Shallow-thinking of the highly educated

If you have been known by a leftist as a Trump supporter, chances are the economic and social positions you have held since waaaay before Trump came down the escalator are ridiculed as "blindly following Trump."

This is the essence of the "Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS)", a mental disorder that has not yet made its way (and never will) into the lexicon of the "feel good" leftist psychiatric profession.

Those with TDS dismiss the simple things, like the importance of secure national borders to maintain national security and reduce the flow of drugs and crime into our country.

Like not invoking price and wage controls that distort and disrupt the marketplace.

Like the great benefits of being energy independent, using the energy resources we already have to the fullest to keep us competitive.

Like not wasting billions of dollars to subsidize the EV industry decades before our electric infrastructure can handle it, and before ALL the true life cycle costs of battery technology are understood.  

Like not falling all over ourselves believing humans impact climate change more than a fluttering gnats whisker while spending billions trying to reverse what our solar system was designed to do.

Like the fad of sexual perversion, believing sex change and deviance have better outcomes than the status quo, attempting to reinvent biology and thousands of years of universal morality.

Nope.  99% of Trump, Desantis, and Haley supporters held to these ideas well before any of these candidates even thought of running for president.  These candidates have merely tapped into the sentiments of these previously ignored common sense principles.

Common sense is offhandedly dismissed by those stricken with TDS. 

Are morality and Christianity blamed for triggering killers?

We’ve all heard of “safe spaces” set aside by educators and employees to protect college students and employees of woke corporations from the thoughts of evil conservatives. Those are places where those easily offended by the realities of life, like traditional morality, can go so they won’t be stressed, or worse, triggered to do something they may or may not regret.

Those nasty conservatives, those who promote patriotism and traditional morality, and, God-forbid, those who practice Bibilical Christian doctrine, are the evil provocateurs – bigots and worse:  Haters.

Is it any wonder why a perfectly normal 28-year-old transgender would be upset.  She had no “safe space.”  Her Christian parents possibly sent her over the edge. She had to vent somewhere. Her former Christian school was the place to take her stand.

This latest Nashville school shooting reveals the culprit.  The word on the leftist street is that morality is to blame, especially European based, white male controlled Christian morality is to blame for provoking mass shootings and urban riots.

The culprits?  Morality and laws.  Laws lead to discrimination against law breakers.  Morality, even apart from laws, leads to some people choosing to be immoral.  Immorality leads to discrimination.  Both lawbreaking and immorality result in discrimination, incarceration, shunning, and becoming social outcasts.  Criminals and the amoral are stressed by that.  They often become triggered and do even worse things.  And who’s to blame?  The “sanctimonious” culture:  The folks who have the uncaring audacity to promote moral standards and laws that are intended to do the most good for the greatest number.

The solution of the left?  Change the culture.  Ignore morality.  Outlaw morality if possible.  Eliminate law enforcement. Eliminate laws altogether if possible.

What sick, demented thinking.

Conservatives are conservative for a reason.  As Eric Utter wrote in the American Thinker:

Conservatives, on the other hand, wish to conserve the best of the past, and pass on the accrued wisdom and best practices of millennia past.

Millenia-old morality has a purpose.  Good laws have a purpose.  They stand the test of time in preserving both culture and nation.

Do those who hate morality and laws do so because they hate our culture and nation?  Or do those who hate our culture and nation do so because they hate morality and laws?

It probably doesn’t matter.  They both go hand in hand.

Here is a thought provoking article from American Thinker on this topic titled “Belief in traditional American values plummeting…”

By Eric Utter

According to a depressing new poll from The Wall Street Journal, belief in the importance of traditional American values has plummeted in the United States in recent decades.

The poll queried U.S. respondents about the importance of patriotism, religious faith, having children, and other traditionally American values in their lives.  Only 39% of Americans surveyed said their religious faith is very important to them, and just 38% said patriotism is very important.

The Journal compared those numbers to the results from the first time it ran the poll in 1998…when 62% of Americans said religion was very important to them, and 70% said patriotism was.  And that was during the Clinton administration!

So, apparently, a majority of Americans no longer believe that either religion or patriotism is important.

If that is the case, Democrats will never be out of power again.  They never tire of dissing the country, its founders…and the concept of objective truth, morality…and God.  ("Male and female He made them?  Screw that, I decide if I am male or female…or any other gender, including ones I make up out of whole cloth!")

Remarkably, the survey also purported to find that a plurality of Americans believe that the U.S. has not gone far enough in promoting equality between men and women; accepting people who are gay, lesbian, or bisexual; or promoting racial and ethnic diversity in business and universities.  If we go any farther down that road, no one but members of the BIPOC LGBTQ Community will ever again be allowed to head a company or attend college.

The results of this poll, if they are reasonably accurate depictions of Americans' values, or lack thereof, are disheartening to say the least.  If, essentially, 23% of Americans lost their belief in a higher power, and 32% lost their belief in the goodness of their country in just the past 25 years…it is time to turn out the lights, as the party is unquestionably over.

The founders knew that this was a distinct possibility at some point.  John Adams famously observed, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."  This is one reason "progressives" disdain them so.  They disdain the very concepts of morality and religion, as they tend to put boundaries on people's behavior.  A God would be competition for them, and that they cannot countenance.

Conservatives, on the other hand, wish to conserve the best of the past and pass on the accrued wisdom and best practices of millennia past.  (We are not reflexively against change, such as voting Democrats out of office, potentially eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts, defunding National Public Radio, proposing school choice and voucher initiatives, or re-funding the police.)

It is no coincidence that testosterone and sperm levels have fallen during this same period.  Or that I.Q.s have declined, too. It all ties together.  As Andrew Breitbart averred, it is true that politics is downstream from culture.  And the current cultural cesspool feeds the stream that flows through — and poisons — our political class.

Objectively, this leads to one inescapable conclusion: sickeningly, the incessant lies that "progressive" Democrats — and their sycophantic lapdogs in the mainstream media — have told the American people…have been effective.  Indoctrination works.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/03/belief_in_traditional_american_values_plummeting_new_wall_street_journal_poll_shows.html

*****

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. 

It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

Thomas Jefferson

Public/private partnerships are a tool of Wokeism

During my three decades as a City Planner, the concept of Public/Private Partnerships was a vaunted tool for getting things done.  That concept has gone awry on several levels.

First, it has been misused to promote private interests over public interests in the area of eminent domain.  Sure, sometimes private and public interests coincide.  But too often those responsible for public governance are too heavily influenced by private interests and the outcome is lucrative for the private sector and sketchy for the public.

The second example is the coalescence of the private social media conglomerates and the federal government.  If the federal government was communist, like China (which we are not supposed to be), the influence of social media by that government would be legitimate.  But we’re not supposed to have a communist government, defined as having one set of top-down values imposed on everyone.  We have a government that has a wide variety of diverse views.  It is wildly improper for the federal government to “partner” with corporations to promote a singular viewpoint the conflicts with strong views of at least half the nation.

Then there is the idea of “government policy.”  Shouldn’t the federal government encourage the private sector to promote “government policy?”  No.  Not when said “government policy” is considered by at least half the nation to be destructive to our culture, values, economy, morals, and the strength and global standing of our nation.

The Federal Government has adopted government policies that promote and enforce the values of “wokeism.”  Wokeism is comprised of the following distortions of traditional values, truths, and common sense:

* Our nation’s founding was based primarily on greed and prejudice.  History needs to be rewritten to reflect that evil.

* White’s, and male whites in particular, are racist and evil. “People of color” (except the “white” color) are incapable of being equally racist.

* Laws are based on the white European culture and should not be imposed on people of color. Institutions that enforce these laws are evil and should be eliminated or severely downsized.

* The concept of “sin”, traditional “morality” and binary gender identity are relics of outmoded religion and should be suppressed.  Tolerance for any preference and any behavior needs to be promoted and enforced.

* Only speech that is offensive to NO ONE should be allowed.  Speech that violates the above principles should be prohibited.

Wokeism is our new religion.  Tolerance for everything is its primary dogma. 

While the Federal government does not yet promote or enforce all of the above, there are substantial portions of it that we call “the deep state” that either enforce some of these things, have aspirations to do so, or who partner with corporations to pave the way toward enforcement.

Enough from me.  Below is a link to a current article from Imprimis titled “The Twitter Files Reveal an Existential Threat”.  Worth your five minutes.

https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/the-twitter-files-reveal-an-existential-threat/

Leftist mindset: The cause

I came across this blog on the topic of “The Leftist Mindset.. A Theory.” It attempts to answer the question: “Why do leftists prefer or ignore corruption?”

The theory, in part, is this:

I think the reason that the left ignores legitimate accusations against left leaning politicians/institutions is that the only thing that is 'true', the only thing that is 'honest', according to them, is corruption - and anyone or anything being raised up as an example of or in support of the existence of genuine morality is a liar.

https://www.reddit.com/r/politicsdebate/comments/958vqt/the_leftist_mindset_a_theory/

I have an alternate theory. The left's preference for corruption is a symptom, not a cause. They don't view their behaviors as corrupt; they view their behavior as casting off the "old ways."

Here are a few of the left’s priorities that lead to their practice of corruption as the rest of moral humanity sees them:

1) They consider themselves "liberal" for a reason. Liberal in the sense that the old ways are outmoded and useless. Several of the old ways include "religion", "the Bible", and "traditional morality." Other old ways, offshoots of traditional morality, include the sense of family, physical gender, and the concept of "nation", e.g. "no borders." In the leftist/liberal mind, those factors are merely a constraint on freedom.

2) Once they jettison these "old ways", they are free to do whatever. There is no longer the concept of "sin", "corruption", or "immorality", unless you try to impinge on their liberality by attempting to impose your "old ways" onto them.

3) Looking deeper, the question is "why do leftists jettison the “old ways?'" We have to look at human nature for that answer. There is always, always, always some segment of society that insists on rebelling against commonly accepted beliefs, culture, laws, and tradition. People who rebel in this manner consider themselves as progressing, thus the label "progressive." Sometimes it seems that good results; more often it results in disaster, especially in the longer term.

4) Then we have to ask how this happened to us in the US? Again, turning to human nature, we conclude "complacency", "self-satisfaction", "greed" to varying degrees by the majority. Ignoring these things and we have what we've got.  We’ve grown fat and lazy, both literally and figuratively. 

And yes, I need to lose 30 pounds.

Governments drumming up business…

I recall when I was a city planner in several local governments how effective the Parks and Recreation departments were in promoting their recreation activities and facilities.  Thousands were spent in advertising to promote park and facility usage to “foster a healthy lifestyle.” 

And then when park and facility usage reached a certain level, that justified spending several million on additional park and facilities development.  And the cycle went on. (Note:  I love parks and recreation facilities when someone else pays for them.)

Translation:  Promote use of government facilities so we can justify additional expansion, bigger budgets and more power over others.

****

The CDC is apparently involved in a similar schtick…

CDC Pushes Teachers to Measure Commitment to ‘LGBTQ Inclusivity’ Instruction

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/12/28/cdc-pushes-teachers-to-measure-commitment-to-lgbtq-inclusivity-instruction/

Silly me.  I thought the CDC’s mission was to reduce disease.

So now they’re promoting inclusivity of the the LGBTQ++++ community - why?  To reduce disease?  Wait! What? 

CDC stands for Centers for Disease Control.  Doing what they’re doing, it needs to be renamed to CDS:  Centers for Disease Spread.

Pervert sex increases and spreads disease, it doesn’t reduce it.

In lieu of discouraging pervert behavior – which is now called “homophobic” - if anything, the CDC ought to put LGBTQ+++++ on their "no sex" list – like a “no fly” list. Have them all “self report” their disease-spreading behavior like some would like us to do for not wearing a COVID mask or not taking the jab. 

That would cut down disease A LOT. But looks instead like the CDC’s priority is drumming up business.  Then they can hire a few more Fauci wanna-be’s.

Wars: Support and Opposition, Then and Now

Why are so many conservatives opposed to the US support of Ukraine in its defense against the Russian invasion and war crimes against Ukraine?

There are a number of reasons:

• Many believe spending 100’s of billions adds to inflation and the national debt;
• Many believe if money is to be spent, a higher priority is securing our own border and solving domestic priorities
• Many believe that Ukraine is as corrupt as Russia and does not deserve our support; they fail to admit to shades of good and evil.
• Many believe the conflict is more akin to a civil war between the Ukraine region as a breakaway province of Russia and should be none of our business
• Many are leery of the US getting involved, spending billions over many years, and then clumsily withdrawing without anything much to show for the effort. This is the most likely outcome in Ukraine, given US policy of the past 70 years.

These concerns boil down to an “America First” preference among most conservatives.

It took the US being attacked at Pearl Harbor for American to become galvanized to the point of officially declaring war, first against Japan on December 8, and then Germany December 11, 1941.

A year prior to declaring war,

the America First Committee (AFC) was the foremost United States isolationist pressure group against American entry into World War II.^[1][2] Launched in September 1940, it surpassed 800,000 members in 450 chapters at its peak.^[3] The AFC principally supported isolationism for its own sake, and its coalition included many Midwesterners, Republicans, conservatives, socialists, students, and leading industrialists, but it was controversial for the anti-Semitic and pro-fascist views of some of its most prominent speakers, leaders, and members.^[4][5][6]

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/America_First_Committee

Today, much the same America First sentiment is common among conservatives and many Republicans. And Democrats and liberals continue to accuse “America First” conservatives of having fascist views.  Not  much has changed.

The Korean War was a UN action after North Korea, along with allies Russia and China, invaded South Korea. The US provided 90% of the military personnel in defense of the south. War was never officially declared by the United States, but at least South Korea prevailed after the attack from the North.

Vietnam was another undeclared war, ending in a hasty retreat, losing to North Vietnam which took over the South, a much worse outcome than the Korean war.

In both the Korean and Vietnam wars, the Democrats (Truman and then Johnson) were involved in the initial troop buildups.

Two things are noteworthy concerning the Vietnam war:

• Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater lost his election bid because he promoted either getting out or being in it to win (an interesting concept that has been ignored for 70 years).  The Democrats accused him of wanting to use nukes to win.
• Leftist groups, not primarily Republicans, were anti-war.   Radicals fostered anti-war protests, many violent, on college campuses throughout the nation.  At the same time many cities burned due to black rioters frustrated by their relative poverty.  Together, these events contributed to a hasty withdrawal that ended in US defeat.

Politicized war policy writers

Conflicts in the Middle East (Iraq and Afghanistan) were initiated as a result of the Islamist attacks of 9-11 during the Bush Republican presidency.  After 20 years, $2 trillion and over 6,000 US service members and US contractors, it too ended in a hasty exit, this time by a Democrat, Joe Biden.  And again, nothing to show for it except a greatly emboldened and strengthen Islamist fighting force.

The US has never lost a “declared” war.  All the other “special operations” (as Russia likes to call their non-declared efforts) have had mostly dismal results. 

In spite of Democrats being most often referred to as “the war party”, Republicans (mostly RINOs?) have had their share of war-mongering.  I suspect much of Republican war motivation is due to influence of the military/industrial lobbyists who join with Democrats in calling America First conservatives “Nazis” because of their desire to build up our own nation rather than meddle in foreign money pits.

Barry Goldwater had it right.  Go in it to win or stay out.

One of my favorite quotes:

“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.”

Leftists and globalists will continue to attempt to discredit this truth.  Let’s not be “extreme”.  We might win – or even worse, we might offend someone.  Let’s remain “moderate” so we get our ass kicked.

Response to a defender of China…

I received the following comment on my previous “China/Ant” blog from a friend who has been to China many times and believes its culture and form of governance are superior to that in the US.  My reply follows his comment:

Well, the author, having never been to China or lived among the Chinese, has an uneducated view about China in several regards. China’s middle class has continued to grow while ours is shrinking.

The reason is because China does have entrepreneurs just as we do and those that feel more comfortable working in a group have found a home in profitable privately owned enterprises and SOE’s so they aren’t ants. I could easily move to China and get a job as an English teacher, but freedom does not mean I could teach LGBTQ+ sex or how to overthrow the government.

As far as freedom is concerned I’m as free when I have visited and lived in China as I am here so I have no idea what freedom I’m missing.

I will finish by saying people should not comment upon something they have no personal experience with only relying upon the racist words of others, biased media or corrupt politicians.

Yes, China does have a middle class and entrepreneurs - given enough leash by the central government to remain productive - until they have a point of view at odds with the Party.

As to never having been to China, my friend is correct. I have never been to the moon, either, but I understand its atmosphere requires a space suit for human survival.  My comparisons of China with the ant are not out of ignorance of China.

It should be instructive for my friend that among the many issues that breed dissension between the left and right in the US, the same dissension does not exist with regard to China - with the possible exception of the Biden family and his close cohorts who are subject to corrupt Chinese influence peddling.

There is a unifying set of beliefs among both left and right concerning China - to the point of near unanimity - that China is:
* Intolerant of human rights - well known to both sides of our political aisle.
* A top down, authoritarian Communist regime
* Rapidly building its military power and influence in the Pacific to the point of becoming a threat to world shipping in the region and the balance of power in the world
* Growing its trade and economic advantage by relying on espionage or other unethical means of stealing US technology.
* Allied with the "axis of evil" including Iran, North Korea, and supportive of Russia's war crimes in Ukraine.

All of these unanimously held concerns - also held by many foreign affairs experts who have spent many years in China - are carried out under the direction of "the Party"; to preserve and enhance the power of the Party - as unified as an ant colony.

Regarding being unaware of “freedoms being missed” in China, it should be obvious that people who for centuries have been immersed in a culture of "group work" and "group think" will obviously "have no idea what freedom [they are] missing."  The occasional visitor or foreign national, likewise, will be made unaware of missed freedoms to help assure the aura of freedom.

The point of the "ant" comparison was not to disparage a people (ants are spoken of quite highly in the Bible) but to highlight the vast distinction between the culture and forms of government of China versus West.

Note the use of the word "racist", by the commenter,  above. This is used in exactly the same manner as the left in the US brandishes the words “racist”, “bigot” or “-phobe” of every sort against anyone who disagrees with their point of view.  Why can’t we discuss differences between cultures and forms of governance without name calling?

Other comparisons might be simpler and less offensive to those who don't appreciate ants:

• China: Top down; US: Varies between "bottom up" and "consensus."
• China: Much more highly controlled and regimented; the US: Much less so.
• China: Appearance of greater unity (real or "managed"?); US: Appearance of disagreement and great differences (much less "managed" characteristics of a democratic Republic allowing free expression well publicized and out in the open. Chinese cheer leaders consider this a liability.)
• China: Intolerant of any religion or ideology that the Party believes may be a threat. US: Tolerant of dissent to a fault – with the recent exception of collusion between big tech and our government to silence conservative discourse or legitimate medical opinion.
  

One current example of China's outsized authoritarian predisposition is their methods of suppressing COVID. The slightest outbreak leads to locked down apartment buildings and whole cities. I could imagine an ant colony doing something similar to a wayward ant or two.

There are many instances my friend will point to where the productivity of the Chinese system is superior. And he is correct. China has demonstrated the organizational skills that enable it to excel at productivity - just like the ant that carries many times its weight in its genetically-infused tasks. That is a compliment/asset of China but is apparently an insult to China fans.

That productivity is the point of my ant analogy: The culture of a nation, like the genetics of an ant, can be a unifying force for producing great things in great quantity while remaining oblivious to the freedoms being missed.

Ant colonies compared to China’s Government and Culture

I propose that ant colonies operate more like communism than a monarchy. And that China’s society works more like an ant colony than a monarchy.

Others disagree.

Alexander Finnegan, a self-described J.D. Law and Marxist dude, believes that if ants were people, they would NOT be communists, but would instead be monarchists.  That’s why the queen is called “the Queen.”

But digging down further into WHY she is a queen while all others appear to be subservient to the queen is the challenge.

WHY is she the queen?  WHY are all others subservient?

In the case of the ant, the reason for the way ants govern is based on millions of years of genetics.

In the case of China, the form of governance is based on thousands of years of culture.

“Genetics” is the macro view of behavior – a much longer time horizon.  “Culture”, by comparison is the micro view – a much shorter, though still long, time horizon.  But they both have the same effect on the form of governance from the perspective of the much shorter generational view of humans.

Genetics (ants) and culture (China) have similar influences on their respective forms of governance.  Both genetics and culture give the queen and the Party their importance and the workers their role in life – serve the queen/Party. 

But are they serving the queen or are they serving the colony? Are they serving Xi or are they serving the Party?  What happens if the queen dies?  The colony ends with the death of the last few worker ants because no new ants are being produced by the queen.

But…

While the colony ends, that is not the end of ants.  If China’s Xi died, that is not the end of China or the Party.  The only thing that happens is that there are no more Xi followers (maybe a few million worshippers for a time).  Another leader arrives on the scene and the Chinese culture continues – just as other ant colonies continue. 

Compare a Chinese leader to an ant colony queen. The queen is essential to the “colony”  but not essential to ants.  Xi is essential to Xi followers, but not essential to the Chinese Communist Party.  Ants go on.  The party goes on.  The driving force – the force that gives both the ant civilization and Chinese civilization their role in life – their innate, visceral (like an organisms sympathetic nervous system) – is either genetics (ants) or culture (China).

The result?  Both ant workers and China workers act as automatons, providing service to the colony (ants) or to the Party (China).  In each scenario, they both create great civilizations, but at the price of individual autonomy, aka personal freedoms. 

They both reflect the near perfection in working together as a unified force to create marvelous works, maybe even better and more efficiently than individual groups with more independent agendas can do.

Many folks today, like the good commie noted at the beginning, offer up the ant and China as the governance goal human society should aspire to.  They believe it is the preferred direction of human evolution.

The rest of us believe that life is much richer and fulfilling with individual interests, skills, and aspirations tugging and pushing one another to achieve common goals.

What do you wanna bet…

What do you want to bet that…

• The leftist politicians, media and judges will have more pity for the assaulting black shoplifter than for the family of the deceased grandpa.  Progressives (should be called “regressives”) believe that blacks are still oppressed by whitey, they deserve a break, should not be subject to the same laws that were established by “white racists”, and should be excused from their crimes.
• In spite of Home Depot’s condolences to the deceased’s family, they will minimize any payout because the employee did not follow employee shoplifter protocol of letting shoplifters do their thing.

NORTH CAROLINA

Published December 4, 2022 8:10pm EST

North Carolina Home Depot worker, 83, dies weeks after being shoved during theft; police searching for suspect

The elderly Home Depot worker approached the suspect as he was allegedly stealing three pressure washers

By Paul Best | Fox News

Video

An elderly Home Depot employee died on Thursday from injuries he sustained in October when a theft suspect shoved him while allegedly stealing three pressure washers.

The suspect was leaving the store’s garden area on the morning of Oct. 18 with a shopping cart full of stolen goods when the employee approached him.

Surveillance video released by the Hillsborough Police Department appears to show the suspect shoving the elderly employee to the ground and hurrying out of the store.

The victim died on Dec. 1 due to complications from injuries he sustained during the incident. A medical examiner ruled that his death was a homicide.

The suspect was allegedly stealing three pressure washers when he shoved the elderly worker while leaving the store.  (Hillsborough Police Department)

The Hillsborough Police Department is now searching for the suspect, described as a Black male about 6 feet tall who fled in a white Hyundai Sonata. A temporary North Carolina tag on the vehicle was obscured.

MISSING SOUTH CAROLINA WOMAN'S FAMILY MAKES RENEWED CALL FOR ANSWERS TWO YEARS LATER

Gary Rasor, the employee, celebrated his 83rd birthday while hospitalized for his injuries.

"We are heartbroken by the loss of our associate Gary. He was part of our team for more than 9 years. He was an amazing friend, husband, father and grandfather, always willing to help anyone," a spokesperson for Home Depot told Fox News Digital in a statement.

"Right now, our top concern is supporting his family and our associates during this difficult time."

The elderly worker approached the alleged shoplifted and the suspect shoved him to the ground.  (Hillsborough Police Department)

The victim celebrated his 83rd birthday just weeks before dying from complications with injuries he sustained in the incident.  (Hillsborough Police Department)

His wife previously told WNCN that her husband recognized the suspect.

"He knows the guy is a thief. He’s been there, he’s seen him in the store before," she told the local news outlet. "And what he told me was that sometimes the guy will buy one or two items so he has a receipt, and then he’ll add more stuff to his cart and flash the receipt."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Anyone with information about the suspect can email tips to andrew.jones@hillsboroughnc.gov or call at 919-296-9562.

Tulsa King: How corruption infiltrates and takes over a community

I had high hopes for the Tulsa King tv series with an interesting plot line. It stars Sylvester Stallone a 76 year old New York mobster banished to flyover country in Oklahoma to start a new “enterprise” after a 25 year stint in jail.

I hoped it would focus on comedic struggles of a mobster overwhelmed by the mid-western sensibilities of smallish town America.

But I was wrong.  Instead, it is a graphic lesson of how evil and corruption spreads its tentacles into relatively virgin territory.

Stallone, the ex-prison mobster is banished to Tulsa to do what mobsters need to do to enrich the Don back home in New York.

His first instinct is to seek out the morally marginal business operators, the ones who, due to their tiny moral rudder, will be easy to influence.  He likely considers the tattoo parlors, check cashing stores, and vape shops.  He lands inside a “medical marijuana” business where he flips the staff through violence, attitude, and front money in doing his bidding.

Along the way he finds a clean cut young black dude from a morally upright family to be his chauffer – of course enticing him with an outsized salary paid up front.

By the forth episode, the young man’s dad is also lured into the mobsters corruption to see what his son is up to. By this point the mobster has at least a dozen formerly clean, if marginal, citizens as part of his entourage.

The series has its humorous bits and glimmers of a compassionate attitude from Stallone.  But these tidbits are overwhelmed by the gangster’s smug arrogance, overbearing demeanor, and violence he encourages and dishes out.

The formula:  A famous, popular star, a quirky, sometimes winsome personality, an engaging plot line – and the result is as insidious as the plot the show portrays.

This show is just one of dozens of examples of how not just tv, movies, and “entertainment” gradually corrupt its audience, but how these behaviors, inherited since the stone age, infiltrate and destroy communities and nations.  Human nature on full display.

The very same gradual corruption of our culture by the LGBTQ+++ 3%, enabled by the emotion-driven left, has preempted sexual morality over the past 50 years.

I hoped for the opposite for this show, but was wrong. Silly me.

The vast difference between Patriotism and Fascism

The left, comprised of socialists, communists, and the woke know-nothing-do-gooders, often refer to patriots as “fascist”.

Several reasons can be attributed to their corrupt interpretation:

1. Ignorance
2. Hostility
3. Hatred
4. Purposeful deception to promote their  leftist, big government, globalist, open borders agenda.

So, what are the differences between “patriotism” and “fascism”?

Fascism defined by Merriam-Webster:

a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition

Patriotism defined by Merriam-Webster:

love for or devotion to one's country

Patriots, also identified as “conservatives”, have a love of country in the form it was first conceived and intended: For the purpose of protecting the rights of the individual, being blind to race, and having minimal, decentralized government.  Note that these are all OPPOSITE of the terms defining Fascism.

If anything, the LEFT is promoting Fascism by promoting racial distinctions through public policy like affirmative action, enforcing government power and authority over the individual, and funding an autocratic government structure that suppresses and removes the rights of the opposition.

The left disingenuously misrepresents “devotion to one’s country” as placing the interests of the country ahead of the individual when in fact THEY are the ones doing just that.

The left ignores the founding principles of our nation, that “all men are created equal”, not that government shall force them all to become equal. The left promotes and autocratic federal government headed by a dictatorial executive branch that uses the Department of Justice as their personal fascist gestapo against their opposition.  The left promotes cancelling the rights and reputation of individuals through their alliance with complicit media and large corporations.

So, tell me.  Which group has more Fascist tendencies?

Tough islanders and coastal dwellers…

It’s devastating to lose your home (or second home) and even worse to have loss of life due to a hurricane.  Ian was one of the worst.

But to blame others for their own lack of common sense is just arrogant and stupid.

There are two main categories of islanders and coastal dwellers on Florida’s southwest coast:

• Second home snow birds, usually somewhat wealthy.
• Natives who consider themselves tough guys who know best and no government agency is going to tell them what they should do.

In both cases they live there by choice. In both cases, they either pay through the nose for homeowners insurance or are uninsured. Huge insurance costs should be a dead giveaway about the dangers of living at these locations.

There is no excuse for their remaining in their high risk area when there is a growing hurricane aimed toward their general vicinity.  For two or three days prior to landfall the National Hurricane Center  (NHC) warned that the storm would likely rapidly intensify.  For two or three days prior to landfall the NHC showed landfall targets varying between the Florida panhandle and south of Tampa.

So what do many “tough” coastal dwellers and islanders do?  They not only remain in place, but then they complain that they were not warned.  They blame “the government” for not doing the thinking that they should be doing.

You can’t be stupid and be a coastal dweller or islander.  The two don’t mix well.

But such has become the mindset of too many Americans.  Rely on government instead of ourselves, our own common sense, to tell us exactly what to do.  And if we fail to do our own thinking, the government is always a handy scapegoat. 

Maybe we ought to hand over another several billion to one or more governmental agencies to solve this “human-caused” climate change thing that some idiots – like FJB - say caused the hurricane.  That will make some tough folks and snow birds feel better.