America Has Become A Drone Society … J. D. Longstreet

America Has Become A Drone Society
By:  J. D. Longstreet

It is a painful time for Americans of my age.  We have the memories of an America, glorious and honorable in her past… a past, which has been forgotten and erased, in  many cases, from the history books of America’s students. Above all things our America was honorable. A young American today would be hard pressed to define “honor.”  To define “dishonorable” is much easier. 

As we Americans view ourselves in that inner mirror, we can know that even today, America can be defeated… only by herself. And that is the shameful path we have chosen.

One of our Founding Fathers and President, John Adams, once said: “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

Americans of my generation, who still recognize a republic, when we see one, also recognize when that republic is gone. The American republic is gone … replaced by a socialist government… complete with Central Planning. 
You see, the new socialist government in America has grasped the American economic system, and by doing so, it now has absolute power over the American people. It will now rapidly proceed to destroy our liberty.  Indeed, it has already begun.

There are a few basic, fundamental truths people who live in a republic know.  Truths, which we Americans, have forgotten because our horrible public education system failed to educate our children over the past two generations.  They are truths which all people who want to live free know.   Now, I am not referring to living free under a socialist government and in a socialist society as we have now chosen.  These are truths FREE MEN and FREE Women (like we used to be) know.

William Boetcker, an outspoken political conservative and Presbyterian minister is perhaps best remembered for his authorship of a pamphlet entitled The Ten Cannots.  In that pamphlet he summed up so much of what modern day Americans have forgotten.  Some the most applicable “cannots” which would apply today are summed up in the few lines which follow.  Please read them and pay careful attention to what the Rev. Boetcker is saying.

“You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot lift the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot establish security on borrowed money. You cannot build character and courage by taking away men’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.”

The good reverend NAILED it!  But our elite intelligentsia in the US Congress and in the White House doesn’t get it.  Voltaire captured the current US Congress a very long time ago when he said:  “In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.”

One of our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, would notice immediately the deep stain of socialism on the fabric of the American Republic were he to see it today under Democratic Party control.  Jefferson said: “To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, ‘the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it.”

If President Obama has said anything approaching truth during his meteoric rise to the Office of President and his “Bull in a China Shop” actions since taking up residency there, it is the words he uttered declaring that things will get a whole worse before they get better.  That is true.  Right up until the country collapses, of the weight of its government, things are going to decline.

The true movers and shakers of America understand what is happening and they are worried sick. They are seeking cover until after the collapse.  Then they hope to, once again, try to build an America from the wreckage left by the socialists masquerading as democrats in charge of our government today.

It would seem, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off.  For the next few years we are left to stumble about in the darkness of socialism on our own.  For, you see, my fellow Americans, we got ourselves in to this mess and it is up to us to get ourselves out of it.

Unfortunately, in the “bee hive” that once was America, Obama’s fundamental change has, indeed, changed us from a colony of workers to a colony of drones.  No colony, insect or human, can long endure in a drone society.

© J. D. Longstreet
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Israel’s Borders … Alan Caruba

Israel’s Borders

By Alan Caruba

When you look at a map of the Middle East, one of the smallest nations is Israel. With the exception of Jordan, it is surrounded by enemies with Lebanon and Syria to the north and Egypt to the south. The Gaza strip, controlled by Hamas, has been a staging ground for rockets and the disputed West Bank, known in ancient times as Judea and Samaria, has both Israeli settlements and is home to Fatah, the other Palestinian faction.

The Israelis are famous for their internal disputes about how to deal with the Palestinians and respond to the likes of Hezbollah to the north. Secretary of State John Kerry has been expending a lot of time and energy to getting the Israelis and Palestinians to the negotiating table, but if he expects the former to return to their 1967 borders, he is smoking some serious dope. If he expects the Palestinians to accept Israel as a sovereign nation, he’s in for a long wait.

At present, while the Israelis enjoy prosperity the rest of their region of the world is engulfed in turmoil. The horrendous slaughter in Syria is characterized by its regime as a war with “terrorists”, primarily al Qaeda. It is likely that the Israelis are quietly hoping the regime wins its civil war, the result of the regime’s terrible agricultural policies that impoverished a large part of its population, arousing its anger.

Would you believe that Syria is among the nations seeking a seat on the United Nations’ Human Rights Council when elections are held on November 12? Among the others are China, Russia, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia. The Council reflects that UN’s empty and hypocritical definition of human rights. It is corruption personified.

Jordan has become a refuge to a half a million Syrians that fled the fighting. It is hopefully receiving a lot of international aid to respond to their needs. Meanwhile several Gulf nations are covertly shipping arms to the Syrian rebels and the U.S. has moved some military assets to Jordan. Israel has moved its defense forces to its border on the Golan Heights, captured in the 1967 war, and with Lebanon. A lot of jihadists have been flooding into Syria and could decide to head south at some point. 

Across its border with Egypt, specifically the Sinai, a military coup has overthrown the Muslim Brotherhood president and the new leadership is getting ready to address the lawless Sinai Peninsula with an operation ironically called “Desert Storm.” A refuge for Islamic extremists, the clear loser thus far has been the Brotherhood. Six of their leaders have fled to Gaza to prepare for another uprising.

Despite the U.S. State Department’s squishy wish that the new government in Egypt include the Brotherhood, Middle East expert, Daniel Pipes, succinctly says that breaking the Brotherhood’s neck “is good for Egypt, the region, and not least ourselves.”

The turmoil in the Middle East suggests that many of its Muslims have grown tired of life under Islam and, in particular, life dictated by the likes of the Muslim Brotherhood, al Qaeda, and the Taliban.

The other fact of life is the inability of Arabs to unite around any single goal. Left to their own devices, they return to killing one another as is the case in Iraq these days. The Sunni-Shiite divide is the most obvious cause, but one should never lose sight of the billions in oil revenue that is more likely at the heart of the bloodshed.

Egypt holds out the prospect for an evolving Middle East that is tired of its ancient traditions of corruption and oppression. Turkey, that was for decades a secular nation, voted in a president who has tried to move it back toward Islam’s sharia law, but he has run into a lot of opposition. Everywhere in the Middle East there is a desire for a decent, honest, functioning economy.

The most interesting element of all this has been the Obama policy of withdrawing U.S. military from Iraq and, next year, Afghanistan. There truly does not seem to be much justification to spend treasure and blood in the region and, at this point, America has few friends there.

All of which seems to be working to Israel’s advantage. This is not to say that there isn’t peril to address, but for all its internal debates about how to deal with the Palestinians and what to do about the fighting in Syria and Egypt, the Israelis seem to have figured out how to address these issues. I would not want them as an enemy.

© Alan Caruba, 2013

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Alan Caruba’s commentaries are posted daily at “Warning Signs” and shared on dozens of news and opinion websites. His blog recently passed more than 2.7 millionpage views. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. For information on his professional skills, Caruba Editorial Services is the place to go! You can find Alan Caruba on both Facebook and Twitter as well

Over-Sexed Democrats … Alan Caruba

Over-Sexed Democrats

By Alan Caruba

The stars have aligned to present two of the most loathsome Democrats we have witnessed in a long time, Twitter-sex addict, Anthony Weiner who at this writing is still running for Mayor of New York and Bob Filner, Mayor of San Diego, a serial groper who gives no sign of resigning.

Is it just a coincidence that both current offenders of the public’s sense of decency are both Democrats? Is it just a coincidence that the most beloved Democrat politician is former President Bill Clinton who got into a heap of trouble over sexcapades in the Oral—er—Oval Office?

Democrats seem to fall prey to sex addictions and peccadillos more than Republicans.

In 2001 before leaving office Clinton pardoned Rep. Mel Reynolds, an Illinois Democrat who was convicted of 12 counts of sexual assault with a 16-year-old. He took a job with Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. And Rev. Jesse made news for fathering an out-of-wedlock child. Jesse Jr. is currently in jail for misuse of campaign funds.

I am not saying that only Democrat politicians get caught in such situations, but I am saying we tend to hear more about them than their Republican counterparts. Perhaps this is due to the traditional values that conservatives embrace?

A short stroll down memory lane reminds us that the late Sen. Daniel Inouye was accused of sexual harassment in the 1990s by numerous women. The Senate Ethics Committee dropped its investigation. The same committee decided not to pursue disciplinary action in 1990 when Rep. Gus Savage was accused of fondling a Peace Corps volunteer in 1989 while on a fact-finding trip to Africa.

Who can forget that former Rep. Barney Frank had a male prostitute running a service from Frank’s residence in the 1980s? Frank was openly gay and from Massachusetts where the schools these days are becoming platforms for indoctrination about homosexual and transsexual sex. Rep. Gerry Studds, also from Massachusetts, was censured for sexual relationships with an underage male page in 1983. The voters returned him to office for six more terms!

The 1970s were filled with news of Democrat office holders who couldn’t keep their pants zipped. Rep. Fred Richman was arrested in 1978 for soliciting sex from a 16-year-old. And he won reelection even though he eventually resigned in 1982 after pleading guilty to tax evasion and drug possession. The most famous Congressman from that era was Wayne Hayes from Ohio who hired a “secretary” who couldn’t even type, but who reportedly provided him with sex.

In more recent years, New Jersey’s former Governor James McGreevey resigned in 2004 after acknowledging a homosexual affair with one of his staff, but he has done an admirable job of redeeming himself through good works.

Back across the Hudson, when Anthony Weiner isn’t hogging the headlines, former Governor Elliot Spitzer is running to be New York City’s comptroller. Spitzer gained fame for patronizing prostitutes.

After a bogus campaign against Republicans, accusing them of waging “a war on women”, the Democrats sat on a bill for more than a year that would help law enforcement quickly track down violent sex offenders. It had been introduced in March of 2011 by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) as the “Finding Fugituve Sex Offenders Act to give the Marshalls Service the tools it needed to track down sex offenders. It was finally passed in November 2012. 

One notable Republican let love and lust got the better of him. Former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford fell for an Argentinian beauty. It cost him the job and his marriage, but the voters forgave him and sent him to Congress. There may be other Republican office holders who have yielded to their desires, but they appear to be far fewer than their Democrat counterparts.

For now, Weiner will provide enough fodder for the late night TV comedians and all others, but the fact is that the more you see and hear him, the more he makes your skin crawl. 

© Alan Caruba, 2013

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Alan Caruba’s commentaries are posted daily at “Warning Signs” and shared on dozens of news and opinion websites. His blog recently passed more than 2.7 millionpage views. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. For information on his professional skills, Caruba Editorial Services is the place to go! You can find Alan Caruba on both Facebook and Twitter as well.

Descendents Of Revolutionists And Rebels … J. D. Longstreet

Descendents Of Revolutionists And Rebels
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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Sometime ago I mused:

Change is not always good.  This “changed” America is definitely not as good as the America we had before we decided to exchange freedom for socialism.

Today, Americans are just beginning to awaken and learn the nightmare they are experiencing is not a nightmare one experiences during REM sleep.  In fact, they learn, to their utter surprise, they are NOT sleeping.  This nightmare is NO DREAM.  It is REAL.  And, Americans who THOUGHT they wanted, and yes, even NEEDED change brought it on.

Many of the votes that were cast for “change” back in 2008 were votes from young people who had no idea what they were trading and what they were getting for the trade. They are the product of a public education system in America now almost totally ruled over by the political left, which still seeks the Nirvana of Utopia through socialism.  After 12, or more, years in the public education system, then 2, 4, or 6 more years in those bastions of liberalism/socialism we refer to as colleges and universities, is it any wonder their Pavlovian response in the voting booth was to pull all the levers by the names of the candidates who were decidedly left-wing candidates? Hardly!  They were simply reacting to the stimuli implanted in their malleable minds as they made their way through an education system designed to do just that.

And now we are watching our country collapse around us. 

Those of us who knew socialism’s sad story of lies, deceit, and destruction are not surprised at America’s perilous position today.  We knew it would happen. We have watched socialism nearly from its birth.  We watched socialism’s struggle to grow as it murdered its host countries all the while.  Like a physician trying to heal a patient, by draining the patient’s body of all its blood, socialism drains a nation of its life-giving force and leaves it a broken shell of its former self. Even as robust a nation as Russia required assistance from former enemies, just to survive, after throwing off the bonds of socialism a few short years ago.

Pope Pius XI once said: “It is wrong to withdraw from the individual and commit to the community at large what private enterprise and industry can accomplish.  So, too, it is an injustice, a grave evil, and a disturbance of right order for a larger and higher organization to arrogate to itself functions which can be performed efficiently by smaller and lower bodies.”

Now we are observing this “wrong,” and this “injustice,” Pope Pius XI warned of, play out right before our eyes right here in America.

The “old” America was truly “something else!”  She was a dream.  She was a land of unlimited opportunities and horizons that went on forever.  She was the envy of the world!

Americans were optimistic people who threw themselves into the task of firing the furnace of the engine of democracy and delighting in the rewards of their own labor. The “American Dream” was so big and so multi-faceted that no one could even describe it!

One British author, John Keegan, described America this way:

“Left to themselves, Americans build, cultivate, bridge, dam, canalize, invent, teach, manufacture, think, write, lock themselves in struggle with the eternal challenges that man has chosen to confront, and with an intensity not known elsewhere on the globe.

Bidden to make “War” their work, Americans shoulder the burden with intimidating purpose.  If I were obliged to define the American mystery, I would say it is the ethos – masculine, pervasive, unrelenting – of work as an end in itself.  War is a form of work, and America makes war in a particularly workmanlike way.  I do not love war; but I love America!”  – John Keegan, author of “Fields of Battle: The Wars for North America,”  a British military historian, lecturer, and journalist.

Mr. Keegan had it right  This is what America used to be like. And for those of us who STILL remember her, as she was, today’s “changed” America  is a bitter pill to swallow!

Theodore Roosevelt  said: “The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.”

The renown men above speak of an America hardly recognized today.  We have forgotten as President  Dwight D. Eisenhower  said:  ” Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels – men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine.”

We have forgotten as President Harry Truman once said:  “America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.”

Where is our revolutionist spirit, our rebellious spirit?  Where is our courage, our imagination, our determination?  Where is it?

We have forgotten that we are the off-spring, the children, of heroes — not mythological heroes but real, flesh and blood, men and women who stood, head and shoulders, above the remainder of the human population on this earth.

Former Presidential Candidate, Mitt Romney , during the latest presidential campaign said:  “And the American people are the greatest people in the world. What makes America the greatest nation in the world is the heart of the American people: hardworking, innovative, risk-taking, God- loving, family-oriented American people.”

Well, Mr. Romney, we USED to be!  That’s why you lost the election, sir.

It has taken, literally, generations to wipe the collective memory of America of any useful recollection of its roots.  People who remember the “blood of heroes courses through their veins” do not lie down and roll over when adversity strikes.  If they fall back at all– it is only to fall back to that “steely resolve” instilled in them by heir hero forbearers.

The edifice that is America may be crumbling and in a state of great disrepair — but our foundation is intact!   And today that foundation is under continuous, incessant, attack by the forces that would wipe America from the face of the earth.

Our founding documents — the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights remain as a bulwark against every effort the enemies of America have thrown at them — so far.  They have withstood every campaign against them to date.  But they need our help.   

It is said that today we are living in a “Post-Constitution America.”  We are told the constitution is simply too old to apply anymore.  We are told the constitution is a living, breathing, document with the malleability to be twisted and contorted into any shape necessary to fit any agenda our political leaders are attempting to foist on the citizens of America on any given day.

Of course — it’s a lie! 

The constitution says what it means — and means what it says — plain and simple.  The US Supreme Court is tasked with determining exactly what the Constitution means when asked.  Now, however, Americans no longer trust their Supreme Court! 
I recently saw a video clip of a gentleman offering a petition to passers-by on a beach boardwalk that petitioned the President of the US to repeal the Bill of Rights!  My jaw dropped as I watched them all but line up to sign away their freedom and liberty!  It was mind-blowing! It served to remind me of just how little value is placed on individual liberty in America today.  Basically — NONE!

Lady Liberty is being gang-raped by the political left today while the sons and daughters of America’s early heroes are standing by and, in some cases, cheering on the assault on their freedom.

Just as God’s Spirit “will not always strive with man,”  neither will the spirit of freedom and liberty always strive with Americans.  It can be quenched.  Much of America has already become tone-deaf to liberty’s call.

For America to survive, we must reclaim that which is ours by birthright.  

Alexis de Tocqueville said of America: “The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.”

It is long past time for us, as Americans, to employ that inherent ability to heal ourselves, to repair our faults, to restore that which is good and right about our country.  There is not a moment to waste.  We must reach down deep inside and tap the reservoir of revolutionist and rebellious spirits that each of us received as blood-bought gifts from our forbearers.  Along with our faith that God will not abandon a country with yet a remnant of the faithful,  THIS will be our source of strength for the struggle to restore America to her former greatness.  

© J. D. Longstreet

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DEFUND OBAMACARE … or ELSE … J. D. Longstreet

DEFUND OBAMACARE … or ELSE
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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A big, nasty, battle is coming up.  It will involve republicans against democrats and republicans against republicans.

We are coming hard up against either stopping Obamacare or having it as a part of US law for, well, FOREVER!

Ronald Reagan once said:  “The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program.”

How right he was! (In more ways than one!)

Once Obamacare is up and running, full time, it will NEVER BE CUT from the Law Books of the nation.  Never.

“NO federal program ever gets eliminated once it is put into place. NO federal program ever suffers an absolute real cut from this year’s levels because of baseline budgeting (which always projects an overall increase of at least the expected inflation rate plus 1%-2% in future overall growth in federal spending).”  SOURCE:  http://www.telemachusleaps.com/2012/09/the-nearest-thing-to-eternal-life-on.html

As soon as our national lawmakers return to Washington, after their August recess, they will begin the debate over funding the government, keeping it open and operational.

The debate will provide an opportunity to defund Obamacare — and kill it, or do nothing and have it kill the US.

If you are a regular reader of this scribe’s rants then you know I have been against Obamacare long before it was ever introduced into a congressional hopper as a bill.   If it is possible, I am even MORE against it today.

Anything that has to do with socialism is anathema to me.  And Obamacare is nothing more than socialized medicine which will destroy this country. 

Sen. Ted Cruz, a republican from Texas, is urging conservatives to join a petition drive to defund Obamacare, calling it the last chance to stop the national health-care plan before it goes into effect on January 1st of next year.

Here’s what Senator Cruz said recently:  “On Jan. 1, the exchanges kick in and the subsidies kick in. Once those kick in, it’s going to prove almost impossible to undo Obamacare. The administration’s plan is very simple: Get everyone addicted to the sugar so that Obamacare remains a permanent feature of our society.”  SOURCE:   http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/27/sen-cruz-defund-obamacare-americans-become-addicte/#ixzz2aLljI94H

In the same speech, Senator Cruz went on to say:  “Right now we don’t have the votes. Right now we’re not even close. There’s only one way we’re going to get 41 Republicans in the Senate and 218 Republicans in the House of Representatives, which is if they hear from the American people in overwhelming numbers.”  SOURCE: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/27/sen-cruz-defund-obamacare-americans-become-addicte/#ixzz2aLmeKplR

The Continuing Resolution to keep the government funded and running is scheduled to be voted on in September.  The debate on it will begin next month when the August recess is over.

“Utah Senator Mike Lee along with Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky are currently trying to lead the effort to defund Obamacare in the upcoming Continuing Resolution by vowing not to vote for any CR or appropriations bill that provides funding for the much hated Obamacare. There are roughly a dozen Republican Senators and more than 60 members of the House who have signed on to the idea of not funding Obamacare in the Continuing Resolution scheduled to be voted on in September. They are willing to fully fund the rest of the federal government, just not Obamacare.”  SOURCE:  http://www.redstate.com/ulyssesarn/2013/07/27/effort-to-defund-obamacare-is-separating-the-leaders-from-the-cream-puffs-in-the-gop-ranks/

North Carolina Senator Richard Burr who called the defunding of Obamacare effort, “the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard” last week.

The Hill has more:

“I think it’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard,” Burr told journalist Todd Zwilich on Thursday. “Listen, as long as Barack Obama is president the Affordable Care Act is gonna be law.

“I think some of these guys need to understand that you shut down the federal government, you better have a specific reason to do it that’s achievable,” Burr continued. “Defunding the Affordable Care Act is not achievable through shutting down the federal government.” SOURCE:  http://www.redstate.com/ulyssesarn/2013/07/27/effort-to-defund-obamacare-is-separating-the-leaders-from-the-cream-puffs-in-the-gop-ranks/

You can easily see the politicos are much more concerned about saving their own backsides than in saving the country. Their political careers and the health of their political party is far more important to them than the welfare of the nation and its people.

We can all see now that when saving the country actually MIGHT cost them something, they shrink away from their duty.  (I have already alerted my republican senator that he no longer has my support.)

We need to watch the upcoming debate closely and, in my opinion,  we need to “primary” any republican who fails to back defunding Obamacare in the CR debate over the next few weeks.  If they are NOT going to represent us, then we need to get them the heck out of Washington before they can do anymore damage — or — allow any more damage to be done.  It is past time to be rid of these feckless empty suits strutting the halls of Congress.

© J. D. Longstreet

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The Last Days of America … J. D. Longstreet

The Last Days of America

Obama’s Bread and Circuses
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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Panem et Circenses
“In modern usage, the phrase “Bread and Circuses” is taken to describe a populace that no longer values civic virtues and the public life. To many across the political spectrum, left and right, it connotes a supposed triviality and frivolity that characterized the Roman Republic prior to its decline into the autocratic monarchy characteristic of the later Roman Empire’s transformation about 44 B.C.”
SOURCE:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses

“Roman politicians devised a plan in 140 B.C.E. to win the votes of these new citizens: giving out cheap food and entertainment, “bread and circuses”, would be the most effective way to rise to power.”  SOURCE:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses

If the above strikes you as being frighteningly like America today, in my opinion, you would be correct to be concerned and yes, even frightened.

How else does one explain the Obama Administration’s exponential increase in welfare and food stamp rolls in America.  How else does one explain the sudden presidential executive order awarding certain illegal aliens  the right to remain in the US and even provides a pathway to citizenship.

This is NOT NEW!  It’s bread and circuses.  Obama ain’t from Rome but he sure as heck IS from Chicago (or, at least, he SAYS he is!)  and — all things considered — the pols from Chicago could teach the ancient Roman pols a thing or two about manipulating the voters to win an election or to stay in office — once they secure it in the first place.  The Romans were no slackers when it came to stealing elections.

I have often thought that America in decline parallels ancient Rome in decline.

It is striking, at least to me, how accurate those in politics are who assess the electorate’s intellect.  It infuriates me that the political left, especially, tends to see the ENTIRE electorate as dumb and stupid, wandering mindlessly, and just waiting to be told what to do. 

Then, we have a couple of elections, as in 2008 and again in 2010, and the results prove the left was absolutely correct in that assessment! 

The democrats played the American electorate in 2008 and 2010, as if it were a Stradivarius.  And they are still trying to do it.  But now — the violin is out of tune.

One of the advantages, or disadvantages, of a long life is that one lives long enough to see history repeat itself — over and over and over again.  Sometimes ad nauseum. It never fails to surprise and disgust me at how easily fooled the general public is when politicians run a con game on the electorate with great success time and again.

See — nothing much changes in politics.  Names, faces, dates change — but the tried and true tactics never change — because the American voter is basically dumb as as a fence post insofar as knowing how our republic is SUPPOSED to work.

Explaining that the US has a constitution is, for them, some sort of ethereal concept that has no equal in their consciousness.    Oh, they’ve heard about it, seen snapshots of the parchment page on TV, heard quotes from it, but — they’ve never actually read it.  And they, sure as heck, have never studied it. 

Dear reader, in a constitutional republic, such as America,  that is a death wish!  And America has just the people currently in charge of the government to insure a very nice funeral for a free America. 

Four and a half years into Obama’s administration of the country and Americans of all political leanings are learning that the constitution is an afterthought for Obama, a speed bump, a temporary impediment to be overcome with whatever means necessary.

If you like Obama’s governing by fiat, or executive order, then you should be happy with the cloudburst of decrees from the man who would be king of America.

See — the left not only THINKS you’re dumb — they KNOW you are dumb, and they KNOW, beyond doubt, that THEY are far superior to you in intellect and, by some celestial right, it is THEY who should be caring for you, as one would a simple-minded child.  For the political left THAT is the NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS.  They believe that Providence would have commanded it so, had God had all the facts.  (Yeah.  There are a few on the left who actually believe in the existence of a god…. gender neutral, of course.)

So far as the bread and circuses for America is concerned, my deepest concern is that it is working.  Obama gives them “free stuff” like welfare, or food stamps, and a free phone.     Like the free cheese giveaway with people lining up down, and around, city blocks to get a hand-out of a huge block of cheese — I am sorely afraid the beneficiaries of the bread and circuses actually believe, like the cheese, that it is free. And the few who DO understand that you and I (the taxpayers) are paying for all that “free” government largesse don’t give a damn.  The left is counting on that. 

The taxpayers of the United States paid for that “FREE” cheese.  EVERYONE will have to pay for the “free” bread and circuses. The currency to be used in this exchange is freedom. Just freedom. That’s all.

In the end, bread and circuses did not save Rome — and it will not save the United States.  It will, however, hasten our demise.  Just as the Roman Empire eventually broke up into numerous countries, the United States will certainly do the same.

If you are sick and tired of being played for a fool then you have roughly sixteen months to pay attention to both sides of the argument and decide which side is playing to the lowest common denominator amongst us and which side actually thinks you are not a simpleton and that you have the ability to think for yourself.

Mr. Obama has already told you that you had nothing to do with making this country great.  Government did it — not you.  He made a mistake.  He accidentally revealed what he and the left actually believe.

The bells tolling America’s death knell are growing louder.  Many are now of the opinion that is too late to rescue and restore America to her once great glory.

There is an old expression that says:  “It must be dark before you can see the stars.”  Well, it IS dark in America and yes, we CAN see the stars of freedom and liberty piercing the shadows cast by socialism and Marxism.  If America resets her compass, takes a new bearing, and maintains her heading toward those stars, we will find our way through this present darkness into a new day with all the promise afforded us by all the Americans who went before us and dared to build that “Shining City on a Hill.”

 

These do not have to be America’s last days. But they WILL be if we don’t rescue her from the hands of those who have stated their intentions of “fundamentally changing” her into something she was never, ever, supposed to be.  
© J. D. Longstreet

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Drowning in Sea Level Nonsense … Alan Caruba

Drowning in Sea Level Nonsense

By Alan Caruba

New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D) and forty members of Congress believe the sea levels are rising, that a panel should be created to determine what should be done, and, of course, to throw billions of dollars at a problem that does not exist. Politicians were eager to scare the public with the discredited global warming hoax and now they have found a new one.

In New York City, Mayor Bloomberg has proposed a $20 billion flood barrier system to protect the city from future hurricanes and rising sea levels. Well, hurricanes like tropical storm Sandy are real, but rare. Rising sea levels, however, represent no threat at all.

William Happer who researched ocean physics for the U.S. Air Force and is currently a physics professor at Princeton University notes that “The sea level has been rising since 1800, at the end of the ‘little ice age’”, a cooling cycle last from around 1300 to 1850. Far from heating up, the Earth entered a new cooling cycle around 1996 or so.

Harrison Schmitt, a former Apollo 17 astronaut, U.S. Senator, and a geologist, says “Predicting a sea level rise of seven feet over the next few thousand years would seem too risky a prediction on which to spend tax dollars” and that is surely an understatement. Wasting billons on “climate change”, however, is the new siren call of the Obama administration, but the National Research Council is warning, as Fox News reported, “that those kinds of subsidies are virtually useless at quelling greenhouse gases.”

In fact, as the amount of carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas—alleged to “trap” heat—has risen and has had zero effect on the cooling cycle.

A recent article in the British newspaper, The Register, reported on a study by scientists in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, that was published in “Nature Geoscience” that concluded there was no “scientific consensus” to suggest the rate of the seas’ rise will accelerate dangerously.

The notion of the seas rising, swamping coastal cities, and creating havoc is the stuff of science fiction, not science. This is why spending millions or billions on the assertions of some who have a real stake in keeping the public frightened is a very bad idea.

At the center of the global warming scare campaign is the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Its most recent report said that “no long-term acceleration of sea level has been identified using 20^th-century data alone” but that does not discourage the IPCC from forecasting an increase due to global warming. This organization should be disbanded and, if I were in charge, many of its leaders would be in jail right now for fraud.

Who can you believe? One such person is Dr. Nils-Axel Morner, the former chair of the Paleogeophysics and Geodynamics department at StockholmUniversity in Sweden. He is the past president (1999-2003) of the International Union for Quaternary ResearchCommission on Sea Level Changes and Coastal Evolution. He has been studying sea level and its effects on coastal areas for more than 35 years. I cited his credentials because others making predictions lack the same level of authority.

Dr. Morner acknowledges that “sea level was indeed rising from, let us say, 1850 to 1930-40. And that rise had a rate in the order of 1 millimeter per year. (Emphasis added). Get out your pocket ruler and look at what one millimeter represents. It is small. It is very small. Not surprisingly Dr. Morner is very critical of the IPCC and its headline-grabbing doomsday predictions. He scorns the IPCC’s claim to “know” that facts about sea level rise, noting that real scientists “are searching for the answer” by continuing to collect data “because we are field geologists; they are computer scientists. So all this talk that sea level is rising, this stems from the computer modeling, not from observations. The observations don’t find it!”

A recent paper reviewed by CO2 Science finds that sea levels have risen from 2002-2011 at a rate of only 1.7 millimeters per year over the past 110 years, the equivalent of 6.7 inches per century. This is close to Dr. Morner’s assertion that, at most, there has been a rate of increase that tops out at 1.1 millimeter per year. The review concluded that there is no evidence of any human influence on sea levels.

Even so, in early July a scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Josh Willis, told Fox News, that “There is no question that the time to prepare for sea level rise is now…We will definitely see seven feet of sea level rise—the only question is when.” And who funds NASA?

Between the scientists trying to gin up more government money for their agencies and departments and the politicians trying to find a new reason to spend more money, the public is left wondering if the oceans are rising and whether that represents something worth worrying about. The answer is (a) yes, sea levels are rising in infinitesimal amounts and (b) no, we need to stop spending money based on such claims.

It’s not the sea level rise you should worry about. It is the rising levels of national debt and the deficit.

© Alan Caruba, 2013

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Alan Caruba’s commentaries are posted daily at “Warning Signs” and shared on dozens of news and opinion websites. His blog recently passed more than 2.7 millionpage views. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. For information on his professional skills, Caruba Editorial Services is the place to go! You can find Alan Caruba on both Facebook and Twitter as well.

Uncle Ho and the Founding Fathers … J. D. Longstreet

Uncle Ho and the Founding Fathers
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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“…we discussed the fact that Ho Chi Minh was actually inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and the words of Thomas Jefferson.”  – President Obama talking to reporters alongside Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang.

___________________________

I can’t speak for you, of course, but there was no need for me to hear the words above pass the lips of the US President for me to be convinced he is a communist.

See, I’m so old I actually got an education when I went to school.  Hell, by the time I had graduated high school I had an education every bit the equivalent of, at least, a two year college degree — by today’s standards — maybe even four years depending upon the individual institutions of higher learning.

Plus, I am a veteran of the US military during the Vietnam War.

Look.  I won’t dispute that Uncle Ho may have studied our Founding Fathers and founding documents.  Lots of dictators have done so.   Heck, if I was a fledgling dictator, I’d be darned sure to study those men and those documents because — they are dangerous to tyrants and dictators. 

No, I wasn’t surprised to hear Obama mention Uncle Ho in a respectful manner.  Not in the least.  Ho Chi Minh was an enemy of the United states.  ‘Nough said.

Our President, Obama is a died in the wool socialist.  (Socialism is what one might call “Communism Lite.”)  His spread the wealth policies and statist philosophy of governing and disrespect for the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and his shallow knowledge of US history mark him for what he truly is.
Ho Chi Minh was a bone fide tyrant.  A communist tyrant! 

The following is a clip from a piece published in Reader’s Digest back in November of 1968:
“The terror had its real beginning when Red dictator Ho Chi Minh consolidated his power in the North. More than a year before his 1954 victory over the French, he launched a savage campaign against his own people. In virtually every North Vietnamese village, strong-arm squads assembled the populace to witness the “confessions” of landowners. As time went on, businessmen, intellectuals, school teachers, civic leaders — all who represented a potential source of future opposition — were also rounded up and forced to “confess” to “errors of thought.” There followed public “trials,” conviction and, in many cases, execution. People were shot, beheaded, beaten to death; some were tied up, thrown into open graves and covered with stones until they were crushed to death, Ho has renewed his terror in North Vietnam periodically. Between 50,000 and 100,000 are believed to have died in these blood-baths — in a coldly calculated effort to discipline the party and the masses. To be sure, few who escape Ho’s terror now seem likely to tempt his wrath. During the 1950s, however, he had to quell some sizeable uprisings in North Vietnam — most notably one that occurred in early November 1956, in the An province, which included Ho’s birthplace village of Nam Dan. So heavily had he taxed the region that the inhabitants finally banded together and refused to meet his price. Ho sent troops to collect, and then sent in an army division, shooting. About 6,000 unarmed villagers were killed. The survivors scattered, some escaping to the South. The slaughter went largely unnoticed by a world then preoccupied with the Soviet Union’s rape of Hungary.”   SOURCE:  http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/hochiminh.html   

Consider this:  “On November 15, 2008, Sam Webb, National Chair of the Communist Party USA delivered an address to the Communist Party USA National Committee. During his address, he noted the following concerning the party’s relationship with Obama,

“The left can and should advance its own views and disagree with the Obama administration without being disagreeable. Its tone should be respectful. We are speaking to a friend.”  SOURCE: http://keywiki.org/index.php/Barack_Obama_and_the_Communist_Party

And this:

“The late Marxist academic Manning Marable claimed that Barack Obama has read some of his books and “understands what socialism is.”

Marable, writing in the December 2008 issue of British Trotskyist journal Socialist Review, also claimed that Obama worked in Chicago with socialists with backgrounds in the Communist Party.

What makes Obama different is that he has also been a community organizer. He has read left literature, including my works, and he understands what socialism is. A lot of the people working with him are, indeed, socialists with backgrounds in the Communist Party or as independent Marxists. There are a lot of people like that in Chicago who have worked with him for years… ”   SOURCE:  http://keywiki.org/index.php/Barack_Obama_and_the_Communist_Party
Frank Marshall Davis became Obama’s mentor at the tender age of ten years.  ” … FBI file reveals that Davis (born 1905) became interested in the Communist Party USA as far back as 1931.

Certainly from the mid/late ’30s to the early ’40s Davis was involved in several Communist Party fronts including the the National Negro Congress, the League of American Writers, the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties and the Civil Rights Congress.

The FBI first began tracking Davis in 1944 when they identified him as member of the Communist Party’s Dorie Miller Club in Chicago-card number 47544.

Davis taught courses at the party controlled Abraham Lincoln School in Chicago and attended meetings of the party’s Cultural Club until he left for Hawaii in 1948.”  SOURCE:  http://keywiki.org/index.php/Barack_Obama_and_the_Communist_Party
(We recommend you read the entire article cited above.  It is entitled:  “Barack Obama and the Communist Party.”  You will find it at:  http://keywiki.org/index.php/Barack_Obama_and_the_Communist_Party )

And finally — “The famed Russian news site “Pravda,” which ironically was formed as the official Communist publication of the former Soviet Union, recently released a scathing opinion column entitled, “Obama’s Soviet Mistake,” in which the author unabashedly labels the U.S. president a “Communist without question promoting the Communist Manifesto without calling it so.” – SOURCE: http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2012/11/blazecast-russian-news-outlet-labels.html#sthash.eECgrcwI.dpuf 

No, I was NOT surprised by Mr. Obama’s drift from the teleprompter line.   (NOW you know why his “handlers” have him virtually chained to a teleprompter!)

But, dear reader, what is even MORE troubling is this:  With all this knowledge of Obama sympathies toward communism, roughly half the American electorate put him in office — and kept him there for a second term.  Now THAT is TRULY frightening!

© J. D. Longstreet

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Malaise is here — Misery Index On The Way … J. D. Longstreet

Malaise is here — Misery Index On The Way
“Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin”
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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You DO realize this is President Jimmy Carter’s third term — don’t you? 

Yeah.  I KNOW that’s not funny.  There hasn’t been much fun for a long time now.

During the Carter era years I was trying to run a profitable business, keep all my employees on the payroll, and figure out how to comply with all the ridiculous regulations handed down from DC — up to and where, exactly, to set the heating and cooling thermostat in my office!  YES!  It WAS just that ridiculous.

The picture of Jimmy Carter in a cardigan sweater sitting in front of a fireplace with logs burning cheerfully in the background still haunt my nightmares to this day.

You know, Obama was not the first President to be referred to as the Messiah.  Carter owns that irreverent title. At some point during that trying time some one tacked a photo of  Jesus Christ with Jimmy Carter’s face superimposed on the head of Christ on one of our studio’s bulletin boards.  It came down when Reagan was elected.

It was, indeed, a miserable time.

The country was wallowing in syrupy malaise.  And then there was the misery Index.  (You find the misery index by adding the unemployment figure to the inflation figure.)   It was pure-“T” awful under the Carter Administration.

Jimmy Carter delivered the famous or infamous televised “Malaise” speech on July 15, 1979. That was 34 years ago. 

Recently Laura Ingram said the following:  “Friday marked the 32-year-anniversary of Jimmy Carter’s “crisis of confidence” later pegged “malaise speech,” a nationally televised and ill-received address trying to combat what Carter saw as apathy and doubt among Americans concerning politics and the energy crisis. In the days following the speech Carter fired cabinet members feeling that his administration failed to capitalize on a window of opportunity, which some believe was the beginning of the end for Carter and his ability to appear as a strong and significant leader.

Thirty-two years later another first term Democratic president faces a crisis of continued economic decline and failure to bridge heated political differences from Capital Hill to Main Street. Ingraham’s audio suggests that like Carter, Obama is failing to step up as a strong and believable leader in the eyes of Americans looking to him in a time of crisis.”  SOURCE:  http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2011/07/16/laura-ingraham-airs-scary-obama-remix-of-jimmy-carters-malaise-speech/

My friend Alan Caruba said recently:  “The current economic malaise has affected everyone in some fashion—losing a job, having a job converted to a part-time status, having work hours limited, possibly facing foreclosure on their home, experiencing extremely low interest rates on their savings, the higher cost of gas and groceries, all without seriously affecting Obama’s job approval ratings or popularity.”  Source:  http://www.factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-economy-it-must-be-gops-fault-right.html

If you recall, Carter’s Malaise speech, otherwise known as the “Crisis of Confidence” speech you will instantly note that it sounds exactly like speeches given by President Obama today. 

For instance Carter said:  “I ask Congress to give me authority for mandatory conservation and for standby gasoline rationing. To further conserve energy, I’m proposing tonight an extra $10 billion over the next decade to strengthen our public transportation systems. And I’m asking you for your good and for your nation’s security to take no unnecessary trips, to use carpools or public transportation whenever you can, to park your car one extra day per week, to obey the speed limit, and to set your thermostats to save fuel. Every act of energy conservation like this is more than just common sense — I tell you it is an act of patriotism.”  SOURCE:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primary-resources/carter-crisis/
Of course we knew it was more an act of desperation on Carter’s part than it was patriotism on the part of the American civilian population.  We weren’t as dumb then as we are today. For evidence, note that WE DID NOT REELECT CARTER TO A SECOND TERM!

A year ago I wrote the following:  “Malaise in an individual is bad.  Malaise in a nation can be fatal.

America is currently mired in the worst case of malaise in my lifetime.

I’ve been around since FDR was President.  I have experienced American national malaise twice in my lifetime.  Both times it was during the administrations of Democratic Party Presidents.

The first case of American malaise (in my lifetime) was under the administration of the 39th President of the United States—Jimmy Carter.  It was BAD.

I was trying to run a business—and it was pure hell.  All business could do was hunker down and wait for a flicker of light at the end of that very long and very dark tunnel.

When it came, it was not a flicker—it was a sunburst by the name of Ronald Reagan.

America came roaring out of her national depression and raced back to the to the top—turning on all the lights as they went —illuminating “the shining city on a hill.”

Now, under the Obama administration (another Democratic Party President) here we are—in an even deeper national depression—or malaise—than we were even under Jimmy Carter.  This time—there is no Ronald Reagan waiting in the wings. In my opinion THAT is why THIS malaise is even deeper than Carter’s.” SOURCE:  “America’s Malaise Is BACK!” at: http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/48449

I wrote those few words BEFORE the 2012 election.  As I said in that piece, there was a sense of impending doom which spanned the entire right side of the political spectrum in America.

A year ago, when I wrote those words,  America’s future doom, under an Obama second term, was as clear as the writing on the wall at Belshazzar’s Feast. (You’ll find the story in the fifth chapter of Daniel in the Old Testament of the Bible.  We recommend you read it.  It certainly won’t hurt — and you just might learn something about what lies in America’s immediate future.)
The moving fingers wrote: מנא, מנא, תקל, ופרס
or: “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.” 

So what DID those words, written by the hand of God, announce to THAT corrupt King of Babylon: “And this is the writing that was inscribed: mina, mina, shekel, half-mina. This is the interpretation of the matter: mina, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; shekel, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting; half-mina, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” — Daniel 5:25–28

Suppose, just for a moment, that that feast was a state dinner at the White House and the reigning king was Obama.  To whom would the hapless kingdom of America be about to fall?  Who ARE the modern Medes and Persians?

Well,  Easton’s Illustrated Dictionary lists the Medes as part of the Assyrian Empire, which covers the area of today’s IRAQ, SYRIA, and LEBANON.

The Persians are still Persians, of course, but Persia is known today as — IRAN. 

Of course, we are thousands of years removed from that feast, but, isn’t it strange how ancient scripture and modern history seem to interlace, seem to be spun and twisted together?  Interesting, what?

Is America modern Babylon?  Judge for yourself at:  http://www.beaconoftruth.com/babylon.htm

I’m no prophet, or “seer.”  I just pay attention with, possibly, a higher than usual degree of situational awareness. That’s all.

America’s state of national malaise bespeaks a people who are uneasy about something very bad they sense is in the offing for their beloved country.  They can’t get past the feeling that our shared malaise is a signal and/or a symptom of a very unpleasant future.

Whatever the reality is, we can all be sure it isn’t the the future scenario the President and his cronies are painting of a prospering America returned to her days of glory as a result of his socialist “share the wealth” agenda.   Reality by definition is real — and it does not match his words.

© J. D. Longstreet

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A National Shouting Match On Racism … J. D. Longstreet

A National Shouting Match On Racism
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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As a Southerner, I am used to — well, allow me to rephrase that:  as far as it is possible, I am used to being called a racist, a bigot, a redneck, and several other epithets that I refuse to print here.  That is not to say that I am comfortable with them, I am not.  Nevertheless, again, as a southerner, hardly a day goes by that such disparaging words are not used, in reference to yours truly, singularly, as an individual, or collectively, as a member of the politically conservative right, or regionally, as a Southerner.

I suppose the thing about all this infantile name calling that troubles me most is the utter hypocrisy of those using such hurtful language. I have learned as an adult that many, if not most, of those tossing about such colorful, yet hollow charges, are soaked in ignorance of the origins of such words and the history of the my region of America, and indeed, the history of America itself.

For instance — before the American Civil War, (you know — the war we Southerners refer to, and think of, as “The War for Southern Independence,”) it was the Democratic Party, that had a death grip on the Southern States, which our young scholars have been  erroneously, taught were the only slave holding states in the country.

That is far from the truth, very far. The Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic States, including Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, had legally sanctioned slavery in the 17th, 18th and even part of the 19th centuries.

This may come as a shock to you but… not only were black people enslaved in the North for over two hundred years, but the vast majority of all slave trading in America was done by northerners. Yes, we did just say: “The VAST Majority….”  Remarkably, half of all North American voyages involved in the slave trade originated in Rhode Island, and all the northern states benefited. This is a fact much hidden from the youthful eyes of America’s young scholars for many, many, decades.  In fact, many of those folks who so piously refer to Southerners as racists (because of our ancestors participation in the detestable trade) themselves hail from regions (and, yes, even families) that made fortunes on the trade of African blacks into slavery. 

Shocked?  You needn’t be.  It has been SOP in America’s public (Government) school system for many years.  It is the foundation of the ignorance from which springs the scurrilous charges made against so many of my ancestors and yes, even this scribe today.

I tell you this so you will be less shocked when we say that much of the name calling of southerners and politically right conservatives is coming from Representatives and Senators, of those Northern States who desperately want to paint all members of the political right as racists, and bigots.

There is also a statement made, time and again, which goes something like this:  Blacks, or, if you prefer, African-Americans, cannot be racists because they lack power or clout.  That is absolutely pure, unadulterated nonsense, clap-trap, BS, horse hockey, and a few other things we dare not print for general consumption.   If one human hates another because of the color of his skin, regardless of the color of his own, that is bigotry.  We see it everyday, as well, or hear it referenced every day in the music popularly known as “Rap” Music and “Hip-Hop” music.

The left claims to want a national “conversation” about racism in America.  They don’t, of course.  If they did they’d stop using the first sentences out of the mouths of members of the right to label them racists , which simply shuts off all conversation instantly.

No.  The left does not want a national confab on racism in America.  It is a ploy, that’s all. 

White America has grown tired of pretending not to see the overt racism of the left.  We’ve grown exceedingly resentful of being used as a punching bag and we’re beginning to punch back. 

The national conversation on racism in America, the left claims to want, may yet materialize – in the streets of the nation’s cities as black and white mobs clash.  It will be a conversation of the fist and club and, eventually, the gun. 

Nobody in their right mind wants this to happen. But that is exactly where America is headed once the last straw is applied to the camel’s back.

I DO realize the weight of the words above.  I DO realize, as well, that until we are ready, as a people, as a nation, to face up, honestly, to the racism of the left — and the black community in particular – then it is a non-starter.  Until that time a civil conversation will not be had for it cannot be had.

The best we can hope for is the continued stand-off and the barely concealed hatred boiling just beneath the surface. The plain truth is, I believe, the very best we can hope for is that the black community will continue to pretend they’re not racists and the white community will continue to pretend that it doesn’t notice black racism.

No, there will be no national conversation on racism.  There WILL be more shouting matches, bruised egos, and hurt feelings, which will do nothing to salve the wounds of the vicious national argument on racism.

WE Americans have tried for 237 years to hold the people of the country together in some sort of union — even with the numerous cracks and fault lines running between us.  Today those cracks and fault lines have become chasms. And some are un-crossable. This is one of them.

© J. D. Longstreet

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