Trump the Facist is an Evil Genius

I never realized just how cunning and shrewd President Trump really
is, until I read a March 4, 2018 article by Susan Shelley detailing how
Trump orchestrated the 2014 Office of Legal Counsel opinion that Inspector
Generals no longer have access to all information that is deemed
"privileged" by the Justice Department or the FBI.

In other words, oversight and full transparency does not apply to the FBI,
the Justice Department, or maybe even other government agencies.

Not only that,  in 2016, Trump arranged it so that certain classified
information could be distributed throughout many (maybe even seventeen)
other agencies within the government.

So now,  all Trump has to do is staff the top level positions of these
agencies with unscrupulous political hacks and he could set up his own
Politburo or Secret Service.

He could even come up with an outside political organization to fund a
bogus dossier on a political opponent, make it seem as if the dossier
had been approved by seventeen different security agencies, and use the
dossier to get a FISA warrant on an opposing presidential candidate's
campaign staff.

It's ingenious!  He's managed a political coup within the government, with
no chance of getting caught as long as his own party's candidate gets elected
and continues to cover it up.

But wait!  The true beauty of this plan...the absolute GENIUS of this
plan...is that Trump got the Obama administration to do it for him!  Trump
didn't even have to wait to get into office to do it.

If you don't believe President Obama's administration (along with Hillary
Clinton) were evil enough to set this up by themselves, you're left with
believing they were dumb enough to be duped by President Trump.

I guess I can give them the benefit of the doubt.  I don't want to think
they were evil, so I choose to think they were out-smarted by the genius
of Donald Trump.

What Would Jesus Do

Recently, I've been hearing a lot of political discussion from the
Socialist Left, postulating that, because they "care" more for the "suffering
groups" in our society, and, they want to increase benefits for those
groups, they are more in tune with "what Jesus would do" than are
the cruel and indifferent Republicans and Christians.

I don't want to include most Democrats in the above definition of
the Liberal far left.  I'm speaking directly about the members of the
Democratic party who have Socialist and Communist sympathies...even
though most won't openly state their preferences.

Christianity does expect its members to earn their way into Heaven
by performing good deeds and helping the less fortunate among us.
In Christianity, and many other Religions, "doing it yourself" is the proper
way to do charity.

Even Religions who "tithe" from their members don't give the collections
to the government.  The Church spends the money the way the Church
sees fit, and if the member doesn't agree, he or she can always quit the
Church.

In other words, Jesus doesn't force his followers to turn over their money
to the government.  You don't work your way into heaven by paying
taxes and allowing politicians to build their political power base by
spending your money.

Even mainstream politicians, those who are not far-right or far-left,
succeed by taking money from everyone and passing it out to favored
constituencies.  That's why they always need more money...to keep
the gravy train rolling for their benefactors and themselves.  That may
be a topic for another day.

Trust me, Jesus has nothing to do with why they want more money.

But the Socialists and the Communists are special cases.  For generations
and generations, all over the world, from Communist Russia and China, to
Nazi Germany, to Venezuela, they have been preaching they will help the
poor, the disenfranchised, and the suffering;  yet all they have ever delivered
is worse suffering, starvation, murders, inhumanity, and wars.

But, if you look around today, here they are.  Still teaching in our universities.
Still mucking up our politics.  Still telling lies.  Still pretending to care.  Still
comparing themselves to Jesus.

They will never learn, so I guess it's up to the rest of us to learn to identify
them and learn to identify bullshit when we hear it.

Urban Durbinization

I know president Trump says things in blunt, non-PC, ways.  It's better
to refer to "those countries" as third-world countries.  It's better to
refer to immigrants skill sets than to the countries they come from,
especially if those countries are primarily white, black, or brown.

God, I wish he would watch how he says things.

But I just heard a US Senator come out of a private meeting with the
President...a meeting designed to attempt to solve a long-standing and
difficult immigration standoff...and this Senator publicly reports that
President Trump used the term "shitholes" to describe some countries,
and compared Norway to some African countries to illustrate a point
about the skill sets of immigrants he would like to encourage.

Then, he called the President a racist.  Nice.  That ought to do a lot
to encourage trust and cooperation with the White House.

In Washington-speak, the illustrious Senator from the great state of
Illinois speaks with more than a smidgen of arrogance, hubris, and treachery.

So I will speak openly and directly with you, Senator Durbin.  We all
what a "shithole" is.  In the US we call them slums, or ghettos, or boondocks,
or any other number of more respectable sounding names.  All kinds of
people live in them; whites, blacks, Asians, Latinos, citizens, and
immigrants.  Most are good people.  Most would like to get out.

In Washington, the proper term for a "shithole" country is to call it a
"third-world" country, usually run by a "two-bit" dictator.  I assume the
purpose is to make them feel better about themselves to be third behind
the "second-world" and "first-world" countries (us, of course)...or maybe
we think they are just too stupid to notice the put-down.

Who knows, maybe there's a "fourth-world" or a "fifth-world" out
there, and those "shithole" countries have earned the bronze medal.

Of course, those "two-bit" dictators are smart enough to get rich off
the money they can get Washington to throw at them.  And the people
are smart enough to want to get into the US if they can.  And especially
the ones that get to the US on an emergency, temporary visa are
smart enough to know they don't want to go back.

Anyway, Senator Durbin, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt,
and assume you spoke the truth.  It still was not necessary to go public
and poison the well for negotiations.  It still was more infantile than
statesmanlike to accuse the President of the United States of racism
because you didn't like his choice of words or the way he tried to
illustrate his points.

Your behavior seems more like that kid in school we all hated...the one
who ran to the teacher, screeching "Teacher, teacher, Billy said a swear
word!  Billy said a swear word!".

In grade school we called you a prissy little tattletale or a goody
two-shoes.  In high school, we called you a snitch, a rat, a weasel,
or, worse of all, a pussy.

I know, I know.  I can't use "pussy" anymore.  I've evolved.  I know

it's offensive to women.  I don't want to offend any women.

Originally, I thought "asshole" would be a more descriptive word for
a weasel like you, but, then again, I don't want to offend all the other
assholes out there, either.

So, I propose a new term for a person who betrays confidences while
maintaining a holier-than-thou attitude, a smarmy persona, and no clue
as to what an asshole they look like.

Congratulations.  I propose from now on, anyone who fills that bill
will be known as a "DURBIN", and whoever a "Durbin" attacks can
say they've been "DURBINIZED".

And the sad truth is, Durbins are everywhere in Washington, in our
State Houses, in our colleges and high schools, and in our corporations.
Our country is being "Durbinized" more and more every day.

You Could Be A Politician

With apologies to Jeff Foxworthy, here is how you can tell if you've
got what it takes to be a politician.

If you believe the best way to protect freedom of speech is to shut up
all those who disagree with you, you could be a politician.

If you believe that the best government comes from the top down, you
could be a politician.

If you believe it helps the working American to take up to over half of
their earnings in Federal income taxes, State income taxes, FICA taxes,
medicare taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, car registration fees, etc., etc.,
etc., away from their families, so that you can decide who needs that money
more than their families do, you could be a politician.

If you believe the ends justify the means, you could be a politician.

If you believe words are best used to hide your intentions, you could be
a politician.

If you believe that voters think that being for a "comprehensive solution"
to a problem is anything more than telling them that, (1) not only are you not
going to do anything about the problem, but (2) you're giving them the
finger as well, then you've got what it takes to be a politician.

If you believe in "social justice" more than in individual rights under the
law, you could be a politician.

If you believe in "Rules for Radicals" over the Golden Rule, you're well
on your way to becoming a politician.

If you believe that winning elections is more important than personal
integrity, you could be a politician.

If you think that its a good idea to overtax at the federal level in order to
get money you can use to "give" back to the states, in order to gain control
over the states, you're well on your way to becoming a politician.

If you don't believe in Religion, but you believe government should enforce
morality, you could be a politician.

If you believe in your heart of hearts that an elite, much more intelligent,
educated population has the right to decide how the rest of the population
should live, even while publicly proclaiming your love for "working-class
Americans" and individual freedoms, you've shown enough capacity for
hypocrisy to qualify as a politician any time now.

If your mouth says you represent the everyday people of America, but your
hands spend all their time in the pockets of lobbyists and on the asses of
your constituents, you already are a politician.

If you have more in common with the political rivals across the aisle that
you "fight" with, than you have in common with the voters you are supposed
to represent, you qualify for the proud title of capital "P" Politician.  

The Power of Forgiveness

History can be viewed as one long, bitter battle.  Thousands of
years of personal battles, ethnic wars, religious wars, political
wars.  Thousands of years of atrocities, genocides, and ethnic
cleansings.

And pretty much no country, no religion, or no ethnicity has
been exempt from inflicting these horrors on others, and from
being on the receiving end of such atrocities.

Whatever your race, religion, or nationality, rest assured your
ancestors suffered greatly themselves and inflicted great suffering
on others.  That's the way the world was, and that's the way the
world still is.

While you may not be proud of some things your ancestors did in
the past, you must also look at why they did what they did, and how
the actions turned out over a longer period of time. . .and judge
the actions that oppressed your ancestors by how they turned out
over time as well.

None of us are our ancestors.  We are individuals, free to learn from
the past, and free to change ourselves and the world.

But we can't change if we can't forgive that which happened in the past.

If we can't release our guilt over what our ancestors did, even though we
played no part in it, we can never understand and be happy in the present.

If we can't release our hate over what happened to our ancestors in the
past, even though we can never get even with the ones who caused the
pain, we're bound to live in bitterness in the present.

We cannot change what happened in the past.  We can only try to
understand it, learn from it, forgive it, and try to improve the future
from our knowledge of the past.

Today, in our world, there are still religious fundamentalists determined
to kill or conquer other sects or religions based on centuries old slights,
grudges, defeats, and atrocities, and in the single-minded quest to install
their religion as the one, true Religion.  There are still political despots
whose goal is still to control and take over other people and other countries.

If we can't forgive the past and learn from its lessons how to recognize
the true dangers of our time, we are going to face some very dark times
again in the future.

We must recognize that we are not our ancestors.  We are more than our
ethnicity or our nationality or our religion.  We are individuals.  We are
individuals lucky enough to be born in a country that values our
individuality and our individual rights.

For all its faults, our country is still the beacon of freedom to a world
that is suffocating in despotism.  Learn to forgive a history that is less
than perfection, and continue to evolve toward a more perfect union.

Learn to appreciate what you've got before you lose it.

The Problem With History

History is a bitch.  It would seem to be an easy matter to go back in
time, study what happened and why it happened, and learn lessons
to help us with future decisions.  "Those who don't learn the lessons
of the past are bound to repeat the mistakes in the future".  If only it
were that easy.

The problem is that history is pretty tricky.  For everyone who gains
from an event, there is someone who loses from that same event.  For
every intended action there are unintended consequences.  There can
never be a change in society without someone winning and someone
losing.

If you teach history from the perspective of those who lost something
and do not compare those results to the perspective of what was gained,
you are not teaching history...you are advocating your personal opinion.

For example, it is true Christopher Columbus unintentionally brought
diseases that decimated the Indian population when he arrived here.  That
was bad for the Indians.  He also unwittingly opened up a pathway that
eventually brought outcasts from England here, and caused a lot of suffering
for those early immigrants.

But in the end, all that suffering finally led to the birth of the Constitution
of the United States, and the institution of the freedoms that we all enjoy
today...freedoms that did not exist in the times of Columbus, and freedoms
that would arguably never have existed without the discovery of America.

If a college professor is going to damn him for decimating the Indian
population, shouldn't he also be given credit for opening the door to
modern day America?  True, he didn't know what America was going
to turn out to be, but he didn't know about the diseases either.

Or, if a college professor is going to denigrate America for the practice
of slavery, and for endemic racism and white supremacy up to current
times, shouldn't they also compare that against all the changes that have
been instituted since the times of slavery.

According to the Civil War Trust, the number of "killed, wounded, captured,
or missing" was 490,309 soldiers from the South and 596,670 from the
North.  I'm assuming that all of the 490,000 soldiers from the South were
white, and predominately all of the 596,000 soldiers from the North were
white.

Have 596,000 white soldiers fought and died to free slaves anywhere in
the world before?  Or after?  How about the millions of blacks who have
persisted over the years, carrying on despite facing real, overt, institutionalized
racism?  Blacks and whites together fought to make today a better day.

Would anyone argue that today black lives are not better off than during the
periods of slavery and institutionalized racism?  How many black students
in college now really feel their lives are not infinitely better than in the
old days?  Or are they being taught that there is still no hope for them
because things are still not much different from the old days.

Yes, there are still white racists, but they are in a small minority of white
people.  Yes, there is still discrimination, but more and more fields
are open to black Americans than ever before.  The history of America
is that of evolution, and today is much different from yesterday.

My point regarding these examples is that if history is not told in perspective,
it tends to foster resentment and hate over the injustices that happened in the
past, and does not encourage the students to appreciate the opportunities in
life before them.  Without perspective, one will never realize how bad things
were, how much suffering was borne by those who changed things, and how
grateful they should be that others carried that load for them.

The purpose of studying history should be to learn from the past and continue
to improve on it;  not to breed and instill racial, ethnic, or gender resentments
in order to stoke and inflame identity politics.

Whatever Happened to John Wayne?

I've always believed it's better to be a good listener than a fast talker, and
it's always better to speak up when you can add something important to
the conversation, not just to take over the conversation.

My idea of a perfect day is to sit in a boat with a friend listening to the wind,
the birds, the sound of the water lapping against the side of the boat, talking
a little bit, catching a few fish, and watching the clouds go by.  Actually,
I don't even need to catch any fish.

Whenever possible, I like to "live and let live", and it seems to me that motto
always summed up the point of our Country and our Constitution.

So how did we get where we are today?  From the time we get up until the
time we go to bed, we're told what to think, what to eat, how to dress,
what's important and what isn't, who to vote for, what's in and what's out,
what to do to save the environment, what to say and how to behave...in other
words, what to do if we know what's good for us.

Have we reached that tipping point where we need experts to tell us all how
to live our lives?  Are there that many people that feel they need gurus to
run their lives?  Or are there just too many gurus who want to run people's
lives?

When did education morph from teaching students how to think, to teaching
students what to think and what to do?

What cataclysmic event fused the educational establishment, most of our
politicians, special interest groups, big business, and the media into a mighty
conglomeration of holy rollers...dedicated to preaching to the heathens until
we all see the light?  Why should we begrudge them if they get richer as we
get poorer, as long as they get us to Heaven?  Sing Hallelujah!

When did the government make that ever-so-subtle shift from giving its
citizens the best information available to make correct decisions
for themselves, to forcing decisions upon them.  I've been around long
enough to have seen that the "best information available" doesn't always
stay the correct information, and that good intentions of governments
don't always provide good results.

Over the years, our government has moved further and further away from
the Anarchist end of the pendulum to the "Nanny State" end.  It's time to
swing back and find that sweet spot more in the middle, before individual
freedom drowns under a sea of good intentions and an army of elitist,
hypocritical, politicians.