Every summer, the haute bourgeoisie of Middle America descend on Lake of the Ozarks to jet ski, barbecue ribs, and (until 2023) drink a shit-ton of Budweiser.
What most normal, rational conservatives want is to be left the fuck alone. We see Government as a necessary evil that should be as small as possible. We are tired of DC raking in so much of our money in taxes and NYC skimming so much of our hard earned savings in fees then both locales calling us stupid.
I’m not “left-wing”. Everything is black and white with you it seems. I thought what I said was pretty self-explanatory so I’ll leave it at that. Also, I don’t have any time to re-engage, so apologies to Mike.
If you’re saying I’m for government doing what it’s supposed to do for people, guilty as charged.
And what is government supposed to "do" for people? If it's people, plural, then it's probably ok. If it's for people on an individual level... then, well, that's not what the Constitution says.
This is what Government should do, per the document that permits it:
Provide for the common defense.
Promote the general welfare
Secure the blessing of Liberty.
the words Common, General, Liberty are most important there. There ain't nothing in there about "choosing some to receive more than others" or "helping preferred groups" or "kowtowing to multinational organizations"
In fact the Liberty line pretty much should disqualify most of the rules of the administrative state, especially re: gas stoves, etc.
I’m from NY , near the City and am a New Yorker. And I agree with you. NYC skims from its own though, unfortunately. Not from the rest of the country. But I’m in strong sympathy with the gist of this piece. I don’t like Trump at all, but I get it. I understand his popularity. I certainly can’t stand Biden, Hilary and the rest of them. I would love to make it out there someday and felt the need say that all New Yorkers are different. Most of us are not elitists with our head up our ass.
Remember the tyrannical lock down by the ever senile Biden and his left wing minions? I said then that the left cares more about illegal aliens (I mean undocumented Democrats) than US citizens.
While the NAZIs were locking us down and forcing small businesses to close they were letting hundreds thousands of unvaccinated aliens in and dispersing them all over the US. I lived in Central America for forty years and I can tell you in most if not all of these countries there is no mass vaccination policy. In the US we have mass vaccinations for polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, and many more diseases that we have almost wiped out here in the States but are common in Latin America.
Below is and example of the criminal behavior of the ever senile Joe's government:
I resist labels as they are meaningless at best and misleading at worst - just look up what the word "liberal" means! Or go back in time to what the founders thought of as "liberal".
I wrote this about a year ago. It is still relevant.
I subscribe to an opinion newsletter called Common Sense. It mainly defends the First Amendment and it defends it from the nut cases on the left and the right. Common Sense does a pretty good job of being politically neutral. However, because the mainstream press and many universities have to the gone far left, most of the articles are how the left through political correctness, the woke and the me too movements are attempting to destroy the First Amendment. The left does not debate you on the merit of what is said or what you have written, they attack you and most times viciously.
Below is a response I wrote to an article in Common Sense:
You call the left, liberals. I can't bring myself to do that. A true liberal embraces free speech. John Stuart Mill one of the founders of liberalism was a staunch defender of free speech. He said in his essay on liberalism, I'm paraphrasing here, "You should listen to your adversaries because they might be right."
The left today are not liberals. If you don't agree with the left, you are pilloried by the left. I read the definition of a racist, "Is anyone who wins an argument with a liberal."
Whatever happened to, "I may not agree with you but I will defend to the death your right to say it."? In July of 1977 the American NAZI Party was going to march through Skokie, Illinois. Seven Thousand Holocaust survivors lived in Skokie. Words cannot describe how disgusted and appalled I was by this proposed vile act. Of all people who defended this atrocity was the ACLU. I was shocked until I heard why they were defended the NAZIs right to march.
They weren't defending the NAZIs. They were defending the First Amendment, freedom of expression. I am a gentile and much as I despised the NAZIs I love the First Amendment more. I only wish the left loved the First Amendment as much as I do but they don't.
So please stop calling them liberals because they aren't. They are tyrants.
That is what our founding fathers thought. They put clauses in the constitution ti limit the power of government but the thieves in Washington work around those clauses. See the tenth amendment.
Yes, I agree. I wrote my statement in a fit of anger. As I think about it, it is something that we should all be able to agree on - government is the enemy.
Human history is replete with examples of government oppression of the people. On the other end of the scale is the chaos of insufficient governance. This is the human comedy. How do we rule our selves.
I have said before, we need a betrayal of public trust amendment where our elected, appointed and high ranking us government officials are closely watched to insure they are not breaking any laws, felonies or breaking the public trust.
If found of breaking the public trust they are dragged out of the capital building, dragged down the steps. At the bottom of the steps is a large, well muscled, man, oiled up, standing in beside a chopping block and holding a large ax very sharp.
The congress man or woman is forced to kneel and place their head on the chopping block and then beheaded, all on national TV as a subtle hint to the rest of the thieves on capitol hill not to screw the taxpayers.
Before someone in a cheap suit and an FBI id shows up at my front door, I'm being sarcastic, joking, exercising first amendment rights that the left is trying to take away from all of us.
Kind of like the gun enhancement sentencing laws. If enforced, a lot of the criminals who like using guns to commit their crimes would be locked up (and thus not committing gun crimes) for a very long time.
But Leftist prosecutors won't enforce those laws. And then Democrats use (preventable) gun crimes to call for MORE gun control laws--specifically ones that will punish law-abiding gun owners.
And the penalty for treason should be the same you suggested. It used to be hanging, drawing and quartering. I'd like to see it used on any president who accepted bribes from malign foreign powers - laundered or not through family members.
If proven true that Biden accepted money from foreign governments to use his office to change or sway policy, that is treason and he should be execute along with any others in the Biden crime family who took part in selling out our country.
Ugh. Why do all the politicians you support are happy to collect their big pay checks and benefits from the Federal government while dissing Washington? Height of hypocrisy. They’re scamming you!
Their paychecks aren't that good, but boy, those retirement benefits are extraordinary...
Any person on the civil service rolls get, guaranteed, 75% of their last three years' annual average salary plus medical benefits that civilians would love to have.
Plus, L.K., I find it ironic how politicians go to Washington DC and on those “not so good paychecks” get filthy rich! We have the best politicians money can buy - both Left & Right!
And it seems once they get elected, their moral compass gets put aside for the power of their position. ALL of them want to make getting re-elected year after year their lifelong goal!
Lord Acton, a British historian said, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely”
DC raking in so much of our money and... below CNBC cut & paste from December 2022:
President Joe Biden on Thursday is announcing the infusion of nearly $36 billion to prevent severe cuts to the retirement incomes of more than 350,000 Teamster workers and retirees across the United States. The money for the Central States Pension Fund is the largest amount of federal aid provided for a pension plan.
Is this via the normal Pension Benefit Guaranty Fund (PBGF) that was established in the 1970s to protect pensions when companies fail, similar to the FDIC which insures banks accounts, or is it a separate thing to try to grab votes?
From Business Insider: "As it turns out, it is red states that are overwhelmingly the Welfare Queen States. Yes, that's right. Red States—the ones governed by folks who think government is too big and spending needs to be cut—are a net drain on the economy, taking in more federal spending than they pay out in federal taxes. They talk a good game, but stick Blue States with the bill."
From The Atlantic: That's a far more interesting thing to think about (though perhaps less viscerally satisfying) than which states are moochers or freeloaders and which are getting fleeced.
Go look at the research that claims that and see if it includes government retirement pensions. Why yes, yes you will see that "Government Welfare" includes pensions paid by the government to former/retired government employees for work performed. Of course, considering costs of living it doesn't take a very smart person who lives on a fixed income to move to states where their income will go further. Those states are usually red.
I always knew that to be true. People retire in cold, expensive areas of the country, and do the math, which tells them very quickly that they should move to a place where the weather is better and the cost of living lower. It's not rocket science. But the left likes to think that they are somehow subsidizing all the red states, and that people are stupid for moving to them.
They always trot out these tired DNC talking points which mean nothing. They also don't take into account that some of the major blue states (New York, California) have multi-billion-dollar tourism industries which employ lots of people and bring in tax dollars. Except for Florida (which is doing well fiscally), I can't think of many red states that have big tourism industries.
Also, Kate, speaking from Texas, a border state, under this Biden Crime Family Regime, we are overwhelmed with the open border influx of illegals - also being given “welfare handouts” - plus, which is denying LEGAL, tax paying citizens resource they need!
I find it amusing that the “so called Sanctuary cities” in the North are screaming “NO Fair” when busses & plane loads of illegals are sent to them! Also, they lament “We don’t have room for them & we need Federal Aid”
Sorry, but BOO FU*KING WHO
because you asked for it with all your “Sanctuary, holy than thou, rhetoric”. You voted for this WOKE Left agenda! How’s that working for you?!
Infrastructure improvements (for Texas: Highways and bridges: $27.5 billion
Public transit: $3.4 billion, Clean energy: $2.9 billion,
Water infrastructure: $1.2 billion, Broadband internet: $100 million
Other: $1.7 billion).
Take the money and complain. That s what MAGA is all about. \
Biden did not have a Foundation dissolved due to illegal activities. Biden did not declare bankruptcy 6 times. Biden has paid taxes every year he has been in office. BTW my sister moved to Texas and the first thing she did was buy a whole house generator. Energy State my ***.
WHY would you even bring up Trump? I didn’t mention him, nor does HE have anything to do with the topic at hand!
I get that ANY criticism of Biden is immediately discounted with “But, but, but Trump, whataboutism” or “It’s Putin’s fault” or “It’s the Climate, stupid”
IF you feel the need to respond to me again, I’ll certainly understand. That is what is expected from people with “TDS” and I’ll gladly let you have the last word.
Certainly we can agree that TFP (Bari) has provided us (Both Left & Right) a “safe space😉” to come & agree to disagree.
This map makes that claim look ridiculous. Blue states may pay in more - the coasts are where the centers of finance and wealth are located - but they also get way more in return.
You can play with the numbers as much as you want. Try Federal aid per cow - oops that won't work in Montana. I used how much the states paid in and how much they got back. The true "justification" could be that, due to weather, most DOD bases are in the South. That is still not the reason why the Red States always want to be the victim while being the villain.
Of course, it is a real number, but it does not reflect the actual out and in of federal taxes PER STATE. When talking about value it should be considered that farmland in Red States is not valued the same as businesses in the state of NY so there is much undervalued assets in those states. Looking at a State like North Dakota that wants to be a banking (as well as money laundering) State is valued higher than South Dakota, which is more of a farming state as far as businesses go. The main point is that Red States continually complain about Federal expenditures but do not complain about farm subsidies which are 40% of net farm income, Sugar quotas which cost all US taxpayers $2 billion a year, infrastructure money spent or about the DOD spending in the Southern States. Victim while taking the money is at least hilarious.
What?? It absolutely does. The per capita number is derived from the amount of money PER STATE divided by its population! Farm Subsidies?? You mean like those going to California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania...? Sure, Texas and Iowa are at the top for Farm subsidy grift but the US has blown half a trillion on farmers the past decade and blue states get plenty of that action. And btw, it was Republicans who proposed cuts to the farm bill last time around. Also, here are some facts vis-à-vis your DOD line of thinking. Only 2 red states are in the top 10 for Defense spending. https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3194361/dod-releases-report-on-defense-spending-by-state-in-fiscal-year-2021/
And by the way, WHO exactly is complaining? You're the one who brought it up; I don't see any of the contributors from the right complaining about it. Looks like most everyone else just wants government to leave them alone and doesn't care how much is being spent in red states. We're not victims and we're not villains.
Bob, sorry sir, but you need to look beyond the WOKE Left narrative.
Our border states are being RUN OVER with illegals thanks to the Biden Regime!
If you don’t realize how much $$$$ that is costing these “Red Border States” then you should look beyond the MSM rhetoric!
Here in Texas, MANY very deserving taxpayers are being denied resources because of the thousands of illegal aliens storming across the “open border”
Plus, you do realize, illegals are being given Welfare and FREE medical attention, so yes, a lot of Federal & State funds are being consumed!
In one Southern Border town RFK Jr. visited recently, he was beyond shocked at the hospitals having to turn away LEGAL Texas Citizens, because every bed was filled with illegals having babies, drug overdoses & rape victims!
Once again take the money and complain. Being a border state brings a lot of Money to Texas. But a fact: In the US there are approximately 10,500 births per day. There are approximately 9,500 deaths per day. And persons with entry based on asylum are not illegals. And as of January16, 2019 — "It is clear from our research that persons who overstay their visas add to the US undocumented population at a higher rate than border crossers ...
So Bob, Not sure what you mean “take the money & complain”. In all honesty, YOU are the one who is complaining about Red States. I absolutely love my Red State of Texas! I also own a condo in Brooklyn Heights, NY, which I’m renting out, due to the crime & filth on subways now. When the WOKE Left are in charge (with their defund police BS) cities deteriorate!
And, if Red States are so awful, WHY are people & businesses coming in the thousands from Blue States to settle in Red ones?
Could it be because of the astronomical Blue State taxes, yet the homeless numbers are higher than anywhere else in the USA! WHY aren’t Blue States supporting these homeless people? Plus, property values & cost of living are so high there that regular folks are fleeing! Also, because Blue States have unmanageable crime rates that the WOKE Liberals either ignore, or refuse to prosecute? LA released notice for vacationers NOT visit because the police would not be able to protect them! Golly, no wonder people & businesses are boarding up and moving out fast to Red States!
Yes, Bob, you are correct to post that last quote! Where you are incorrect is to bring up a 2019 report, when illegal border crossings were a lot lower.
Under the current open border policy, illegals are flooding across the border in RECORD HIGH NUMBERS! Not talking about “asylum seekers” but illegal aliens, cartels, drug mules, etc.
5.5 MILLION illegals have crossed our borders just since Biden took office!
ONLY approx. 2,200 arrive daily seeking asylum, whereas 5,000 make unauthorized entries daily. THIS cost a lot of money, but isn’t that what “Sanctuary Believers” think their tax dollars should support?! Ironically, those same people don’t want any illegals bussed in to their cities!
The Left loves to debate this, but facts are facts!
Bob, see Andrew’s post below to add facts & clarity to what you stated.
And, sir, you do recognize and must surely acknowledge that anything & everything from the Atlantic is WOKE Left rhetoric. They are part of the MSM, which serves as the propaganda arm of the Democrats.
If by "funding" you mean accumulating a ton of fiat dollars, and then paying taxes on those dollars, you may be right. If you're talking about producing things people can actually use: food, fuel, clothing, wood, metals, etc. that's a whole 'nother thing.
I live on a lake in Michigan. We don't have Trump flotillas, but it's deep red. People are simply puzzled by Democrats more than anything. Why are they mutilating children? Why do they want drag queens reading to children so bad? Why are they denying biological reality? Why are they so irresponsible with foreign policy and budget? Why are they interfering with our lives so bad? It's not hate; it's more like "what the f*** is wrong with these people and WHY?"
I also am in deep wonder about this. I always try to find the "why"...and I can't here. Mental illness seems too "easy" even though I believe there is some of that for sure. I keep bumping up against the concept of evil. I can't fathom what else would explain it.
My theory is that most of the progressive democrats are control freaks. They were the last ones to be picked for a team, the mean girl that spread rumors about the home coming queen, the hangers on that spent their adolescent life fearful that they’d be kicked out of the cool kid clique. The worst of them went into politics and now that they’ve acquired the power of government they want to legislate, intimidate and punish the rest of us from ever again contrasting how vacuous and pathetic they are.
The Goal is (and this is gong to sound real tin fol hat stuff) the destruction of liberal western society, and replacing it with (Cultural) Marxism.
Why would they want to do this to the Freest Richest Safest society in history? 1. Marxism is a (secular) religion. You could say its a Christian Heresy. An attempt to set up The Millennial Kingdom without The King. We are our own Gods. Didn't Satan say something similar to Eve in The Garden? "You Shall Be Like Gods." (you know there Really isn't anything New under the sun.)
2. Its not perfect, its not equal. Some people are richer than others, Some people are oppressed ,Some people have to do things they don't want. Therefore it MUST be torn down.
THIS. My theory as well. They're also the college administrators who got hired only because colleges fees went up so much due to cheap college money that they had to make up jobs for people to do. And they also hold Director & VP level DEI roles at most companies - ours is an 800-person firm and I think we have 2.
I was not in the cool crowd. I ran around with them a little, but I also did some debate and was in the chorale. But I was mostly comfortable in my own skin. Those that weren't, that felt picked on and made fun of (and back in the 80'' in high school, that definitely happened) have made it to these positions and through bullying, are seeking the validation they never got when they were 17. It's really that simple.
Here’s the deal. It’s much easier to point the finger at others than to look inwardly. Until people look inwardly, their world really doesn’t change. Quit worrying about what other people do and focus on what you do and what you don’t do, as well.
Shannon L. I keep wondering why some of the stuff on the left like mutilation of kids without parental consent is even something to be considered. “Woke is good for business?” More and more I’m wondering if Satan himself is in charge.
I used to hear the 'nutters' talking about evil paedophile cabal and shrug in disbelief at their over the top conspiracy theories. Well, I am really beginning to wonder if they might just have been right all along.
Another "possible answer" to the WHY. CREATE AN ISSUE, A PROBLEM, that didn't really exist before- with the INTENT of creating an illusion that (those in POWER) will FIX it for you- just as long as you keep voting for them.
Issues w Racism WAS diminishing years ago- Gays and Lesbians became more protected and given the rights to marry, Roe v Wade and abortion rights- As these issues "improved" POWER needed to give the illusion they were much worse than what was real. And then keep you angry and scared and believing they will fix it all for you. You would think people would see thru this by now, but education( lack of) and Indoctrination prevent people being able to think and rationalize for themselves.
I agree that power is a lot of the reason. Also, the concept of “liberalism” requires CONSTANT change; once you win one fight, you’re instantly looking around for the next cause, and the next, and the next...leaving things the same is -- by its very nature -- “conservative”. It’s a spiritually empty, constant search for meaning (that you’ll never find).
I think another factor is guilt (White or otherwise). This is a top-down movement, where the elites (the educated) are driving the narrative. Even if they won’t admit it, subconsciously they know that they are extremely privileged (whatever their color) to live in Western countries with an incredibly rich lifestyle, so they are susceptible to self-flagellation and externalization of their self-hatred, which is expressed by heaping scorn and vitriol on the very society that produced them.
It’s all very mentally unhealthy. There is ample research that “progressives” are the most unhappy and neurotic people. I’m sure you won’t need to ask “why”!
It's mass Munchhausen by Proxy from the far left so they can prove their point annd be self-validated. They actually use the same medium and logic of Munchhausen by Proxy i.e. convincing the medical community that an innocent child needs to be mutilated so their belief system and identity can be upheld. It is so frigging sick.
The mechanics of logic for gender affirming zealots takes any objective or forensic information and tosses it right out the window. They want blood or to dope a confused person at the drop of a hat.
These people are using the same logical pathway as conversion therapy for gay kids of religious people. It is beyond barbaric, and yet you have a bunch of freak people with MD's who will not open their mouths and help the victims of such psychotic institutional behavior.
It is good to try to figure out the why part. I think that activists pushed for transing and doctors/pharma make a great deal of money on it, and then it turned out to be politically useful as "The Civil Rights Movement of our Era" to quote Biden during his campaign. Cultural Maxism is about destroying everything and thinking there will somehow magically be a Utopia after that? Obama started: "Obama made transgenderism a pet issue of his administration,"
"U.S. Sex Reassignment Surgery Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Gender Transition (Male To Female, Female To Male), And Segment Forecasts, 2022 - 2030"
"There have been many terrible medical experiments in America, but none of them have had the deadly and destructive combination of ideology, politics, and profits propelling them into the culture. Lobotomies had profits, but no ideology or political movement supporting the procedure. Eugenics had an ideology and a political movement, but no profits that could be reinvested in lobbying for protective legislation. Transgenderism has the winning trifecta, and it makes the movement much more difficult to defeat, despite its obvious harm to people and the lack of any legitimate science or data to back up its central tenets."
This part is me - even with adult men who have the psych condition we are calling "gender dysphoria", there will always be something to hit him that he is not a "real girl" and then he will feel "dsyphoric". Say, puberty was suppressed and his hands did not grow large and he did not grow tall with big shoulders.... Then, maybe he gets filled with hormones which allow him to "lactate" after getting a baby via surrogacy... He still didn't bear the child. So, do we transplant the uterus of some girl who didn't "need it or want it" because she's a "transboy"? (You have seen that one, right?) Where does it stop? It cannot. There will always be something - no matter how much society affirms the confusion.
By now, we've had the suicide of that young airplane attendant who was the "poster child" for transing young men. And, we still have not read the Audrey Hale manifesto.
I'd like to toss in two recent psych articles:
Published: 14 April 2023
Current Concerns About Gender-Affirming Therapy in Adolescents
They 1) value having an open mind and 2) they have not given any thought to the boundaries of that open mind. That is to say, when you add 1 and 2 in their heads, they hear something like "Anti-Racism For White People" and their boundary of "I stop listening when you start sounding too ironic" never activates. They just think, "If it doesn't make sense, maybe there's just something about it I'll never be able understand." This makes them susceptible to all kinds of flimflam.
In come the postmodern/Critical Theory lunatics who attach their madness to identity politics (a subject many on the left hold dear, where they see a lot of positive social change from the past, spearheaded by progressive politics) while brandishing an istaphobia cudgel in the context of cancel culture, and you have a huge population of hosts waiting to be infected with the Woke Mind Virus.
I knew the moment I saw that so-called anti-racists had 0 racists and all the Liberals in their crosshairs that there was a religion being proselytized.
I think a sizable number of them think it's off, but this is their tribe, and some business leaders push it by fiat. They need to look like they're into it or they might not be able to stay in their career. People gotta pay bills. Better to pretend it makes sense and keep the gravy pouring.
As a former democrat (assigned democrat at birth) I was taught that America was an oppressive racist country and that republicans were dumb racists. There was so much indoctrination from Hollywood and pop culture painting leftists as integrity soaked brilliant artists and republicans as square money hungry nerds. So much was attached to cool status. I was a teen in the 80s so there’s that. As painful as it’s been to realize I was duped this entire time by a party that makes things piles worse for the very people the purport to help, I am so grateful, even if my kids think that mom turned into a racist homophobic flat earther. The simple answer is misguided hubris. They are programmed.
I love that! I was assigned Democrat at birth too, because my parents were leftists. I'm still a registered Democrat and have some values that are permanently Democratic, but I'm the only member of my family who took, after 2020, not a right turn, but a step back from partisan politics.
My relatives tiptoe around me so they don't incite my tendency to mention traumatic things like Tucker Carlson's name (this is a major trigger for my bro-in-law). They don't want to hear me rave on about subversive topics like free speech and a free press, the value of charter schools, and since the recent Supreme Court decision, the Fourteenth Amendment, with that darn, pesky Equal Protection clause.
Their world view is so black and white that they're utterly confused by me. I'm a lesbian, so they can't label me homophobic, and my very wide range of friends and partners over the years, plus my past activism, tends to disqualify me from the racist label too. I'm pretty sure they think I'm deranged. I haven't discussed Trump Derangement Syndrome with them...why bother? Does a fish know it's wet?
So my answer to the question WHY are they the way they are? is probably overly simplified, but here are some possibilities:
(a) Trump.
(b) The desire to be seen as virtuous as possible, which requires specific behaviors, beliefs and speech.
(c) Adherence to the religion of identitarianism, the outgrowth of (b).
(d) The belief that the U.S.A. is a once-good idea gone hopelessly bad, now overrun by ignoramuses and white supremacists whom they see behind every rock and tree and of whom they are truly terrified; and
(e) fealty to a corrupt, mendacious propaganda machine called the Mainstream Media, which keeps their fears dialed up to 10. Their worldview is extremely narrow, because they are afraid. Fear is the driver.
P.S. One addendum: covid. These terrified people fell into a fear abyss when covid hit. My sister only recently took off her mask. Again, they have Rachel Maddow to thank.
Actually I'm not a conservative, but neither am I a progressive. I left the parties and their gradations behind so I could take in the big picture and make up my own mind. If I attach a label to myself, other than lesbian : ), my critical thinking skills get soft.
But I don't apologize for watching Douglas Murray, like a woke person did to me the other day. She made a face when she said his name, and explained, "he's a conservative." For some reason, she didn't turn to stone! Shocking.
Black, white, straight, gay - what difference does it make when we're discussing free speech, equal protection, and respect for our nation (but very definitely NOT its ruling, governmental class. The modern left are a bunch of raving, raging lunatics. Nothing more.
Exactly right. Identity politics is a poison. It destroys everything it touches.
I'm an admirer of the work of Shelby Steele, who has been writing and thinking about race from a black conservative perspective for decades. His superb documentary, What Killed Michael Brown? (free on Amazon), produced with his son, cinematographer Eli Steele, is specific in its storytelling but broad in its implications. I recommend it highly.
Early in the film Steele encapsulates his views on race in a few sentences. I memorized it, because I found it so moving: "We human beings never use race except as a means to power. It is never an end. It is always a means. And it has no role in human affairs except as a corruption."
Nor should you apologize, Douglas Murray ROCKS. He is brilliant. And like you, he's gay. so he can't be as easily dismissed by the Left, which drives them crazy. They actually have to argue back with LOGIC and FACTS, lololol.
Thanks for your thoughtful reply...yes, you are of course correct...one need not be a "conservative" to spend a lot of time poking holes in Leftist contradictions, just an open mnded critical thinker. I'm guessing you and I are pretty much alike in that regard. And not that there are not plenty of things to critique about the Right, it just seems at this moment in history most of the most outrageous stuff seems to be coming from the Left side of the political/ideological aisle.
Great points! They're brainwashed, basically. Also tribalism. There's something to the social science theory that as one group takes a step towards extremism, the opposing group takes a step in the opposite direction, like a dance of mutual animosity that spins out of control. I see both sides as brainwashed, one by woke neo Marxist ideology and the other by a NY conman who would be oligarch.
Wow, thank you for this comment. This is truly one of the most insightful, honest and informative comments I've seen articulated on this page, maybe any page. And you have extra credibility precisely because you come from this world. I keep racking my brains over why any sane person would remain Democrat after the shit that went down in 2020, followed by the manifest disaster of the Biden presidency, and you summed it up perfectly. I suspected denial was a large part of it, as was a desperate need to "fit in" and belong to some kind of cool club.
You hit the nail on the head about the fear. These people are terrified of being cast out by...what?...their social circle, their profession, Facebook. I don't believe that most of them deep down truly believe the things that their chosen tribe preaches (transgender ideology, systemic racism) they just go along to get along. (I also don't believe they actually hate Trump as much as they pretend to, again it's the bandwagon.) Meanwhile they live in the whitest communities possible. I can't count how many of my liberal friends refused to live in neighborhoods that I did; read: black and immigrant neighborhoods (even one who is themselves black!).
The projected "image" of being a liberal is what it's about, not the actual policies. Then there's the cult of Covid - cult is the only way to describe it. It's mass hysteria. I STILL see seemingly healthy people walking around in masks (although it's gotten considerably rarer from a year ago) as a virtue-signaling political statement. Kudos to you for having your eyes wide open and sticking to your integrity.
No, they genuinely believe there will be a nazi-esque takeover of the country. My bro-in-law speaks often about the white supremacists and their Republican lawmaker/handmaidens who are planning this coup. The Second Amendment is proof, as is the composition of the Supreme Court. For him, January 6 was the first step.
They’re not afraid of woke people canceling them. They are the woke people who don’t believe that canceling people is even a thing. We literally live in different ideological universes with different facts and interpretations of events. My sister believes with all her being that Fauci is a saint and that covid was caused by the pairing of a bat and a pangolin.
I believe this is true of your relatives; you know them best. But I don't believe it's true of every person who identifies as Democrat or liberal now; I think many ARE in denial about a lot of things and want to believe the party is the party of 30 years ago, or they're afraid. I have picked up on little things here and there from my own friends that tell me they are not truly as liberal deep down as they purport to be. They just want to identify with the side that the media and the culture tell them they're supposed to. In other words they are not ultra-ideologues, though those certainly exist and I'm sure your relatives qualify.
But as an aside, I have to laugh about J6 being the harbinger of a "neo-Nazi-esque" takeover of the country. If that's what that little tantrum was, your brother-in-law has nothing to worry about. Never have I seen a more pathetic "coup" attempt in my life. No offense to your family, but they seem very deeply brainwashed. And they call people like ME conspiracy theorists! LMAO! Sigh, most of my own siblings and in-laws are to the right of me, for which I'm grateful.
And like the people described in this article, they know how to have FUN. They don't sit around being miserable over how terrible and racist the country is. They are happy. That to me is the main difference between the respective camps.
That’s fascinating. Describing my relatives as deeply brainwashed isn’t offensive, it’s accurate. I guess the fact that we’re Jews plays a part. We’re in our 70s and the Holocaust affected our families profoundly. I understand the extra level of paranoia that goes with that, but I refuse to be overwhelmed by it now.
Mrs Miller, I was assigned D at birth as well. Irish-Catholic parents in New York - there was no other option. I was the classic liberal throughout my college years in the 70's. The shift in my mind, and hence voting patterns, began with becoming a parent. I was teaching my own kids about self-reliance, hard work, and personal responsibility, plus the importance of waiting to be married before having their own kids, while the political party I was registered to "at birth" was the opposite. I am one of the many the D party has driven away by its unceasing march to the ever more extreme left.
It’s bonkers what they’ve become, or some would say what they always were. I couldn’t see it until my daughter came to believe she’s a gay man, with the backing of every democrat run institution.
The thing is, being Democrat in your parents' time was like belonging to a completely different party. It would be almost considered Republican now. Working-class values, bread-and-butter issues, equality (not "equity"). The current incarnation is unrecognizable from that party. It's become an amalgamation of the Green Party and American Socialist Party, only kept its old name. The name is the only thing that's the same.
I was also assigned Democrat at birth (love that quip!), because my dad was a union man.
But I lucked out because my parents voted for Reagan when I was 14. As a result, I questioned what Democrats were promoting in the 80s. So by the time I was old enough to vote, I registered as a Republican.
The invasion of Iraq, however, convinced me that I wasn't actually a Republican. That put me among the many classical liberal, small-L libertarian, politically homeless people in the independent category.
My experiences in grad school in the early 00s with the Far Left--which is now the Woke Left that has taken over most of our institutions--gave me a permanent distrust of Leftists. I see them as the fundamentalists of a secular religion.
Comprof has to keep trotting out his hatred of white people and everyone to the right of Stalin so his Leftist colleagues won't call him racist names the way they do black conservatives.
I've thought a lot about that question. I think there is a core group of liberals/progressives who are the major influencers of opinion from that end of the spectrum, and they hate America. Everything they do and have been pushing since before Obama's presidency damages our country, coming to a culmination during this administration: go easy on criminals while vilifying the police; open the border to god knows who or what coming across, costing us billions each year for no benefit at all, and much detriment; drive up the country's debt with no remorse and no reform; support a bloated indoctrination machine known as our educational system; kowtow to our enemies in China and Iran; I could go on and on but I've got work to do and a life to lead...imagine that.
Not all liberals hate America, but many in key positions do, and they intimidate others and/or blind them to what they are really doing.
And surely leftist money and Davos and WEF etc. They’re surely not doing it just bc they hate us. I think they resent the hell out of us and have wedded themselves to LGBTQ w/o looking down the road to when LGB dumps TQ. To when the enablers of child mutilation are in jail. To when climate warriors are revealed as the crazy liars they are. Maybe I’m wrong but I think the hated and dismissal of middle America really built steam under Obama and they’ve fundraised the hell out of that ever since. Call them MAGA & watch the dollars roll in. It’s politics but it’s also the Benjamins. Like my father used to say, you can be open-minded but not so much that your brains slide out. 😄
Not only do the Davos and WEF leftists hate us, they don't want to see us enjoying ourselves when they, surely far superior beings, aren't loving life. Seriously though, In a book about the Nazi occupation of France there was a scene when the German Soldiers came into an apartment pretty much to look around. When they found something beautiful and joy giving (pretty but ragged curtains on the window), they ripped them down and said the occupant had no need for them but the Third Reich did. That is the attitude I see happening in the Europeans' and the left's attitude to fun-loving Americans. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the leftists are Nazis but some of their desire for power and control must come from the same place.
If you take away their pretense that the centralizing ideology of fascism MUST be nationalism (other ideologies--such as Wokeism--can serve the same purpose very well), it becomes very clear that they are following the same playbook.
“Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn”
As I’ve said before, “We have the best politicians money can buy” and the money is both domestic & foreign. Once they taste the power you can’t dynamite them out!
It’s Communism. Don’t laugh. As I recall, after describing the utopia of Communism, Marx and Engels write the the *last line* of the Manifesto: to achieve their goals all social structures have to be destroyed. That’s why media, schools, religion, the military, - EVERYTHING - has been breaking down and going nuts. The perfect canvas for BUILDING BACK BETTER.
Yes, Diana. I attended grade school in the late 50's to early 60's where we were taught how the Communists separated children from their parents and sent them to state schools to break down the role of the family. We thought it could never happen here.....
Arrogance explains a lot of it - they have been told in universities and colleges that they are better than everyone else and so they feel entitled to tell us all how to live.
Very well said, Dave. Take the case of Bojangi Jackson, the latest SC Justice. Yeah, she's a quota hire and probably not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but she must know what a woman is. After all, Chopsticks Joe nominated her because she was a black woman. Why do they insist upon having drag queens conduct story hour? Everything is force fed. It's almost like "Bananas" come to life. Underwear will be changed every half-hour and it will be worn on the outside so we can check. I think the people who direct this are evil, but most are simply unthin king ballast with "Hate Has No Home Here" signs on the lawn.
Leftism in the USA aspires to Marxism. For true believers, who know nothing about Marxism in practice, this is a religion. The followers are Virtuous for adopting these beliefs. As their prophets (MSNBC hosts, et al) demand an increasingly insane show of faith the true believers show greater Virtue by not questioning. And these followers are infinitely smarter, savvier and more sophisticated than the rest of you/us.
I think what's wrong with them is they either believe they know better than other people and therefore have some right to interfere in our lives for our own benefit and/or they see other people who are happy and living their lives and because they are miserable and neurotic they can't stand it.
I think most Democrats do not support mutilating children, nor are they passionate about drag queens reading to children. It's unfortunate that the most extreme fringe becomes the most visible and it sounds like Republicans really believe this is what most of us are like.
As for being irresponsible with budget, I think this is the core of the difference. Many of my fellow Democrats and I grew up seeing people work hard and get screwed over by societal forces they have no control over, so we do see a role for the government in fighting injustice.
Just think about where we would be without government interference in the racist, sexist, and homophobic policies and societal norms throughout the 20th century. People were losing jobs and lives just for being who they were. I don't get how someone can discount the role of the government in righting those wrongs.
I was a lifelong Democrat too because my father actively preached what you have said like a steady drumbeat in our home. He was born in 1920 and I was born in 1947. I never questioned any of it until I had become a trust banker in Boston in the 70's and began to note that all of what my father had espoused was not accurate. What eventually became a lifelong friendship with a well educated, conservative black woman (and fellow trust banker) finally changed my thinking - forever. (Please ask yourself honestly what the democrats have ever done to HELP black people. Daniel Patrick Moynihan warned of the impact of social legislation in the 60's that ruined strong black families by paying women to have children if there was no man in the home. THINK ABOUT THAT AS GENERATIONS OF CHILDREN HAVING CHILDREN HAS 2 TRILLION DOLLARS LATER LED TO THE MESS OUR SOCIETY IS IN NOW. PLEASE STOP AND THINK!!!!!) Please please start to do some serious thinking about your being convinced democrats are doing angelic work in our country.
Now, you can potentially lose your kids for not agreeing with them that they are the opposite sex, or plural, or nonbinary, etc. School administrators can "help" them on the way to "gender transition" and even surgery without your permission or even knowledge.
This is better?
Just because "most Democrats do not support mutilating children" doesn't mean it is not happening. "Most Germans did not support exterminating Jews" either. But they enabled/financed it all the same by looking the other way and not holding the people they voted for accountable.
BTW, most of my friends and family are liberal/left and vote Democrat, and every single one of them says that "affirming gender" and providing associated medical "care" for trans children is the right thing to do. Guess what that entails.
Their support of "gender affirming care" is a reflection of the extremely limited range of their media. Independent journalism such as we find on Substack is required now if one wants to have any idea of what's actually going on in the world beyond the narrow confines of liberal talking points. The trans issue in particular is covered with great depth in other countries, as well as on Substack. It's not necessary to go to Fox for that information, but Fox has covered the issue of male rapists and murderers being housed in women's prisons. Good luck hearing about that on the NBC Nightly News.
Yes, it is for a reason! It’s political manipulation through propaganda. The Dems are heavily invested, literally, in trans ideology. The rest of the world is leaving us behind as the evidence about the disastrous health consequences of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries lead to policy changes.
Please drop those friends - has it happen to them yet? I can tell you touch my children or my grandchildren I will f...ing k... you! There I have written it and it felt good
I think it's insane to compare a tiny number of gender transition surgeries to the Holocaust. The numbers of girls getting breast enhancement surgeries is much larger, and somehow the conservatives haven't been making a huge deal about that.
If we free this issue from partisan extremes and hyperbole, I think it's clear there are children who are born the wrong gender and they know beyond a doubt from a young age. If you've met kids like this, it's blindingly obvious and it would be cruel to deny them the right to be themselves or to treat them differently. At least as far as social (non-surgical) transition. This is all fine and good.
There is also social contagion and teens deciding suddenly that they are a different gender and attempts to erase the very idea of two genders (which is a reality for the vast majority of people). This is bad.
But the worst thing about this whole conversation is this extreme focus on what is a fringe issue affecting a tiny number of trans individuals. Honestly, why are we all wasting time on this culture war topic when there are so many more important issues that affect the vast majority of us?
Reading comprehension is important. I did not compare gender transition surgery to the Holocaust. I responded to a particular part of your comment. Simply because most of group X "doesn't support" a particular bad thing is meaningless. The bad thing still goes on, and it is still enabled by that group in various ways.
It is not a tiny number. I personally know at least eight sets of parents with trans children. It is not "blindingly obvious" that these children were born the wrong gender. They are the vicitims in most cases of a social contagion. Among many other things, this phenomenon is being used as a wedge to erode parental rights.
"Honestly, why are we all wasting time on this culture war topic when there are so many more important issues that affect the vast majority of us?" Because Democrats WILL NOT LET IT GO!!! Any time I try to gently push back on these issues I get tarred by my progressive friends (yes I have some) and relatives as a racist, homophobic, Neanderthal. So guess what? I'm done gently pushing back. I'm telling the truth that my 35 years as an engineer has taught me exists. I can't believe that you truly believe someone who's too young to smoke, drink, vote, enter into contracts, join the military, et al, is old enough and mature enough to decide they are the wrong sex. Then they expect the rest of us to simply go along, nay "celebrate and affirm" their "brave decision". Nope. That child needs help and going along with his/her delusions ain't it.
Not only go along with it, but celebrate it, and treat it as real and important, and face potential legal consequences if you disagree. And also pay for it.
The 60's called and wants their Democrats back. The "fighting injustice" role that you laud for government has morphed into "do what we tell you because we're smarter and more noble than you rubes". The current Democrat party supports so many outlandish and anti-freedom policies it makes the head swim. "Gas stove" - oh too bad, you can't have one. Men in women's spaces? Just suck it up girl, don't you see how oppressed these poor creatures are? Abortion until birth (and after if the doctor fucks up) for any reason. In debt because you willingly took out loans and have to cut back on your $6 lattes to pay for them? No problem, we'll take money from the working class to pay them off. Don't talk to me about "not all Democrats". I see them voting as a block in Congress and local government. Rarely do any of them push back against this drivel.
Until I see ANY kind of pushback on ANY of these monstrous policies from ANY Democrat of even middling consequence I will maybe consider the chance it it’s “not all democrats.”
I won’t change my mind, but fortunately I never even have to consider the possibility since the primary shared skill among Democrats is towing the party line.
Exactly! If Democrats actually don't want these policies, they need to stop voting for candidates who support them.
Democrats were quick to pretend that Trump was "literally Hitler" and anyone who voted for him (I didn't until 2020) was a "Nazi." I see no reason not to hold Democrats to the same standard when their leaders are actually supporting government policies that sexualize children, demonize parents, and attempt to take away free speech from any who dares to disagree with them.
I disagree. For example, my grandparents and all of their friends benefit immensely from government programs to support them in their old age. Without these programs, they would be in abject poverty. Public programs have also played a huge role in letting lower-income kids in my community have a childhood. For my friends who are refugees, these programs are literally lifesaving.
PS. Of course there is corruption and money is lost. But I'd rather support people in need, knowing that some percent of those funds are wasted or given to "undeserving people", than let those people drown in poverty in the name of not wasting any funds.
You mean the Social Security that was taken from my paycheck for 40 years? That program? And how are your local schools doing in preparing all those poor kids for life? The problem with government programs is that they may start out with good intentions (who could be against supporting single mothers?) but inevitably end up making the problem worse. When the government supports something, you get more of it.
Before the Aid to Dependent Children was amped up in the 60's 75% of black children were born in two parent households. Now 25% are fortunate enough to have both parents present. One follows from the other.
Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. Old people collecting it now all use the "I paid for 40 years" argument, but look at what they paid. The CURRENT tax is 15.3%. If you work for an employer they pay half, which means they likely pay you 7% less than they would otherwise to cover it--you'll never know.
My grandparents paid 3% Social Security tax on incomes of $4,000-$5,000 per year. So they paid $150 a year and I pay $15,000 a year. If I was able to invest that money on my own, I'd be a multimillionaire. Instead, I can expect to get back what I paid in if I'm lucky.
Had those government programs never existed, people would have saved from the beginning for retirement, families would have stepped up to help the unfortunate family members. Church and LOCAL government would have stepped in. So no, the Federal Government made the problem much, much worse.
Unfortunately, a huge proportion of the jobs in America today do NOT pay workers enough to save for retirement (or even cover necessary every day expenses). Also, poverty runs in families - if you are struggling, your family members likely are as well.
As for churches, I think some churches do really great work supporting people in need, but just don't have enough resources to help all (or even most) of those who need it. Plus, unfortunately many churches give aid with strings attached and exclude vulnerable people who don't fit in with their belief systems.
TOO MUCH is going to undeserving people. The abuse has been going on for decades. That is one problem of big government. There is little accountability.
why didn't you help your grandparents? why didn't they live with you or your family? how could you let your grandparents live in "abject poverty" do you give $$ or jobs to your friend who are refugees? give directly. $$ filters through the gov is money wasted
I'm sure you realize that the vast majority of Americans cannot afford to support their extended families and friends. Unfettered capitalism in this country means low wages and high prices for most - people can barely stay afloat and take care of immediate families.
Do I personally send my grandparents money every month? Yes. Do all of their friends have families who are in a financial position to help them? Most definitely not. I have been very lucky, so I am the exception. And even for me - can I afford to buy or rent my grandparents an apartment? No. So thank God for Section 8 housing.
As for my friends, of course I have helped them, both with direct support and finding a job for my friend's husband. But these are drops in the bucket. Maybe if I were a billionaire, I could solve these problems without going to government. But most wealthy people choose to spend their money on luxuries for themselves.
"Unfettered capitalism"? What country are you living in? You realize that the government has imposed volumes and volumes of rules on businesses that limit and regulate how they conduct themselves. Every year I was required to attend multiple hours of training to ensure that I understood what discrimination was, that I did not facilitate a "hostile work environment", and other "valuable" topics. Like it or not, it is a fact that capitalism has single-handedly raised more people out of poverty than any other economic system. Is it perfect? Is anything made by Man perfect? Of course not. Are there edge cases that need to be addressed. You bet! But to paint our economic system with such a broad brush as you have is simply nonsense.
My husband and I only started making a combined income of $50k in the last 5 years. We care for my father-in-law in our home because his combined Social Security *and* military pension wouldn't cover the monthly cost of a nursing home.
We're far from the only people at our income level or below who are taking care of extended family.
If "most Democrats" don't support the behavior of "the fringe," why do they keep voting for people who support that behavior? It is reasonable to conclude that "most Democrats" support what they vote for.
Maybe you should stop living the past and ask yourself what those leading the Democrats want government to do in the 21st century?
I too have been pondering this deeply. For me it boils down to how can the woke be so wed to what is irrational and really indefensible? They absolutely cannot debate these things and stay within the bounds of classical rules of debate----they instantly collapse into ad hominem and name calling.
At this point I'm leaning towards what the bible calls "the mark of the beast". I honestly don't know any woke people who are authentically, deeply spiritual.
In the Soviet Union and other Communist dictatorships the state-controlled media — Isvestia, Pravda — published rank nonsense every day. The point was not to convince citizens that what they said was true; it was to force them to say that believed it was true even when they knew otherwise. By forcing them to say they believed whatthey did not they weakened the will to resist. So it is with the nonsense spouted by progessives.
There is no plan or reason and there doesn't have to be. It's tribalism - parroting the party line and blindly supporting "your side". It exists on both sides (and of course Democrats will say it's worse on the Republican side and Republicans will say it's worse on the Democrat side). But I don't really see a huge difference between the left and right extremes.
Well one crucial difference is that the Left's extreme has gained power in all our major institutions and is doing a bang-up job of dismantling them, with the help of blind voting by "most Democrats" who profess not to support such extremism. Meanwhile, "most Republicans" actually have moved to the left of the traditional conservative position on economic and cultural issues (particularly those involving sexual morality), such that the extreme Right has little to zero institutional power. So I'd say blind voting by Republicans doesn't have nearly the detrimental impact on everyday lives and families that blind voting by Democrats has.
Unfortunately, the Democratic Party has accumulated way too much power through its collaboration with the tech and media elites.
No one believes that people who truly deserve help should not be given it. But it should be a temporary boost, not a lifelong plan. My own mother had to accept public assistance for a year or two after my father abandoned us. This was in the early 50's and she had no skills. She taught herself to type and was able to build a career that supported us throughout my childhood. The problem is that the definition of who and what kind of support keeps growing. When there are more people collecting from the system than paying in, the system is bound to collapse.
The history of the Democratic Party is one of cynicism - get enough people dependent on the largesse of government and you will own their votes, and hence the power, forever. And they have succeeded with the huge expansion of the welfare state since the 60's. I know it's hard to take a stand against the status quo today especially for those of us who live on either of the coasts (I am in California). I Katerina, I encourage you to take a close and truly critical look at the damage that is being done in the name of "helping" in these times.
Most have an entire lifetime invested in "activism" for the sake of itself.
They now realize their own miserable reality but it's too late to change. They are simply too embarrased to admit that their whole life is an utter waste. I know them well. Family and friends.
There is hope in the younger folks in places like Lake of the Ozarks. The alternative is removal of sex organs. The bitter end of the left.
I'm from Michigan. It's a great state aside from the state government. Sorry you're still weathering the Gretch administration. I moved to South Dakota, where there would probably be Trump flotillas if there were enough large bodies of water.
I love when I am called Sweetie or Honey while ordering a nice juice hamburger and fries. This article perfectly describes the great schism between the two Americas and the thirst for freedom that one half possesses which infuriates the other half. Thanks Max
I live in a town that's 50% moderate Republicans and 50% moderate Democrats. Occasionally discussions can get heated but most everyone get along and ALL of us love it when the waitresses who've been at the diner forever call us "sweetie" or "honey"
Michael, I’m sure that an ardent progressive who kept his or her mouth shut would have a great time in the Ozarks. Pretty much the same if a MAGA warrior went to Vermont. Keep it quiet and have a good time - no schism seen.
Actually, most women have no problem being called sweetie or honey or darlin’ by other women. It’s just fine. It always makes me smile. I don’t mind being Included in the catch all ‘you guys’, either.
Yes I am cool with it regardless of the speaker. I do not view the words honey or sweetie as harmful or disrespectful UNLESS they are intended to demean or insult me . My reference was clearly to other bad names used as epithets. Hope that answers your questions. Maybe the restaurant needs a trigger warning that partons may be called sweetie.
Ok, Comprof... I see the error of my ways in my comment on your post. You did (JFC) say comments from men. I’m thinking about it, and it entirely depends. If my creep-o-meter doesn’t start ticking, I’m fine. Most women I think know when they are being treated with respect and kindness or not. I have a lot of people call me “Ruthie” although that is not a name I ever use for myself and, in my opinion, it is even more personal than being called sweetie. And, with the right intentions behind it, I never find it objectionable. I’m constantly giving the nod to intentions as opposed to impart. Does that satisfy?
Nah. You know damn well if you and the women you know were called sweetie, honey, darlin, etc. by a straight male waiter or straight male at work, you would have a problem with it.
Such a fun story. So many are unaware of the quality of life in the "flyover states." You can take a drive on a winding road in rural Wisconsin and come up over a hill and see a huge beautiful house in the middle of rolling hills where a hardworking farmer has created a great life. We have a beautiful country.
I pray you are right, Evans! Yet, the MSM (propaganda arm of the WOKE Left) despise RFK, Jr. and are even labeling him THE greatest threat to Democracy! Imagine taking 1st place with THAT label and pushing Trump to #2!
RFK, Jr. said in a recent interview, while at a dinner party, Hillary lectured him on run against a sitting President in his own Party! How dare he!
They are as afraid of him as they are of Trump. Men they can’t “buy or control”
And here’s the Leftist to rain on everyone’s parade - again. You’re living up to the stereotype Comprof. You lot are regular Eeyore’s devoid of joy. You should visit the Ozarks, you never know you may crack a smile. But then again it my be too much for you to bear.
I do hope you find happiness someday though, preferably not at someone else’s expense.
Two things, you’re incredibly poor at demonstrating you’re “happy” and definitely nowhere near “extremely”, unless we consider your politics.
Secondly, you don’t want to be around drunk MAGAs at the lake, that’s fine. Then at least try to get around people who don’t all think like you do without being puerile and incessantly peevish. Because unless you can do that, I strongly advise you don’t get anywhere near anybody enjoying a few beers at the any lake.
1. I am living my best life. Never confuse online activities with what happens in real life. ;) Great finances, healthy and happy family, handsome, retiring early, etc. - things are going great! I know it feels good to tell yourself non-MAGA are all living in misery....but sorry, that's not the case.
2. You actually have no idea what my politics are, except I'm not a MAGA/Stephen Miller clone.
3. Have friends from a broad, varied background. Political and otherwise. You should probably take your own advice.
4. Have been boating at various lakes many times. Always have a great time. People find me very personable.
5. "Secondly, you don't want to be around drunk MAGAs at the lake, that's fine." Wow! Really?! THANK YOU!
Hahahaha! I’m sure they’re not as badly caught up in the snarky leftist mindset as his comments imply. Some people simply enjoy stirring the pot, hopefully that’s it with Comprof.
It’s a missed opportunity though, Comprof could put the leftist case and have a decent debate if they’d leave out the insults.
I like using the term because it describes very accurately and succinctly what coastal Leftists think of those of us who live in rural America. Every time I say the words, I'm calling out the elitism and bigotry of the Left.
My uncle never graduated from college, but he worked hard in business and he’s got a beautiful lakefront property with a boat and a four-bedroom house. I know several people with similar circumstances.
This reminds me of an article I read, I think in the NYT, which purported to determine the best ice cream in America. The only candidates considered were in NY, New England, and CA. I'd had a few of them and can say with certainty that Graeter's in "flyover" Cincinnati blows the doors off of them all. The NYT writers probably never heard of it and had no idea how much they were missing out.
True. I live in a lake community in South Carolina. Sounds a lot like the community described in this article except more kids. In fact I remember thinking it sounded nice but that we really didn't need to go because I could get all that by walking out my front door!
The middle of the country has to be reckoned with,” Jason Bateman said in August 2017, seven months into the Trump administration (of which he was not a fan, to put it mildly). “They’re comfortable, they’re happy down there, and there’s no real need for them to adjust or pivot to anybody else’s agenda.
Being “comfortable” and “happy” is a mortal sin to these virtue signaling asses!
There’s hundreds, if not, thousands of Lake of the Ozarks stories & people all over this US. Those described in this story are the majority. The coastal elites are just the help.
YES! Money is a vote. If you keep giving money to companies or people you don't like, it doesn't matter if you verbally tell them they are wrong. Your dollars are telling them to keep on doing what they are doing.
This comment doesn't make any sense. These people earned their money in the blue states, benefiting off of blue state economies, and now want to benefit from lower prices and lower tax rates in the red states.
What I'd like to know is how many of the families moving to the red states have school-age kids, and how many of them will use the underfunded public schools that are a natural result of low taxes and the "I got mine and I don't care about anyone else" mentality.
I live in a very blue city in a very red state. My lefty friends don't send their kids to their neighborhood underfunded public schools either. They perform all the required lip service about public schools, until their children are school age, and then they send them to private school or to a higher quality public school in a better neighborhood. Every time. Dozens of examples.
Yeah....and they'll be moving right back out because they can't get their homes insured because all the companies are leaving the state....which Florida GOP have blamed on....<checks notes> "Wokeness"
The national "mass exodus" to "Red States" is a myth.
Lol. Get picked all the time. Amazing handles, can take it to the rack. Great passer. Streaky shooter from the 3, but if I hit my first 2 or 3, gonna be a long afternoon.
GDP may be created by the blue states (don't know) but I would much rather live in the States that produce food, resources etc than the ones which provide 'services'. If they split it is clear which ones will starve and self-destruct and which will survive and then thrive.
In the dark of the Black Hills of Rapid City, South Dakota last night at the Mt Rushmore patriotic lighting ceremony, hundreds of American families and visitors, filled the amphitheater...on a Tuesday.
We listened to stories of our American Revolution and the founding principles of our country “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. The Civil War pulled us apart but those principles drew us back together. “All men are created equal!” Our country flourished despite the struggles of developing a nation.
After the stories and the illumination of those rock faces and the crowd singing the National Anthem, with the many veterans and Gold Star families called to the stage, the flag was brought down slowly in total silence, carefully, reverently folded.
I do not doubt that this election is a sink or swim moment in our history. Our Lake of the Ozark freedoms require our sacrifice. We cannot be afraid to speak! To defend our wonderful American way! To point out that the emperor has no clothes!
Seriously lovely ceremony. I was there in 2020 and loved the sense of normalcy and joy from all the visitors and people working there and throughout that beautiful state.
34+ year Manhattan resident, and this will not go the way you think...
In 2019, my older son went to Naval Flight School in Pensacola, Florida aka The Beach of the SEC. I just loved it. Florabama, white beaches, very very genuine people, and downtown Pensacola is filled with fun bars and restaurants. Navy towns are pretty much always fun...
For the two years that he was in "P-cola", I always drove down as planes are tough for my vaxx injured younger son with Autism. Same experience on the drive, great people along the way, and a little factoid, Pensacola, Florida is in the Central Time Zone.
Hope to get back...
#FlyNavy
#Kennedy24 - I want to help heal the divide with RFKJr.
The Florida Panhandle is The South. Glad you’ve enjoyed it! Beautiful beaches & lovely people. I met a great NJ couple in Grayton Beach summer of ‘20 who came on a whim bc it was open, super nice people. I’m a Republican but really like RFK. I would love to see him in charge of Health & Human Services in a Rep administration.
I am not a WOKE Left anything, and like SO many Americans, I’m sick & tired of all the hatful decisive rhetoric, censoring BS!
RFK, Jr. is a prime example of the many Democrats (Elon, Bill Maher, Dave Rubin, Candace Owen, etc., etc., etc.) who quote Regan, “I didn’t leave the Democrat Party. It has left me!”
IF it should come down to it, I will vote for Kennedy. The alternative scares the hell out of me!
I drove on I-10 from Nola to Tampa a few months ago and was shocked to see that the panhandle is becoming, dare I say, fancier — booming with upscale beach communities. I predict this happens all along the Gulf Coast. It’s good for those states esp Mississippi.
Not a criticism but an observation: given the worsening of global warming bringing about increasingly ferocious storms with severe flooding (there was just some unusual, serious flooding in New York and Vermont)…is it a good idea to be building more beach communities in the path of hurricanes?
It's not sea level rise that is going to kill people, it's heat. Heatstroke can set in quickly even in young healthy people when the temperature goes above 100 degrees. It's estimated 70,000+ people died due to the last heat wave in Europe, where most places are not air conditioned.
What happens in Florida, Texas, or Arizona when it's 100+ for days on end and the power goes out for an extended period of time and cuts off the AC. A lot of places in the U.S. now are growing because of air conditioning. Last time I was in Austin, it was going from air conditioned car, to air conditioned restaurant, to air conditioned store, to air conditioned club, to air conditioned hotel.
[Edit] Meant to point out that a lot of older homes, especially in the South, were built pre-AC and designed to stay somewhat cooler in hot weather. Newer homes are sealed tight and, without AC, would be like convection ovens.
I live in San Antonio, and believe me I know it is hot. But globally, cold kills more people that heat. Bjorn Lonborg says climate change has saved about 166,000 lives per year (sorry I don't have a link, but pay walls.)
Don’t know that the facts support the comment about global warming bringing increasingly ferocious storms. Certainly higher property damage because people are building on the coasts. Seems not to trouble the Obamas one whit.
I'm agnostic on this topic and I have no dog in the fight, because the opinions of so-called experts are all over the place, and politics inevitably overcomes the quest for a single, fact-based interpretation. Maybe there are too many variables, and we can't know. Geological evidence shows that the planet has gone through extreme climate shifts for millions of years, but never before with the dominant involvement of homo sapiens who are fiddling with the environment on a mass scale.
For what it's worth, I'm under the impression that the incidence and severity of hurricanes has increased. And if this season is any example, the weather is getting progressively hotter all over the world. Whether that's evidence of something more fundamental, I have no idea. Maybe we're just having a hot year. I really was just asking the question because it seems a little risky to me. But I'm not casting aspersions against people who build in Florida. BTW, my cousin lives on the Panhandle.
Not sure what to make of your comment about the Obamas. Do they have a special dome that protects them from bad weather? I know they live on Millionaire Island ... I was a tourist there for a couple of hours and recall that it seemed quaint, and also you can't drive a car there. Must be nice.
He’s saying they don’t actually believe it because if they did they wouldn’t spend millions to live on the ocean.
You’ve been lied to. If there were an actual existential crisis those screaming about it the most would actually make different decisions. Instead, John Kerry just took another private jet with Al Gore to tell you that you’re not allowed to have a gas stove or plastic straws.
just because it is HOT does not mean it is a "change". today the press bemoaned that it is hot in Texas. wow. really. and so hot that the record may be broken. the last time it was this hot. not millions of years ago. 1974.. it dis hot. get over it.. we are not killing the planet with your a/c or your auto..
I’m sorry about your son with autism. My only grandson has autism, and fwiw, it has nothing to do with vaccinations. This is a terrible, dangerous myth that puts lives at risk. It’s why I won’t be supporting RFK Jr. Also fwiw, my dad was a Navy pilot who trained at Pensacola for deploying to Korea. He was also a Naval Academy graduate. My cousins were all either Navy or Marines, including one of the wives (a Marine). I have a lot of respect for the military and their families. Best wishes to you and yours.
My father was a Navy Doctor, an Infectious Disease MD for 20 years, and Co-Chaired the "Victory Over Polio" campaign in Philadelphia from 1962-64. He left the Infectious Disease business in 1967, to go into Hospital Administration at Jefferson University Hospital.
My wife and I have penned a long 30 minute read article on our "Pro-Vaccine Safety" journey with Dustin:
I have read your piece and appreciate that it has helped you and your wife cope emotionally and intellectually with your son’s severe autism. We are very lucky that our grandson is highly verbal and successful in his autism program in the McKinney, Texas public school system. We are hoping he will one day be self-sufficient, but only time will tell.
That said, the overwhelming weight of the scientific evidence is against you. The fear of vaccines causing autism seems to have started in 1998 with an article in The Lancet by one Dr. Andrew Wakefield. You mention him at the very end of your substack posts. Wakefield’s research was subsequently found to be fraudulent and not only retracted by The Lancet, but disowned by its co-authors. Wakefield was stripped of his medical license in the U.K. after the longest professional practice investigation and trial in British Medical Society history.
You also mention mercury in some of these vaccines. Yes, it has since been removed, but not because it was harmful. It existed in minuscule amounts and was deemed unnecessary, with removal being seen as a way to quell the controversy and spur an uptake of childhood vaccines. As for the onset of autism symptoms, many children with autism develop normally for up to 2 years before the symptoms present, with or without vaccines. Some studies with over 600,000 children in them have found absolutely no correlation whatever between childhood vaccines and the onset of autism. Hundreds of studies have taken place since the original Wakefield study (which only had 12 subjects) and its results have never been duplicated. Reproducible results are a hallmark of sound science.
As for the increase in the number of autism diagnoses, that is a result primarily of increased screening and a broader definition of what constitutes autism. Many boys with an Asperger’s diagnosis used to just be called “odd” or, as adults, a “closet case”. The same thing holds with ADHD. Boys who “can’t sit still” are now diagnosed as ADHD.
None of this will make your life any easier or remove your worries about the future. We have those same worries. My SIL doesn’t want any more children because he’s afraid they’ll also have autism. My daughter is fine with that decision. We all pray that our grandson will be able to take care of himself one day, but we know that day may never come. Nevertheless, on the question of vaccines, our family has reached a different conclusion from yours. May God Bless You and take care of you and of Dustin. Society has an obligation to care for the most vulnerable and we all need to work together with that goal in mind.
"At some point in that first year, he had his third DPT vaccine dose. That was the shot that put him over the edge. He screamed for 24 hours, and the babbling stopped. The language that typically follows never came."
No, not at all. Some children develop normally for up to 24 months before symptoms emerge. In others the symptoms emerge sooner, as early as 3 months. All I am saying is that just because one of the symptoms happened immediately after a vaccine was administered, doesn’t mean the vaccine caused it. Neither does the screaming. It was an unfortunate coincidence, but still just a coincidence.
My grandson with autism had no adverse reactions to any of his vaccinations, and he has also been vaccinated for Covid. Nothing adverse there with except that he got Covid the week after he was vaccinated but had no symptoms. His mom also got Covid, so they tested him and he was positive.
I have 3 children and every single time they went in for a “shot” I had to sign a waiver stating that the vaccine could cause a whole bunch of side effects (not autism) up to and including death. No doctor has ever said vaccines are risk free. But hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved by vaccines. That has been proven. That they cause autism or that the vaccination schedule causes autism has never been proven, not even circumstantially.
A lot of children scream for hours and hours, run high fevers, and have other problems immediately after getting a vaccine. It’s in the paper they make you sign. They don’t get autism. It was a horrible, awful coincidence. But I can’t persuade you or your wife of that. We have reached different conclusions. That is all.
Read the Midwestern Doctor's substack about vaccines injuries. You would be surprised. And RFK Jr has a good point when he said "ever notice how there is no autism in my age group or a bit younger?" Boom...why is it autism all of a sudden is a thing? And it isn't just diagnosing it. You have a kid who is babbling and stops. You don't need a diagnosis as a mother to know something is amiss. What you need is a why. And vaccines could be a major part of that. Watch the documentary Unvaxxed....if you watch that and don't think vaccines can cause autism we have no hope for helping people make informed choice. And we are not informed...until now. Covid was the big informing. And some people will still choose vaccines. We should all have a choice.
I agree that would be a really interesting article. Because according to the powers that be, you couldn’t catch COVID at a BLM riot but you could catch it at a Trump rally. Only Republicans spread COVID apparently.
AMEN. I laughed myself silly when they "traced" covid back to a single event weeks later..I was in the UK and had top be tested before getting in the plane ( remember that?) after the test ( in a spare room in a musty building administered by two fat women sitting on plastic chairs0 I asked. what now. they said your results will be in in 24 hours.. so f were positive? who cared. I could be a "super spreader" and go anywhere in the UK .. what hokum
COVID is no joke. A lot of people who didn't take it seriously and joked about it ended up dying from it. Most people, thankfully, recovered. Still, at the peak of the epidemic it certainly didn't hurt to take some precautions to avoid getting an airborne disease.
The Left's permission for and support of the BLM protests is what made it clear to me that the Leftists in charge did not believe their own Covid rhetoric. Then it came out that the Leftist elites were partying with their friends while everyone else was on lockdown.
At all the parties they had over the summer only two people got Covid. Two. Neither died nor were hospitalized.
We’re out of the realm of possibility and into the realm of reality. No more could haves. Let’s look at what actually happened. It’s interesting to do so.
Great article, while it shows what middle America is, we need to motivate them to take action. Big government and control hungry liberals who grow rich while "serving" in government need to be defeated or this country falls just like all previous human experiments in human civilization. We may want to be left alone but need to get involved the restore government of the people.
I've fond memories of spending time with my family at Grand Lake outside of Tulsa. Same vibe: down to earth, unpretentious MAGA folks eating fried food and getting sauced on domestic beer. Its a rite of passage all over the midwest for any family with a bit of extra money. The kind of simple joy that evades many striving city slickers saving up for their next overseas vacation.
Lara, I grew up on a beautiful East Texas lake, and my experiences were as yours (so many others)!
There were a lot of wealthy home owners (oil rich old & new money), but many modest, small lake houses. Plus a large number of working class who would come out on weekends & launch their fishing, or party boats at the public boat ramp.
Without except, everyone was courteous, polite, friendly, PATRIOTIC both Left & Right and helpful if need be.
Something about living on a Lake, or water in general (river, creek, ocean) seems to attract people who want to “live & let live” and “your rights end where my nose begins”!
Was in the Canyon Lake area in central Texas last week and had a conversation with the woman at the next lounge chair over at the pool - she is a realtor and said that there is a lot of tension in the town because California money is coming in and buying up all the lake houses for 200k, 300k over asking and it's pricing out locals, she said specifically teachers, firefighters, etc, who have been saving their whole lives to retire on the late. A sad state of affairs.
Ironically, Mr. Reeks, many California folks escaping / running from excessively high taxes & WOKE Left insane politics, are wanting to live in Red States. No State Income tax, Conservative (NOT hateful) politics + no homeless people lining our Lake shores, or town streets.
As a Texan, my only concern is these newcomers will want to bring those CA. politics here.
As a fellow Texan, I share those concerns. I live in south Texas where no Californian dares to tread haha but the number of Teslas with CA plates on the rare occasions I use highway 130 makes me want to vomit.
How about a child warning before you use a picture of DeLauro. Like to have spit my coffee out. What a poster person for Halloween. Cuban might be rich, but a punk is still a punk! He is the rich typical woke liberal who knows shit and you should worship his wisdom.
As for the normal American people in the article, love them and that is way, way closer to America than the hell holes of the Hampton, NYC, SF, Portland, Chicago, and the blood sucking woke liberals ideas of life.
Not even close to a comparison of who to hang with. Give me true patriotic, law abiding folks who stand up for true freedom I.e The Constitution!
I read her Wikipedia page, and there’s a photo of her giving a speech in 2016 that is just terrifying. She’s shouting into the microphone and when you click and enlarge the photo, my god it’s scary.
Max, Bari, now you've done it! A story about middle Americans in middle America having a good time, and also mostly Trump supporters, a story that when seen by the coastal nannies in media and government will start their hair on fire. I expect John Kerry, Bill Gates and others to be flying in on their private, carbon spewing jets to lecture these rubes about all that is wrong with them, while their little weanie assistants start writing regulations to STOP THIS, NOW!
DH and I just came back from a trip across this great land, 5,000 miles and 17 days later my confidence has been restored in the USA. From shore to shore we met and spoke with many people who all want the same thing; to be left alone, to raise their children, to work an honest living to give their children a better life than theirs, to be able to work and live without government interference. From Florida to California and back again, the same stories from all walks of life, so many people feel the same way. If one was to listen to the news media tell it, you would believe that we are in the middle of a civil war, that the unrest and violence in the US is staggering. That is why it should be on everyone's bucket list to get out there, on the ground and visit the flyover states and meet and talk to people. It really helps your morale and gives you new hope for our future.
Amen. We vacation mostly by taking our RV to kid-friendly parks around Texas and there is nowhere I'd rather be - around cheerful down to earth people who love their kids and the Lord and really enjoy a good laugh, a good meal, and a float down the river with a cold beer or three.
Great story that captures a “feel” I hope is strong enough in the ‘24 elections to allow Biden to continue snoozing somewhere other than the White House.
What most normal, rational conservatives want is to be left the fuck alone. We see Government as a necessary evil that should be as small as possible. We are tired of DC raking in so much of our money in taxes and NYC skimming so much of our hard earned savings in fees then both locales calling us stupid.
For the record, 34 year Manhattan resident in complete agreement with you...
Do some research on your home state my friend. You’re working with misinformation if you’re agreeing with MJack.
She’s probably still wearing a mask.
Respectfully, why is it necessary to make such a comment, Butterfly? It's not funny and it seems rude.
:-D
Karen - I have honestly no idea what you’re asking me to do. Can you explain further? Thanks.
I told you she wouldn't.
Mike, I doubt if she will.
It looks like a left wing hit and run.
😂😂😂
I’m not “left-wing”. Everything is black and white with you it seems. I thought what I said was pretty self-explanatory so I’ll leave it at that. Also, I don’t have any time to re-engage, so apologies to Mike.
If you’re saying I’m for government doing what it’s supposed to do for people, guilty as charged.
And what is government supposed to "do" for people? If it's people, plural, then it's probably ok. If it's for people on an individual level... then, well, that's not what the Constitution says.
This is what Government should do, per the document that permits it:
Provide for the common defense.
Promote the general welfare
Secure the blessing of Liberty.
the words Common, General, Liberty are most important there. There ain't nothing in there about "choosing some to receive more than others" or "helping preferred groups" or "kowtowing to multinational organizations"
In fact the Liberty line pretty much should disqualify most of the rules of the administrative state, especially re: gas stoves, etc.
Ha ha. No time for anti-neurosis.
Perfect name mam.
That's so 2020.
She certainly is a Karen
He's not speaking for his entire state, he appears to be speaking strictly for himself in this comment, so....
I’m from NY , near the City and am a New Yorker. And I agree with you. NYC skims from its own though, unfortunately. Not from the rest of the country. But I’m in strong sympathy with the gist of this piece. I don’t like Trump at all, but I get it. I understand his popularity. I certainly can’t stand Biden, Hilary and the rest of them. I would love to make it out there someday and felt the need say that all New Yorkers are different. Most of us are not elitists with our head up our ass.
What normal, rational PEOPLE want is to be left the fuck alone. Don't even need to be a conservative!
Remember the tyrannical lock down by the ever senile Biden and his left wing minions? I said then that the left cares more about illegal aliens (I mean undocumented Democrats) than US citizens.
While the NAZIs were locking us down and forcing small businesses to close they were letting hundreds thousands of unvaccinated aliens in and dispersing them all over the US. I lived in Central America for forty years and I can tell you in most if not all of these countries there is no mass vaccination policy. In the US we have mass vaccinations for polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, and many more diseases that we have almost wiped out here in the States but are common in Latin America.
Below is and example of the criminal behavior of the ever senile Joe's government:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/jul/18/health-department-released-thousands-of-illegal-im/
I wonder if comprof will put his mop down long enough to justify the ever senile Joe's policies.
But you are conservative if that's your view. The other side certainly won't have you!
I resist labels as they are meaningless at best and misleading at worst - just look up what the word "liberal" means! Or go back in time to what the founders thought of as "liberal".
I wrote this about a year ago. It is still relevant.
I subscribe to an opinion newsletter called Common Sense. It mainly defends the First Amendment and it defends it from the nut cases on the left and the right. Common Sense does a pretty good job of being politically neutral. However, because the mainstream press and many universities have to the gone far left, most of the articles are how the left through political correctness, the woke and the me too movements are attempting to destroy the First Amendment. The left does not debate you on the merit of what is said or what you have written, they attack you and most times viciously.
Below is a response I wrote to an article in Common Sense:
You call the left, liberals. I can't bring myself to do that. A true liberal embraces free speech. John Stuart Mill one of the founders of liberalism was a staunch defender of free speech. He said in his essay on liberalism, I'm paraphrasing here, "You should listen to your adversaries because they might be right."
The left today are not liberals. If you don't agree with the left, you are pilloried by the left. I read the definition of a racist, "Is anyone who wins an argument with a liberal."
Whatever happened to, "I may not agree with you but I will defend to the death your right to say it."? In July of 1977 the American NAZI Party was going to march through Skokie, Illinois. Seven Thousand Holocaust survivors lived in Skokie. Words cannot describe how disgusted and appalled I was by this proposed vile act. Of all people who defended this atrocity was the ACLU. I was shocked until I heard why they were defended the NAZIs right to march.
They weren't defending the NAZIs. They were defending the First Amendment, freedom of expression. I am a gentile and much as I despised the NAZIs I love the First Amendment more. I only wish the left loved the First Amendment as much as I do but they don't.
So please stop calling them liberals because they aren't. They are tyrants.
Perfectly put and much appreciated.
Government is the enemy
That is what our founding fathers thought. They put clauses in the constitution ti limit the power of government but the thieves in Washington work around those clauses. See the tenth amendment.
Yes, I agree. I wrote my statement in a fit of anger. As I think about it, it is something that we should all be able to agree on - government is the enemy.
Human history is replete with examples of government oppression of the people. On the other end of the scale is the chaos of insufficient governance. This is the human comedy. How do we rule our selves.
I have said before, we need a betrayal of public trust amendment where our elected, appointed and high ranking us government officials are closely watched to insure they are not breaking any laws, felonies or breaking the public trust.
If found of breaking the public trust they are dragged out of the capital building, dragged down the steps. At the bottom of the steps is a large, well muscled, man, oiled up, standing in beside a chopping block and holding a large ax very sharp.
The congress man or woman is forced to kneel and place their head on the chopping block and then beheaded, all on national TV as a subtle hint to the rest of the thieves on capitol hill not to screw the taxpayers.
Before someone in a cheap suit and an FBI id shows up at my front door, I'm being sarcastic, joking, exercising first amendment rights that the left is trying to take away from all of us.
We already have many laws that deal with the betrayal of trust by public officials...
Just try to get them enforced...
Kind of like the gun enhancement sentencing laws. If enforced, a lot of the criminals who like using guns to commit their crimes would be locked up (and thus not committing gun crimes) for a very long time.
But Leftist prosecutors won't enforce those laws. And then Democrats use (preventable) gun crimes to call for MORE gun control laws--specifically ones that will punish law-abiding gun owners.
And the penalty for treason should be the same you suggested. It used to be hanging, drawing and quartering. I'd like to see it used on any president who accepted bribes from malign foreign powers - laundered or not through family members.
If proven true that Biden accepted money from foreign governments to use his office to change or sway policy, that is treason and he should be execute along with any others in the Biden crime family who took part in selling out our country.
That’s my idea as well, hum, we are sympatico: love it!
Ugh. Why do all the politicians you support are happy to collect their big pay checks and benefits from the Federal government while dissing Washington? Height of hypocrisy. They’re scamming you!
You prefer supporting politicians who *praise* D.C. and its system for scamming the populace while they collect big pay checks and benefits?
I'm glad we agree that the size of government is way too big with "politicians...who are happy to collect their big pay checks".
Starve the Beast!
Their paychecks aren't that good, but boy, those retirement benefits are extraordinary...
Any person on the civil service rolls get, guaranteed, 75% of their last three years' annual average salary plus medical benefits that civilians would love to have.
Yup. A man I know called that trade-off golden handcuffs.
Plus, L.K., I find it ironic how politicians go to Washington DC and on those “not so good paychecks” get filthy rich! We have the best politicians money can buy - both Left & Right!
And it seems once they get elected, their moral compass gets put aside for the power of their position. ALL of them want to make getting re-elected year after year their lifelong goal!
Lord Acton, a British historian said, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely”
I am All Growed Up,, I can tie my own shoes, I know to look Both Ways before crossing the street. Here is some money...Go Away.
As for calling me stupid....They MAY have a point. :-)
EXACTLY. The government that governs best governs least!
DC raking in so much of our money and... below CNBC cut & paste from December 2022:
President Joe Biden on Thursday is announcing the infusion of nearly $36 billion to prevent severe cuts to the retirement incomes of more than 350,000 Teamster workers and retirees across the United States. The money for the Central States Pension Fund is the largest amount of federal aid provided for a pension plan.
$36 BILLION!
Laundered straight through to the Democrat Party. Marty Byrd would blush.
Is this via the normal Pension Benefit Guaranty Fund (PBGF) that was established in the 1970s to protect pensions when companies fail, similar to the FDIC which insures banks accounts, or is it a separate thing to try to grab votes?
Preach. Well said.
Preaching is never in style. Just sayin.
Preach = Keep going...
Sounds very Libertarian to me. I’m all for it
From Business Insider: "As it turns out, it is red states that are overwhelmingly the Welfare Queen States. Yes, that's right. Red States—the ones governed by folks who think government is too big and spending needs to be cut—are a net drain on the economy, taking in more federal spending than they pay out in federal taxes. They talk a good game, but stick Blue States with the bill."
From The Atlantic: That's a far more interesting thing to think about (though perhaps less viscerally satisfying) than which states are moochers or freeloaders and which are getting fleeced.
Go look at the research that claims that and see if it includes government retirement pensions. Why yes, yes you will see that "Government Welfare" includes pensions paid by the government to former/retired government employees for work performed. Of course, considering costs of living it doesn't take a very smart person who lives on a fixed income to move to states where their income will go further. Those states are usually red.
I always knew that to be true. People retire in cold, expensive areas of the country, and do the math, which tells them very quickly that they should move to a place where the weather is better and the cost of living lower. It's not rocket science. But the left likes to think that they are somehow subsidizing all the red states, and that people are stupid for moving to them.
They always trot out these tired DNC talking points which mean nothing. They also don't take into account that some of the major blue states (New York, California) have multi-billion-dollar tourism industries which employ lots of people and bring in tax dollars. Except for Florida (which is doing well fiscally), I can't think of many red states that have big tourism industries.
Also, Kate, speaking from Texas, a border state, under this Biden Crime Family Regime, we are overwhelmed with the open border influx of illegals - also being given “welfare handouts” - plus, which is denying LEGAL, tax paying citizens resource they need!
I find it amusing that the “so called Sanctuary cities” in the North are screaming “NO Fair” when busses & plane loads of illegals are sent to them! Also, they lament “We don’t have room for them & we need Federal Aid”
Sorry, but BOO FU*KING WHO
because you asked for it with all your “Sanctuary, holy than thou, rhetoric”. You voted for this WOKE Left agenda! How’s that working for you?!
Record number of new jobs
Indicting Trump 3 times for crimes.
Protecting right to choose.
Infrastructure improvements (for Texas: Highways and bridges: $27.5 billion
Public transit: $3.4 billion, Clean energy: $2.9 billion,
Water infrastructure: $1.2 billion, Broadband internet: $100 million
Other: $1.7 billion).
Take the money and complain. That s what MAGA is all about. \
Biden did not have a Foundation dissolved due to illegal activities. Biden did not declare bankruptcy 6 times. Biden has paid taxes every year he has been in office. BTW my sister moved to Texas and the first thing she did was buy a whole house generator. Energy State my ***.
Bob, your “TDS” infection is a really bad case!
WHY would you even bring up Trump? I didn’t mention him, nor does HE have anything to do with the topic at hand!
I get that ANY criticism of Biden is immediately discounted with “But, but, but Trump, whataboutism” or “It’s Putin’s fault” or “It’s the Climate, stupid”
IF you feel the need to respond to me again, I’ll certainly understand. That is what is expected from people with “TDS” and I’ll gladly let you have the last word.
Certainly we can agree that TFP (Bari) has provided us (Both Left & Right) a “safe space😉” to come & agree to disagree.
Have a nice rest of your day.
This map makes that claim look ridiculous. Blue states may pay in more - the coasts are where the centers of finance and wealth are located - but they also get way more in return.
https://wisevoter.com/state-rankings/federal-aid-by-state/
You can play with the numbers as much as you want. Try Federal aid per cow - oops that won't work in Montana. I used how much the states paid in and how much they got back. The true "justification" could be that, due to weather, most DOD bases are in the South. That is still not the reason why the Red States always want to be the victim while being the villain.
Wait, so Federal aid per capita is not a real number? What do you mean by "being the villain?"
Of course, it is a real number, but it does not reflect the actual out and in of federal taxes PER STATE. When talking about value it should be considered that farmland in Red States is not valued the same as businesses in the state of NY so there is much undervalued assets in those states. Looking at a State like North Dakota that wants to be a banking (as well as money laundering) State is valued higher than South Dakota, which is more of a farming state as far as businesses go. The main point is that Red States continually complain about Federal expenditures but do not complain about farm subsidies which are 40% of net farm income, Sugar quotas which cost all US taxpayers $2 billion a year, infrastructure money spent or about the DOD spending in the Southern States. Victim while taking the money is at least hilarious.
What?? It absolutely does. The per capita number is derived from the amount of money PER STATE divided by its population! Farm Subsidies?? You mean like those going to California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania...? Sure, Texas and Iowa are at the top for Farm subsidy grift but the US has blown half a trillion on farmers the past decade and blue states get plenty of that action. And btw, it was Republicans who proposed cuts to the farm bill last time around. Also, here are some facts vis-à-vis your DOD line of thinking. Only 2 red states are in the top 10 for Defense spending. https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3194361/dod-releases-report-on-defense-spending-by-state-in-fiscal-year-2021/
And by the way, WHO exactly is complaining? You're the one who brought it up; I don't see any of the contributors from the right complaining about it. Looks like most everyone else just wants government to leave them alone and doesn't care how much is being spent in red states. We're not victims and we're not villains.
Bob, sorry sir, but you need to look beyond the WOKE Left narrative.
Our border states are being RUN OVER with illegals thanks to the Biden Regime!
If you don’t realize how much $$$$ that is costing these “Red Border States” then you should look beyond the MSM rhetoric!
Here in Texas, MANY very deserving taxpayers are being denied resources because of the thousands of illegal aliens storming across the “open border”
Plus, you do realize, illegals are being given Welfare and FREE medical attention, so yes, a lot of Federal & State funds are being consumed!
In one Southern Border town RFK Jr. visited recently, he was beyond shocked at the hospitals having to turn away LEGAL Texas Citizens, because every bed was filled with illegals having babies, drug overdoses & rape victims!
Once again take the money and complain. Being a border state brings a lot of Money to Texas. But a fact: In the US there are approximately 10,500 births per day. There are approximately 9,500 deaths per day. And persons with entry based on asylum are not illegals. And as of January16, 2019 — "It is clear from our research that persons who overstay their visas add to the US undocumented population at a higher rate than border crossers ...
So Bob, Not sure what you mean “take the money & complain”. In all honesty, YOU are the one who is complaining about Red States. I absolutely love my Red State of Texas! I also own a condo in Brooklyn Heights, NY, which I’m renting out, due to the crime & filth on subways now. When the WOKE Left are in charge (with their defund police BS) cities deteriorate!
And, if Red States are so awful, WHY are people & businesses coming in the thousands from Blue States to settle in Red ones?
Could it be because of the astronomical Blue State taxes, yet the homeless numbers are higher than anywhere else in the USA! WHY aren’t Blue States supporting these homeless people? Plus, property values & cost of living are so high there that regular folks are fleeing! Also, because Blue States have unmanageable crime rates that the WOKE Liberals either ignore, or refuse to prosecute? LA released notice for vacationers NOT visit because the police would not be able to protect them! Golly, no wonder people & businesses are boarding up and moving out fast to Red States!
Yes, Bob, you are correct to post that last quote! Where you are incorrect is to bring up a 2019 report, when illegal border crossings were a lot lower.
Under the current open border policy, illegals are flooding across the border in RECORD HIGH NUMBERS! Not talking about “asylum seekers” but illegal aliens, cartels, drug mules, etc.
5.5 MILLION illegals have crossed our borders just since Biden took office!
ONLY approx. 2,200 arrive daily seeking asylum, whereas 5,000 make unauthorized entries daily. THIS cost a lot of money, but isn’t that what “Sanctuary Believers” think their tax dollars should support?! Ironically, those same people don’t want any illegals bussed in to their cities!
The Left loves to debate this, but facts are facts!
Yes, the blue States are where revenue created in red states go to die from taxation. They are counting money created in red states as their own.
Gonna guess many of those states have multiple military bases.
The claim is meaningless if applied in the aggregate and without distinguishing where those federal dollars are going.
California leads the nation in stationed DOD personnel, yet the State is not a mooch.
Bob, see Andrew’s post below to add facts & clarity to what you stated.
And, sir, you do recognize and must surely acknowledge that anything & everything from the Atlantic is WOKE Left rhetoric. They are part of the MSM, which serves as the propaganda arm of the Democrats.
Yes. Now what will rational conservatives do since we're not left alone?
NYC and State funds the rest of the country disproportionately. Look it up.
If by "funding" you mean accumulating a ton of fiat dollars, and then paying taxes on those dollars, you may be right. If you're talking about producing things people can actually use: food, fuel, clothing, wood, metals, etc. that's a whole 'nother thing.
7 of the top 10 net "taker" states are red. You don't want to be left alone because you need the Federal government to care for your state.
Lies, damn lies, and something else.
Madjack, and this has to do with the Ozarks how?
Rich liberals have boats and lakeside homes too..
This is all that needs to be said about this and Fran Drescher and SAG can pound sand.
It's too bad you see it that way. Writers and actors need to make a living, too.
I feel zero obligation to watch Woke movies and TV just so writers and actors can make a living.
I live on a lake in Michigan. We don't have Trump flotillas, but it's deep red. People are simply puzzled by Democrats more than anything. Why are they mutilating children? Why do they want drag queens reading to children so bad? Why are they denying biological reality? Why are they so irresponsible with foreign policy and budget? Why are they interfering with our lives so bad? It's not hate; it's more like "what the f*** is wrong with these people and WHY?"
I also am in deep wonder about this. I always try to find the "why"...and I can't here. Mental illness seems too "easy" even though I believe there is some of that for sure. I keep bumping up against the concept of evil. I can't fathom what else would explain it.
"I always try to find the "why""
My theory is that most of the progressive democrats are control freaks. They were the last ones to be picked for a team, the mean girl that spread rumors about the home coming queen, the hangers on that spent their adolescent life fearful that they’d be kicked out of the cool kid clique. The worst of them went into politics and now that they’ve acquired the power of government they want to legislate, intimidate and punish the rest of us from ever again contrasting how vacuous and pathetic they are.
The Goal is (and this is gong to sound real tin fol hat stuff) the destruction of liberal western society, and replacing it with (Cultural) Marxism.
Why would they want to do this to the Freest Richest Safest society in history? 1. Marxism is a (secular) religion. You could say its a Christian Heresy. An attempt to set up The Millennial Kingdom without The King. We are our own Gods. Didn't Satan say something similar to Eve in The Garden? "You Shall Be Like Gods." (you know there Really isn't anything New under the sun.)
2. Its not perfect, its not equal. Some people are richer than others, Some people are oppressed ,Some people have to do things they don't want. Therefore it MUST be torn down.
H/T James Lindsay (among others)
The late European philosopher Eric Voegelin described that mentality as emanitization of the eschaton.
THIS. My theory as well. They're also the college administrators who got hired only because colleges fees went up so much due to cheap college money that they had to make up jobs for people to do. And they also hold Director & VP level DEI roles at most companies - ours is an 800-person firm and I think we have 2.
I was not in the cool crowd. I ran around with them a little, but I also did some debate and was in the chorale. But I was mostly comfortable in my own skin. Those that weren't, that felt picked on and made fun of (and back in the 80'' in high school, that definitely happened) have made it to these positions and through bullying, are seeking the validation they never got when they were 17. It's really that simple.
100% 🎯🇨🇦
Here’s the deal. It’s much easier to point the finger at others than to look inwardly. Until people look inwardly, their world really doesn’t change. Quit worrying about what other people do and focus on what you do and what you don’t do, as well.
The average leftist cannot bear to look inward. The older ones cannot even admit to themselves how utterly useless they have been.
It's impossible to bear such guilt, and so they don't, and won't reform.
The younger ones are less invested and still have time to turn it around.
Two options. Engage in the great mating game at the lake, or remove your sex organs. A no brainer.
Dead on.
Pretty spot on. I remember them from high school and college. They would stake your eyes out if you shared a wrong opinion.
Lol.
Shannon L. I keep wondering why some of the stuff on the left like mutilation of kids without parental consent is even something to be considered. “Woke is good for business?” More and more I’m wondering if Satan himself is in charge.
1 John 5:19 "We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one."
Satan has a very strong hold, indeed.
Wonder no more, he is Gordy.
I used to hear the 'nutters' talking about evil paedophile cabal and shrug in disbelief at their over the top conspiracy theories. Well, I am really beginning to wonder if they might just have been right all along.
Another "possible answer" to the WHY. CREATE AN ISSUE, A PROBLEM, that didn't really exist before- with the INTENT of creating an illusion that (those in POWER) will FIX it for you- just as long as you keep voting for them.
Issues w Racism WAS diminishing years ago- Gays and Lesbians became more protected and given the rights to marry, Roe v Wade and abortion rights- As these issues "improved" POWER needed to give the illusion they were much worse than what was real. And then keep you angry and scared and believing they will fix it all for you. You would think people would see thru this by now, but education( lack of) and Indoctrination prevent people being able to think and rationalize for themselves.
I agree that power is a lot of the reason. Also, the concept of “liberalism” requires CONSTANT change; once you win one fight, you’re instantly looking around for the next cause, and the next, and the next...leaving things the same is -- by its very nature -- “conservative”. It’s a spiritually empty, constant search for meaning (that you’ll never find).
I think another factor is guilt (White or otherwise). This is a top-down movement, where the elites (the educated) are driving the narrative. Even if they won’t admit it, subconsciously they know that they are extremely privileged (whatever their color) to live in Western countries with an incredibly rich lifestyle, so they are susceptible to self-flagellation and externalization of their self-hatred, which is expressed by heaping scorn and vitriol on the very society that produced them.
It’s all very mentally unhealthy. There is ample research that “progressives” are the most unhappy and neurotic people. I’m sure you won’t need to ask “why”!
It's mass Munchhausen by Proxy from the far left so they can prove their point annd be self-validated. They actually use the same medium and logic of Munchhausen by Proxy i.e. convincing the medical community that an innocent child needs to be mutilated so their belief system and identity can be upheld. It is so frigging sick.
Quite accurate yet disturbing analogy.
A Mass Psychosis for sure.
The mechanics of logic for gender affirming zealots takes any objective or forensic information and tosses it right out the window. They want blood or to dope a confused person at the drop of a hat.
These people are using the same logical pathway as conversion therapy for gay kids of religious people. It is beyond barbaric, and yet you have a bunch of freak people with MD's who will not open their mouths and help the victims of such psychotic institutional behavior.
EXACTLY! “Triple D”
Distract Disrupt Destroy. Democrats are Masters and everyday that goes by the evidence is overwhelming how they are succeeding.
Karena Very possible and perfectly presented 👏👏👏🙏🆓
It is good to try to figure out the why part. I think that activists pushed for transing and doctors/pharma make a great deal of money on it, and then it turned out to be politically useful as "The Civil Rights Movement of our Era" to quote Biden during his campaign. Cultural Maxism is about destroying everything and thinking there will somehow magically be a Utopia after that? Obama started: "Obama made transgenderism a pet issue of his administration,"
https://www.thestandardsc.org/jennifer-bilek/billionaires-funding-transgender-movement-for-profit/
It makes $$$$:
"U.S. Sex Reassignment Surgery Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Gender Transition (Male To Female, Female To Male), And Segment Forecasts, 2022 - 2030"
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/us-sex-reassignment-surgery-market
Pedro Gonzalez implicates players on both sides of the isle in the "Transgender Leviathan"
https://pitt.substack.com/p/lets-read-the-transgender-leviathan
"There have been many terrible medical experiments in America, but none of them have had the deadly and destructive combination of ideology, politics, and profits propelling them into the culture. Lobotomies had profits, but no ideology or political movement supporting the procedure. Eugenics had an ideology and a political movement, but no profits that could be reinvested in lobbying for protective legislation. Transgenderism has the winning trifecta, and it makes the movement much more difficult to defeat, despite its obvious harm to people and the lack of any legitimate science or data to back up its central tenets."
Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital says it helps exactly no one https://couragerc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/TransgenderSurgery.pdf
This part is me - even with adult men who have the psych condition we are calling "gender dysphoria", there will always be something to hit him that he is not a "real girl" and then he will feel "dsyphoric". Say, puberty was suppressed and his hands did not grow large and he did not grow tall with big shoulders.... Then, maybe he gets filled with hormones which allow him to "lactate" after getting a baby via surrogacy... He still didn't bear the child. So, do we transplant the uterus of some girl who didn't "need it or want it" because she's a "transboy"? (You have seen that one, right?) Where does it stop? It cannot. There will always be something - no matter how much society affirms the confusion.
By now, we've had the suicide of that young airplane attendant who was the "poster child" for transing young men. And, we still have not read the Audrey Hale manifesto.
I'd like to toss in two recent psych articles:
Published: 14 April 2023
Current Concerns About Gender-Affirming Therapy in Adolescents
Stephen B. Levine & E. Abbruzzese https://archive.ph/zmi9z
And last month's “Transition Regret and Detransition: Meanings and Uncertainties”
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-023-02626-2
Plus, a book just out Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrist's Guide Out of the Madness Hardcover – July 18, 2023
by Miriam Grossman MD (Author), Dr. Jordan B. Peterson (Foreword)
They 1) value having an open mind and 2) they have not given any thought to the boundaries of that open mind. That is to say, when you add 1 and 2 in their heads, they hear something like "Anti-Racism For White People" and their boundary of "I stop listening when you start sounding too ironic" never activates. They just think, "If it doesn't make sense, maybe there's just something about it I'll never be able understand." This makes them susceptible to all kinds of flimflam.
In come the postmodern/Critical Theory lunatics who attach their madness to identity politics (a subject many on the left hold dear, where they see a lot of positive social change from the past, spearheaded by progressive politics) while brandishing an istaphobia cudgel in the context of cancel culture, and you have a huge population of hosts waiting to be infected with the Woke Mind Virus.
I knew the moment I saw that so-called anti-racists had 0 racists and all the Liberals in their crosshairs that there was a religion being proselytized.
I think a sizable number of them think it's off, but this is their tribe, and some business leaders push it by fiat. They need to look like they're into it or they might not be able to stay in their career. People gotta pay bills. Better to pretend it makes sense and keep the gravy pouring.
Pure evil!
My rule of thumb is to follow the money.
As a former democrat (assigned democrat at birth) I was taught that America was an oppressive racist country and that republicans were dumb racists. There was so much indoctrination from Hollywood and pop culture painting leftists as integrity soaked brilliant artists and republicans as square money hungry nerds. So much was attached to cool status. I was a teen in the 80s so there’s that. As painful as it’s been to realize I was duped this entire time by a party that makes things piles worse for the very people the purport to help, I am so grateful, even if my kids think that mom turned into a racist homophobic flat earther. The simple answer is misguided hubris. They are programmed.
I love that! I was assigned Democrat at birth too, because my parents were leftists. I'm still a registered Democrat and have some values that are permanently Democratic, but I'm the only member of my family who took, after 2020, not a right turn, but a step back from partisan politics.
My relatives tiptoe around me so they don't incite my tendency to mention traumatic things like Tucker Carlson's name (this is a major trigger for my bro-in-law). They don't want to hear me rave on about subversive topics like free speech and a free press, the value of charter schools, and since the recent Supreme Court decision, the Fourteenth Amendment, with that darn, pesky Equal Protection clause.
Their world view is so black and white that they're utterly confused by me. I'm a lesbian, so they can't label me homophobic, and my very wide range of friends and partners over the years, plus my past activism, tends to disqualify me from the racist label too. I'm pretty sure they think I'm deranged. I haven't discussed Trump Derangement Syndrome with them...why bother? Does a fish know it's wet?
So my answer to the question WHY are they the way they are? is probably overly simplified, but here are some possibilities:
(a) Trump.
(b) The desire to be seen as virtuous as possible, which requires specific behaviors, beliefs and speech.
(c) Adherence to the religion of identitarianism, the outgrowth of (b).
(d) The belief that the U.S.A. is a once-good idea gone hopelessly bad, now overrun by ignoramuses and white supremacists whom they see behind every rock and tree and of whom they are truly terrified; and
(e) fealty to a corrupt, mendacious propaganda machine called the Mainstream Media, which keeps their fears dialed up to 10. Their worldview is extremely narrow, because they are afraid. Fear is the driver.
P.S. One addendum: covid. These terrified people fell into a fear abyss when covid hit. My sister only recently took off her mask. Again, they have Rachel Maddow to thank.
Beeswax, well said. Keep on...conservative lesbians make Leftist heads explode...
HAHA ya made me laugh.
Actually I'm not a conservative, but neither am I a progressive. I left the parties and their gradations behind so I could take in the big picture and make up my own mind. If I attach a label to myself, other than lesbian : ), my critical thinking skills get soft.
But I don't apologize for watching Douglas Murray, like a woke person did to me the other day. She made a face when she said his name, and explained, "he's a conservative." For some reason, she didn't turn to stone! Shocking.
Black, white, straight, gay - what difference does it make when we're discussing free speech, equal protection, and respect for our nation (but very definitely NOT its ruling, governmental class. The modern left are a bunch of raving, raging lunatics. Nothing more.
Exactly right. Identity politics is a poison. It destroys everything it touches.
I'm an admirer of the work of Shelby Steele, who has been writing and thinking about race from a black conservative perspective for decades. His superb documentary, What Killed Michael Brown? (free on Amazon), produced with his son, cinematographer Eli Steele, is specific in its storytelling but broad in its implications. I recommend it highly.
Early in the film Steele encapsulates his views on race in a few sentences. I memorized it, because I found it so moving: "We human beings never use race except as a means to power. It is never an end. It is always a means. And it has no role in human affairs except as a corruption."
Nor should you apologize, Douglas Murray ROCKS. He is brilliant. And like you, he's gay. so he can't be as easily dismissed by the Left, which drives them crazy. They actually have to argue back with LOGIC and FACTS, lololol.
Yeah, I’m a big fan. He and Andrew Doyle are two of my favorite British gay men.
Thanks for your thoughtful reply...yes, you are of course correct...one need not be a "conservative" to spend a lot of time poking holes in Leftist contradictions, just an open mnded critical thinker. I'm guessing you and I are pretty much alike in that regard. And not that there are not plenty of things to critique about the Right, it just seems at this moment in history most of the most outrageous stuff seems to be coming from the Left side of the political/ideological aisle.
All labels aside, keep thnking...
Yes, thinking = good.
Yes about trump. My relatives believe he is the “unique threat” to democracy.
It beggars belief.
I wonder though if they all truly believe that or they are just parroting it.
Great points! They're brainwashed, basically. Also tribalism. There's something to the social science theory that as one group takes a step towards extremism, the opposing group takes a step in the opposite direction, like a dance of mutual animosity that spins out of control. I see both sides as brainwashed, one by woke neo Marxist ideology and the other by a NY conman who would be oligarch.
Sadly accurate.
Wow! I can relate to all of this and concur!!!
Great post!
Wow, thank you for this comment. This is truly one of the most insightful, honest and informative comments I've seen articulated on this page, maybe any page. And you have extra credibility precisely because you come from this world. I keep racking my brains over why any sane person would remain Democrat after the shit that went down in 2020, followed by the manifest disaster of the Biden presidency, and you summed it up perfectly. I suspected denial was a large part of it, as was a desperate need to "fit in" and belong to some kind of cool club.
You hit the nail on the head about the fear. These people are terrified of being cast out by...what?...their social circle, their profession, Facebook. I don't believe that most of them deep down truly believe the things that their chosen tribe preaches (transgender ideology, systemic racism) they just go along to get along. (I also don't believe they actually hate Trump as much as they pretend to, again it's the bandwagon.) Meanwhile they live in the whitest communities possible. I can't count how many of my liberal friends refused to live in neighborhoods that I did; read: black and immigrant neighborhoods (even one who is themselves black!).
The projected "image" of being a liberal is what it's about, not the actual policies. Then there's the cult of Covid - cult is the only way to describe it. It's mass hysteria. I STILL see seemingly healthy people walking around in masks (although it's gotten considerably rarer from a year ago) as a virtue-signaling political statement. Kudos to you for having your eyes wide open and sticking to your integrity.
No, they genuinely believe there will be a nazi-esque takeover of the country. My bro-in-law speaks often about the white supremacists and their Republican lawmaker/handmaidens who are planning this coup. The Second Amendment is proof, as is the composition of the Supreme Court. For him, January 6 was the first step.
They’re not afraid of woke people canceling them. They are the woke people who don’t believe that canceling people is even a thing. We literally live in different ideological universes with different facts and interpretations of events. My sister believes with all her being that Fauci is a saint and that covid was caused by the pairing of a bat and a pangolin.
To the end of time, so saith we all, Amen.
I believe this is true of your relatives; you know them best. But I don't believe it's true of every person who identifies as Democrat or liberal now; I think many ARE in denial about a lot of things and want to believe the party is the party of 30 years ago, or they're afraid. I have picked up on little things here and there from my own friends that tell me they are not truly as liberal deep down as they purport to be. They just want to identify with the side that the media and the culture tell them they're supposed to. In other words they are not ultra-ideologues, though those certainly exist and I'm sure your relatives qualify.
But as an aside, I have to laugh about J6 being the harbinger of a "neo-Nazi-esque" takeover of the country. If that's what that little tantrum was, your brother-in-law has nothing to worry about. Never have I seen a more pathetic "coup" attempt in my life. No offense to your family, but they seem very deeply brainwashed. And they call people like ME conspiracy theorists! LMAO! Sigh, most of my own siblings and in-laws are to the right of me, for which I'm grateful.
And like the people described in this article, they know how to have FUN. They don't sit around being miserable over how terrible and racist the country is. They are happy. That to me is the main difference between the respective camps.
That’s fascinating. Describing my relatives as deeply brainwashed isn’t offensive, it’s accurate. I guess the fact that we’re Jews plays a part. We’re in our 70s and the Holocaust affected our families profoundly. I understand the extra level of paranoia that goes with that, but I refuse to be overwhelmed by it now.
Assigned Democrat at birth is my new favorite quip.
How I'm going to describe my husband henceforth.
Mrs Miller, I was assigned D at birth as well. Irish-Catholic parents in New York - there was no other option. I was the classic liberal throughout my college years in the 70's. The shift in my mind, and hence voting patterns, began with becoming a parent. I was teaching my own kids about self-reliance, hard work, and personal responsibility, plus the importance of waiting to be married before having their own kids, while the political party I was registered to "at birth" was the opposite. I am one of the many the D party has driven away by its unceasing march to the ever more extreme left.
I was assigned Republican. but transed to Democrat in my 20's. thanks goodness I could reverse without surgery
This metaphor gets better and better.
It’s bonkers what they’ve become, or some would say what they always were. I couldn’t see it until my daughter came to believe she’s a gay man, with the backing of every democrat run institution.
https://open.substack.com/pub/mrsmiller?r=9q8wg&utm_medium=ios
I'm sorry. I've been there, too. - LM
I feel pain for both of you.
Solidarity, LM ❤️🔥
The thing is, being Democrat in your parents' time was like belonging to a completely different party. It would be almost considered Republican now. Working-class values, bread-and-butter issues, equality (not "equity"). The current incarnation is unrecognizable from that party. It's become an amalgamation of the Green Party and American Socialist Party, only kept its old name. The name is the only thing that's the same.
I was assigned Democrat in college. Took me 20 years to realize my brainwashing.
I was also assigned Democrat at birth (love that quip!), because my dad was a union man.
But I lucked out because my parents voted for Reagan when I was 14. As a result, I questioned what Democrats were promoting in the 80s. So by the time I was old enough to vote, I registered as a Republican.
The invasion of Iraq, however, convinced me that I wasn't actually a Republican. That put me among the many classical liberal, small-L libertarian, politically homeless people in the independent category.
My experiences in grad school in the early 00s with the Far Left--which is now the Woke Left that has taken over most of our institutions--gave me a permanent distrust of Leftists. I see them as the fundamentalists of a secular religion.
Luckily, the Republicans make no pretense of "purporting to help."
Conservative regressives have never made anything better.
I can't believe it but you said something that is correct.
American conservatives want the national government to stay completely out of private lives. Always.
Government is for public works only.
Everything I've said has been correct.
Every prediction I have made has come to pass
Stay out of private lives? Lol!!
Going after businesses exercising their free speech?
Banning books?
Banning out of state travel?
Telling private businesses they can't require mask during a pandemic?
Banning abortion?
Not allowing local election officials and Secretaries of State to run their elections?
Lulz back to normal…. wrong again . none of those were done by the national government and most of them are flagrant lies
Comprof has to keep trotting out his hatred of white people and everyone to the right of Stalin so his Leftist colleagues won't call him racist names the way they do black conservatives.
Would you please take your socialist/marxist gibberish to the CNN comment section?
Oh, wait......
This person is one of those liberal progressives. Always has something very negative to say about conservatives.
Well, plenty of material provided.
Lol. Not a socialist/marxist.
Love capitalism.
America should try it sometime.
I've thought a lot about that question. I think there is a core group of liberals/progressives who are the major influencers of opinion from that end of the spectrum, and they hate America. Everything they do and have been pushing since before Obama's presidency damages our country, coming to a culmination during this administration: go easy on criminals while vilifying the police; open the border to god knows who or what coming across, costing us billions each year for no benefit at all, and much detriment; drive up the country's debt with no remorse and no reform; support a bloated indoctrination machine known as our educational system; kowtow to our enemies in China and Iran; I could go on and on but I've got work to do and a life to lead...imagine that.
Not all liberals hate America, but many in key positions do, and they intimidate others and/or blind them to what they are really doing.
And surely leftist money and Davos and WEF etc. They’re surely not doing it just bc they hate us. I think they resent the hell out of us and have wedded themselves to LGBTQ w/o looking down the road to when LGB dumps TQ. To when the enablers of child mutilation are in jail. To when climate warriors are revealed as the crazy liars they are. Maybe I’m wrong but I think the hated and dismissal of middle America really built steam under Obama and they’ve fundraised the hell out of that ever since. Call them MAGA & watch the dollars roll in. It’s politics but it’s also the Benjamins. Like my father used to say, you can be open-minded but not so much that your brains slide out. 😄
Not only do the Davos and WEF leftists hate us, they don't want to see us enjoying ourselves when they, surely far superior beings, aren't loving life. Seriously though, In a book about the Nazi occupation of France there was a scene when the German Soldiers came into an apartment pretty much to look around. When they found something beautiful and joy giving (pretty but ragged curtains on the window), they ripped them down and said the occupant had no need for them but the Third Reich did. That is the attitude I see happening in the Europeans' and the left's attitude to fun-loving Americans. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the leftists are Nazis but some of their desire for power and control must come from the same place.
why not say it//??
Say what?
I’ll say it “The Leftist are Nazis”
If you take away their pretense that the centralizing ideology of fascism MUST be nationalism (other ideologies--such as Wokeism--can serve the same purpose very well), it becomes very clear that they are following the same playbook.
Your Dad sounds like a very bright man
For sure!
Alfred Pennyworth said it best...
“Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn”
That’s the current administration mantra they want to watch us burn and we are unfortunately.
Power & Money, Tom!
As I’ve said before, “We have the best politicians money can buy” and the money is both domestic & foreign. Once they taste the power you can’t dynamite them out!
I don’t disagree with you but in the end it’s always about money.
A foreign actor's money
AND OBAMA IS ONE OF THEM
BIDEN AND HIS ADMINISTRATION ALSO
AOC etc
It’s Communism. Don’t laugh. As I recall, after describing the utopia of Communism, Marx and Engels write the the *last line* of the Manifesto: to achieve their goals all social structures have to be destroyed. That’s why media, schools, religion, the military, - EVERYTHING - has been breaking down and going nuts. The perfect canvas for BUILDING BACK BETTER.
Believe it.
Wake up people. We’ve been on notice for years.
-“New world order,” Bush
-“Fundamental Transformation,” Obama
-“Build Back Better,” Biden. And the WEF.
There you go again with your conspiracy theories!
Many of which have turned out to be right...
*Most.....
Yes, Diana. I attended grade school in the late 50's to early 60's where we were taught how the Communists separated children from their parents and sent them to state schools to break down the role of the family. We thought it could never happen here.....
Yuri Bezmenov told us. People still won't listen.
Now, I totally know how people who lived under Stalin feel. It's eerie.
Much more like Brave New World, I think.
Nope. We're living in a Communist state. Just like Stalin. Are you new to the FP discussion board?
Not yet, but surely getting there
Arrogance explains a lot of it - they have been told in universities and colleges that they are better than everyone else and so they feel entitled to tell us all how to live.
Bingo
They are insane and/or mentally I’ll. That’s why
Very well said, Dave. Take the case of Bojangi Jackson, the latest SC Justice. Yeah, she's a quota hire and probably not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but she must know what a woman is. After all, Chopsticks Joe nominated her because she was a black woman. Why do they insist upon having drag queens conduct story hour? Everything is force fed. It's almost like "Bananas" come to life. Underwear will be changed every half-hour and it will be worn on the outside so we can check. I think the people who direct this are evil, but most are simply unthin king ballast with "Hate Has No Home Here" signs on the lawn.
Leftism in the USA aspires to Marxism. For true believers, who know nothing about Marxism in practice, this is a religion. The followers are Virtuous for adopting these beliefs. As their prophets (MSNBC hosts, et al) demand an increasingly insane show of faith the true believers show greater Virtue by not questioning. And these followers are infinitely smarter, savvier and more sophisticated than the rest of you/us.
I think what's wrong with them is they either believe they know better than other people and therefore have some right to interfere in our lives for our own benefit and/or they see other people who are happy and living their lives and because they are miserable and neurotic they can't stand it.
I think most Democrats do not support mutilating children, nor are they passionate about drag queens reading to children. It's unfortunate that the most extreme fringe becomes the most visible and it sounds like Republicans really believe this is what most of us are like.
As for being irresponsible with budget, I think this is the core of the difference. Many of my fellow Democrats and I grew up seeing people work hard and get screwed over by societal forces they have no control over, so we do see a role for the government in fighting injustice.
Just think about where we would be without government interference in the racist, sexist, and homophobic policies and societal norms throughout the 20th century. People were losing jobs and lives just for being who they were. I don't get how someone can discount the role of the government in righting those wrongs.
I was a lifelong Democrat too because my father actively preached what you have said like a steady drumbeat in our home. He was born in 1920 and I was born in 1947. I never questioned any of it until I had become a trust banker in Boston in the 70's and began to note that all of what my father had espoused was not accurate. What eventually became a lifelong friendship with a well educated, conservative black woman (and fellow trust banker) finally changed my thinking - forever. (Please ask yourself honestly what the democrats have ever done to HELP black people. Daniel Patrick Moynihan warned of the impact of social legislation in the 60's that ruined strong black families by paying women to have children if there was no man in the home. THINK ABOUT THAT AS GENERATIONS OF CHILDREN HAVING CHILDREN HAS 2 TRILLION DOLLARS LATER LED TO THE MESS OUR SOCIETY IS IN NOW. PLEASE STOP AND THINK!!!!!) Please please start to do some serious thinking about your being convinced democrats are doing angelic work in our country.
Thank you that’s telling Katerina the poor lady has blinkers on, not sure where she was when the world changed
Now, you can potentially lose your kids for not agreeing with them that they are the opposite sex, or plural, or nonbinary, etc. School administrators can "help" them on the way to "gender transition" and even surgery without your permission or even knowledge.
This is better?
Just because "most Democrats do not support mutilating children" doesn't mean it is not happening. "Most Germans did not support exterminating Jews" either. But they enabled/financed it all the same by looking the other way and not holding the people they voted for accountable.
BTW, most of my friends and family are liberal/left and vote Democrat, and every single one of them says that "affirming gender" and providing associated medical "care" for trans children is the right thing to do. Guess what that entails.
So yes, we do think you're all like this.
Their support of "gender affirming care" is a reflection of the extremely limited range of their media. Independent journalism such as we find on Substack is required now if one wants to have any idea of what's actually going on in the world beyond the narrow confines of liberal talking points. The trans issue in particular is covered with great depth in other countries, as well as on Substack. It's not necessary to go to Fox for that information, but Fox has covered the issue of male rapists and murderers being housed in women's prisons. Good luck hearing about that on the NBC Nightly News.
Good points. They simply aren't hearing about it. That's for a reason, though.
Yes, it is for a reason! It’s political manipulation through propaganda. The Dems are heavily invested, literally, in trans ideology. The rest of the world is leaving us behind as the evidence about the disastrous health consequences of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries lead to policy changes.
Completely agree.
Yes Missy! You nailed it.
Nailed it.
Please drop those friends - has it happen to them yet? I can tell you touch my children or my grandchildren I will f...ing k... you! There I have written it and it felt good
I think it's insane to compare a tiny number of gender transition surgeries to the Holocaust. The numbers of girls getting breast enhancement surgeries is much larger, and somehow the conservatives haven't been making a huge deal about that.
If we free this issue from partisan extremes and hyperbole, I think it's clear there are children who are born the wrong gender and they know beyond a doubt from a young age. If you've met kids like this, it's blindingly obvious and it would be cruel to deny them the right to be themselves or to treat them differently. At least as far as social (non-surgical) transition. This is all fine and good.
There is also social contagion and teens deciding suddenly that they are a different gender and attempts to erase the very idea of two genders (which is a reality for the vast majority of people). This is bad.
But the worst thing about this whole conversation is this extreme focus on what is a fringe issue affecting a tiny number of trans individuals. Honestly, why are we all wasting time on this culture war topic when there are so many more important issues that affect the vast majority of us?
Reading comprehension is important. I did not compare gender transition surgery to the Holocaust. I responded to a particular part of your comment. Simply because most of group X "doesn't support" a particular bad thing is meaningless. The bad thing still goes on, and it is still enabled by that group in various ways.
It is not a tiny number. I personally know at least eight sets of parents with trans children. It is not "blindingly obvious" that these children were born the wrong gender. They are the vicitims in most cases of a social contagion. Among many other things, this phenomenon is being used as a wedge to erode parental rights.
I think your head is in the sand.
"Honestly, why are we all wasting time on this culture war topic when there are so many more important issues that affect the vast majority of us?" Because Democrats WILL NOT LET IT GO!!! Any time I try to gently push back on these issues I get tarred by my progressive friends (yes I have some) and relatives as a racist, homophobic, Neanderthal. So guess what? I'm done gently pushing back. I'm telling the truth that my 35 years as an engineer has taught me exists. I can't believe that you truly believe someone who's too young to smoke, drink, vote, enter into contracts, join the military, et al, is old enough and mature enough to decide they are the wrong sex. Then they expect the rest of us to simply go along, nay "celebrate and affirm" their "brave decision". Nope. That child needs help and going along with his/her delusions ain't it.
Not only go along with it, but celebrate it, and treat it as real and important, and face potential legal consequences if you disagree. And also pay for it.
The 60's called and wants their Democrats back. The "fighting injustice" role that you laud for government has morphed into "do what we tell you because we're smarter and more noble than you rubes". The current Democrat party supports so many outlandish and anti-freedom policies it makes the head swim. "Gas stove" - oh too bad, you can't have one. Men in women's spaces? Just suck it up girl, don't you see how oppressed these poor creatures are? Abortion until birth (and after if the doctor fucks up) for any reason. In debt because you willingly took out loans and have to cut back on your $6 lattes to pay for them? No problem, we'll take money from the working class to pay them off. Don't talk to me about "not all Democrats". I see them voting as a block in Congress and local government. Rarely do any of them push back against this drivel.
Until I see ANY kind of pushback on ANY of these monstrous policies from ANY Democrat of even middling consequence I will maybe consider the chance it it’s “not all democrats.”
I won’t change my mind, but fortunately I never even have to consider the possibility since the primary shared skill among Democrats is towing the party line.
Exactly! If Democrats actually don't want these policies, they need to stop voting for candidates who support them.
Democrats were quick to pretend that Trump was "literally Hitler" and anyone who voted for him (I didn't until 2020) was a "Nazi." I see no reason not to hold Democrats to the same standard when their leaders are actually supporting government policies that sexualize children, demonize parents, and attempt to take away free speech from any who dares to disagree with them.
Unfortunately big Government is not using our money to fight injustice. It’s become one big grift.
I disagree. For example, my grandparents and all of their friends benefit immensely from government programs to support them in their old age. Without these programs, they would be in abject poverty. Public programs have also played a huge role in letting lower-income kids in my community have a childhood. For my friends who are refugees, these programs are literally lifesaving.
PS. Of course there is corruption and money is lost. But I'd rather support people in need, knowing that some percent of those funds are wasted or given to "undeserving people", than let those people drown in poverty in the name of not wasting any funds.
You mean the Social Security that was taken from my paycheck for 40 years? That program? And how are your local schools doing in preparing all those poor kids for life? The problem with government programs is that they may start out with good intentions (who could be against supporting single mothers?) but inevitably end up making the problem worse. When the government supports something, you get more of it.
Before the Aid to Dependent Children was amped up in the 60's 75% of black children were born in two parent households. Now 25% are fortunate enough to have both parents present. One follows from the other.
Amen
Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. Old people collecting it now all use the "I paid for 40 years" argument, but look at what they paid. The CURRENT tax is 15.3%. If you work for an employer they pay half, which means they likely pay you 7% less than they would otherwise to cover it--you'll never know.
My grandparents paid 3% Social Security tax on incomes of $4,000-$5,000 per year. So they paid $150 a year and I pay $15,000 a year. If I was able to invest that money on my own, I'd be a multimillionaire. Instead, I can expect to get back what I paid in if I'm lucky.
Had those government programs never existed, people would have saved from the beginning for retirement, families would have stepped up to help the unfortunate family members. Church and LOCAL government would have stepped in. So no, the Federal Government made the problem much, much worse.
I wish with all my heart that this were true.
Unfortunately, a huge proportion of the jobs in America today do NOT pay workers enough to save for retirement (or even cover necessary every day expenses). Also, poverty runs in families - if you are struggling, your family members likely are as well.
As for churches, I think some churches do really great work supporting people in need, but just don't have enough resources to help all (or even most) of those who need it. Plus, unfortunately many churches give aid with strings attached and exclude vulnerable people who don't fit in with their belief systems.
TOO MUCH is going to undeserving people. The abuse has been going on for decades. That is one problem of big government. There is little accountability.
why didn't you help your grandparents? why didn't they live with you or your family? how could you let your grandparents live in "abject poverty" do you give $$ or jobs to your friend who are refugees? give directly. $$ filters through the gov is money wasted
I'm sure you realize that the vast majority of Americans cannot afford to support their extended families and friends. Unfettered capitalism in this country means low wages and high prices for most - people can barely stay afloat and take care of immediate families.
Do I personally send my grandparents money every month? Yes. Do all of their friends have families who are in a financial position to help them? Most definitely not. I have been very lucky, so I am the exception. And even for me - can I afford to buy or rent my grandparents an apartment? No. So thank God for Section 8 housing.
As for my friends, of course I have helped them, both with direct support and finding a job for my friend's husband. But these are drops in the bucket. Maybe if I were a billionaire, I could solve these problems without going to government. But most wealthy people choose to spend their money on luxuries for themselves.
"Unfettered capitalism"? What country are you living in? You realize that the government has imposed volumes and volumes of rules on businesses that limit and regulate how they conduct themselves. Every year I was required to attend multiple hours of training to ensure that I understood what discrimination was, that I did not facilitate a "hostile work environment", and other "valuable" topics. Like it or not, it is a fact that capitalism has single-handedly raised more people out of poverty than any other economic system. Is it perfect? Is anything made by Man perfect? Of course not. Are there edge cases that need to be addressed. You bet! But to paint our economic system with such a broad brush as you have is simply nonsense.
My husband and I only started making a combined income of $50k in the last 5 years. We care for my father-in-law in our home because his combined Social Security *and* military pension wouldn't cover the monthly cost of a nursing home.
We're far from the only people at our income level or below who are taking care of extended family.
Or people losing jobs to a diversity candidate being promoted by fearful and vain executives
If "most Democrats" don't support the behavior of "the fringe," why do they keep voting for people who support that behavior? It is reasonable to conclude that "most Democrats" support what they vote for.
Maybe you should stop living the past and ask yourself what those leading the Democrats want government to do in the 21st century?
I too have been pondering this deeply. For me it boils down to how can the woke be so wed to what is irrational and really indefensible? They absolutely cannot debate these things and stay within the bounds of classical rules of debate----they instantly collapse into ad hominem and name calling.
At this point I'm leaning towards what the bible calls "the mark of the beast". I honestly don't know any woke people who are authentically, deeply spiritual.
In the Soviet Union and other Communist dictatorships the state-controlled media — Isvestia, Pravda — published rank nonsense every day. The point was not to convince citizens that what they said was true; it was to force them to say that believed it was true even when they knew otherwise. By forcing them to say they believed whatthey did not they weakened the will to resist. So it is with the nonsense spouted by progessives.
There is definitely a plan and a reason.
There is no plan or reason and there doesn't have to be. It's tribalism - parroting the party line and blindly supporting "your side". It exists on both sides (and of course Democrats will say it's worse on the Republican side and Republicans will say it's worse on the Democrat side). But I don't really see a huge difference between the left and right extremes.
Well one crucial difference is that the Left's extreme has gained power in all our major institutions and is doing a bang-up job of dismantling them, with the help of blind voting by "most Democrats" who profess not to support such extremism. Meanwhile, "most Republicans" actually have moved to the left of the traditional conservative position on economic and cultural issues (particularly those involving sexual morality), such that the extreme Right has little to zero institutional power. So I'd say blind voting by Republicans doesn't have nearly the detrimental impact on everyday lives and families that blind voting by Democrats has.
I think it's all part of the great reset, being engineered by globalists at the WHO, the WEF and the UN...
The establishment dems are falling right in line, and establishment reps too.
Unfortunately, the Democratic Party has accumulated way too much power through its collaboration with the tech and media elites.
No one believes that people who truly deserve help should not be given it. But it should be a temporary boost, not a lifelong plan. My own mother had to accept public assistance for a year or two after my father abandoned us. This was in the early 50's and she had no skills. She taught herself to type and was able to build a career that supported us throughout my childhood. The problem is that the definition of who and what kind of support keeps growing. When there are more people collecting from the system than paying in, the system is bound to collapse.
The history of the Democratic Party is one of cynicism - get enough people dependent on the largesse of government and you will own their votes, and hence the power, forever. And they have succeeded with the huge expansion of the welfare state since the 60's. I know it's hard to take a stand against the status quo today especially for those of us who live on either of the coasts (I am in California). I Katerina, I encourage you to take a close and truly critical look at the damage that is being done in the name of "helping" in these times.
Exactly. Everything now is being done to screw over the other tribe rather than doing what is in the interest of EVERYONE in the country.
Their children are the ones self-mutilating.
Our children are out on the lake playing the mating game. Nature rules!
Most have an entire lifetime invested in "activism" for the sake of itself.
They now realize their own miserable reality but it's too late to change. They are simply too embarrased to admit that their whole life is an utter waste. I know them well. Family and friends.
There is hope in the younger folks in places like Lake of the Ozarks. The alternative is removal of sex organs. The bitter end of the left.
I'm from Michigan. It's a great state aside from the state government. Sorry you're still weathering the Gretch administration. I moved to South Dakota, where there would probably be Trump flotillas if there were enough large bodies of water.
I love when I am called Sweetie or Honey while ordering a nice juice hamburger and fries. This article perfectly describes the great schism between the two Americas and the thirst for freedom that one half possesses which infuriates the other half. Thanks Max
I live in a town that's 50% moderate Republicans and 50% moderate Democrats. Occasionally discussions can get heated but most everyone get along and ALL of us love it when the waitresses who've been at the diner forever call us "sweetie" or "honey"
I love it too, Max
Michael, I’m sure that an ardent progressive who kept his or her mouth shut would have a great time in the Ozarks. Pretty much the same if a MAGA warrior went to Vermont. Keep it quiet and have a good time - no schism seen.
Yup.
Same here in Martin County, FL.
Men love being called Sweetie or Honey....by women.
Women getting it from men? Not so much.
What if it were male waitstaff? Would you love it then?
Actually, most women have no problem being called sweetie or honey or darlin’ by other women. It’s just fine. It always makes me smile. I don’t mind being Included in the catch all ‘you guys’, either.
It's very British to call others, including strangers, love.
Just to clarify, as a Brit, that this is very regional.
I prefer y'all even if the apostrophe is omittted.
Why do you prefer it? Isn't "ya'll" a pronoun?
Lol Ruth....I call everyone "you guys"!
I didn't say from OTHER WOMEN.
JFC.
I said are you cool with being called sweetie, honey, darlin' by MEN? At a restaurant or work?
Comprof, I tried to answer your very fair question and apologize for frustrating you. I hope it shows up in the right place.
Yeah....from other women.
I asked would it be cool if a man did that to you?
My wife thinks it is nice to be treated with kindness by waitstaff, thank you.
I've been called sweetheart by a gay male customer and found it mildly amusing.
Why was it mildly amusing?
Oh, thank god you were there to protect women! So fragile they can’t possibly receive a generic pleasantry.
Such a hero. 🙄
Nah. Just curious if women would be cool being called, "Sweetie," "Honey," etc. by a man at a restaurant or maybe work, Aaron.
You can call we sweetie anytime the spirit moves you
Cool if a man does it to you?
I have been called many bad names, especially behind my back. If the word is used in a friendly way you betcha
"Sweetie" and "Honey" are bad names? Huh?
Think you're misunderstanding, I'll ask again.
Are you cool with a male waitstaffer or coworker calling you "Sweetie" or "Honey?"
Yes I am cool with it regardless of the speaker. I do not view the words honey or sweetie as harmful or disrespectful UNLESS they are intended to demean or insult me . My reference was clearly to other bad names used as epithets. Hope that answers your questions. Maybe the restaurant needs a trigger warning that partons may be called sweetie.
Ok, Comprof... I see the error of my ways in my comment on your post. You did (JFC) say comments from men. I’m thinking about it, and it entirely depends. If my creep-o-meter doesn’t start ticking, I’m fine. Most women I think know when they are being treated with respect and kindness or not. I have a lot of people call me “Ruthie” although that is not a name I ever use for myself and, in my opinion, it is even more personal than being called sweetie. And, with the right intentions behind it, I never find it objectionable. I’m constantly giving the nod to intentions as opposed to impart. Does that satisfy?
Nah. You know damn well if you and the women you know were called sweetie, honey, darlin, etc. by a straight male waiter or straight male at work, you would have a problem with it.
Doesn't make you "woke." It's ok.
yes
Waitstaff ?
Did I miss an email or a memo ?
WTF ?
Such a fun story. So many are unaware of the quality of life in the "flyover states." You can take a drive on a winding road in rural Wisconsin and come up over a hill and see a huge beautiful house in the middle of rolling hills where a hardworking farmer has created a great life. We have a beautiful country.
Same in Iowa. And there's usually a flag waving in the front yard.
The flyover & southern states will be where the RFK Jr will stomps the hell out of Joe Biden in 2024.
I pray you are right, Evans! Yet, the MSM (propaganda arm of the WOKE Left) despise RFK, Jr. and are even labeling him THE greatest threat to Democracy! Imagine taking 1st place with THAT label and pushing Trump to #2!
RFK, Jr. said in a recent interview, while at a dinner party, Hillary lectured him on run against a sitting President in his own Party! How dare he!
They are as afraid of him as they are of Trump. Men they can’t “buy or control”
Hillary’s words are why Gavin Newsom is sitting on the sideline with his dick in his hand.
What worries me about RFK, Jr. is those dinner parties with people like Hillary Clinton.
Know thy enemy.
Well, as long as Covid doesn't get him and spares the Jews ;)
https://naomiwolf.substack.com/p/this-jewess-says-rfk-jr-is-right
And here’s the Leftist to rain on everyone’s parade - again. You’re living up to the stereotype Comprof. You lot are regular Eeyore’s devoid of joy. You should visit the Ozarks, you never know you may crack a smile. But then again it my be too much for you to bear.
I do hope you find happiness someday though, preferably not at someone else’s expense.
Lol. I'm extremely happy. Have fun quite often.
Just don't think it would be wise for me to be around a massive group of drunk, white MAGA near a large body of water. That's all.
Two things, you’re incredibly poor at demonstrating you’re “happy” and definitely nowhere near “extremely”, unless we consider your politics.
Secondly, you don’t want to be around drunk MAGAs at the lake, that’s fine. Then at least try to get around people who don’t all think like you do without being puerile and incessantly peevish. Because unless you can do that, I strongly advise you don’t get anywhere near anybody enjoying a few beers at the any lake.
5 things...
1. I am living my best life. Never confuse online activities with what happens in real life. ;) Great finances, healthy and happy family, handsome, retiring early, etc. - things are going great! I know it feels good to tell yourself non-MAGA are all living in misery....but sorry, that's not the case.
2. You actually have no idea what my politics are, except I'm not a MAGA/Stephen Miller clone.
3. Have friends from a broad, varied background. Political and otherwise. You should probably take your own advice.
4. Have been boating at various lakes many times. Always have a great time. People find me very personable.
5. "Secondly, you don't want to be around drunk MAGAs at the lake, that's fine." Wow! Really?! THANK YOU!
He would die of fright seeing happy folks in the Ozarks.
It would be like seeing Aliens.
Nah. I'd probably die by some other cause.
Hahahaha! I’m sure they’re not as badly caught up in the snarky leftist mindset as his comments imply. Some people simply enjoy stirring the pot, hopefully that’s it with Comprof.
It’s a missed opportunity though, Comprof could put the leftist case and have a decent debate if they’d leave out the insults.
Lol. I was insulted from Day 1 on here. Return fire when it's given. So, just playing by the FP board rules.
Btw, not a leftists. Just not MAGA/Stephen Miller disciple.
He's not interested in debate.
Being a critic is the easiest job in the world, but a miserable existence. Glad he is here to prove it.
Sign me up!
And that is why the great plans that the intelligentsia have for America will fail abysmally...g.
The term "flyover state" drives me crazy. You mean where we grow food and make things?
I prefer that they just keep flying.
I like using the term because it describes very accurately and succinctly what coastal Leftists think of those of us who live in rural America. Every time I say the words, I'm calling out the elitism and bigotry of the Left.
As long as it is in air quotes! :-)
My uncle never graduated from college, but he worked hard in business and he’s got a beautiful lakefront property with a boat and a four-bedroom house. I know several people with similar circumstances.
This reminds me of an article I read, I think in the NYT, which purported to determine the best ice cream in America. The only candidates considered were in NY, New England, and CA. I'd had a few of them and can say with certainty that Graeter's in "flyover" Cincinnati blows the doors off of them all. The NYT writers probably never heard of it and had no idea how much they were missing out.
True. I live in a lake community in South Carolina. Sounds a lot like the community described in this article except more kids. In fact I remember thinking it sounded nice but that we really didn't need to go because I could get all that by walking out my front door!
Excellent take on the coastal elite mentality:
The middle of the country has to be reckoned with,” Jason Bateman said in August 2017, seven months into the Trump administration (of which he was not a fan, to put it mildly). “They’re comfortable, they’re happy down there, and there’s no real need for them to adjust or pivot to anybody else’s agenda.
Being “comfortable” and “happy” is a mortal sin to these virtue signaling asses!
Mencken said it best - "Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."
We're dealing with just a bunch of Cotton Mathers wearing Patagonia.
At least Cotton Mather wasn't a hypocrite.
Jason Bateman is a political shill?? On social media???
Show this lake to any of my relatives from China and they would tell you this is the true American dream.
You ought to visit.
Which? China? Or Lake of the Ozarks?
Han should visit Lake of the Ozarks. He was talking about how awesome it is. Han should go there and make friends.
There’s hundreds, if not, thousands of Lake of the Ozarks stories & people all over this US. Those described in this story are the majority. The coastal elites are just the help.
Exactly. We live on a Lake of the Ozarks year round. There are no finer people.
So what part of the Lake is the best to visit? Live in? Meaning like the NW area? Or the eastern side?
“A” Lake of The Ozarks, not “the” Lake of The Ozarks.
Someone tell the "majority" to stop giving money to the Cali/NYC companies that hate them.
They may give their money to whom they wish. Now, if they would stop voting them back in...
We don't vote for business leaders.
The money is the vote.
Take a hint from China and the Middle East. Stop giving the corporations your money, and they'll drop the moral posturing in a heartbeat.
YES! Money is a vote. If you keep giving money to companies or people you don't like, it doesn't matter if you verbally tell them they are wrong. Your dollars are telling them to keep on doing what they are doing.
Money is arguably the more important vote, because the political races are largely determined by money.
That too! And if they're really not swilling the Bud, that's huge.
and these are the people targeted by the covid shut downs to destroy the free and powerful middle american
Lol. 73% of U.S. GDP is created by blue cities/states.
Red states are welfare states.
I guess that’s why we’re seeing the mass exodus to the mostly red states. People just want to be on welfare. 🙄
This comment doesn't make any sense. These people earned their money in the blue states, benefiting off of blue state economies, and now want to benefit from lower prices and lower tax rates in the red states.
What I'd like to know is how many of the families moving to the red states have school-age kids, and how many of them will use the underfunded public schools that are a natural result of low taxes and the "I got mine and I don't care about anyone else" mentality.
I live in a very blue city in a very red state. My lefty friends don't send their kids to their neighborhood underfunded public schools either. They perform all the required lip service about public schools, until their children are school age, and then they send them to private school or to a higher quality public school in a better neighborhood. Every time. Dozens of examples.
There is not a "mass exodus" to red states.
Ok. If you say so. 🤣🤣🤣
https://www.newsweek.com/why-americans-are-fleeing-democratic-states-1795292?amp=1
Yes, I do say so.
There is no "mass exodus" to Mississippi, Alabama or Oklahoma, etc.
No matter what Sam Hartnick from the Conservative think tank "The Heartland Institute" says. ;)
No, but there IS a mass exodus to North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia. Texas too although it doesn't consider itself the South.
Don't believe your lying eyes. You probably want to stick with facebook and leave substack to the adults. Just sayin.....
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/13/opinion/sun-belt-migration.html
Certainly a lot of people moving to Florida.
Yeah....and they'll be moving right back out because they can't get their homes insured because all the companies are leaving the state....which Florida GOP have blamed on....<checks notes> "Wokeness"
The national "mass exodus" to "Red States" is a myth.
Nations are built on myths.
Out of 55 California counties, the vast majority are Red.
Pay no attention to compost. He's here for attention only.
He's the quintessential loser who never got picked in the pick-up basketball game.
Lol. Get picked all the time. Amazing handles, can take it to the rack. Great passer. Streaky shooter from the 3, but if I hit my first 2 or 3, gonna be a long afternoon.
Fascinating. What percentage of the GDP do they produce for the state?
GDP may be created by the blue states (don't know) but I would much rather live in the States that produce food, resources etc than the ones which provide 'services'. If they split it is clear which ones will starve and self-destruct and which will survive and then thrive.
No it isn't.
No they aren't.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/biden-voting-counties-equal-70-of-americas-economy-what-does-this-mean-for-the-nations-political-economic-divide/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/red-states-are-welfare-queens-2011-8%3famp
Brookings = laughingstocks
Lol. Fact. Many sources besides them corroborate the data.
Sorry. Mississippi is not a national economic powerhouse.
Gee that’s a big state what’s the population? 4 million?
something is very wrong with your thinking as you are confusing the oppressors (these blue city corporations) with their victims (ie their employees)
In the dark of the Black Hills of Rapid City, South Dakota last night at the Mt Rushmore patriotic lighting ceremony, hundreds of American families and visitors, filled the amphitheater...on a Tuesday.
We listened to stories of our American Revolution and the founding principles of our country “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. The Civil War pulled us apart but those principles drew us back together. “All men are created equal!” Our country flourished despite the struggles of developing a nation.
After the stories and the illumination of those rock faces and the crowd singing the National Anthem, with the many veterans and Gold Star families called to the stage, the flag was brought down slowly in total silence, carefully, reverently folded.
I do not doubt that this election is a sink or swim moment in our history. Our Lake of the Ozark freedoms require our sacrifice. We cannot be afraid to speak! To defend our wonderful American way! To point out that the emperor has no clothes!
Seriously lovely ceremony. I was there in 2020 and loved the sense of normalcy and joy from all the visitors and people working there and throughout that beautiful state.
Suzanne, what a wonderful experience! Thank you for sharing. Wish I could have been there.
If only all Americans could understand how close we are to the edge of destroying this Great Nation. And WHY?!
Yes! I think a few states are requiring more civics education in the grade schools. Hopefully that will shift things!
34+ year Manhattan resident, and this will not go the way you think...
In 2019, my older son went to Naval Flight School in Pensacola, Florida aka The Beach of the SEC. I just loved it. Florabama, white beaches, very very genuine people, and downtown Pensacola is filled with fun bars and restaurants. Navy towns are pretty much always fun...
For the two years that he was in "P-cola", I always drove down as planes are tough for my vaxx injured younger son with Autism. Same experience on the drive, great people along the way, and a little factoid, Pensacola, Florida is in the Central Time Zone.
Hope to get back...
#FlyNavy
#Kennedy24 - I want to help heal the divide with RFKJr.
The Florida Panhandle is The South. Glad you’ve enjoyed it! Beautiful beaches & lovely people. I met a great NJ couple in Grayton Beach summer of ‘20 who came on a whim bc it was open, super nice people. I’m a Republican but really like RFK. I would love to see him in charge of Health & Human Services in a Rep administration.
Alice, you make a good point.
I am not a WOKE Left anything, and like SO many Americans, I’m sick & tired of all the hatful decisive rhetoric, censoring BS!
RFK, Jr. is a prime example of the many Democrats (Elon, Bill Maher, Dave Rubin, Candace Owen, etc., etc., etc.) who quote Regan, “I didn’t leave the Democrat Party. It has left me!”
IF it should come down to it, I will vote for Kennedy. The alternative scares the hell out of me!
I drove on I-10 from Nola to Tampa a few months ago and was shocked to see that the panhandle is becoming, dare I say, fancier — booming with upscale beach communities. I predict this happens all along the Gulf Coast. It’s good for those states esp Mississippi.
Not a criticism but an observation: given the worsening of global warming bringing about increasingly ferocious storms with severe flooding (there was just some unusual, serious flooding in New York and Vermont)…is it a good idea to be building more beach communities in the path of hurricanes?
It has probably never been a real good idea to build in hurricane country. But it is not getting worse. http://tropical.atmos.colostate.edu/Realtime/index.php?arch&loc=global
And 7-8 inches of sea level rise per century are not a big problem (lengthy discussion):
https://curryja.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/special-report-sea-level-rise2.pdf
It's not sea level rise that is going to kill people, it's heat. Heatstroke can set in quickly even in young healthy people when the temperature goes above 100 degrees. It's estimated 70,000+ people died due to the last heat wave in Europe, where most places are not air conditioned.
What happens in Florida, Texas, or Arizona when it's 100+ for days on end and the power goes out for an extended period of time and cuts off the AC. A lot of places in the U.S. now are growing because of air conditioning. Last time I was in Austin, it was going from air conditioned car, to air conditioned restaurant, to air conditioned store, to air conditioned club, to air conditioned hotel.
[Edit] Meant to point out that a lot of older homes, especially in the South, were built pre-AC and designed to stay somewhat cooler in hot weather. Newer homes are sealed tight and, without AC, would be like convection ovens.
I live in San Antonio, and believe me I know it is hot. But globally, cold kills more people that heat. Bjorn Lonborg says climate change has saved about 166,000 lives per year (sorry I don't have a link, but pay walls.)
Thanks, I'll take a look at your sources.
Don’t know that the facts support the comment about global warming bringing increasingly ferocious storms. Certainly higher property damage because people are building on the coasts. Seems not to trouble the Obamas one whit.
I'm agnostic on this topic and I have no dog in the fight, because the opinions of so-called experts are all over the place, and politics inevitably overcomes the quest for a single, fact-based interpretation. Maybe there are too many variables, and we can't know. Geological evidence shows that the planet has gone through extreme climate shifts for millions of years, but never before with the dominant involvement of homo sapiens who are fiddling with the environment on a mass scale.
For what it's worth, I'm under the impression that the incidence and severity of hurricanes has increased. And if this season is any example, the weather is getting progressively hotter all over the world. Whether that's evidence of something more fundamental, I have no idea. Maybe we're just having a hot year. I really was just asking the question because it seems a little risky to me. But I'm not casting aspersions against people who build in Florida. BTW, my cousin lives on the Panhandle.
Not sure what to make of your comment about the Obamas. Do they have a special dome that protects them from bad weather? I know they live on Millionaire Island ... I was a tourist there for a couple of hours and recall that it seemed quaint, and also you can't drive a car there. Must be nice.
He’s saying they don’t actually believe it because if they did they wouldn’t spend millions to live on the ocean.
You’ve been lied to. If there were an actual existential crisis those screaming about it the most would actually make different decisions. Instead, John Kerry just took another private jet with Al Gore to tell you that you’re not allowed to have a gas stove or plastic straws.
just because it is HOT does not mean it is a "change". today the press bemoaned that it is hot in Texas. wow. really. and so hot that the record may be broken. the last time it was this hot. not millions of years ago. 1974.. it dis hot. get over it.. we are not killing the planet with your a/c or your auto..
Oh, you mean like the Obamas?
Yup, they're in there.
I’m sorry about your son with autism. My only grandson has autism, and fwiw, it has nothing to do with vaccinations. This is a terrible, dangerous myth that puts lives at risk. It’s why I won’t be supporting RFK Jr. Also fwiw, my dad was a Navy pilot who trained at Pensacola for deploying to Korea. He was also a Naval Academy graduate. My cousins were all either Navy or Marines, including one of the wives (a Marine). I have a lot of respect for the military and their families. Best wishes to you and yours.
Ann,
My father was a Navy Doctor, an Infectious Disease MD for 20 years, and Co-Chaired the "Victory Over Polio" campaign in Philadelphia from 1962-64. He left the Infectious Disease business in 1967, to go into Hospital Administration at Jefferson University Hospital.
My wife and I have penned a long 30 minute read article on our "Pro-Vaccine Safety" journey with Dustin:
https://outsidein51.substack.com/p/pro-vaccine-safety-in-2023-where
#FlyNavy
I have read your piece and appreciate that it has helped you and your wife cope emotionally and intellectually with your son’s severe autism. We are very lucky that our grandson is highly verbal and successful in his autism program in the McKinney, Texas public school system. We are hoping he will one day be self-sufficient, but only time will tell.
That said, the overwhelming weight of the scientific evidence is against you. The fear of vaccines causing autism seems to have started in 1998 with an article in The Lancet by one Dr. Andrew Wakefield. You mention him at the very end of your substack posts. Wakefield’s research was subsequently found to be fraudulent and not only retracted by The Lancet, but disowned by its co-authors. Wakefield was stripped of his medical license in the U.K. after the longest professional practice investigation and trial in British Medical Society history.
You also mention mercury in some of these vaccines. Yes, it has since been removed, but not because it was harmful. It existed in minuscule amounts and was deemed unnecessary, with removal being seen as a way to quell the controversy and spur an uptake of childhood vaccines. As for the onset of autism symptoms, many children with autism develop normally for up to 2 years before the symptoms present, with or without vaccines. Some studies with over 600,000 children in them have found absolutely no correlation whatever between childhood vaccines and the onset of autism. Hundreds of studies have taken place since the original Wakefield study (which only had 12 subjects) and its results have never been duplicated. Reproducible results are a hallmark of sound science.
As for the increase in the number of autism diagnoses, that is a result primarily of increased screening and a broader definition of what constitutes autism. Many boys with an Asperger’s diagnosis used to just be called “odd” or, as adults, a “closet case”. The same thing holds with ADHD. Boys who “can’t sit still” are now diagnosed as ADHD.
None of this will make your life any easier or remove your worries about the future. We have those same worries. My SIL doesn’t want any more children because he’s afraid they’ll also have autism. My daughter is fine with that decision. We all pray that our grandson will be able to take care of himself one day, but we know that day may never come. Nevertheless, on the question of vaccines, our family has reached a different conclusion from yours. May God Bless You and take care of you and of Dustin. Society has an obligation to care for the most vulnerable and we all need to work together with that goal in mind.
"At some point in that first year, he had his third DPT vaccine dose. That was the shot that put him over the edge. He screamed for 24 hours, and the babbling stopped. The language that typically follows never came."
You think my wife and I are lying?
No, not at all. Some children develop normally for up to 24 months before symptoms emerge. In others the symptoms emerge sooner, as early as 3 months. All I am saying is that just because one of the symptoms happened immediately after a vaccine was administered, doesn’t mean the vaccine caused it. Neither does the screaming. It was an unfortunate coincidence, but still just a coincidence.
My grandson with autism had no adverse reactions to any of his vaccinations, and he has also been vaccinated for Covid. Nothing adverse there with except that he got Covid the week after he was vaccinated but had no symptoms. His mom also got Covid, so they tested him and he was positive.
I have 3 children and every single time they went in for a “shot” I had to sign a waiver stating that the vaccine could cause a whole bunch of side effects (not autism) up to and including death. No doctor has ever said vaccines are risk free. But hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved by vaccines. That has been proven. That they cause autism or that the vaccination schedule causes autism has never been proven, not even circumstantially.
A lot of children scream for hours and hours, run high fevers, and have other problems immediately after getting a vaccine. It’s in the paper they make you sign. They don’t get autism. It was a horrible, awful coincidence. But I can’t persuade you or your wife of that. We have reached different conclusions. That is all.
Ann - Will simply say, you have no idea about that weekend. It's a Substack. I have watched 1/2 of the latest Wakefield podcast - https://rumble.com/v30thdi-andrew-wakefield-the-original-anti-vaxxer-quack-or-an-ethical-doctor-way-ah.html
My héros are: Rickover, Wakefield, Assange, and Snowden.
I have no interest in propping up this false medical world or military world that values money over people.
Read the Midwestern Doctor's substack about vaccines injuries. You would be surprised. And RFK Jr has a good point when he said "ever notice how there is no autism in my age group or a bit younger?" Boom...why is it autism all of a sudden is a thing? And it isn't just diagnosing it. You have a kid who is babbling and stops. You don't need a diagnosis as a mother to know something is amiss. What you need is a why. And vaccines could be a major part of that. Watch the documentary Unvaxxed....if you watch that and don't think vaccines can cause autism we have no hope for helping people make informed choice. And we are not informed...until now. Covid was the big informing. And some people will still choose vaccines. We should all have a choice.
Spent a year living the dream there myself. It really is great. Norfolk after that, which is underrated.
I agree that would be a really interesting article. Because according to the powers that be, you couldn’t catch COVID at a BLM riot but you could catch it at a Trump rally. Only Republicans spread COVID apparently.
AMEN. I laughed myself silly when they "traced" covid back to a single event weeks later..I was in the UK and had top be tested before getting in the plane ( remember that?) after the test ( in a spare room in a musty building administered by two fat women sitting on plastic chairs0 I asked. what now. they said your results will be in in 24 hours.. so f were positive? who cared. I could be a "super spreader" and go anywhere in the UK .. what hokum
Great observation.
BLM rally’s at the same time people are enjoying life @ Lake of the Ozark's.
COVID is no joke. A lot of people who didn't take it seriously and joked about it ended up dying from it. Most people, thankfully, recovered. Still, at the peak of the epidemic it certainly didn't hurt to take some precautions to avoid getting an airborne disease.
Agree it was no joke but to say it was ok for mass protesters to gather while churches etc were shut down defies logic.
The Left's permission for and support of the BLM protests is what made it clear to me that the Leftists in charge did not believe their own Covid rhetoric. Then it came out that the Leftist elites were partying with their friends while everyone else was on lockdown.
At all the parties they had over the summer only two people got Covid. Two. Neither died nor were hospitalized.
We’re out of the realm of possibility and into the realm of reality. No more could haves. Let’s look at what actually happened. It’s interesting to do so.
Great article, while it shows what middle America is, we need to motivate them to take action. Big government and control hungry liberals who grow rich while "serving" in government need to be defeated or this country falls just like all previous human experiments in human civilization. We may want to be left alone but need to get involved the restore government of the people.
Hundreds of thousands of poll workers and poll watchers are needed.
Aye, there's the rub: Between working and having fun, that which is required to allow both to continue gets squeezed out.
I've fond memories of spending time with my family at Grand Lake outside of Tulsa. Same vibe: down to earth, unpretentious MAGA folks eating fried food and getting sauced on domestic beer. Its a rite of passage all over the midwest for any family with a bit of extra money. The kind of simple joy that evades many striving city slickers saving up for their next overseas vacation.
Lara, I grew up on a beautiful East Texas lake, and my experiences were as yours (so many others)!
There were a lot of wealthy home owners (oil rich old & new money), but many modest, small lake houses. Plus a large number of working class who would come out on weekends & launch their fishing, or party boats at the public boat ramp.
Without except, everyone was courteous, polite, friendly, PATRIOTIC both Left & Right and helpful if need be.
Something about living on a Lake, or water in general (river, creek, ocean) seems to attract people who want to “live & let live” and “your rights end where my nose begins”!
Was in the Canyon Lake area in central Texas last week and had a conversation with the woman at the next lounge chair over at the pool - she is a realtor and said that there is a lot of tension in the town because California money is coming in and buying up all the lake houses for 200k, 300k over asking and it's pricing out locals, she said specifically teachers, firefighters, etc, who have been saving their whole lives to retire on the late. A sad state of affairs.
Ironically, Mr. Reeks, many California folks escaping / running from excessively high taxes & WOKE Left insane politics, are wanting to live in Red States. No State Income tax, Conservative (NOT hateful) politics + no homeless people lining our Lake shores, or town streets.
As a Texan, my only concern is these newcomers will want to bring those CA. politics here.
As a fellow Texan, I share those concerns. I live in south Texas where no Californian dares to tread haha but the number of Teslas with CA plates on the rare occasions I use highway 130 makes me want to vomit.
How about a child warning before you use a picture of DeLauro. Like to have spit my coffee out. What a poster person for Halloween. Cuban might be rich, but a punk is still a punk! He is the rich typical woke liberal who knows shit and you should worship his wisdom.
As for the normal American people in the article, love them and that is way, way closer to America than the hell holes of the Hampton, NYC, SF, Portland, Chicago, and the blood sucking woke liberals ideas of life.
Not even close to a comparison of who to hang with. Give me true patriotic, law abiding folks who stand up for true freedom I.e The Constitution!
Omg, my first thought was “that woman looks like a witch!” I mean she really does. Child warning for sure.
Hey, just because she lives in a gingerbread house and small children seem to disappear in her neighborhood, doesn't mean she's a witch.
I read her Wikipedia page, and there’s a photo of her giving a speech in 2016 that is just terrifying. She’s shouting into the microphone and when you click and enlarge the photo, my god it’s scary.
Terry, DeLauro is what - 80 now? Last I read, worth $24 Million. Politics seems to be a lifelong appointed career and pays REALLY well!
You made excellent points!
Which picture was DeLauro and who is he? (Asking for a friend..)
Casey, not sure about picture, either, but DeLauro is a woman (80 yrs. old, born 1943) Liberal Democrat.
Max, Bari, now you've done it! A story about middle Americans in middle America having a good time, and also mostly Trump supporters, a story that when seen by the coastal nannies in media and government will start their hair on fire. I expect John Kerry, Bill Gates and others to be flying in on their private, carbon spewing jets to lecture these rubes about all that is wrong with them, while their little weanie assistants start writing regulations to STOP THIS, NOW!
First they'll come for the boats....
That’s a frightening possibility. Luckily this crowd also owns plenty of firearms. Me, I’d give them my gun before my boat lol.
DH and I just came back from a trip across this great land, 5,000 miles and 17 days later my confidence has been restored in the USA. From shore to shore we met and spoke with many people who all want the same thing; to be left alone, to raise their children, to work an honest living to give their children a better life than theirs, to be able to work and live without government interference. From Florida to California and back again, the same stories from all walks of life, so many people feel the same way. If one was to listen to the news media tell it, you would believe that we are in the middle of a civil war, that the unrest and violence in the US is staggering. That is why it should be on everyone's bucket list to get out there, on the ground and visit the flyover states and meet and talk to people. It really helps your morale and gives you new hope for our future.
Amen. We vacation mostly by taking our RV to kid-friendly parks around Texas and there is nowhere I'd rather be - around cheerful down to earth people who love their kids and the Lord and really enjoy a good laugh, a good meal, and a float down the river with a cold beer or three.
500 counties Biden vs 2500 counties Trump
Great story that captures a “feel” I hope is strong enough in the ‘24 elections to allow Biden to continue snoozing somewhere other than the White House.
It was strong enough in '20 (and '18 and '22 as well). It just wasn't prepared for the massiveness of the cheat.