U Mad Bro?

“Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime,
Didn't you?”
– Bob Dylan, “Like a Rolling Stone”

It’s been a month since the election of Donald J Trump to the Presidency and some of the whining, rioting and crying from the Left has subsided, but there still exists a perpetual seething from our fellow citizens and non-citizens alike who were supporters of anything “not Trump”.  Campaigns have been waged, won and lost for 200 plus years now in the United States.  Each time, excepting the Gore 2000 campaign, the loser accepted he had been beat and allowed for the winner to plan his upcoming administration.  We now see a recount effort being conducted which all except the naive know will be unsuccessful, but is being done for spite.  Losing hurts, but what makes this loss so hurtful such that the losers are acting as 4 year olds who have been told that there are “no more cookies”?   Everyone has an opinion, but I’ll give my Top 3 reasons why this loss has been so difficult for SOME, not all, Democrats.

One of the biggest reasons the result was so very devastating for them was simply because they had already held the victory parade.  Let’s face it, they looked like real chumps (to be kind) and they knew it.  Take your pick from the list of sanctimonious jerks who were pre-gloating:

Seth Myers, Lady GaGa, the Young Turks, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher, Beyonce, Jay-Z, the hags on the View, the Hillary campaign operatives spread throughout the TV and print media and lastly - and probably the most prominent – our dear friends on social media.  Remember, up until about 9pm Eastern time on November 8, 2016, this was a Hillary landslide.  Then the ball rolled through Buckner’s legs. D’oh!

The second reason this one felt like moose and squirrel had handed Hillary supporters a TNT bomb was that the stakes were so high.  After 8 years of lurching far to the Left, growing and unionizing the Federal work force, stacking the Federal judiciary with fellow travelers, tilting the Supreme Court to the point that the Constitution would be moot, utilizing the Executive branch agencies to saddle unfavored industries in the private sector with one regulation after another and using those same agencies as coercive powers against political opponents – 2016 would be the final blow and political opposition would be dispatched to the nether lands. With Hillary’s election was the opportunity to cover up all the corruption, finish off the Supreme Court, wipe out the 2nd Amendment and change the rules of elections forever.  The flipping of the Constitution would be complete.  It was all there, 100 years of Progressivism started under Woodrow Wilson was about to be codified. However, losing the race would risk reversal of all that “progress”.  As Maxwell Smart was wont to say as he held up his thumb and index finger to display a small, tiny gap, “Missed it by that much!”

Lastly, the one that truly hurts the most is that Democrats were beat at their own game.  I do not believe they even understand this point because they have never had this wicked game played against them.  Trump ran his campaign like a Democrat.  It completely befuddled the Clinton campaign and the media which was acting as an arm of the Clinton campaign.  Normally, the GOP fights by the Marquess of Queensbury Rules while the Democrats engage in a street fight.  Let’s take a trip down memory lane to recall how Reagan was pro-AIDS in the 80’s, how George HW Bush didn’t understand how products with barcodes could be swiped at the check-out counter, how George W Bush was responsible for James Byrd, a black man, being dragged to his death behind a pickup truck by two racists in Texas, how Dan Rather fabricated a story of W avoiding the military draft, how black churches were being burned by Republican racists throughout the South during the 2004 Congressional campaign, how Candy Crowley interjected herself into a debate in 2012 to support Barack Obama’s false assertions – the list goes on.

In all these cases, the Democrats flung the spaghetti, the media supported it and the GOP did not fight back at the gutter level.  This time, Trump would not play the game on defense and flung the spaghetti at Hillary.  He knowingly dissembled. He insulted her personally, not just on policy.  He dragged anyone associated with her into the mud, as well.  He challenged her supporters’ patriotism, integrity and morals.  He was downright nasty and smiled while doing it.  For those of you who felt like targets of this nasty campaign, you now know how it has felt to not be a Democrat for the past 30 years during an election.  He played their game and it does not feel good being the target of these tactics.  So, please forgive me if I am not overflowing with sympathy.  You’ve just been punked by a Democrat.

As Mr Zimmerman would add:

“How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
A complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?”

A Black Friday Gift

As I torch a celebratory cigar on my back patio in the Northern California rain, I am reminded of an old Irish blessing: 

"May your glass be ever full

May the roof over your head be always strong

And may you be in Heaven

Half an hour before the Devil knows your dead"

Well, Fidel Castro was not Irish, so "no soup for him!"

"A quote from Huber Matos, who had fought alongside Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra: ”I differed from Fidel Castro because the original objective of our revolution was ‘Freedom or Death.’ Once Castro had power, he began to kill freedom.”

Matos spent 20 years in prison for voicing these concerns.

For the Gen X’ers, Millennials and beyond, I hope that you take note of the Cuban-American celebration in Miami and elsewhere in response to the death of Fidel Castro.  These are the people with first hand knowledge of a "Progressive" government.  Despite the failings of such governments, the marketing of socialist dictators as freedom fighters has been very successful to the point that we can find Black pop stars like Jay Z wearing the "Che Guevara" t-shirt even though Che was a documented racist.

Fidel Castro was a Communist killer (but I repeat myself), although he would argue, at times, that he was a Marxist.  In other words, he controlled everything in Cuba:  healthcare, education, food, energy, housing, speech, media, the internet, etc.  It was great for Castro, his family and those loyal to him, but it was a disaster for the Cuban people.  Total control is the Progressives wet dream.  So when you hear the term “Progressive” in this country, take note that in terms of individual freedom, it means “Regressive” for the people.  Please be sure to take note of the politicians and commentators in our country who speak or write glowingly of this monster or cut him slack for his crimes against humanity.  Think long and hard about whether or not you really should be aligned with them and their goals.  The Progressives in the USA have been indoctrinating students for generations and following it up with strong entertainment industry marketing.  In recent interviews at the University of Maryland, students who thought Barack Obama had been a successful President were asked to list his accomplishments.  The best answer they could produce was that Obama was "COOL".  That, folks, is the power of marketing.  No factual evidence of success, but he was a "real funny and cool cat".  Good grief, Charlie Brown!

Lastly, if you want to know how fantastically enjoyable it is to live under a big centralized Federal government, realize that it worked so well for the Cuban people that many were willing to jump on ramshackled rafts made up of old refrigerators, doors, scrap wood and inner tubes to risk crossing 90 miles of shark infested waters to escape it.  So much for safe spaces.  Open a book.  The history is all there to be read.

Castro is dead.  The world is a better place today.  I'm looking forward to the day when his brother, Raul, joins him.  Change is coming.

We Won't Get Fooled Again or Will We?

“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss” – Pete Townsend

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHhrZgojY1Q

Donald Trump was elected to be the 45^th President of the United States on November 8, 2016.  In the days since, there has been a complete melt down of Hillary Clinton supporters in both their personal lives and their public lives.  I promised myself in June 1994 that I would never be shocked by anything ever again after watching OJ flee across LA in the White Bronco.  This week came close.  It was truly a surreal feeling watching Trump march into the White House to meet with President Obama as has been standard protocol following an election.  I would not have been surprised if when he was asked to comment on the visit, Trump turned to Obama, pointed at him and said “You’re fired!”

For the curious voyeurs and schadenfreude enjoying Trump supporters, it has been a delicious week.  Witnessing people in their 50's, 40's, 30's and even 20's crying over spilt milk is entertaining, yet troubling.  I want to address those who are the meltees.  I am a Baby Boomer and have pretty much given up on Baby Boomer Progressives and older as it is just not worth the energy to try to open their closed minds at this point.  However, they cannot be completely ignored since they run the national media and have tremendous power with respect to how issues are framed.  My hope here is to reach the Gen X’s, Millennials, Gen Z’s and maybe even some Gen Alpha’s with this commentary.  My hope is that you realize there is still hope for you.

Why the intense fear of a President Donald J Trump?

Let’s get in the “way back” machine and travel to 2009 when the “TEA Party” became prominent in the news.  The Tea Party was a grass roots movement which mobilized specifically in response to the Federal government’s attempt to implement universal health care, but they were generally against the expansion of the Federal government which crawls into one’s personal space and then charges one for the privilege.  In hindsight, you will agree that they had legitimate concerns, yes?   Do you recall how the Tea Party members were portrayed in the media?  They were “stuck in the past”, “cranky old white people”, “wearing tri-corner hats”, “fearful of changing demographics” and “clutching their sacred copies of the Constitution”.

Why was mockery and disparagement aimed at this group?  They were portrayed as a bunch of old fools and the country would be better off the sooner they were dead.  Progressives wanted to speed up the clock on that one and be done with them.  That being said, the Tea Party PEACEFULLY protested as is allowed under that Constitution, but what were they trying to stop?  They were attempting to stop a Federal government from forcing them to act a certain way in their private lives.  In other words, they did not want their individual liberties infringed upon.  The Constitution was ratified after long deliberation among the States and two of the main concerns were:

1) the balance of power between the large populous States versus small populous States and

2) the risk of tyranny by a centralized, all too powerful Federal government

The “separation of powers” within the Federal government structure were designed to ensure that a tyrant could not come to power and rule over subjects – like a King.  So, by design, that old document written by slave holders prevents my choice for President from using coercive powers against you and your choice for President from using coercive powers against me.  In addition, it allows for change, but change is supposed to be deliberative and difficult such that changes are not made on a whim.  Any President proclaiming he/she “has a pen and is going to use it” to bypass an elected Congress is a danger to the country.

I expect and hope that Trump will use the pen to reverse the frequent times that Obama used the pen enacting rules via executive over reach.  After those reversals, I will oppose any such action because it is a danger to the USA for any President to wield this type of power.

So, why do people actively work to diminish the Constitution by pointing out that it was written by slaveholders and could not possibly foresee today’s technologies, etc?  It is because they want to Lord power over you and me.  They are not preaching freedom, but tyranny.  You will by health insurance even though you do not need it.  You will not smoke.  You will not say words which I find offensive.  You will not set your thermostat above 68 degrees.  You will not burn wood in your fireplace.  They are fascists.  So please, instead of learning history from the likes of “insert a celebrity here”, please do some research.  Read about the arguments among Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Hamilton, etc, etc.  Yes, some of them owned slaves, but that does not diminish their knowledge of human history and man’s desire for liberty.

The Constitution was designed to limit the powers of Donald J Trump just as it was designed to limit the powers of Barack H Obama.  Who is against that document?  Progressives!  Who wants to preserve that document? Conservatives!  This political battle is not about race, gender, etc as the Progressives would like to imply.  It is about liberty of the individual and tyranny by a government.  If anything is to be learned over the next 4 years, please understand that the Constitution is the individual’s friend – regardless of which side wins.