What The Elite Fears

What The Elite (who fervently believe that they, and ONLY they, should rule this country) Fears:

That the average person - non-Elite, might be White, or not, believes that earning a living, raising a family, and conducting oneself as though one had a brain is vital to national interests - might have a significant say in how this country is run, and how the money raised in taxes or borrowed to run the government is spent.

That's it.

No White Supremacy. No Hate the Gay. No explicit teaching of sectarian faith in public schools (that also includes the religion of Leftism). Everyone has a vote - ONE. Any vote has to have been cast by a LEGAL CITIZEN - a person, not a bot.

But, also reduction of ALL subsidies:

• Corporate/Industrial
• For "Cultural" activities
• For "Get Out the Vote" (GOTV) activities - that is a STATE responsibility.
• For grants to schools - public or private (the STATES can do whatever the hell they want - this is about FEDERAL money - money taken by force from taxpayers).
• Ag subsidies - which, mostly, end up in the hands of the Big Multinational Businesses. Direct loans to farmers experiencing UNUSUAL circumstances, no problem - low interest rates, too. But, that loan should also include someone looking into the books to see how the farm might get back on the pathway to solvency and become profitable and largely self-sustaining.
• Which might mean that both the food stamp/EBT and free lunches might have to be reduced. Well, okay. There's a lot of waste in those programs - in many schools, ALL children are deemed eligible for the programs, with no check on actual income. And, having worked in those schools, I also know - from personal experience - that there is a LOT of plate waste, AND a lot of fat kids being produced from the sale of snacks and pizza for cash. What, 'poor' kids have money? Yeah, that would be because a sizable percentage of them aren't actually poor.
• As for food stamps, the local stores - often run by people of foreign birth - are notorious for trading small amounts of cash (and, maybe a little not-eligible alcohol or tobacco) for the ability to run their card for non-existent amounts of groceries. Not helping those families; just putting ill-gotten gains into the hands of those businesses.
• And, a not-inconsiderable quantity of that WIC powdered formula - the formula that is in such shortage - is going to dealers to cut their drugs. That could be stopped tomorrow by making only liquid, condensed formula eligible for WIC. A quck, and effective fix.

ALL departments at the federal level should have to reduce their budgets by at least 10% the first year, and an equal amount (plus inflation) the next, until - we hope - that department is either gone, or reduced to the level that would be compatible with that of the early days of the Republic.

They could start with Waste, Abuse, and Fraud. At the national level, it's huge. ALL departments would have to identify the top 5 areas of WAF, and reach their target of 10% reduction, or face loss of funds in the next budget.

If the states think a non-essential program that is on the federal chopping block is such an important thing to do, they should apply for a Reverse Grant. State residents will have the Federal portion of their taxes reduced to pay for it, and that money sent directly to state government to run that program. The money never hits the federal coffers.

The Struggle Continues

This link is to a Breitbart News piece that details just how the "student visas" programs work - and it's not pretty.

This year, border chief Alejandro Mayorkas created a new J-1 work-permit program for tech companies without any approval from Congress. And the Congressional Wimps roll over and play dead.

Here's another link to the list of Senators (GOP AND Dem) who want MORE H-2B visas issued (a different program than that described above) - right up to the max allowed.

"The 17 Republicans who signed the letter are:

• Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
• Mike Rounds (R-SD)
• Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
• James Risch (R-ID)
• Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
• Roy Blunt (R-MO)
• Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)
• John Cornyn (R-TX)
• Mike Crapo (R-ID)
• John Thune (R-SD)
• Susan Collins (R-ME)
• Pat Toomey (R-PA)
• Roger Wicker (R-MS)
• Jerry Moran (R-KS)
• Rand Paul (R-KY)
• John Barrasso (R-WY)
• Tim Scott (R-SC)

Many of them are predictable, but Tim Scott and Rand Paul are disappointments.

The 17 Democrats who signed the letter are:

• Angus King (I-ME)
• Chris Coons (D-DE)
• Michael Bennet (D-CO)
• Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
• Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
• Raphael Warnock (D-GA)
• Thomas Carper (D-DE)
• Joe Manchin (D-WV) - watch out for him - he is a stealth supporter of the Dem platform
• Mark Warner (D-VA)
• John Hickenlooper (D-CO)
• Tim Kaine (D-VA)
• Tina Smith (D-MN)
• Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
• Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ)
• Ron Wyden (D-OR)
• Mark Kelly (D-AZ)
• Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

Fortunately, and rather surprisingly, there were no OH senators on the list. My guess is that they are in fear of what will happen in the 2022 Sentate race, between J. D. Vance and Tim Ryan. They don't want to give any easy opportunities for the GOP to score points.

Tim Ryan, from the Youngstown area, likes to position himself as a working-class supporter type of guy. After graduating from college, he worked for Jim Trafficant - so that might tell you just what his ethics are. Jim served a sentence involving TEN counts of bribery, false tax returns, racketeering, and forcing his staff to work on his farm and houseboat. He served 7 years.

From Wikipedia:

After his expulsion, Traficant ran as an independent candidate for another term in the House while incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary, Allenwood.^[21] He received 28,045 votes, or 15 percent, and became one of only a handful of individuals in the history of the United States to run for a federal office from prison. The election was won by one of his former aides, Tim Ryan.^[22]

Ryan's district, the 13th, is heavily Democrat. He has won, in the past, by large majorities - although, it must be said that he didn't face imposing GOP candidates.

This is different. He's facing a popular, and fairly well known businessman and author of the story of his redneck upbringing. That will go a long way for many who might otherwise be voting for him. This is also a statewide office, and he cannot count on his strong showing in elections that drew from a small, largely Rust Belt locale.

Keep an eye on the B@$t@rds, and keep vigilant. This could be as big an upset as has been seen in a long time.

The Proposed “Contraceptive” Bill

 Reason Magazine has a nice article detailing some of the provisions of the “Right to Contraception Act”.

Here is a link to the text of actual bill. It have passed the House, and been sent to the Senate. The Left is in a frenzied hurry to pass this BEFORE the next election. The rapidity with which they moved it through can be seen as a measure of their fears for the likely party composition of the next Congress.

The bill is HR 8373 - it’s stated purpose is:

To protect a person’s ability to access contraceptives and to engage in contraception, and to protect a health care provider’s ability to provide contraceptives, contraception, and information related to contraception.

Well, all righty, then. Surely no sensible person could POSSIBLY object to legislation with such a high-minded purpose, could they?

Let’s start with the definitions.

CONTRACEPTION.—The term ‘‘contraception’’ means an action taken to prevent pregnancy including the use of contraceptives or fertility-awareness based methods, and sterilization procedures.

Ooooh, that wording is loose enough to drive a truck through. In the parlance of the Left, a contraceptive can include:

• Condoms (both male and female)
• Foam, gels, and other OTC methods to reduce the likelihood of pregnancy
• Pills, implants, IUDs, injectables that are LARCS (long acting reversible contraceptives)
• Plan B - already widely available OTC in many states.
• Sterilization
• And, in the gray area for most of us, meds used to stop a pregnancy-in-progress. That is, medical abortion, which can be handled by a virtual visit, cross state lines, and even cross national borders.

That last option is the plan for theLeft. They will be transitioning from in-person to virtual, shipping the meds in a plain wrapper (or, more likely, one that is misleadingly labeled), and delivering a hands-off abortion. They mean to keep their providers from being dragged into court in states that don’t want that business within their borders.

The next step will be for the Left to make the meds available OTC in the aborting states. Drug runners will have a handy-dandy new product, one that will not expose them to federal prison, and that is small, easily concealable, and doesn’t give off identifying odors for the drug dogs.

Here is another provision of the bill that leaves latitude to enable OTC abortion WITHOUT the expense of a physician.

The term “health care provider’’ means, with respect to a State, any entity or individual (including any physician, certified nurse-midwife, nurse, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, and pharmacist) that is licensed or otherwise authorized by the State to provide health care services.

There ya’ go folks. Physician’s assistants, nurses. Boy, the payroll of abortion clinics will drop dramatically. Thereby upping their profits.

Those guys don’t miss a trick.

The bill goes on to cite Roe v Wade and all the other decisions that back up their contention that abortion is a “fundamental right”. 

Woo-hoo! They are putting the FUN in fundamental!

Amazingly, they don’t seem to mention the Dobbs decision in that bill. They do manage to bring in the UN Population Fund AND WHO to bolster their case that this is an accepted right of every sensible person.

Not only do they assure you that contraceptives are safe, but they also:

many contraceptives are highly effective in preventing and treating a wide array of often severe medical conditions and decrease the risk of certain cancers.

Would those be the various cancers caused by STDs? Which use of condoms, every time, can reduce, if not eliminate? And would those severe medical conditions be AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases? All of which has NOTHING to do with family planning.

The last part I will comment on today is this:

In interpreting the provisions of this Act, a court shall liberally construe such provisions to effectuate the purposes of the Act.

in other words, no matter what the law actually states, some judge with an agenda (Whoops, I just described a majority of the judicial Left) can throw the law out, and rule according to his whims (or, marching orders from the Left).

 

So, Why Do I Do This?

Blog, that is.

It can't be the lengthy list of followers - although my daily 'hits' are generally good, most of the time, I have only a few commenters.

I'm not deluded ENOUGH to believe that my voice will, eventually, prove to be the defining one of this era.

It's definitely NOT for the money. I use Blogger, because it's free. I have paid backups elsewhere, but this is the one that has lasted the longest (in my previous blog, Right As Usual, and this one).

So why blog?

Because it's the easiest way to get something off my chest, without driving family and friends nuts (almost all of them are Progressive/Liberal in inclination). A few of that number agree with me - we exchange messages, without speaking out much publicly. I don't fault them for not speaking out in a public forum - they have a living to earn, and don't need to stir up the LeftBeast.

But, mostly, I'm shouting into the void.

Why?

Years ago, I read a short post by Connie du Toit. She died much too early, but in her rather short life, she had an impace. The most important of her posts dealt with this subject.

She wrote of the Remnant. They were the ones that remained faithful to their values. She said that she wrote for the Remnant, to encourage them to keep true to their beliefs.

There may only be a relatively small number of people who will read my blog, even fewer who will take my words to heart.

But, even if they fail to continue the fight, by writing, I keep the flame of Liberty in America alive.

We, who blog about an America we love, share that goal. As long as even ONE person keeps the flame going, there is a chance for clawing back freedom from tyranny. 

What drives us?

White Supremacy? No, we have many ethnicities who hold our values in common. In fact, the recent immigrants often uphold the old ideas with a fierce committment that surpasses the long-time citizens.

Some of the drive comes from seeing NumbNuts - Highly Educated (by Progressive Standards), but still NumbNuts - come up with their REALLY Shiny New Way of Improving Society!

Which New Way requires them to impose their idea on an unwilling population.

Unwilling? No Problem! They'll just impose HARDER!

Oh, well, I'm sure that will completely solve the problem, and the solution will work well.

Sarah Hoyt suggests that is because we have Bodies - and those bodies constrain possible changes.

I disagree. I believe it is because we are souls who have a body.

What is eternal in us is our soul; once we leave our body, we will continue to be the same, as our soul will stay the same.

7/22/2022

I have been writing this over several days. Today I was reading a Spectator article that examined the readily apparent decline of the President - a man who wasn’t all that bright to begin with.

It is for those reasons that I would prefer that Trump bow out of the 2024 election race. He’s got a lot more on the ball than Slow Joe had in his prime. But, still, he’s not a young man, and in his first term, he made some errors - staffing, failure to reign in the Deep State, trusting the GOP leadership to secure the election process.

I’d be more comfortable with a younger man- or woman. Someone with political executive experience; in short, a successful governor. DeSantis comes to mind as, perhaps, the best choice of the pack.

Books to Have in HARD Copy

What would your list look like? This post (and the comments) sparked my own thoughts.

You know I'm under the weather when I spend most of a day just meandering through what might turn out to be interesting blogs. On one such today, I found people talking about stocking up - and the thing that caught my eye was physical books.

My list would include:

• The Bible - I have a Douay-Rheims version, bought early in my marriage at an estate sale.
• My ham radio collection - some of which are in e-format, but many in hard copy. It was an accident - the physical books were given to me as a premium for buying stuff on the ARRL site.
• Home canning books - I was shopping at Lehmann's with my prep-minded sister, and was buying seeds and canning supplies. I decided that, should we absolutely NEED these, the 'Net might not be available, so chose to buy some hard copies of them.
• Recipe books (we have MANY, as my husband is an addict), as well as printed-out copies from web recipes that worked.
• Repair/maintenance manuals - car, household, appliance, etc.
• Home medicine books. Somewhere, I used to have several, but they have been outdated. Please, put some suggestions in the comments.
• Homestead-y type books - making soap, spinning wool, weaving techniques. How to convert an electric sewing machine to a human-powered one. Farming on a small scale. Planting a survival garden. Pesticides that work. Making pet food at home. Building a solar backup system for your home. Making candles. Add any more to the comments.
• Learning books for children - both good fiction, and useful skills. Also, some books that will help them learn math and science.

Miscellaneous Thoughts in the Middle of July 2022

I'm busy with other things:

• Preparing for an out-of-town conference (Physics Teachers). It involves clearing up paperwork, paying bills, arranging for my dog to be boarded with family, and packing.
• Slogging away at the dreaded annual re-certification for selling Medicare insurance. Some years, the test is (relatively) easy. Other years, it's a bear. I have to prepare for the worst, as I have only 3 chances to pass.
• Getting some exercise in before I spend a lot of time sitting - in a car, in seminars, dealing with that test prep in my spare hours.
• Getting ready for a birthday party for a dear relative. We have the base gift, but need a card, wrapping paper, and maybe some extra treats.
• Cleaning the house, weeding, and finishing off food before we leave for a week.

I read this post in The LawDog Files, and knew I had to bring it to people's attention. It's the Go-To Move for Non-Leftists, whether individuals, states, or the federal government.

"the current Fed response in Portland is not the way I would have handled it.

What should have been done is that all Federal assets in Portland should have been yanked out and re-located somewhere else. Boise, maybe. All Federal business needed to be conducted, drive to Boise.

You’ve got business in Federal court? Boise.

Your boo gets snatched up on a Federal warrant? He’s in Boise. You bonded him out? He’s been released. In Boise.

I would house all Federal personnel in hotels in Boise, and send an itemized bill to Portland every week for their housing. And when Portland refused to pay, I’d have a press conference on the courthouse steps, explain the issue, and gently explain that because Portland wasn’t paying their bill, we would be deducting the costs from Federal monies going to Portland.

And when Portland started refusing to pay taxes, I’d get my best legal minds to write the arrest warrants, crossing every ‘t’, and dotting every ‘i’, and they’d be incarcerated in Boise.

Portland should be left to burn. They voted the idiots into office who are allowing this to happen, the citizens are tolerating this stupidity, and they should be left to wallow in it until the citizens decide to fix their issues."

Withdrawal. Just complete refusal to deal with the offenders, unless they stop their lawless approval of illegal acts.

Face it, many of these urban communities have essentially been taken over by revolutionaries, who are being treated by the Feds as though they were still a legitmate governing body.

They need to be treated like what they are - a Rebel-Captured Area, that must not be given financial support from the central government. We don't need to take special action to starve them, but the copious federal subsidies need to stop:

• No transfers of money - grants, subsidies, or other support - to the current government.
• Move all Federal employees - whether civilian or military (and their families) out of the city. This will severely impact the restaurants and groceries, other retailers, landlords & mortgage companies (Call for a federal emergency action - ALL financial obligations related to property/rent are suspended without penalty. When - and if - the local governments get back in normal operation - and AFTER they kick out the dissidents - payments can resume. No late charges/fees will accrue to anyone moved under this action). Mortgages so suspended because the Feds were forced to move operations will NOT go into default, be assessed penalties, nor be adversely reported to credit companies. The banks, alone, will go nuts.
• Any damage incurred by the departing employees as a result of the cities' allowing vandals to roam without arrest/charges will be deducted from withheld payments to the cities. Any money held longer than 6 months or so will be returned to the Treasury to reduce the Federal debt.

And, while I'm promoting LawDog, here's another gem for you to read.

Update: Tuesday, 7/12 - I'm at that conference, and am taking the day off, during to gastric issues (I'm actually feeling a little better already).

Here's a new revelation from the informant that was spying on the OK Proud Boys for the FBI - there was NO conspiracy, there were efforts to get the trespassers to clean up the mess and leave peacefully.

What a surprise! WHO would EVAH have thought that the Fed Deep State would lie? And, in the process, frame innocent people for felonies?

Boy, not ME!

I'm going back to bed. Maybe when I wake up, I'll find out this has all been a dream (remember that sequence from Dallas?).

Thoughts Inspired by the Dobbs Decision

The first link was found on First Things. It's a good one to share with younger people, to help them start thinking through the consequences of their actions.

The issue of "Federalism" - which, apparently, does not mean what it seems to. When I first heard the term used, I thought that it meant a system that kept all the power at the federal level.

Blame my rather typical Baby Boomer education - although most of my Social Studies teachers were Korean War vets, and generally more Conservative/Libertarian than not, still, by that point, some rot had crept in. MOST of those teachers accepted that the Federal government had the right to step into how states managed their governance (largely due to the Civil Rights efforts, which the Left - all too many of them Socialists and outright Communists).

What Federalism refers to is a system that has CERTAIN powers given to the widest level - the Federal - which gift was permitted by the individual states or regions. Beyond that limited area of responsibility, the Federal level has NO authority.

That's the intent of the 10th Amendment. That Amendment should be the focus of future efforts to hem in the Feds. BTW, to remind you:

That's what 'ya might call UNambiguous. Short, pithy, and direct.

There's a hunger for freedom, awakened in the average American. They are eager to throw off the "You-Must-Say-This, You-Must-NOT-Say-That" shackles. A recent event at UATX (University of Austin TX) found that out, when they offered students the opportunity to hear from censored speakers, and speak freely.

I love the way Time Magazine uses the term "fortify" to re-write the reality that Leftists, along with the media, NGOs of the Left, and corporate interests, used a secret process - and a WHOLE LOTTA MONEY - to make sure that the "right candidate" - Joe Biden - 'won'.

It wasn't a conspiracy (which it was), it wasn't a plot (which it was), it wasn't an attempt to manufacture or "legitimize" votes (which it was).

No. The conspirators were simply "Fortifying" our Democracy (which it is NOT - I hardly have to say that The United States of America is a Republic). And, by "Fortified", they mean that the (few) parts of it which they approve of, will be kept, and the (MANY) parts that thwart their Leftist Aims, will be trashed. And, those that even MENTION those parts will be suppressed with all the force they can muster (even if they have to use extra-legal force).

So, on this celebration of the start of the USA, try not to focus on such gloomy thoughts. There is time enough for them, over the next months and years (perhaps decades).

Instead, that unhealthy, fat and sugar laden feast with friends and family, watch Yankee Doodle Dandy for the umpteenth time, perhaps follow up with a DVD of Rigged (I got the DVD - I've seen too many viedos that "unexpectedly" get removed from Youthbe) or 2000 Mules (at $20, a bargain), or maybe a streamed montage of the 2016 election - complete with hysterical womyn or facsimile of the same.

Surprisingly, although MOST of this clip is predictable, Conan O'Brien (CONAN?!?!?!), at the end, makes the most American statement. One which I approve of.

Happy Refusal to Buckle Under to Tyranny and Overwhelming Forces Day!

The Hysterical Media Continues

Jeez, you’d think that at least a few of them could find something more worthy to occupy their time.

Like running room to room in a hooker’s hotel, delivering wet wipes between customers.

But, no.

Never happened. But, thanks to Congress and the Media, it will enter the Halls of Infamy, and become Truthy.

But WAIT!

There is a rare voice of sanity in the media.