Happy Columbus Day!

Here’s a few “fast facts” about the observance of this day in the US of A:*

1.     "Celebration of Christopher Columbus's voyage in the early United States is recorded from as early as 1792."   

2.     "President Benjamin Harrison proclaimed it as a one-time national celebration in 1892 ("During the anniversary in 1892, teachers, preachers, poets and politicians used rituals to teach ideals of patriotism.)"

3.     "The first statewide holiday was proclaimed by Colorado governor Jesse F. McDonald in 1905, and it was made a statutory holiday in 1907." [Emphasis added].  

Here’s a few “fast facts” about the man, Christopher Columbus himself:**

1.   “…cultural anthropologist Carol Delaney notes that Columbus himself never owned a slave and adopted an ­indigenous child as his son.”

2.   “Slavery was already here in the New World. So were cannibalism and human sacrifice, neither tolerated in the Old World.” [Well, not in Europe, anyway.]”**

3.   “Contrary to popular belief, “Columbus didn’t ‘discover’ America — he never set foot in North America.”***

So, I don’t get it; where is the big attitude from the Native Americans about Columbus and Columbus Day coming from? Why all the push to re-designate Columbus Day – a holiday that has stood in some way in various areas of the United States of America since 1792 – to “Indigenous Peoples Day.”

And, by the way, just what – exactly – is an “Indigenous Person?” I mean, I was born here, both sets of my grandparents were born here, so…doesn’t that make me an Indigenous Person?

I know…. There I go bein’ all logical again!

But, seriously now, folks…. As a history buff, I have no problem with a national observance of the American Indian heritage that this country has.

And, guess what? “Indigenous Peoples Day should be a holiday … and it is: Aug. 9. [Not only that, but] …November is Indigenous Peoples Month.” 

But, even if an international observance of the various peoples around the world who are/were indigenous to given nations were not good enough, and it is deemed necessary that America needs its own Indigenous Peoples day of observance, my question is, why does it have to replace Columbus Day? The answer is, it shouldn’t. The attempt to do so is just one more way to “un-Americanize” our United States of America. And it needs to stop.

References:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day

** https://nypost.com/2019/10/13/stop-scapegoating-christopher-columbus/

*** https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/10/14/christopher-columbus-3-things-you-think-he-did-that-he-didnt/

Of tobacco, socialism, Forrest Gump and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

In 2019, we ALL know smoking is bad. The Center for Disease Control says, “Smoking leads to disease and disability and harms nearly every organ of the body. It is the leading cause of preventable death.”* We know it causes cancer. We know smoking to be one of the causes of heart disease, stroke, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).*

Question: When have you ever heard a licensed physician tell someone to take up smoking to improve their health?

Answer: Never.

That’s because smoking only harms your physical health, never improves it. And yet, despite decades worth of knowledge that it’s harmful, despite all the anti-smoking campaigns and laws against tobacco sales to younger people and against using it in public places, etc. for some strange reason, there seems to be an almost-romanticism surrounding smoking that continues to lure teenagers and adults alike into the habit.

And, so it is with socialism. Nowhere in world history is there a single success story where implementing a socialist government has ever improved things wide scale. Quite the opposite. Instead you can point to a dozen examples, in modern history alone – Venezuela, Cuba, the USSR, Nazi Germany, even the once-great empires of Britain and France - where implementing a socialist government or a socialist system has instead brought extremely high taxation, costs of living at best, or dictatorship, despotism, reduced economy sometimes to poverty levels, pain, suffering and misery instead at worst.

And yet, despite decades - centuries even, if one includes older than modern history – of knowledge that it’s harmful, for some strange reason, there seems to an almost-romanticism and poetic headiness surrounding socialism that continues to make people fall for it as a suggested cure for societal problems? People rationalize chasing this siren’s song with statements like “Well, they just didn’t implement it correctly,” or “They just didn’t get enough money into the system for it to work correctly” and so on.

There’s an old saying – I’m sure you’ve all heard it – that “Insantity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” We would think that someone who tries chain-smoking to improve their physical health to be crazy. So, why do liberal whackjobs like US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) or US Senators Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and former-Senator and former-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before her advocate socialism and it seem so appealing and convincing to some that “This time we can get it to successfully work?”

Maybe the fictional movie character “Forrest Gump” was right, “Stupid is as stupid does.” Or, as “Star Wars” character Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi pointed out, “Who's the more foolish? The fool, or the fool who follows him?”

Sources:

*“Overviews of Diseases/Conditions | Overviews of Diseases/Conditions | Tips From Former Smokers | CDC.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/diseases/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=EST 4059 - Tips 2016 Campaign Search - English - Prevention Terms;S;WL;BR;RES;HCP;CO&utm_content=Danger - Broad&utm_term=dangers of smoking&&gclid=CjwKCAiAy-_iBRAaEiwAYhSlA7AijSy95v2OPKj0SaLHwT2oPKQdcJbJH6DiKtEJHdT8oBDSDbmzbBoCtvsQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds.

Govt shutdown nonsense - fact from fiction

Well, it's day 24 of the partial government shutdown and, ask yourself; So, what exactly is a “government shutdown?”

“In short, it means that the Congress hasn’t passed, and the president hasn’t signed, legislation that directs the U.S. Treasury to fund the operations of one or more federal agencies and departments over a period of time. When that happens, there is a funding gap and those agencies either shut down or curtail their activities. Employees are furloughed without pay for the duration but some are required to keep working, without pay, especially if their jobs are related to the ‘safety of human life or the protection of property.’”* [Emphasis added.]

Now, if you are not an employee in some way of the federal government, ask yourself; So, other than hearing about it all the time on the news, have I really been affected by it? If so, has it been by much?

Granted, if you’re trying to lock in your mortgage rate or close on the sale or purchase of a home, you’re probably in limbo. (I know; I was there myself during a government shutdown during the Clinton Era.) But, do you not still see food on the store shelves, the electricity still on and the water taps still providing water in your home? Has your mail or packages from Amazon Prime suddenly been undeliverable? When you look up into the sky, do you not still see large airliners (or the contrails therefrom) overhead? If you receive a monthly check from social security, military retirement, welfare or food stamps have your checks not been coming?

The answer to the above is yeah; there’s still food, electricity, water, the mail is still being delivered, airliners and other aircraft flying around (some of which were hauling 30 Democrat congress folks and 109 lobbyists down to Puerto Rico to party on the beach and attend live performance of the hit Broadway show “Hamilton” and “attend three parties including one with the show’s cast.” **  And “Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare payments won’t be interrupted by the partial shutdown. All three programs are considered mandatory spending and are not affected by a federal budget debate.”*** (Somehow, that aspect of this shutdown situation brings to mind the old saying about Nero playing the fiddle while Rome burned…. But that is a discussion for another time.)

You may find yourself asking, But, what about really important federal govt jobs? What about them?

Let’s start with “‘Excepted’ positions;

“Federal employees who perform “emergency work involving the safety of human life or the protection of property” or other types of work will be “excepted” from shutdown furloughs.”

“Otherwise, federal employees whose salaries are funded through annual appropriations will be asked not to work.”

“Since most political appointees are not subject to furlough because they are not part of the Title 5 leave system, most will continue to work during a shutdown.”****

What if they’re not “excepted” jobs; how will they pay their bills, you may ask? Remember; “Federal workers are encouraged to apply for unemployment compensation should they qualify for it in their home states.”***** So,  “Federal workers who lose pay during the government shutdown can fall back on unemployment benefits in most states.”****** So, all the rumors about babies not getting formula because their parent(s) is/are federal employees affected by the shutdown is just hogwash.  

Even so, you might be inclined to say, but, what about all their lost pay? “Federal employees furloughed during the shutdown in 2013 did receive back pay for the 16 days the government remained closed. Congress included a provision in its October 2013 spending bill that reopened the government and authorized that furloughed employees receive “at their regular standard rate of compensation for the period of such lapse in appropriations, as soon as practicable.”****

So, the military and federal law enforcement is still on duty and getting paid.  Not only that but veterans are still getting access to VA benefits, etc. “The VA Contingency Plan for the shutdown states that nearly all of it’s [sic] employees-approximately 96 percent-are ordered to report to work as usual…. VA medical facilities remain open and appointments are still being kept at VA hospitals and clinics.” ******** And the retirement checks will still be paid. The federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM) definitively says the “answer to this question is a definitive “yes.” According to OPM, “Federal retirees under the CSRS and FERS retirement systems will still receive their scheduled annuity payments on the first business day of the month.”******

But, what about the poor and indigent and other elderly who rely on Medicare and Medicaid? “The partial government shutdown will have no impact on Medicare and Medicaid at the federal level, CMS has stressed to industry observers.

“The nation’s public payers will continue to operate as normal, since funding for CMS is assured until at least September 30, 2019.

“CMS and its programs (including, but not limited to, @Medicaregov, @Medicaidgov and @Healthcaregov) are NOT affected by the partial gov't shutdown,” CMS stated on Twitter after the partial shutdown began in late December [2018].”*********

So, it's important to remember that - despite all the media claptrap to the contrary - the entire government is not shutdown. Critical elements of it – like federal law enforcement, the Federal Aviation Administration, etc are still open with the lights still on (albeit perhaps with a reduced staffing).

And life goes on. The sun will set in the western sky tonight and rise again in the east tomorrow morning just like always. In fact, I would wager that if there weren't the media hyping this partial government shutdown everytime we turned round, 99.9% of the American public would not only be unaffected by it, but would be completely unaware it was going on at all.

###

* Spangler, Todd. “Government Shutdown: 23 Questions You Probably Have.” Detroit Free Press, Detroit Free Press, 10 Jan. 2019, www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/01/10/government-shutdown-faq/2528872002/.

**Ogrysko, Nicole. “Your Pay and Benefits during a Government Shutdown, Explained.” Federal News Network, Federal News Network, 29 Nov. 2017, federalnewsnetwork.com/government-shutdown/2017/04/your-pay-and-benefits-during-a-government-shutdown-explained/.

*** Bedard, Paul. “30 Democrats in Puerto Rico with 109 Lobbyists for Weekend despite Shutdown.” Washington Examiner, MediaDC, a Subsidiary of Clarity Media Group, 14 Jan. 2019, www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/30-dems-in-puerto-rico-with-109-lobbyists-for-weekend-despite-shutdown.

**** Goodkind, Nicole. “Here's What Happens to Social Security and Disability Checks in the Event of a Government Shutdown.” Newsweek, 23 Dec. 2018, www.newsweek.com/government-shutdown-social-security-disability-checks-1269131.

***** Wing, Terry, and Nicole Ogrysko. “Here's How a Shutdown Would Affect Your Pay and Benefits.” Federal News Network, Federal News Network, 20 Jan. 2018, federalnewsnetwork.com/government-shutdown/2018/01/heres-how-a-shutdown-would-affect-your-pay-and-benefits/.

******Higgins, Sean. “Federal Employees File for Unemployment as Government Shutdown Becomes Longest in History.” Washington Examiner, MediaDC, a Subsidiary of Clarity Media Group, 12 Jan. 2019, www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/economy/federal-employees-file-unemployment-as-government-shutdown-becomes-longest-in-history.

*******Smith, Ian. “How Pay and Retirement Benefits Are Impacted by a Partial Shutdown.” FedSmith: For the Informed Fed, 16 Dec. 2016, www.fedsmith.com/2018/12/16/pay-retirement-benefits-impacted-partial-shutdown/.

******** Kurtz, Annalyn. “Federal Workers Can Collect Unemployment during Shutdown.” CNNMoney, Cable News Network, 1 Oct. 2013, money.cnn.com/2013/10/01/news/economy/shutdown-federal-unemployment-benefits/index.html.

*********“Government Shutdown & Impact to Military, Veterans | Military Benefits.” MilitaryBenefits.info, 11 Jan. 2019, militarybenefits.info/government-shutdown/.

**********HealthPayerIntelligence. “Government Shutdown Spares Medicare, Medicaid, But Has Other Impacts.” HealthPayerIntelligence, 11 Jan. 2019, healthpayerintelligence.com/news/government-shutdown-spares-medicare-medicaid-but-has-other-impacts.

Of the "deep state" and the inverse, partisan logic of "believability"

Not long after President Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory, Conservative talk show hosts began to speak about the establishment in government that began to come forward and pronounce themselves by speech or behavior as “never Trumpers” - in other words, the below cabinet member level establishment, the career federal government civil service bureaucrat resistance to the new President and his “Make America Great Again” policies.

The more successful Trump and his policies became the more hard-line and obvious their resistance became. It wasn’t long before this resistance began being referred to as the “Deep State;” by definition “a body of...influential members of government agencies..., believed to be involved in the secret manipulation or control of government policy.”

Until this past week, I’d more or less thought of the “Deep State” as more hyperbole than reality.

But, this past week, America has been forced to watch one of the most embarrassing, disgusting and utterly revolting displays imaginable by the Legislative branch of our federal government.

We have been forced to watch our tax dollars wasted while Democrat senators on the Judiciary Committee grilled a 53-year-old sitting federal judge (now a Supreme Court nominee) explain and defend his behavior as a 17 year old high school student right down to the immature notes he wrote in someone’s yearbook about their flatulence problems or their tendency to stutter when saying the “F word.”

Really? Seriously? Our tax dollars funding days and days of Senators’ time to talk about immature teenagers tee-hee-hee’ing about farts and the “F word?” 

Really? Seriously? Our tax dollars funding days and days of Senators’ time to talk about immature teenagers tee-hee-hee’ing about farts and the “F word?”

We had to watch while his family had to watch the absolutely inane allegations that he as a teenager had inappropriately groped her and tried to take her clothes off at a party - a charge supported by so little corroboration that her allegations made a torn piece of cheesecloth look more sturdy, solid and capable of “holding more water” than her case against the nominee.

Yet this flaky accuser, whose physical appearance made her more resemble the Garth Agar character in “Wayne’s World” and a person with obvious “issues” than a professional with credible testimony, and her grossly uncorroborated allegations were resoundingly declared believable by the “usual suspects” on the Democrat side of the Judiciary Committee.

What made that even more appalling and falling was their judgment that even though the nominee consistently denied the allegations AND that his classmates at the time who were at the event in question sent in testimony sworn under penalty of perjury that the nominee was not present at all at said event let alone behaved in the way alleged, he was not believable or credible but she was.

Many other female former HS and college classmates as well as adult colleagues all signed a letter defending nominee Kavenaugh saying he is not such a beast as this allegation would imply – but still, the Democrat side of the aisle and other brainwashed liberals like them believe HER and not HIM.

When the testimony of their straw accuser, Dr Christine Blasey-Ford, came under reasonable doubt - she doesn’t know how she got to the party, she doesn’t know how she got home from it, she didnt exactly see Brett Kavenaugh during her attack but she is, by God, “100% sure” he was the one who did it. And, still they believe her not him.

Apparently her firm opinions didn’t bother her enough when Kavenaugh was a sitting federal judge since 2003 to bring her charges up. Only when he became a Trump nominee for Associate Justice to the Supreme Court, then and only then did it bother her enough to speak up.

And, isn’t it a coincidence that Blasey-Ford is 1) a registered Democrat, 2) has made contributions to political organizations that support the Democrat agenda, 3) last year she participated in a local Women's March protesting President Trump as well as 4) attended a San Francisco (always a haven for far-out left-wing types) March for Science to protest the Trump administration's cuts to research?

Not only that, she’s demonstrated her capacity for flaky memory and falsehood both.

Firstly, she couldn’t remember hardly ANY details at all about the July, 1982 party she and Kavenaugh were at and at which she was “100% sure” Kavenaugh attacked her at yet she couldn’t even remember if she’d given the Washington Post her therapy notes just a few weeks ago!

Secondly, - claiming she couldn’t immediately appear before the Judiciary Committee in the time they wanted because she was clear across the country and afraid of flying. Isn’t it interesting how in reality she was a veteran airline traveler (Blasey-Ford’s own C.V., confirmed in her sworn testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee just last week, lists her interests in surf travel to Hawaii, Costa Rica, South Pacific islands and French Polynesia.) Not only that, but she freely admitted that she travels once a year to nearby Delaware every year at the end of July, the first of August for family reunions. In fact, she was JUST THERE A FEW WEEKS AGO.

So, she claims she has a fear of flying unless it’s traveling for fun. Blasey-Ford said in her own sworn testimony last week says [It is] “Easier for me to travel…when it’s a vacation.” She claims that she couldn’t travel to DC to testify because of her alleged fear of flying and schedule commitments but, in reality, at the time, she was not across the country at all but just a state or two away from Washington, DC and could’ve drove down there in the allowed time?

Yet, this woman was immediately and continually pronounced “believable” and her flimsy allegations instantly “credible” by the whackjob leftists on the Judiciary Committee like those bitter, vicious hags Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Kamala Harris (another D-CA) and “Crazy Mazie” Hirono (D-HI).

Unbelievable.

And, as such, the derogatory descriptions of this past week's proceedings - "a circus", "despicable," "no longer advise and counsel but search and destroy"  are accurate.

What’s even more appalling is when one realizes the not-so-veiled threat in all of this Kangaroo Court that’s been putting nominee Kavenaugh through these past weeks; that message is, “This will happen to you, too if you dare oppose the ‘deep state.’”

Yes, the way Brett Kavenaugh has been smeared, slandered and humiliated - all under the false colors of “how good of a Supreme Court Justice would he make” - has convinced me the deep state is real.

God, guns and guts; going, going…gone?

Saw a thought-provoking bumper sticker on my morning commute. From the back of the vehicle ahead of me, It proclaimed “God, guns and guts - have kept America free for over 200 years!”

Things that make ya say “Hmm....”

It occurs to me that over the past several decades God has been pretty thoroughly pushed out - out of schools, the workplace, government and the courts and the media....

And, we’ve so watered down our stamina through handout programs and societal concepts that we can’t risk offending anybody at all over anything and “everyone get’s a trophy” that we as a people don’t really have the “guts” we were once so famous for having - no where close to it.

So...here we sit on the precipice of the great abyss... the week before a planned nationwide school student walkout for safer schools in the wake of the latest mass murder in a “gun free zone” (as all public schools are). Now, they’re not walking out demanding armed police be stationed INside their schools to protect them. They’re not demanding a few armed and trained teachers to be able to respond far quicker from INside the school than law enforcement OUTside and from farther away could do.

They’re not even demanding stricter laws governing what people with documented mental illness and criminal records can walk among us and purchase firearms.

Oh, no; they’re demanding we take punitive action against the gun! Like take it away kind of actions, banning certain kinds of semi-automatic firearms and magazines greater than a handful of rounds and so on.

So, God’s pretty well gone from our everyday culture. The people with “guts” are more and more dissipating from our world. When guns are gone, how long will America – as we ever knew it – last?

Why should firearms be different than high-speed sports cars, alcohol or tobacco?

As these psychotics continue to shoot up public places - schools, churches, restaurants, and shopping malls - continuing to add to the tragic body count, the "usual suspects" (liberals, the media, etc) start up the predictable harping their usual cries for gun control. And as they do, they continue to display inconsistent logic, hypocritical standards and their whole lack of respect for and knowledge of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

They employ tactics like asking gun owners "Why do you need a fill the blank with the appropriate firearm or associated accessory?"

I would counter their question with a question: Do we question why someone buys a car capable going twice as fast as any speed limit anywhere? No, we are satisfied that because they want it, that’s good enough with the common sense to say if they misuse it and kill somebody (or several somebodies, they're going to jail). So, why should a semi-automatic weapon be any different?

Why do we allow someone to buy unlimited amounts of alcohol - on the face of it, way beyond the amount that one human could safely consume - and yet content ourselves with the common sense that if they overdrink and hurt somebody or somebodies they go to jail? Why would a semiautomatic firearm be any different?

And, it should be pointed out; there is no Constitutional right to purchase or own alcohol like the Second Amendment provides for firearms.

Why do we allow the sale of tobacco - a known carcinogen and literally a killer of millions - that has no positive benefit other than to quench someone else’s desire for it. Yet, we let people buy it without questioning why they do it. And they're allowed to buy it with no special permits, waiting periods or background checks. And when people misuse tobacco, nobody throws a hissy and calls for its ban. So why should a firearm be treated differently than tobacco.

And, remember; there is no Constitutional right to purchase or own alcohol like the Second Amendment provides for firearms.

Its called freedom and individual liberties and, oh yes, in the case of firearms it's the legal premise that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” just like the Second Amendment in the Bill of RIGHTS to the US Constitution says.

Yet, one has to ask, why is it that liberals are oh-so-eager to deny those Constitutionally-protected rights of gun owners and/or to legislate them to death to the point they practially don’t exist? And why do they throw a hissy whenever anyone suggests a law requiring a valid ID to vote? Why should firearms be treated differently than the right to vote? "An elected legislature can trample a man's rights as easily as a king can."* (The Patriot)

Because, as these gun-grabbing liberals demonstrate more and more every day with their inconsistencies and lack of sound logic, to them “gun control” is only about getting more and more control over everyone else and has little or nothing at all to do with guns.

The only legitimate version of gun control is the one that allows you to hit what you’re aiming at.

*Emmerich, Roland, director. The patriot. Columbia Pictures, 2000.

Wake up, America. The usurpers and subversives haven’t gone away - far from it. PART ONE

Wake up, America - while there’s still time.

While we who truly love this once-great country dearly and want to save it from the hopelessly naive utopians likes of Bernie Sanders and the cancerous termite scum likes of Michael Moore, George Soros, may have been breathing a long overdue sigh of relief with the election of President Donald Trump, now is NOT the time. While we are all rolling up our sleeves and getting behind Trump as he strives to “Make America Great Again, our country is not out of danger yet - far from it!

The termites are actively eating away at the very foundation of our country to say nothing of the support beams and load-bearing walls holding up our freedoms.

This past year we may have been lulled into thinking the biggest obstacle to “MAGA” was motivating the largely spineless GOP Congress to actively and substantively backing Trump and the voting majority who elected him and his MAGA agenda into the Oval Office. We may have been lulled into thinking that sending Hillary Clinton home in defeat and denying her the presidency and the opportunity to further the destruction of America damn near accomplished by Barry Hussein Obama

Bill of rights ratified in 1791 it included first and second amendments that guaranteed - not allowed, but guaranteed!- the American public’s Constitutional rights (not privileges) to freely speak, assemble and worship along with the right to arm itself to protect itself from whatever threats needed - individual or otherwise.

Wake up, America. Do you see what’s been slowly but steadily been happening to those guaranteed rights the past 25 years?

Beginning in Hillary’s husband’s 8 years in power your rights of “Freedom of Religion” came under attack with proposals that tried to assail Christianity with oppressions that tried to make the simple wearing of cross/crucifix jewelry be considered actionable as “religious harassment.” (Remember that? Thankfully that failed to see fruition back then. But, would it nowadays?)

But the disease attacking our freedom of religion, while seemingly in remission the 8 years of George W. Bush was still silently at work to the point where during Obama’s regime freedom OF religion became interpreted to be freedom FROM religion. This manifested itself in continuing to ban school prayer right down to threatening sanctioning individual sports players who knelt in prayer or crossed themselves and pointed to heaven after scoring a great play for their team.

That’s just to mention a few liberal/progressive threats to the first amendment protection of our individual and corporate right to free worship.

Continue on to Part Two....