence to law is fundamental to our safety and economic well-being. Laws must be clear, reasonable and only instituted with the consent of the people. They must then be uniformly and fairly applied in all cases. Laws that are found to not be in the best interest of the people must be amended or eliminated.

I’ve been a little down over the last couple of weeks. Our political arena gets crazier by the day and I’ve spoken about it both here and in my conversations with friends and acquaintances. It’s past due that we have some “good news”! It’s spring!!!

The NHL Hockey season is half over and there have been a few surprises. Most notably admirable has been the attention to Covid and its impact on the schedule. Yes, there have been games rescheduled (including several this week) but the NHL and the NHLPA are to be commended for cooperatively keeping the season going.

As for the competition, my heart is with the Blackhawks who after shocking the league with a great run against weak teams, are now finding the going much rougher. After castigating Blackhawk management, specifically GM and now VP Stan Bowman and Coach Colliton, I have to eat crow. Stan has found nuggets of gold in players and now finds his team with 3 legitimate Calder Trophy nominations; Suter, Kurushev and Lankinen. Colliton has the youngest lineup in the league and is using the larger roster to not only keep the players active but also for significant evaluation for the future. It helps that we found a goalie that has helped forget we let Corey Crawford go.

Around the league, Toronto has a cake walk to the playoffs while Buffalo is imploding. The re-alignment has depleted my understanding of the underpinnings of what is behind these and most the rest of the league. Still, because I see the Central and Eastern teams the most, and watch the standings, it looks like Tampa Bay and Boston are still the teams to beat. A nod to Coach Q for what he has done to resurrect the Florida franchise and importantly, his goalie, Bobrovsky. I have him and Colliton as favorites for the Jack Adams, coach of the year award.

Lots can happen in this last half but as is the case in the “regular” seasons, the lot has likely been cast. If you’re in the playoffs as of today, you’re likely to make it in. The 3-point system has proven to make it difficult to make up ground.

With vaccinations going well, it is my sincere desire that a healthy calm fall over our country and we Americans look at each other as just that, fellow Americans. I yearn to see smiles on peoples’ faces and wish you well this spring and beyond.

They paid you off in Weimar dollars and now you’re fat, dumb and happy. Enjoy the $1400. How cheaply they got away with stealing your freedom. While you’re getting $1400 of funny money, they’re spending billions on supporting people who are taking your jobs and changing our country from a melting pot to a caldron of angst and divisiveness. Instead of representing you, they are representing themselves in their quest for perpetual power.

The Marxists now controlling the Democrat party are now on the cusp of achieving their long-sought goal of collapsing the one country that provided a bulwark against totalitarianism. The idea of American freedom has been a thorn in the side of socialists because it showed that individual freedom always trumps centralized control. No government has ever been able to harness the power of the people like the USA and therefore, those who wish to control, must eliminate it.

Many are falling under the spell of utopian rhetoric egged on at every turn. Major media, education and now, the very government that is predicated on the consent of the people, are feeding the basics of Marxism and its revolutionary beginnings. Ignoring, no, erasing history, is the tried-and-true beginning. Create crises and appear to be the white knight riding in to save the day.  Only it’s too late when you find out they started the fight. Once in control, farcical elections follow creating the appearance of legitimacy. Think HR1 isn’t going to do that? Next is disarming the population. It will be through taxing but getting guns out of our hands is paramount to closing the loop. The Constitution will finally be regarded as “aspirational” and must be interpreted in light of today’s realities. So much for God given inalienable rights.

 This isn’t the story of one country. This is the story of many countries and now, our very own. Its happening right now and its real. Every opportunity to drive home their agenda is taking place before our very eyes. So sad to see how poorly we as a people are reacting but then, history repeats itself.

We allow the killing of nearly 600,000 black babies each year. Over one-third of all abortions in this country are to black babies despite blacks only representing 13% of the population. Still, you want to throw the racism card around nilly-willy. We saw white policemen attempt to arrest a career criminal laced up with drugs that eventually kills him. To make amends apparently, taxpayers are forced to give his “family” and “neighborhood” $27,000,000 while an arresting policeman sits in jail awaiting his fate on murder charges.  

Boys now frequent girl’s locker rooms and compete head-to-head with them. Title IX was supposed to even the playing field for girls and their sports and participation rose dramatically as a result. Data shows less than 9% of all college scholarships are going to women. How will allowing boys compete against girls help that?

People are being called out for not addressing the person with the right pronoun. What planet are we on? I dare say there are many people (include me) who don’t even know of the issue let alone know how to say hello to someone who has pronoun sensitivity. (Same as QANON – What is it?)

Each identified tribe is now lining up to get their share of the aggrievance pie.  With every attempt to “right a wrong”, real or perceived, the pendulum of craziness swings a little further. The civil rights movement and subsequent legislation served only to get the ball rolling. This undermining of the Constitution that already assured every person the same rights, began the carving out of “specialness” for each group loud enough to get their squeaky wheel greased. LGBTQ and ERA are the two on the docket now but rest assured, the playbook has been written and there will be others.

Any suspicion of a slight now requires an apology. This is my opinion based on my own thinking. Our country is based on the freedom to think and speak. That is the norm and while there is a very concerted effort to erase that, it is why we have net immigration. This freedom doesn’t exist in many parts of the world. The normal is we accept people for who they are and not for what they represent. The normal is we elect representative that represent ALL of us and not sub-groups. We expect them to be adults and not pandering careerists who take our money, spend to to maintain their position, and them blame us for resisting further erosion of our finances and society.

HR1 is the death noll of the normal America that made us the beacon of light on the hill. It will tie the knot on the noose of the normal we enjoyed for over 200 years. Be forewarned.

As humans, we most often seek the least arduous path to an outcome. We eschew difficulty at every turn despite the increased rewards that result sometimes from challenge. We are increasingly aided in this fault of human traits by our government. They know candy sells much better than liver and they continue to shove bundles of it in front of us. The soon to be $1,900,000,000,000 pile of cash being laid out on our table is just the latest purchase of our fealty to those who supposedly, care for us.

If I was to put the following questions in front of most Americans, I wonder what the “poll” would tell us?

Is the family unit desirable? Do you want to marry someone? Would you like to stay married to that person for life? Would you like to have children? Would you like for your spouse, preferably the woman, to stay at home and raise those children? Would you like to live in a safe neighborhood where your children can walk to school? Would you like a home whose total costs allows you to take a week’s vacation to a special place? Is access to affordable, healthy and safe food important to you? Would you like to be able to eat in a restaurant once a week? Would you like to have clothes for every occasion? Would you like a vehicle that provides dependable transportation? Would you like to know that if you had a catastrophic illness, your health care would be provided at a subsidized rate that would not bankrupt you?

What if after answering these questions we then went on to ask?

Should the government provide income for single parent households based on the number of children they have? Food? Health care? Transportation? Should they encourage more children by providing tax credits/transfer payments for each child? Child care? Should the government (federal, state and local) be singularly focused on first and before any other issue, making our neighborhoods safe? Should tax dollars that could go to promoting families, safety, health and wellness of Americans be spent on non-citizens? Foreign countries that are not viewed as allies? Maintaining US armed forces in conflict arenas throughout the world? Should the government take more than is needed for safety, from your income to pay for these programs?

I would like to see the results of the poll because I believe that most people would give up some of this materialistic rat race for a “Harriet and Ozzie” lifestyle. One where Dad works and makes and keeps enough to have a home, a car, a retirement plan, enough cash on hand to weather an emergency and allows Mom to stay at home making sure the kids are well adjusted and homestead is functioning. It may not be as big a home or a Cadillac in the driveway, but a cohesive family unit that is the underpinnings of a virtuous society would be the reward in and of itself.

Put your spin on this but we’ve allowed our humanness to be perverted through appeals to our vanity and overwhelming societal pressure to get more and more and more….to our detriment.

The rulers are lauded in the press as being far-sighted and tireless in their effort making the country better. The image building of the rulers by a supportive press and social media enhance their public persona and aids in their suppression of dissidents. Those who disagree are not allowed to speak in public forums and are quietly removed from everyday living. Employers find ways to fire them. If they are entrepreneurs, their business is boycotted and those that do shop there are identified and added to the ostracized. Friends and family are frightened into associating with them knowing they could be caught up in the net. In the worst cases, the person who opposes the collective thinking is removed from society. Bail is denied and charges are expanded to assure there is no doubt of their subversion and insurrection.

Questioning the rulers is made a crime. They are labeled differently (ex. hate speech, fomenting violence) but they have the same impact; propagating fear in the population. These laws are enacted by a monolithic ruling party that secures their hold on power by bastardizing the tools formerly used by the populace to choose their rulers. Selection of leaders is now in the control of those who already hold power.

Segregation of the populace is required in order to maintain the hold. Subversive groups are identified and “dealt with”. Continued propaganda vilifying them turns those loyal to the rulers against the identified group. Loyalists are subtly encouraged to ostracize the identified “insurrectionists/terrorists” who are considered dangerous to society. They are marked for “re-education”.

In order to placate the loyalists, perquisites are doled out based on the group’s attributes. Those “perks” are the result of the confiscation from those not in favor of the rulers. Taxes are aimed directly at them. Rules of engagement in commerce are geared toward loyalists and inhibit those who question anything coming from those in power. In return, the loyalists, dependent on the largesse of the rulers, do nothing to upset the gravy train and instead, encourage more “equity” through confiscatory actions including appropriating property.

Is this the story of China or the United States? Do you trust either of the rulers of these countries?

The left has got the formula down pat. Take a crisis and turn it into an opportunity to look like a hero. But what if there is no crisis? Well then, create one. Here are a few self-inflicted crises.

Domestic Terrorism – January 6^th gave the left the opportunity to put half the country on notice that if they step out of line, there are serious consequences. Stifling speech and disarmament of citizens are the first two “corrections” they are employing to “restore Democracy”. While a single event where 200 people out of a crowd of tens of thousands caused a ruckus, may not be enough to overturn the Constitution, the left keeps poking the bear. Some examples are immigration (see below), “net neutrality”, efforts to shut down conservative media, continued lockdowns and failure to open up schools, removing cash bail putting criminals back on the street, and not prosecuting crimes. Rise up and this crisis demands more control.

Illegal immigration – The left likes to conflate legal and illegal immigration. They like to say conservatives are against immigration because we want a secure border and organized and legal entry into our country. We believe the USA cannot continue its welfare programs AND have open borders.  Despite having drilled into us that death awaits us if we don’t don masks and hibernate, the left is welcoming thousands of persons crossing our southern border without nary a concern for who they are or what kind of health they are in. Once here, of course they will overwhelm our systems creating yet another problem to solve. The fix? More money for and expansion of the failed programs already in place. Biggest one is health care which will aid their march to “Medicare for All”.

Foreign Policy – Having the last four years with no new armed conflict was a watershed for our country. That cannot continue as the military industrial complex needs a bogey man to warrant the expense and politicians need to look “strong” protecting our country. So, we re-engage with Iran after they continue to lie about their nuclear and international terrorism aims. Once they get the bomb, and it won’t be too soon, another crisis to address. The cash cow known to the left as China, will continue to be coddled because major corporations have too much invested there, and when they finish eating our lunch and go after our dinner, the problem will need addressing. Ride in left saviors but on what horse; capitulation or war?

Energy – After instituting an entire cabinet level department for the single goal of energy independence, the left is throwing it away. They‘re creating another narrative that we will all die in 12 years if we don’t stop farting and driving gas vehicles. Forget the foreign policy advantages of energy independence and just look at the savings for both consumers and the government. The left has abandoned that on the “science” that we are doomed because we have 180 years of weather records that show we are warming? Cooling? Not sure what we are chasing these days. Mandated blackouts and the like are on the horizon and for these you will get to pay more for gas, heating and electricity as the shift to unreliable renewable energy is foisted on us.

Systemic Racism –Not sure how Obama or some of the millions of people of color who now live in prosperity snuck through the system. Enough said on this one but the usurpation of our Constitution by favoring one race over another began in 1964 and is ramping up.

HR1 – The “For the People” bill that will cement the left’s hold on the federal government through convoluted election rules that codify avenues of fraud including expanded election dates, mail in voting, ballot harvesting, and lax verification of citizen identification.

These are just a few of the crises that are being fomented so the “knights on white horses” can come in and save us. Thank goodness we have the pattern down pat so we can better prepare.

We’ve been twisted in the air around polling. There are polls for nearly everything from products to politics and at least in the case of the latter, some questionable ones. Who gets queried and with what questions can dictate the talking points of users of polling data. Pollsters themselves can and do fashion their polls to get a specific outcome. Groups with agendas regularly utilize polls geared toward their particular issue as an underhanded means of influencing outcomes. It goes something like this.

A poll about the current $1,900,000,000,000 stimulus package.

Audience to be polled – 786 people with incomes below $75,000 and a land line. 30% black, 25% Hispanic, 5% Asian and 40% white.

First Question: “Do you support $1400 payments to people earning less than $75,000?”

Second Question: “Should Democrats bypass Republicans if they obstruct giving $1400 to people earning under $75,000?”

Nightly News use of the results.

Polls show overwhelming support for Democrats using reconciliation to pass needed relief.

Most savvy media watchers are now jaded enough on polls to dismiss them…especially when they are counter to their own views. But they are still being thrown in our faces as justification for taking some kind of action. When a poll doesn’t fit the narrative, question the veracity of the poll. Who ran it? What did they actually ask? Of whom? You won’t see a lot of the answers; just the questions and no look behind the curtain. Indeed, polling companies are not in the business of explaining their polling process. Seems there is “science” behind it but I thought you were supposed to be able to replicate things using the scientific method. That may be the “old” science. We don’t teach that anymore.

The depth of elitist politicians’ shamelessness is coming into full view. They used to be ok with a wall to secure our southern border and funded it.  But then an opponent wanted the wall too and it became a bad idea. The politics of that switch should have got some of their supporters, especially those in San Diego, to question their loyalty. The fact that crossings where there is a substantial wall are down as much as 80% might suggest walls do serve a purpose. Forget how they are used around the world by sovereign states and all manner of other organizations. But wait, there may be a place where these “working for the people” folks think walls are appropriate (besides their personal residences); the “peoples house”.

After spending nearly a half of billion dollars ($500,000,000) to bring in armed troops to protect themselves, and after hearing (and hearing it repeated ad nauseum by sycophant media) the “harrowing” accounts of Capitol police knocking on doors asking where Congresswomen were, we now learn a permanent and razor wired fence is necessary. Congress is moving forward with a very expensive plan to ensconce themselves deeper into the bubble. Contact with “the people” is fraught with danger and thus, must be minimized. (I wonder what Capitol tours will be like? What kind of screening process will a visitor have to undergo in order to gain entrance? I’m sure big tech and banking can help out with that. Oh right, they already are helping identify possible “domestic terrorists”!)

Of course, this wall won’t be as necessary once firearms owned by lawful citizens are outlawed. (Of course, once started, nothing in Washington stops; it only gets bigger.) Only criminals will have guns and they don’t mess with Congress. They’re too well protected and likely don’t carry cash, cameras and other pawnable items. Best stick up “the people” who don’t have any way to protect themselves. Plus, look what they do to those who threaten Congressmen and women. At least they let the common robber, assaulter, rapist out with no cash bail. Those idiots who entered the Capitol are still sitting in jail.

Congressmen and women don’t even come close to seeing what life is like on the south side of Chicago or downtown Portland or even a few blocks away from their hardened bunker in the city of DC. There, death and destruction are an everyday occurrence and while they work for us “the people”, they enjoy our paid for protection with nary a care for the victims of the rampant crime swirling right in front of them. Crime they actually encourage and dare I say, welcome. It gives them another bogie man they can continue to “fight” because “the people” deserve it and nothing less. Of course, that “fight” is from behind a wall protecting them and keeping you out.

So many are racing back to the very things that brought our founding fathers…and mothers to this land. History is being erased so that people won’t have a record of what it is to be controlled. The quest for personal freedom is what made the original settlers cast their fate to a dangerous ocean crossing, unknown food sources and no shelter. The simple ability to live their lives as they see fit drove them to leave the comforts they had come to know for the unknown. And now we see a rush to return to the coddling and controlling of what is perceived to be a benevolent government. Its all been documented but now we see it being erased for fear people will see the folly of this movement.

The slide began a century ago when Woodrow Wilson began the American Progressive movement. That movement called for government to address social problems, its inequalities and inequities. He was an avowed racist who instituted anti-sedition Laws that allowed the jailing of people who said things that disagreed with him and his policies. If you spoke out against WW1, you were considered seditious and subject to incarceration. So much for inequality and inequities.

Moving forward, the lurch left took advantage of a financial crisis, the 1929 stock market crash and resulting economic calamity, to institute all kinds of entitlement programs. President Franklin Roosevelt said he would “wage war” as if a foreign entity had attacked. So, we got Social Security intended for aging widows who lived past 65, then the average lifespan of a widow, the Tennessee Valley Authority, National Industrial Recovery Act that guaranteed workers would have the right to unionize, and the Public Works Administration, in his first “100 days”. Add Glass Steagall that reined in banking and other government controls on the economy. When those didn’t improve the economy, he doubled down in his second term and created the Works Progress Administration to provide jobs for the unemployed among others. Keynesian economics were in full force; government debt spending skyrocketed. Thankfully some of his progressive items were rebuffed like packing the Supreme Court with more judges so that he could institute even more progressive wants. His programs still exist today, have been expanded well beyond their original intent, and are yokes around our financial necks.

The rise of the “squad” and the attacks on the Constitution, (currently free speech but the right to bear arms is next up), have shown that progressives are gaining (in?) control. The unionized teachers have used their Marxist political slant to indoctrinate students and as Russian Premier Khrushchev said, “We will take America without firing a shot. We do not have to invade the U.S. We will destroy you from within…” Despite the many examples of where socialism/communism failed miserably and the many benefits capitalism has brought to the world, progressives see their opportunity to make our lives better by doing to us the things they know are best. The only way their ideas can be universally installed is through coercion. When those things aren’t what you want, you’ll learn what bondage means. It’s at that point you’ll wish you knew history better.