Category Archives: Elections

Crime, Economics, Elections, Governance, Religion, Representation

dry your (T)(F)(Y)ears

January 9, 2022 Prudence Leadbetter Leave a comment

No one really looks forward to what others think may happen in a 12-month period when the calendar changes to a new year. Given the past couple of strange, guilt-ridden years, many just say or think something on the order of, “Please, just let it be more ‘normal’ or ‘stable’ or ‘American’ than it was in 2021.” Of course, the question is, Who’s doing the “letting” we’re hoping for?

When we think about it, we are asking some undefined “force” that (also hopefully) permeates all of life and reality, waiting for our entreaties to effect a needed change or “alignment” that will turn our pleas into pleasure, even if it is simply making a handful of traffic-light changes go green when we are running late.

Sometimes we question our very “right” to ask for help from the Universe (if that is where the help emanates), as though our own worth were questionable at that moment. Perhaps we were really snippy with someone we love and said some regretted words as we were running late, leaving us unworthy until we have a chance to “make up” for the hurt we inflicted. As that moment of opportunity approaches, we automatically ask the same “force” to put our loved-one in a good mood and able to accept our apology or peace-offering. Is this religion? What if we’re not particularly “religious?” What if Sunday School was our last brush with Biblical things. Chances are, when “things” seem out of our control or when a tragedy has struck someone we may not even know, we automatically (it seems) turn to a form of power outside of ourselves to adjust or rectify conditions for the better.

So, is there a Who? Let’s hope it’s not the government.

2021, and 2020, for that matter, are examples in stark contrast of how government power can destroy the lives of millions, perhaps billions, in multiple countries while other millions, perhaps, billions, are pleading with the “government” to make life better, safer, more prosperous and less guilt-ridden. Doesn’t seem like too much to ask. After all, government has the money and power to do what needs to be done. This attitude may not be the most Prudent: it exposes a feared failure of “the Universe” and the absence of hope.

Can’t the intercessor who changes lights from red to green also defeat a mere virus and balance the budget? We say “who” because humans can’t conceive of an omnipotent being or force without a personality and, to complete the package, a face. Whether it’s Jehovah or Jor-el, let’s hope the force is with us in 2022, ‘cause we’re running late.

Covid-19 was a creation of at least two governments and was released across the planet by government, as well, while governments insisted the fault lay within animals. So far no one has been punished for the largely avoidable deaths of millions of people. Is that the fault of us or of the “Force” itself? We know government entities caused the plague, we also know that simple treatments can stop it, yet we fret and worry and wait FOR THE SAME GOVERNMENTS to make everything better. This seems odd. It’s virtually a declaration of helplessness on the part of millions of people who, if they perceived their place in the “hierarchy of the Force,” could take dominion over their corrupt governors and set things in proper alignment. Is there a hierarchy? Are we groveling observers and pawns or do we have a role to play in the direction of life and hope?

At this point we’re all saying or thinking, “Oh, please let us not be groveling observers or pawns.” There’s that “letting” business, again.

We can’t avoid politics when discussing government actions and failures. Political parties – or “factions” – are amazingly inept mechanisms for effecting the “general welfare” of the whole nation. They must, by definition, serve themselves, first. That is, by some convoluted instruction set, or “truth table,” partisans convince themselves of the welfare of their party being synonymous with the welfare of the nation as a whole. It almost never is, although it might appear so in bits and pieces. In any event, more and more of what the party has achieved always appears to partisans to be better for the majority of people than a mere leaving of things as they are.

Troubles accumulate, however, because each party inevitably promulgates some evils that serve key (ie. Powerful) partisans’ very local, even as local as their wallets’ interest, and the opposing party accepts those evils in order to obtain some “goods” that, in the arcane legerdemain of partisan politics, somehow balances out against the evils.

When the levers of power change partisan hands, the pent-up desires for self-interest are unleashed and the immediate saviors of the nation transform into evil-doers, albeit, in their own minds, at much more rational levels than those foul denizens of the other (yuck!) party. And so it goes. The “goods” instituted by this or that group of partisans, are replaced, little by little – or, sometimes, in huge gobs – by evils of the other group. This fact of partisan life can be seen in the unimaginable mountains of debt with which the flocks of both producers and non-producers (who hope that bills are being paid in the background, but which are not, in fact) have been saddled while sloshing back and forth between partisan saviors.

It is most Prudent, going forward, that those of us who still have hope enough to ask for salvation from the What or Who that never employs evil, recognize that partisan politics and personages will never fulfill What’s or Who’s hoped-for intercessionary role.

Still, as with every New Year transition (many people revelers or not, miss the sound of the transition, which is a faint, barely audible ‘Ummm’ in low E) we have a “new beginning,” whatever that means for each of us. We have, by the good fortune of living into a “new” year, a new set of opportunities to “make up for” things we have done that may have hurt someone else or, often, ourselves. After all, as part of life, we also deserve to not be hurt or pushed out of alignment. If we are fortunate enough to still hope that What or Who is listening to us, as it were, when we hope for improvement, we might want to forgive ourselves for errors and omissions or direct injuries we have suffered at our own hands – or hearts. Perhaps our best hope is to adjust our lives so that we don’t “run late” in 2022.

What about the power we have to undo evils and effect good in the world? You may have fallen prey to the popular notion that only by doing evil, like burning, looting and destruction… and by hating properly, can humans bring about good, but in 2022 you need not believe that. If you know the difference between good and evil then 2022 could be the year when you agree to not support evil in the name of “progress.”

What if every adult in your town visited the city council or Board of Select Men and Women and stated, simply, that you want every act of vandalism, shoplifting and public drinking or drug abuse to be punished according to the law, including full restitution and public service by offenders. That’s it: no shouting, no anger, no hatred or petitions dropped off. Everyone appears and states his or her desire for good change. Is there any doubt that our “governors” or erstwhile “representatives” would effect those changes?

The same would work for bad and unfair laws that should be repealed or modified.

We saw this work before school committees in Virginia and elsewhere. There are no representatives who have as much power as their constituents; there are no elected officials who have as much power as their constituents. Gandhi showed us that there is no military/police force that has as much power as a people with a unified purpose.

Clearly we cannot allow our self-fulfilling governments to keep heading downward on the same paths they have taken us over the past two years. We are smarter than that – and smarter than they. The public good will be more perfectly realized when our government is again restricted by the Constitution, when it is as small as practical for the defense of our nation, and when it costs about a third of what it costs, now.

Over the past 6 decades it ought to have become clear that no government can ever provide sufficient “welfare,” as public charity is known. Nor is it really charity, since it is not given freely by anyone. It is taken from supposedly “free” people who never intended to grant sufficient power to the governments they formed to take their personal property under threat of loss or punishment (ie. Police power) so that it could be given to others who did not work for it or, to put it more starkly, who would be arrested if they took it from its owners, themselves.

Is governance so complex that it cannot be reformed? Is it our nature – or curse – that mistakes, once made by elected “representatives” of we, the people, cannot be undone amidst bountiful proofs of failure or error? What is it about Americans that we are hide-bound to repeat mistakes made by other Americans who were elected to some office or another? Why? Does the happenstance, no matter how dearly sought, of election perform some immutable purification that raises those so blessed above responsibility for their mistakes? Or, does it transform their mistakes into the most beneficial policy decisions, the perpetual financing of which confirms their near-miraculous properties?

Why is it that we, the people, who caused – nay, granted – the election of mistake-makers are perpetually bound to PAY for those mistakes, and suffer from them? Is there no means of correction?

One factor we have permitted and even encouraged is “career representation.” With a 95% re-election rate for federal representatives and senators, and similar rates for state-level reps and senators, the decline in governmental and budgetary quality – honesty – has to be reviewed through the lens of longevity. Connections and relationships among other denizens of capitol buildings become much stronger than the periodic and temporary connections to voters. Combined with influence over the spending of billions and billions of dollars – and billions of dollars’ worth of regulations – the personal, rather than representative value of elective office eventually outweighs the higher ethical requirements of representation. Soon, reps and senators at every level become elected bureaucrats. Their voters tend to ignore their work until an issue makes the news. When an opponent runs against a sitting (there is a lot of sitting) rep or senator, there is a desire to not “take away ‘Tom’s’ or ‘Jane’s’ job.” Can we change these attitudes?

If a thousand people showed up for legislative hearings do you think representatives could be tricked into representing, again? One of the key problems that inhibit citizen participation in their own government is the simple issue of parking. Boston, in Massachusetts’ case, has for a variety of reasons, not least of which is some ephemeral effect on global climate, made it more and more difficult to park in the city and most particularly anywhere near the State House on Beacon Hill. What if there were a 600-car parking lot reserved at certain times of the year for hearing attendees. It could be where people could take the “T” or commuter rail into Boston at low cost. With car-pooling there could easily be 1,000 citizens attending hearings.

Do you not believe that 1,000 testimonies about a topic would get “representatives” attention?

Is this 2022 a new year…, or less?

Biden, Economics, Elections, Foreign Policy, Governance, Immigration, Politics 2021, Race, Representation, Trump

TIME NOT ON OUR SIDE

December 22, 2021 Prudence Leadbetter Leave a comment

Time may not be on our side. One cannot overview the world and our political circumstances… and the calendar, without realizing a little fear for where things might go from here. Where is that?

Let’s look at some of the pressures building up.

First, the political time-line. Mid-term elections are the historic relief valve for sometimes hasty or confused political decisions made during presidential elections two years earlier. There certainly were those in 2020. Because the national conscience is so, well… impacted by beliefs concerning the 2020 elections – stolen or not stolen – the release of tensions in the 2022 mid-terms is a little harder to predict than what a lot of pundits are trying to foresee. Most are making judgements on “normal” political considerations and it doesn’t seem Prudent to do so.

The weird eminence that most have already discounted, but who is the key to millions of voters’ decisions, is Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House. She has been a unique Speaker, at least. For decades she has appeared to be simply a fierce partisan and has been appreciated, if not revered, by partisan Democrats who were happy to be “winning” barely-understood battles through her slick machinations. By rights, she should be at the end of her career, and she probably is, but it’s a career that descended into a previously unrecognized socialism starting under Obama and deepening with hatred under Trump. In those 12 years, Democrats became uneasy. While enjoying victories Nancy engineered, no matter how messy, Dems also became concerned about the leftward lurch, yet had no other port in which to seek refuge. Over the Trump years, leftist hatred for “America First” left many Democrats adrift. What are they going to do in 2022?

If “centrist” or “American” Democrats abandon the Pelosi-led leftists (not that Pelosi was elected to lead the leftists: she has run, skipped twisted and kneeled as needed to stay ahead of them) will they suddenly vote Republican? That doesn’t seem Prudent. Will they fail to vote in standard numbers? That question forces Prudence to wonder about what “the Black vote” might do.

Blacks have slowly been drifting away from their Democrat plantation, with an interesting increase in that trend in 2020. Despite Covid, Blacks did well economically under Trump since 2017. Despite, also, a perpetual anti-Trump media blitz accusing Trump of racism, Blacks could see that his policies helped all races. Like all underdogs, Trump was seen somewhat sympathetically by Blacks who understood too well how prejudice hurts. Have Blacks been treated better by increasing leftism? Were they advanced by BLM-led riots and Antifa hatreds that damaged so many black businesses and jobs? Have they been helped by Democrats’ union-led resistance to school choice? Has weakening public safety served Black families or neighborhoods in any way? Are they particularly likely to “reward” Pelosi’s weird coalitions with more power, more votes? That doesn’t seem Prudent, either. But, will they vote for anyone else?

So, on the backdrop of multiple failures of the “Biden” administration and severe economic news, what will be the “shape” of the change in fortunes for our two parties? Over the next 11 months, how virulent will the Pelosi Left become? Clearly their anger has been kindled by the loss of legislative momentum thanks to West Virginia Senator, Joe Manchin and Arizona Senator, Kyrsten Sinema. Even 3 counties of Maryland would like to become part of West Virginia.

In 2020 we suffered through months of cultural destruction and destructive rioting and looting and economic despair in numerous cities. Many strange, leftist mayors and governors have been exposed as feckless, ignorant and ideologically foolish. Americans are practically fleeing their jurisdictions for states that seem to honor the Constitution more. Yet the Pelosi House insisted on passing the enormous, so-called “Build Back Better” bill that would have transformed fundamental freedoms and democratic-republic structures created by the Constitution. Against the backdrop of systemic failure at the southern border and the flood of illegals swept into the country by administration policies, the congress spent inordinate time on the “BBB” plan and the pointless “January 6^th” commission. Not a word is spoken in congress about what Americans are truly upset about, not least of which is the southern border. With that legislation apparently doomed, what will the 117^th Congress do to improve Democrats’ re-election chances in 2022? Most options are likely to do damage to the republic at least domestically.

_________

Internationally, the Biden bindlestiffs have made a mockery of leadership and of honesty. Without fundamental honesty, there are no diplomatic maneuvers that will work, almost regardless of what’s at stake. In matters of war and alliance, conditions, tensions, and opportunities for gross, deadly errors, can spiral out of control quite abruptly. Let’s look at the simplest area of tension: Iran.

The postulate is the following: Iran hates the United States as much or more than it hates Israel. Iran is a theocracy determined to correct spiritual wrongs to the point of suicide. To correct those wrongs, Iran will use nuclear weapons. The inherent danger is that first the Obama regime and now the Biden regime DON’T BELIEVE THESE THINGS. That is, they’d rather believe that Iran is as rational as other nations, desirous of better living standards for its people, better economic conditions internally, and willing to negotiate to achieve those ends. All this talk about “death to America” and wiping Israel off the map is just talk, just posturing. Because they don’t believe the United States can be guided by religious concepts of good and evil, neither can any other nation. The United States can show them how love is better than hate and kindness and generosity will prove that the U. S. can be a reliable partner in seeking a better life for Iranians.

As the imbecilic John F. Kerry, onetime Secretary of State once said: “Would that it were, would that it were.” For a man who has but the mildest relationship with truth, he places a lot of faith in the words of Iranian negotiators. He apparently believes that Iran is enrichening Uranium purely for domestic power production… to improve the standard of living for Iranians.

Trump, to his America-first credit, had a sense of when he was being lied-to, and that extended to Iran. He recognized that the “Iran Nuclear” agreement (never proposed as a nation-binding Treaty because it would never pass the Senate) was a pack of lies, which, naturally, Biden has been begging Iran to renew under his administration. Iran has refused, so far. With all the cash and lifting of sanctions that Obama and Biden have given them, the Iranians no longer need to negotiate further concessions under the agreement – they received what they needed for free. Now it is merely a matter of time before Iran starts issuing nuclear-backed threats toward Israel, which the Biden regime will perceive as opportunities to go “back to the negotiating table.” To their credit, Israel (and other nations in the Mideast) will take steps to prevent an Iranian strike. The U. S. won’t, failing to realize that Iran will likely strike both the Little Satan and the Big Satan simultaneously.

PRUDENT JUDGMENT: VERY DANGEROUS UNDER THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION.

The next simplest, as in somewhat more complicated, problem area is the Western Pacific, including both Taiwan and North Korea, but also India, unfortunately. Here is the postulate: China intends to take over Taiwan; China virtually controls what North Korea does at any point; China will not move against Taiwan if it believes the U. S. will fight for Taiwan’s independence; China is beginning to think that the U. S. will not make any serious moves to stop China (the Biden family’s compromised position vis a’ vis China is a factor, here); and, finally, North Korea will make some sort of military moves against South Korea at the same time, seriously complicating United States’ response to the Taiwan crisis. There has been shooting along the frontier of China and India within the past 18 months. It is not inconceivable that China would stir that pre-heated kettle at the same time or before, that it moves against Taiwan. This feint would likely involve Pakistan, as well, another nuclear power that hates India. Every nation in the arc from the Arabian Sea to Qinzhou will suddenly be seeking a side in the conflict. The failure of the U. S. to decisively defend its allies will transform the entire region and its oceans… and world trade.

PRUDENT JUDGMENT: EXTREMELY DANGEROUS UNDER THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION.

Finally, of the 3 hottest spots, Ukraine and Russia are preparing for some level of shooting. The U. S., thanks to Obama and Joe Biden’s family, has meddled in Ukraine for years. Ukraine is a big country that encompasses wide swaths of fertile land, great waterways, warm-water coastline on the Black Sea, huge coal deposits and iron ore, manganese ore, and other ores, which yield a large steel industry, heavy machinery manufacturing and, its greatest political weakness, a natural, relatively unimpeded pathway for oil and gas products to be transported to Western Europe. The same can transport armies, too.

For more than a thousand years the Russian people have had strong cultural and religious ties to Kyiv, now the capitol of Ukraine, and to Crimea, Odessa and Sevastopol. Strategically, the naval value of Crimea is perceived as so crucial to Russia, as with the USSR, that taking the Crimean peninsula “back” from a recently independent Ukraine was worth the international condemnation. It’s a done deal and will never be negotiable.

In addition, the industrial heartland of Ukraine in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Dnetpropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhya, covers much of eastern Ukraine from the Dneiper River to the Russian border. Russia depends on many of the manufacturers in the region for not just machinery, but military and aerospace equipment. Not having complete control of them is a sore spot. Further, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson districts have significant Russian populations and Russian-speaking populations, which has formed an excuse for Russian regulars posing as irregulars or subversives, to create an enclave of sorts with a militarized line facing Ukrainian army regulars.

Sensing weakness and indecision from the Biden administration, and determined to not have Ukraine join NATO, Putin and the Russian Federation is looking for the opportune time to, in effect, take control of eastern Ukraine, if not all of Ukraine, by military force or forced federation. When they move, what will Biden do? Both Democrats and some Republicans have made tough-sounding statements about standing firm with Ukraine as if the status of Ukraine were a vital national interest. Perhaps it is. But setting up a line of U. S. troops to deter Russia seems unduly provocative. If the situation were reversed and the Russians were placing troops to deter the U. S. from taking over cartel-dominated Mexico, let’s just say, we would certainly not find that a reason to stand down, would we?

What seems “small” to most Americans, in geopolitical terms, could place us in a hot confrontation with a huge nuclear power, 4,000 miles from our border, where both the land location and the naval one make us the underdog.

PRUDENT JUDGEMENT: VERY DANGEROUS UNDER THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION, and more dangerous than it appears.

____________

The shift away from “America First” thanks to the 2020 “elections,” has caused friends and foes, alike, to re-evaluate their relationships with the U. S. The brutal withdrawal from Afghanistan, apparently executed by military idiots and a bumbling president, has changed strategic calculations by many nations. The English-speaking world no longer reveres the U. S. as the leader of their coalition, and certainly does not respect Biden as it did Trump. A strong, pro-national leader is not only respected, but understood by other nations, including adversaries. There is a profound logic to leadership that clearly is patriotic and who speaks clearly of his – or her – intentions. No nation likes surprises, internationally, nor confusing messages. Every leader can make clear judgments about clear leaders, even about those they view as opponents. This is not our current situation.

It has been said many times that the most dangerous circumstance is when other nations are unsure about what America will fight for; it is yet even more dangerous when America, itself, is unsure. God save us.

Culture, Education, Elections, Governance, Politics 2021, Religion

LEX SINE VERITAS

December 18, 2021 Prudence Leadbetter Leave a comment

For all the efforts at controlling language and the meaning of words, new words and new lies, the actual purposes behind the “Great Reset” or “Build Back Better,” or behind “equity” and “anti-racism,” “social justice” or “vaccine” can be clearly seen and understood. Indeed, it is amazing how quickly actual Americans can grasp the truth should it be placed before them. We do have to overcome the problem of various media outlets – digital, broadcast, print – being so wedded to agendas, even “narratives,” that truths and facts that belie them must be suppressed. Some will literally purvey the opposite of those truths in order to defend their adopted positions.

The impact of a dishonest “press” is immense. The value of a “free press” in a republic cannot be overstated; a large part of that value is informed skepticism of those in power. Implicit in that value is honesty… truthfulness. The historic tendency of government types to arrogate ungranted (by ‘we, the people’) powers, is legendary. In the presence of tyrannical government an obsequious press makes good business sense; an investigative, “muck-raking” press is in danger. Our present circumstance provides a lens through which to view the nature of “news” and information-media, today. But a bit of historical perspective, first.

No functional constitutional republic has ever been successfully subverted by socialist tyranny, or fascism. There have been many constitutional republics by description, but they were, or are, responses to earlier military or revolutionary governance periods. Their populations never have shared beliefs in economic or moral philosophies; their factions have not been able to compromise for the national good. Some do exist today, having rejected mainly socialist/fascist tyranny –those for the decades since the Second World War.

The United States is the oldest and most successful of them, all. This nation grew from primarily Christian sources. Despite a history of conflicts in Europe, competing royal “houses” and kingdoms, the moral philosophy of Europe was part of every country, as was, essentially, economic philosophy. The greatest “inventions” to come out of Judeo-Christian Europe were democracy, banking, double-entry accounting, and civil structure like courts and republicanism. In other words, the means for civil order and dispute resolution among disparate peoples were imported to the New World. The concepts of the Magna Carta, parliamentarianism and private property, trade and profit, and of social welfare, were planted in America’s soil. Combined with a sense of freedom and individuality abetted by physical separation and insulation from Europe, all the components of a new way to govern and organize were here. Enter the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

However, like any contract or covenant, the Constitution is only as good as the integrity of its “parties.”

The “Founding Fathers” could never have conceived of the divisions that have been created since 1789. Divisions, or “factions” in the 18^th century were more, well, practical than those that have erupted since the mid-nineteenth century. Madison and others were developing a people-up granting of power to a limited government. The alternatives were monarchy and militarism. The “world-view” was formed within a basically Christian belief structure. It was obvious – essentially unquestioned – that people would strive for freedom. It was equally obvious that individuals would exercise responsibility for themselves and their families. There were no alternatives and no concepts of alternatives. That a large minority of Americans might agitate and even riot FOR the imposition of tyranny, was an idea virtually no one held upon the ratification of the constitution.

No one should hold it today, either, but here we are.

Since the Garden of Eden, mankind’s ability to dilute the Thesis with Antithesis has proven artful, intricate and continuous… until Marxism. For thousands of years humans have managed to compare their individual sins to those of others that seemed worse, placing the former, psychologically, more on God’s side than the latter, yielding levels of tolerable civilization and sanction that enabled generally better conditions and real “progress.” Looking back, the wise observer can see that great evils were unleashed as monarchical and theocratic institutions grew in sophistication and military prowess. Each advance in technology enabled advances in control of populations and economies while fitfully improving living conditions. As communications became individualized and less architectural, via printing, so did the growth and refinement of grandiose theories of control. Theories of government, economics and philosophies spread from many minds, not just religious or powerful ones. Western civilization entered a period of revolution that has not ended.

The concepts of Communism represent the final step of antithesis, or opposition to the Word of God. Most avowed Marxists are too ignorant to know that Marx, himself, proclaimed the existence of God and his, Marx’, declared opposition to God. Marx was destined for Hell, in his own words. His mission was going to be realized through revolution based on economics and he defined “oppression” based on owners of production, as a class, and workers, as those oppressed, as a class. It was too neat and could not destroy freedom, either economically or spiritually. It did provide the basis for the death of 100 Million to 200 Million people – murderous enough to disprove Marxist theory, one might conclude.

The ability to subvert freedom, which is to say, to subvert the Constitutional Republic known as the United States of America, required a long-term plan on 5 fronts: education, religion, elections, law and communications. The means to accomplish Marxist subversion did not exist until the digital age, or, essentially, since 1980.

The “Press” had been transmuting itself since Watergate, moving closer and closer towards advocacy for leftist points of view. As leftists are wont to do, owners of leftist media became more concerned with the social/political change that would encourage more widespread leftism among the population, than about the business aspects of their publications. As a group they were ready for the ability to shift America to the left. Computerization and, since 1983, the internet, completed the needed toolkit. News and web-based information has both proliferated and become less-trusted since then. Indeed, Americans are divided, in one way, simply by the name of the news source we watch or read. News has become a matter of belief and, sadly, hatred.

Education has enjoyed over 100 years of subversive transformation, first as so-called “public” education and, as leftists and anti-Christians took over teaching and the certification of teachers, states’ licensing and teacher education at the college level, private education became infected, too.

We are reaping that whirlwind, now manifesting in the epidemic of transgenderism and public policies of removing parents from the education and even development of their children.

Our system of laws is the fundament of our successful survival as a Constitutional Republic. Further, EQUAL justice under the law, which is to say, equal application of the laws, is our basis for equality of individual citizens and for the basic honesty of our business and other contracts. Interleaved amongst all of our legal relationships is equal responsibility of every adult, parent, employee or business owner, public employee or elected official, to follow the laws and bear the consequences of their actions, good or bad. With the grossly tilted elections of District Attorneys who so disagree with law enforcement as to ignore crimes rather than prosecute them, and with elected officials, even Presidents, who blithely ignore the Constitution they swore to uphold, the rule of law has become tattered and misshapen and, now, only barely the basis for the protection of citizens or their civil rights. Watching riots and un-restricted looting in many cities, promulgated by a political hatred for a president and by communist efforts to dissolve society, and specifically NOT resisted by municipal and state elected authorities, leads any observer to wonder what directives or orders from elected authorities or their police forces even are worth. Mob violence and threats of violence, as in the weird case of George Floyd, penetrates into courtrooms and juries. When they cannot uphold the laws, then any citizen might wonder whether the laws he or she doesn’t agree with may also be ignored?

As for law, itself, we are staring down a steep slope toward social disintegration. Without equal application of the laws, there is only tyranny. When illegal aliens are not held even to the laws that govern citizens, but to looser ones, or where individuals arrogate the power to undo legislated legal codes and refuse to enforce laws of their own choosing, as many District or State’s attorneys are now doing, there is only tyranny or anarchy – sadly, the goal of militants amongst us.

Subverting elections became a science in 2020. The leftist media uniformly deny that the election could possibly have been stolen; “there is only the occasional error or attempted voting by a few ineligibles, but nothing of any significance.” Subverting elections is almost the perfect crime. Not only are there but a few weeks in which to investigate and examine “evidence” that has passed through many hands, and the same short period within which to files lawsuits against people who are only tangentially responsible for pieces of the evidence and who have no interest whatsoever in helping a complainant find evidence against their employer(s), but there is equally as much intransigence among courts and jurists who may have to run for their positions and who can’t / won’t avoid political realities.

Added to the built-in difficulties and limits to the ability to bring a case, are the media who have already proclaimed a winner, particularly when the winner is on “their” side. Immediately upon “calling” a race the media are aligned against a challenger who claims the election to be fraudulent. After all, everyone “knows” that claiming fraud is merely a right wing conspiracy theory. Who wants to be seen as helping those crackpots – or, in the case of Donald Trump, that crackpot above all? Careers are on the line, small and large. In a presidential election, cases must be brought in multiple states all within a 5- to 6-week window. Once an election result is “certified” by the state involved, the likelihood of proving statewide fraud or even fraud in a few cities, is essentially gone. If a state IS found to have certified a fraudulent total, there exists no mechanism of enforcement – or agency of enforcement – to require deeper investigation or recalculation or re-certification of its votes. A perfect crime, and all the criminals are hapless bureaucrats.

All of the “new disintegration” of America is both abetted and celebrated by modern media. Even social media – ostensibly non-press – must be included in this wave of anti-Americanism and anti-Christianity. Because media companies have their butts on the scales, the information that screen-addicts absorb is tilted severely leftward and anti-morality. Social media, combined with the mostly leftward tilt of cable and broadcast “news,” leave large swaths of Americans receiving partial, yet “comfortable” information that need not threaten even the oddest beliefs.

So, on the 5 key institutional frontiers, while things look far from rosy, there are scattered bright spots. Disappointingly, churches are largely becoming more liberal, more “politically correct,” when what is needed is a more unified adherence to gospel. The jury is out on the mid-term success and survival of organized Christian churches. Because of this, the same question applies to Western civilization. The role of the United States of America and its citizens, is exceptional. As we rush to dis-avow that role, we seem oblivious to the consequences to the whole world and to ourselves. God bless us and save us, everyone.

Biden, Culture, Economics, Education, Elections, Family, Health Care

vaccina, vaccina

November 7, 2021 Prudence Leadbetter Leave a comment

The most misunderstood word in the world in 2021 is “vaccine.” Thanks to the internationally criminal actions of Communist China, there has developed a world-wide effort to “vaccinate” virtually everyone who has not perished from COVID 19. President Trump, a person who knows how business works and how changes in regulation can influence business success, also provided seed money to Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson to jump-start development of vaccines against Covid-19. He and others called it “Warp Speed.” Little did he realize the nature of the corrupted cesspool that “big pharma” and the federal government’s health agencies: CDC, NIAID, NIH and the multitude of agencies that provide forms of payment for health service, like Medicare, Medicaid, HRSA and HCFFA… and many others, had created. Making sure that everything this band of worthies desires to sell to Americans and others is actually “safe” and “effective” for the purposes for which it is intended, is the ostensibly “independent” agency, the “FDA,” now mainly staffed by former “big Pharma” functionaries.

To everyone’s delight, Project Warp Speed worked; all 3 multi-billion-dollar, global companies, produced viable injections that everyone calls “vaccines,” and in “record” time – given that most actual vaccines require years of careful testing and review by our careful overseers of the public health, mainly the FDA. Hmmnnh…

While not vaccines, the three companies’ injections do produce temporary resistance to COVID infection such that the disease usually won’t progress to severe levels and fewer victims will require hospitalization, or, at least, not lengthy hospitalization. Definitely a plus, however imperfect. Harder to explain is the two-year suppression of actual treatment of the disease with drugs known to reduce the ability of COVID to overwhelm the body’s defenses while it figures out how to fight the infection off, resulting in natural immunity. Indeed, some perfectly safe drugs, anti-parasitics like Hydroxychloroquine in combination with zinc and other chemicals, and Ivermectin, that are widely used around the world and among our own Congress members, have been rendered nearly illegal to prescribe, and if prescribed, often not provided by pharmacists regardless of “doctor’s order.”

True vaccines impart a protein mapping to the immune system that is relatively permanent. Chicken pox or Rubella or Polio, for examples, if encountered years after vaccination, will trigger a rapid response by one’s body. Vaccination created a specific type of T-cell that “maps” to a specific pathogen should it enter the bloodstream. These cells are reproduced normally such that there are always some present after vaccination. If the pathogen enters the bloodstream these cells trigger production of B-cells created to attack the pathogen molecules or cells, as well as increasing the numbers of the specific T-cells. Together with “custom” macrophages that can “digest” a disease invader, neutralizing it while alerting the body to recognize similar invaders, our immune systems keep us alive, literally from birth and even before. Successful vaccination is a wonderful medical advance.

The various types of “RNA” manipulator-injections that Pfizer and other manufacturers like to call “vaccines,” (a comforting term) do not create any “cell-memory” that will recognize future infections. They work by stimulating cells to create “spike proteins” that are similar to COVID-19 spike proteins: billions and billions of them. The immune system, in turn, is stimulated to attack and remove these proteins. If one is infected within, say 3 or 4 months after receiving the injection, the immune system will simultaneously remove COVID proteins and serious infection consequences MAY BE avoided. The COVID protein, itself, however, does not trigger an immune system response to fight off a COVID infection nearly as rapidly as it fights off other pathogens. This fact is part of the magic of bio-engineering an animal virus so that it can infect humans most efficiently. This engineering took place in Wuhan Virology Laboratory, a project of the Chinese Military, partly funded by the NIAID (National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases), where Dr. Anthony Fauci is the head worthy, watching out for us.

Since the modified RNA injections don’t “map” any T-cells, and because the human body continuously tries to rid itself of foreign proteins in the bloodstream, the effects of the very expensive “vaccine” shots wears off to a point of uselessness after about 4 months or so. “Booster” shots, also expensive (you may think they are free, but we are all paying for them through our largely socialized health care to the tune of $150 to $200 Billion so far) are therefore needed to regain some level of resistance to serious infection, which will again prove temporary. What a money-maker! Create enough fear, make it political rather than scientific, force everyone to accept the injection whether he or she needs it or not, and watch your stock-option wealth multiply.

“Well,” leftists say, “who could possibly not need this wonderful vaccine?”

Let’s group them. Young people up to age 24 or 25, is a large group now being forced to accept the injections through extortion, an ugly, anti-liberty process. Even if they have paid for college they aren’t allowed the “value” of the education they’ve contract for. Colleges have changed the terms of the contract ex post facto: no injection – no entry to classes or even the campus. Younger children, who have been bounced from pillar to post with “remote” learning and mask mandates, don’t need the shots since the disease called COVID is of virtually NO THREAT to them, as statistics bear out. Neither are the older youth through college age much threatened by COVID. In these age groups there is greater threat from bad reactions to the injections, of which there have been thousands, including deaths and disabilities.

Next group is everyone who has had and recovered from COVID, more than 50 million of us, for they have natural immunity, now shown, scientifically, to be 5 to 10 times more effective against COVID than any of the existing injections. In fact, forcing these folks to accept the shots carries a greater likelihood of a bad reaction than if they had not developed immunity. Making them do so is downright stupid. There are lots of leftist-influenced people, hitherto fairly decent folks, who will swear at you if you refuse the injections regardless of the validity of your refusal. They call the un”vaccinated” “anti-vaxxers,” which is really, really bad, except they aren’t refusing an actual vaccine, so what is the berater’s point?

Then there are a host of other people who have medical conditions that are logical reasons to not risk the injections no matter how happy someone else might be if they did. Why should they lose their jobs and freedoms for not accepting an unproven injection of RNA-modifying chemicals?

So where is this whole, unscientific, politicized, faux-medicine tyranny taking us… us Americans who formed a more perfect union and constrained the government with the Bill of Rights? Will we devolve into Australia? Who knew that beneath their outward geniality Australians had been itching to go Fascist all this time? That society is falling apart as rational Aussies grasp that their small-g governors are out-of-the-closet Nazis. The same kinds of governors in the U. S. of A. are less well perceived as a dozen crises unfold at the same time, dividing citizens’ attention. After all, who knew that Joe Biden, of all people, was a left-wing-shit-turned-tyrant? Who knew that he had such a grasp on medical science that he would attempt to impose a nationwide injection mandate? Aside from 72 million Trump voters and the people at the upper levels of the Democrat Party, Xi Jianping and other leftists, who actually knew?

There are treatments appearing just as the bloom is fading on the so-called vaccines. Merck has one and now, Pfizer. They are expensive enough to be approved against COVID. The off-label treatments, despite their effectiveness, were very inexpensive and the wholly-owned worthies at the CDC, NIH and others in the alphabet soup of money-holes, could not allow any of those to challenge the panic-necessity of the injections. Their side-bosses who controlled Pharma’s grants to these agencies were counting on the multi-billions flowing from the shots. What’s a few hundred thousand bad reactions, some debilitating, and the 17,000 or so deaths from the injections really mean in the grand scheme of things… the grand life-saving miracles of erstwhile “vaccines,” after all?

Interestingly, back when the FDA and others were independent, rigorous and non-political, there was a pandemic called the Swine Flu, which name was changed to “H1- N1” to protect the pork industry. H-1 and N-1 refer to certain proteins that define this strain of influenza as unique. In 2009 a vaccine for H1–N1 was developed and tested specifically on infants. Some serious reactions occurred during the study period, including about 50 deaths. The manufacturer pulled the product from study distribution: 50 deaths, not 17,000. H1-N1 is also a “coronavirus” by description. To date there has not been a very successful vaccine against natural coronaviruses. The gain-of-function engineering done in Wuhan, China, makes a highly effective vaccine somewhat more difficult to create, since “COVID-19” is so highly transmissible, even in the presence of any of the current stable of injections.

Novavax, another pharmaceutical powerhouse, is claiming that its “nanotechnology” has created a COVID vaccine that is immunogenic – like an actual vaccine is supposed to be – which none of the current shots are. One wonders if this new approach will be delayed and resisted by those who appear beholden to Pfizer, J&J and Moderna.

One wonders if any development will ever get Biden’s boot off of the necks of Americans. If “Lunch-bucket Joe” ever does anything that is good for the American citizens he is sworn to protect, it will be the first time, and an accident.

Biden, Crime, Education, Elections, Governance, Health Care, Immigration

LYING WITH PURPOSE

October 30, 2021 Prudence Leadbetter Leave a comment

President-in-name-only, PINO, Joe Biden, day by day, confounds Americans. Americans who intend each morning to fulfill the obligations of motherhood and fatherhood, who intend to see that their children are educated and advanced just a little, along their paths to balanced, successful adulthood, and who intend to perform their best at work or service, providing for their families and communities, are assaulted by ideas foreign to our culture and to our fundamental legal, moral beliefs. Some of these are freshly minted, like the attempt by Attorney General, Merrick Garland to criminalize parents objecting to some of the crap being taught to their children, most particularly a parent whose daughter was raped at school by a boy claiming an identity that “allowed” him into the girls’ room where the attack occurred. As this father was being arrested for yelling at the local school committee who had participated in covering-up the attack due to their agenda of promoting “trans-genderism” ideology, the committee members, the Superintendent and the principal of the high school claimed the attack was unknown to them!

Normal citizens find this hard to process. We grew up trusting our public schools, entrusting our children to them for 5, 6 or 7 hours a day. When did we have to become fearful of everything they do?

Some of what assaults us is several months old and only lately reported upon by even some of our “media” who typically ignore issues that don’t fit within their own agendas, as untoward as the concept of agenda-driven news, is. When did we have to become skeptical of everything our “news” sources tell us? One of these issues is immigration.

Most of media – and the high-tech censors like Google, Facebook and Twitter, don’t allow coverage of the illegal actions of the Biden administration at the southern border. Millions of Americans are unaware of the ongoing crimes Biden, himself, has caused. This odd man has proclaimed that a constant flow of “immigrants,” illegal, unvetted, often disease-ridden entrants, is a source of strength for the United States. His reasoning: he was the grandson of Irish immigrants and look how great he turned out! What a scurrilous dope. His party engineered an illegal, fraudulent election to make sure he got certified for enough electoral votes to put that party and its socialist benefactors into power. Lie upon lie upon lie. And they lie about the illegal entrant invasion that they have CREATED.

We have laws, including laws that limit and control immigration. The disingenuous President swore, on January 20^th, that he would “take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” among his other responsibilities and obligations, not least of which by any measure, is “to the best of (his) Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” None of what he promised during that inauguration has been fulfilled: he lied, outright, to the American people. In particular, on the matter of Immigration, Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution he has sworn to uphold, there is a clear directive to the “United States” nation, as follows:

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.

Pertinent to the time of the writing of the Constitution, the term, “Invasion” applies exactly to the organized breaching of our defined borders, including the borders of States, by hordes of non-citizens who have NO LEGAL RIGHT TO OCCUPY any portion of those states. Now, not only has Mr. Biden directed the Border Patrol and ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to NOT ENFORCE the laws that define those agencies, but he has marshaled military and domestic transportation systems to distribute the flood of illegal aliens across the nation – without consultation with States’ governors – and, interestingly, significantly into states that typically vote Republican. One is justified in wondering why that would be so.

Surely it wouldn’t be to distort the voting patterns in favor of Democrats, would it? Despite the occasional admission of this being the purpose of rampant illegal entry, no real American, sworn to “uphold” the Constitution of the United States, would ever sink so low as to disrupt the rights, freedoms and safety of U. S. citizens, or steal their income and wealth as the result of illegal entry, would they? Say it isn’t so. You’d be lying.

Crime, Culture, Economics, Education, Elections, Family, Politics 2021, Race, Representation

FIELD OF TRUTH

May 30, 2021 Prudence Leadbetter Leave a comment

We, meaning the Exchange Club of Lawrence and the Andovers, and a bunch of wonderful volunteers and relatives thereof, installed the “Field of Honor” for the third time on the North Andover, Massachusetts Common, this past Saturday. It is a labor of love and patriotism and, in fact, a most serious community service, part of two of Exchange’s Four Pillars of Service. To do a lot of what a “full-calendar” Exchange Club wants to accomplish each year requires money, and mixed with our forms of service to our communities are some vital fund-raising events; the Field of Honor is a four-way winner on that calendar. With a single project we fulfill “Americanism,” we raise needed funds, we unify our Club and we provide “Community Service” for all of those who sponsor flags in memory of loved ones or in honor of them, who recognize first-responders, health-care workers, coaches, teachers and other personal “V.I.P.’s” in their lives.

Each sponsored flag has affixed a colorful, laminated “Tag” that names the honoree, field of service and heartfelt commentary by the sponsor about this very important person. The first time we “did” a Field of Honor we followed the lead of a nearby Exchange and tried to read all the dedications on the day of ceremony at the end of the Field’s term of display. We messed it up fairly well since we didn’t have a good database, but the hearing of one’s dedication was very important to the flag sponsors, a fact made abundantly clear to us by those who did not hear their own, or who missed the reading. That is when the nature of the service we were suddenly responsible to provide properly, became clear.

We’ve fixed that database problem. We’ve also fixed our lack of recognition among the communities we’ve served for, now, 75 years. Both our Club members and the Club, itself, can be identified with this beautifully visible display, now of three-week’s duration. But, the “Field” is still greater than the values already noted. It’s a unifier when Unity in these “United” States is under its greatest stress. This is the larger part of the story.

Dis-unity is the most potent weapon there is in the hands of an enemy of a democratic republic – a republic built on personal morality and personal responsibility and above and beneath all, FREEDOM. In the past dozen (or five-dozen) years, or so, we have witnessed the coalescing of “liberal,” socialistic tendencies toward dictatorial government, around the always-tender concerns about race and attendant hatreds. There is very little within the non-discussive discussions about race in the U. S. that involve truth. Among intentional, often political LIES about race or racism, exist often-repeated – shouted – non-truths that are based upon beliefs that are just not so. That is, many, mostly guilt-ridden liberals, repeat statements they believe are true, but the premises of which are false. They have no intention to lie, per se, but become greatly exercised as they parrot non-truths. We should stipulate some truths.

One – Different races are not limited compared to any other race in terms of ABILITY, only by BELIEFS. Within those beliefs are familial, parental and social expectations that are imprinted even before birth, as to what constitutes propriety and success for an individual.

Two – Mixing races together, including by force, as with slavery, ALWAYS carries the risk of continuing division because of conflicting BELIEFS, not because of mental or physical abilities. Humans are much more alike than not, despite oft-repeated untruths we may have grown up with. Diversity, in and of itself, is a weakening agent to the cohesiveness of a society, to a nation. Similarity is the great strengthener, and, when reinforced by diverse experiences, a tremendous strength to the United States nation. Diversity for its own sake is a source of social divisiveness, yet now governs our economic and social constructs, including valuations of one another as “sufficiently diverse” enough in our daily lives and actions. No nation can survive, no society can succeed if its interactions are biased toward the non-traditional beliefs of newcomers, rather than the newcomers being required to live by our traditional moral standards, no matter their personal beliefs.

Three – Shared morality is essential to social unity and to economic success. America’s economic success is based on fundamental honesty in contracts written and unwritten, from marriage to multi-year leases, commodity pricing and delivery, and in covenants between the people-formed governments and those governments, themselves, local state and federal. Together with honesty in contracting, our sense of – belief in – sacrifice for a better future for our children and for people unknown, made our phenomenal growth and wealth possible. Welcoming, or allowing establishment of, moralities alternative to the historical, traditional morality of a society, is a first step to social suicide. Americans, in our folly, are not merely tolerant of other beliefs, which is relatively harmless, but we fail to require all citizens to live by our own fundamental moral traditions. Indeed, we have managed to talk ourselves out of living by them.

Four – There are two genders: many feelings about one’s place and purpose and pursuit of happiness, but only two genders. That so much heat is generated over “trans-genderism” or “trans-sexuality” is based on those individuals who desire so much to believe in two contradictory ideas at the same time, that they will endure a host of suspicions and fears among “straight” populations. Others who desire acceptance of aberrant lifestyles, AND those who are mainly interested in the dissolution of the United States, seize upon those who believe in trans-genderism and employ their suffering – which is real – as a further wedge to separate the vast majority of Americans from their traditional morality. Sadly, ultra-progressive parents, themselves, are changing their own beliefs to accommodate the popularized mental incongruity that two diametrically opposed concepts may be true at the same time. Small children who claim to be other than their actual gender are encouraged in this incongruity even to the point of chemical – EVEN SURGICAL – modification of growth and maturation (with untold consequences, nearly all of which are negative). Supposed psychologists, scientists of a sort, including “child” psychologists, have bent their attitudes towards normality and no longer advise maintaining traditional roles for children until maturity. Most minors “grow out of” dyspohric fantasies. Unfortunately, a less and less morally constrained population has created political pressure sufficient to have draconian laws passed requiring society to accommodate these incongruities, to the direct affront of not only honesty, but of all traditional moral codes, including religious codes, and to our peril as a democratic republic, which, as noted, can function only amidst a population self-controlled by shared morality.

Five – Derek Chauvin did not kill George Floyd. Oh, he was “convicted” of murder, much like Joe Biden having been certified as President. The Chauvin conviction was mere confirmation of what weak, jittery politicians had agreed with mobs to do. The nearly sainted George Floyd was on an express bus to an early death that day, before his antics even gained police attention. Chauvin, not the brightest bulb in the string, could have feigned great concern and demanded that people taking videos go find a doctor instead. He could have laid George’s big head on his lap and tried talking to him while they waited for the EMT’s. He’d still have his job, Minneapolis would still be a city, and dozens of businesses and thousands of jobs would still be supporting families in Minnesota. No, Chauvin didn’t kill Floyd, but he caused the deaths of many others and many more to come as idiotic, fearful, politicians attempt to buy favor from Communists and fascists by weakening police departments.

Six – To say that “black lives matter” is to state an obvious fact; all lives matter in a non-communist society: our morality informs us of the sacredness and sanctity of human life. To adhere to the “Black Lives Matter” organization as some sort of leaders in the mattering of black lives, however, is to put the lie to every aspect of the sanctity of black and every other life. More than in any other “advanced” culture, lives matter most under a system of freedom and personal worth. Religion has a lot to do with that, Christianity most of all in this Prudent view. To latch on to anti-Christians for leadership in this area of humanity, is utterly nonsensical. Misguided blacks, in fact, are at the forefront of DISCOUNTING the values of black lives! Let us count the ways.

Blacks are solidly Democratic in their politics, evidently expecting expansive government to make their lives better. Yet it is they who have the most to say about the betterment of their lives and the lives of all blacks. After 60 years of federalized welfare and the concurrent dissolution of the black family, wise blacks can readily describe the negative impact on black lives, a gift from Democrats. The incessant turning away from success by so many black youth, consumed in hatred for anything “white,” like educational excellence and personal merit, is also a product of political divisiveness employed by the great protectors of blacks: Democrats.

Just as was done in South Africa during apartheidt, unions have been strong promoters of unionization and minimum wage laws – the net effect of which have been to make it more comfortable to hire whites instead of blacks. Black youth, more likely to be lower-skilled, unfortunately, are denied their best marketable quality: willingness to work for less to get started up the ladders of success. We have made it illegal to work for less. Alternatives on the streets and gang associations where all the leaders are non-white, are made much more attractive to disaffected youth. Keeping blacks unskilled and inexperienced serves to make unionized jobs more white… just like in South Africa. Who are the strongest proponents of unionization and minimum wages? Democrats, who are trying their hardest to improve the lot of blacks, just ask them. Those are they who celebrate success of black Democrats while heaping scorn upon blacks of other political views. Black lives matter, so much.

President Joe Biden, race-baiter in chief… and great “unifier,” has authorized the flying of “Black Lives Matter” flags at American embassies around the world. It is a move so utterly offensive to so many, and so essentially diametric toward everything the United States has ever professed, fought-for or relied upon in its founding ideas and ideals, and so stupid, as to expose the rank folly of this man’s being president of this nation or of virtually any organization of alert humans. Nothing he does is to be trusted. Nothing he has done as president is pro-American… or anti-racist.

Seven – Education is the primary business of parents: not of the government at any level, or of teachers unions or of mediocrity contracts with arbitrary groups of teachers. Teachers are hired, fundamentally, to teach our children how to be honest, literate, knowledgeable about science, mathematics and the natural world, and knowledgeable about our culture and founding, governing principles. Educators need not teach religion, per se, but about religion as part of World History. Nor should they teach against it. They should teach common decency and respect for others, good manners and propriety in all things within the school campus/environment. Sports and other team functions and competitions are relevant for good health and good adjustment to the individual strengths and weaknesses of others. Exposure to the Arts is also essential for becoming well-rounded individuals, armed with some choices of direction to follow after the first 12 years of instruction. Elective courses should include “manual arts” and tool use, carpentry and basic trade skills. It is not the business of educators to expose minor children to unusual sexual practices or any sexual practices. The subject matter of any “Health” class should be vetted by the parents of children in the school system, else their children may not attend said class. Any school or “system” unwilling to collaborate with parents at that level about sexuality or any other area of controversy, perhaps with open petitioning by a certain percentage of parents, requiring such vetting, does not deserve access to students or to the tax monies that follow them.

Ideally, every school should be a Charter School, and every child should be expected to excel… and to behave.

Eight – The breaching of the Capitol Building on January 6^th was not an insurrection. It was several things, but “insurrection” was not one of them. There was no attempt, or even hope, to overthrow the sitting government or our governing “system,” EXCEPT where said system was lying to the American people. The mealy-mouthed half-truths and outright lies tossed around in the hallowed halls of Congress, ostensibly to do “the people’s business” has become so offensive and off-target that people wanted to talk to their erstwhile “representatives” who were about to certify a most questionable election of one of the most crooked presidents-elect to ever reach that level. The actions of some who assaulted the building were clearly unrelated to the President’s words; those are they who entered the crowds at the Capitol and who had not attended the rally.

Capitol police, oddly, had not, despite advance notice for days, made any reasonable attempts to make such a breach difficult and, in fact, made the breach easier, even to helping people enter the building once the physical breaches had occurred. Offers of reinforcement from the Trump administration were refused because of “optics,” we’re told. Yet the entire period since the rather silly impacts of the vandalism and broken windows, has been nothing but “optics,” as conservatives and Trump voters, generally, have been branded as “white supremacists” and “terrorists” and greater threats to “democracy” than “9-11.” What hogwash. The greatest threat to “democracy” in the past several decades exists among those who engineered the 2020 Elections that led to certification of the electoral College votes that propelled Biden-Harris to be sworn in on January 20^th. To say that the January 6^th events were not a legitimate “protest” against perceived government mendacity is to rewrite history and word-meanings simultaneously. Long before the 2020 elections, sufficient reasons to protest the actions within the Capitol were accumulating: things like $27 Trillion in debts.

Breaching the Capitol was foolish, obviously, and illegal in its own right, from which a host of other crimes and misdemeanors flowed. The worst crime, committed by a Capitol Police officer, was the point-blank murder of Ashli Babbit, who was not assaulting any person or presenting a threat to the officer who shot her. Ms. Babbit was unarmed. Four months later we can finally identify the police officer at fault, despite video of the incident. He is a Trump-hater, reportedly, but not charged with this crime. Can we suppose that had the breach been the work of “BLM” that the entire congressional leadership would have taken a knee on their Communist behalf in the Rotunda? Fourteenth Amendment, anyone?

Back to the Field of Honor in North Andover: Exchange attempts to gather good people to a common purpose, much of which is helping, serving, others. Through scholarships, recognitions of excellence and of overcoming tough challenges, and through Americanism, we attempt to remind our fellow Americans of the qualities that are worth emulating, honoring and teaching. In our experience, people need that reminding; they need to remember or recognize and honor those who were raised with those vital qualities; people truly want the reminding: it affirms that the best of being an American is still true and worth emulating, including to whatever extent, in their own lives and in the lives of those around them.

To all those who, for whatever reason or untruth you are convinced of, teach our children, and who convey that America and its entire history and purpose is to be hated and discarded for a socialized, anti-Christian system that has failed wherever tried, stop! You have no right.

Biden, Economics, Elections, Governance, Politics 2021, Responsibility, Taxation

Biden’s Billingsgate

May 1, 2021 Prudence Leadbetter Leave a comment

Who was that masked man? Why, he’s grown stranger…

President Biden is proposing to exceed the THIRTY TRILLION dollar debt level. What he suggests is not only partisan and disingenuous, but includes multiple effects that restrict and undercut capitalism. If he ever understood the relationship between debt, productive surplus and growth, he has forgotten it… along with Constitutional provisions and any semblance of American exceptionalism: down the memory hole.

Under his and other socialists’ direction, American will be exceptional again: among all industrialized nations we will lead the world in our concerted, legislated efforts to destroy our hard-won success and relinquish our sovereignty. Biden wants to “go big” – biggest fool, perhaps.

The only system that can both destroy debt and increase freedom, is free-enterprise capitalism. That is, NOT monopoly capitalism OR globalism, both of which concentrate money and power OUT of the hands of free citizens and OUT of the hands of their elected representatives – although not out of their pockets in many cases. Those must be stopped before it’s too late. Some serious trust-busting is essential to restoring America.

Practically, a clear course-correction would be to limit the level of corporate net-worths or levels of gross revenues that may donate ANY money to candidates or PAC’s – ANY money. Perhaps companies with $50 millions in assets or $25 millions in revenue or LESS, may donate, not larger. Also, companies that have government or military contracts may not donate. Then trust-busting could proceed.

Already we’ve experienced reduction in job and business growth – returning to pre-Covid levels – because excessive, socialist, “rescue” or “stimulous” payments are keeping people from returning to work! Work… where guided labor produces things, including taxes. We know where idiots… umm, ignore that… “progressives” think economic growth comes from: unemployment checks. Nancy Pelosi said so. Only as employment increases will freedom, independence and tax revenues increase.

People earning their own livings strengthen both responsibility and financial freedom. Having more taxpayers increases political freedom. 2020 has shown that weakening election laws weakens political freedom, and it disenfranchises citizens from our most fundamental and hard-won civil rights. Adding greater responsibility to the exercise of the franchise will clarify honesty in elections – a fundament of the American promise.

Back to what Biden has forgotten… if he ever knew it. Debt is a superb tool for growth, but not for maintenance – period.

Imagine a factory producing, say, refrigerators. Its lines are operating, workers are working and every unit that comes off the line is sold within days. In fact, there is a shortage of refrigerators; people are forced to devise meals for their families without foods that need refrigeration. People are denied good nutrition for lack of a high-enough rate of refrigerator production. Even if the government passed a law requiring more refrigerators to be made, only so many can be.

To upgrade the factory and machinery to produce a third more – a 33% increase – will cost $100 Million. Because the refrigerator company has made a profit over the past 15 years, of $30 Million after all expenses, cost of goods sold and payroll… and taxes, it is able to borrow, or gain a debt of $70 Million. They’ll be able to make a productive surplus of not $3 million, but $4 million per year at 133% of current production, since all costs won’t increase proportionately. Each refrigerator will cost a little less to produce with the new machinery and facility improvements. The $70 Million loan, combined with investment out of increased operating profits, will be paid back with interest to the lender, in less than 20 years.

The earning of profits – creation of productive surplus – enables “Refrigerators, Inc.” to become more productive and efficient, able to modernize, hire trainees who can become highly paid refrigerator builders, and pay taxes to support our civic institutions and even donate money to charitable causes. Productive surplus also enables the company to destroy debt – make it disappear – while increasing production, the only purpose of investment. That’s it. It’s NOT an investment to provide living expenses for people who do not work enough to support themselves or their families; it’s an emergency… it’s charity, not a way of life.

Meanwhile, everyone who wants a refrigerator can buy one – or, contrary to socialist dogma – go to work to earn enough to buy one.

Capitalism is the only process that can destroy debt or, in fact, make investments at all. All other bills incurred by a society that is complex, are paid, or financed, by the productive surplus of profitable, capitalist enterprises. All of government: schools, police fire departments, hospitals, military, public works… everything, is paid for from tax revenues that derive only from productive surplus in a profit-making economy.

The growing tragedy – growing weakness – is our habit of borrowing for current expenses from generations into the future, now to the tune of $28 Trillion. About one-third of our annual federal “budget” is borrowed, not paid from current revenues. This part of economics Joe Biden has not forgotten, even embraced: the lie of modern politics.

For a long time the U. S. borrowed real money… from banks, individuals and even other countries. The Treasury sold bonds: saving bonds, Treasury notes (“Treasuries”) of different maturities and yields. Investors used real money to “invest” in U. S. debt – one step removed from investing in future productive surplus, itself. This was bad enough; we lived beyond our means but we could afford the interest on those debts, not so much affording repayment of the loan principals.

Unfortunately we have worn out our welcome among real investors. Now we “borrow” from the Federal Reserve.

(See: http://www.prudenceleadbetter.com/2020/09/27/knife-edge-election/)

The “FED” is a private bank consortium that can legally “lend” us money they do not have – $Trillions of it. So, they lend us “air” and we pretend it’s money and pay interest on it. Oddly, the Federal Reserve is also granted power to set interest rates, which for a long time have been near 1%, God bless their charitable hearts. What will we do when they decide the rate should be 3%? On $10 Trillion? That’s $300 Billion in real money. That’s a lot of Meals on Wheels.

Wait a minute… wait a minute. Did I say, “$10 Trillion?” I meant $30 Trillion, if we fulfill Biden’s plans. Why, that would be $900 Billion… a YEAR… close to a $Trillion, itself – just interest! That’s a lot of everything, including our own defense. We literally cannot afford more multi-$Trillion spending plans; they are actually taxing plans.

Many in government believe these “air-debts” never have to be paid back! “We owe them to ourselves,” they think. Ooookaaaay… aren’t the UFO people going to usher in a new era of no worries? Oh, absolutely. And, Joe Biden is going to unite the country, end racism and borrow us into prosperity. And equity.

Biden, Elections, Governance, Obama

Say it ain’t so, joe!

March 29, 2021 Prudence Leadbetter Leave a comment

When Barack Hussein Obama entered the White House, millions of Americans were hopeful that a new chapter of the American story was being written: our first “black” president and his wonderful opportunities to heal old racial divisions and wounds. It didn’t work, obviously, but the hope was there. Obama’s foreign policy was sold as “minimalist,” or the harder to comprehend, “leading from behind.” The operating theme, though, throughout the West Wing, was summed up as “Don’t do stupid shit.”

Obama thought the war in Iraq, for example, was stupid, as were other actions in Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen, among others. One might speculate if his concerns were national or Islamic, but the directive applied: Don’t do stupid (stuff).

As cute as it sounded in its simplistic wisdom, the directive didn’t seem to take, generally. If the admonition were backed by real intent, it might be assumed that the new administrators were well-advised to not do stupid stuff anywhere, foreign or domestic. Yet, within a few months the somewhat narcissistic new President felt compelled to opine on the arrest of his friend, Louis Gates, in Cambridge, Mass. Although proper police procedures had been followed, including asking Mr. Gates to leave the house, a potential crime scene, Gates resisted sufficiently that he was taken into custody until facts could be ascertained. To some, particularly Gates, a Harvard professor, the arrest was racially motivated: white cop, black suspect. Obama, when queried by a reporter, declared that it was racial and that the “police had acted stupidly.”

Don’t do stupid (stuff), Mr. President. Hadn’t you heard that directive? Obama’s very thin veneer of racial healer dissolved, if it ever really existed in the heart of someone who didn’t respect the U. S. Constitution, to which defense he had so recently sworn. Along with dozens of Cabinet and other appointments, like Eric Holder as Attorney General, the ability of the chief administrator to do stupid (shit) was never again in question. From the A. C. A., to opening the southern border, gifting the Queen of England with a DVD of his own speeches, passing “stimulus” legislation to finance “shovel-ready jobs,” to making Hillary Clinton a Secretary of State, even his selection of Joe Biden as V. P., stupid stuff became the hallmark – if not the bulwark – of the Obama administration. The Paris “accords” and the illegal Iran Nuclear Agreement, never mind removing Muhammar Qaddafi from Libya, the “Arab Spring” and Benghazi, are levels of stupidity that we need not plumb to confirm our Prudent assessment.

Joe Biden’s only flirtation with executive authority was his eight years as Vice President with Obama. Contrary to the 2009 directive, Biden absorbed the active experiences of the Obama administration: do all the stupid stuff you can if it irritates Republicans and bitter clingers to guns and Bibles.

The miraculous victory of the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020, against all odds and voter registration statistics, simply unleashed a later version of the Barack Obama administration: Communism on the cheap, one could say. The utter stupidity pattern is freshly released upon an hopeful public, ready for a non-abrasive, non-Tweeting, insider-friendly, nearly non-verbal President. A few mistakes are expected of every new administration; signing 40 stupid, somewhat illegal Executive Orders is right in line with what millions of people were taught that Donald Trump had done. Hey, it’s old Lunch-bucket Joe’s turn to be stupid – he and Kamala “won” the election – or the certifications, at least – and “elections have consequences,” as Biden’s Constitutional Professor of Stupid once declared during an earlier Republican irritability phase. Joe has paid his dues, Democrats think, we think, for nearly 50 years, and he’s always wanted to be president, after all. So, it’s like, his turn. “C’mon, man.”

Given the inherent competition among politicians, there seems to be a race between Good Ol’ Joe and his nearly black benefactor of eight years’ duration. So long as invisible Rasputins keep placing executive orders beneath the Presidential pen in 2021, Joe will win the stupid-shit race he imagines he’s in. Among the 40 or so executive actions he’s already signed, Biden has reversed well over 100 policies that president Trump had put in place – policies that were working well and enabling a phenomenally dynamic economic expansion, while increasing national security: “America first.” There are barely enough electrons available to catalog the “stupids” that Ol’ Joe managed to effect in only two months. Congratulations, Joe! Looks like you won another election.

Just winning, however, is never enough for “progressives:” they have a need to rub their opponents noses in the stupid (stuff) they do. For his part, Joe is never to be outdone. Indeed, he has decided to lie about the stupid stuff he does, even if he’s not completely certain what that is. Do you suppose it’s his opinion that we’re ALL stupid? Maybe. Surely he wouldn’t appoint people to tell him to lie about stupid shit they talked him into, would he? After all, if HE believes what he says is true it can’t actually be a lie, can it?

Say it ain’t so, Joe! Say it ain’t so…

Biden, Crime, Economics, Education, Elections, Governance

DIS – APPOINTMENT

March 7, 2021 Prudence Leadbetter Leave a comment

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden removes his face mask to speak about the U.S. economy after attending a briefing in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., November 16, 2020. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Disappointing even to most of his “supporters,” Joe Biden’s administration has undertaken to separate Americans from our heritage and founding – even the founding principles – at a rate that frightens every non-communist, which is to say, most of us. Communism and other shades of leftism never rests. It has a single enemy as old as time, God, and with equal enmity the left fights a single permutation of God, manifested in Jesus Christ: Freedom. To the left – many democrats included – freedom is achievable only by “freeing” ourselves FROM God. It’s a twisted belief, but an obvious one.

Biden, himself, Ol’ Lunch-Bucket Joe – father was a miner from hard-scrabble Scranton, PA (which he wasn’t despite Joe’s campaign speech to that effect in his first try for President) – that Joe, fancies himself a Catholic… like the Pope. He could be right about that, although Joe lies for a living and Pope Francis, one hopes, is merely confused about socialism and Jesus’ teachings. Yet President Joe signs “executive orders” willy-nilly and endorses legislation that is as anti-religious, specifically anti-Christian, as one might imagine. His handlers in the White House close Joe’s fingers around the pen and place documents before him and, like a lifetime Capitol Hill parasite who has never been particularly responsible for the consequences of bills he’s voted for, he signs them and smiles as someone arrives to guide him to the most appropriate doorway.

Fortunately, President Biden hasn’t wet his pants in public, yet, but one can sense that inevitability. On the other hand, he may have access to official “Depends” undergarments with the Presidential Seal on them.

Joe’s friends and supporters don’t like Christians. They see them as potential insurrectionists and racists, homophobes and science-deniers. On the other hand, his people have a high tolerance for fallen Catholics like Joe and Nancy Pelosi and many, many others who have swallowed the grand lies of abortion as a Constitutional right, and sermons as potential hate-speech. The Bible is about how to live and protect life as the chalice of the soul, suggesting appropriate punishments for those who take life or damage it. Erasing new life hasn’t any connection to God’s Word… or to His Son. Like Saint John Lennon sang, “All you need is love, love…” – a song best appreciated after a couple of soul-numbing tokes.

Joe is big on solutions to the BIG problems, like Covid-19 and vaccinations and face masks and lock-downs. He couldn’t give a tinker’s dam about peaceful protests, fires, looting, assaults, murders, destroyed businesses or businesses lost due to ineffective lockdowns, especially lockdowns of church services. The issue is stopping Covid at literally every cost. Tearing down statues of historically significant personages, including Jesus, Mary, priests and abolitionists is nothing to the greatest vote-getter in American history. Besides it’s anti-racist, so there.

We are watching an unprecedented – not to mention un-Presidented – tragic-comic play on the Washington stage. It’s comic because of the frequent gaffs and mental lapses evinced by our erstwhile 46^th president. Watching it play out one quickly transcends the sense of comedy to one of shame at having made fun of a senile old man; then one begins to sympathize, if not pity, the circumstances of this poor individual, as he is propped up for purposes too dark to contemplate, by a relative handful of people placed in positions of influence not so much by Biden, himself, but by someone else attempting to guide the direction of the entire United States: tragedy.

And we have all been part of this intense weakening of the United States, for shame. In the immediate sense the voters – and election officials – of Georgia, have the most to answer for. Donald Trump shares their blame for the very questionable loss of the last two Senate seats of the 2020 elections. It is hard to imagine that the fate of the “free” world lay in the hands of just two flawed Senate candidates whose election would have formed a bulwark against Communism and the death of a nation. Two scoundrels were elected, instead. Trump irritated Republicans who may have provided enough votes to overcome the voting-fraud machine of Stacey Abrams and the host of her confederates who employed the same criminal election thievery they’d employed in the general election. Shame on all of us for not fighting the impending thievery long before November 3^rd.

In any case, we are now staring into the barrel of an anti-Christian cannon loaded with explosive ideas from the pits of Marxism, which is to say, Satanism. Sadly, the cannon is loaded and aimed by our own government… the one the justifying documents of which promises We the People religious freedom, freedom to assemble, a free press and freedom of speech, along with a host of other rights and freedoms in a document replete with “negative freedoms,” as so-called “Constitutional professor,” Barack Obama referred to them. He was lamenting the fact that our constitution failed to promise gifts from the government, mainly because his viewpoint was twisted by Communism at an early age. Then “we” elected him president, sworn to uphold that same Constitution, twice. That he didn’t uphold it, particularly, we let slide, since his skin was the most approved shade.

So many disappointments, so few ways for Americans to control the course of freedom. Fixing our system that now injects tyranny as the solution to every named problem, names limited only by the imagination of assholes, becomes more complex by the hour. Mildly courageous Republicans think we can “fix” our election processes so that they can’t be stolen. The rest of them will accept any system that keeps them in comfortable positions. Democrats have figured out how complicated it can be to undo a stolen election and they are filing legislation to make theft of elections the “law of the land.”

Meanwhile, haters have taken over our public schools, displaying their hatred by refusing to work anyplace that might not be pristine enough for their fragile butts. Damn the lot of them. Yet no one has had the strength to de-certify the teacher union that’s got the public by the throat in their town. It would be Prudent to fire them all, institute an America-loving curriculum, teach kids to read, write and calculate, along with fair and thorough history, and open up the teaching positions to any non-abuser who knows or loves a subject area. If necessary, the municipality could deputize gun owners to stand guard against ANY authority, including courts, that would attempt to force the town to back down on decently educating its children. Fat chance, but it would be nice.

Finally, what do we do about the interlopers now squatting in the White House? The “election” should be reversed. Egregious thievery cannot be rewarded, although our gutless “Supreme” Court is afraid to say so, even on clear Constitutional questions. Who can kick them out? All the ceremonies in the world can’t change the underlying dishonesty of the Biden gang’s claim of presidential authority. Do we have to accept this fraud? If the miracle occurs, what would be the status of any actions “President” Biden has taken? Does America have to accept fraud-based decision-making and live under changes we didn’t legitimately vote for? Are we a Republic of Thieves?

Poor Joe Biden and his cruel wife have about 2 to 3 months to go before he “retires” for health reasons. Communists will say he is a hero of the Revolution; Black Lives Matter will spit on his legacy because way back the Robinette family owned slaves. Then, since we had a ceremony that claimed Joe was a real president, Kamala Harris will claim to be a real President, too. One might advise that we should “hold on to our freedoms” when that happens, but we don’t seem interested any longer. God save America.

Elections, Governance, Politics 2021, Trump

CITADEL OF LIES – PART 2

February 21, 2021 Prudence Leadbetter Leave a comment

CITADEL OF LIES – Part II

January 6, 2021 was a day in the life of freedom, our fragile system of human self-perfection and responsibility, that exposed not the risk to America from conservatives, but from established leftist vipers. That establishment was and is represented – publicly – by Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, a strange person to say the most.

What happened? American citizens, convinced by the flood of evidence of astounding election fraud engineered within and without the United States, primarily by China, massed in Washington, D. C. to protest the imminent congressional certification / acceptance of fraudulent election results that were about to award the presidency and vice-presidency to the Joe Biden, Kamala Harris team. The U. S. has sunk to its lowest point.

Evidently, groups of actual troublemakers had fulfilled their long-intercepted plans to attack the Capitol under the guise of disappointed Trump supporters. The help requested by the chief of the Capitol police – the same help President Trump had offered to provide well in advance of the January 6^th rally, had been denied by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, under whose office the security of the Capitol rests. Why would someone in her exalted position deny guarantees of safety for those who rely upon her for protection?

One theory is that the thrilling possibility of an event like the breach of the Capitol had such future political value for those like Mrs. Pelosi who are happy to demonize anyone who clings to the promise and premise of the United States. First, Trump provided a focus for hatred – a revolting, dangerous political energy – and the opportunity to tie Trump derangement syndrome to “insurrection” was worth the risks from facilitating the breach. That’s just a theory, of course that neatly associates all the odd circumstances.

People at the rally report that the closer they got to the Capitol the less the crowd felt like the rally crowd. People, men, mostly, in camouflage outfits and wearing vests and helmets were agitating for an attack. Some had pro-Trump hats but seemed more interested in assault than in protest. At least a few, it has been revealed, were connected to “Antifa,” an organization whose views are closer to Nancy Pelosi’s than to Donald Trump’s… or to Prudence Leadbetter’s for that matter. Indeed, those worthies had begun the assault on the Capitol long before Trump had finished his rally speech. No matter.

The resulting media storm, cries of “insurrection!” and “murder” of a Capitol Police officer who died of natural causes well after the assault, and the death of an actual unarmed – like every other entrant – Trump supporter who followed the crowd into the building and was shot by an officer who had likely never been in as stressful a situation as was allowed to develop by Nancy Pelosi for the foulest reasons an American could imagine, was utterly predictable. And it was all Trump’s fault, requiring his impeachment.

It’s only a theory, but once the machinations, intrigue, subterfuge, lies and treason needed to subvert a presidential election were proven successful, and virtually impossible to overturn, investigate or correct, then the opportunity to completely take over the future of the United States was made clear to the radical left, and to Mrs. Pelosi who will lie down with any suitor who proclaims her to be a great leader. The razor-wire-topped fence around her Capitol is a fitting symbol of the new American order. Here and there a smattering of logic and justice may appear, like the “acquittal” vote, but it is not of much concern to our new masters.

No longer a Capitol of a free, self-governing people, the complex of outrageously costly buildings atop Capitol Hill is, in fact, a citadel from which our Democrat dictators will rule in safety. Theoretically, we may have voted in the last election and the façade of the Republic will fall off in pieces , exposing the ugliness about to hatch.

It’s only a theory that ties together all the evidence, but real Americans can pray that it is proven wrong.

The Civil Right