Now that Democrats control both the House and the Senate, you didn’t need to be Nostradamus to see a second impeachment against President Donald Trump would be a foregone conclusion. Leftists and Democrats are overjoyed at the possibility of sticking it to Trump one more time as he leaves the White House because…unity? Anyway, right now the only matter on the table will be how severe the punishment against Trump will be.
No matter what the Left decides is sufficient punishment, the impeachment is already a failure. Oh, sure, they’ll get the votes to convict and to punish, but in their rush to impeach, the Left has overlooked one important detail that renders their efforts as irrelevant as the footnotes in a Vox article.
Donald Trump has zero fucks to give.
Remember, impeachment is a political action, not a legal one. That means the extent of the impact of any impeachment is limited to the political realm. Even if the punishment includes Trump never holding public office again, he’s already served in public office once. Can’t draw a federal pension? Trump might have the money to do without it. No Secret Service protection for the rest of his life? I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say he already has hired security on the payroll. No matter what else the Left wants to tack onto the impeachment in the way of punishment, Trump has it or can have it covered. He may still have issues on the legal side of the equation, but there are no political consequences that will hurt Trump now or ever.
This may open a can of worms, but it begs the question of why the Left is so hot to impeach Trump again even though the punishment won’t affect him. There are a number of possible reasons, but the one I keep coming back to is revenge for winning the Presidency in the first place. I would hope the Left wouldn’t hold a grudge, but considering they still crap on Ronald Reagan, I’m guessing they haven’t gotten past the first stage of grief yet.
What they have done, however, is open a door that can and will swing back to hit them on the backside. As of this writing, Donald Trump is no longer President, which means the Senate element of the impeachment process will be against someone who is now a private citizen. A loud and somewhat boorish private citizen, but a private citizen nonetheless. It’s almost like convicting someone posthumously, except the convict is able to speak and hasn’t voted 43 times in Chicago yet.
Now, let’s play this out a bit. Let’s say Republicans or Trump-allied Republicans win back the House and Senate in 2022. Under the current Leftist strategy, that means Barack Obama can be impeached and punished for any number of crimes, actual or political, as can Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and any number of previous Presidents. Under the current Congressional leadership, impeachments against George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush, and even Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford could be on the table. We could see Impeach-A-Palooza for the next few years, which will significantly impact the ability of Congress to do its actual job.
Wait. Did I just make an argument in favor of politically posthumous impeachments?
While I try to figure that out, let me leave you with the bottom line here. Leftists and Democrats are so hell-bent on impeaching Donald Trump a second time (even though the first impeachment was legally flimsier than any case argued by Lionel Hutz) while ignoring the boomerang effect that will happen under different political circumstances because that’s what politics is anymore: using any advantage to the party’s benefit. And with some of the dirty players in DC, the taste of short term victory is sweet, but turns sour when someone else plays the long game.
So, I would invest heavily in popcorn shares. I get the feeling there is going to be a big demand for it when the fit hits the shan.
The State of the Onion Address, 2020 Edition
As the glow from the flaming dumpster fire that was 2020 appears in our rearview mirror, we can finally take a look back with hope, namely the hope that 2020 doesn’t come back for an encore. Unfortunately for us, the media’s malpractice will be coming back like the food and drink after a really intense bender.
The state of journalism last year was the gasoline thrown on top of the aforementioned dumpster fire. Big stories, like a little bug known as COVID-19, got covered intensely by people whose only experience with medicine is drinking a Dr. Pepper, while other stories, like Jeffrey Epstein’s “suicide” or Hunter Biden’s business details, were treated with a dismissive hand wave in spite of there being more red flags than a Chinese military parade. That is, of course, when they weren’t busy being the sycophantic propaganda arm of the Left.
But don’t you dare call the media out for acting like the lapdogs they were! They are real reporters working on real news, like…oh, I don’t know…continuing to follow the Russiagate narrative after being embarrassed by the lack of actual facts involved in it. That was certainly more important than reporting the actual news or following up on stories that might make the Left look bad. You know, like dragging a kid through the mud for shooting Leftist thugs who were attacking him first. The interwebs often did the work the “real news” people were reluctant to do, but the “real news” folks could be counted on to provide only half the story to advance their ideological ends.
Speaking of which, how’d that work out for you media types with Nick Sandmann?
The only other constant in modern media outside of the fact they’re all terrible is that they don’t learn from their mistakes. Oddly enough, that perpetuates the terribleness, which makes it all the more humorous to me. A lot of that comes down to ego. High profile journalists (which should never be a thing, in my opinion) are often notorious for having skin thinner than the plot of a Michael Bay movie. When they get caught screwing up, being general asshats, or looking down their noses at the rest of us, there’s a tiny bit of satisfaction that comes from watching them fail time and time again. It’s schadenfreudelicious!
Over the past year, the media decided to be fact checkers for anything and everything President Donald Trump said. And they failed. A lot. As of this writing, they still haven’t admitted the President was right when he said there would be a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2020. In fact, the media and their handpicked experts said it would be impossible. It makes you wonder why anyone pays attention to these self-professed defenders of truth when they can’t even find it.
This also applies to the self-professed fact checkers the media love to use to “debunk” the President and his supporters. In a move that can only be called peak 2020, the media did a handful of fact checks on…the Babylon Bee, a satirical website. And this is after popular fact checking website Snopes fact checked the Bee just the year before and were deservedly mocked for it.
Remember what I said earlier about the media not learning from their mistakes?
The funny thing (at least to me) in all of this is the people who profess to check and know the facts so we don’t have to are the ones who struggle the most with the facts and correcting the record when they get their facts wrong. This is why I take the media’s portrayal of themselves with a great lake of salt. At this point, you’re better getting your news from your local Super Shopper that has been left in a festering pile of garbage.
And speaking of festering piles of garbage, let’s talk about Twitter. Granted Twitter is to news what Jerry Springer is to quality TV programming, but more and more people (including journalists) are using it to report on events as they happen in as close to real time as we can get. The only problems with this type of on-the-spot reporting are 1) the information may not always be accurate, 2) information can be mixed with opinion easily, and 3) it’s fucking Twitter. And if you think journalists are slow to admit they were wrong, Twitter users rarely, if ever, correct their mistakes. They just prefer to ignore them or double down while insulting anyone who disagrees with them. Which, as we know, is the only way to win debates.
In closing, it will be fun to watch the media who spent so much time fact checking fall asleep on the job as Joe Biden starts his administration. If 2020 is any indication, 2021 in the media is going to be lit.
Just like a dumpster fire!
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
Last week, professional lemon tester and former CIA Director John Brennan made the following statement on MSNBC:
We are now looking forward that the members of the Biden team who have been nominated or have been appointed, are now moving in laser like fashion to try to uncover as much as they can about what looks very similar to insurgency movements that we’ve seen overseas, where they germinate in different parts of the country and they gain strength and it brings together an unholy alliance frequently of religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, Nativists, even libertarians
Nothing like a little authoritarian cleansing of the intelligence community, eh Johnny? I mean, it’s not like completely ridding parts of the intelligence community would lead to, oh, 9/11, right?
Although most of Brennan’s sentiments are expected, the part about going after libertarians struck me as a bit odd, if not down right creepy. Who could be threatened by libertarians?
You’ll find out soon enough.
libertarians
What the Left thinks it means – potentially dangerous people who align themselves with the Alt Right in an attempt to undermine the country
What it really means – people who just want to be left alone and will let you do the same
To add some clarification, I’m not talking about the Libertarian Party here. The party has been the best example for why we should consider self-government because it’s been incapable of being effective leaders of anything more complex than a Conga line, and even that’s suspect. The libertarians Brennan is referring to are people who see the bullshit from the “two” major parties and calls it out instead of rooting for the Blue or the Red. It’s that last part that gets people like me off others’ Christmas card lists, but it’s who we are.
But it’s also this attitude that gets Leftists mad at us.
Leftists by nature don’t believe we can take care of ourselves. Instead, they see government as the answer to every problem even if government is the problem. And, of course, since they believe they know better than the rest of us, Leftists feel they need to be in government to guide us towards the utopia they’ve created in San Francisco, Detroit, New York City, and Portland.
For the Leftists reading this, that was sarcasm.
The funny thing to me about this attitude is it contradicts much of what the Left advocates in different situations. Take abortion, for example. The Left’s frequent refrain is “abortion is between the woman and the doctor.” Additionally, they believe teenage girls are mature enough to decide to terminate the pregnancy, even without their parents knowing about it. No matter how you try to explain it away, there is no way to remove this contradiction.
Except, you know, if you value a person’s ability to make a decision himself/herself.
As much as I oppose abortion in most cases, I recognize I don’t have a say in the process unless I’m the baby daddy and even then my opinion has limited sway. That’s pretty much the way libertarians roll. You do your thing, we’ll do ours, and until you start violating the rights of others or harm them, we’re cool.
I know what you’re thinking. How can we let these evil bastards exist in America?
To any Leftists reading this, that was also sarcasm.
The real danger here to the Left is libertarians are free thinkers and tend to be smarter than your average Leftist. Granted, that bar’s lower than a snake’s belt buckle, but the point is libertarians tend to know their rights and how to defend them against the whims of Leftists wanting to bring people to heel. Leftists demand compliance, no matter what. Anyone who stands against that becomes a threat to society, at least to Leftists like Brennan.
That’s where it’s important to remember Brennan’s line of work for years. Intelligence requires at least some level of dishonesty and deceit to obtain information, which also requires a willingness to lie and deceive. You know, like Leftists do? I’m sure the Left considers a bunch of people who want to leave everyone else alone to be dangerous, but the reality is people who want to control every aspect of people’s lives tend to be more dangerous to life, liberty, and property because they will do everything in their power to maintain that control.
Including ratting out their fellow Americans for the crime of wrongthink.
Brennan’s MSNBC appearance to what could only be considered a sympathetic audience should raise a few eyebrows, not the least of which to people who know his past and what he allowed to happen on his watch throughout his career. Since being exposed as a ideologue with a penchant for deception, Brennan hasn’t exactly tried to reform his image or make amends for his multiple blunders. And since he’s on the Leftist payroll, he will be guaranteed spots on Leftist television networks and given all the gravitas he desires.
In the end, though, he is still a paid liar and has endorsed the rooting out of a group of people whose only crime was to think people can take care of themselves better than the government can. And given how Brennan’s approach has actually killed Americans, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say libertarians aren’t the dangerous ones here.
To any Leftists reading this, that wasn’t sarcasm.
Silent for While Longer
I haven’t posted anything in a while. This is due to a number of factors.
I was waiting to see the results of any litigation concerning the election results. It was very disappointing but also predictable that President Trump wouldn’t get far with the black robed tyrants being all Leftists and wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Also the holiday period is a very busy time with travel and family. And family is more important that posting anything on a blog.
But the greatest factor limiting my ability to post is that my beloved wife passed away suddenly on December 31st. I am emotionally spent. Grief is a long and hard journey to take. And I am suffering like Job in my grief. I have lost too many friends and family members over the last 13 years.
So for now I will leave most postings to Thomas. I may post from time to time but I’m not going to guarantee anything at this point.
Thank you for your prayers. I need them and my family needs them.
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
There are a lot of things I could say about the recent storming of the Capitol Building, but not a lot of them are flattering. Even so, my criticisms would be a mixture of legitimate concern and more than a little mockery as Donald Trump supporters tried LARPing as Antifa for a few hours. But, I’m not sure I would go as far as the Left has in how they’ve presented the protest-turned-plundering and selfie expedition. Instead, the Left has made the entire affair into a breach of our country’s laws.
Yep, our Leftists friends found a new word in their 365 Reasons To Complain Calendar: insurrection. As you might expect, there are differing opinions on whether what happened at the Capitol rises to that level, but the Left has pretty much decided it did. And if you disagree with them, you’re obviously supporting insurrection against the country and, thus, are just as guilty. If the Left is correct on this, prison overcrowding is going to get a lot worse.
Are they right? Let’s find out!
insurrection
What the Left thinks it means – trying to overthrow a government through violent and destructive means, mainly by Trump supporters
What it really means – anything that the Left sees as threatening to their power base
I did a little digging online to make sure I had a workable definition of the word, and merriam-webster.com came through for me. Their definition of insurrection is as follows:
an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government
Keep this in mind for later because it’s going to be relevant. Unlike the rest of my writing.
Insurrection is a violation of federal law, so it’s a pretty serious charge and shouldn’t be thrown around lightly unless you have reason to do it. And, no, merely being a Trump supporter isn’t a good enough reason. Still, this might be considered a semantic argument rather than anything based on the law. It won’t satisfy the Left, but here is the legal definition as found on legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com:
A rising or rebellion of citizens against their government, usually manifested by acts of violence
Oooh. Might be in a little trouble there, folks.
Well, to paraphrase a former President, it all depends on what your definition of rebellion is. At the heart of both of the definitions posted above is the concept of rebelling against the government. And it’s in how the Left views the government where things get stickier than an explosion at a cotton candy convention.
The Left believes government is the be-all and end-all of everything, from paying for pet projects involving the mating habits of the rare Argentinian albino fourteen-toed tree sloth to promoting values that advance the Left’s agenda. If you disagree with that notion, even if it’s because there is no such thing as an Argentinian albino fourteen-toed tree sloth, the Left sees that as a threat to the government as a whole and, by extension, themselves.
Except, of course, unless it’s people on their side of the political spectrum, like Black Lives Matter and Antifa. When they take over a federal building, cause destruction, and advocate overthrowing the entire government, it’s cheeky and fun, not evil and seditious like when the MAGA crowd does it! It’s totes cool! And, unfortunately for them, it’s also the very definition of insurrection, albeit taken to a much larger extreme.
Where Trump supporters might have some wiggle room is the actual purpose of the protests at the Capitol Building. To them, Donald Trump is the government (among other things). Everyone else is either an ally or part of the “Deep State.” In order for the legal definition of insurrection to be met, it would have to be against the government, and since the protests were in support of Donald Trump, they could argue (please check local listings for likelihood this will work) they were protesting the Deep State and their actions are consistent with that. Granted, this is a bit of a stretch, but it can’t be dismissed out of hand.
Along the same lines (and with equal stretching) is the argument the protestors weren’t trying to overthrow the government, but rather a specific function of the government. In this case, it’s the certification of the Electoral College vote. Although there is likely to be at least one pocket of protestors who might be stupid enough to admit they were trying to overthrow the government, most of the people there weren’t.
Wait a minute…I’ve heard that same argument before…something about Antifa/BLM…but I’m sure the people who advanced that argument with them are right there defen…nevermind.
The Left and the Right are guilty of guilt by association here, so their current positions are as valid as a homemade PowerBall ticket. From where I sit, there are very few Trump supporters who can and should be charged with insurrection, but there are also very few BLM and Antifa members who can and should also be charged along with the Trump supporters. The issue is ideological blinders prevent both the Left and the Right from being honest about who should get charged. As you might have guessed by now, I have no problem charging the guilty, even if/when I agree with them. That’s because the law isn’t supposed to be ideologically tinted. Lady Justice has a blindfold on because that’s how justice is meted, or at least should be. If we hold our allies to one standard and our opponents to another, that’s not justice; that’s favoritism.
I’m not going to hold my breath for the Left to catch up on this, but I will continue to hold the only standard that needs to be held in this case: if you do the crime, you do the time.
Oh, and keep your eye on the sparrow.
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
While we are waiting for a stimulus check from a government that didn’t have to go without during COVID-19, a potential stumbling block came up in the form of a separate bill related to foreign aid. Although this is a global pandemic, the stuff our money is being spent on is…well, peak 2020 levels of insanity. One of the big ticket items, and I swear I’m not making this up, is funding gender studies programs…in Pakistan. Now, I’ll admit I don’t follow Pakistan that closely, but I’m thinking they have worse problems than gender studies. Maybe it’s so if/when India drops bombs on them, they know how to sex the bombs?
Regardless, at a time when Americans are struggling to find ways to make enough money to survive, it seems absurd we would continue to spend millions of dollars overseas, gender studies programs or no. Even at times when the only pandemics we worried about were the ones in the game Pandemic, we would be spending moneys in foreign countries like drunken sailors. Wait, wait, I take that back. I’d trust the fiscal responsible of a drunken sailor before I would trust the federal government to buy a pack of gum, let alone spend money.
Since we have the time, let’s take a look at foreign aid.
foreign aid
What the Left thinks it means – money and goods we give to foreign countries to help them
What it really means – money and goods we give to foreign countries to curry favor with them
Here is a fundamental truth the Left doesn’t understand: no matter what sociopolitical ideology you subscribe to, the world speaks capitalism. Whether you’re an anarcho-socialist or a corporate type, everything you believe comes down to how similar or different it is from capitalism. The same concept applies to foreign aid. No matter if you think capitalism is the Great Satan or the great savior of the Western World, if somebody gives you money, your first instinct is to take it.
Let’s just say the American government has been very generous with our tax dollars and the recipients have yet to decline it.
And usually that comes with some strings, namely that the recipients do something or not do something as the case may be in exchange for the money. In some cases, like with Israel, the foreign aid comes with easier strings, namely not letting the country be turned into glass or into the Jerusalem franchise of ISIS. For others, it’s a bit more complicated, i.e. contradictory to anyone playing along at home. (I’m looking at you, Iran, but we’ll get to them here in a bit.)
But that’s only part of the issue. The other part of the foreign aid issue is there are no consequences if the countries receiving the aid don’t follow through on their promises. And when you consider some of the recipients of our largesse hate our guts, it’s kind of important that we hold them to their word. That brings us back to Iran. (See? I told you we’d get to them!) After the Obama Administration freed up funds allegedly owed to Iran since the hostage crisis, Iran took the money and…continued its nuclear weapons program. You know what was done?
Nothing. Not even a sternly-worded memo.
Regardless of whether you maintain it was their money, the fact of the matter is there are leaders who will take our money and not do what they said they would. Just ask Bob Geldof. When there are no consequences for non-compliance, the dishonest will act with impunity. Imagine how different things might have been if we had parked a fleet or two in the Strait of Hormus to ensure Iran was abiding like The Dude. Iran might not even have developed glow sticks, let alone glow-in-the-dark nuclear bombs.
And the saddest part? The Left thinks this kind of diplomacy actually works. Then again, their solution to a lot of problems is throwing money at them, so it’s not that unusual. Still, it’s hard to say if foreign aid actually moves the needle for us, positive or negative. The best outcome I can see from this approach is the countries that already think we’re jerks will tolerate us as long as the money keeps coming.
With the incoming Administration, I have no doubt we will continue to see a steady outflow of cash in an attempt to, well, buy friends. The difference from the Trump Administration to the Biden Administration will be who we consider friends. Let’s not forget the Arab Spring came about due to the Obama Administration’s diplomatic efforts under former Secretary of State and current sore loser Hillary Clinton. Say what you will about former Secretary of State John Kerry (and believe me I will), but at least his foreign policy helped people remember James Taylor was still alive and performing. Not that it did anything, mind you…
I know we’re in a global economy right now, but that doesn’t mean we have to deal with everyone who hits us up for aid. In fact, I think we need to be a bit more choosy, especially in the face of the global pandemic, because if there’s nobody to write the checks to these foreign countries because everyone died, the checks stop. We have an enlightened self-interest to turn our fiscal focus inward to see what needs to be done to keep us afloat. Our real allies will understand, and any other country that doesn’t might not really be our allies. Although it might make things a little difficult in the short term, on the plus side it keeps down the number of people on the President’s Christmas card list.
The fact Congress decided gender studies in Pakistan was more important than the American people is a slap in the face to all of us and should be grounds to start grabbing torches and pitchforks. (By the way, I have a new business venture that sells torches and pitchforks just in case you want to go ahead with that.) If America was as on-top of everything as we like to think we are, maybe we could justify it, but we’re messed up more than Charlie Sheen partying with Lindsey Lohan in Las Vegas on All the Blow You Can Snort Night. I’m thinking we should hold off on sending other countries our money so we can work on the infrastructure the Left reminds us is crumbling around us, but never does anything about it when they control the purse strings.
But, hey, $600 is $600, amirite?
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
To start off this week’s edition of the Lexicon, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is we may finally get to see another round of COVID-19 relief in the near future. The bad news? It looks like it will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $600 per person, or in other words, the cost of a large popcorn and drink at your local movie theater, give or take a few thousand dollars.
Granted, if President Donald Trump gets his way, that amount may get boosted to up to $2000, so you might be able to afford to get some nachos with that popcorn. Still, there are questions, primarily from the Left, about whether the proposed stimulus package will be enough to help people. It’s a valid point, but it’s just one of the questions we need to explore before we cash the stimulus checks.
stimulus
What the Left thinks it means – monetary support necessary due to the economic hardships brought on by COVID-19
What it really means – the government returning a portion of the money it takes from us and expecting us to be grateful for it
If you really think about it (and I have because I don’t have anything better to do during quarantine), we’ve been played for suckers this past year because of the political weaponization of COVID-19. This isn’t to say COVID-19 is a hoax or a political scheme, mind you. What I’m saying is people more powerful than us have taken a medical issue and turned it into a way to manipulate the public into acting and acting in a certain way as a means to condition our responses under the guise of “believing the science” and “we’re all in this together.”
The endgame is pretty simple, really. If those who have the most to benefit from turning COVID-19 into a political football can get us to react predictably, they can use that to push a wider agenda using the same thinking that got us to this point. To do that, the powerful (namely Leftists) need a carrot to dangle in front of our faces to keep us Torgo-walking towards being happy little drones for the State.
Enter the stimulus package.
For all of their faults, the Left have an impressive understanding of the human psyche and an even better understanding of how to use us against us. Most people today have the economic understanding of a tuna fish sandwich, so it’s easy for the Left to play to that and our innate sense of greed and jealousy to make us chase the quick buck instead of taking a moment to ponder why there are so many good intentions paving this road to Hell. As we’ve seen since declaring war against poverty, it works.
Of course, that quick buck moves at the glacial progression (this is the government we’re dealing with here, after all), so we never quite reach the finish line. Every time we get close, there always seems to be a reason we have to keep going. Thus, we become George Jetson on that mechanized treadmill used to walk Astro. No matter how much we progress, there will always be a way to not only downplay what we’ve done, but also to set another goal even further away than where we’ve come. And as long as we keep following, the Left will keep that carrot in front of our faces.
There’s another side of this, however, that isn’t talked about much (due to either the Left trying to keep it hidden or, you know, the tuna fish sandwich thing), but is just as important to understand. The bulk of Leftist economic theory comes from John Maynard Keynes, who postulated the way to stimulate the economy is to have government pump money and resources into it and to lower taxes. Seems the Left forgets that last part and only focuses on the government spending side of the equation, but that’s neither here nor there in relation to this blog post. What’s important to keep in mind is who the Left thinks can solve economic problems. Spoiler Alert: it ain’t us, kids. In a crossover event no one but the Left asked for, social and economic policies are joined together in a Man With Two Heads monstrosity that has the potential to turn us all into unwitting wards of the State.
However, a government that has the power to give you the world has the power to take it away from you. And if we follow this line of thinking, we eventually come to the question of where our government is coming up with the money to give to people. It’s not coming from the Left nor the rich who are “paying their fair share.” It’s coming from us. Whether it’s $600, $2000, or one meeeelion dollars, we’re funding it with money the government says we have based on…well, I’m still trying to figure that part out given our national debt is higher than Charlie Sheen partying with Keith Richards in Amsterdam. And I’m not willing to take the government at its word that it has the cash. Call me a cynic, but any government who spends $600 for a hammer without getting a second opinion from Ace Hardware isn’t on my short list for entities to contact for financial advice.
The question then becomes what happens if the money we’re getting from ourselves with the government acting as a middle man isn’t enough. The short term answer from the Left is “people need more money.” And if that money gets allocated, we will be continue to spend money the government doesn’t have, which means we go further into debt, which means the government will tax more to make up that shortfall, which means things will get more expensive, which means the economy doesn’t get any better, which means people will need more help, which means the Left will say “people need more money,” and the cycle begins again.
I got winded just writing that last sentence! I’m gonna need a minute.
Hopefully in that minute you see the insanity of the Left’s stimulus process. As much as I would like to say the people can figure out the correct next steps to get our economy back on track, I really can’t. Economic literacy isn’t something that can be taught with emojis or hashtags or even TikTok videos. However, it is essential to understanding the next steps. One thing I can say is don’t depend on the government to provide for you and yours. To paraphrase the Margaret Thatcher, the problem with a Leftist stimulus package is eventually you run out of your own money. Only you know what you need for yourself and your loved ones. Expecting a politician to know that on your behalf is like trusting your retirement to an embezzler.
Come to think of it, is there a difference between the two?
In either case, all I can ask for you to be smart with the stimulus money. It is your money, after all.
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
With the Electoral College officially voting for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the 2020 election is all over but the screeching. The Left has taken a break from its regularly scheduled outrage to focus on unity. And the Leftists in the media have jumped on board, claiming Biden and Harris are responsible for lower blood pressure (per an actual opinion piece from the Washington Post) to intelligence and maturity coming back to the White House. As a result, we are urged to get behind the President-Elect and Vice President-Elect so we can accomplish great things.
Like…well…ummm…I’m sure they’ll get around to it, as soon as Biden finds someone to copy.
While we wait for that moment, let’s take a look at unity.
unity
What the Left thinks it means – coming together as a country to undo the damage Donald Trump left
What it really means – do what the Left says or else
Four years ago, the Left was all about resisting. It was #IAmTheResistance this and #NotMyPresident that for four years. Now, resistance isn’t seen as favorably and the “Not My President” statements are mean and hurtful. Funny how that works, isn’t it?
And that is by design.
When the Left is in power, unity is important because they can’t handle actual diversity. Instead, they will batter the non-Leftists until they comply or until they rebel. Once they rebel, it becomes easy for them to marginalize (i.e. insult) them. It worked to a point with Trump supporters, and it may work as well, if not better, under a Biden Administration. The Left and the media (one in the same) are already praising Biden’s ability to unify people…without presenting any evidence. And, no, “he’s better than Trump” isn’t proof.
This isn’t to say Joe Biden won’t be able to do it. He is a likeable guy…if you ignore the frequent mental lapses and the weird fascination with body hair. For all intents and purposes, Joe Biden appears to be a good guy, which begs the question of why he’s in politics, but that’s neither here nor there. The problem he faces is the country isn’t full of nice guys on both sides of the aisle. Whether it’s the extreme right or extreme left, America is so contentious it makes the Hatfields and McCoys look like an Amish barn-raising. And unlike on the campaign trail, you can’t keep ducking questions about the extremists within your own party and ideology.
Including…oh, I don’t know…your Vice President.
While unity is a wonderful goal to strive for, we have to understand the Left’s version of unity isn’t One Nation Under God but One Nation Under the Thumb of the Federal Government. Imagine the person in your lives who are control freaks. Give them access to the military, and you have the Left’s governance strategy. In this case, unity involves shared struggle for the most people, themselves excluded. Even if you agree with this definition of unity, the fact it involves suffering doesn’t exactly make it an attractive option.
Now, what I’m about to say is going to shock you Leftists, so be prepared. Maybe unity isn’t something the government can provide for us. Oh, it can provide for the common defense to the tune of billions of dollars each year, but when has any government actively brought people together? Instead, let’s turn our sights a little be closer to home. Namely…us.
After 9/11, we came together as a nation because the tragedy didn’t just affect one political party or another, one race or another, one creed or another. It affected us all. We looked to government to help us, but when it came to coming together, that was all us, kids. We found commonality amidst the chaos and uncertainty and for a relatively short time, we were a United States again. It felt good to reconnect with our neighbors again, didn’t it? We mourned the losses and praised the front line police, fire, and medical services who were trying to keep the number of fatalities as low as possible, to keep working and never giving up hope in finding one more survivor.
When we are united, not out of shared pain but out of shared pride, we can accomplish just about anything. I believed it on 9/12, and I believe it today. The Left wants us to unify under an ideology or a politician that is a means to an end. The unity I speak of doesn’t even involve the ultimately meaningless descriptors we give to ourselves or are given to us by others as a means to pigeonhole us. All it involves is stripping off those labels and seeing each other as people. The Left can’t do that because their ideology relies on finding and exploiting our differences.
If you want to unite the country with me, the line starts to my left and my right.
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
Yep, this is another Election 2020-related blog post.
The latest news out of the Election That Won’t Die revolves around 126 Republican Congresscritters who supported a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump’s election team against four states due to election irregularities (you know, like…throwing away military votes for the President). This has the Left up in arms. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said these Republicans have “brought dishonor to the House.”
But that’s not good enough for Leftists. Leftist Twitter (but I repeat myself) exploded with claims these House Republicans are guilty of sedition. Probably not the best week to invoke this, given Rep. Eric Swalwell sleeping with a Chinese spy while he was running for the House, but let’s go with it. Do they have a point this time? Let’s delve deeper into sedition, hopefully without contributing to it.
sedition
What the Left thinks it means – advocating for revolting against and toppling the established order
What it really means – another example of how the Left doesn’t understand irony
For the past 4 years, Democrats and Leftists have been calling President Trump illegitimate and demanding he be removed from office because he didn’t win the popular vote and/or various crimes he and his family are alleged to have committed. They “know” Trump had help from Russia to steal the 2016 elections. In fact, they went so far as to hold protests across the country delegitimizing the Trump Presidency, up to and including violent overthrow of the government or blowing up the White House.
Yeah. These are the folks I trust when it comes to sedition.
On the plus side, Leftists are concerned with people who want to overthrow our government. On the down side, they’re going after the wrong folks. I’ll be the first one to tell you I thought the lawsuit was dumber than letting Jeffrey Epstein babysit, but does it rise to the level the Left wants you think it does? The short answer is no. The longer answer is still no, but has a lot more words connected to it.
The President’s lawsuit, although ill-advised, isn’t an attempt to overthrow the government or its rightful leadership. Neither is the support from House Republicans because…and this is the part the Left keeps forgetting…Trump is still President until January 20, 2021. This little detail makes the sedition charges harder to stick. After all, why would the support for the President’s lawsuit be seditious when the person bringing the lawsuit itself is the President? No violence called for. No threats against the President’s life or the lives of government leaders. Just support for a lawsuit.
Can you say “overkill”? I knew you could.
Even if you expand the focus to the lawsuit and its supporters hurting the government, it falls flat because of the forum used to address the President’s concerns: the courts. You know, the courts…that are established in the Constitution? If President Trump is trying to get people to rebel against the government, he’s doing a crappy job of it. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say the Left is reaching more than Reed Richards.
The funny thing (at least to me) is how quickly the Left is adopting conservative ideas. Since it’s their ideology that stands to gain or lose the most over the outcome of the lawsuit, they want to preserve the status quo of a Biden victory over Trump. If the courts agree with the Trump campaign (which, to date, they haven’t, making them the second most losing team in history behind the Cleveland Browns, but work with me here), that overturns everything the Left wants to accomplish. No Green New Deal, no tax hikes on the wealthy, no free health care and tuition, just four more years of Trump’s Tweets and Leftist meltdowns. Don’t worry, though. Leftists will still have their meltdowns because that’s what they do in lieu of gainful employment.
Once you get past the hyperbole, the Left’s concept of sedition in this case is frightfully strong in words, but frightfully weak in application. In a few short years, they’ve gone from “Dissent is patriotic” to “Dissent is treason.” Yet, the First Amendment gives people the right to not only criticize the government, but to redress grievances with the government. Under Republican Presidents, the Left uses, if not abuses, both concepts demanding they be heard. Under Democrat Presidents, however, they seem to “forget” these parts of the First Amendment exist. Funny how that works out, isn’t it?
This is by design, of course. Leftists believe anyone who doesn’t stay in line like a Rockette is intellectually and morally inferior, which justifies their actions (at least in their minds). To extend this thinking a bit further, anything a non-Leftist does is anti-American and dangerous to the country. And when that non-Leftist is connected to Trump in any way, it becomes an imperative to discredit them, if not outright punish them for not thinking the right way.
George Orwell called. He wanted to let you Leftists know “1984” wasn’t an instruction manual.
Regardless of my feelings on the Trump campaign’s lawsuit regarding the 2020 election, there is no way it rises to the level of sedition, even if you water the definition down like a drink at a strip club. It’s more of the Left conflating objections to their ideology with objections to the country. After seeing some of the Left over the past four years, it’s safe to say the two are mutually exclusive.
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
As George R. R. Martin is fond of writing, Winter is coming, and along with it comes the possibility of another round of COVID-19 breakout. To combat this, the same people who said we needed to stay quarantined to slow the spread (except, of course, if you’re ANTIFA, Black Lives Matter, or Biden/Harris supporters) are now saying we need to go back into lockdown to slow the spread again.
You know, because lockdowns worked so well last time.
Although we covered this topic earlier this year, the topic has been refreshed, namely because the Left keep acting as though the pandemic isn’t a thing. Which makes it perfect fodder for this week’s Lexicon!
lockdowns
What the Left thinks it means – a way to protect society from the spread of COVID-19 by limiting or canceling in-person activities, such as visiting a restaurant or going to concerts
What it really means – a means to control and manipulate people under the guise of science
When they weren’t telling us to ignore lockdown orders to combat racism, Leftists were enamored with idea of everybody staying inside to, as they called it, “flatten the curve.” Well, the curve didn’t get flattened so much as it got the Mamie Van Doren Special breast augmentation surgery. To cover this up, the Left kept moving the goalposts as to when the lockdowns would be over. First it was 2 weeks. Then 3. Then 4. Then 6. When it got to 12, I sold.
After blowing through the first couple of Leftist-designated goalposts, many people (including your humble correspondent) started to wonder if the lockdowns were actually supposed to control the spread of COVID-19. (Spoiler Alert: The scientists still aren’t on the same page as to the effectiveness of lockdowns. But we’re supposed to trust the science so…I guess we trust the ambiguity?) Then, Democrat governors across the country used the outbreak to enact restrictions stricter than my third grade teacher (to whom I still owe three weeks after school in detention), and people rebelled. Even though most people still considered COVID-19 a threat, they also saw the draconian moves by said governors to be as big of a threat. There is a debate to be had concerning freedom during quarantine, but the Left doesn’t want one. They just want to tell you what you can and can’t do.
Of course, those rules don’t apply to them because…reasons?
The reason lockdowns became a subject of discussion again is because Democrats leaders are getting caught violating the rules they want everyone else to follow. Who could have seen that coming? Even before now, Democrat governors and their spouses in some cases were caught defying their own mandates for personal gain. Imagine being told you have to stay in your house and not have Thanksgiving while the person telling you this is spending Thanksgiving with his family in a foreign country. If you’re living in Austin, TX, you know what that’s like because it actually happenedthis year.
You know, even Beethoven wasn’t this tone deaf.
At this point, the concept of lockdowns may be medically wise, but foolish in practice because we’re not all in this together, contrary to what the Left says. They’re in it for themselves and they don’t care who gets hurt in the process. That much is evident by how many businesses of all sizes have closed down due to lack of business or been forced out of business by governors who don’t have to worry about serving customers or making payroll. All they have to do is pretend to care when it’s election season.
On top of that, the Left hasn’t made any friends by, well…acting like Leftists. It’s hard enough to get everyone to go along with a reasonable request as it is, but it’s made even more difficult when you’ve given people a reason to distrust you. Congratulations, Leftists. You’ve made it impossible to achieve the right goal. And as someone who would benefit by the curve being flatter than pancakes in Nebraska, I’m not happy the Left used lockdowns to grab up power, hurt people and the economy, and create rules they don’t have to follow, but really should.
Thus, we see the facade of the lockdowns. Leftists used science to convince most of us to stay indoors and away from others, and we did. After weeks went by, the message stayed the same, even when the science didn’t back up their ideas. In the end, it was never about following the science or staying in lockdown until we got COVID-19 under control; it was all about control of as many people as possible.
And unfortunately it worked pretty well.
Where we go from here is hard to say. As I mentioned earlier, there is a valuable debate about freedom during the time of quarantine, and this is the time to have it. If President-Elect Joe Biden has his say, we will be looking at actions more draconian than the ones we’ve already experienced and he will try to justify it using the same method (i.e. the public good) the Left used during the first round of lockdowns. The thing is the same argument can be used to refute more stringent restrictions because of the number of people out of work due to the lockdowns themselves. The Left calls it putting profits ahead of people, but they also admit there are economic costs to a lockdown. When you don’t know where your next meal is coming from, profits are how you get paid. Put another way, the Left is putting politics and pain before people.
And you might need to dodge as the Leftists’ heads explode.