All posts by Bob Wescott

Health Care

WHERE’S THE CARE?

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The grand error that has been undermining health care for about 50 years is grandiosity. It is federal politicians’ belief in their greater-than-average wisdom and resulting ability to guide every individual’s life. Health care provides not 2 or 5 or 50 issues about which politicians can buy votes, but hundreds! Oh, the sweet possibilities.

Federalizing healthcare under Medicare was a stroke of genius: give needed stuff to a demographic that votes. At first, it was “free,” another key element for acceptance of big government. Medicare was originally paid for through Social Security… what a slick idea.

There will always be elderly citizens who managed to grow old without preparing for their old age. Today an observation that those people should have prepared is a radical, hateful statement; obviously it is the government’s job to take over responsibility for individuals once they reach a magic age. Everybody knows that.

Health care has not become “better” as a result of Medicare, but it has become more widespread. “Well,” say most, “that’s certainly ‘better,’ isn’t it?” Well, for some, certainly.

Medicare began the process of creating HMO’s and PPO’s and mediocritizing (if that’s a word) medicine. It’s a process that separates individuals from the doctor-patient relationship, one that will ultimately separate individuals AND DOCTORS from personal responsibility. Only government is left to fill that “responsibility vacuum.” The statists’ dream realized.

Maybe such matters of state and culture are too intellectual. All that matters is that people get health care when needed. Unfortunately, that has not been the greatest effect of federal intrusion in our personal lives. The greatest effect is cost, followed by government growth, followed by fraud, followed by new, tangential costs. All in all, it’s unaffordable and governmentally wondrous.
Amidst the federalization is incredible confusion and obfuscation. Very few patients know what to do or who to do it with for the best results. Almost none has much choice of who or where to go unless he or she pays high premiums to augment or supersede Medicare. For non-Medicare-age workers, everyone must now pay for Medicare in addition to the 13+% of payroll they pay for Social Security. And we are 20 Trillion in debt, placing everyone’s health care at risk, along with our ability to defend the nation.

Obamacare tried to involve the federal government in every health-care decision. Amazingly, costs went up faster, options declined to only 1 in many states, and the government got bigger faster than ever before. Do we discern a pattern, here? Yes! The greatest advantage and success is for government! Not patients, not costs, and not care.

So we really ought to divest ourselves of the “government solution.” There are many ways to provide care, to sell it and buy it, to negotiate the cost of it and to compete for a share of the business. Statists distrust nearly all of them, except those most infused with federal cost-saving finesse. Since we’ve allowed statists to make the rules we are left to hope ever more diligently that the doctor we saw truly cares what happens to us – if it was a doctor.

Statists seem to distrust insurance companies, also, yet love them beneath the sheets of propriety since they provide substantial bribery for re-election and other purposes. Let’s hope that the double-dealing done with the insurance companies and the reverse bribes Obama finagled with the people’s money, is brought to light so that we may never attempt such thievery again. In any case, the attention called “health care” is spent on the wrong target: “coverage.”

It ought to be spent on HEALTH.

We need better ways to inform patients on how and what to buy that will improve their health, repair their injuries and treat their diseases. That’s health care. It’s not sex-obfuscation operations or breast enhancement. Such are not the public’s concern. What is of widespread concern is the 40% of “health-care” costs that go to administration. Anything proposed as a “solution” that increases administrative overhead must be resisted with every fiber of our citizenship.

Culture

CODIFYING TOLERANCE

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The latest issue of the National Geographic has a trans-sexual boy, a de facto girl, on the cover. The balance of the issue explores multiple examples of “trans” children, primarily, and how girls grow up and are often mis-treated (by our standards) around the world. Throughout are stories of the very rare instances of genetic mis-firings that yield unusual development of reproductive organs in humans, animals and insects. A survey is quoted that says “milennials” (in the West and U. S.) see “gender” as a spectrum rather than just male or female. Hmmph.

So there is no misunderstanding, this old stump is decidedly uncomfortable with the publicity afforded sexual incongruity. I don’t like the new rush to normalize exotic behaviors, which has proceeded with such politicized demonization of those not embracing it, as to make declarations of normalcy statements of gross intolerance and even of hate.

We are on the wrong track, it seems to me, to be denigrating and attacking very tolerant Judeo-Christian moral guidance (and institutions) and the essentially Judeo-Christian mores of Western societies and of the United States in particular, while affording equal, if not superior credence to the abject tolerance of non-believers and refuse-to-believe-ers. One group, attempting to adhere to socially-strengthening traditions while having compassion and tolerance for new conditions, desires and loves, is trying to maintain ideals about family, sexuality and moral purity. The other, mostly young, instantly connected and instantly knowledgeable (regardless of reality) is rushing toward license and the intentional destruction of all moral strictures. “It is their right,” some trumpet.

For purposes of the most tawdry and SHORT-LIVED political expediency, sexual oddities have received legal status that not only offends faithful Jews and Christians, but which force “straight” citizens (over 95% of us) to change our habits, practices and even beliefs, if we are to not be labeled “haters” for expressing our own condition! Within this twist of social norms are corrosive, acidic re-definitions of words, and IN-tolerance of normality.
Every Christian expression must be stricken from the public arena, for example. Christian beliefs that are the foundation of law and social norming, may no longer be uttered, EVEN WITHIN CHURCHES in some views, as they are deemed offensive to a tiny, tiny fraction of society who, not needing to have actually heard the scripture that they claim would have offended them, need only to hear that it was heard by others. Instant media sweeps across their non-judging (non-thinking) consciences and yields the “offense” they seem to seek and celebrate.

Perhaps the worst example of the dangers of codifying tolerance is the experience of Aaron and Melissa Klein whose Gresham, Oregon bakery was put out of business by a lesbian couple whose feelings were hurt when the Kleins refused to apply their artistry to a custom wedding cake for the upcoming nuptials of the same-sex couple. They did not refuse to bake a cake, nor to sell them one. On religious grounds they refused to decorate a cake that would assist in glorifying a wedding that contravened their faith.

Immediately the lesbian couple garnered widespread support against the “discrimination” and supposed hatred exhibited by the Kleins toward same-sex weddings and therefore anyone who favored or accepted such ceremonies. Next, they filed a complaint with the State of Oregon , which resulted in a fine of $135,000, payable to the “offended” couple, which was ultimately paid. The Kleins’ business was shuttered very quickly as hatred toward THEM yielded threats, picketing, slanders and public intimidation.

The offenses toward the Kleins, engendered by the “flash-hatred” of social media in favor of all things homosexual, were not defended against by any state laws. Indeed, the state took the side of two people whose feelings were ostensibly hurt, helping them in their campaign of hatred and destruction so as to put the Kleins out of business, and to punish them for refusing to employ their artistic abilities for the benefit of an event that their faith forbade.

In effect, this couple was told that they might live according to their (Christian) faith ONLY inside their home or their church, and that adherence to faith is not legal if one has a business. There are many examples of private citizens suffering severe economic punishment for merely expressing their faith with no related “illegal” actions!

We are in the realm of thought-policing. Free-thinkers (without moral anchor) like to compare everyone with whom they disagree to Hitler. No doubt the Kleins are among those so compared. But, it was Hitler who first imposed rules that faith may be expressed only in church. Delightful company, he.

Politics 2016

Electors, electors everywhere!

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There has never been an interregnum like the one we are experiencing now. Since Eisenhower beat Stevenson the first time – which is as far as my memory can recall concerning presidential events – winners and losers have been gracious. Losers, in particular, have shown their class by offering support to the winner and, if a retiring president, assistance from his own presidential experience. People then put the election behind them and wished success to the new president.

Not in 2016. This retiring president, Barack Obama, has promised only criticism and his losing party has contorted itself trying to de-legitimize the winner, Donald Trump. What is so different this year?

Eight years ago, to begin with, we elected one of the least honest men in our history. Mr. Obama was allied with some strange people, had an obscure but largely Communist past, and religious philosophies that leaned toward Islam despite his claim to have been a Christian while attending Reverend Wright’s black theology, anti-white, “America-is-usually-wrong “church. Further, Obama populated his advisory corps and top cabinet positions – especially in intelligence and Justice – with avowed communists, anti-white and anti-Christian leaders. Strange, and unique.

Mr. Obama’s domestic policies did not “tend” toward liberalism, they drove full-steam beyond liberalism toward outright statism, including many elements of the Communist Manifesto. Federalized, socialized medicine is the most notable of these, but his regulatory regime has changed the government-private relationship in thousands of ways. The Justice department has been politicized and tilted against whites extraordinarily and unprecedentedly. This changed the local and state-federal relationships in policing and law-enforcement in ways that have literally cost lives and property.

Foreign policies, including immigration policy, have changed America’s relationship with almost every nation, always to the diminishment of the United States and to the advantage of our enemies-competitors. Immigration has flooded the nation with illegal entrants who are largely not interested in “becoming” Americans, but in “changing” America, itself. Among these are tens of thousands of fundamentalist Muslim “refugees” who form enclaves – racial, tribal and religious-cultural. The premise of their differences is inherently antithetical to the U. S. Constitution and to state and local jurisprudence. It is odd to work so hard to bring non-assimilators to one’s country – stupid, unless it fulfills a purpose.

And that is the last puzzle-piece that is Barack Hussein Obama: transforming America into a non-white, non-dominant nation, weakening if not destroying capitalism and private property, and ultimately punishing white America for colonialism, slavery, success and Jim Crow repression. Nothing we’ve done to correct our errors counts. The mistakes we’ve made are irredeemable… mainly because we have resources that Obama believes must be paid in reparations. Most of what Obama attempted and achieved is uniquely threatening to the national psyche. That is the main difference in the 2016 elections.

Mrs. Clinton is, essentially, a footnote in the reaction to, and defeat of, what Barack Obama attempted. She never was a good candidate, nor an honest one. Two sublimely dishonest liberal-socialist presidents in a row are too much for Americans to acquiesce to. Donald Trump – or his equivalent – was bound to appear. He was needed, and all those who were not his equivalent fell by the wayside.

The damaging and somewhat dangerous kerfluffle over turning presidential electors into turncoats, promulgated by 2016’s losers who can’t believe they have lost their greatest opportunity in a hundred years to finally install socialism in America, has gained strength and faux legitimacy with the connivance of socialist media companies and foreign influencers like George Soros. Their actions are irrational, but liberalism is a mental disorder, after all. Their efforts rely on denying the Constitution by confusing the polity.

Electing a president is not – repeat NOT – a “national” election: it is 50 STATE elections held on the same day. This is a key factor in protecting and ensuring state’s rights in our “federal” system. There are a number of such protections built into the constitution.

Best known is the structure of the Senate. Every state, regardless of population, has equal representation: 2 senators each. Originally, Senators were chosen, selected or elected by the legislatures of the several states. Their job was to represent the STATES and not the body politic – that job was reserved for the House of Representatives. Ours is a republic and not a democracy, per se. Our state representatives, chosen through democratic processes, are supposed to employ their wisdom and intelligence – presumably the qualities that caused their own election – to choose the two senators who would best represent their respective states.

Unfortunately, the need for statesmanship in senators has been overridden by partisanship, something the Founders warned against repeatedly. Corruption and anti-republicanism finally enabled progressives to promote the 17th Amendment making direct popular election of Senators part of the Constitution. Many states had made their legislative selection processes subject to a popular “primary” election. Selection problems had been leaving some states without Senate representation for long periods, so the 17th resolved that. But the change to popular election fulfilled a progressive dream of controlling the Senate through partisanship, weakening the federalism embodied in the constitution.

One need look only to the “work” of Harry Reid, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren and other senate boobs to see that direct election is not the best solution. The rights and powers of states have suffered as a result.

In any event, holding 50 elections simultaneously in no way causes California’s big-majority election of the Clinton California electors, to make a particle of difference in the narrower majority election of Trump Michigan electors, or Pennsylvania electors or those of any other state. Adding up totals from 50 SEPARATE elections is a complete red herring: meaningless and meant to confuse. News organizations should stop doing that.

They might as well add up the votes in 435 House elections and worry about who got the larger total in those 435 separate elections: just as meaningless. Presidential electors are running in STATE elections – 50 of them. Adding up their totals is simple-minded, obfuscatory, Progressive bullshit.

Governance

CABINETS AND BUREAUS

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President Barack Obama holds a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Jan. 31, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
It’s not easy… changing the course of the ship of state, that is. Building a Great Pyramid, that’s easy. Transitioning from communism to capitalism – not so much. Worse, every move a newly elected president must make is nit-picked, criticized, undermined, called fascist and/or racist by the dominant media.

The real threat of the incoming Trump administration is that the new president may keep even some of his campaign promises. How dare he?

Those of us who were willing to overlook Trump’s several lacks of finesse and glibness, thought we could discern his visceral messages that mattered, “MTM’s.” One MTM is stopping illegal immigration. Viscerally, Americans recognize that inviting millions of very different people into our midst – people with different cultures, beliefs and languages who neither wish to adopt our culture and language nor are forced to for personal or economic survival, MAKES NO SENSE. What folly such a policy would be. What a treason it would represent.

We are transitioning from an administration whose intention it was to change, literally, the color of America. Mr. Obama is governed by a number of hatreds, among which are hatred of colonialism, hatred of white “supremacy” and hatred of capitalism. One might also discern a hatred of the Constitution in there, somewhere. What an odd person for Americans to elect.

Mr. Trump has been sounding like he may not be as concerned about the illegal entrants already here as are we who voted for his promised change. Let’s monitor what happens to the border control he also promised, very carefully. No matter how “big” we think we are in the U. S., having escaped full-scale attacks or invasion – so far – our culture is under assault, largely from confused domestic enemies who find it satisfying to hate America’s imperfections while celebrating the imperfections of others. It’s perverse. For too long we have relinquished power, including power over education, to those who hate the premises of America. Importing people of vastly different ethics – particularly Muslims – whose belief structures are antithetical to our constitution, is pretty stupid policy.

Another big MTM is about re-energizing the American manufacturing and jobs engine. Can a president actually do this? Maybe. Like most of Washington – a construct of creative bullshit – (sorry, sort-of) “managing” the economy is mostly wishes and hope. Tax cuts can surely help as lower taxes will, for a while, encourage the PRIVATE economy to make good domestic decisions and investments. Production, productivity and employment should improve. But Trump’s choices for Treasury and Chairman of The Council of Economic Advisors (White House) are from Goldman Sachs, a mendacious Wall Street behemoth, and this exposes a serious flaw in Trump’s economic courage.

Between the Federal Reserve (neither federal nor a reserve) and the Wall Street financial manipulators like Goldman Sachs, the United States has been led into astronomical debt. Trump, and all of us, need to recognize that just as every dollar of taxes is a loss of citizens’ freedom, every dollar of federal debt is a loss of national sovereignty… and loss of flexibility to manage our own domestic, foreign and military affairs. What’s a president – or a people – to do when they are stuck in a box of perpetual servility to banks?

One of the changes, perhaps the most significant of changes, that Americans tried to bring about in November, 2016, is the upside-down relationship between our supposedly sovereign nation and these blood-sucking banks. For shame. Trump has already proven to be deaf to our outcry and he’s not even in office yet. Usually newly elected presidents don’t start giving us the finger until around April first. So, many people’s concerns about Trump’s impact on – or proximity to – conservatism have some validity. We’ll see.

Finally, naming Rex Tillerson to head the State Department. Feelings are mixed, obviously, but there are positives. On the face of it there is an element of putting oligarchs in public charge of “the world.” Trump’s a business mogul and must believe that only business moguls are smart enough to manage big systems like the U. S. government. For everyone who has gained the impression that businessmen are inherently dishonest – as popular media consistently portray – giving one political power is the worst possible outcome. “They’re all crooks!”

Even worse, Tillerson is in the OIL business, helping to scourge the earth while stealing money from everyone. Woe is us. Some perspective is required.

Exxon-Mobil is certainly huge, deals in global commodities and must negotiate with virtually every country in order to maintain stable supplies and stable markets. Well, it’s time Americans admit – or recognize – that most of what foreign policy comprises is maintaining and defending global commerce, free access to the seas and stable markets and prices. It is rarely a pretty business, but undeniably vital.

And, it’s not simply oil. Oil is the current (for a hundred years) leading commodity against which almost every other commodity (corn, wheat, soybeans, beef, pork, gold, uranium and… on and on) is valued. The U. S. dollar is how oil is valued and oil is how the dollar is propped up in the face of unbelievable debt. There may be more sense behind having this particular mogul in charge at State than first appears. Exxon-Mobil is pretty-well run, after all.

Economics, Race

ARE WE DONE HERE?

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riot-3If you are rescuing a family, maybe several families from, say, a flood, and to do so you are wading through the flood waters, pulling the boat carrying those you are rescuing (you also brought warm food, hot chocolate and dry clothes for everyone), should the people in the boat be whipping you to get the rescue done more quickly?

I can hear sensible people saying “No, how could they?” But, when the process is not taking place in a boat but in our income-redistributing welfare morass, then the rescued can vote their rescuers into greater hustle. Suggesting that they should not be voting is seen as extreme cruelty. Hmmnnh.

Ostensibly smart professors are attempting to “teach” student snowflakes about “white privilege.” Apparently, in their history-debasing opinions, being white means being guilty of… well, everything. Surely there cannot be any differences in productivity, inventiveness or innovation between peoples, groups, races, tribes or religions – those differences that we white people are supposed to celebrate… those differences? When seen in a macro view, “white privilege” is the politically (corrupt) correct way to undermine Judeo-Christian heritage, ethics, beliefs and the enlightened philosophies that underpin the United States.

Law originated among small populations based on self-interest of protecting oneself and one’s family. That meant protecting food sources, safe shelter, wives and children. Very soon it became clear that groups (tribes) of families were a source of safety and better food security. Agreements were made as to what land “belonged” to one group and where the boundaries were. The “laws” between groups or tribes were laws only because of the ability to enforce them.

Within groups natural differences manifested. Some worked harder or smarter than others. Some cheated or stole; some sacrificed to help others; some were better boundary protectors; some were better hunters; some, better gatherers. Economics developed not by theory, but practicality.

“Treaties” were negotiated with other tribes, bound in fact by military power. Wars were prosecuted over various encroachments including of land, of resources and even of women. Slavery of the defeated generally resulted. Still, there was progress, spurred by conflict and deprivation… and shared beliefs, ethics and morals. Groups comprised of members who shared concepts of “right” and “wrong” were stronger. Inevitably, rebellion against those concepts resulted in punishment, death or banishment.

With closer-knit communities of central buildings and surrounding farm or grazing lands, ever more rules of behavior were required and codified. Outside of each “city,” however, military strength made the “laws.” Slavery was common, especially of subjugated peoples, and of them, especially of those who had resisted subjugation the most or who had attacked the victors. Competing religions accentuated conflict and subjugation.

Still, economics spurred trade over greater and greater distances – economics spurred by envy and deprivation. Some tribes or, whole kingdoms, were better at producing certain goods. They may have had the good fortune of possessing lands with suitable ores, or which grew coveted spices or which had good salt. Trade and economics had their own rules and ethics. Soon there were contracts.

Two areas of Earth saw great invention and innovation: China, basically, and Europe from south to north. One, the far East, remained insular and severely hierarchical; the other, the “West,” based in small, competing nations, fought through serfdom and developed democracy, economic freedom and a remarkable urge to explore and colonize. From competition came freedom and the great sciences and mental explorations.

It is all rooted in the sweep of Judeo-Christian philosophy – the heritage the “West” is squandering, undermining and cheapening in a headlong rush to out-think God. Sadly, our federal government – and many states’ governments – have devised new “rights” and sanctions that reach directly to from-the-pulpit homilies and even scriptural readings. This in the one nation founded upon religious freedom.

America was founded by, in effect, Hebrews! That is, as the tribes of Israel and Judah were scattered by the Egyptians, Assyrians and Babylonians, ultimately migrating into Europe and forming the royal houses of virtually every nation there, out of those nations came very strong people who sacrificed everything to get to the “New Jerusalem.” We are fools to deny the history of, well… white, Judeo-Christian peoples.

Is our success due to the “choosing” of the Israelites? Let’s leave that to religious scholars and recognize what may be proven: that Judeo-Christian mores include intellectual strength and education, strong moral strictures… and sacrifice – for family, for others, for the future. This is not in defense of churches, but of history. The economics derived from that belief-structure produced the greatest personal freedoms, scientific advancement and standards of living. Now we are running away from it, scorching the Earth as we go.

Is the new hatred of whites, Jews and Christians most particularly, rational? We are not perfect and do not claim to be. Neither are those who would destroy us. Will our haters willingly destroy this nation in order to make whites pay a price for imperfection?

Evidently.

Politics 2016

SNOWFLAKES IN NOVEMBER

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caitlyn-v-baby-photographyBelief can be a most powerful weapon, spurring action, hatred or love. Election 2016 is a frightening example of popular belief manipulation and those who fomented it deserve our condemnation. Don’t let “fomented” be a comfort – it’s still going on.
The “press” in the form of television, is hardly the equivalent of the printed newspaper / newsmagazine “press.” Since 1960, really, television has been the primary organ of information for voters – at least until 2008. And, it is still a major one. Several factors prevent it from being an honest one.
First, it divides its attention between actual news and information, and entertainment. In a newspaper the Sports section and the Comics pages are clearly defined and separate – handled separately from “News.” TV, not so much.
While a newspaper has time to make decisions about what is most valuable to report, biases notwithstanding, television news strives to be “up to the minute” in its transmittal of events. A dozen Internet services have worsened this. The presence of live-action video must be canned, edited and packaged for transmission in a few hours, or, when events are “breaking news,” fitted in unfiltered to an otherwise choreographed “segment.” What is actually displayed may or may not be the best representation of “truth” about an event, a belief-group, a protest or significant civic function, or about a crime.
Having taken the time to read a paper, the recipient of the views and news it contains can process them and develop his or her own beliefs about what was read. Everything on television, on the other hand, is “read” for the watcher/listener, and speculated upon or interpreted and delivered to multiple senses simultaneously. This implants the ideas of the presenter quite effectively. If no alternative sourcing is done by the recipient – if no newspaper is read later, for example, the beliefs and biases of the TV presentation are left to form beliefs.
One can see the effects of belief manipulation in topics like race, climate change, “immigration” and, most currently, Trump’s campaign and election. “#BlackLivesMatter” rides this dragon with abandon. We can also see the effects of overreach when media giants fail to be convincing.
A few months ago a new member – a young Hispanic woman – of a service club I am proud to be part of, heard us talking about corrupt practices connected to the Clinton Foundation. She questioned what we were saying. I assured her that there was plenty wrong with how they acquired money through the influence of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.
She was wide-eyed in shock! She’d never heard of any of this. One can trace the path of her disbelief: she obtained her news from an outlet that wanted her to know nothing about Mrs. Clinton’s negatives – an outlet that never reported on Clinton Foundation practices.
This recognized, carefully applied ability to sway large swaths of “low-information” voters was on bright display during our recent 18-month election marathon. Unfiltered hatred of Donald Trump, and unfiltered calumny, has millions now believing that he is barely a change of clothes away from gathering his armies of hateful racists on the Washington Mall and leading them with a “Seig Heil!” salute!
No wonder our college-age snowflakes – and many of their “teachers” – need safe spaces in which to worry about… nothing, actually.
How much brighter the future would be if both these groups spent more energy becoming smart, rather than angry.

Race

Black Lives DO Matter

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blmblogPrudence and I were at our Book Club the other night – it was at one of the member’s homes in a room full of smart people. We felt a little out of place. Good food, though.

Our book this time was titled “From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation” and it’s not an easy read. The professor who advocated for us to read this particular book was unable to make the meeting, so 8 white guys had a discussion. The topic is definitely worth the work.

Author, Keeanga Yamahtta Taylor has done America a service, although its presentation is flawed by numerous non-factual declarations that are merely – and purposely – bumper-sticker- inflammatory. But one can get past them and still learn from the mountain of evidence she has laid before us.

Ladies and gentlemen of the polity, we do have a problem.

However, the book is a little one-sided. Problems faced by, let’s say, unsuccessful blacks, are not being solved in the “system” that America embodies, in Taylor’s (and #BlackLivesMatter’s) view, and that argument is valid. To them, the fact of some excessive force against black suspects and some unjustified killings of blacks by police, are reasons to indict ALL police and, by conflation, ALL of white Americans and, to seal the accusations, ALL of capitalism. To all of that our question is: What is the end-game?

Taylor and #BLM call repeatedly for the end of capitalism. This is somewhat understandable when considered from the standpoint of large numbers of blacks for whom “capitalism” doesn’t seem to work, and worse, is defended by a police-state of brutal, murderous police forces. Well. Given that George Soros and other America-haters provide funding to #BlackLivesMatter chapters, socialism is made credible for dismayed blacks. But, the “soul” of #BLM is dichotomous.

On one hand, and that most publicized, #BLM is fighting to change policing AND to obtain reparations for slavery, Jim Crow and for “institutional” racism of which all whites are (must be) guilty. On the other hand, they seem to be advocating for the dissolution of white America and replacing it with a socialist democracy that will share its wealth with downtrodden blacks. This aspect is not as publicized, as the acquiescence of guilt-ridden whites is essential to #BLM’s political success. Amorphous guilt is working; fear of total loss will not.

Prudence and I are not ready to destroy what does work and which can be made to work much, much better. Unfortunately, and largely thanks to corrupt politics, American capitalism is twisted and encumbered by unbelievable debt, tax games and cronyism, and outright government-sponsored monopolies. The past 8 years of the first “black” president, Mr. Obama, has brought the flaws of politicized capitalism into stark relief. (He is not blessed with a large fraction of “black” genes; his black African roots comprise about 1/8th of his African ancestry, while Arab ancestry fulfills the balance of that “half” of him. His mother was white, of course, denying him the percentage of “blackness” needed to claim African-American as his “race.” Indeed, his Arab ancestors may have been selling blacks into slavery.) While Wall Street revels in a Federal-Reserve-fomented bonanza, black America has slipped even further behind in terms of employment, income, apparent opportunity, and familial net worths. Concentrated neighborhoods of poor blacks, mostly a burden of large cities, but not exclusively so, became, again, tinderboxes of hopeless dissatisfaction and outright hatred of “white privilege,” which most evidently exists given the (near) total absence of “black privilege.”

Colleges and even grade schools have tried to inculcate the guilt-laden concept of “white privilege” in white students. Only if whites can be made to regret their apparent membership in a national bloc of proto-slave-owners, can the plight of blacks continue to be purveyed as the result of nationwide group suppression. Like all politics based on anti-capitalism… that is, on the left, these views deny the sovereignty, power and responsibility of individuals.

Most white individuals have nothing to do with making or keeping blacks poor, although if they (we) were more sensitive to the distant or unseen conditions in black ghettos, perhaps we would demand better government and governance. Several problems pervade American politics and its resulting economics.

First, politics has become organized theft. A majority of us have agreed to take part in and benefit from the thievery. Despite 19th century warnings, we figured out not only how to vote ourselves money from the public treasury, but how to vote ourselves “money” from the future. Our hunger for this “free” wealth has resulted in $20 Trillion of debt and a worldwide distrust of American economics. Americans themselves are happy to suspend disbelief so long as “benefits” or “entitlements” keep appearing in their bank accounts and on their “EBT” welfare cards.

As debt has grown, periodic increases in the “debt ceiling” have been voted by Congress primarily to buy votes from beneficiary groups, including poor blacks on various forms of welfare. Welfare, despite shifts in programs, called “cuts” has grown fairly steadily since the federalization of it in the 1960’s. Welfare doesn’t make blacks happy or grateful. For white politicians (maybe for all colors of politicians) welfare is the only tool they can wield to keep blacks contained and not too restive in their ghettos. It’s a system we have tolerated/imposed for 50 years, and it deserves some questioning, like, “Who benefits from the welfare-hopelessness cycle?”

The socially blind might say that blacks do. After all, look at all the money “we’ve” transferred to them from the public treasury. More cynical types might say that over time, only the politicians benefit. Keeping blacks somewhat nurtured and somewhat angry means that politicians can commiserate enough at election time to direct their votes toward themselves. Democrats do this in no small part by pointing out to blacks that it is those evil Republicans who have failed to take care of them; indeed, it is Republicans who prevent caring Democrats from enacting the programs that will transfer enough money and other support to finally make for “level playing fields.” What bastards they must be.

Next is drugs and crime. The U. S. is not really serious about cleaning society of drugs and, if one were cynical about this, too, he or she might observe that “drugs” and brown skin tend to concentrate in the same parts of cities. Despite our 50-year “war” on drugs, they are more available today than ever. So, the same question pertains: Who benefits from drug crime? And a corollary: Does the ongoing drug economy fulfill a social or political purpose?

Our response has been to “manage” the drug economy and build more prisons. One might be reminded of national treatment of “Injuns” and “redskins.” Their susceptibility to alcohol didn’t bother us, it fulfilled a prejudice. In a sad, sick way, the fact that blacks (and browns) are affected the most by drugs and related crimes, seems to fit a prejudice, too. Unaffected people see the self-destruction of blacks and their communities as a “natural” outgrowth of weaknesses in black character. Worse, so long as it keeps blacks busy and of limited danger to suburbanites, no ultimate solution to drugs is in the works.

Unfortunately or, perhaps, fortunately, drugs are killing suburban white kids in noticeable numbers, now. Perhaps a real war on drugs will be finally joined. If so, it still won’t be because we are deeply concerned about black lives. All lives matter.

So, despite their odd politics, #BlackLivesMatter has a valid point, but not a true target for its efforts. Rogue police officers and “prejudices” within police departments are certainly a problem, and a wildly public one, lately. Bad practices on the part of police do result in wrongful deaths – some practices/reactions far worse than others. Prejudice among police personnel at every level should be corrected, removed, discussed, stamped-out, brainwashed away and punished – all of those things, maybe more. But, prejudice doesn’t really matter so long as police actions are preserving of life and safety every time it is possible to be so. Actions may be modified by training.

Better training of police officers, however, will do virtually nothing to improve the lives of most blacks. Blacks in the welfare/hopelessness cycle must be taught to believe something different about their lives and possibilities. Neither the Federal government nor any other amoral entity can perform that function. Correcting the spirit of hopeless people is almost impossible. Not killing them accidentally is possible.

So, #BlackLivesMatter has selected a politically advantageous target in the relative handful of cases so destructively publicized as to foment riots and new levels of hatred by blacks and of fear by whites. They have not – and will not – take on the big target of destructive welfare policies, destructive drugs, destructive fatherlessness, destructive life choices and all the rest of it. Right now, they can’t; neither, politically, can, or will, anyone else.

At some point, if #BlackLivesMatter, and others who claim deep concern about the future of black lives, can come to a more honest understanding of politics and economics, perhaps a totally different approach to black society’s dysfunctions will manifest. It must be free of political profit, for one thing, and based on a moral, marriage-based code. All the social license and all the foolish names we concoct for it, cannot replace stable families with two parents. Prudence says that some adults have to step forward… adults who can lead the children the rest of the way to a drug-free, non-communist promised land.

Governance

Ten Days of Penitence

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comeyDonald Trump defeated his Republican primary rivals by breaking the Cardinal rule: don’t speak ill of another Republican. Primary voters responded enthusiastically because they had been saying many of those same “ill” things themselves since 2012. His strongest, most resonant point for those months was illegal immigration – something his opponents would not or could not address. He won the nomination “bigly.”
To its credit, the Republican Party apparatus, unlike defeated primary candidates, refused to try any shenanigans at the Convention and smoothed the nominating process in Cleveland and began the thankless task of uniting its fractious camps behind the nominee. Failing to read the American people as Trump evidently has, some of those camps are STILL so upset as to continue balancing on the pinhead of principle that prevents them from supporting Mr. Trump. To their loss.
Democrats, on the other hand, are the team that appeals to the basest of motives as they demand fealty from females if for no other reason. They believe that it is Hillary’s TURN at the cookie jar of the West Wing. Unlike Obama, whose purloined cookies are comprised of illegal immigrants in a gross attempt to change the color of the U. S. more quickly, and purposeful foreign policies that reduce WHITE America’s power and influence (plus some grotesque pro-Islam / anti-Christian actions he still pretends are not taking place), Mrs. Clinton has not and, perhaps, can not define policies much different than his in a cynical effort to garner votes from all those who swooned over “Hope and Change.”
None of it will matter much now, in the Ten Days of Penitence leading up to Election Day. Hillary’s decades of dishonesty have tripped-up her campaign at the turn entering the straight-away. If only Trump, himself, were purer, we could breathe easier, but the tentacles of lying are tightening around Mrs. Clinton, Huma Abedin and many of her key campaign aides. Trump supporters are thanking God for James Comey, who had been damned by those same 3 months ago. Clinton’s people are condemning him now who blessed him at that earlier time. Some are written directly into the Book of Life; some directly into Death; then there are the undecideds.
It is clear to all, one would expect, that should Hillary win in spite of investigations, that Comey will be in danger thereafter. Just as clearly, she wouldn’t be making any reforms in Justice, State, Treasury OR ANY OTHER DEPARTMENT in the directions of honesty, legality, Constitutionality or transparency. Her whole public presence is based on deception.
Those with eyes to see should recognize that a Trump victory will herald a substantial change in personnel and policies in virtually EVERY department – something surely needed if the Constitution is to survive.

Politics 2016

TRUMP – and other problems

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TR.CL“If only Trump would listen to advisors,” we all complained. Suddenly he is listening and we’re jumping down his throat because, needless to say, he’s clearly listening to the WRONG advisors. Even his trademark railing against illegal entrants (They shouldn’t be called immigrants. “Immigrant” implies that one has a place to go and reside when he gets to the end of his journey. Those who have stolen across the border have literally committed a form of theft by taking some of the nation’s space and protections to which they have no legal right. These are more properly called illegal entrants and those who demand to shape the discussion of the problems these entrants create, should be immediately corrected: they are not immigrants; they are illegal entrants.) is getting watered down. Yet it is the first thing that will preserve our republic: stopping illegal entry and “loose” immigration of every type.

So, they have entered and squatted where they have no right to be. Liberals wish to be thought of as empathetic to the less than ideal conditions in which these criminals live; sympathetic to the economic straits in which illegal entrants find themselves; and, willing to sacrifice the rights of others in order to make their lives more comfortable. How beautifully sacrificial and charitable they must be. Ask one and he or she will assure you of the accuracy of their high opinions of themselves.

To most Trump supporters the “fifth column” of pro-illegal entrant sympathizers and executors (politicians), are the worst enemy we face.

DONALD! THERE IS NO COMPROMISE ON YOUR ORIGINAL POINT!

In addition, it’s the economy, stupid. The U. S. economy is fragile, barely keeping up with its burdens, while the dopes in Washington and 50 state capitals keep devising and sharing ways to add to its burdens:
You must hire less-productive people
You must pay them $15 an hour regardless of productivity, trustworthiness, work habits, trainability
You will be responsible for a variety of ‘benefits’ as soon as you say ‘come to work’
You will respect every form of deviancy in personal habits, and you will make accommodations to enable said deviant to ‘work’
You may be fined for hiring an ‘illegal’ despite his or her presentation of a state driver’s license and various forms of false documentation, including stolen IDs and Social Security numbers
You will compete with foreign products that Washington has permitted into our markets, from countries without the non-discrimination, benefit responsibility, and environmental expenses that you must bear by law
You will disturb every employee by allowing sexually confused employees and customers to use restrooms without limitation by gender
You will pay taxes and payroll taxes, employee benefits, local property and real estate taxes, water and sewage fees on time or government(s) will shut you down

The U. S. economy, since the “Great Society,” has been unable to keep up with the spending addiction of the federal government’s politicians and bureaucrats. Slowly, inexorably, simple domestic problems suffered two political forces: federalization and elevation to “war” or “crisis” status. Programs with these statuses also have two inevitable qualities: constantly increasing cost and… permanence.

DONALD! WAKE UP! Normal, tax-paying, bill-paying citizens HATE these habits of Washington! Tell the nation that the way government does its (the peoples’) business is going to change in a Trump administration. Tell us that the effort to transform Washington will start with you and your new team. We don’t need to transform America by outnumbering its citizens and upsetting their culture, we need to UPSET WASHINGTON and its culture of theft and irresponsibility! How’s that?

The premiere engine for the defense and enrichment of our unique American culture is education. Our culture is unique. Americans should NOT consider it no better than all others, but that it is superior for many reasons – just read the Declaration, Constitution, Northwest Ordinance and other founding documents. People come here legally and illegally because of our culture. We are obliged to defend and strengthen it. Public education, increasingly tinged with anti-Americanism and far-left statism, has failed and is failing to do this vital job that we pay it so much to do.

DONALD! PEOPLE WANT A BETTER EDUCATIONAL RESULT! Federal money has not helped, except to raise education budgets and salaries. Let schools compete and require that tax-exempt status for ALL schools be based on including 4 or 5 basic courses (including the first two years of degree-issuing college programs) of which one MUST be study of America’s founding documents, the Federalist Papers and more. We have an OBLIGATION to know our own history and founding philosophy. Our country is based on IDEAS, not ethnicity or history. People want the ideas of personal responsibility, limited government, the Bill of Rights, personal sovereignty and private property rights to be known, understood and FOLLOWED. Commit to these things, Donald, and we’ll all vote for you!