I’m not kneeling for the flag…

Over at Hot Air, found and article about Alejandro Villanueva, the Pittsburg Steeler who made news three years ago for refusing to kneel with teammates in their protest. Villanueva is a graduate of West Point and served in the Army Rangers, his pedigree completely explains his values and choices. Under social and team pressure the Ranger did apologize for appearing to stand apart from the rest of the team.

In that article there was a strange reference to another player, Stephon Tuitt.

We now have another member of the Steelers, defensive lineman Stephon Tuitt, refusing to join the sheep that is now the NFL. The Hot Air article said...

Stephon Tuitt has decided to dispense with the whole apology approach up front. In fact, Tuitt invites anyone who objects to perform an unnatural act on themselves

Naturally, this got my attention, so I did a little hunting and found the following Tweet.

Also I'm not kneeling for the flag and screw anybody who have a problem with that. My grandmother was a immigrant from the Carribean and age worked her ass off to bring 20 people over the right way. She had no money and educated herself to be a nurse. She living good now.

Have never been a big fan of Stephon Tuitt, since he reneged on his commitment to play football at Georgia Tech. That said, I do respect him for recognizing the work and difficulty undertaken by his family, and proudly standing by their side. The spelling and punctuation are Stephon's. 

Never Trumpers Out of the Closet as Liberal Democrats in Drag

Amusing article by Brian C. Joondeph over at American Thinker.
NeverTrumpers Out of the Closet as Liberal Democrats in Drag:

NeverTrumpers are like gnats in the summer, annoying but largely irrelevant as they don’t sting or bite.

Regarding the President

He has walked the conservative walk better than any elected Republican since Ronald Reagan, certainly better than most current elected Republicans. Yet NeverTrumpers oppose him in favor of a Democratic Party further left than at any time in its history.

It has been evident that the Republican leadership has been disconnected with the middle class since the day of Reagan. During both Bush administrations, the tenor placed more emphasis on getting along than following conservative principle. To them being conservative meant being cooperative, being the first to reach across the aisle. This blog has said before that W was a better Democrat than Clinton. It seemed that they were unwilling to accept that no matter how good they acted, they were going to be pilloried for being racist meanies by the Democrats and their sycophantic press corp. They never got it.

When President Obama took office, they were unapologetic and forceful. They saw an opening of ACA and they rammed it through. Since then the Republicans have had the power to end the ACA and never did so, not matter how many promises were made to do so. They were afraid to be seen as hurting poorer voters. 

When the public reacted and gelled as the Tea Party movement, the Congressional Republicans followed the Democrats, reusing to embrace the populist movement. They did their best to co-opt the votes and do nothing.

The rage of the middle class voter grew. This led to the election of a man called Trump, loud a profane man. This President has tried to keep his word, and been rebuffed by the part that should be supporting him. 

Good Riddance to the World Health Organization

Most, if not all, organizations are beholden to their benefactors. When organizations are not led by standard bearings (zealots), objectives are bent to the will of the benefactor. It is a natural thing and for that I bear no ill will toward the WHO. Unfortunately the WHO has lost its bearing and with it, like many primarily political organizations its purpose. It has become irrelevant, and needs to be replaced.

It won't be replaced though.

Good Riddance to the World Health Organization:

China was malicious, and there is plenty of evidence of planning. Doctors in Wuhan knew COVID-19 was transmissible by humans no later than the second week of December. A Harvard Medical School study suggests they might have known far earlier: the disease was infecting people in that city in August. Others believe authorities knew of the disease in the fall. On June 10, Fox News reported that Dr. Li-Meng Yan, a Hong Kong virologist and immunologist and one of the first researchers outside mainland China to study the virus, charges that Beijing for weeks covered up evidence of the human-to-human transmissibility of COVID-19. Yet only on January 20, Beijing for the first time admitted that COVID-19 could be transmitted from one human to another.

When it comes to China, I expect that in time we will learn that they've treated their own citizens worse than they have treated the rest of the world. 

Can We Talk?

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

George Bernard Shaw

The Government You Want

In the last week, the foundation principles of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) leadership has been confirmed and revealed as Marxist. Marxism is universally recognized as a euphemism for communism. Citizens of the United States have the right choose and practice whichever ideology they agree with. Unfortunately, in the United States, there is a significant amount of intentional obfuscation by the embedded Marxists within our social and political groups. Under the guise of social activism these Marxists piggyback upon the emotional flare-ups rooted in injustice, perceived or otherwise. The purpose is to generate devolution, a deconstruction of social behavior, an impugning of the rule of law, and some physical demolition for effect. The purpose is simple enough, create a environment of chaos, within which the leadership can be more easily replaced.

The situation in Hong Kong is a little different but certainly a condition through which the United States is headed. A free and prosperous society, government has changed, from a rights guaranteed model to a Marxists model. In this case not by surreptitious devolution, but by and international treaty. Initially the communists allowed the citizens of Hong Kong to proceed as is for a few years, but now have begun to assert positive control over freedom of speech.

On British based site DailyMail article titled China boasts it holds 'a sword over lawbreakers' heads' after passing Hong Kong security law as campaigners warn it is 'the end of the city as we know it', describes how the Chinese nationalists have begun to crack down on freedom of speech in Hong Kong. Protesters have been imprisoned for carrying flags promoting independence for the formerly free and capitalist centric city-state. People have been imprisoned for leading protest rallies. Mind you that from the viseo I have seen, these protests have been controlled, subdued and even silent. The communist government does tolerate dissent.

Tying this back to the United States, in the last century communist countries have demonstrably failed. They have..... 

• Imprisoned millions, in forced labor camps 
• Killed hundreds of millions of citizens, by summary execution, force hard labor and starvation, far more than the Nazis of World War II and the Holocaust.
• Frozen and retarded economic growth in previously burgeoning countries such as Cuba and Venezuela. 
• Obliterated political party systems.
• Erased rights to keep and bear arms.
• Erased rights to private property.
• Erased right to free speech.
• Erased right to exercise religion.

They get to the condition by obfuscation, then drop the hammer.

A common argument for communism is that it removes the greed, it does not, Milton Friedman pointed out that all systems have greed. In a communist system, the greed is centered on power, those in control have whatever they desire, everyone else is poor or crimnal. 

The result of The Government You Want is a simple caste system of social stratification, if you ain't part of the leadership, you'll be poor.

Presumed Thought

A niece recently unfriended my wife and I for arguing the appropriateness of protester behavior devolving into destructive chaos.

For years our children have been encouraged to focus on their feelings of worth and importance. For years our children have been taught that the world is obliged to accept their inexperienced views as gospel. The result of this teaching, is the creation of a generation of ignorant, self-indulgent spoiled brats.

The Corporate Thought Police

"The idea that free speech is not a fundamental liberty that must be defended at all costs runs deep in Sweden."

I find myself withdrawing from arguing with my friends on these topics, they are first and foremost my friends, and by withdrawal, I am sparing them angst.
In America, today, we see that Orange County California is contemplating changing the name of their airport, removing the name of John Wayne. The cause is statements made in an interview John Wayne had with Playboy magazine in 1971. Orange County can do what it wants, they renamed the airport 40+ years ago and they can do it again if they want. Those politicians who make the decision, will face their referendum at the voting booth. Something I suspect for most residents of county is not a big deal. As to the statements by John Wayne, I would suggest that we've far too many citizens with tin ears, these comments were unfortunate but not said to be hurtful.
Here in Atlanta, the airport name used to be Hartsfield International Airport, that was changed to Jackson-Hartsfield International Airport. At the time, I knew many folks who were upset with the change, to which I would suggest that in 50 years, the name could be changed to something like Gomez-Jackson-Hartsfield International Airport. The dominant demographic gets to make the choices.
I have said things in my life that are regrettable, usually to people that I loved. Many of those same people, have made awful comments to me. As a youngster, I was teased, unmercifully, for having buck teeth.  The point is that with age, experience and religion, you get over it, learn that we should not judge a person by a single utterance, but by the balance of their life accomplishments and failures.
When people seek to restrict speech and opinion, it is evidence of both a need to control, and failure to convince by reason.

WWJS

A variation on the acronym for What Would Jesus Do (WWJD).

David Hogg lived through a terrible ordeal, that experience deserves my empathy. 

The many utterances, tweets, and lectures that spew from this young man have earned my disrespect.

There seems to be a symptom expressed by the modern press, the opinions of the young are treated with reverence and presumed enlightenment, a superior opinion to those having lifetime of experience beyond that of a hormonal teenager.

There are reasons that children are not allowed to vote, or allowed to drive under the age of 16, or serve in the armed forces. The main reason is that children have not fully formed their personal manner of reasoning. Teenagers have a higher probability of acting immaturely, and for that have limited rights.

David, please just shut up.

A Lot of Meaningless Words

NumbersUSA does an excellent job generating opportunities to converse with our representatives in Congress. My representatives include two Republican Senators and a Democrat fills the seat in the House of Representatives. The Senators tend to favor increasing immigration when the chips are down and vote for restriction of immigration when expected effect is minimal. Basically they are full of shit. David Scott on the other hand is a standard Democrat who votes party line on everything relating to immigration. The following is a response to an email sent last week. A little long winded....

Dear Mr. Otis:
Thank you for contacting me regarding immigration and the environment. I appreciate your thoughts on this issue.  
Immigration is a leading topic of debate for Americans across the country, including Georgians in my district. We have seen the topic of immigration increase tensions between political parties and dominate mass media.  As a nation, I sincerely hope that we can debate immigration with mutual respect and reach bipartisan solutions to achieve common sense reform.  I strongly believe that we can secure our borders without sacrificing our morals and the humane treatment of migrants, while still providing resources to border security initiatives.  
Please be aware, I do not support illegal immigration. I believe we must stop people from entering this country illegally by improving resources for border personnel and modernizing border security technology. To that end, I support legislation that increases the number of border patrol agents, improves our asylum procedures, and modernizes border technologies such as advanced cameras and high-powered radars. I also support using the National Guard and other military personnel, to help with border security.
Some Americans expressed concern about the impact of immigration on the environment. Please know that I am aware of the changing environmental factors that are damaging precious natural resources and harming Americans quality of life. Large issues such as water, air and land pollution, the depletion of the ozone layer, and the steady rising of average temperatures ravage the planet and are strongly correlated with dying species and the destruction of ecosystems.  For this reason, I am hopeful that progress will be made in the future to pass measures into law that ensure greater protection of the environment. Members from both sides of the aisle must come together to provide bipartisan and safe solutions to address immigration while considering the finite natural resources of our nation. As your elected official, please know I am dedicated to protecting life on earth whether it be our species who are at risk of endangerment, or citizens who hope for a better life.
As immigration continues to be a leading topic in our current political climate, please rest assured that I will continue to keep your views in mind throughout the 116th Congress.  I believe that our borders must be secure while remaining sensitive to the desire of immigrants to reside within the U.S.  Immigrants improve the U.S. economy, reduce labor shortages, and contribute to the diversity of our great nation. Although not perfect, immigrants must come to the U.S. through current legal pathways. I look forward to working with members within my own party, and across the aisle to support border security initiatives and common-sense immigration reform.
Again, I thank you for sharing your views with me. I hope you will continue to give me the benefit of your opinion in the future. In addition, I encourage you to visit my web site at http://davidscott.house.gov, where you can view the latest news and obtain information on issues and legislation that is important to you. You can also sign up for my electronic newsletter, and receive periodic updates on my activities as your representative in Washington. Thank you again for contacting me, and I look forward to continuing to serve you.
Sincerely,
David Scott
Member of Congress

Mr. Scott has been saying for years that he supports  controlling immigration, including the border. I have yet to see a vote supporting the wall, or ANY viable alternative. My belief is that electronic surveillance of borders is only useful as a support system to a fortified wall. 

This Damned Guy

'CAREER CRIMINAL' Suspect Charged with Attack on 92-Year-Old Woman Previously Arrested 100+ TIMES | Sean Hannity:

For a 92 year old with something close to a concussion, Bronx native Geraldine exhibits a firm grasp of language and judgement.

“This damned guy put me in a state where I’m fearful to walk the streets alone. So my super’s trying to find somebody who will walk me to a park nearby or to the supermarket, that kind of thing. So that’s the problem.”

A convicted six offender, arrested over 100 times, Rashid Brimmage has been arrested.
Let's hope he is on parole, so that his likelihood of incarceration is increased.

Loeffler UNSUBSCRIBED

Georgia governor Brian Kemp installed Kelly Loeffler as Senator after the retirement of Johnny Isakson. This was over the recommendation of the President, at which time I believed that as a show of independence would benefit the governor, and all things being equal, she couldn't be any worse than the RINO Isakson.

Her short lived voting record has been very similar to her predecessor so that is a disappointment.

Just prior to the COVID crisis becoming a public emergency, she dumped her portfolio of stocks, exchanging those for stocks focused on on-line conferencing.

From Wikipedia...

On March 19, 2020, the public release of federal financial disclosure documents showed that Loeffler and her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, had sold stock in companies vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic with an aggregate value of several million dollars. Loeffler has denied any wrongdoing, saying the trades were made by a third-party advisor and that she learned about them only after they occurred.[22] The disclosures included that between January 24 and February 14, the couple sold between $1.275 and $3.1 million worth of stock in 27 companies, while buying stocks worth between $450,000 and $1 million, including in Citrix, a collaboration software company.

She's trotting around saying she's been cleared by the Senate.

Loeffler is guilty of using inside information for financial benefit, and legal or not, that for me is an ethical violation.

I will vote for a Democrat before selecting Kelly Loeffler on the ballot.

Wish she would stop sending me email, UNSUBSCRIBED.