What Kind of Country?

 

What Kind of Country?

 What kind of country have we become?  When a demented criminal killer, free after numerous violent crimes, on minimal, so-called social justice, bail, can plow into a Christmas parade and kill and maim innocent people, including children?  Or the media and left-wing mobs (and Joe Biden), neglect the evidence and verdict, and condemn a young man protecting himself from being killed, as a “white supremacist?  This is “wokeness” and identity politics, and so-called social justice, gone wild.

 How have many in our society have become a lawless, police hating, anarchic mob, destroying our liberties and heritage in a chaotic, city-burning frenzy, to the cheers of a corrupt, lying media that either withholds real news, or spews “woke” propaganda in place of the news?

 How can rational, thinking people be swayed into accepting and backing avowed Marxist organizations like “Black Lives Matter”, posing as valid social justice movements, when they and their Antifa buddies, kill, loot, burn and destroy, with no repercussions?  These Marxist organizations, and their violent ways, have perverted our constitutional right of assembly and protest.

 Where do these anti-society and anti-American ideas come from?  Well, they are expressed in writing by the Marxist founders of BLM, and by the German founders of Antifa.  Their roots are in Marx, Engels and Lenin.  They have been embellished by the sophomoric views of young congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and others of “the squad”, a powerful socialist clique in the house of representatives.  These anti-American, socialist views have become embedded in the democratic party platform, and in Joe Biden’s administration. 

 Defunding the police, low bail or no bail release, and other anti-law and order measures are regular fare in democrat run cities and states, and backed with resounding headlines and chyrons in the mainstream media.  Noted figures, like Paul Krugman, Robert Reich and many other left-wing spokesmen regularly support the anti-law garbage that resulted in the Waukesha massacre by a demented black criminal out on $1000 bail.

 After ten months of Biden and his Marxist backers, we have high inflation, food and fuel shortages, unvetted people and drugs (including Fentanyl) streaming across our southern border, Americans stranded in Afghanistan, and a doddering old fool leading us into socialism, or worse.

 Biden was put into the presidency by the same elements that are leading the country into socialism.  The methods used by the left would be worthy of any communist dictatorship or banana republic.  Swing state voting laws were changed in violation of the U.S. Constitution.  News was withheld and altered to affect voters’ opinions.  Ballot discrepancies and aberrations were dismissed as “conspiracy theories”.  Efforts to uncover election fraud were treated as “misinformation”.

 We can save our republic by voting the bad actors out of office, and taking back our country.  Will our future elections be viable and robust enough to handle an honest election?  Not if democrat operators like Stacey Abrams, backed by big-buck anarchist-democrats like George Soros, and others, have their way.

 Ray Gruszecki

November 23, 2021

Poland’s Kaczynski Twins

Poland’s Kaczynski Twins

 Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski are identical Polish twin brothers and lawyers who founded the conservative Law and Justice Party in Poland in 2001, as an offshoot of the original Solidarity Party.  The twins share a surname, but are not related to infamous American serial “unabomber”, Ted Kaczynski.

 Lech Kaczynski was president of Poland, and Jaroslaw Kaczynski was Prime Minister in 2006-2007. The brothers were the first pair of brothers in the world to serve as president and Prime Minister of a country and the only twin brothers to do so.

 Lech Kaczynski was still President of Poland in April of 2010, when a Tupolev Tu-154M plane that was carrying him, his wife, and other members of a Polish delegation to commemorate the Katyn massacre, crashed while approaching Smolensk Air Base in Russia. Lech Kaczynski was one of 96 people killed in the crash, which included many of Poland's highest military and civilian leaders.

 The remaining twin brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski continues to lead the ultra-conservative Law and Justice Party.  In 2020, Kaczyński became deputy prime minister in the Mateusz Morawiecki government.  Kaczyński stated in mid-October 2021 that he will step down as the deputy prime minister at the beginning of 2022 in order to focus on his leadership of his party.

  

Law and Justice (PiS) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Poland. It is a member of the Eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists Party at European Union level.  With 198 seats in the Polish Sejm and 48 in the Senate, PiS is currently the largest political party in the Polish parliament, and the dominant party of the United Right ruling coalition.  The current twenty-five PiS MEPs sit in the European Conservatives and Reformists Group in the European Parliament.

 The law and Justice Party is authoritarian, pro-Catholic Church, anti-abortion, anti-gay, and fiscally conservative.  In a fragmented European political environment, PiS won the 2015 parliamentary election with an outright majority—something no Polish party had done since the fall of communism.  Much of the party’s support comes from the “common man”, particularly in the southeast of Poland, forgotten by the left-wing politicians of the EU. 

 Due to political changes brought about by PiS, Poland has been termed an "illiberal democracy", "plebiscitarian authoritarianism", or "velvet dictatorship with a façade of democracy".  Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s politics have been caricatured as "Kaczyzm".

 Ray Gruszecki

November 22, 2021

The Propagandist Media

 

The Propagandist Media

 Josef Goebbels was a Nazi, and chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945. He was one of Adolf Hitler's closest and most devoted acolytes, known for his skills in public speaking and the use of the news media to influence public opinion in Germany in the 1930’s and 1940’s.

 Josef Goebbels would be proud of our American left-wing propagandist news media machine that creates positive myths about our leftist politicians and issues, and either withholds positive news about the opposition, or flat out and out lies about them.

 Once prestigious newspapers of record like the New York Times, and many other newspapers and magazines and radio and TV outlets, are nothing more than propaganda tools for the emerged Marxist left.  The few news outlets that try to report the straight truth, are reviled as “racist”, or “white supremacist”, or of “spreading misinformation”.  In effect, the left-wing propagandists create false news, and then attack those trying to report the truth.

 It is a sad state of affairs, when a corrupt and biased news media can affect the outcomes of elections, including a presidential election, by hiding and obfuscating the actual news.  An example is Hunter Biden’s laptop and how its contents implicate the corrupt Biden crime family.  There are myriad other example of media lying and cover-up, like holding back positive news about the the first successful vaccine until after the election, and on and on.

 We are not all gullible sheep in this country, slavishly watching and reading left-wing media.  A quick survey shows that national left-wing newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post are continuing to lose paid circulation, while the right-center or neutral newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, continues as the number one newspaper in circulation in the country.  Similarly, the number one news outlet is Fox News, while CNN, MSNBC and the networks continue to hemorrhage viewers.

 So, all is not lost.  Abraham Lincoln’s famous quote is - “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time.”    If enough people stop being fooled by the current band of Marxists in Washington, perhaps we can save our great republic.

 Ray Gruszecki

November 17, 2021

Covid History and Statistics

 

Covid History and Statistics

 Some informative statistics about the Covid pandemic for 10 the months while Trump was president, and the 10 months after Biden was inaugurated.

 To tweak our memories, the Trump administration got hit with a previously unknown “novel” Corona virus in early 2020.  They had no vaccine, but immediately initiated steps to develop one, (or two, or three).  They had no precedents or procedures on how to handle the pandemic, and they had been left depleted stockpiles of protective gear to counter the disease.  They were literally flying by the “seat of their pants”, and they brought in experts like Drs. Fauci and Brix, to provide some medical and scientific expertise.

 And let’s remember, all this to the continuing drumbeat from the left-wing politicians and press against President Trump, his personality, his tweets, and his sanity.

 There were 24,809,697 cases of Covid and 411,517 deaths from Covid in the U.S., from March 1, 2020, until Biden took office in January, 2021.  This 10 month period was essentially without any vaccines, and with procedures being developed from scratch, to the constant continuing criticism of the left.  The Covid pandemic was handled within our federalist system of government, under recommendations of the medical doctors and scientists.  The Trump administration provided federal assistance, (hospital ships, etc.) as necessary.

 There have been 23,350,398 cases of Covid and 375,234 deaths in the U.S. in the 10 months under Biden’s watch, from his inauguration, to mid-November, 2021, or nearly as many in the 10 months under Biden as in the 10 months under Trump.  This latter is with three effective vaccines that the Biden administration inherited from Trump, and accompanied with all sorts of dictatorial federal mask and vaccine mandates, and erosion of individual rights and liberties.

 The Covid pandemic is just another example of “the gang that can’t shoot straight” botching another situation where the solution was handed to them “on a platter”, in the form of three working vaccines, and a framework for their effective use.

 As with most things from the left, they are smarter than we are, (or so they think), and they know what’s best for us, even if it tramples all over our rights, and the Constitution. These Biden idiots had to impose heavy-handed federal mandates for masks and vaccines, rather than letting science, medicine, and our federalist system work.  Rather than curing Covid faster, they just pissed off half the country.

 Pity our poor republic under the ineptness and incompetence of the Marxist cabal that is running our government.  The mid-term election in 2022, and the next presidential election in 2024 can’t come fast enough to get these purveyors of nonsense outta here.

 Ray Gruszecki

November 17, 2021

This is a collection of articles on climate change.

 

This is a collection of articles on climate change. 

 What is known, is that the earth is warming.  What is conjectured and supported primarily by the opinions, of scientists, politicians and the news media, is how much of this warming is the result of human activity.  Equally compelling arguments can be drawn for both points of view.  Here are some of them.

 

PRO – Climate Change Caused by Human Activities

 https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/what-evidence-exists-earth-warming-and-humans-are-main-cause

 We know this warming is largely caused by human activities because the key role that carbon dioxide plays in maintaining Earth’s natural greenhouse effect has been understood since the mid-1800s. Unless it is offset by some equally large cooling influence, more atmospheric carbon dioxide will lead to warmer surface temperatures. Since 1800, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased from about 280 parts per million to 410 ppm in 2019. We know from both its rapid increase and its isotopic “fingerprint” that the source of this new carbon dioxide is fossil fuels, and not natural sources like forest fires, volcanoes, or outgassing from the ocean

 

 https://scienceexchange.caltech.edu/topics/sustainability/evidence-climate-change

 In its Fifth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group of 1,300 independent scientific experts from countries all over the world under the auspices of the United Nations, concluded there's a more than 95 percent probability that human activities over the past 50 years have warmed our planet.

 The industrial activities of modern civilization have raised atmospheric carbon dioxide levels from 280 parts per million to 414 parts per million in the past 150 years. The panel also concluded there's a better than 95 percent probability that human-produced greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide have caused much of the observed increase in Earth's temperatures over the past 50 years.

 https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/are-humans-major-cause-global-warming

 Humans cause climate change. How do we know?

 Scientists agree that global warming is caused mainly by human activity. Specifically, the evidence shows that certain heat-trapping gases, such as carbon dioxide, are warming the world—and that we release those gases when we burn fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas.

 As scientific models and methods grow more sophisticated, and as we collect more data, our confidence in human-caused climate change only grows higher.

 https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

 The current warming trend is of particular significance because it is unequivocally the result of human activity since the mid-20th century and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented over millennia.1 It is undeniable that human activities have warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land and that widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and biosphere have occurred.

 Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances have enabled scientists to see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate on a global scale. This body of data, collected over many years, reveals the signals of a changing climate.

 The heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases was demonstrated in the mid-19th century.2 Their ability to affect the transfer of infrared energy through the atmosphere is the scientific basis of many instruments flown by NASA. There is no question that increased levels of greenhouse gases must cause Earth to warm in response.

 Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain glaciers show that Earth’s climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas levels. Ancient evidence can also be found in tree rings, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks. This ancient, or paleoclimate, evidence reveals that current warming is occurring roughly ten times faster than the average rate of ice-age-recovery warming. Carbon dioxide from human activity is increasing more than 250 times faster than it did from natural sources after the last Ice Age.

  

CON – Humans Are Not Primarily Responsible for  Climate Change

 . https://blog.heartland.org/2017/01/climate-change-101-the-evidence-humans-arent-destroying-the-climate/

 Differences between the claims made by those who believe in the theory human greenhouse-gas emissions significantly affect the climate and the actual measured changes strongly indicate humans are not causing a climate Armageddon and that climate alarmists’ theory is incorrect. In fact, based on the evidence, at the worst, humans are having a modest effect on Earth’s climate, with the increase in carbon dioxide possibly having a net beneficial effect (due to the enhanced plant productivity resulting from higher carbon-dioxide levels.)

  https://www.listland.com/top-10-reasons-humans-are-not-causing-global-warming/

 Climate change proponents such as the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change),  NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) believe that the rise in greenhouse gasses comes from human activities.  Burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere – at the same time the reduction in forested land through logging or clearing for agriculture results in a loss of the natural carbon sink (trees absorb Carbon Dioxide).  Man made global warming – they would have us believe – will be single handedly responsible for rising sea levels, melting glaciers, species extinction and any severe weather from tornadoes to ice-storms.

 This view, supported by the mainstream media, has become the orthodox belief.  Only a few scientists now admit to being sceptical about man’s role in global warming.  Is the orthodoxy right?  Here are the Top 10 Reasons Humans Are Not Causing Global Warming…

 https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/global-warming-manmade-or-natural/

 In the past few years there has been increasing concern about global climate change on the part of the media, politicians, and the public. It has been stimulated by the idea that human activities may influence global climate adversely and that therefore corrective action is required on the part of governments. Recent evidence suggests that this concern is misplaced. Human activities are not influencing the global climate in a perceptible way. Climate will continue to change, as it always has in the past, warming and cooling on different time scales and for different reasons, regardless of human action. I would also argue that—should it occur—a modest warming would be on the whole beneficial.

 This is not to say that we don’t face a serious problem. But the problem is political. Because of the mistaken idea that governments can and must do something about climate, pressures are building that have the potential of distorting energy policies in a way that will severely damage national economies, decrease standards of living, and increase poverty. This misdi-rection of resources will adversely affect human health and welfare in industrialized nations, and even more in developing nations. Thus it could well lead to increased social tensions within nations and conflict between them.

 If not for this economic and political damage, one might consider the present concern about climate change nothing more than just another environmentalist fad, like the Alar apple scare or the global cooling fears of the 1970s. Given that so much is at stake, how-ever, it is essential that people better understand the issue.

  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2569215/Humans-not-blame-global-warming-says-Greenpeace-founder-Patrick-Moore.html

 PATRICK MOORE ON THE HOT TOPIC OF GLOBAL WARMING

'There is no scientific proof that human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) are the dominant cause of the minor warming of the Earth’s atmosphere over the past 100 years. If there were such a proof it would be written down for all to see. No actual proof, as it is understood in science, exists.

 'The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states: “It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century.” (My emphasis)  “Extremely likely” is not a scientific term but rather a judgment, as in a court of law. The IPCC defines “extremely likely” as a “95-100% probability”.

 'But upon further examination it is clear that these numbers are not the result of any mathematical calculation or statistical analysis. They have been “invented” as a construct within the IPCC report to express “expert judgment”, as determined by the IPCC contributors.

 'When modern life evolved over 500 million years ago, CO2 was more than 10 times higher than today, yet life flourished at this time. Then an Ice Age occurred 450 million years ago when CO2 was 10 times higher than today.

 'There is some correlation, but little evidence, to support a direct causal relationship between CO2 and global temperature through the millennia. The fact that we had both higher temperatures and an ice age at a time when CO2 emissions were 10 times higher than they are today fundamentally contradicts the certainty that human-caused CO2 emissions are the main cause of global warming.

 'Today, we live in an unusually cold period in the history of life on earth and there is no reason to believe that a warmer climate would be anything but beneficial for humans and the majority of other species. There is ample reason to believe that a sharp cooling of the climate would bring disastrous results for human civilization.

 'The IPCC states that humans are the dominant cause of warming “since the mid-20th century”, which is 1950. From 1910 to 1940 there was an increase in global average temperature of 0.5C over that 30-year period. Then there was a 30-year “pause” until 1970.

 'This was followed by an increase of 0.57C during the 30-year period from 1970 to 2000. Since then there has been no increase, perhaps a slight decrease, in average global temperature. This in itself tends to negate the validity of the computer models, as CO2 emissions have continued to accelerate during this time.

 'The increase in temperature between 1910-1940 was virtually identical to the increase between 1970-2000. Yet the IPCC does not attribute the increase from 1910-1940 to “human influence.”'

 Ray Gruszecki

November12, 2021

How Socialism, Really Communism, Actually Works

 

How Socialism, Really Communism, Actually Works

 Various euphemisms are used to describe the left-wing movement that has taken over our country. – “Progressivism”, “Democratic Socialism”, “Social Justice”, “Green New Deal”, “Black Lives Matter”, are all heard, instead of plain old socialism, or Marxism, or really the underpinning of the movement, Marxist based, - COMMUNISM.

 Socialism/communism always starts out with dissatisfaction of the status quo, and with idealistic promises for the future.  Everyone, including those not willing to work, are entitled to “free stuff”, particularly those that are deemed to have been culturally or economically denied in the past.  This includes free health care, free abortion, free education and a myriad of other free social services, including a guaranteed job and minimum wage.

 How are these all to be paid for?  Why, by increased taxation, of course, coupled with a redistribution of wealth from the capitalist “fat cats”, who are exhorted to “pay their fair share”, even though their wealth derives from long histories of paying their fair share of taxes.  In other words, socialism/communism proposes to penalize the wealthy innovators to provide “free stuff” to everybody else, including those who are truly idlers in society.

 Obviously, this does not come naturally, so other means are necessary to enforce what leftist leaders deem best for society. 

 It is absolutely essential to take the guns away and disarm everyone. 

 Speech disagreeing with “politically correct” social justice mundanity must be curtailed and termed as fascist or “racist”, or “white supremist”.

 Laws against emigration and movement by wealthy people and companies need to be enacted. 

 Stronger government, and erosion/cancellation of individual and civil rights must lead the body politic toward totalitarianism and away from any remnants of democracy.

 These drastic measures are necessary because taxation can only go so far.  Confiscation requires a strong, dictatorial government.  Both socialism & communism require a commitment to the use of force.  You cannot decide what to do with the other person’s money unless you are committed to use force to take that money away from him.

 All socialist programs are mandatory.  This is the reality of socialism/communism — a pseudo-religion grounded in pseudo-science and enforced by political tyranny.

 So, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see why socialism never works in the long term, and always leads to the Maduros, Stalins, Maos, Castros and other dictatorial butchers, and to the deaths of over 120 million of their own people in the 20^th century.  Alternatively, socialism/communism morphs into market-oriented dictatorships like China, Vietnam and Laos.

  And yet socialism/communism is no longer a parlor game for academics but a political alternative taken seriously by millennials and other thinkers, who don’t recognize that much of what they enjoy in life is a result of free market capitalism and would disappear if socialism were to be implemented.  We can maybe excuse AOC’s naiveté because of youth and inexperience.  How do we excuse people like Bernie, Markey, Krugman, Reich and others who should know better?

 It is obvious that Joe Biden and his handlers do not know any better.  They have imposed fascistic Marxist rules, mostly by unlawful executive orders, that are stifling our society, and our economy. 

 They have passed a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill, and are trying to pass another multi-trillion social spending bill in the face of obviously increasing inflation.

 They have crippled our energy industry, from self-sufficiency, to begging OPEC to increase production.  Gasoline prices have doubled, in some cases, has have propane and home heating oil.  They have effectively ruined the coal industry even more.  

 They have botched Covid vaccination efforts by insisting on federal government mandates, rather than science, medicine and our federalist system.

 They have created a disastrous, open, southern border, destroying our sovereignty, and allowing unchecked Covid, illegal drugs including Fentanyl, and human trafficking.

 They have stranded hundreds of Americans and thousands of green card holders in Afghanistan, to the mercies of the brutal, seventh century Taliban.

 They have introduced Marxist based Critical Race Theory in our schools to indoctrinate students in race divisions, in place of class divisions, to promote Marxist race/class warfare.

 They have instituted and back “wokeness”, cancel culture, doxing, violence in our streets, and defunding/denigrating our police, in the Marxist quest to tear down our capitalist society, and replace it with a socialist/communist society.

 This, and much more, is happening right now, folks, - during the ten months of Biden’s administration.  These “progressives”, or “Democratic Socialists”, or “Green New Dealers”, are really COMMUNISTS, in disguise.  It is pretty evident that if we let them continue, this country will go the way of another wealthy, free country, Venezuela, which is now essentially a failed state because of socialism/communism.

 Ray Gruszecki

February 8, 2019

Rev. November 10, 2021

Systemic Racism?

 

Systemic Racism?

 In the history of our country, various ethnic groups have taken their turn as being the last wave of minoroity -“different”, “dirty foreigners or aliens”, “cheap labor”, “polluting our national DNA”, etc., etc.  We have all seen the nineteenth century signs, “No Irish Need Apply”, and other ethic exclusion signs.

 Immigration of various groups from all over the world, led to ethnic ghettoes in our large cities, ward politics based on ethnicity, and colorful and derogatory ethnic name calling.  (Epithets like “Wop”, “Dago”, “Pollack”, “Mick”, “Hun”, the “N” word, etc., abounded).  These are now all discredited, and rightfully so, particularly the “N” word denigrating black Americans.

 In addition to name-calling, we did not always treat Americans of various ethnic backgrounds very well or very fairly.

 In the 19^th century, the “Chinese Exclusion Act”, and the later “Geary Act” effectively prevented immigration from China, simply because Chinese were different that we Caucasians.

 In the years leading up to and during World War I, the US experienced a wave of anti-German sentiment, fueled by super-patriotism and xenophobia, that resulted in open hostility toward all things German.  Some anecdotal examples, - Hans Kuhnwald, the concertmaster of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, was interred, and Robert Prager a Southern Illinois miner, was brutally lynched.

 Perhaps the most egregious abuse of civil rights in the U.S. was FDR’s executive order 9066, which ordered the disenfranchisement and forced internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War II.  This action remains a stain on our American government.

 Now to our Americans citizens with African origins. This is from ABHM, America's Black Holocaust Museum:

 “The most comprehensive analysis of shipping records over the course of the slave trade is the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, edited by professors David Eltis and David Richardson. Between 1525 and 1866, in the entire history of the slave trade to the New World, according to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, 12.5 million Africans were shipped to the New World. 10.7 million survived the dreaded Middle Passage, disembarking in North America, the Caribbean and South America.

 And how many of these 10.7 million Africans were shipped directly to North America? Only about 388,000. That’s right: a tiny percentage.  In fact, the overwhelming percentage of the African slaves were shipped directly to the Caribbean and South America; Brazil received 4.86 million Africans alone! Some scholars estimate that another 60,000 to 70,000 Africans ended up in the United States after touching down in the Caribbean first, so that would bring the total to approximately 450,000 Africans who arrived in the United States over the course of the slave trade.

 Incredibly, most of the 42 million members of the (U.S.) African-American community descend from this tiny group of less than half a million Africans”.

 There are two obvious differences when one discusses our dark-skinned Americans of African origin.  Firstly, their ancestors were rooted up from Africa, and brought here as slaves, or human cargo.  These black ancestors did not come here of their own free will.  Secondly, a devastating civil war, costing upwards of 700,000, primarily Caucasian, American lives was fought, with abolition of slavery being one key reason for this civil war.  The African slaves were freed and enfranchised, as a result of the Civil War, and the associated 13^th, 14^th and 15^th amendments.

 Human feelings, likes and dislikes and bigotry cannot be simply legislated, left alone, and then, hope for the best.  This is essentially what happened for nearly 100 years in the U.S., while revisionist movements in the South rebounded.  The anti-black KKK ruled in many areas.  States and the federal government mostly turned a blind eye.  This was the era of true systemic racism and white supremacy and privilege.  Black Americans flocked north, where at least they weren’t lynched.

 The progeny of African black Americans were not just another ethnic group to assimilate into mainstream America.  They bore the stigma of slavery, and a debilitating civil war fought on their behalf.  It wasn’t until the economic expansion after WWII and the civil rights movement of Dr. Martin Luther King and others in the 1960’s that the American black community began attaining close to economic and even social equality.

 An excellent Brookings Institution study reports that black American educational, and hence economic, progress stalled during the 1970-80’s onwards.  Cited as probable causes are the spread of drugs and the drug culture, black on black violence in black communities, and the deterioration of academic standards in inner city schools.  https://www.brookings.edu/articles/black-progress-how-far-weve-come-and-how-far-we-have-to-go/

 Although not identified per se, it occurs that this stalling of black American progress also coincides with corrupt inner-city democrat party politics and governments, and the resultant welfare state that choked and stifled individual initiative of inner-city black Americans.

 So, although tremendous progress had been made in integrating blacks of African origin into mainstream America, detrimental societal and political factors have caused reverses, leading to discontent and reverse racism in the black community.

 All Americans were appalled and horrified at the media-fed images of George Floyd’s, death in Minneapolis in 2020, after he was restrained by a white cop’s knee and unable to breathe.  Left to deeper research were the facts that George Floyd was a convicted criminal and drug addict, and that he had Fentanyl in his system that already restricted breathing.

 Flashpoint incidents, such as the death of George Floyd, provided avowed activist Marxist groups such as “Black Lives Matter”, with the impetus to incite mostly black mobs to destructive riots across the country. A summer of death and property destruction across our major cities followed.  Adding a Marxist movement to the mix exacerbated the growing racial divide caused by drugs, street gangs, democrat party politics and educational factors.

  

Author and Methodist Minister Osheta Moore is a well-meaning. But apparently somewhat naïve Christian writer that seems to be catering to the “systemic racism” mantra being promulgated for the country by black Marxist social activists.  Osheta references the horrible, brutal, (but anecdotal) race and hate murder of James Byrd Jr. in 1998 and her 17 year old impressions of this gruesome event, as a key factor in her belief that systemic racism is endemic in our country.

She also liberally cites George Floyd’s death as above, in the same vein.

 Osheta Moore has an overall positive Christian message, and not to disparage Ms. Moore’s good intentions, but the impressions of such white on black incidents on a teenager and young woman living in mainstream America, seem hardly sufficient for a long-lasting belief that our whole country is systemically racist, and that Caucasian Americans are white supremacists and racial bigots.  The horrible racial killing of James Byrd in 1998 evoked a visceral fear in young and impressionable Osheta Moore that affected her view of race in America, as did George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis.

 All violence and crimes, whether white on black, black on white or black on black, should be vigorously condemned and prosecuted by the authorities.  Unfortunately, one result of the Marxist “Black Lives Matter” and “systemic racism” movement has been to weaken law enforcement and the justice system, by “defunding the police” in our large cities, and skewing the courts to not prosecute so called “social justice” offenders.

 Marxist racial justice activists like “Black Lives Matter” have seized upon individual and anecdotal examples of anti-black hate crimes, to foment a movement that they have termed “systemic racism”, and that they claim pervades all levels of white society.  In truth, if you ask any “average” Caucasian American, city or country, North or South, what they think of their black American countrymen, a preponderance of these white folks will these days express acceptance, and not bigotry, about their countrymen of color.

 Most “average Americans have taken Dr. Martin Luther King’s words to heart, judging people by the “content of their character, rather than the color of their skin.”

 Of course, there will be exceptions.  Bigotry is alive and well through-out the world.  But most white Americans do not discriminate against their fellow black Americans.  Also, past affirmative action efforts have made American blacks as employable, if not more so that their white counterparts.  That’s not to say that differences are not noticed, just as it is noticed that many people on Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago speak Polish, rather than English. 

 As Marx and Saul Alinsky, and many other Marxist/communist/socialist tacticians have defined, the goal of any Marxist movement, is to tear down the existing society using class as the divisive element, and replace that society with what at first appears to be a more altruistic, more ideal, system of government.  In a relatively wealthy democratic country like the U.S., social class is not an appropriate target for Marxism, but race is, in a country with a 12% black minority.

 So, concepts like “Black Lives Matter”, “systemic racism” and “critical race theory”, are pushed out to the general population with the collaboration of a friendly, left-oriented media, with the goal that these Marxist concepts will be absorbed and implemented by the gullible public.

 It is small wonder, that a well-intentioned Osheta Moore, conditioned by her impressions of the  gruesome James Byrd hate crime, and by the Black Lives Matter and media handling of George Floyd’s death, and after years of being exposed to anti-white propaganda, would, in her naivety, embrace that our country is systemically racist.

 Ray Gruszecki/

October 18, 2021

Climate Change

 

Climate Change

 

Back in 2015, I undertook to research prevailing thoughts and opinions on a number of “hot button issues.  My goal was to try to remove political bias from these issues, and stay with the observable facts.

 One of the topics in 2015, before Trump, Biden, et al, was climate change and control, as it is now.  Since Biden is currently attending a climate conference in Scotland (when he’s not asleep), I thought it pertinent to review the topic from 2015.

 10.) “ The Environment, Global Warming

 One positive impact of the environmental movement is that we humans have become more responsible on what we spew into our air and water.  This responsibility is obviously a good thing, and even countries like China, India and Russia are become better citizens of the world concerning the environment by adopting some modicum of environmental controls.  Our atmosphere, rivers, lakes and oceans have become cleaner in the last 30 years.  Again, this is somewhat anecdotal, but the trend toward fewer pollutants has to be positive.

 

Unfortunately the environmental movement has gone way overboard on global warming and has instilled fear in concerned scientists that have developed data and conclusions that counter the loudly proclaimed contention that global warming is caused primarily by human generated emissions into the atmosphere.  A figure bandied about by pundits and politicians, including Obama and Kerry in the U.S., is that 97% of the world’s scientists agree that global warming caused my human emission into the atmosphere is a mounting threat.  This assertion has been proven to be patently false.  These links support the “de-mythifying” of the 97% claim.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/425232/97-percent-solution-ian-tuttle

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303480304579578462813553136

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2013/05/30/global-warming-alarmists-caught-doctoring-97-percent-consensus-claims/  The following link presents what seems to be a balanced pro and con commentary of the global warming phenomenon.

http://climatechange.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=001445.

 

A review of the data and conclusions of both the proponents and detractors of global warming (seemingly about equally in number, not 97% in either direction), is not definitive.  The studies are either incomplete, too anecdotal , or political in nature, or the results and conclusions get lost in the scale and mass of the data.  These Pew Research studies add some significance.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/16/ideological-divide-over-global-warming-as-wide-as-ever/

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/23/most-americans-believe-in-climate-change-but-give-it-low-priority/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQshyqCLYHo  Scientific proofs against

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/447215/climate-change-activists-science-deniers-environmentalism-public-policy?target=topic&tid=1769  A recent essay

 

 The following link is to an in depth and comprehensive statistical analysis of the earth’s natural heating and cooling cycles and the effect of human activity on these cycles. http://ossfoundation.us/projects/environment/global-warming/natural-cycle.  It appears to be a valid scientific attempt to examine and isolate the variables affecting the earth’s temperature cycles.  The scales used visually skew the results but do not markedly detract from the conclusion, that there is a measurable effect on the earth’s normal temperature cycles due to human activities since 1750.  This measurable effect is on the order of a few tenths of a centigrade degree and almost gets lost in the scales used in the analyses.

 

The Open source Foundation, which has no political agenda reports as follows: “The data clearly indicates global warming is happening and is human caused. At this time in the natural cycle Earth should be slightly cooling on trend, leading into what would have been the next ice age. Instead Earth is warming. There is no valid evidence that can prove otherwise. False representations or facts out of context are not a proof of any kind, they are merely incorrect.”  http://ossfoundation.us/projects/environment/global-warming/myths.

 

It comes to mind that the above study does not distinguish industrial activities from those resulting from the massive increase in human and animal populations since 1750, nor does it identify the effect of deforestation on global warming.  Human beings have increased from 790 million to roughly 10 times that to nearly 8 Billion during this time.  http://www.geohive.com/earth/his_history1.aspx.  Estimates of animals that also breathe in oxygen, exhale carbon dioxide and produce methane through flatulence are estimated currently as 20 quintillion (20 billion billion).  http://animals.mom.me/number-animals-earth-3994.html.  If animals (farm animals, etc, have also increased by a factor of 10 since 1750 similar to humans, there should be a measureable effect on global temperatures by more humans and animals just being here on earth and breathing in and out with no burning of fossil fuels.

Deforestation:  http://www.climateandweather.net/global-warming/deforestation.html.

Quoting from the above link, “Forests are vital for life, home to millions of species, they protect soil from erosion, produce oxygen, store carbon dioxide, and help control climate. Forests are also vital for us to live as they provide us with food, shelter and medicines as well as many other useful things. They also purify the air we breathe and water that we need to survive. Deforestation by humans is causing all of these necessary functions to be lessened, and hence damaging the atmosphere even further.

Forests play a huge role in the carbon cycle on our planet. When forests are cut down, not only does carbon absorption cease, but also the carbon stored in the trees is released into the atmosphere as CO2 if the wood is burned or even if it is left to rot after the deforestation process.

Smaller crops e.g. plants and agricultural crops also draw in carbon dioxide and release oxygen, however forests store up to 100 times more carbon than agricultural fields of the same area.

Deforestation is an important factor in global climate change. Climate change is because of a build up of carbon dioxide in out atmosphere and if we carry on cutting down the main tool we have to diminish this CO2 build up, we can expect the climate of our planet to change dramatically over the next decades.

It is estimated that more than 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide are released to the atmosphere due to deforestation, mainly the cutting and burning of forests, every year.

Over 30 million acres of forests and woodlands are lost every year due to deforestation; causing a massive loss of income to poor people living in remote areas who depend on the forest to survive”.

 To summarize, human activities have indeed contributed to measurable deviation in the normal temperature cycles of planet earth.  The extent and impact of this deviation has been exaggerated by alarmists pushing their own political agendas.  Efforts to reduce emissions and reduce our carbon footprint cannot fail to have an overall beneficial effect on our environment.  These efforts should be pragmatic and based on science rather than on anecdotal or emotional or politically driven appeals.”

 

Ray Gruszecki

November 2, 2021