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

Have you ever heard of the Law of Unintended Consequences? If not, the gist is sometimes what you want to happen comes with strings attached that you didn’t anticipate. Like eating gas station sushi on a long road trip. You may be happy in the short term, but further down the line you’re going to wind up puking your guts out at a Rest Stop outside Laramie, Wyoming.

Not that that’s ever happened to me, mind you…

Anyway, the Left is experiencing a gas station sushi situation of their own, thanks to a little something called cancel culture. When the Left wants a conservative marginalized from the open market of ideas, they do everything they can to discredit and silence them, expecting them to either apologize (which the Left will never accept) and comply (like confessed liar and Media Matters founder David Brock) or to go silent to avoid further persecution. Now, some prominent Leftist celebrities are watching this practice boomerang against them, and now they’re being held to the same standard they held for others.

And somehow it’s the Right’s fault.

This looks like a good time to look at cancel culture and mock it.

cancel culture

What the Left thinks it means – a movement co-opted by the Right to silence anti-Trump speech

What it really means – the Left not getting the message of 1984

I’m not a fan of silencing people for offending modern sensibilities because it tends to drive their message underground where it can thrive away from the attention of the offended. However, the Left and some members of the Right believe the ends justify the means. They’ve tried with Rush Limbaugh, Chik fil A, Fox News, and others with varying degrees of success. Mostly failure, but I want to be generous.

The entire idea of cancel culture, much like most of Leftist ideas, is absurd at its face. However, with the Left’s dominance of media, those ideas have been given absolute power, and in this case absolute power screws up absolutely. Keep this point in mind because it’s going to get even weirder.

Recently, Leftist celebrities are being called out for using blackface in sketches and shows. Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, Joy Behar, Tina Fey and others are facing legitimate criticism and apologizing for offending people. And in Fey’s case, she’s asking for the episodes of “30 Rock” that used it to be taken off any platform that replays her show. Although the apology and the removal of the offensive material may be enough to satisfy the cancel culture club, it doesn’t change the fact Fey and the producers of “30 Rock” made the decision to allow blackface in the first place.

That may be the biggest shock for the Left right now. Not only have they thought, said, and signed off on racist activities, they’ve championed the very tools of their own destruction…when those tools are used against other people. Although it’s fun to point and laugh (because, believe me, I have), it astounds me how tone-deaf these people are. It’s almost as if they thought they’d never be held to the standards they’ve set for others because their ideology made them immune. They say the right things, they support the right causes, so in their minds, they can’t be batting clean-up behind Adolf Hitler in the World’s Worst People Softball Tournament. It’s almost as if they never expected to get caught and suffer the consequences of their actions.

In other words, they’re all Hillary Clinton, circa 2016.

Leftists have tried to get in front of the cancel culture story by saying it doesn’t exist, but that was only after several people were caught up in cancel culture that the Left decided to say it wasn’t real. Just a teensy bit late on that, kids. Meanwhile those of us who paid attention in history and any literature class that included George Orwell in the reading list could see where this was going because it ends the same in fiction and reality: eventually everyone gets the axe in one form or another. Even the most stalwart believer of an ideology can be called an infidel at some point and, in fact, it’s the Leftist approach to everything. If they can’t find some reason to expel you, they’ll invent one. Paging Juan Williams…

So, how do we fight cancel culture? By not giving into it. The Left need you to be scared of being publicly shunned to force compliance or silence. Social media is a breeding ground for this kind of insanity, so either be completely non-offensive so they can’t find dirt on you or be loud and proud of who you are. Not everyone will be able to be as brash as Candice Owens, so find your comfort level and stick with it. Also, keep your emotions in check. Once you lash out at someone for an opinion that differs yours, you’ve sprung the trap that will allow you to be canceled at some point.

Above all else, though, try to be as intellectually diverse as possible. I don’t like Samuel L. Jackson’s politics, but I enjoy his work as an actor and I would never want him to be censored by anyone. As long as he’ll let me be me, I’ll let him be him. That’s the thing the Left doesn’t get. You don’t have to be in lockstep with everyone you like, and anyone who says you have to is an idiot. By keeping an open mind and accepting not everyone will dance to the beat of your own drum, not only will your life be more open and interesting, but you’ll recognize those who think they can tell you who you should and shouldn’t see are missing out. Plus, if you learn about ideas and concepts outside your comfort zone, you may become a fan of them or at least a better-informed critic.

On top of that, you can prove you’re not an immature brat like the Left. So, double-bonus!

Those Who Do Not Learn from History Are Doomed to Tear Down Statues

As an Iowa boy, I’m familiar with cow-tipping. At the risk of Flyover-Country-splaining, cow-tipping is when people push a cow over so she falls. I’ve never done it, but from what I’ve heard it’s a fun activity, or at least it’s a fun activity for Iowans because we’re just now getting actual entertainment here.

Lately, though, people have taken to statue-tipping because they’re upset with the racism in our history. Some Leftists on Twitter have even offered suggestions on how to topple statutes or, in one case, the Washington Monument. As humorous as this seems, allow me to take it to Orwellian heights while attempting to sprinkle in a bit of humor along the way.

As the debate over whether statues of Confederate generals deserve to be preserved rages right now, there is an underlying issue that’s a bit tougher to overcome, although the Left finds it easy to disregard. I’m talking about American history. Like it or not, our past is full of incidents that make us look like David Duke, but it’s still our history. We fought a civil war at least in part on racial issues, and although the Confederacy lost, it’s hard for me to get past the notion they are still part of American history.

“But we’re not trying to erase history,” Leftists love to say. “History will still be taught.” Except it’s not being taught well in today’s public schools, thanks to people who agree with taking down statues of people they find objectionable. The Founding Fathers, for example, aren’t being taught as seriously because they owned slaves and, thus, aren’t worthy of study or consideration (according to Leftists). Yet, without one of these slave-owners, we might not have expressed our independence from England, nor would we likely have had a Constitution. Instead of teaching these perspectives, the Founding Fathers are being “memory-holed.”

George Orwell is holding on Line 1, kids.

This is not to elevate the Confederacy to Founding Fathers status. Instead, it’s to underscore just how important it is to consider the impact imperfect people have had on our nation. If we pretend Thomas Jefferson didn’t exist because he owned slaves (as well as getting freaky-deaky with at least one of them), we erase the positive impact he had. With Confederate generals, that argument is a much harder sell, but the point remains. When we erase history on the basis of current sensibilities, we do a grave disservice to the past, present, and future.

And that’s where the Left gets it completely wrong.

Toppling a statue of a Confederate general may be righteous in the Left’s eyes, but it doesn’t address the underlying issues that caused the statue to be erected in the first place, nor does it eliminate any good that person did. Like it or not, Robert E. Lee was a military strategist. Even if he was on the losing side, that can’t be taken away from him, no matter how many statues you wreck or history lessons you don’t teach in school. Now what? You’ve pretty much destroyed public property for nothing. Brilliant!

Now, here’s where the Left’s logic about offensive statues will come back to bite them in the backside. As with any movement, eventually the winds of change will make it obsolete and the ideals of said movement can be used to justify actions never intended by the movement to be done. Put another way, the statues you topple today may get erected again and other statues you like will get toppled tomorrow, and you have only yourselves to blame. Congratulations! You’ve not only accomplished nothing, but you’ve opened the door for others to take the same actions that will accomplish nothing. But hey, at least you owned the Right, right?

This next part is a bit of a tangent, but it relates to the matter at hand because it shows how little the Left knows about history and how little they regard context. Some of the same folks who like to topple statutes are trying to get Huckleberry Finn banned because of its frequent use of the n-word. Of course, these morons haven’t taken the time to either a) read the book, or b) understand the reason why the word was used. Mark Twain used the language of the time (of which he was familiar) to expose the idiocy of the racism shown in the book. Of the characters, Jim was by far the most noble while the white characters (including Huck for a time) were irredeemable. That’s a context you miss if you’re just looking for the n-word. Not to mention, this was tried back in the 1990s and it failed. As my old high school history teacher used to say, “Those who do not learn from history get to take it again next semester.”

It appears a lot of Leftists skipped that class the second time around as well as the first.

Other Leftists are arguing the removal of these statues on the basis of them not being art. May I introduce you to the Right and their attempts to remove the works of Robert Mappelthorpe back in the late 80s and early 90s? You guys are going to get along great!

The thing about art is it’s subjective, and the thing about being an adult is you’re not required to like everything and you can ignore what you don’t like. Hear that, Leftists? You don’t have to like everything and you can ignore it. If you get upset over a statue, first of all you have much bigger problems than just the statue, and second of all you can walk away. Tearing down monuments you don’t like is a childish solution to a non-problem. If you want to tackle racism, do it, but don’t do it by acting like a child.

That’s why the toppling of statues today (even people like Ulysses S. Grant who fought in the aforementioned Civil War) is, to borrow a Leftist term, problematic. And why it’s extremely humorous to me.

Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week

To put it mildly, 2020 has become Dennis Hopper on a bad acid trip. Every time we think things can’t get any worse or weirder, somebody says, “Hold my beer.” And for once, it’s not me.

Black Lives Matter has inspired a group in Seattle to create a self-contained community formerly called the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) and now called the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP). Nice to know these folks have an internal PR firm because CHAZ makes them sound like a creepy scumbag guy at the bar hitting on any woman with a pulse. Whatever they want to call themselves is fine, but it’s interesting to note what these CHAZholes actually do.

At least, I hope it’s interesting enough, otherwise I have nothing else to write about this week.

CHAZ/CHOP

What the Left thinks it means – a group of protesters banding together in peace and harmony to protest police brutality

What it really means – Occupy 2.0 with better acronyms

Remember the good old days when Occupy Wall Street took over public parks and turned them into communes full of drug use, rapes, and people repeating whatever some doofus with a megaphone would say? Those were the days, weren’t they? Now, that’s passe. The new hotness is taking over six square blocks of downtown properties (often without permission from the owners, I might add) and setting up Zuccotti Park West, complete with a warlord.

Well, he calls himself a warlord. He’s actually a rapper turned warlord.

And, well, CHAZ/CHOP isn’t really all that autonomous. In fact, they’re on social media frequently with requests for food and other items they need to survive. Oh, and they’ve only now started a garden, fertilized with human waste. And when you consider the upheaval in just one week ranging from multiple assaults and at least one theft to the suicide of a trans leader within CHAZ/CHOP, I think it’s safe to say the great CHAZ/CHOP experiment has stumbled more than a drunken sailor with a shortened peg leg.

But I’m probably just poisoning the well. I’m sure CHAZ/CHOP will be just fine, just like the Occupy folks were.

Actually, now that I think about it, Occupy Wall Street started petering out when the weather got cold. It’s one thing to rage against the machine when the weather’s nice, but it’s a lot harder to muster the resolve to fight the power when you’re also fighting frostbite. This hits on one of the major problems both Occupy Wall Street and CHAZ/CHOP face: a lack of personal discipline. Feeling passionate about a cause such as police brutality can only take you so far if you aren’t prepared to act on that passion no matter what the sacrifice. Given the fact neither group could do without their cell phones, I’m going to guess they aren’t all that down for the struggle.

The bigger question that comes up for me in both cases is what the actions taken had to do with the intended end result. Is camping out in Seattle going to make bad police officers suddenly stop being violent idiots with badges? Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see how we get from Point A to Point B. Even with the Mayor of Seattle and the Governor of Washington supporting CHAZ/CHOP and being receptive to their demands/expectations, there’s a pretty big gap that no one seems to be able to address.

Granted, this could fall under the penumbra of “raising awareness” that Leftists trot out whenever they do something stupid and non-productive for a cause du joir, but I’m gonna have to say we’re aware of some police officers getting overzealous while on duty. Awareness isn’t the problem here, kids. Some of us are just having trouble figuring out how your actions lead to better policing. The Underpants Gnomes from “South Park” had a better grasp on things than you guys do.

This may make for great comedy for those of us who understand the absurdity of calling a group that still asks for help “autonomous,” but I get the feeling there’s a tragedy brewing because CHAZ/CHOP plays to the worst of our human nature. We all strive for freedom, but not everyone takes into account what that freedom can do to others in our general vicinity. That’s where personal discipline comes into play. If you feel you are free to do whatever you want, there is a good likelihood you are going to infringe upon others because you are going to be more concerned about yourself than you are about anyone else. Combine that with the narcissism running rampant in our culture today and you have all the makings of anarchy. All it takes is a spark.

Guess what, CHAZ/CHOP folks! You’re sitting on a powder keg in the middle of a wildfire, and it’s not if it will explode, but when. Whether you get external pressure from the property owners whose properties you’ve overtaken or internal pressure when the inhabitants of CHAZ/CHOP get fed up with the lack of progress or the inevitable butting of heads, you’ve built the means of your own destruction.

Just like Occupy Wall Street did.

The biggest problem CHAZ/CHOP faces right now is a lack of a clear message and direction. Sure, the Mayor may say it seems like a street festival, but how many street festivals have a warlord? Even if he’s only self-titled, it’s a bad look made even worse by driving out a police precinct under threat of firebombing. Regardless of whether it’s the CHAZ/CHOP gang or a different group doing it, CHAZ/CHOP is going to get blamed for no other reason than proximity, and you kids haven’t done anything to counter that perception.

In the end, though, you may have a story to tell your grandchildren someday, but you will have accomplished nothing. With a track record like that, some of you may occupy a Congressional seat someday.

Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week

Another week has passed, and another Leftist idea has taken hold in the aftermath of the George Floyd death. Admittedly the original sentencing for the main officer involved would have made Brock Turner’s look like he was the victim of the Spanish Inquisition (which, by the way, no one expects), but the reaction to this has been both positive and negative. On the positive side, America and Minneapolis have taken a long look at police tactics and how to address situations when officers step over the line. On the negative side, a new idea has taken hold in Leftist circles: defund the police.

Most of us are behind the former, but unfortunately too many are getting behind the latter. That’s why it’s important we understand what the Left wants so we can develop ways to combat it.

Oh, and so we can mock it.

defund the police

What the Left thinks it means – introducing necessary reforms so police departments can better serve citizens of color

What it really means – defunding the police

I’ve said the Left loves to control the language in situations like this, but they are really putting in some overtime to get people to believe the words they’re hearing don’t mean what they say. This isn’t easy, mainly because of the number of Leftists actually saying we should defund the police and have it handled either by a higher level of government or just have no police at all.

We’ve seen examples of both. Camden, New Jersey, eliminated its police force and created a county-level police force. To be fair, the numbers look a lot better. Whether it’s because or in spite of Camden’s efforts is a matter of opinion. Crimes nationally have dropped faster than Stacey Abrams’ hints she wants to be Vice President and some residents aren’t happy the police force doesn’t live close enough to the neighborhoods they police to understand the problems. Oh, and some think it doesn’t reflect the diversity of the community well enough.

As far as the no police option, we saw that working at UC Berkeley in 2017. Sure, they still have a police department, but they pretty much let student rioters make a mess of things due to a “hands off” policy where officers weren’t allowed to arrest criminals. We’re also seeing the same situation play out in Seattle, Washington, right now, with a group calling itself “Free Capitol Hill” creating its own community-within-a-community called the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. And, as you might expect, it’s been a clusterfuck. The best part of it is these morons were allowed into City Hall because…a Councilmember let them in. And to repay her, the protesters called for the Mayor to step down because reasons.

As you might expect, the Free Capitol Hill group is pro-defund the police.

But you’d never hear it from the Left’s mouthpieces in the media and their designated political flunkies like the Socialist Socialite. They’re trying to spin “defund the police” into “reform the police.” The main goal is simple: get people to believe what is being repeated isn’t the real goal of those calling to defund the police. Yeah, about that. Seems there are too many people on both sides calling bullshit or at least saying the messaging is wrong and hurtful to the Left. Not that they necessarily disagree, mind you, just that the message can get interpreted in a way that makes the Left look anti-police.

Which, of course, they are.

I wish I could say that was an attempt at humor via hyperbole, but I can’t. (And, yes, I know I just typed it, so don’t write in about it, okay?) Leftists are on the front lines of this controversy because people are talking about it, but what have they actually done? Demonized police officers as a whole for the actions of too many bad cops. Granted, those too many bad cops shot themselves in the feet with a Howitzer, but their actions have been used time and time again to tarnish the reputations of many police officers. Plus, hating cops guarantees the Left will be able to garner votes and money from people of color, who also aren’t fond of the men and women in blue. Few, if any, Leftists even stop to consider they treat police officers more harshly than they treat Muslims (i.e. #NotAllMuslims after any terrorist attack perpetrated by Muslim radicals).

The funny thing is police unions give a ton of money to Democrats in both the House and the Senate, while the officers themselves are currently giving more money to President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans probably for the same reason flies respond better to honey than to sulfuric acid: self-preservation. The rank and file police know it’s the Right who support them with actions and words, and they know their unions spend dues to help candidates who don’t support them ultimately. Now with the defund the police idea catching fire, they get to see the disconnect between leaders and members play out yet again.

However, we must acknowledge this momentous occasion. This is the first time the Left hasn’t thrown money at a problem in an attempt to fix it. Well, this isn’t exactly true. The defund the police side wants the money spent on police spent on other items, which represents a laundry list of Leftist causes. Public education, ending misogyny and racism, and universal health care, to name just three I’ve seen being tossed around. How universal health care helps make communities safer isn’t exactly spelled out, but I’m sure they’re working on it…eventually. Right after they get done rioting…I mean protesting.

That’s par for the course with Leftists. They sow the seeds of a problem to exploit it later for personal gain, and in this case, it’s honest police officers getting caught in the crossfire. More often than not, too, it’s never those who created the problem in the first place who get the axe. Politicians find ways to keep people under their thumbs, and police unions are usually untouchable. Yet, who are the ones making decisions on what to support and how officers get trained? The answer is, of course, Donald Trump because he’s always the bad guy these days.

Unfortunately for them, this isn’t something the Left can blame President Trump for saying and doing. They’ll try, but it won’t work. This is their baby and they’re going to have to be the ones who figure out how to change its diaper.

In the meantime, we can be safe in the knowledge we can both support police officers and want the bad ones to get their comeuppance. It’s not an either-or proposition, kids. If the Left gets its way, your local police department will wind up like teachers’ unions: incapable of firing the bad to make room for the good, which is a goal we can all support. But we can’t do that by defunding or abolishing the police.

What may make a difference is for police officers to be empowered to engage their communities and prevent bad cops from getting a Get Out of Jail Free card when they screw up. The key will be to reducing the fear and distrust between police and the people they are supposed to protect. It does no one any good to know there are people living in fear or hate because of what the police do to the criminal element. It’s going to be a lot of work, but if it helps create a better working relationship, I’m all for it.

Let’s take the Left at their ever-changing word. They want police departments eliminated through the death of a thousand paper cuts made worse by red tape. If they get what they want, we will all feel the pain.

Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week

After the recent killing of George Floyd, a forgotten figure of the Black Lives Matter movement came back into the limelight: Colin Kaepernick. The former starting quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers became a darling of the BLM crowd by taking a knee during the playing of the National Anthem (and for wearing socks depicting police officers as pigs) to protest the killing of black people by police. At the time, he was praised and criticized and now it seems he was ahead of the curve, even though he was riding the pine at his former job for sucking.

With Kaepernick’s reemergence, Leftists are coming out and saying we owe him an apology, a starting quarterback position, and back pay. There are people making as much on two knees as Kaepernick could make on one, and what he’s doing won’t get you arrested! But is he worth the accolades? Let’s take a look.

Colin Kaepernick

What the Left thinks it means – an early hero of Black Lives Matter who was blackballed by the NFL for his stance on police brutality

What it really means – a quarterback whose skills have been overshadowed by his advocacy

When he started, Colin Kaepernick was a one-of-a-kind quarterback. He was able to lead the 49ers to a handful of NFC championship games and an appearance in the Super Bowl, where he lead the team to a disheartening loss to the Baltimore Ravens (which just happens to be your humble correspondent’s favorite football team). After that, he experienced either a decline in his skills, defenses started figuring out his tendencies and exploited them to their benefit, or his offense wasn’t as potent as it was when he was successful. As a result, he wasn’t as effective as he once was and lost his starting quarterback position, even though he felt he had the skills to play as a starter.

This is where things get a little controversial. Kaepernick started dating a woman in the off season who turned him from a mediocre-starting-quarterback to a mediocre-former-starting-quarterback-with-a-cause. And out of that cause came a lot of trouble for him and headaches for the NFL. After he tried to test the free agency market and came up empty, allegations of his being blackballed flew around like errant passes from Kaepernick.

Was he blackballed? Not really. He insisted he was a top-tier talent without the numbers to back it up, and he refused to accept a back-up quarterback position. Oh, and there was the attitude problems and controversial statements supporting Fidel Castro…while he was trying to get a job with the Miami Dolphins. I will say this. What Kaepernick lacked in reading the room, he more than made up in positive press coverage. To say he became more beloved by people who would normally consider football barbaric (and, to be fair, anything short of checkers is too barbaric for the Left) would be an understatement.

And that’s how he’s made his money since deciding not to play football (i.e. when no NFL team would sign him because, well, he’s a PR nightmare in crappy socks). He’s become a professional victim, even though his ego/stupidity made him a victim in the first place. Since he’s involved in a Leftist cause, however, his defenders will overlook the obvious flaws in his story of victimhood. After all, there are black people being shot by police all the time, right? Wellll…that’s not strictly true. Crime statistics show police most often shoot…white criminals. And it’s not always white cops doing the killing, either. Thanks to diversity (something the Left claims to embrace), police departments have officers of various races. In fact, only 2 of the police officers involved in the George Floyd matter were white.

None of this diminishes the fact far too many people are getting killed by police officers, regardless of race. Nor does it excuse the racism evident in some police departments. These are real issues that fuel the division in this country and acts as justification for all sides to distrust each other. If we are make any headway, we have to call out the bad faith actors and praise those who are upholding the best in people.

And that’s why I’m calling out Colin Kaepernick and his Leftist enablers. I know the perfect is the enemy of the good, but Kaepernick is neither. He took advantage of a bad situation to create a new job opportunity for himself when his job at the time wasn’t working out the best and his options were as limited as his ability to evolve as a quarterback. And I’m guessing he hasn’t improved on his existing skill set during his extended off-season. Even though his cause has gained traction, it wasn’t because of him. If anything, it occurred without his presence being necessary. Although the Left can remember the glory days of him taking a knee, the truth remains he was merely a replaceable cog in an already existing machine.

As far as his Leftist enablers go, he doesn’t deserve back pay, a starting quarterback job, or an apology because he hasn’t earned any of it. He hasn’t played for a few years because no team would sign him. That’s not the NFL’s fault, but it is Kaepernick’s fault for not realizing his limitations. If he could play like he did prior to the Super Bowl he lost and shown he has a more level head than he did before taking a knee, there are teams right now who could use a good quarterback or at least someone who could do a good job mentoring the next generation of quarterbacks. And if football was no longer an option, he has a degree in business management that he could use…or is he using it right now to leverage his self-imposed victimhood into a lucrative, albeit somewhat dishonest, career?

In other words, Colin Kaepernick is playing Leftists for fools so he can enrich himself, and if Leftists have their way, he will succeed. But, hey, at least they’re “woke”.

The Politics of Science

What a difference a couple of weeks make! It wasn’t that long ago that we were told outdoor protesting against overly oppressive state lockdown decisions made by a dumbass Governor where open-carry laws were followed would cause COVID-19 cases to skyrocket! (Spoiler Alert: they didn’t.) Now, we’re being told by the same people that protests against the death of George Floyd (some of which have turned violent and destructive) are totes cool.

And people wonder why I have a healthy distrust of public figures.

It’s clear politics have more to do with these contradictory positions than actual science, which has been a destructive force for decades within the scientific community. From climate change to the number of genders, ideological elements have made it possible for science to defy itself at the same time the Left tells us we need to listen to the experts. Of course, when the “experts” are Leftists, it’s like they’re saying to listen to, well, themselves.

Funny how that works, isn’t it?

The problem with politics becoming part of science is the former taints the integrity of the latter. With the scientific method, the scientist work toward finding a conclusion by objectively looking at the results of the experiments used. With politics added into the mix, the scientific method either works backwards (as with climate change) or disregarded altogether if the results don’t come out the way the Left wants (as with genders). As a result, we get studies where the results don’t make sense, which opens science up to (deserved) mockery.

As a fan of science, I take the Left’s perversion of science seriously and, admittedly, personally. We cannot simply ignore it when the science tells us we’re wrong. We either have to accept the results or try again. There is no third option. There isn’t a provision where the results don’t matter if they hurt our fee-fees. Accept or reject are the only choices.

That’s where politics taints the process. There’s an old saying, “The personal is political.” The Left takes this very seriously because it allows them to make anything political with the right framing. Once that happens, they can find/create allies to whatever cause they deem appropriate at the time.

Now, here’s the fun part. Once those causes lose traction with the public, the Left chucks them and their supporters aside. Of course, they will pick these causes and supporters up when it suits their needs (like to blame Republicans for what Leftists did to screw things up). If you question this, let me ask one question: How’s the water in Flint, Michigan, these days?

Not good, huh? My point precisely.

Leftists have always treated the black community as below them in the hierarchy of power, which is why you rarely see blacks in positions of real power within their ranks. They’re always on the stage with white Leftists, but only as bunting, and optional bunting at that. And when black Leftists do create organizations, it’s always as subsidiaries of the main hive-mind.

What does this have to do with the Left’s hypocrisy…I mean change of position on protests? Control (and I’m not talking about the Janet Jackson song). With the anti-lockdown protests, the Left couldn’t control the protesters. They were powerless to stop them, so the Left tried to get people to believe they were dangerous and that a love of freedom is equally dangerous. However, with the protesters of George Floyd’s murder, the Left controls the narrative and can stoke the fires to make the tensions worse. And once the passion dies down, the Left will forget George Floyd even existed.

Just like they forgot about Flint’s water problem.

And just like they forgot about COVID-19 when it came to the George Floyd protests, even after these same folks shouted about how dangerous it was for people to be out in public without masks and social distancing.

Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week

I had a piece already written about a lighter subject, but recent events out of Minnesota changed the best-laid plans of mice and bloggers.

When four members of the Minneapolis Police Department detained and eventually killed George Floyd for attempting to pass counterfeit money, it started off a chain of events resulting in property being destroyed, people being injured, and general discord around the world. And, as you might expect, politics got injected into the situation early and often.

Enter Representative Ilhan Omar and the other members of “The Squad.” The Minnesota Congresswoman took to Twitter to help promote donations to ActBlue.com, a Leftist website, under the auspices of racial justice. What is that? I’m glad you asked, otherwise I’m out a topic for the Lexicon.

racial justice

What the Left thinks it means – getting justice for disenfranchised people of color

What it really means – tilting the scales of justice to favor people of color at the expense of actual justice

There is a reason statues of Lady Justice wear a blindfold; justice is supposed to be blind. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been when it comes to police officers and black criminals. In the former case, sentences tend to be on the light side, while in the latter case, those sentences are harsher. And it’s been going on for far too long.

Hence, the Left’s renewed call for racial justice. This is another term the Left devised that combines a powerful word that appeals to most Americans (justice) and adds a politically-charged modifier (racial) designed to advance an agenda. In this case, the goal is to take any negative feelings about racism and apply it to the judicial system to allow blacks and other minorities a chance to experience what the Left thinks/knows whites have enjoyed for so long.

The scary part is the Left has a point. Blacks and whites do not have equal justice in America, no matter how hard we try to ignore it. And before you start throwing out statistics about what percentage of blacks commit what percentage of crimes, the fact it took days to arrest the officer who choked George Floyd and at least contributed to his death shows how screwed up our justice system is.

Having said that, the Left’s solution isn’t to fix the problems, but screw them up even more by using race as even more of a factor than it already is. Of course, that’s by design. One of the cornerstones of Leftist ideology is to undermine the American legal system and institute a global legal system, an idea most American Presidents have rejected. But, the Left doesn’t give up that easily and has made progress towards their goals. The very fact we have four Representatives on record advocating for racial justice in an attempt to raise funds is proof of how emboldened they feel right now.

By adding race into a court proceeding, it guarantees the results will not be just because it prevents the jury from doing its sworn job. It’s not to try to figure out what race deserves what punishment; it’s to determine guilt or innocence based on the law and the arguments presented by the attorneys involved. Any thought outside of those two elements muddies the waters, making actual justice harder to obtain.

Granted, I’m a white guy and have undoubtedly received preferential treatment because of it, even though I don’t want it. We are supposed to be equal under the law, so I prefer to be treated equally. No, that doesn’t mean I want to be treated as poorly as blacks have. It means I want blacks to be on an even playing field with me. Racial justice doesn’t strive to do that. Instead, it strives to make race a major factor in determining whether I go free if I’m found not guilty or punished more severely if I’m found guilty.

In trying to bring racial justice to fruition, the Left has made justice racist. Good job, I guess?

Meanwhile, we should not be scared to point out the disparities between how blacks and whites are treated. It doesn’t start with looting, violence, and vandalism. It’s starts with a conversation so we can learn from each other and build a stronger relationship as a result. And, yes, that means we white folk are going to have to be willing to listen and accept how blacks have been treated overall, but it will lead to a much greater result, one that will make The Squad’s call for racial justice obsolete.

Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week

There are times when I have to really dig to find Leftist Lexicon subjects that will excite, entertain, and inform you, gentle readers. This week is not one of them, and I have former Vice President Joe Biden to thank for it! During an online interview on The Breakfast Club, Vice President Biden said “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” That’s bad enough on its own, but at the time he said it, he was speaking to a young black man, and his tone was, to put it mildly, scolding. After Biden’s campaign surrogates and members of the media (who are pretty much the same people) tried to convince people the former Vice President’s sentiments weren’t racist, he later apologized…to a completely different group of blacks.

The Left pins some of its hopes for 2020 Presidential and Congressional victories on the black vote, which has been predominantly Democrat for a couple of generations now. However, the 2016 Presidential election showed blacks moving away from the Democrats and warming up to the possibility of voting for a Republican, or at least voting for Donald Trump. With this key voting bloc being so important to the Left, it’s time we take a closer look at it.

the black vote

What the Left thinks it means – black voters who have been disenfranchised from society due to racism and classism, a key component to any campaign

What it really means – black voters who the Left thinks can be convinced to overlook their mistreatment from the Left by throwing money at them and giving lip service to their concerns

Before I begin, I realize I’m white (or Honkey-American, if you prefer). To many, that makes my commentary on blacks as valid as Elizabeth Warren’s claims to be Native American. If that’s what you think, that’s fine, but I think I have some insights that you won’t get anywhere else (mainly because I’m the only one crazy/stupid enough to advance them).

The Left has taken blacks for granted for quite a while now, and with good reason (at least to them). The Left’s default position is blacks, or any minority for that matter, need people to speak up for them within the current power structure. Barring electing people of a certain color who parrot the Left’s squawking points, that duty falls to…rich white Leftists. Funny how that works out, isn’t it? Either you have to be a rich white Leftist to speak for minorities or talk and act like one to get ahead.

Even for a Honkey-American dude like me, that’s messed up.

For all the talk from the Left about respecting a person’s agency, they simply don’t apply it. Then again, the Left doesn’t actually care about the plight of anyone outside of their cul de sac in their gated communities. Remember the Flint water situation? Still hasn’t been addressed yet, even though Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, is Governor. And who does that affect most? Blacks, unfortunately. Granted, the Right has been as effective as Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment of the President at attracting black votes, but in recent years we have seen black conservatives and Republicans become more visible, for lack of a better term. And, of course, white Leftists either pretend they don’t exist or call them racial sellouts.

But the Left is better on racial issues. Just ask them.

This may sound like a “not all X” statement, but black voters aren’t a monolith. They may tend to vote Democrat, but there are plenty who not only see through the Left’s high-minded rhetoric, but actively push back. And, much like their white counterparts, each has his or her own style. Whether you like sober and intellectual rhetoric like Dr. Thomas Sowell or the take-no-crap-nor-prisoners style of Candice Owens, you will find a greater diversity among black conservatives than you find among Leftists, let alone black Leftists.

That’s how Donald Trump was able to do better with black voters in 2016 than Hillary Clinton. Well, that, and she’s a horrible candidate. Trump not only reached out to the black community, but he offered them an opportunity to take a long, hard look at their environment to see if they wanted the change Barack Obama promised, but never quite delivered. In his time as President, it’s hard to overlook the strides Trump has made to improve conditions in the black community and act on some of the issues they’ve been talking about for years, like prison and sentencing reform. If black voters look at actions instead of words, they have the opportunity to put Donald Trump back in the White House.

And it’s that possibility that scares the Left. Even though Joe Biden walked back his comments and his fans and the media (again, pretty much the same people) are trying to turn this situation into a non-issue, it is an issue on a grander scale. Biden tried to wave it off as his being “cavalier,” but one has to ask why he felt comfortable saying it in the moment. And we can’t overlook the dismissive and scolding tone of the initial statement. Within the context of the moment, it doesn’t make a good case for black voters to pull the lever for Biden.

Also, this opens him up to a lot of scrutiny of his past statements. Spoiler Alert: Joe Biden has made some questionable statements about blacks, which will certainly be used as attack ads by the Trump campaign. Plus, there’s the snubbing of up-and-coming Leftist superstar and self-identified Governor of Georgia, Stacey Abrams. During a recent joint interview, Biden had a chance to introduce her as his running mate, only to ask others (read: white Leftist women) to be vetted for the position.

Looks like Abrams isn’t the only person who will be relegated to self-identified leadership in the near future.

Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week

If there’s a figure in the Trump Administration that is a lightning rod of criticism (outside of the President himself), it’s Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Some of the criticism (she doesn’t have an education background) is legitimate, while some of it (she wants to take away victims’ rights on college campuses) is as valid as a Nigerian prince’s email. It’s not secret Secretary DeVos has been pushing for changes to Title IX that would give accused sexual assault attackers the opportunity to defend themselves against allegations.

Enter our good friends, the American Civil Liberties Union. For decades, they have championed rules of evidence and due process. What did they do? They…sided with victims’ rights group and filed a lawsuit against Secretary DeVos to try to prevent the proposed Title IX changes. Yes, you read that right. The ACLU came down against due process on college campuses.

If you’re still scratching your head over this, keep reading. I have a lot to unpack here.

ACLU

What the Left thinks it means – an organization whose sole purpose is to defend civil liberties against those who would seek to undermine them

What it really means – an organization whose commitment to civil liberties is spotty at best these days

Before we get into the specifics of the lawsuit against Secretary DeVos, it’s important to understand the ACLU isn’t what it used to be. Throughout much of its history in the 20th Century, it defended everyone from conscientious objectors to neo-Nazis. Their commitment to civil liberties was unquestioned, and justifiably so.

Even so, there were parts that would cause fans of civil liberties to take pause. Their commitment to the Second Amendment is weaker than Richard Simmons’ handshake. Their interpretation of the freedom of religion section of the First Amendment pretty much ignores the whole “Congress shall make no law” verbiage and comes down that any entity even remotely funded by Congress can’t express any religious sentiments (well, except for Islam because…reasons).

If these were the only issues, the ACLU could skate past any criticism. Yeaaaah, about that. There are a lot of issues beyond that. In recent years, the ACLU has decided to give up its commitment to civil liberties for everyone to whatever civil liberties the Left wants to promote this week. In other words, the ACLU has gone from the American Civil Liberties Union to Always Cucking to Leftist Underlings.

Which brings us to the situation with Title IX. Previous Administrations attempted to walk a tightrope between protecting equal treatment of male and female students and maintaining a common sense approach to enforcing that equal treatment. Then, President Barack Obama came along and decided due process on colleges campuses was best handled by letting people not in the legal profession hold kangaroo courts where the accused is presumed guilty even if proven innocent. But remember, President Obama is a Constitutional scholar and the smartest man to ever be President (without knowing what was going on without watching the news), so the Left thought it was okay. Besides, men are icky, amirite? How dare Betsy DeVos try to prevent colleges and universities from trampling on Constitutional rights in the act of sweeping bad press under the rug?

Although I have some misgivings about Secretary DeVos, she’s in the right here, and for the ACLU to ignore their previous stances in defense of due process shows how far left they’ve gone. Yes, there are scumbags like Brock Turner on college campuses, but there are also scumbags like “Mattress Girl” who invented sexual assault charges out of whole cloth and were rewarded for it by the same Leftists who tell us repeatedly victims tell the truth. The fact there is such a dichotomy in dealing with something as serious as sexual assault under the auspices of Title IX with the backing of a civil liberties group should have more people outraged than there are.

I’m sure no one from the ACLU will be reading this, but it has to be said: you have utterly lost your ever-loving minds (and I say this as someone who remembers when a couple of your members went to bat for NAMBLA). Civil liberties aren’t subject to ideological litmus tests; either you’re all in or all out. What’s truly scary is what impact this lawsuit will have on justice as a whole. Sure, your position is that relaxing the protections you say are in Title IX will undercut sexual assault victims and make them feel as though they won’t be believed, but there is another party in this equation that will definitely get the shaft if you get what you want. The falsely accused get railroaded under the current system precisely because their civil liberties are ignored. They don’t get to face their accusers, offer an alternate opinion of what happened, or even have an attorney to cross-examine the accusers (if they’re even allowed to represent the accused in the first place). At the risk of invoking the wrath of “whataboutism” from the Left, I would say you would be far less forgiving if this happened in a courtroom in, say, Alabama.

And that’s the problem.

When you base your commitment to civil liberties on what will get you more Leftist street cred, you erroneously conclude only the Left cares about civil liberties. News Flash for you, kids. They don’t care about civil liberties until they can find a way to get support and money for supporting it, and it seems you’re okay with it.

For the purposes of this point, I did a quick search to see how the ACLU responded to Senator Kamala Harris’ practices of mass incarceration of blacks while she was Attorney General of California. How many hits did I get? If you guessed 0, you’d be right! But I did find a lot of press releases praising her work in the Senate defending “protesters of color” from surveillance efforts. Just a bit of a disconnect there, kids.

The ACLU should no longer be considered the benchmark for the protection of civil liberties because they’ve long since given up any pretense of living up to the principles their name suggests they have. And with their recent lawsuit against Betsy DeVos, they’ve brought their own backhoe so they can bury the last remnants of their credibility.

Circular Firing Squad, Anyone?

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: the Left has no idea how to plan for the long term. Their nature is to gain quick victories that turn pyrrhic over time. Of course, I thoroughly enjoy seeing that because it reminds me of the Road Runner cartoons. Wile E. Coyote (suuuuuuperrrr geeeeeeniussssss) would always think he had the upper hand, but his plans to catch the Road Runner would always fail.

Aside from taking a walk down Old School Cartoon Lane, what does this have to do with anything? Well, the Left is back to the drawing board with another can’t-miss scheme that is sure to blow in up their faces yet again. It’s no secret the Left hates the wealthy, but usually their hate is dependent heavily on how heavily those rich people donate to their causes.

Recently, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have come under fire from the Left for straying a little off the Leftist reservation. Musk has been on record telling people the current shutdown due to COVID-19 needs to end and has even butted heads with Alameda County, California, because he wants to reopen his Tesla factory and allow any of his employees who wanted to go back to work to do so. On the Bezos front, it was reported he would be making one trillion dollars, which angered Leftists who a) don’t want anyone to have that much money, and b) use Amazon for just about everything they need during the COVID-19 situation.

To put it mildly, this is a puzzling situation. Musk is very much on board with electric cars and renewable energy and Bezos is a consistent donor to the DNC and Leftist causes. You would think Leftists would give these two the Golden Ticket for what they’ve done. Instead, what they’re getting is something that looks like chocolate, but sure doesn’t taste or smell like it. And we have people like the Socialist Socialite to thank for it.

Over the past 10+ years, the Left has convinced themselves they have the power to affect change (even if people like the Socialist Socialite can’t make it) and have installed themselves in positions that would allow them to do just that. Then, when these folks start coming up with wish lists of programs, funding, and the like, the people in power above them have two choices: push back or fold. And for the most part, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has been folding like a poker player having a cold streak that can only be measured in degrees Kelvin.

This also puts less crazy Democrats in a rough spot. If they don’t at least sound like they back the more radical members of their party, they will get attacked by said radicals. If they do at least sound like they back the more radical members of their party, they will get shunned by people with the money to help their reelection campaigns, which will help more radical members get their seats. Then, the ousted members get tossed aside and forgotten, no matter what they accomplished or how much they advanced Leftist causes. It’s all about the now, baby!

And that’s what Musk and Bezos are experiencing right now. No matter how much money they give, no matter how closely they walk in lockstep, they are ultimately expendable if they don’t produce what the Left wants at a given moment. COVID-19 has given the Left a perfect opportunity to keep people under their thumbs. Having people like Musk and Bezos buck that trend by wanting to work or by providing a service during the outbreak works against the Left’s objective to keep people down as long as possible. Since they’re not on board, the Left has to destroy them by painting them as evil rich guys (unlike a similarly wealthy peer, Bill Gates, who continues to do the Left’s bidding under any circumstances). Gates is helping the world, while Bezos and Musk are only in it for greed and want to endanger the poor so they can get richer.

Although wealth envy works on a lot of people, what Bezos and Musk are doing should be seen not through the eyes of envy, but through the eyes of reason. Running a company like Tesla or Amazon takes more talent and knowhow than the Left possesses in economic affairs. Instead of believing the rich steal from the poor, we should recognize it’s people like Musk and Bezos who help keep the country going. I may disagree with their politics and business practices sometimes, but I won’t let that stop me from acknowledging their contributions to America under COVID-19.

On the other hand, we should question the Left’s approach to this situation because it makes no sense. Politically, it puts otherwise acceptable candidates who could get crossover votes in jeopardy to cater to niche candidates. Economically, it puts the Left in a bad position because they look, sound, and act like they want the economy to grind to a halt. Socially, Americans are getting tired of being in lockdown, especially when we’re moving from spring into summer. Medically/scientifically, the lockdowns are starting to negatively affect us to the point we may get sicker if we wait to “flatten the curve” even as the curve appears to be flattening as we speak. There is no way the Left comes out of this looking good, even if they manage to convince people to keep panicking. At some point, even fear and loathing will give way to a desire to go outside and live.

And not even the Left has the ability to overcome a good bonfire.