Author: Thomas

I'm a writer and a ranger and a young boy bearing arms. And two out of the three don't count.

Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week

I know we just talked about conspiracy theories last time, but something has come up recently that might make them seem more credible, and we have COVID-19 and Leftist power grabs to thank for it. I’m speaking of vaccine passports, not the ones that allowed coronavirus to spread here like cream cheese on a bagel.

What the Biden Administration and its fluffers…I mean media supporters have suggested is to require people who have gotten vaccinated to be able to provide proof of such so businesses and the general public know. Seems pretty innocuous, doesn’t it? Wellll…let’s just say this one is going to be fun to digest.

vaccine passports

What the Left thinks it means – a necessary measure to ensure public safety

What it really means – totalitarianism with clown makeup as to not scare the kids

One of the biggest problems we’ve faced since COVID-19 became the viral equivalent of “Baby Shark” is we don’t know a lot about it. Even after a year of “two weeks to flatten the curve” we’re barely scratching the surface of what it can do and whether our medical responses are adequate. We don’t even know for sure whether the vaccines developed will do anything to it or us.

Before we go any further, though, let me clarify. I am not anti-vaccine by any stretch of the imagination. As a science geek, I happen to like the knowledge medical technology has evolved to the point that a shot in the arm can protect against most illnesses. Where my hesitation comes into play is when government gets involved, whether it be through funding testing and development or giving the okay to distribute drugs to the public. That hesitation isn’t without merit. Remember Olestra? Yeah, that got the government green light and it wound up making people’s pants brown, if you know what I mean.

While the effectiveness of President Donald Trump’s Operation War Speed can be debated (and, following various Twitter conversations on the subject, is), I can’t quite get behind the notion everything’s fine. As I’ve noted previously, government isn’t in the problem-solving business because they don’t have a vested interest in solving problems. If anything, they need the problems to continue so they can continue to bleed taxpayers dry. And as we’ve seen with some Democrat governors, they have no issue making things harder on their constituents, but easier for themselves.

By the way, Governor Cuomo? You might want to check with your office regarding a bunch of New Yorkers outside with pitchforks and torches.

So, why does the government want us to get vaccine passports? To the Left, it’s for the public good, which is admittedly a good reason. And if it was just for that reason, I might be a little more lenient. However, thanks to Leftist Twitter (which is pretty much the same thing), I get the feeling there’s a lot more below the surface that we should consider.

You know, like…totalitarianism.

Some Leftists have said the quiet part out loud and said those without a vaccine passport should be denied service, put on lists to prevent them from interacting with others who are vaccinated, taxed more heavily for the additional burden to our healthcare system, and a few other onerous actions designed to force compliance. At this rate, I’m surprised they haven’t gone the Hester Prynne route and just made non-vaccinated people wear a scarlet letter. (Yes, I could have gone with the Nazi route, but at some point Godwin’s Law comes into play. Besides, with so many people throwing the Nazi word around like Tom Brady during a playoff game, it’s better to try some fresh references.)

This raises more than a few questions, of course, not the least of which is what happens if someone gets vaccinated and it doesn’t take. Getting a passport saying you’ve gotten the poke means nothing if you can still contract the disease and spread it. Aside from a boon for medical liability attorneys, such a scenario doesn’t help anyone, but opens people up to a lot of hurt.

Then, there are those who are unable to get the vaccine due to pre-existing conditions. These cases may be rare, but they do exist. How would that impact the whole “you need to get a vaccine passport to do anything” approach? Plus, since we’re dealing with pre-existing conditions, how can the Pro-Passport Posse reconcile this position with what is likely their support for Obamacare? And since this is the government getting involved in personal medical decision, how will the pro-baby death movement react?

Spoiler Alert: they can’t square that circle, and they won’t even try. They’ll just tell you it needs to be done because shut up.

The fact some dude in the Midwest can think up these potential drawbacks when our elected officials haven’t should be concerning regardless of your position on the vaccine passport idea. And it’s not like these drawbacks are too obscure or preposterous to consider. They should be front and center and, dare I say, addressed without mockery, shaming, coercion, or undue oppression by government or Leftists. The fact the self-professed “Party of Science” can’t even acknowledge the potential downfalls of its approach isn’t a good sign.

Plus, there’s this whole personal liberty thing to consider. As much as I can see the general good of getting a COVID-19 vaccine, it should remain a choice because not everyone is me. I would rather take my chances contracting COVID and respect another person’s agency than to force that person to forcibly conform. It’s in my best interest to take precautions, but it’s also in my best interest to let others attempt to come to the same conclusion. It’s the same reason I still wear masks and wore a seatbelt before it became illegal to drive without one: enlightened self-interest. If someone else doesn’t see things the same way, so what? Last time I checked, life was a terminal condition. Well, there was this one guy…I think he was a Jewish carpenter or something.

Anyway, the point is not everyone is going to dance to the tune you play, so you either need to convince others to shake their respective booties or accept it. Trying to force people to do the Macarena because you like it shows a) you care more about personal power than the good of the collective, and b) you have crappy taste in music. Vaccine passports work along the same lines, including the crappy taste in music. The fact so many Leftists are on-board with the idea to the point of punitive enforcement against those who don’t agree is a no-go for me. The thing I’ve found with Leftists is they will try to force agreement when they lack the ability to persuade others to agree. Although it’s a lot less work, it’s going to guarantee pushback from parties that might have been persuaded otherwise.

In the meantime, don’t forget to celebrate the one year anniversary of “two weeks to slow the spread”!

Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week

Since its inception, the Internet has been home to three main things: porn, cat pictures, and conspiracy theories. Whether it’s “exposing” the Bilderbergs or finding the CIA’s connections to if the cat can haz cheeseburger, there are parts of the Information Superhighway that lead to sketchy neighborhoods.

During the Trump Administration, the Left heaped scorn on QAnon, a movement sharing pro-Trump information and finding conspiracies where there weren’t any. Now, the Left has its own QAnon group, nicknamed “Blue Anon.” And, as with most things the Left is involved in, it’s divisive. There are some who take Blue Anon as seriously as the footnotes in a Buzzfeed article, and others who take it very seriously as the Leftist hackery in a Buzzfeed article. In either case, it’s worth further mockery…I mean examination.

Blue Anon

What the Left thinks it means – Ummmm…let me circle back with you on that…

What it really means – a sign not everything is rosy in Bidenland

In my lifetime, I’ve watched as the Democrat Party went from a political party to a collective of loosely-connected voting blocs, often working at cross purposes, who vote the way they do because “they’re better than Republicans.” In the past two Presidential election cycles, though, there is a core of activists who don’t necessarily agree the Democrats are better than the Republicans and feel the party needs to move further Left. Apparently because these activists want to lose more elections, thus ensuring they will be “oppressed” with their iPhones and Starbucks lattes.

And it’s in these pockets of resistance where Blue Anon thrives. With Donald Trump out of office, they have to find a different Boogeyman to sustain their narrative that has the cushiest oppression this side of a 4 star day spa. Guess what, Leftists? They’re gunning for you now! Or they would if they didn’t believe guns were a tool of white supremacy or the Patriarchy or some such.

Regardless, Blue Anon isn’t happy with the current crop of Leftists running things, as is evidenced by watching the Socialist Socialite and the Squad take pot-shots at Nancy Pelosi whenever it’s politically expedient to do so, but to walk in line behind her most of the time. Say what you will about the Squad, they’ve picked up the Washington Cha-Cha pretty quickly. But they’re still committed to a more progressive Democrat Party in the near future, and the sooner for them, the better. As a result, there are people who not only buy into the idea Karl Marx had some good ideas, but also believe the current Democrat Party leadership is working against them.

Welcome to the Blue Anon Petrie dish!

To be fair, Blue Anon does have a point. The Leftist leadership wants nothing to do with advancing a more progressive agenda. A progressive agenda, yes, but not nearly as progressive as Blue Anon wants because of one thing: the Leftist leadership wants to stay in leadership. Losing elections because you took a hard stand to protect the Twin-Billed Yellow Sapsucker at the expense of a few thousand jobs isn’t something the leaders relish. Oh, they’ll pay it more lip service than Andrew Cuomo with his subordinates, but for some strange reason, they promptly forget it once they’ve secured enough votes to keep their butts Crazy Glued to their seats for the next millennia. It’s this reality of politics that escapes Blue Anon like most prisoners at Stalag 13, and it’s also the fuel for their conspiracy theories.

The thing to remember about any conspiracy theory is there is usually a nugget of truth in it. You may have to dig for it, but it’s there. With Blue Anon, the nugget of truth is there in the open, mainly because political Leftists aren’t afraid to show their contempt for people they consider inferior (i.e. not them). Where Blue Anon goes off the rails is when they attribute every bad outcome on the same nugget of truth even when there is no connection. To be fair, this is the same problem QAnon has, but it’s a feature of any conspiracy theory worth its salt.

Another feature, which is the fatal flaw, is the fact it can be reasonably explained away with common sense. In order to believe any conspiracy theory, you have to simultaneously believe the powers that be are so clever as to get into positions of power without being noticed while simultaneously being stupid enough to let the “real facts” get leaked to the conspiracy theorists. Now, I’ll admit I’m not an expert on stuff like this, but if the only people who know the truth are people you wouldn’t trust not to injure themselves with a plastic spork, I’m willing to bet they and the truth aren’t on speaking terms.

That is what makes Blue Anon so funny to me. These are people so convinced of their mental superiority while at the same time getting suckered in by an absurd con solely because it feeds into their preconceived ideas. That’s the hook, kids. Blue Anon works for Leftists because it reinforces their beliefs, no matter how silly or unrealistic. And before Leftist leaders can say “Et tu, AOC?” Blue Anon will start asserting their perceived power in an attempt to create political power.

And most of the time they will get crushed in the process. Ask Cindy Sheehan about trying to take on Nancy Pelosi.

On a bigger scale, Blue Anon represents the biggest failure of the Biden Administration to date: the inability to unite the country. There will be more failure to come, I assure you, but the failure to unite the country (which was one of the cornerstones of why Joe got the gig in the first place) will certainly be hard to top. And, yes, I know Leftists are blaming Trump and conservatives for this, which is fair. But you supported Joe Biden on the basis that he wasn’t Donald Trump and could bring the country back together again. Also, don’t give me the “he’s only been in office for X months” because Joe Biden was in office for most of my life, and I’m 51 as of the date of this writing. The fact he’s had decades to come up with a cogent vision isn’t undone because he just moved into the White House. Not to mention, he was Vice President for 8 years under Barack Obama, so it’s not like he’s been hiding in his basement…oh, wait.

Seriously, though, Blue Anon is going to be a thorn in the Left’s side for months to come because they can’t just dismiss them like they dismissed QAnon without political consequences, namely the 2022 midterm elections. Yet, they can’t simply accept Blue Anon at face value because the conspiratorial stink will rub off on them.

Welcome aboard the Kobiashi Maru, kids!

Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week

Even though the Presidential election has been over for 4 months, we’re still talking about it. I know elections have consequences, but I didn’t think one of them would be being bored out of my mind while watching people with zero clue about how government works argue over simple concepts. And the normal people trying to educate them can be frustrating, too.

Lately, the conversation has revolved around election security, and, no, I’m not talking about the possibility of having armed guards at polling places. Leftists are doing everything they can to not only say anyone who rejects the notion the 2020 election had issues with voter fraud, but also to say future elections are subject to voter fraud.

Yes, they are that contradictory.

But what to Leftists mean when they speak about election security? It’s not what you think…

election security

What the Left thinks it means – methods to expand the voting base

What it really means – methods to ensure Leftists win more often

When you look at the various proposals Leftists have come up with to promote election security (and I have because I have no life), it’s astounding what they’ve managed to lump together. Here are some of the high/low/no lights

– Abolishing the filibuster in the Senate
– Preventing gerrymandering
– Promoting mail-in voting
– Working against any new laws requiring a photo ID to vote
– Electing more Democrats/Leftists
– Making it easier to register potential voters

Maybe it’s me, but there seems to be a lack of security in the Left’s election security proposals. Between the ridiculous (preventing gerrymandering) to the sublime (blocking Voter ID bills), I have yet to see how any of these would lead to the kind of widespread election security the Left say they want.

Unless…this isn’t actually about election security at all!

And it’s not. The Left has any number of ways to create electoral chaos, from voter registration fraud (hi, former ACORN nuts!) to ballot harvesting to “helping” seniors fill out ballots for Democrat candidates to accepting and counting votes from the posthumous. The Left has a vested interest in keeping the chaotic status quo because these aforementioned election shenanigans would go the way of Andrew Cuomo’s popularity with the elderly in New York.

Keep this in mind the next time Leftists claim Republicans can’t win elections without cheating.

The scary thing to acknowledge is that some of the Left’s election security ideas have merit. I’m okay with eliminating gerrymandering because it turns Congressional districts into an Etch-A-Sketch. Just when you have the lines drawn the way you want, someone else can come along, shake it all up, and force you start over. As current state-level politics lie, Republicans have the Etch-A-Sketch in a majority of the states, so it’s no wonder the Left wants to get rid of it. In doing so, however, they remove the power they would have if/when they win back the states. Not to mention, the Left have used gerrymandering for the express purpose of getting more minorities elected to Congress. As we’ve seen with Congressional geniuses like Hank “Guam Is Tipping Over” Johnson, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Maxine Waters, this is a brilliant idea that can in no way make the Left look bad.

To any Leftists reading this piece, that last sentence was sarcasm.

Although I agree with the elimination of gerrymandering, it shouldn’t be involved in any discussion about election security (nor should it be involved in any discussion of Senate elections, yet it happens). On the other hand, there are potential solutions, like voter ID, that should be involved in any discussion about election security, but get dismissed by Leftists because…they might work.

Take voter ID, for example. Having potential voters show some form of identification before they vote is (or at least should be) the cornerstone of election security. The fact the Left pushes back so hard on this should be a red flag as to their commitment to secure elections. More to the point, though, voter ID laws speak to actual election security because they address a major problem with voting as it stands now: in many cases, we don’t know who is voting and whether they’re eligible to vote. Granted, it’s not foolproof given the number of fools out there willing to test the boundaries, but it’s a step in the right direction. The underlying issues of availability and cost to get the necessary identification are related, but not to the point that they negate the positive impacts.

Since it doesn’t perpetuate the problem and the stereotypes connected to it (namely, that Leftists believe minorities are too poor and/or stupid to get ID cards), the Left will never go for it. Which is why we have to. As with personal security, election security starts and ends with us. That’s going to require a bit of effort on our part, but it’s going to be worth it if for no other reason than to watch Leftists’ heads explode as their strategies face the failure that comes with honest men and women doing the right thing.

In the meantime, be careful of Leftists bearing promises of election security. Unless, of course, you think the election equivalent of Barney Fife might do a good job.

Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week

There are times when I shake my head in disbelief at what the Left takes seriously. This is one of those times.

It starts with New York Times tech reporter Taylor Lorenz taking her role to new depths by attempting to publicly shame a conservative mother online through bullying her daughter. Rightly, Lorenz has been called out for this behavior. Then, she started complaining about online harassment she’s received, which caused many a Leftist to ignore the utter garbage she did to warrant the attention. Thanks to Tucker Carlson naming Lorenz and using a photo of her available on the Times website, the victimhood meter got turned up to 11 through the invocation of a magical phrase the Left has been using for the past few years, “online violence.”

Let’s demystify this term, shall we?

online violence

What the Left thinks it means – mistreatment of minorities and women online, including taunts, insults, and trolling

What it really means – a made-up controversy with real-life inspiration

With the advent of the World Wide Web (thank you, Al Gore…not!), American society changed forever. Even though we were able to chat with people around the world, our worlds shrank inward. Things we wouldn’t say to people in public were said online, often with our real names attached to them. And don’t get me started on Rule 34. If you don’t know what that is, please don’t ask. You really don’t want to know.

Out of that change came troll culture, which then turned into American culture. And as exchanges got more heated, egos got more fragile. People on social media go from bully to victim in a matter of keystrokes. Hell, I’ve been shit-talked by 12 year olds playing Call of Duty.

Does it cross lines of civilized society? Absolutely. Should we be trying to do better than throwing more shade at people than Rosie O’Donnell sunbathing? No doubt. Is it violence? In a word, no. In two words, fuck no.

Words, by definition, cannot be violence because they lack the ability to be physical. When spoken, they are the expulsion of air through the mouth combine with muscular actions. Even a literal tongue lashing doesn’t involve actual lashing of the tongue. Words can inspire violence (i.e. fighting words), but the words themselves don’t commit the violence.

Now, let’s add in the online element. This may come as a shock to many people, but online life isn’t real life. Even if you believe words are violence (which just confirms you’re a dumbass), the fact the words occurred in the cyber-ether renders your opinion more useless than Eric Swalwell’s security clearance.

So, why are so any people convinced online violence is really? One, online life has made people dumber than a bag of hammers. More importantly, though, it’s a clever play on words the Left uses to convince people it’s a serious problem by playing to their emotions through the negative implications of violence. Let’s be honest. There are very few positive aspects to violence, and those that are positive usually cost at least an extra $50…not that I’d know about that, mind you…

Where was I again? Oh yeah, Leftist word play. By invoking the concept of violence, the Left counts on us to fill in the blanks and assume the worst. Adding the word “online” makes it seem widespread and a direct threat to us personally because everybody and their Grandmother is online these days. Although I get a chuckle imagining an octogenarian trolling a 20 year old over his or her taste in anime, the desired effect is to get us afraid of what could happen.

And by creating that fear, the Left can take your voice, equating legitimate criticism with the modern equivalent of an elementary school taunt, only with more vulgarity. As with other times the Left attempts to manipulate us through creative wording, the key to countering it is to recognize it for what it is and call it out. What Taylor Lorenz and her enablers are trying to do is to escape responsibility for being reprehensible to someone with less power than they have. With Tucker Carlson calling her out, the shoe is on the other foot and now Lorenz is getting a taste of karmic justice.

Let’s just say she’s not a fan. Which makes it all the funnier to me. So, win-win!

Meanwhile, don’t fall prey to the emotional manipulation the Left is using here. They want you to avoid using your brain and simply believe, just like one of the Left’s online darlings Anita Sarkeesian says: Listen and Believe. But when what you’re being told to believe is absurd on its face, you have my blessing not to listen.

Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week

The Leftist world was shaken to its core within the past 2 weeks due to allegations of sexual harassment against New York Governor and the Left’s example of how a state can handle the COVID-19 crisis (more on that later), Andrew Cuomo. As of this writing, three women have come forward to accuse the Governor of inappropriate sexual advances, up to and including unwanted touching. In light of these allegations, the Left have circled the wagons to try to discredit the accusations as politically motivated due to former President Donald Trump’s impending legal case before the state court.

Meanwhile, the rest of us are scratching our heads trying to figure out the new rules about sexual harassment. Is it okay to do what Cuomo did, or is it excusable because Trump did worse more often? If only we had a weekly piece that would explore the Left’s mindset on issues like this…oh, wait!

sexual harassment

What the Left thinks it means – unwanted sexual advances or comments made by men in power that make the victims uncomfortable or frightened of possible reprisal

What it really means – unwanted sexual advances or comments made by men in power that make the victims uncomfortable or frightened of possible reprisal, unless you’re a Leftist

We’ve come a long way since Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, but we’re no closer to making progress on the issue. Powerful men and women have used it to get what they want for decades, and if current events are any indication, it’s still happening. That’s why the #MeToo and #BelieveAllWomen movements got started, folks! Well, that, and it’s easier than a Paris Hilton murder mystery novel plot to appear like you care by tweeting and re-tweeting hashtags.

When it comes to actually doing something about the problem…I guess it depends on who the Left considers an ally. I’m old enough to remember when Senator Bob Packwood was run out of office for chasing a secretary around his desk, and rightly so. Then came Bill Clinton, who was accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Certainly worse than chasing a secretary, but not to the Left. They said the accusers weren’t credible, accused them of being money-hungry, and tried to paint the Commander in Briefs as a victim of a “right wing smear.”

Guess what? The Left is doing the same with Cuomo. As inconsistent as they are about what constitutes sexual harassment, they are consistent about recycling bad ideas.

In Cuomo’s case, though, the Left has a bigger target: Donald Trump. Ever since Trump mentioned grabbing women by the puddy tat, the Left has painted him as a sexual predator. As a result, every time a Leftist gets caught doing more than talking about such an act, the Left brings up Trump. I seem to recall there being a term for trying to deflect negative facts by bringing up a tangentially-related person, but I can’t seem to come up with it. What about you, dear reader?

Although I can’t completely discount the possibility of Trump acting like, well, Trump, it doesn’t excuse what Cuomo is alleged to have done. It also doesn’t help Cuomo’s cause that there are photos of him doing what he’s accused of doing, and that the photos support the allegations against him.

But it shows a lot more than the Left wants us to see. For one, it shows us how ugly Cuomo is. I mean, money and power may be aphrodisiacs, but there are limits!

More importantly, though, it shows how far the Left will go to protect their own, even at the expense of optics and ideological consistency. I don’t have the hard data on this yet, but I’m willing to guess a good chunk of the #metoo folks are defending Cuomo by any means necessary at the expense of women. Yet, these are some of the same folks who wonder why more women aren’t believed when they come forward with their allegations. Hmmm…well, I can’t figure it out. I’ll leave it to the “smart” Leftists.

Another tack being used by the Cuomo defenders is they want to have an investigation done into the allegations before they will call for him to resign. By the way, Justice Brett Kavanaugh is on Line 1. He wants to have a word with the Cuomo supporters.

Seriously, though, the defenders will try to act like they’ve always wanted investigations into sexual harassment allegations. I know you’re going to be surprised, but the Left is lying about this, too. When it comes to the Right, any and all allegations are believed, no matter how weak they are. Case in point: Christine Blasey Ford and the aforementioned Brett Kavanaugh. For Kavanaugh, the mere allegations were enough to disqualify him from the High Court, even though Blasey Ford was as credible as a Nigerian prince’s email. The more we dug into the allegations, the less believable they were.

That wasn’t a problem for the Left, though. They still invoke Blasey Ford’s name to show they support and believe women. When the roles are reversed, no benefit of a doubt is given. Whether it’s Paula Jones, Juanita Broadrick, or Tara Reade, the women have to be lying or being used by the “Right Wing Smear Machine” (Patent Pending) to bring down an innocent Leftist.

Even if the “innocent Leftist” has photos of him doing what he’s alleged to have done.

The thing to remember about the Left is they politicize sex because they politicize everything. When it comes to sexual harassment, they play jump rope with the tightrope they expect the rest of us to walk. And since the time of Anita Hill, they’ve learned how to play Double Dutch to the country’s detriment. When you are allowed to play fast and loose with the rules you personally set, you can justify anything.

That’s how cults get started. And Amway.

Right now, Cuomo is benefitting from the Leftist double standard, oddly enough in two ways. First, he’s skating on behavior that would get most of us drug through the mud by the people defending him. Second, it takes attention away from a more serious issue, that being his boneheaded approach to dealing with COVID-19 by putting patients with the elderly, one of the groups most susceptible to contracting it…and dying from it. Then again, the media have done a piss poor job of covering this aspect to Cuomo’s incompetence, so they’re focusing on the sexual scandal because sex sells. If the Left can get us to focus on the sex, they’re betting we’ll forget about the killing of Grandma and Grandpa. Then, once the sexual harassment story goes away, so does the nursing home scandal.

Unfortunately for them, that’s not how it works, kids.

Using sexual harassment as a means to cover up a major scandal is low, even for Leftists, because it shows how little they care about women’s issues that don’t rhyme with abortion or the gender pay gap. They can and will use women to achieve political ends, thus making the women affected by sexual harrassment and sexual assault acceptable losses as long as the Left gets what it wants.

In other words, the Left are the sexual predators they keep warning us exist.

The thing we have going for us is consistency. While the Left changes their rules at the drop of a hat, or some other article of clothing for that matter, we rely on facts and evidence gathered through research and logical thinking. No matter who is being accused, we want there to be an investigation where every allegation can be verified or rejected. What’s more, we don’t care whose ox gets gored in the process. As long as we continue to follow that mindset, the Left will ultimately lose.

In the meantime, Andrew Cuomo should be held accountable for what we’ve seen him do. Even though his sexual harassment is being used as a scapegoat, the fact he and his ideological partners are willing to throw women under the campaign bus to protect him should make the Left take a seat.

As in a Colosseum’s worth.

Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week

As we get closer to the first full school year under COVID-19, it’s interesting to see the differences in whether the schools are open, closed, or on a hybrid system. Many schools are open without issues, while others are closed up tighter than Rosie O’Donnell in a size 1 dress. After the Center for Disease Control reported public schools were safe to be open, there was one tiny little problem.

Teachers’ unions.

These unions have taken it upon themselves to build a case against opening schools, citing potential health issues (i.e. contracting COVID-19) as reasons schools should remain closed. And the Left, following the science, has sided with…the teachers’ unions.

Who are these people who can defy science without the self-described Party of Science get upset? Let’s find out!

teachers’ unions

What the Left thinks it means – a union devoted to ensuring top quality teachers are represented and are free to teach to the best of their abilities

What it really means –  a unaccountable union devoted to donating funds to the Left while holding no standards for the union members, no matter how much it hurts students

It’s scary to think about how much power teachers’ unions have as compared to their private sector counterparts. While a labor union can order strikes to get better wages and/or benefits, their impact is still relatively limited to a company or industry. A teachers’ union’s reach can span generations and impact millions of students and families to the point society itself is forced to change. The kindergarteners of today are going to grow up to be the Leftists of tomorrow, thanks to teachers’ unions.

Now, I’m not saying this as someone who doesn’t know the ins and outs of public schools. I am a public school graduate, and many of my family and friends have direct experience with the public school experience, and it’s getting to be where we’re all singing the same song. In my lifetime alone, I’ve watched public schools go from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance every morning to not reciting it to possibly not have any student know what it is in the first place. Sure, they’ll know all about inclusion and how to use condoms before they’re even past the “girls/boys are icky” stage, but not how to do simple math, write complete sentences, and the three branches of government. You know, stuff that’s kinda important to creating the next generation of citizens?

And the sad part is we let it go unnoticed and unchecked until it was too late to do anything about it.

That’s by design, so it’s not all our faults. Teachers’ unions love to work in plain sight while hiding their true intentions and devices. And, as you might expect, it all comes down to money. Thanks to the Department of Education (which is as useless as footnotes in a TMZ article), teachers’ unions are paid heavily to promote Leftist ideals under the guise of education. The only cost is these same unions funnel money back into Leftist coffers to support “pro-education” candidates. Once those candidates get into office, they can appropriate money to the teachers’ unions, who turn around and use those funds to…oh, I don’t know…build and maintain office buildings in Washington, DC. But I’m sure it’s for the kids…

If you believe that, I have swamp land in Arizona I’d love to sell you.

In fact, I’m hard-pressed to find anything teachers’ unions do for students, but they’ll bend over backwards to protect even the worst teachers in their ranks. Including defying the direction of the CDC. Let that roll around in your noggins for a bit. School districts are being kept shut in spite of the science we’re supposed to be following according to the Left because of a bunch of people who probably don’t teach science saying it’s too dangerous to teach because of a virus with a high-90% survival rate.

If that doesn’t tell you how much power teachers’ unions have right now, nothing will.

As much as I’d like to say there’s an easy answer to curtailing this power, I can’t. I mean, I can, but I wouldn’t be accurate in doing so. Instead, all I can suggest is to keep tabs on what is being taught in your local schools. Even if you no longer have children in school, the only way to combat indoctrination via teachers’ unions is to stay involved. Get on the school board. Keep current on what is being taught and try to combat the misinformation. Above all else, expose the bad actors whenever you can. After enough exposure, the teachers’ unions will lose their cover and will be forced to take action. After all, nothing hurts Leftists more than exposing their tactics.

And besides, how can we mock them if they aren’t exposed to be the total dipshits they are?

Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week

Remember back in the halcyon days of the Donald Trump Presidency when media types and fact-checkers would be finding every single lie the President said? Every statement was dissected, analyzed, and called out as false, even when the President either didn’t make the statement attributed to him or was actually accurate. But in the interest of real journalism, these brave souls endured the slings and arrows of outrageous White House Press Secretaries to bring you the truth.

At least that’s how they saw themselves. Nowadays, these “real journalists” are dissecting, analyzing, and regurgitating what President Joe Biden says while avoiding using the L-word: lie. Funny how these same brave souls are scared of an Administration whose most threatening gesture to date is to call reporters the wrong name (and, yes, this did happen).

Or maybe the Left’s definition of a lie has changed.

lie

What the Left thinks it means – a dishonest statement usually made by conservatives and Republicans

What it really means – one way the Left gets people to agree with them

Expecting honesty out of any politician is like expecting Bill Clinton to be faithful: it’s theoretically possible, but highly unlikely. Even so, Leftists have made lies their number one method of making progress. To them, the ends always justify the means, but only if their ends are met. Once the lie no longer works, it’s no longer useful to the Left and can be forgotten, even if it was told an hour ago. And if they get caught by an inconvenient truth, they will double down on the lying.

Say, “An Inconvenient Truth” would be a great title for a book, maybe a movie. Too bad I don’t know of anyone who would use it. Oh, well.

Anyway, the Left doesn’t just tell out and out falsehoods as their only means of achieving their goals. They also branch out into lies of omission, as we saw with the highly edited footage and quotes taken out of context used during Impeachment 2: Futility Boogaloo. Everything from Trump’s “very fine people on both sides” to his calls for a peaceful march on the Capitol minutes after rioters started a not-so-peaceful march on the Capitol was put on display by the House Managers as the heart of their case against Trump. Even after being debunked repeatedly.

Remember this when Leftists tell you Trump told over 95,000 lies during his Presidency.

Also, remember the tolerance of lies only goes one way. If a Republican lies (or is made to look like he or she lied), the Left give no quarter. Yet, if a Leftist tells a lie, it’s no big deal. In fact, any lies can be explained away using one of the Left’s favorite misused terms, nuance.

It was waaaaaaaaaay back in late December to early January that current President Joe Biden promised people $2000 checks on day one if the Senate went blue. Two special elections later, that number was reduced to $1400 because they said the previous $600 checks sent to taxpayers was a “down payment” on the $2000. But that’s not what he said. President Biden said “$2000 checks” not “checks totaling $2000.” Well, the Left tried to pretend the President didn’t lie because of, you guessed it, nuance. (Oh, and the fact the same people who think green jobs are profitable said the rest of us didn’t know basic math.) When the same fact checkers and media types did the same thing with President Trump, their interpretations of what he said (or didn’t say) were always negative. Joe Biden may be the first person in American history to get a generous benefit of the doubt while simultaneously getting Medicare benefits.

Take the recent comments made by Vice President Kamala Harris stating the Biden Administration was starting from scratch with the COVID-19 vaccine. Wellll…that was a lie. The Trump plan, which was consistent with a little thing the kids call federalism, put the vaccine distribution in the states’ hands. After Harris’ lie, the line changed from “starting from scratch” to “there was no federal program in place.” Which, by the way, was also a lie. Leftists can argue the effectiveness of the Trump plan, but the point remains they built their objections on a lie.

And remember, kids, these are the same folks who want the President to create a Reality Czar to battle misinformation. Call me skeptical, but I get the feeling such a Czar would be as politically honest as Snopes.

But there’s another reason the Left relies on lies: it’s a good way to create an alternate universe that they control. For as much as the Left called Trump a fascist, it’s hard to make that label stick when Leftists were continually allowed to call him a fascist. Yet, it’s taken as an article of faith, even though it’s a lie. By accepting the lie, the Left has the ability to make it become true if they believe hard enough. That’s how we came up with 258 genders (as of the typing of this sentence), people can be trans-racial, and Elizabeth Warren can both be Native American and whiter than Edgar Winter swimming in a vat of mayonnaise.

But that dishonesty comes with a price: it requires others to entertain the notion in the first place. Outside of the Leftist hive-mind, those numbers get pretty small. That’s the problem with self-delusion. Often, it comes down to the self to keep it going.

The key to overcoming the Left’s lies is to figure out what the truth is and stick with it no matter how many people (i.e. Leftists) tell you it’s not the truth. Whether it’s Media Matters, the Young Turks, or the Biden Administration, their credibility is doomed from the start because they have to lie, but we don’t. But there is one thing I think we should do with Leftists.

Mock them mercilessly!

Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week

In the aftermath of Impeachment 2.0 winding up the way Impeachment 1.0 went, Leftists are praising Republican Senators who voted to convict former President Donald Trump for allegedly inciting the January 6th protest/riot. And they’re using a phrase they’ve used before to blast Republicans: country before party.

Confused yet? Just wait until you think about how Leftists went from cop-haters to cop-lovers within a couple of weeks. But that’s a blog post for another time.

Until then, hopefully we can digest what the Left is saying now before they change their minds.

country before party

What the Left thinks it means – putting the good of the country ahead of any political good

What it really means – putting the actual good of the country ahead of the good for Leftists

The phrase “country before party” sounds like it came out of the PR department of the DNC or a clever turn of a phrase from the media. Wait, they’re one in the same. Nevermind.

Seriously, though, I can’t understate how rhetorically brilliant country before party is. Not only does it play to our emotions and patriotism, but it automatically creates a dichotomy that makes people pick a side based almost solely on our psychological need to belong. Nobody wants to put a political party ahead of the United States of America, right?

Not so much.

One of the issues I have with the phrase is how manipulative it is. Anyone who uses it forces you to make a Faustian deal: either agree with the side who claims to be for the country or be shunned as someone who sides with a political party. It’s akin to saying if you love dogs you must hate cats. That may go over well on the absurdly-specific Why Dogs Are Morally Superior to Cats web forum, but in practice it’s a false choice. You can love your country and support whatever political party you want because the two aren’t mutually exclusive. That’s the beauty of America: you don’t have to agree on everything to love the country that gave us muscle cars, 24/7 access to porn, and Taylor Swift. And to be fair, I’m willing to negotiate on that last one.

The other issue I have with the phrase is the Left doesn’t really mean it when they use it. When they praise someone like Utah Senator Mitt Romney for voting to convict Donald Trump, I always have to go back to 2012 when these same Leftists were shitting on Romney at every opportunity. Did Romney change? Nope. He’s still the same fair-weather Republican he was in 2008 and 2012. And I can safely say the Left hasn’t changed. What changed was the end goal. In 2012, Romney was painted as the second coming of Satan because he was running against President Barack Obama. In 2021, Romney is being painted as a patriot because of his Senate vote.

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that’s not an accident.

The Left did the same thing to George W. Bush. After literally comparing him to Hitler, most of them started “respecting” him after he came out against Trump. Ditto John McCain and the members of The Lincoln Project. Although after recent events, the Left may want to distance themselves from The Lincoln Project. Then again, they keep Bill Clinton on speed-dial when they need a little cash coming into the DNC’s coffers.

In any case, the Left will always put party/ideology before the country every time and they don’t even try to hide it anymore. Remember the long-promised COVID-19 financial relief package that we were supposed to get last year? Although we got $600 (which would buy us a limited amount of groceries, a few tanks of gas, or three trips to Starbucks), President Trump wanted $2000 more, which would have given much more, albeit temporary, relief. After Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in 2019, the Left had control of the federal purse strings. When COVID-19 hit and we needed financial help, the Left used this power of the purse to…prevent us from getting any more relief. The reason?

Orange Man Bad.

The Left hated Trump so much, they were (and still are) willing to make working people suffer for political victory. The sad thing is it worked. Now under President Joe Biden, we’re not getting the $2000 Trump was insisting upon. Instead, we’re getting $1400 because we got the $600 mentioned earlier, thus equaling $2000. And if you say anything like “Didn’t you promise us $2000 on day one if the Senate flipped to Democrat control” you get mocked, gaslighted, and talked down to as though you don’t know basic math.

Yeah, I want these assholes preaching to me about country before party.

The fact Leftists think they’re the standard bearers for country before party should be taken with a grain of salt…the size of Mount Everest. But you know who is the standard bearer?

We are.

I don’t care if you voted for Trump, Biden, Vermin Supreme, Godzilla, or the SMOD, as long as you want to make the country better. We will disagree on how to get there, but the final destination should be the same and we should be willing to figure out how everyone can get there. And the Left can’t have that because it doesn’t create chaos and discontent that can be exploited for their political gains. So, the next time you see a Leftist mention putting the country before a party, you can ask them what they’re doing to make that a reality in their own lives. When they can’t answer without bringing up an ideological stance, invite them to kindly shove their opinions straight up their asses.

Oh, and ask them when we’re getting the $2000 Biden promised because last time I checked $1400 isn’t $2000.

The United States of Orwell

We’re less than a month into the Biden Administration and we’re already seeing changes in the way things are getting done. Unfortunately, those changes aren’t good ones.

In the past week alone, the following events occurred:

– Leftists and non-Leftists called out the Biden Administration for promising $2000 COVID-19 relief checks, only to watch the President and the DNC lower that amount to $1400, citing the $600 previously approved was a “down payment.”

– White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki scoffed at the use of anonymous sources for news leads potentially critical of the Biden Administration.

– Biden supporters have expressed a desire/need to limit conservative voices in mainstream media, social media, and in general, suggesting they should be “named and shamed” so people don’t ever do business with them or take them seriously.

– Members of the media are arguing any seemingly dishonest statements from President Joe Biden lack nuance or, more frequently, advise the dishonesty was far worse under President Donald Trump.

– New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose wrote the Biden Administration needs to appoint a “reality czar” to address what he called a “reality crisis.”

– Leftists have eagerly supported “reeducation camps” for Trump supporters as a means to “deprogram” them.

– The Biden Administration requires people to wear masks on federal property as a means to stop the spread of COVID-19 while he has been photographed without one, leading Leftists to try to explain it away.

– Joe Biden announced a program to roll out COVID-19 vaccinations that matched what the Trump Administration was already doing at the same rate.

– Leftists are calling the incoming Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg the first openly gay person to serve in a Cabinet, thereby erasing Richard Grennell’s existence as the first openly gay person to serve in a Cabinet.

We’re not in the Upside Down, kids. This is what is actually happening.

Right now, we’re being told to believe what the government and its agents are telling us, even if it doesn’t live in the same neighborhood as reality. If you though the “gender is fluid” debate was insane, we’re entering a whole new suburb of Crazy Town.

And this is by design. The Left’s playbook has always relied on affecting change through manipulation of language. If they can get people to think a certain way through framing a topic in a certain way, Leftists can reshape perception, which reshapes the audience’s reality even if it creates self-delusion. Although there are many real life examples of this happening, there’s a literary one that seems to fit what the Left is trying, and in some cases succeeding, to do: 1984.

And before you Leftists call me out on it, I have read the book and understand it quite clearly. Unlike you, I also understand it’s not an instruction manual.

Whether it’s Big Brother (the fictional entity, not the TV show) or Big Biden, the principle of controlling the narrative is vital to the outcome. The more they can get you to believe 2 + 2 = 5, the better able they are able to convince you of other absurdities, like there are more than 2 genders, white people can believe they’re black, and it’s okay to enact fascism under the guise of preventing it.

George Orwell would be proud. Or frightened. Or confused.

But you needn’t be any of those because non-Leftists have a secret weapon that undercuts the Left’s most Orwellian of policies: free will. When you really think about it, the Left requires subservience to be successful, but only if you choose to be subservient. We can’t all be as outwardly rebellious as Number 6 from “The Prisoner,” but we can camouflage what we believe through the kind of intellectual subterfuge the Left employs. Outwardly comply, but inwardly resist. At some point, the Left will over-reach and their house of cards falls down.

And that’s the other secret weapon we have: the Left is just that stupid.

No matter what, the Left always manages to find a way to ensure defeat after securing victory, usually within a short time. Their main flaw is and always has been they don’t typically think strategically in advance of the next election. They think in terms of what wins now versus what will win years from now. The whole $1400 check debacle is proof of that. They keep doubling and tripling down on the “it’s basic math” argument when they need to be thinking of how to deliver what was promised without trying to weasel out of it. That doesn’t help anyone, let alone the people who actually need the money. Plus, once more people realize why they didn’t get $2000 in the first place and what party caused it (Spoiler Alert: It’s the Democrats), it’s not going to end well.

So keep your chins up, dear readers. No matter how many times the Left tells you 2+2=5, just remember these same rotten eggheads came up with Common Core.

Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week

This week has been a great one for our favorite Socialist Socialite, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. After accusing Senator Ted Cruz of attempted murder in a tweet where the two agreed on the recent Robinhood controversy, she came out this week and told her story about what happened on January 6th.

To put it mildly, I’ve seen less melodrama in a telenovela than in her story. And, as expected, Leftists ran with it, even if the facts didn’t exactly match up with her version of events. After people attempted to correct the record, fact-checking website Snopes got involved and came out looking like one of AOC’s social media team by ruling the fact checks that undermined her story “misleading.”

I know we’ve covered fact checking before on the Lexicon, but this week I want to delve deeper into Snopes to try to figure out how they operate.

Snopes

What the Left thinks it means – a valuable fact-checking website that does its homework to expose lies

What it really means – a website that went from debunking urban legends to creating political ones

Snopes built its reputation for telling the truth by focusing on those stories we took as gospel, but may or may not have the ring of truth. You know, like the government actually spending within its means? For a while, this was good enough for the owners/creators of the site, but eventually it branched out into politics. Not surprising, given the creators happened to be prominent Democrat donors. Now, that wouldn’t matter to me if they stuck with urban legends, but once you cross the line into politics, those little details matter because they can taint the results of your fact checking.

Let’s just say Snopes has no concerns with it because they don’t care about whether their fact checks resemble factual information.

Take the AOC story, for example. Regardless of how you feel about the events of January 6th, it’s not far-fetched to say she could have felt she was in danger. Yet, the way she initially described it made it sound like she was at the Capitol when everything went sideways. That wasn’t the case, though. She was in a different building within a short walk of the Capitol and was evacuated before the protestors breached the building itself. Additionally, she said her fear was compound by a man yelling “Where is she?” That man happened to be a member of the Capitol Police trying to keep her safe and get her away from the potential danger.

Nowhere in that series of events was AOC in any actual danger, though. She can feel she was in fear for her life (which makes me wonder just how New York she really is), but the facts don’t back it up. And as Ben Shapiro has pointed out on a few occasions, facts don’t care about your feelings.

When presented with tweets explaining the logical inconsistencies, Snopes found the fact checks on AOC misleading because…she never said she was at the Capitol when things happened, which is true, but contradicted by her own story as she told it. It’s a question of literal versus figurative speech, which can also be subject to political biases. Case in point: President Donald Trump’s “very fine people on both sides” comment after Charlottesville. Even though the President clearly and unequivocally denounced the racists, the Left ran with the narrative he thought the racists were “very fine people.” The President literally explained himself, but it wasn’t convenient, so the Left went with what they said he meant to say. (Cue the dog whistles the Left keeps hearing, but few others outside of their circles can…which is an odd thing to consider if you really think about it.)

And how did Snopes rate Trump’s statement? A “mixture” because they felt he didn’t condemn white supremacists. Funny how a clear articulation gets treated as a mixture of truth and lies, but a clear implication AOC was at the Capitol Building gets treated differently. 

That’s why fact checking, especially from Snopes, needs to be scrutinized and mocked mercilessly. I can count on the one hand of the world’s worst shop teacher the number of times Snopes has given Republicans the benefit of the doubt, but they will bend over like Cirque du Soleil when it’s a Democrat. No logic is too pretzel-like for Snopes if the ideology is right.

Even when the Democrat and Republican says the same thing using the same terminology. And, yes, this actually happened.

I have a rule of thumb when it comes to checking facts: if you have to equivocate to make something true, it ain’t true. The fact the preeminent fact checker can’t call balls and strikes should tell you everything you need to know about Snopes and its standards. Yet, Snopes keeps finding a way to limbo under their already low standards, as they have here.

Take their overwhelming focus on Republicans. The Left loves to point at the fact Snopes calls out more Republican lies than Democrat lies as proof the Left is more truthful. Now, consider the Snopes fact checking model. Naturally they’re going to find Republicans lie more because the site actively targets Republicans and giving half-butted explanations as to why while simultaneously giving Democrats a pass on even their most egregious lies. Under those parameters, it’s more likely that David Duke will win an NAACP Image Award than a Republican will get a fair shake, or an NAACP Image Award for that matter.

Even though Snopes has been in the fact checking game for a while, it’s clear they haven’t learned facts have no party affiliation. If a Democrat or a Republican tells a lie, it’s a lie. If somebody from “flyover country” gets it, why can’t Snopes?