Ignorant by Design

According to this survey, Americans are clueless about the 1st Amendment and the three branches of the government.  Virtually the first things you learn about the federal government in even the most basic civics class and near 40% are unaware.  This is intentional.  The education system is run by government, for government.  Government, especially one that craves money and power, will benefit if the citizens don't know when government is overstepping.  Government is spending more money on education than ever and yet the level of ignorance is jaw-dropping.  That is not an accident.

 

Abolish public education and watch ignorance evaporate.  When parents are given back their tax dollars and get to pick from among competing schools, schools will rapidly improve.  Imagine a Yelp for schools in which hundreds of parents or older students offer reviews.  Mobile phones haven't seen astonishing improvement because of an overarching government agency and schools won't either.  Let's use the iPhone/Android competition model to improve our schools rather than the one-size-fits-all government model that has achieved decades of mediocrity.

9/11 + 16 Years

In the wake of Pearl Harbor, the United States went to war with Imperialist Japan and Nazi Germany.  The Japanese utilized suicide bombers on planes, though they targeted American warships, not buildings.  We defeated them in 4 years.  The Nazis were vastly better at slaughtering Jews than the Islamic terrorists have thus far proven to be.  We defeated them in 4 years.  How is it that random bands of terrorists have proven more tenacious than two great powers from the 20th Century?

 

It is not the terrorists who are more formidable but the United States that is dramatically less formidable.  Japan had trended toward militarism, totalitarianism, and expansionism in the early 20th Century.  It had many similarities with the fascism of Italy and Germany, thus the natural alliance as the Axis Powers.  When the US defeated Japan, militarism was forcibly purged and a new constitution was imposed upon them.  The toxic ideas that had created Imperial Japan were ripped out by the victors.  This same process happened in Germany.  Nazis were rounded up and tried for war crimes.  The ideology that had justified the Holocaust was, to the best of our ability, eradicated.  The ideologies of the victorious powers were imprinted upon the losing powers.  Sadly, half of Europe suffered Communism as a result but no one was allowed to keep fascism in any of its forms.

 

Today, the ideology in question is Islam.  Islam is a fascist belief system.  Does it believe in totalitarianism?  Of course, the goal has been a global caliphate since the days of Mohammed.  Demand for violent action?  Yes, that global caliphate isn't going to form itself.  Are gender roles defined and enforced?  Can you say honor killing?  Yeah, we've got that.  Does it seek to purge decadence?  Clearly.  Believers frequently kill their own family members who have become decadent.  Hatred for Jews?  Absolutely.  However, unlike Italian Fascism, German Nazism, and Japanese Imperialism, Islam is a religion.

 

The 1st Amendment guarantees Freedom of Religion.  So long as Islam is given a pass as a religion, the ideology will just continue to produce more terrorists.  Does that mean we must bomb all Islamic countries?  No.  But we should have a version of Radio Free Europe to try to change the beliefs.  How many of these suicidal terrorists are doing it for the glory of Islam and the promise of 72 virgins in paradise?  That belief has to be countered.

NFL Suicide

Yet again, players are sitting and kneeling for the National Anthem.  After Colin Kaepernick demonstrated the wonders it does for a player's career and the ratings hit is caused, the NFL has decided to let it ride.  Sure, it's a penalty to celebrate too much after scoring a touchdown but kneeling during the National Anthem is free speech.  These geniuses whose paychecks depend on ratings are succeeding in depressing the ratings.  Combine this we-hate-America 'virtue' signaling with the ever progressing concussion story and you have a recipe for killing the sport.  I used to love football but now it feels like yet another opportunity for someone to tell me I'm a bad person for supporting a violent sport or that America is bad because... I don't even remember what Kaepernick's beef was at this point.   Yeah, I'm white and privileged while he is a multi-millionaire who is black and oppressed.  Who was head of state when Kaepernick started his protest?  Barack Obama, a black man.  Who was Attorney General when Kaepernick knelt for oppressed blacks?  Loretta Lynch, a black woman.  That was the national government and the National Anthem is about the nation, not the Ferguson PD or the Baltimore PD.  Do you see the distinction, Colin?

 

The NFL is letting these highly-paid players smear the reputation of the NFL.  Suicide by virtue signaling.  The only game I may watch this season will be the Super Bowl.

Republicans See Movies Too

Jennifer Lawrence recently intimated that the current spate of hurricanes may be mother nature's wrath at America's election from last year.  Silly but she is entitled to her opinion.  However, she is in entertainment.  Love him or hate him, 62 million potential movie ticket buyers voted for him.  Why antagonize them?  Do you think you are going to change their minds?  In J Law's defense, the interviewer asked the question.

A vast number of entertainers have joined this latest anti-Republican bandwagon.  Sure, they say that Trump is particularly bad but that is what they said about George W. Bush.  The current Republican is always the worst ever, with the possible exception of Nixon.  Although you will often hear that 'even Nixon didn't go this far' or the like.  Worse than Nixon!  While they constantly denigrate half the country, the entertainment industry is concerned at the reduced ticket sales, the lower ratings, the diminishing music profits, etc.

 

You can't attack half your audience and not expect some reaction.  Republicans see movies, watch TV, and listen to music too.  As a business decision, I am baffled.  Shut up about politics.

Comrade Detective

This Amazon series tells the tale of a pair of Romanian detectives investigating a murder.  The murderer wears a Ronald Reagan mask.  It is presented as a remastered and dubbed version of a 1980s TV show from the other side of the Iron Curtain.  It plays as communist propaganda, often hilariously so.  In one episode, the detectives tangle with an insane cult: Christianity.  In another, women run wild through the streets trying to get Jordache jeans.  A capitalist tries to explain Adam Smith's invisible hand and sounds like Gordon "Greed is good" Gecko from Wall Street.  Pepsi, VHS tapes, pop music, and more litter the series.  The sympathetic American character says she loves America despite the fact that everyone has AIDS, the violence, the starvation, the poverty, etc.  Oh, and she is really going to miss the wonderful food in Romania and the super sexy men.  It is the sort of ham-fisted propaganda one would expect from the Communists, which is why it is funny.

 

The makers were inspired by 80s movies where Soviets and Communists were frequent foes and decided to make a show from the other side of the Cold War.  What is sad is that, silly as it is, the faux makers have an abiding love for Romania and Communism.  Modern American filmmakers don't show anything like this love of country.  That's sad.  Modern movies are far more likely to focus on America's warts and scars than celebrate its beauty and achievements.  As an experiment, I typed 'pro-American Hollywood movies' to see what returned and picked the first result.  The Majestic - a movie where the House Un-American Activities Committee is the bad guy - made the cut as pro-American.  Okay.  The Kingdom, a movie that draws a moral equivalence between Islamic terrorists and the FBI Agents who hunt them down, made the list.  Shooter, a movie about corrupt government officials framing a patriot for a political assassination, made the list.  Black Hawk Down, a movie about a disastrous military engagement in Somalia, made the list!  By that standard, Midway - a movie about America defeating the Japanese navy during World War II - could be on a pro-Japanese movie list.  Ha!  The pool is SO bad that these qualify as pro-American.

 

It is tragic that the anti-Americanism and pro-Communist propaganda that is played for laughs in Comrade Detective is played seriously in Trumbo.

DACA

 [The president] shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed

U.S. Constitution, Article 2 Section 3

The Dream Act, which was first proposed in 2001, was legislation that would allow those who are brought into the United States as minors to be granted a conditional amnesty.  Though technically illegal immigrants, they had no say in the matter and have spent the majority of their lives as Americans.  The Act has been debated repeatedly but never passed.  That last point is significant.  There was no law passed for the president to faithfully execute.  When President Obama pushed for the Dream Act, Congress declined to pass it.  Therefore, immigration law treats 'Dreamers' no differently than any other illegal immigrant.  The president takes an oath to faithfully execute the laws that have been passed, not laws he wished had been passed.  However, limited resources often mean that a president must chose where to put emphasis.  DACA was more than that.  President Obama implemented an executive amnesty that not only told prosecutors to ignore Dreamers but also granted legal status via work permits.  The president was not only being unfaithful to the laws that Congress had passed, he was enforcing laws that they did not pass.  Yet another impeachable offense by President Obama.  Of course, impeachment is pointless in our era and the Republicans were too spineless to use the power of the purse.

 

DACA is unconstitutional and should be revoked.  This is something Congress must legislate.  President Trump has provided Congress with 6 months in which to pass the Dream Act.  Let's see if they pass it this time.  If not, let the deportations begin.  Enforce the laws or change the laws but don't ignore the laws.  That is the path to anarchy and collapse.

Comforter in Chief

President Trump has made a second trip to Texas in order to address criticisms leveled in the wake of his first visit.  Much of the media reported that he didn't show enough empathy.  Why is that the job of a president?  In 1871, Chicago suffered the its great fire.  President Grant was not involved in the aftermath.  In 1874, Chicago had another fire.  President Grant still didn't get involved.  When Galveston was flatted by a hurricane in 1900, it was up to the state and local government to deal with the 6,000 to 12,000 dead.  President McKinley may have offered condolences but that's about it.  When San Francisco was flatten by an earthquake in 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt didn't jump on the first train to California.  For most of American history, local disasters were a local problem.  It wasn't that these presidents were unfeeling monsters, it was not part of their job to deal with such problems.  Trump may or may not agree with me on that subject but he has learned from the treatment President Bush got in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.  Bush's failure to be on the ground in the immediate aftermath was used as a cudgel against him for the remainder of his presidency and some suggest it led to the loss of the House of Representatives in 2006.  Though there is no Constitutional requirement for the federal government to be involved in such disasters - indeed, one can easily argue that they are barred from doing so - the PR disaster of not getting involved feeds into the centralizing of power in Washington, DC.

 

Much as I want government to shrink to its Constitutional limits, it would be nigh impossible to reverse calls for national involvement in local disasters.  State governments used to be able to handle far more devastating disasters with little or no federal help but now the federal government must be involved if Timmy stubs his toe on the way to school.  On this, there is probably no going back.

Two-Faced Speaker

Having said all of that, there are people who are in limbo. These are kids who know no other country, who were brought here by their parents and don't know another home. And so I really do believe there that there needs to be a legislative solution.

Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House

Yet again, the speaker is showing his true colors.  When President Obama put forth the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) as legislation in 2012, the Congress - notably the House - shot it down.  Despite lacking any legislation, Obama directed the executive agencies to enforce immigration law as if DACA had passed.  Now that President Trump is proposing to enforce the laws as the Congress has written them and past presidents have signed them, Ryan has an about face.  Oh, he was only too happy to let Obama ignore the law while he could claim the moral high ground.  He was just fooling the rubes in flyover country.  It looks more and more like the two parties have been engaged in Kabuki theater, giving the impression that they oppose one another when they have really been working in concert.

 

Never trust a politician.