Questions For Joe Biden

 We've seen a great many Trump compatriots rousted from bed by FBI agents in order to serve a warrant search. Why have we had no investigation into Hunter Biden, who is evidently now a lecturer at Tulane. if you're a parent paying Tulane's tuition, do you really want your child "taught" by drug-addict, serial abuser and self admitted sex addict, Hunter Biden?

Questions for #JoeBiden?
Where were you on Monday, Dec. 18, 1972?
What activities were you engaged in over the weekend previous to that date?
Why was your wife taking her three very young children ALONE to allegedly pick up a Christmas tree? (as reported on http://Heavy.com
Isn't that usually a FAMILY event?
Wouldn't it be difficult for anyone to manage three toddlers and a Christmas tree at the same time?
In that same story the following statement was made: "...“For whatever reason, Neilia Biden, who was holding the baby, ended up in the right of way of Dunn’s truck coming down a long hill,” Politico reported. A friend of Biden’s who looked into the accident at the time told Politico, “She had a stop sign. The truck driver did not.” On what planet is a woman driving with her infant daughter on her lap?
Wouldn't that be a more likely position for a woman trying to ESCAPE from a disabled car with her child?
To your knowledge, was a forensic investigation done on Neilia's automobile?
If so, were any mechanical deficiencies noted?
Why did you continue with the "drunk truck driver" narrative when there was no evidence that was the case?
This same article claims you met your second wife, Jill, on a blind date in 1977. Yet in Jill's book she recounts the following:"...According to her 2019 memoir, Where the Light Enters, Jill had posed in an ad campaign for New Castle County's Parks and Recreation division. That advertisement wound up at said airport in the mid-'70s. Joe, who traveled frequently at the time, was apparently enamored with this woman in the photos and told his brother, Frankie, that the mysterious model was his dream date. We guess this is what they call love at first sight? In a random yet fortuitous twist, Frankie knew a mutual friend of Jill's and was able to get her phone number, which was notably unlisted at the time. Just one day after Joe procured Jill's digits, he called his future wife up for a date in March 1975. When she asked how he'd gotten her number, the politician's answer was oddly curt. In her book, Jill recalled Joe saying, "My brother Frank gave it to me. I just got back into town and was wondering — are you free tonight?" (source:https://bit.ly/330BQw4) You married her in 1977, you met her years earlier. So what is the truth?
Were you faithful to your first wife?
Did she have reason to doubt your fidelity?
Did she confront you earlier over the way you approached women?
I think it's time we start demanding #JusticeForNeilia

Schools Should be Open. This is Why.

 "...As a result, many Americans have an overexaggerated view of certain aspects of the pandemic. One of these may well bear on school reopenings: According to polling, Americans massively overestimate the number of children who have died from the disease. Per the CDC, in the United States, children represent less than 0.1% of total pandemic-related deaths. While each individual death is a tragedy, the statistics remind us of a crucial, well-established feature of this virus: It is far less risky for children, with Americans above age 65 constituting 81% of the share of deaths.

In the same polling, Americans also massively overestimate the likelihood that a COVID-19 infection will lead to hospitalization. Forty-one percent of Democrats hold the completely implausible view that more than half of infections result in hospitalization. Ironically, despite the widespread assumption that Republicans underplay the disease, 26% of Republicans get the rate of hospitalization correct, compared with 10% of Democrats, according to the same study..."

Article Here

Read and Share. Big Media Wants You To Think Things are Just Fine in Liberal Cities. They Are Not.

 Worth reading because you won't see any of this expressed on the network news outlets. https://unherd.com/2021/04/how-anarchists-captured-portland/

Are You Just Going to Stand There Or Are You Going to Do Something?

 If you want to experience what conservative teachers and students must go through daily in our public and private schools, read this. After reading, ask yourself if this doesn't sound like the type of indoctrination we'd have seen under Stalin or Mao or Castro. This is evil and parents need to stand up and make it stop-by attending school meetings, voting for school boards and not blindly accepting the new status quo simply to "get by."

https://bit.ly/3e6oZO8

"...I asked my uncomfortable questions in the “self-care” meeting because I felt a duty to my students. I wanted to be a voice for the many students of different backgrounds who have approached me over the course of the past several years to express their frustration with indoctrination at our school, but are afraid to speak up. They report that, in their classes and other discussions, they must never challenge any of the premises of our “antiracist” teachings, which are deeply informed by Critical Race Theory. 

These concerns are confirmed for me when I attend grade-level and all-school meetings about race or gender issues. There, I witness student after student sticking to a narrow script of acceptable responses. Teachers praise insights when they articulate the existing framework or expand it to apply to novel domains. Meantime, it is common for teachers to exhort students who remain silent that “we really need to hear from you.” 

A Statistic Based Reason Cops Are Stern When They Pull You Over For A Traffic Stop.

 If you are wondering why police are always on defense, consider the following statistics:

"...FBI Releases 2019 Statistics on Law Enforcement Officers Killed in the Line of Duty

According to statistics reported to the FBI, 89 law enforcement officers were killed in line-of-duty incidents in 2019. Of these, 48 officers died as a result of felonious acts, and 41 officers died in accidents. Comprehensive data tables about these incidents and brief narratives describing the fatal attacks are included in Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, 2019, released today.

Felonious Deaths

The 48 felonious deaths occurred in 19 states and in Puerto Rico. The number of officers killed as a result of criminal acts in 2019 was 8 less than the 56 officers who were feloniously killed in 2018. The 5- and 10-year comparisons show an increase of 7 felonious deaths compared with the 2015 figure (41 officers) and a decrease of 7 deaths compared with 2010 data (55 officers).

Officer Profiles. The average age of the officers who were feloniously killed was 40 years old. The victim officers had served in law enforcement for an average of 13 years at the times of the fatal incidents. Of the 48 officers:

45 were male

3 were female

40 were white

7 were black/African American

1 was Asian.

Circumstances. Of the 48 officers feloniously killed:

15 died as a result of investigative or law enforcement activities

6 were conducting traffic violation stops

4 were performing investigative activities

2 were drug-related matters

2 were interacting with wanted persons

1 was investigating suspicious person or circumstance

9 were involved in tactical situations

3 were barricaded/hostage situations

3 were serving, or attempting to serve, search warrants

2 were serving, or attempting to serve, arrest warrants

1 was reported in the category titled “other tactical situation”

5 were involved in unprovoked attacks

4 were responding to crimes in progress

2 were robberies

1 was larceny-theft

1 was reported in the category titled “other crime against property”

3 were involved in arrest situations and were attempting to restrain/control/handcuff the offender(s) during the arrest situations

3 were assisting other law enforcement officers

2 with vehicular pursuits

1 with foot pursuit

3 were responding to disorders or disturbances

2 were responding to disturbances (disorderly subjects, fights, etc.)

1 was responding to a domestic violence call

3 were involved in vehicular pursuits

2 were ambushed (entrapment/premeditation)

1 was serving, or attempting to serve, a court order (eviction notice, subpoena, etc.).

Weapons. Offenders used firearms to kill 44 of the 48 victim officers. Four officers were killed with vehicles used as weapons. Of the 44 officers killed by firearms:

34 were slain with handguns

7 with rifles

1 with a shotgun

2 with firearms in which the types of firearms were unknown or not reported

Regions. Felonious deaths were reported in four U.S. regions and Puerto Rico.

27 officers were feloniously killed in the South

9 in the Midwest

9 in the West

1 in the Northeast

2 in Puerto Rico

Suspects. Law enforcement agencies identified 49 alleged assailants in connection with the felonious line-of-duty deaths.

36 of the assailants had prior criminal arrests.

12 of the offenders were under judicial supervision at the times of the felonious incidents..."

~https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-releases-2019-statistics-on-law-enforcement-officers-killed-in-the-line-of-duty

While that is in your mind, and with the Floyd trial being covered nationally, consider this local issue. In Burleson, a small town south of Ft. Worth, an armed robber held up a store with a long gun with a big cartridge. Later, a Burleson police officer was shot MULTIPLE TIMES in a routine traffic stop. Connected? I don't know. But I do know that FELONS TEND TO REACT AND RUN to most normal incidents. That's why cops tend to be apprehensive on traffic stops, domestic violence calls and warrant service. Teach your kids not to be jerks-do what the cop says.

~ https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/burleson-police-officer-shot-multiple-times-during-traffic-stop-in-neighborhood/ar-BB1fDJuN

Democrats Want 16 Year Olds to Vote. When Do They Want Them To Take Responsibility for Their Own Failures?

 Under the imposition of the NEA, Dallas ISD teachers lamented returning to the classroom, perpetuating the notion that in person classes were "dangerous." Then, after at home learning became an abject failure, the district was faccing half of this year's seniors not graduating. So last week the Dallas ISD made a big announcement that ALL seniors must return to the classroom for the last nine weeks of classes. The same kids who broke or pawned their district purchased laptops, who couldn't be bothered to logon or pay attention online were expected to show they had responsibility and show up today.

How many showed up? 43%

Who's with me that it's way past time for some tough love and maybe those kids who chose to stay in bed or played video games rather than showing up should NOT graduate?

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2021/04/12/in-person-attendance-stays-flat-despite-dallas-isds-calls-for-seniors-to-return-to-campuses/

How To Woke Proof Your Children

 Gosh, I wish I had written this.

As it is, this is one of the snarkiest, funniest and absolutely truthful columns on parenting in the age of COVID that I've read. Read it and share it with anyone who has grandkids or kids. Especially post this on forums where the indecisive #WokeFolks may accidentally realize how dangerous and stupid the agenda of the Left under #JoeBiden has become.

Read this.

Best part:

"...Despite what the clowns running this circus want you to think, it actually IS possible to be 100% certain which gender your baby will identify with, as long as you commit as a parent to stopping entry of brain worms. Fake gender identities are a modern progressive social epidemic induced by the Internet, so it requires some avoidance techniques to prevent this infection.

First, you must shun gender neutrality. Dress your girls like ladies and your boys like off-duty firemen. If your little boy requests to wear a dress to school, tell him firmly that boys do not wear dresses, only girls do, and you refuse to allow him to entertain fantasy notions. If boys are allowed to wear dresses at your school, find a new school. If your children insist there are more than two genders, spend some time at the zoo and challenge them to identify these elusive other genders..."

Teachers' Unions Have Become Partisan Dinosaurs

 Read this: Teachers' Unions STILL Want Lockdowns on Schools

There was a time when unions served a purpose. They worked to get meaningful wages, to eliminate child labor and to make sure workers had a voice. Those days are gone. Union bosses have become every bit as money grubbing and elitist as any titan of industry. Indeed many of the offspring of union bosses attend the same elite schools and universities. It should make union rank and file ponder where their membership fees are going.

This leads to our current situation where the NEA is directing via narrative and media connections, the continuing closure of "free" public education. Never mind that this impacts low income students the worst. Ignore that it makes it impossible for single parents to work. Pretend it isn't an economic drag on an already wounded economy. NEA has bigger, unstated sacred cows to gore. And their inroads into controlling the message and measures used in education in some states shows what inordinate power they are wielding.

Many doctors and scientists have said lockdowns for children are unnecessary. They have stated this view from scientific data, from witnessing the demise of too many children and on the number of students who have simply disappeared from class rolls. But the NEA and their strident, fearful minions don't care. They insist on draconian actions that no district can afford in terms of space or money. What many of these same teachers may not realize is that they are destroying their own brand. Parents need to work and most have to work. Sooner or later if the public schools don't open, parents will seek another options. It may be homeschooling, it may be charter schools or private schools, but whatever their choice it will shrink the number of students in schools. 

With fewer students, there is less interest in financially supporting public school education with higher taxes. That means in turn that whatever actions the NEA hoped to achieve such as smaller classes, higher pay, better insurance will fall by the wayside. As these advantages go away, private and charter schools will look even more attractive to parents. If you want to see this in action, look at Chicago. Chicago's taxes are insanely high and many parents struggle to survive, but this is one city where the Catholic school system is strong because parents will do whatever is necessary to make sure their kids are not in the warzone that the Chicago public schools has become.

I'm not cheering this situation. I am a product of public schools. Public schools enabled my father to move out of his Depression Era poverty and go to college. Public school enabled my Irish immigrant ancestors to learn English and become citizens. Public school education is what set us apart from our European ancestors and enabled the American Dream, where anyone can achieve anything with knowledge and hard work. As that system dies-courtesy of the combination of an alphabet soup of agencies and laws-our ability to stand apart also goes away. The American Public School was the shared American experience where we all learned the same English, Math, History and Science and that type of share knowledge is what creates a cohesive culture.

The biggest mistake NEA and its supporters have made is to allow schools to become petri dishes for social justice. Rather than giving students the tools to achieve, schools have been and are being used a means to inoculate children with "appropriate" social attitudes. Whether it is to believe in Global Warming, support "Kindness" as a blanket of acceptance for all manner of behavior or tolerating the outbursts of mentally ill students parachuted into general education classrooms the methodology is push students further apart. These obedient followers are becoming more and more liberal to the point that they can't discuss any issue. The rebels are becoming more conservative and shutting down. 

Now that we have had lockdowns, parents are fully aware of the scope of the indoctrination. While NEA lobbies even up to the White House to stay closed, many parents are opting out or moving to districts where education matters more than ideology. I believe the NEA's endgame is to get Federal control over ALL schools public and private. We're already seeing churches under attack to accept lifestyles or views that don't reflect their moral guides, so is it really so far off to think the NEA wouldn't have an underlying agenda to control ALL education? 

We will never be United Again

 I've never heard or seen so much contrived vitriol in my life. My Mom used to say "If you look for trouble, you'll find it" and that applies to racism, sexism, and every other type of victimhood set up by the Left. I thought maybe I was just hearing from the extremists that Big Media so likes to amplify. But evidently I'm wrong. Evidently the mere existence of anyone who is White is offensive. And frankly the Democrat Socialists seem intent on pulling the bandaids off until a scar so hideous is part of our shared history. I don't know how anyone is going to be able function in an office, classroom or any other group effort. It's as if the Left will not be content until we hate each other to death.

Do you doubt me? Read This

I ask you, have you ever in an urban setting had someone of a different race yet out a comment or question? If someone is looking for a COVID shot, would it be so wrong to just answer the damned question without lamenting over some overarching narrative that has nothing to do with the task at hand? I wonder if the writer is always so civil-never honks his horn in traffic, never yells when someone spills beer on him at a ball game, gets frustrated when his kids use up all the data? How is his male anger any different from an elderly white woman, who has probably wandered around to various shot locations for weeks trying to find available vaccine? Isn't that elder abuse to accuse her of asking and being denied an answer? 

It's obvious that people who hold such hair-trigger bias and prefer their own created habitat should probably seek a means to stay there. If you can't even let go of your own bias in order to score SJW Woke Points, then why should you expect anyone else to give up their own personal Shagrila?

Since When Do We Make Kids APOLOGIZE For Their Race?

 Watch this: Outrageous! 

So a student, who to the faculty of his school "looks white", is forced to APOLOGIZE for his alleged "White Dominance" even though he is biracial and being raised by his Black mother. She is standing up for his right not to be humiliated and denigrated for the sake of Critical Race Theory and a grade. How many other students are in the same situation? How many good kids are being vilified for the sake of a false and accusatory political narrative masquerading as "social justice?" Parents must stand up for their children. Many parents are unaware that these political narratives are being presented to students as factual at every level of education starting with our youngest kids. Remember, the Left has actually produced academic "studies" from soft science programs that babies are racist. BABIES!!! My three week old granddaughter likes anyone who picks her up and cuddles her. I doubt she cares much who does it although she smiles at Mommy because MOMMY FEEDS HER!!!! 

By the way, there is a way to defeat these tin star heroes of the Woke Left. And that is to refuse to accept their behavior at any level. Whether it's Antifa buring down a Federal building or woke politicians like AOC and Aryanna Pressley spreading toxic messaging via bully pulpits, it is long past time to push back and force these bullies out of the safety of their hallowed niches in Academia and Government. It's going to take effort and it's going to mean risk, but if you value your children's futures, you will stop letting the Mockingbird Media and the Leftists Ideologues set limits for the rest of us. 

Read: Beating the Woke

Woke Academia Is Destroying Our Children and our Nation

 Read this

After you've read this column consider how many parents these days blame the schools first. I'm not saying the teachers or the schools or the curriculum isn't to blame, BUT there is plenty of blame to go around. Let me give you some examples.

1. I had a student whose parents pulled him from school during semester exams for a cruise because it was cheaper for them to go then.

2. I had multiple families pull their children out of school to go overseas for a MONTH and then expect the teachers to either completely excuse missed work or stay after school until six or seven every night to allow the students to make up work.

3. When I had a student who refused to do AP Art Studio assignments doing only Anime because I was concerned she wasn't developing enough range to make her skills marketable, I was called a racist because, to quote the mother "We raised our kids that they can be anything they choose to be." That was never my concern-it's just that as a working artist back in the day I know the more skills you bring to the table, the more likely you are to make a real living. BTW, this particular oppressed child lived in a half million dollar home and her parents were CEO's of their respective companies.

4. I had a student whose mother was very socially involved. He came late every day and I'd get a perky email from Mom about how he was home sick and they were going to the doctor. The absences became later in the day and the emails arrived later as well until the student had missed more days than he attended. BTW, the parents were informed by email and phone messaging whenever he was absent. The parents were OUTRAGED when he absence failed the entire year. They said they would homeschool him. The last I heard he was in military school.

5. I had three triplets in classes and two of them did okay. The most talented one refused to turn in work to the point that if I had not relented on the last day and created a project for him to complete, that he would probably still be in high school. BTW, he was kicked off of the football team where his brothers also played. I called the parents repeatedly and never got a response.

I had students whose contact information was totally made up. I had parents who literally threatened my life. I had administrators that never ever backed up the faculty. In those conditions, no teacher is going to risk their lives or their income on a kid whose parents don't even care enough to check the online gradebook. Here's a hint-teachers can see how many times grades have been checked and by whom. In most of the cases of the kids who were failing their parents never checked grades. 

We were expected to call the parents on our own time. If you don't have valid contact information, that's impossible. And that comes to the crux of the matter-where is the education of a student going to become the property and concern of the STUDENT and the PARENTS first? I hear a whole lot of whining and frankly I've seen some teachers who need to be gone, but in the last three years of teaching I experience more belligerence, aggression and confrontation than I did in the previous 17. Woke attitudes are creating chaos for the kids who WANT to learn and for teachers who WANT to teach

Our Endangered Academic History

 Watching a show on family legacy I heard a black woman pride herself on not reading "Huckleberry Finn". It's ironic because Twain was openly against the racist politics of the South and his story was an attempt to show the unfairness of the system. Its almost as if unless a work is by a person of color people are supposed to shun it. Yet my kids were assigned books by writers such as Allende, Chinua Achebe, Maya Angelou. Should we have our children be so shallow in their understanding that they can't see the shared humanity of "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" "Number the Stars" and "Things Fall Apart?" By doing so, parents and woke teachers are giving students of color LESS rather than MORE. Shouldn't the timeline of our history include Mark Twain along with Harriet Beecher Stowe and Phillis Wheatley? I have no problem with a diverse curriculum, but to offer it as either or is a mistake.

Woke Coke and Other Myths

 #WokeCoke and other corporations have succeeded in perpetuating racism by their actions. Just quotas, the gross assumption is that people of color are incapable of achieving academic and professional goals without a boost, is an assumption of inability. This puts an asterisk by the name of every person of color, even those who have accrued mass achievements and accolades in much the same way a loving parent would celebrate the accomplishments of a child with a disability. This is wrong. This is actual racism as employed by corporate liberal elites for PUBLICITY.

Unfortunately, the Public confuses EQUITY with EQUALITY. The public thinks they are supporting a system where everyone will be viewed without bias. Under EQUITY standards schools, universities and now even businesses are expected to get the same outcome regardless of individual effort or abilities. Anyone working knows that individual situations will vary even within the same company. Some sales territories are more lucrative than others, some labs have better equipment, some stores are going to be more successful. Trying to manipulate society in INSURE SUCCESS means you must draw away from entities who have put in the time and effort to be successful. That's just wrong.

Even liberals should be alarmed as this is a blanket approach which will ultimately touch their lives. The idea of America was that the sins or wealth of your ancestors didn't preclude you from achieving success. What is ongoing now under the guise 1619/Critical Race Theory is an attempt to justify bias for the purpose of legalizing Equity at all costs. Eventually this will pan out as it gets used in much the same way transgender laws are dismantling Title IX for women. It will come back and in one way or another create a system where mediocrity over innovation is cherished and where the highly educated and able persons of color see their own images tarnished for the sake of political gain.

https://imgflip.com/i/4zbexa

Truth: The NEA is Evil

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/teachers-unions-have-always-been-terrible/

Climate Change Choices are Putting Us in Danger

 Living in Texas, we expect tornadoes. We endure oven like Summers and torrential rains in Fall. We tend to expect our fair share of hurricanes, storm fronts and floods. What we rarely experience is bone-chilling historic cold and ice. But here were are. Single digit temperatures, snow with the promise of more snow, ice covered roads and a power grid that shunned nuclear and gas generation for the "green" alternatives of windfarms and solar. This is virtue signaling on an epic scale and we are learning a tough lesson as a result.

If you drive in the Texas panhandle, once barren rocky scrub land lined by massive wind generation turbines "windfarms" in the vernacular of the day. They inhabit the most populated migratory flyway acting as sky high abattoirs for endangered species. More telling is how many turbines are not turning in even the best of times. More often than not this is not because the wind isn't blowing, but because the actual mechanisms are broken. There are technicians highly paid to climb those towers on a daily basis to fix them. But at some point they stop working. At that point the massive blades are not recyclable and must be relegated to a type of blade graveyard for some future generation to deal with.

This storm has brought attention to the folly of letting legislators use euphemism and memes to generate support for feelgood policies in action. If you've ever seen one of these wind turbine blades up close, it's clear these massive machines are a misplaced application of space and money for little real return. The millions, billions, possibly trillions spent to acquire land, erect towers and maintain them could have been much better spent on more conventional energy options. How much more secure would ERCOT be using natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectric or even coal mined in our own state? Instead Texans let politicians make the sexy choice of wind and solar which is now being proven to be less than adequate for the needs. 

This is nothing new. California discovered that with their rolling blackouts during the past summer. How many people have to do without power due to wrongheaded policies pandering to vocal leftists before the rest of us put an end of this? By the way, the photo below is the beach in GALVESTON. In north Texas we have people, including my own kids, whose homes have been without power for most of today. The temperature in my son's home is 55 now. His wife is due to deliver their first child literally any day now. It's too icy for them to make it to our house plus there is no promise we'll have power if they got here. 

https://bit.ly/3dcHphv

http://bit.ly/2SlAiHs

https://bit.ly/3cE53T

http://bit.ly/2mfM75A

Unmasked: Have we uncovered the truth about the 2020 election?

Tired of it All

 I'm dropping off of social media. I know people will just subscribe that to me being "old" (although how you qualify that when we have congressional members far older than I am...) The truth is I'm quite adept at social media. I can navigate all of the most popular platforms although I've avoided TikTok and will continue in that vein.

The truth is there is no truth on social media. I'm beginning to doubt there ever was any truth to any of these sites. The only ones who benefit are those who run the program. They find nefarious ways to keep viewers engaged until magically you've lost an hour, a day, a week, a year. I am of the age that I don't find myself with extra time to waste. Why should I care what someone I don't know in real life thinks about me? As a corollary for that, why should I contact people I don't know when I have people in my own family who deserve more?

So I'm leaving behind twitter, instagram, etsy, and a host of other sites in hopes of gaining more time and becoming more productive. We'll see how withdrawal works out.

How Education Has Evolved

 Read this article. It explains how "public" schools began and how they have evolved.

A House Divided Cannot Stand

I read a good amount of science fiction. One of the saddest books was one called "Childhood's End" by Arthur Clarke. Written in 1953, it was a statement built on the changing society from the early to middle 20th century. It discussed a generation gap in brutal terms. In the story mysterious Overlords begin to systematically destroy human civilization by removing or negating all vestiges of culture. Indeed, some parts of culture become toxic in order to dissuade subsequent generations from honoring. 

The saddest part of this story is the end, where the youngest generation begin to manifest powers. In the case of what was then Cold War Europe these were written as what we would called supernatural behaviors with the youngest children being the most profoundly impacted. Eventually the children become dissociated with older generations and drift away to the unknown, disappearing one by one. 

Perhaps you see where I am going. During Clarke's time the biggest fear was nuclear war as promoted by the Soviet Union. Today it is a cultural tug of war that resembles a WWE tag team death match more than a civil discourse as envisioned by the Founders. But who are the Overlords? Right now it appears that Academia has been a secure nest for radicalism to hatch it's adherents. They in turn lure, intimidate and attack all opposition without facts and with the blessings of the same Academic Overlords.

As people who have worked our entire lives seeing families survive through intimidation brought about by lack of oil, too many taxes, mindless regulations, corrupt manipulations of the market, we more than anyone else should have some sort of say in what the future holds. But we are being denied that opportunity. The epithet "Okay Boomer" is every bit as dismissive and offensive as any racial, gender or religious slur. Unlike the folks out on the streets embracing anarchy, we've seen this before, but never here.

Our children are being turned against us. When you take out those that vote for socialism because they've always supported it, the majority of supporters for socialism are young. They have had it much easier than earlier generations. Many of them do not remember a time before cell phones and computers. These same groups, cossetted and protected by a trophy for everyone mentality, seem to think their words are golden. In fact so much do they believe this that even when discussing facts, they refuse because it's not on their own carefully curated sources of information.

Beyond Academia, this is an issue of limited media sources. When I worked in a newsroom 30 years ago there were reporters writing local stories or writing stories on state and national issues with a view toward how it impacts their city or town. Now those writers are gone. There are columnists-who are more often the official spox for whatever views the editorial board holds. But the straight news meant for local consumption doesn't exist outside of the Sports Pages. Instead we have glorified copy boys and girls who take a wire story from AP or Reuters or CNN or McLatchy and relabel it as their own. When you narrow the sources of news, you can more easily control it. And when you see the prevailing narrative presented, it lets you know who is controlling it.

Between Academia with a mission and Journalism with a grudge, we have seen launched an idea that freedom of speech is only okay when you agree and intimidation using violence is honorable. When you watch Republicans being threatened and assaulted outside an event, harassed at dinner, doxxed, followed home and harassed and realize the glee with which the media is showing this, it should tell you all you know about the confluence of the MSM and the Left. When you consider these things never seem to occur to Democrats, it's a tell and a wink from the media that they know who's paying them behind the scenes. 

The end of the book "Childhood's End" goes like this:

"The Overlords are eager to escape from their own evolutionary dead end by studying the Overmind, so Rodricks's information is potentially of great value to them. By radio, Rodricks describes a vast burning column ascending from the planet. As the column disappears, Rodricks experiences a profound sense of emptiness when the children have gone. Then material objects and the Earth itself begin to dissolve into transparency. Rodricks reports no fear, but a powerful sense of fulfillment. The Earth evaporates in a flash of light. Karellen looks back at the receding Solar System and gives a final salute to the human species."

I'm not suggesting this election is the end of the world. But it may be the end of our world as we know it. Some of the propositions from the Sanders' platform, blindly accepted by the DNC (although nearly a third of the DNC convention delegates opposed it.) is so economically catastrophic that our nation would be transformed and not in a good way. Add to that demands of Antifa and BLM to seize the assets of others to appease their own politics of envy and you have the basis for what could be the destruction of the union and the conversion of the USA into Venezuela. This election matters. Vote like you have a brain.

You Have To Pick A Side

Back in the day, playground games consisted of staged battles. Whether it was Red Rover or kickball or dodgeball, the idea was to win. And to win you had to pick a side or have the skills for a side to choose you. The winners were victorious. Nobody got a trophy. Everyone still traded lunches and shared crayons.

Now we have a society raised on the concept that everyone is entitled to win, even if they don't have the skills. This type of society breeds complacency. If you aren't invested in the outcome, it doesn't matter who wins. The idea that "other people" will make all the political decisions and everything will turn out fine is not proving out as our nation moves through 2020, the Year of Asterisks. You can see this played out in the Jimmy Stewart movie "Shenandoah." It's the story of a many who simply doesn't want to be involved in the Civil War swirling about him. He wants to tend his crops and raise his kids. Then one side takes all his horses and cattle. The other side occupies his house. One son is forcibly conscripted by one army, the other runs away to join the other. It's one of the saddest movies I've ever watched and illustrates clearly every parent's deepest fear when whispers of Civil War 2.0 arise. The bottom line is, you have to pick a side.

Complacency is not apathy. Complacency is a type of laziness. It's a method of pretending that other people know better than you do. As a result many in this country have literally thrown away all intentions of participating to make things better, leaving the most extreme and dangerous people with the voting power to destroy everything. And I do mean EVERYTHING. The people you see in the streets are for the most part young, uneducated and indoctrinated to a limited narrative that leaves out much of the story. Unfortunately they are scary in big numbers. Using those numbers, activist from branded organizations such as BLM and Antifa further dip these nuggets into the poison narrative of the Left. At some point it moves from concern, to hysteria, to groupthink that allows people to equate a Civil War headstone to Dachau. This is where we are at. And still we have those who think if we just give in, things will be better.

There are lots of nice people in the world. Being nice is the path of least resistance. There's an old saying "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything." We're seeing a great deal of shock from nice people in blue states who have suddenly realized that all the nice words and kind actions they believed they were supporting are in reality a nanny state that has taken away their basic rights. Unfortunately these same nice people believe if we just give in-give the mobs what they want and just keep spilling out and letting them bully entire groups into silence things will be fine. They have not yet learned the lesson "It Will Never Be Enough."

The Mob is becoming a more demographically driven entity. Most are young, urban and computer savvy. They are also a very desirable commercial demographic to be exploited, which is why you see big name corporations posting black blocks and funding foundations and programs with millions of dollars that will be eaten up by advertising and bureaucracy and give precious little to the targeted issue or groups. This leads other groups to think this is a mainstream belief narrative and because nice people want to be liked, they conform. I deeply fear this need to be loved, this desperate desire to be accepted and not to feel they are "bad" will lead people to vote against their own interests. Who in their right mind would vote for idea that are going to seize massive amounts of your income while limiting your personal freedom? I guess we're going to find out in November. Conservatives had better start talking.