Designated by the Media as “The Squad” and in my opinion more appropriately referred to by Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana as “The Four Horse-women of the Apocalypse”.
If their agenda and rhetoric was not so hate filled, angry and anti-American, this group of four could almost be pitied and looked upon as some kind of failed third rate comedy routine from a skid row night club.
Fact is, they are also dangerous with a radical agenda that condones violence and racial division on the path to open borders and unfettered Socialism.Perhaps they would feel more at home in Cuba or Venezuela.
If anyone calls them to task for their obvious lies and hate speech they immediately fall back on the tired cry of “Racism” when racism has nothing to do with the subject under consideration.
Congresswomen, the subject at hand is Sovereignty and whether a nation has the right to control its own borders. You can agree or disagree with the concept of Sovereignty but it has nothing to do with racism.
Perhaps the word Sovereignty has too many syllables in it for you to understand or you just don’t have a valid argument against it, so you choose to just cry “Racism” as a fall back position for any subject you lack the intellectual capacity to discuss rationally.
Republicans can perhaps take some small solace that these Congresswomen are in the process of destroying the more traditional Democratic Party but it is small comfort indeed when one considers the damage they are attempting to do to the America most of us love and treasure.
It is a question to me why the media gives so much airtime to these practitioners of hate and division. They have no credible history of real public service to others.
I look forward to the day when they are yesterdays forgotten news and retire to the dustbin of failed politicians. They deserve no better.
I see in the news that the City of San Francisco is going to spend Six Hundred Thousand Dollars to eradicate murals of George Washington’s life including scenes from Mount Vernon.
Rather than uniting us, sadly, such decisions and events serve more to divide us further as a people.I believe they mimic the actions of both the Taliban and ISIS in destroying treasured Historical Icons that are a reminder of where we have come from.
I am remembering an article I posted less than two years ago about what I can only describe as a “Pogram” at the time to remove all statues and other landmarks and public reminders of anything connected to the Civil War and slavery, to include destroying all historical tributes to Christopher Columbus and others.
Back then, in September of 2017, I began the article condemning the institution of Slavery in the strongest terms and believe that it was, is and will always be wrong. I don’t believe God intended for humans to live in slavery or to own slaves.
Having said the above I also wrote the following which is excerpted from that article and I believe we should all be mindful of:
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I am witnessing in our media and on our streets a form of mass hysteria and hate. It scares me in the sense that I can see it ripping our society apart. I hear and read about “non-negotiable” demands to erase and tear down any relics of real or imagined links to slavery in our nation.
It seems that anyone with any cultural, racial, or historical ties to slavery by any association or relationship in any way, is marked for removal from the annals of our nations heritage.
The other day it was announced that ESPN removed a Sportscaster from the commentary at a Sporting event because the man, who had an Asian background, shared the same name as a Confederate General.
Let me share something with you. I have a 60+ year fascination with history.
Don’t take my word for it, study for yourself. When you study you will find that slavery in various forms was practiced by: The Carthaginians, the Romans, The Greeks, The Persians (Iranians), The Babylonians, The Chinese, The Mongols, The Huns (Europeans), England, The Vikings, The Russians, Southern Asian Peoples (including India), Egyptians, Middle Eastern and North African Islamic States, Native Americans (North, Central and South America), The People, Tribes and Nations of Central and South Africa. Also, many Island Nations including Japan. And, I have probably missed naming a few.
Also keep in mind that the horror of slavery is still practiced in parts of the world.
I could be wrong but the only Continent that I am aware of that has no history of slavery in some part or way is Antarctica. So, if you can firmly establish that all of your ancestors were Native Antarcticans you are stain free. Otherwise, join the rest of us in the cesspool.
Virtually all of us have a skeleton or two in our closet if we want to dig a little and drag them out.
If it is decided to eradicate all statues, memorials, hospitals, schools, parks, highways, malls, airports, landmarks etc. etc. etc. with the names of anybody who has any ties in history to slavery, racism, a now despised group or family heirloom associated with such, you are going to be very busy.
Just one example: Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Besides being a Senator, was a former Grand Wizard in the Ku Klux Klan. I have heard an estimate, probably exaggerated, that perhaps half the airports, schools, hospitals, parks, highways etc. in the State of West Virginia are named after him. You are going to need a lot of shovels, backhoes, “whitewash” and other equipment to eradicate his name and memory from the state.
But, not to pick on just the Senator. Many, most or all of our great leaders, as well as us common folk, have historical skeletons we would probably just as soon not know about. If we decide to eliminate everything and everyone who has ever had some trace of Slavery in their family history at any time ever, there won’t be very many of us left.
Slavery was abolished in the United States more than 150 years ago.
The stain of racism is still with us and is practiced by people of all colors. It will be with us until we all learn to love one another, forgive one another and be enriched by one another. You cannot erase it by painting over historic works of art, law, edict, marching in the streets or hating one another. Unfortunately, the latter is what I see being practiced in the media and on the streets. Pity.
All participants agreed in principal to the following:
First, Donald Trump is the Firstborn Son of Satan and has destroyed the United States. He must be put in jail either before his term ends through impeachment or after leaving office following conviction by a mob…. er …. Kangaroo Court with a jury comprised of Hollywood Celebrities. Aw shucks, who needs a jury, somebody get a rope!
All immigrants from anywhere in the world are welcome here without the need of paperwork, identification, background checks, health checks, or any other documentation. All borders should be open without restrictions and the current policing force will be replaced with a kind of “Welcome Wagon” for all comers including instructions on how to acquire free housing, free food, free healthcare, etc. Authors Note: Maybe this information could be shared with the homeless living on the streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Portland, Seattle, etc. ??
Everybody, whether citizen or not, is entitled to “free” lifetime healthcare. Authors Note: Many candidates called for “Medicare For All” without noting that Medicare is not “free”, at least to current participants.
Free College for everyone (citizens and non-citizens) with the added bonus of debt forgiveness for some 1.5 Trillion Dollars in outstanding Student Loans.
Unrestricted “Free” abortion for all with one candidate calling for free abortion for Transgender males who become pregnant. It was left unclear how long after natural birth the mother could still elect to abort the child, a few hours, a few days, third grade?
The planet only has 12 years left unless all Americans immediately discontinue all use of fossil fuels and convert to only electric powered vehicles. No mention was made that to re-charge an all electric vehicle you must “plug in” to the power grid which is incapable of completing this task if said power grid is totally sourced by solar and wind power, at least within the next 30-50 years.
I look forward to the day when all working Americans get home from work on a July day when it is 105 degrees, plug their electric vehicles in for a re-charge and then walk into their air conditioned home during the hottest part of the day.
It was also not mentioned that the World’s major polluters (beginning with China & India) have “deferred” there own participation in the Paris Climate Accords till “at least” 2030 or beyond. Further, there is no mechanism in place requiring penalties or enforceable legal consequences on any participating country who ignores these “feel good” “Global Accords”.
One participant unveiled his plan to give every resident in America (legal citizens and non-citizens) $1000 per month. When asked how this would be paid for he said with a “value added” tax paid for by everyone which would return the money to government – at least that is what I heard.
Lots of other “free” stuff all to be paid for by taxing the greedy rich and corporations. Authors note: You could not pay for all of these “freebies” if you taxed all of the rich at 100% and it is also a fact that corporations don’t really pay taxes, their customers do. Corporations pass along tax increases to their customers in the form of higher prices…. they have to, or go out of business.
Santa Claus may as well close up shop and lay off his Reindeer – He can’t compete with this bunch!
I saw a video presentation on television featuring Robert De Niro with a cast of other mostly “has been” or “who cares” little known Hollywood personalities explaining that if you carefully read the entire Mueller Report there was plenty of evidence of Trump collusion with the Russian’s. You just have to read it very slowly and “read between the lines”.
Never mind that Robert Mueller and his band of overpaid “investigators” clearly said in his much anticipated report that there was no collusion.
The whole scene gave me mental images of Robert De Niro sitting in his robe and slippers at the Shady Acres Home for Washed Up Actors watching endless grainy re-runs of Raging Bull while the staff is trying to get him to take his medicine to stop his profane tirades.
I am having visions of a Hollywood Production with a re-write of the Mueller Report and this time it comes out the way Hollywood wanted it to and Donald Trump is “frog marched” off to prison for imagined crimes.
Robert DeNiro can play the part of Robert Mueller and Alec Baldwin can re-play his Saturday Night Live portrayal of Donald Trump.
There is no shortage of other Hollywood “wannabes” to fill in the supporting roles.
Writing the script should be easy. Just avoid words with more than two syllables and let Robert De Niro and Alec Baldwin run wild with their imaginations. If you subtract the “F” word from their musings, neither of them have much of a vocabulary to work with.
I can’t be the only person in the country that is sick of the media trotting out “Shopworn Hollywood Celebrities” who want to tell me what my political views ought to be and how I should live my life. Frankly, I don’t care what they think and their “I’m smarter than you” attitude just turns me off.
I have some news for them. Just because you played a doctor in a movie or on a televisions series does not mean I want you as my doctor.
Our Federal Government has no choice but to keep interest rates low. Not because of choice but because of the growing National Debt. It’s simple math really.
The Nations debt now exceeds 22 Trillion Dollars and it continues to grow, but for sake of this exercise lets just assume it is stagnant at 22 Trillion Dollars.
Your Federal Government, in conjunction with the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Reserve Board determine the rate of interest paid on the National Debt. This rate fluctuates from time to time and there are different rates charged depending on the borrower and the related “risk” involved. The U.S. Government, because it can print money, is considered the “safest” borrower.
Using our 22 Trillion Dollar debt figure lets do some simple math:
At 2 1/2% Interest the interest for one year on the debt is 550 Billion Dollars
At 5% Interest the interest for one year on the debt is 1.1 Trillion Dollars
At 10% Interest the interest for one year on the debt is 2.2 Trillion Dollars
At one point in time during the Carter Presidency interest rates briefly hit 20%. If that rate were current today, interest on the debt would be 4.4 Trillion Dollars.
The Government is considering a year 2020 budget of 4.75 Trillion Dollars.
If the debt continues to grow, and I see no “stomach” for fiscal restraint in Congress or among voters, at some point it would take all, or nearly all of the Federal Governments Budget just to pay the interest on the debt but of course our Government does not do that. They just continue to borrow more money and increase the debt limit so they can pay the interest. And the debt grows and grows. The only solution, short of greatly increasing taxation and cutting spending, is to devalue the Dollar through higher inflation. Inflation devalues the debt but it also decreases the value of savings and hurts those on fixed income, the elderly and the poor.
Worst of all, inflation discourages investors who purchase debt bonds. Who wants to buy debt bonds paying very low interest rates while the purchasing value of the Bonds become worth less and less through inflation?
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“Interest costs are expected to continue climbing beyond the next 10 years and are projected to be the third largest category in the federal budget by 2026 (after just Social Security and Medicare), the second largest category in 2046, and the single largest category by 2048.” – Source: Peter G. Peterson Foundation
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Our Federal Government may have painted themselves into a corner. With a debt that continues to grow they face greater and greater pressure to keep interest rates artificially low while at the same time creating a situation where “investors” – buyers of debt bonds – become less and less inclined to invest in securities of a possible “sinking ship”.
What is the old saying about choosing your poison?
IT IS NOT MY INTENT BUT THE FOLLOWING MAY OFFEND SOME.
File this under the category of a both macabre and frightening vision of the path our culture seems to be on.
My first plan was to write about this movie from a humorous perspective but on second thought decided that the movie is a bit too close to current reality.
If you have never seen the movie Soylent Green you should watch it. At the time it came out in theaters it seemed “beyond the pale” and impossible. Almost humorous. Now, some 40+ years later and observing what is happening to American values makes me wonder.
Within this 40+ years I have witnessed a great lessening of the reverence for the sanctity of human life in many segments of our society. A sort of hardening or callousness.
I see America drifting into a scary, Orwellian World where “up is down”, “wrong is right” & “lies are truth”. An insane asylum where insanity is in charge and normalcy is locked in rooms clad in straight jackets .
Watch the movie and study the character, played by Edward G. Robinson, about the “final solution” for dealing with the elderly.
We live in a world where too often we grant celebrity status to even the most dishonest and disreputable politicians and excuse criminal activity by corrupt government employees, while at the same time we devalue the most vulnerable of human life.
Are unwanted humans now considered disposable? Some percentage of our population seems to feel it is.
Is the time coming when we reach a point in our culture where the unwanted are viewed as just another source of protein? In 1973 this may have seemed preposterous.
What once seemed preposterous seems less so now.
Recyclable is now being put into practice. At least it is in one State. I just saw recently that the State of Washington has passed a law allowing human “Composting” and have a facility in operation for this purpose. It was reported in the news that if you leave a “loved one” there for composting they will give you “compost” in return to take home for your garden.
Consider this macabre scenario: The spouse is leaving for work:
“Hey Hon. Uncle Harry died yesterday. He’s in that plastic tub on the back porch. Do you mind dropping him off at the Composting Center on your way to work? Oh, and while you’re there, check and see if Grandma is done. The rose bushes on the Patio need some fresh compost.”
How far off the path of respect for human life have we drifted?
Is it within the realm of possibility to think America might have a Soylent Green Future?
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Author Unknown – generally credited to Edmund Burke.
This site contains 190+ articles/essays written over a period of about twelve years.
In full disclosure I am neither a Democrat or Republican. I am registered as “not affiliated” with any party. Mostly, I would like government to leave me alone and stay out of my wallet.
I am against racism in any of its forms, oppose violence, abhor hypocrisy and especially despise being lied to. Maybe that is why so many of my “rants” are directed at the folks in the “Halls of Power”!
For a bit more about me, my values and a little history of my early life in California just type Journey into the “Search” box on the left side of this page and hit enter on your keyboard.
These articles are a kind of diary of my thoughts and views of happenings in our culture at the time of their writing.
I usually try to find some humor in what is happening but that is not always possible.
Feel free to like them, hate them, share them or forget them. The choice is always yours. Hope you get a smile or two.
You can navigate the site from the left side bar as well as the arrows at the bottom of each page. In the Search Box (located in the Left Sidebar just above the words Suggested Search) you can type in a title or any key word such as: Vote, Locust, Frog, Clown, Train, etc. You can also type in a name, such as: Obi Wan, Judge Judy, Clinton, etc. and the search feature will locate articles for you. Try it!
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Comments are only open on a limited number of articles. Even so, the sheer number of comments submitted are simply impossible for me to read though I do try to scan them and approve as many as possible. All comments with embedded websites either have the website address removed or are not allowed. I just don’t have the time to “proof” unknown websites to allow or remove the ones I deem unfit for my site. I get literally thousands of comments per month and there are just not enough hours available to read each one. Thank you for your understanding. Bob
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Bob Bandy
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