Tuesday, July 19, 2016

The Missing Adult

AM:  During the Republican presidential primary season, do you recall Ohio Governor John Kasich claiming to be “the only adult” running?


Old Gadfly:  Yes, I do.

IM:  So, where was he when the Republican National Convention (RNC) commenced?  After all, the RNC is being held in the State of Ohio.

AM:  An adult teaches children all about being a good sport, to shake the hand of your opponent even when you lose the contest.  For the Ohio Governor not to officially welcome delegates to the RNC shows that not only is he a poor sport, he’s a quitter and a loser. 

IM:  For people like John Kasich, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and the Bush clan not to support the Republican candidate for President says a lot more about them than it does the Republican candidate who won the primary playing by the rules.  They truly demonstrate why the word conservative can project a negative, status quo preference for political privilege.  Just like the Democrat ruling class, some within the Republican Party forget that they too can be seduced by a ruling class mentality contrary to the wishes of the constituency they should be humbled and honored to serve.

Old Gadfly:  Unfortunately far too many Americans still feel comfortable being fed narratives shaped by a very biased media.  As you will recall, I categorized many of these individuals as Copernican drones because they lack the capacity to think and analyze original sources on their own.  For example, I have heard many express their fear of Trump because he would be imperialistic or authoritarian.  Perhaps they have been desensitized regarding this notion by a truly authoritarian who has followed through with his promise to circumvent the Congress with his phone and pen.  Trump says that on his first day in office he would rescind unconstitutional executive orders related to the second amendment and immigration.

IM:  I noticed that Trump’s campaign website provides positions on some key issues.  I read through all of these positions, and what struck me was Trump’s apparent intent to work with Congress and our existing institutions to advance solutions.  This does not sound like an imperialistic President.

AM:  Ironically, when looking at Hillary’s campaign website, her positions represent a third Obama term and address everything under the sun—consistent with imperialistic thinking and a belief in a very big and powerful central government.  Let’s see, Hillary’s commitment to the status quo sounds like a conservative.  Trump is the one advancing new ideas to benefit all Americans, not just protected classes at the expense of others.  Nor does he want to enslave the nonruling class.

Old Gadfly:  This past week, I had the opportunity to hear Dinesh D’Souza discuss his upcoming documentary based on his book, Hillary’s America:  The Secret History of the Democratic Party.  The movie opens in three days (July 22, 2016) at theaters nationwide.  Progressives are already trying to debunk the analysis by suggesting political realignment.  Sadly, we see no advertisement by the media.  Does this come as a surprise.  I remember all the media hype about Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 and Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth before they were released.  So, we need to spread the word through other means.

IM:  Wasn’t D’Souza convicted recently?

Old Gadfly:  Yes.  This is what he explained in his book:

In this book I will show how Democrats went from slavery for blacks to enslavement for the whole population.  Even those who benefit from the progressive state become dependent upon it and remain captive to their progressive benefactors.  Meanwhile, the rest of us are forced, intimidated, and terrorized into forking over our earnings and possessions so that progressives can dispose of them as they see fit.  In sum, progressive Democrats have gone from exploiting blacks to exploiting everyone.  This is their actual Big Switch. 

. . . Progressives need a pitch, and the best pitch is the idea of social justice.

. . . I learned about the pitch in a federal confinement center where I spent eight months in overnight captivity for my sins against the Obama administration.  My crime was exceeding the campaign finance laws by giving $20,000 over the campaign finance limit to a college pal of mine who was running for the U.S. Senate.  I didn’t do it to get anything in return; I did it simply to help an old friend.  For this, I found myself at the receiving end of the full force of the U.S. government.

But since no one in American history has been prosecuted—let alone incarcerated—for doing what I did, I should be allowed to suspect that my real crime was in exposing President Obama in my film 2016:  Obama’s America and my books The Roots of Obama’s Rage and Obama’s America.  Obama hated my film, vituperatively attacking it on his website barackobama.com, and a few months later, the FBI was knocking on my door (pp. 22-23).        

AM:  What does D’Souza mean by “the Big Switch?”

Old Gadfly:  Democrats and their complicit progressives in academia, the media, and Hollywood claim Republicans, and now Trump, in particular are bigots, racists, misogynists, and so forth, when it was Democrats in our history that were the racists and misogynists.  D’Souza provides evidence that the Ku Klux Klan emerged from the Democrat Party, Jim Crow laws were advanced by Democrats, and Democrats opposed women suffrage.  This is just the tip of the iceberg.  Read his book.  Better yet, watch the documentary.

IM:  Sadly, there is an abundance of evidence to impugn Democrat social justice policy.  For example, here is an interesting video by Dr. Walter Williams from George Mason University.

AM:  Democrats seem to have a powerful megaphone, claiming Republicans are the party of “no” or “obstructionists.”

Old Gadfly:  When a particular ideological faction controls the narrative, it is easy to manufacture false notions.  This is one of the recruiting advantages ISIS and other Islamic or jihadists groups have, and they start early as in this news video of a kindergarten graduation in the Gaza Strip.  Progressives are an ideological faction, and they want Americans to think they are the ones with ideas to advance progress while Republicans want to put blacks back in chains.  Well, Republicans do have ideas.  Check out Trump’s website and take a look at Ryan’s (Republican Speaker of the House) A Better Way.  Of course, most Americans will only know about Ryan’s policy agenda through the media.  Here’s such an example.  The biggest criticism is about the lack of specific detail, highlighting alternatives to Obamacare, as an example.  As a professor, I always advise students to evaluate primary sources.  This is part of an education many Americans seem to have missed.

IM:  Coloradans are about to discover what they did not read in the legislation before it was passed strictly by Democrat votes.   Because a Colorado democrat-controlled legislature and governor passed an Obamacare exchange, they are now scrambling to see how Colorado will fill the gap in lost federal subsidies this coming year.  The proposed legislation calls for an increase in individual income taxes (from 4.63% to 7.96%) and 10% increase for sole proprietors (from 4.63% to 14.63%) and corporations.  Meanwhile thousands of Coloradans have been added to the State Medicaid program.  The citizens of Ohio will soon discover the same dilemma after Governor John Kasich enthusiastically promoted Obamacare exchanges in his State.  A nice little mess created by progressive Democrats, but they will find a way to blame it on Republicans as in D’Souza’s Big Switch theory.

          Old Gadfly:  Some of this explains why Democrats fear a President Trump.  Trump firmly believes in law and order over political retribution.  As an adult, and given available resources, his Attorney General and other federal-level prosecutors would focus on crimes that are far more egregious than a $20,000 campaign contribution.  Perhaps by then, other “ruling class” Republicans will seek redemption for failing to be an adult, and putting our nation at risk with a President Hillary Clinton. 

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Some Are More Equal

IM:  Events during this week demonstrated life imitating satire.

Old Gadfly:  What do you mean, IM?

IM:  In Orwell’s Animal Farm, after the socialists took command, they issued seven commandments.  Over time, seeing how easy it was to control the other animals, Napoleon (styled after Joseph Stalin) reduced the commandments to just one:  “all animals are created equal; some are more equal than others.”


Old Gadfly:    Animal Farm’s class distinctions certainly appear to reflect the FBI Director’s decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton despite his own well-described case of someone who grossly violated federal statutes.  Comey was very careful in his wording:  “no evidence of criminal intent” and “extreme carelessness.”

IM:  This wording was precisely what President Obama signaled when interviewed by Chris Wallace on April 10, 2016 on the Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace program.  Obama said he believed there was “no intent” to violate laws, although the actions certainly were “very careless.”

AM:  Then, on a Monday, June 27, 2016, in an unscheduled but well-choreographed arrangement, Bill Clinton privately (no witnesses or photographers) met with Loretta Lynch, the Attorney General of the United States, on her plane on the airport tarmac in Phoenix.  When leaked, Lynch claimed it was just a casual discussion about grandchildren.

IM:  Five days later, on Saturday, July 2, 2016, several FBI agents interviewed Hillary Clinton for about three hours.  This was not a sworn deposition, and there was no recording or transcript of the session.  Yet, Democrats wanted to compare this case to the Petraeus case—the big difference is that the FBI interrogated him under oath.  Do you think Bill advised Lynch to remind the FBI that when they talked to Hillary, it should not be under oath to avoid perjury implications?  Bill remembers his own experience under oath regarding his sexual encounter with Monica Lewinsky.

AM:  Then, on Sunday, July 3, 2016, the New York Times published an article that sent a signal to Loretta Lynch:  “. . . Democrats close to Mrs. Clinton say she may decide to retain Ms. Lynch, the nation’s first black woman to be attorney general, who took office in April 2015."  Of course, by then Lynch said to the public that she would do whatever the FBI recommends.

IM:  All of which led up to FBI Director, Comey, making his announcement on Tuesday, July 5, 2016, that he would not recommend charges against Hillary Clinton.  This announcement was just in time for Obama and Clinton to emerge from Air Force One in Charlotte, North Carolina, for a campaign stop.  The optics were powerful—Air Force One, the President, and an unindicted felon flaunting the notion that some people are above the law and thus more equal than others—like Obama, another anointed one.  Obama declared Hillary the most qualified person for President ever in our history.  Sadly, job titles are not sufficient qualifications.  What has Hillary actually accomplished that is positive?  A lot of wreckage followed her wake:  the Russia reset, a Middle East in absolute turmoil, ISIS, North Korea, Iran nuclear deal, and so forth.

AM:  In the military we had a saying, screw up and move up.  It was recognition that senior people who made mistakes somehow got promoted. 

IM:  With the “above the law” precedent clearly established thanks to Lynch, Comey, and Clinton, Tom Perez, Secretary of Labor, appeared on the Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace program (hosted by Shannon Bream) today in his “private capacity” on national television to stump for Hillary Clinton.  Can you imagine Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunsford, presenting himself in a business suit on the same talk show to stump for a politician?  He’d be court-martialed for violating the Hatch Act—which applies to all federal officials by the way.  Clearly some Americans are more equal than others.

Old Gadfly:   My son-in-law is a legal immigrant.  When I asked him why foreign nationals come to America, he unhesitatingly said, “America has been known as a prosperous and peaceful society based on the rule of law” (bold italics added for emphasis).  He is very disappointed by what is playing out by this corrupt administration, in general, and by an unscrupulous, above the law, presidential wannabe, in particular. 

Gentlemen, we talked about a ruling class in January.  This week provided more evidence.  How do we wake up Americans?