MLB Backs Gender Conversion

 

MLB Backs Gender Conversion

 World gone mad.

 “Under the auspices of LGBT-themed “Pride Nights” — fundraisers and charity partnerships that began in the early 2000s and were embraced, over the course of two decades, by almost every team in the league — many of MLB’s most prominent franchises have begun to promote or fund groups that encourage or provide sex-change procedures and gender-transition hormone treatment for minors as young as 12. Other organizations promote “social transitions” — i.e., nonmedical changes in “gender expression,” including the adoption of new names, pronouns, and clothing — for children as young as three.”

 According to a recent Gallup poll, 7.1% of Americans identify as LGBT in 2022, more than half of these as bi-sexual. In addition, Gallup finds that about one in ten LGBT adults -- or slightly less than 1% of all U.S. adults -- are married to a same-sex partner. Transgender adults comprise about 0.7% of the 7.1%. These percentages translate to 24 million LGBT, 2.4 million trans and 3 million same sex marriages in the U.S.

 Sexual persuasion is not a modern requirement for equal rights under the law in most modern western countries, and that’s a good thing.  What people do in their own bedrooms should not be subject to governments or their laws.

 Flaunting homosexuality, (or LGBT, as it now known), by vociferous activists, and which has traditionally been considered a human deviation or abomination, is something else again.  As is encouragement of gender conversion in children as young as three, as covered in this article.

 This is another example of the extreme left perverting the rectification of a long-standing bias against the LGBT community, by creating an egregious wrong in the process.

 https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/08/the-mlbs-unseemly-support-for-youth-gender-transitions/

 Ray Gruszecki

August 31, 2022

World Gone Mad

 

World Gone Mad

 Before I expound further, let me explain a few things about myself.

 I am not what some these days are calling a “racist”.  I am not a homophobe, or a “phobe” of any kind.  I am not a misogynist.  I am not close-minded.  I believe that all human beings, regardless of their background and beliefs, are equal under the law, in society, and under God if they have religious beliefs.

 A am a law-abiding member of society who believes that laws are the result of historical human experience that have evolved to moderate society.

 I follow Christianity as a religion and as a personal choice for me.  Other than making knowledge about my religion available, I do not push my beliefs on others.

 My politics tend toward being conservative with a libertarian bent, but I do not consider myself “far right wing” or “Christian conservative”.  I do have strong political beliefs, but like religion. I don’t push these beliefs on other people.

 There are many like me in our country.  Beating the drum a liitle, we are solid, down to earth, common sense citizens of what we have always felt was the greatest country in the world.  Our country was founded primarily by Deists with a Christian background, and it welcomes citizens of all backgrounds.  We look with wonder and dismay at some of the social “experiments” emanating from our east and west coasts and other big urban centers, and from Europe.

 Our “woke” world has gone mad.  Completely bonkers.  Out of control.

 One can throw brick-bats at Joe Biden, and they certainly would be correct about Biden’s and his extreme left backers with respect to our economic and some of our societal woes.  It doesn’t require a Wharton PhD in economics to figure out that the way to address 9% inflation in the country is not to tax and spend another three quarters of a trillion dollars and call it “inflation reduction”, or to try to buy votes by another executive branch-only, half-trillion dollar student loan forgiveness tax plan.  But I digress.

 Yes. Old Joe’s stupidity and lack of leadership are responsible for many if not all, of our current economic and other societal problems. Biden and the democrats have also exacerbated many other issues that have been festering for some time.  However, this is not a political commentary.  It is an attempt to identify and discuss those things in our world that seem to have gotten out of rational or common-sense balance.

 Inflation is important because it affects every American family’s pocketbook and day-to-day well-being.  When groceries that once cost $100 now cost as much as $130 or $150, there is a negative effect on middle and lower-income America. Tax and spend policies of trillions and trillions of dollars with euphemistic beneficial sounding labels are the main cause of this inflation.

 Gas Prices – Attacking the oil industry, withholding leases, shutting down pipelines, all in support of dubious green, environmental goals, have ended our energy independence. One result is to send gas prices sky-rocketing from about $2.00 per gallon pre-Biden, to upwards of $5.00 per gallon now.  The perpetrators of this mis-guided energy policy can call it “Putin’s price hike” but any honest observer will see Biden and his administration’s policies as the real cause of higher gasoline prices.

 Crime in the Streets – Large sections of our major, mostly democrat-run cities have turned into crime-ridden, feces infested cesspools administered by democrat mayors.  Police have been defunded, have quit in droves and extreme progressive DA’s and prosecutors have been elected, many times with the help of large contributions from George Soros and other “Open Society” inspired leftists.

 Southern Border, Illegal Aliens, Terrorists, Fentanyl – Over 2 million people have poured across our southern border since Biden took office, up from a trickle under Trump, including over 50 apprehended terrorists.  Smuggled Fentanyl from China has also become a major problem under Biden, killing our young people.

 “Wokeness”, Identity Politics, Political Correctness, “Social Justice”, Cancel Culture –

These are all manifestations of modern leftist politics which are supported by Biden and his extremist leftist backers, and which are aimed at fostering the hegemony of identity groups rather than the freedom of individuals.  Taken as a whole, they revive racism by stressing the differences in social groups and promote social action (and sometimes violence) to obtain special privileges for identity groups.  Non adherents are “doxed” or cancelled from societal activities.

 Promotion and Legalization of Same Sex Rights – All citizens should be free to pursue their own particular sexual practices in their own bedrooms so long as they do not impinge on the freedoms of their fellow citizens.  Far from being a personal issue, the question of same-sex sexuality, rights and marriage have been thrust at the general population as a special right and privilege under law by leftist politicians.  Rather than being allowed to develop naturally, children in early grades are taught to exploit gender differences.

 Critical Race Theory and Education – Children are taught early in school that the Caucasian Americans that founded this country are fundamentally racist, and that America is a racist country that oppresses particularly, people of color.  Further, that our founders were slave owners who instilled racist principle as part of our DNA, and that reparations are necessary to rectify the situation now, 160 years after slavery ended.

 Eradicating American Values - Starting under Obama, and accelerating under Biden, has been what seems to be a determined effort to denigrate and eradicate our history, culture and values, and replace them with something between Karl Popper’s (and George Soros’), “Open Society” and Marx/Lenin/Trotsky’s communism.  The altruistic and beneficent aspects of Marxist ideologies are openly taught in our schools, while the fact that they always result in some form of totalitarianism is conveniently overlooked, as are the nearly 150 million deaths caused by Marxist regimes.

 Respite Under Trump – We had a brief respite from the anti-American movement under Donald Trump.  His pro-American populism, although sometimes corny, seemed real.  His larger than life personality, the continued persecution by his political enemies, and the Corona virus pandemic, crippled his presidency and led to his defeat by the incompetent political hack backed in his basement by the predominantly left-wing media, bid tech and big entertainment.

 And here we sit – With an incompetent senile boob for president, who seems to never have had a creative or leadership thought in his nearly 50 years in the federal government, and his handlers, old and new extremist socialists, retreads from left-wing academia. Collectively, they are ruining the country, with each and every new atrocious executive dictum and “reconciliation”, multi-trillion dollar law.  The sense of injustice and unfairness in the country mounts, while the left strives to buy or cheat their way out of the morass that they have caused before the mid-term elections.

 Ray Gruszecki

August 26, 2022

George Soros – Villain to America

 

George Soros – Villain to America

 George Soros has been vilified as the arch villain who has donated billions of dollars to destroy the American (and world) political systems.  He has been painted as a Marxist or worse, even though he made his billions ($8.6 billion in 2021), from hedge funds in London’s Square Mile and New York’s Wall Street.  He is not a Marxist.  In addition to finance, he is an intellectual who has authored or co-authored upwards of 15 books, and a similar number of notable op-eds.  Soros has been a follower of Karl Popper and his  “Open Society” philosophy and considered Popper a mentor during his years in London.

 That’s not to say that George Soros is a nice guy, with benevolent aims for American and world society.  Notwithstanding the lofty thinking of Popper’s “Open Society” and Soros’ adoption of it, what Soros has done with his money in the U.S. in practice has been nothing short of destructive to our political system and society.

 High crime rates in our cities?  Look to Soros for backing the “defund police” movement.  Bail free crime and recidivism? Look to Soros for pouring millions into installing extremist, hard-left DA’s and prosecutors.  Incompetent democrat run city governments?  Look to Soros for throwing big bucks toward electing far=left “progressive” mayors.  Popper’s “Open Society” looks more like Huxley’s “Brave New World”, to which it has been compared contextually.

 If anyone is interested in further background, these links honestly examine who and what George Soros is, and dispel falsities while stressing realities.  Same with Karl Popper’s background.

 George Soros:

 https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/george-soros-godfather-of-the-left-gives-550-million-to-liberal-causes

 https://townhall.com/columnists/jonathanemord/2021/09/30/the-plot-to-destroy-america-n2596685

 https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-false-george-soros-claims-idUSKBN23P2XJ

 https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jul/06/the-george-soros-philosophy-and-its-fatal-flaw

 

 Karl Popper:

 https://iep.utm.edu/popp-pol/#H1

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper

 

Ray Gruszecki

August 24, 2020

Shame, Shame, Shame

 

Shame, Shame, Shame

 Shame, shame, shame!  On you democrats for allowing yourselves to be hi-jacked by “woke”, Marxist, anti-Trump (read anti-American), sophomoric, leftist extremists.  You forgot the good that President Trump did for the country, only one of which was overseeing the creation of a vaccine against Covid within nine months, and concentrated instead on the media and big tech detractors of his “in your face” personality.

 Shame, shame, shame! For pushing a perennially incompetent and uncreative political hack like Joe Biden into the most powerful position in the world, and using him as the foil for a Marxist destruction of the country’s politics and economics, and a “woke” destruction of our society and values.  Obama warned what he was.  The Trotsky/Alinsky steeped sophomoric extremists driving the democrat party did not listen.

 Our country has recovered from dire circumstances in the past.  Civil war, two World Wars, all manner of internal strife like anti-war, race and food riots.  Hopefully, we will also recover from this current social and economic upset caused by the extreme left democrats and their slavish followers that have attained positions of power.

 Is another Trump term the answer?  The emotional response after all of the empty persecutions and tormenting of this man and his family, is a resounding, YES!

 Or, have we had enough emotional, populist, pro-America rallies with Trump as the vote-eliciting snake oil salesman?  Do we need someone more measured and decidedly Christian like Mike Pence?  Or, a little less bland and more popular, such as Ron DeSantis, or “make my day”, Greg Abbott?

 We have over two years to wait to vote the doddering old idiot grandpa out of the presidency.  But we can start back to normalcy and common sense with the mid-terms in three months by a majority in both houses of congress.  Impeaching the inept old fool would not help.  Kamala has shown that she would be worse than Joe.  Impeaching Old Joe and Kamala with a republican house would most likely bring Kevin McCarthy to the presidency, but that is a pretty far cry.

  https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2022/08/01/biden-is-the-confounder-in-chief/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=native-evergreen&utm_term=first

 Ray Gruszecki

August 12, 2022

Notable Thinkers

 

Notable Thinkers

 Conservatives believe in personal responsibility, limited government, free markets, individual liberty, traditional American values and a strong national defense. Conservatives believe the role of government should be to provide people the freedom necessary to pursue their own goals. Conservative policies generally emphasize empowerment of the individual to solve problems.

 Liberals believe in government action to achieve equal opportunity and equality for all. It is the duty of the government to alleviate social ills and to protect civil liberties and individual and human rights. Liberals believe that the role of the government should be to guarantee that no one is in need. Liberal policies generally emphasize the need for the government to solve problems.

 Libertarians are consistent advocates of free-market capitalism, minimal government, and social tolerance (thus distinguishing libertarians from conservatives). Their motto might be “Keep government out of the boardroom and the bedroom.”

Both modern liberals and conservatives can trace their early beginnings back to thinkers like Aristotle and Machiavelli, and thence to 17^th century thinker John Locke of England, and to 18^th century thinkers Adam Smith of Scotland, Edmund Burke of Ireland and Charles de Montesquieu of France.  Without overcomplicating, the path toward modern conservatism tracks though Aristotle, Machiavelli John Locke, Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, John, John Quincy, Henry and Brooks Adams, Alexander Hamilton, John Marshall, Alexis de Tocqueville, Auguste Comte, Benjamin Disraeli, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Calhoun, Daniel Webster, Mark Twain (Samuel Taylor Coleridge), Irving Babbitt, Martin Buber, Milton Friedman, Friedrich A. Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, Paul Elmer More, George Santayana, C.S. Lewis, Ayn Rand, Thomas Stearns Eliot, Rudyard Kipling, J.R.R. Tolkien, Ray Bradbury, Warren Harding, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Russel Kirk, William H. Buckley, Whitaker Chambers, Phyllis Schlafly, Thomas Sowell, George W. Bush, Donald Trump, George Will, Victor Davis Hanson, Dinesh, D’Souza, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity and many others.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_conservatives

 Modern liberals track through John Locke, Adam Smith, Charles de Montesquieu. Erasmus, Thomas Hobbes, David Ricardo, Spinoza, Rousseau, Voltaire, Maximilien Robespierre, Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, David Hume, Jeremy Bentham, James and John Stuart Mill, to Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and Thomas Paine.  More recent notables are Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Jean Paul Sartre, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich A. Hayek, Ayn Rand, Karl Popper, Noam Chomsky, John Maynard Keynes, William Jennings Bryan, Herbert Croly, John Dewey, Herbert Marcuse, Reinhold Niebuhr, Woodrow Wilson, John Kenneth Galbraith, Arthur Schlesinger Jr, Franklin Roosevelt, Henry Wallace, John, Robert and Ted Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Barrack Obama, Joe Biden, most of our present mainstream media and many others 

https://justawordfromtheleft.wordpress.com/modern-liberal-thinkers-and-leaders-in-the-united-states/

 Libertarians:

John Locke (1632–1704), William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879), Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), Herbert Spencer (1820–1903), H. L. Mencken (1880–1956), Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973). Friedrich Hayek, Ayn Rand (1905–1982), Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Murray Rothbard (1926–1995), Ron Paul, Rand Paul, Thomas Sowell, John Stossel, Charles Koch, David Koch, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Steve Forbes, Steve Moore, Larry Elder, Clint Eastwood, Charles Murray, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Glenn Beck, P.J. O’Rourke, Niall Ferguson, Tom Selleck, Charlie Gasparino, Vince Vaughn 

https://www.newsmax.com/BestLists/libertarians-newsmax-freedomfest/2017/06/01/id/793510/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_libertarian_thinkers

 Ray Gruszecki

July 22, 2022

Decline of Our Democracy

                             Decline of Our Democracy

 We could be living in communist Russia in the 1950’s.

 Marxism and Marxist principles have increasingly supplanted those of the enlightenment instituted by our founding fathers. The Constitution is used as a living document” and calls to “take to the streets” are heard when the judiciary refers back to it, as in the case of abortion and gun rights.

 Our press and media predominantly reflect the slanted propaganda of the current federal government, and not the truth. The constant drumbeat has convinced the uninitiated public that up is down, black is white, Donald Trump is a racist, and that trillions of dollars more spending is the way to curb inflation. 9% inflation, $5.00 gasoline and a president that cannot get anything right is finally starting to get through to much of the American public.

 Party leaders and backers are immune to the law, racking up massive fortunes by using privileged government information for financial gains. Election aberrations and other illicit activities by those in government or close to it, are “swept under the rug”, never to see the light of day.

 Party hacks caught breaking the law are treated with kid gloves and released without penalty, while party opponents are shackled and thrown into the meanest of lockups.

 Historically, world empires last for somewhere around 200-300 years. Outliers are the Roman Empire, 500 years, Ottoman Empire, 600+ years and the Han Dynasty, 400+ years. The United States is 246 years old as this is written, and for all intents and purposes, appears to be dying.

 All semblance of the common sense that is necessary for an effective and efficacious government has ended or is being eroded. Criminal rights have become more important than the law. Elevation of the rights of miniscule fringe groups have become more important than the rights of the majority of citizens. The southern border is not observed, and millions of unvetted aliens pour into the country, including fentanyl, sex traffic and terrorists.

 Our major party-run cities are garbage pits of drugs, crime and anarchy. DA’s and judges funded by Marxists like George Soros practice “catch and release”, perpetuating continuing crime and homelessness.

 Unfortunately, there is little hope unless we turn things around not only in Washington, but also at the local level. We can have a strong, well-run, patriotic federal government in Washington DC, but if we still have Soros-funded mayors and other functionaries at the local level, our cities will never escape their present dire circumstances.

 Ray Gruszecki

July 22, 2022

 

Friedman versus Keynes

 

Friedman versus Keynes

I am not an economist, but I studied Economics at University in Boston a long time ago.   I pulled out my old textbook and find that My Economics courses were Keynesian economics from a text book by Paul Samuelson who was a professor at MIT across the river in Cambridge at the time.  Even back then, I felt that manipulating the economy through government spending was not right.

This is a quick comparison between Keynesian and Friedman economics.  High inflation, which we are now suffering has nearly always been associated with Keynesian economics. 

Apparently, the people running Washington these days don’t have much more background in economics than I had some 65 years ago.  Probably less, since they want to spend more trillions of dollars in the middle of inflation on the way to a recession.

  

“Keynes and Friedman are the most influential economists of the 20th century.

Keynes vs Friedman

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) was a British economist and is considered one of the founders of modern macroeconomics. Keynsian economics show that in the short run, especially during recessions, economic output is strongly influenced by total spending in the economy. Keynes' theories were extremely influential from the Great Depression to the oil shocks in the 1970s. Milton Friedman (1912-2006) was an American economist and statistician who led the famous Chicago School of economics at the University of Chicago. Friedman challenged some of the Keynesian theories proposing an alternative macroeconomic policy known as "monetarism" which advices focusing on controlling monetary supply. Friedman's theories have strongly influenced policy contributing to a change of paradigm away from Keynesian economics. Nonetheless, the advent of the recent global financial crisis has led to a resurgence of Keynesian ideas.

Keynesian economics

Main contributions by John Maynard Keynes:

• Keynes challenged the prevailing paradigm according to which free markets would automatically provide full employment, and underlined the important role of government spending in achieving economic growth.
• He demonstrated that the aggregated demand (household, business and government spending) is the most important driving force in an economy.
•  Keynes showed that wages and prices respond slowly to changes in demand and supply
• Keynes argued that free markets had no self-balancing mechanisms, which justifies government intervention to achieve stability and full employment.
• Keynes defended expansionary fiscal policy (increases in net public spending) as driver of economic growth and criticized excessive saving.

 

Friedman's monetarism

Milton Friedman's core arguments:

• Friedman challenged the dominance of Keynesian economics by suggesting money supply and prices are more important for economic prosperity than government spending.
• Friedman explained the dangers of collectivism and defended the virtues of free-markets and capitalism.
• For him, the main functions governments should play in the economy would be: controlling the money supply and keeping inflation in check.
• Friedman warned of the dangers of deflationary spirals in the case central banks are unable to supply enough money during a liquidity cruch.
• Milton Friedman also opposed the gold standard and his ideas contributed to its replacement. 

It is undeniable that both of these economists have left strong legacies in social science research; their ideas have shaped economic policies for many decades all over the world.”

 Ray Gruszecki

July 18, 2022