Our Changing Demographic

Our Changing Demographic

It has to be evident to any alert and unbiased observer, that the world, including the United States, is becoming more homogeneous.  I posit that although cultural issues, like identity politics, may have some minor influence on this homogenization, it is occurring because of increased communication and interaction between the peoples, races and ethnic groups of the world.  One does not need to be a studied anthropologist to note the historic intermingling and assimilation of people of varied backgrounds.  Given enough time, people that originally may have looked and thought differently will inter-mingle and become indistinguishable.  Historically this has taken centuries, but time is compressed in our modern information/communications environment, so the process accelerates.

We can see this in America probably more that in more insular Asia, Africa and Europe.  The U.S. has been called the “melting pot” in the past when referring to European immigration and assimilation.  The term truly applies in modern terms to all of the diverse people living, loving and inter-marrying in America.  We are becoming an amalgamation of Caucasian, African, Asian, Native American and other racial and ethnic groups.  We can already see this in our glossy advertising, TV commercials and news focus.  Whereas not long ago, our idealized male and female icons were white, blue-eyed and blond, they have increasingly become darker skinned, brown-eyed and dark haired.

Not that long ago, in the early and middle twentieth century, this trend was resisted and called “mongrelizing” by white supremacists, primarily in the southern U.S.  Although there are still small pockets with such beliefs, this racism has been largely overcome in the U.S., fueled by the civil rights movement of the later half of the last century, by laws establishing equal rights for ALL Americans and by culturally based social trends.  To hear some in our current political environment throw the term “RACIST” around, one would think that we are a “RACIST” country.  These radicals would belie the history of the past 250 years by trying to bring past racial transgressions into the present, destroying statues and art that are deemed offensive, and calling for reparations for events that occurred hundreds of years ago.

So the quintessential “average American” (and eventually average person in the world), will become somewhat darker skinned and darker haired, and have slightly slanted darker eyes.  We will also probably be a little shorter, less muscular and with bigger heads to accommodate more brain power in our meat computers.  According to Ray Kurzweil and others, we may also be merged with the small phones and computers that we love so well and become cyborgs, completing our march against prejudice in general, and incorporating machines in the mix.

July 30, 2019

Ray Gruszecki

The Dems Just Can’t Win

The Dems Just Can’t Win

The dems and leftists just can’t catch a break! All of their many attempts to derail this president have failed. First their inexorable march toward Obama/Clinton style secularism, and political correctness was interrupted by that brash, outspoken and overtly anti identity politics interloper, Donald Trump. And this happened in spite of the democrat/leftist collusion/conspiracy with foreigners like the Russians and Christopher Steele, more collusion/conspiracy with the fifth column within the Justice Department/FBI, and almost universal mainstream media efforts to keep Trump from being elected.

Next came riots and cars burning in the streets after Trump’s election, perpetrated by “the resistance”, or antifa, with the violence justified as “anti-racist”, although there were rare, if any racist occurrences. Sadly and unfortunately, a white supremacist at a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, killed a woman protester with his car, and the media added great amounts of fuel to the fire.

This was followed by the ruthless and false vilification of Trump appointees like Judge Brett Kavanaugh and his backers with leftist mobs not only rioting, but also accosting Trump administration officials in the streets, in restaurants and in their homes. The dems produced false witnesses who lied about Kavanaugh’s activities 25 years ago, and the media piled on and literally destroyed this upstanding Judge and his family. Truth prevailed, however, and Kavanaugh was confirmed to the supreme court.

Then came the greatest effort to finally and forever, remove Trump from office and possibly put him in jail, the special investigation by Robert Mueller and his hand-picked, mostly Obama and Clinton affiliated democrats. This would prove that the Trump campaign colluded/conspired with Russia, and that Trump had illegally obstructed justice and either broken the law, or committed impeachable offenses. Mueller was represented by the leftists and their mainstream media cohorts as their “superhero”

Getting any legislation done, even with small majorities in the House and Senate during the first two years of the Trump administrations were nearly impossible due to the hue and cry of those who called themselves “the resistance” (as if they were in Vichy France). Trump unwound many of Obama’s (some illegal), executive orders with some of his own executive orders aimed at removing restrictions on business and economic activity. A tax reduction bill was eked through congress, - and the economy and stock markets took off and most people’s economic lives improved.

All of this in spite of patently leftist district and circuit court judges hampering Trump’s efforts at every turn, necessitating action in higher courts, including the Supreme Court, with the Trump administration winning most of these higher court decisions.

The mid-term elections turned the House democrat, and even minimal legislative effort pretty much stopped. Under the auspices of Pelosi as speaker, and committee chairs like Nadler, Schiff, Cummings and Maxine Waters, activity in the House turned to trying to find charges against Trump that would lead to impeachment. Many subpoenas were issued, leading to a showdown between executive and legislative branches of government concerning extent of powers.

Also, with the dem’s majority, came a new phenomenon – newly elected congresswomen that are activist, virulently ant-Trump, socialist, anti-Israel and verbally anti-American. They essentially formed a social media cabal that is challenging Speaker Pelosi and the mainstream democrat party, and succeeding in moving the democrat party to the extreme, if not radical left wing, and away from anywhere near middle America.

Then the next of many catastrophes for the leftists. The vaunted Mueller report, all 448 pages, was finally released, and found no collusion by the Trump administration with Russia, and with Attorney General Barr’s help, also found no crime of obstruction of justice on Trump’s part, The report contains inflammatory and erroneous language that the investigation “does not exonerate Trump”, as if they were a court and jury that could “exonerate” him, rather than an investigative body that found no crime. Attorney General Barr released the 98% unredacted report to the public, which he was not legally obliged to do. Months of meaningless argument about redactions followed. Robert Mueller issued a prepared statement that he is closing down the investigation, the findings of the report are final, and that these are his last words on the matter.

Next, the final straw. Robert Mueller is brought before Nadler’s Judiciary committee and Schiff’s Intelligence committee. It was literally painful to watch much of Robert Mueller’s testimony before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees. Mueller’s fumbling and ill-informed responses revealed pretty quickly that he had lost a few steps, and also probably a few neurons with time and age.

Clearly, he did not want to be there, and his halting responses somewhat explained his secretive and enigmatic behavior during the three year-long special investigation into collusion, obstruction and myriad other implied political sins and wrong-doings of which Trump and his administration were accused. It was also pretty readily apparent that Robert Mueller was a mere figurehead in the vaunted “Mueller investigation”, rather than a knowledgeable and active participant.

Not to belabor Mueller’s obvious diminished capacity and knowledge, but let’s remember that the Mueller’s investigation took nearly three years, cost us, the taxpayers somewhere around $30 million, and resulted in “no collusion” with Russia, and politically charged verbiage like “did not EXONERATE Trump from obstruction”, which is legally meaningless, but which was apparently made a feature of the report to inflame impeachment advocates.

It does not take an advanced law degree to understand that only a court and a trial jury can EXONERATE someone, and the Mueller group was an investigative body, and not a jury. They could not EXONERATE anyone. They could only determine whether or not a crime had been committed. It was not. There was no crime. But the reference to “NOT EXONERATING” Trump irresponsibly set off another round of democrat committee action, at taxpayer expense, including this latest testimony by Mueller, to “finally get Trump”, (for the umpteenth time).

Say what you like about Trump and his bizarre assertions and tweets that sometimes seem “off the wall”, and later are proven to have had some degree of truth. One such is Trump’s depiction of “Mueller and his 13 angry democrats”. This certainly rings true now, after Mueller’s fiasco before congress.

And although it should have ended a long time ago, even before what some are now calling the Weissmann Investigation (after Mueller’s activist lieutenant), the beat goes on, with Nadler, Schiff, Cummings and others continuing to spend taxpayer dollars in their empty “investigations” of Trump. More subpoenas, more rabid conspirational polemics by CNN, MSNBC, the NYT, the WaPo, What will really end it? A resounding republican victory in 2020, with functional majorities in both houses. This may sound like wishful thinking, but with AOC and her “squad” driving the democrats further and further to the extreme left and away from mainstream America, its not out of the question

Ray Gruszecki

July 28, 2019

The “Squad”

The “Squad”

The “squad” of four controversial and seemingly anti-American “women of color”, are American citizens and also elected members of congress.  They can express their opinions under the first amendment, just like any American citizen, and they have the forum of notoriety to make their views more widely known than most of us. 

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and perhaps less so, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, have become identified as socialist, anti-American, anti-Semitic radicals, expressing views that have sometimes bordered on treason and sedition, and that have turned a good part of the country against them.  AOC’s recent poll numbers show a 22% approval rating, and Omar’s show a 9% rating.

We cannot deny the “squad’s” right to tear down and denigrate America and lie about its abuses, any more than we can deny Kaepernick, Rapinoe and some NFL players the right to disrespect the American flag and national anthem under the first amendment.  That doesn’t mean we have to like it, and to condone and accept such anti-American behavior, and most of us, apparently including President Trump, will not just passively accept it.

If the perpetrators of any controversial actions have any tinge of color, the object of their disrespect is forgotten, and cries of “RACISM” are taken up, as were many criticisms of the Obama administration while he was president.  Trump has done more to enhance the economic well-being of minorities than Obama or most other presidents have done.  Still he is called “RACIST” whenever he criticizes anything controversial perpetrated by anyone with a tinge of color.  Of course, to be honest, tact is not his forte when tweeting his opinions, and he is often misunderstood as “RACIST”.

Trump’s latest tweet war seems to be aimed at highlighting just how socialist, radical and out of the mainstream the democrat party has become.  By supporting and identifying with the radical “squad” in a public forum, the whole country can see for themselves how hypocritical the democrats are, and how far toward radicalism, socialism and communism they have turned.  Trump could have been more tactful and presidential about it, but as we have seen many times before, he is Trump.

Ray Gruszecki

July 17, 2019

Ouroboros

Ouroboros

First a few seemingly unrelated items:

1.)    The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail.

 

2.)    Democratic Primary, June, 2018

Candidate	Vote	Pct.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez	15,897	57.5%
Joseph Crowley*	11,761	42.5%

            Margin of victory –                           4,136          votes

3.)    An anonymous Democratic group leaked an internal poll to Axios on Sunday that shows "swing voters" deeply dislike prominent progressive lawmakers, deepening a public rift within the party.

The poll found that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had a 22% approval rating and Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota had a 9% approval rating among 1,003 "likely general-election voters who are white and have two years or less of college education" and knew of the two outspoken lawmakers.

"If all voters hear about is AOC, it could put the [House] majority at risk," a Democrat involved in the 2020 congressional races told Axios. "She's getting all the news and defining everyone else's races."

Why did Trump choose to take on and attack rhetorically, the “squad”, comprising of four “congresswomen of color”- all outspoken, all socialist and from their rhetoric, all decidedly anti-American, anti-Israeli, anti law and order, pro Al Queda, and on and on and on.  To most of us, these four are not a very good example of what a responsible congressperson should be.  And to most of us, Trump’s twitter attacks also seem irresponsible.  Of course the left and their media backers shout “RACISM”, as they do about just about anything else that Trump does.

We can join a lot of the hub-bub and say that Trump is being petulant if not overtly racist.  But  perhaps we should ask, maybe he is as dumb as a sly old fox, causing the democrats to eat their own tail like the Ouroboros.  Some people say that Trump’s attack on “the squad” caused the democrats to band together and heal the rift being caused by their socialist left.  I have to ask who was up there representing the democrats and loudly advertising extremist positions while acting the “women of color” victim card?  Has not Trump caused the democrats to shift publicly even more to the extreme left by supporting this outlier “squad”?  He has called out these four congresswomen for being against America, not because of their race.

I really think that Trump has been around long enough to know exactly what he is doing.  He has countless times seemed wrong or way off base, only to be ultimately vindicated.  Of course he is rarely, if ever given credit by the left and their media minions.

Ray Gruszecki

July 16, 2019

The Duality of Our Laws and Practices

The Duality of Our Laws and Practices

One has to ask the question – “why are prominent democrats still in power while comparable republicans have been drummed out of office by the rabid left wing and biased mainstream media?”.

What comes immediately to mind on the democrat’s side are Governor Ralph Northam, Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax and Attorney General Mark Herring, all of Virginia; and Kim Foxx, Cook County Illinois States’ Attorney in the Jussie Smollett case.

From “Real Clear Politics” – “A picture of a man in blackface on Northam’s medical school yearbook page surfaced, and during a press conference, Northam insisted he was not in the yearbook photo but admitted he had once worn blackface. Virginia’s Attorney General, Mark Herring, said, “It is no longer possible for Gov. Northam to lead our Commonwealth.”  The Democrat who would succeed Northam, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, then was accused by a detailed statement released by a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her 15 years ago.  Later Herring, the Democrat who would succeed Fairfax, admitted he had worn blackface while in college”.  All three of these men are still in power in Virginia.  If they were republicans, the unwavering left-wing press would have drummed them out long ago.

Kim Foxx arbitrarily dismissed all charges against Jussie Smollett after alleged conversations with Clinton and Obama contacts.  She is embroiled in a special prosecutor investigation, but still wields power in Cook County.

On the republican side, numerous officials have resigned or been fired after only hints of impropriety.  The latest is Alex Acosta, Labor Secretary, who was involved in a past plea deal involving the “villain of the hour”, Jeffrey Epstein.  Associates of Epstein, like Bill Clinton, are given a free pass.

Other notable republicans who were forced out or “doxed” out by the overactive, leftist oriented mainstream media were Rob porter and Pat Shanahan due to hints of domestic impropriety.  The most egregious situation is that of Mike Flynn, for talking to Russians and falling into an FBI perjury trap.

It is increasingly evident that separate levels of laws and justice have evolved as common usage, depending on whether one is democrat or republican in this country.  The left wing ignores and derides our laws, and characterizes any attempt to apply many duly passed laws as “racist” or “homophobic” or “misogynist”.  Examples abound, and the most egregious are the lies and innuendos being spread by activist leftists about child abuse at the border, “sanctuary cities and states”, leftist antifa thugs wreaking violence on our streets, and permissiveness toward squatters that effectively promotes medieval filth and disease in leftist run cities.  Letting left wing bad actors skate is just an outgrowth of the democrat/socialist mantra.

We must get a handle on these inequities in our society. The Trump administration tries, most times in face of an obstructionist congress.  But the cultural pressure from the preponderance of mainstream media, coastal and urban elitists, Hollywood demigods and biased circuit courts, can be overwhelming.  Not to say that everything that Trump proposes is right, but at least he seems to be trying to preserve American values and law and order.

By analogy, if we do not bring some balance to our country from outlandish socialist practices and proposals, we risk following poor Venezuela down the path to socialist and politically correct ruin.

Ray Gruszecki

July 13, 2019

Donald Trump – Patriot or Demon?

Donald Trump – Patriot or Demon?

To hear the leftists, or liberals, or progressives, or democrats, or socialists, say it, Donald Trump is literally the embodiment of evil.  He is the devil incarnate.  He should be impeached and imprisoned.  Why, you ask?  Well, while his enemies obfuscate the real answer, and cite myriad sins and moral peccadilloes dating from Trump’s age five, the real reason they hate him so much is because he beat them in the 2016 presidential election and continues to rub their noses in their defeat.

This brash, outspoken, “in your face” billionaire New Yorker is not your normal politician.  He is part businessman, part showman, part populist demagogue, who has harnessed the populist and patriotic currents of mainstream America into a viable political movement, and replaced traditional republicanism with an active, right wing populism.  For every derogatory editorial by the New York Times or the Washington Post, or by the Krugmans or Reichs or Blows of the left, there is a counter-swell of patriotism and pro-Americanism at one of Trump’s rallies, broadcast by Fox News to over half of the real country, and not only to the coastal and urban elites that the pro-left mainstream media targets.

To those of us Burkean, Smithian, Kirkian Buckley conservatives/libertarians, Donald Trump is an enigma and difficult for some to follow, as evidenced by the sizable number of anti-Trumpeans in the conservative community.  Many of us, however, dismiss his overtly roughshod personality, and concentrate on the truly beneficial results for our country that he and his administration have instituted.

It has to be obvious to any rational and honest observer, that Trump’s removal of overly restrictive regulations on business and industry is the main reason for the booming economy we now have in this country.  Leftists will tell us that the recovery started under Obama, (and it would have continued at a 1 ½ % rate under Obama’s regulations, not the nearly 4% under Trump).

The left will continue to disparage and denigrate anything beneficial that the Trump presidency has done or will do.  They continue to try to convince all of us that he is truly evil, and is destroying America.  In fact, by coaching himself in the red, white and blue mantle of patriotism, law and order, and conservative values, Trump has slowed the leftist rush of radical cultural identity politics, and preserved a little of our historical and cultural past.  That does not mean that the cultural war has been won, but it does mean that the headlong rush to outrageous and radical ideas has been slowed a little.

It’s obvious that Trump is no saint.  But it is also obvious to anyone who is truly honest, that he is not the selfish, racist bigot that he has been painted by the hypocritical left.  The left cite megalomania and narcissism as the reasons that Trump left his billionaire lifestyle to become president, and to be reviled and have himself and his family dragged through the mud by his leftist detractors.  That is a bit of a far reach.  It is much more likely that Trump has a true streak of patriotism to go with his overly large personality, and that he really wants to redress the abuses and ills he sees in our country.

I personally worked in New York City during Trump’s rise to wealth and to public prominence in the 1960-80’s.  I must admit that I was not a fan, since I am not particularly attracted to Trump’s brand of public display.  Having said that, and remembering recent Washington politics, anything is better than the do-nothing governments of both of our conventional political parties.  IMHO, let Trump and his brand of populism have their chance.

Ray Gruszecki

July 10, 2019

Conservatism, Socialism and Where We’re Heading

Conservatism, Socialism and Where We’re Heading

My roots are blue collar FDR democrat out of Western Massachusetts.  Being Polish Yankees (an oxymoron) from the Berkshires hill country, my folks (particularly my father), although they were members of the democrat party, did not swallow the democrat party line whole.  There was disagreement with the democrats’ social programs, even then.  My people were hardy and self-reliant, and did not look to government for support, even during the depression of the 1930’s.  My dad termed Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps “We Poke Around”, and preferred cutting logs or trees for paper pulp in the forests on his own, to raking leaves in state parks.

I find it appalling that politics has become so diametrically polarized in our country.  Rather than meaningful and cogent opposition political parties, we have a hatred fueled socialism from the left, and a personality-fueled populism from the right.  The days of meaningful dialogue in the House and Senate are things of the past, and have been replaced by obstructionism and rank party politics. 

This is certainly not the first time that political discord has led to major divisions in our country.  I am old enough to remember the race and anti-war strife and riots of the 1960’s that we thought would truly rip the country apart.  And, of course, the granddaddy of all disagreements, - the states’ rights and slavery issues that led to civil war in the mid-19^th century, and to the death of nearly three quarters of a million Americans.  Our current political strife, fueled basically by a strong hatred of the president, pales by comparison.

Through education, experience and a long life, I am basically a republican, a Burkean & John Adams and Kirkian conservative, and I have some libertarian leanings a la Buckley.  Having said that, I am an open- minded debater of issues of interest, with nowhere near a closed conservative mind on these issues.  I have voted for viable opposition democrats and independents in the past through the years, though not a great number of times. 

I typically watch Fox News and read the Wall Street Journal and National Review, because frankly, the other cable channels and the rest of the mainstream media are so left wing oriented, that they are nauseating to me.  They are essentially propaganda outlets for the leftists and are extremely biased.  The right and center news media I frequent seem much more honest and open to meaningful debate and dialogue.

The democrats are really shooting themselves in the foot with what seems a headlong rush into socialism.  Consider their platform – obvious Marxist socialism and/or communism, late term abortions bordering on infanticide, open borders with enfranchisement and free health care for illegal aliens, defund the military, repeal the second amendment and confiscate firearms, restrictive controls on the economy in the name of climate control, suppress free speech on college campuses and lawful public assemblies by violence as necessary, reparations for 160 years past slavery, remove electoral college, increase taxes for all Americans, wealth redistribution targeting the wealthy and successful.

If this is not enough, democrats would have impressionable young people question their sex and gender and which bathroom to use.  Democrats would identify subgroups and treat people differently depending on what sub group they belonged to, rather than treating all Americans equally, no matter what their skin color or origins or sexual orientation.  This is democrat “metoo” and “woke” and identity politics in action.  Seemingly, next come thought police and incarceration of dissidents to the algorithmic views of the democrats and their tech giant allies, who slant our very research on the internet.

This is a dystopian picture.  What can be done?  The 30-40% of the country who resist this leftist bullshit need to ensure that we elect republicans and conservatives to the congress.  We can’t allow our young people to be coerced by the siren song of socialist “free stuff” being pushed by slick talking democrats, the mainstream media and the Hollywood and coastal elitists.  The democrats are no longer a viable opposition political party.  They surely do hate Trump and hide behind this hatred, but they have become socialists, cut from the same cloth as Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin.  They will truly destroy our country in their present configuration.   They are no longer mainstream.  They need to become mainstream again if we are to consider any of their proposals as realistic for America.

So we need to stay republican and conservation (and libertarian).  Conservatism is not staying stuck in some euphoric past.  Conservatism is remembering the past (and the moral and ethical principles that define us), and applying those lessons to our present.  Conservatism is not forgetting that the various forms of socialism being proposed again for our country, resulted in the deaths of nearly 120 million human beings in the twentieth century.  Conservatives like Edmund Burke and John Adams opposed the French Jacobin mobs that were beheading people in the 18^th century.  Modern conservatism opposes the antifa thugs who are violently accosting law-abiding citizens in Portland, Oregon, and the “politically correct” leftists who would strip rational civilization from our society.

Ray Gruszecki

July 3, 2019