Naked

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Got your attention? I thought so.

Anyway, in a little out the ordinary type post, I am going to recommend a book. I don’t often do that. No, I really don’t! I mean, it’s a book, after all.

But, this one is totally worth recommending and I honesty believe it will give you some insight into what is going on in the country at the moment.

The book?

The Naked Communist: Exposing Communism and Restoring Freedom, by W. Cleon Skousen.

This link above is for Amazon, but it is available in other places too. I don’t get any kickbacks for you clicking on that link, so it truly is just something I think is worth the read.

Why?

When you read this book, written first in 1958, in the context of the present (it has been updated for this) you suddenly see what is going on. Actually, it might not be all that sudden since, if you have studied history, you would have recognized the current developments fairly easily.

Social justice movements. Progressivism. Liberalism. Socialism. Democrats (yep, I said it). All of these are a back door to Communism. A Trojan Horse, if you will.

Read this book! Read it with current events in mind. Read it with the past in mind. Read it with the upcoming presidential election in mind.

Seriously.

 

Seattle

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I don’t recommend you visit.

It’s irritating to watch from a city nearby and see all the garbage that is going on down there.

The City and County Councils have gone off the rails. The mayor is a failure. Chaos in the streets (continues) and chaos in the government.

Homelessness is rampant. Drug use is up, even to the point that the city is providing space to allow and encourage it. Mismanagement of funds. Sheltering illegal immigrants.

“Handcuffing” cops so they can’t deal with unruly “protesters,” but just making them stand there to watch the lawlessness or take the physical and verbal abuse.

CHAZ and then CHOP.

Defund the Seattle PD by 50%, which is causing a mass exodus of officers to other communities.

Close the King County Jail within the next several years and completely stop youth incarceration. They want to take the position of the sheriff from being one voted on and into the position to one of being appointed.

They are trying to tax big businesses in the city and county to ungodly levels, which will eventually drive them out, not only from the city and county but very likely even the state (Bezos is public enemy #1 instead of the rioters destroying the city and holding parts of it hostage).

Make any sense? Any of it?

None. Not one bit of it.

Unless, your playbook was written by Marx. And Lenin. And Stalin. And Mao.

Ah, suddenly a picture comes into focus.

Don’t visit Seattle. Don’t be a tourist. Certainly don’t even think about moving there. Stay away from it. I have decided that I will avoid it as much as possible. No more visiting (it’s not safe). No more sports teams (can’t guarantee getting to the stadium will be safe). No more exploring. No more spending. No more.

Don’t visit Seattle.

Noon

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Noon, and all I wanna do is sit down.

Technically, I have been sitting all morning while I work.

But I mean like actually sit down and relax. Actually, you probably already know what I meant without me having to say it. I think we would all just like to sit down and put our feet up.

It’s July 17, 2020, and we are now officially more than halfway through the year.

That’s not real comforting to know that when it feels like we have been through three years in the last six months. Right?

The next six months is shaking out to be another 4 years worth of issues. How fun will that be?

Anyone else just…tired?

Tired physically, emotionally, and of anything and everything?

 

Once again

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I don’t know why I bother, because I am going to be ignored either way.

Advice.

Why ask for it if you are going to completely ignore it?

Family. I tell ya.

Kids. *shakes head* Damn, kids.

When they ask for advice, they don’t really want advice. They just want validation for their own thoughts and opinions, and if you don’t give them what they want then they discount your advice and do what they wanted to do in the first place.

Gets old, ya know?

 

Perspective

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There is an astounding lack of perspective in the United States these days.

The lack of understanding of history is a perspective that continues to grow.

A former student who posted on Instagram that her celebrating the 4th of July without a care in the world was “privilege” because it doesn’t represent everyone…is missing that perspective and it kind of surprised me.

Well, it does and it doesn’t. She, of course, is a college graduate who has been subjected to liberal brainwashing that demonizes everything American in our higher ed institutions these days. Wanna talk about a pandemic? How about the one in our nation’s colleges and the fact that there is no room for open discussion about different perspectives?

I am seeing this kind of stuff from a lot of my former students. I can safely say they came from a rather liberal, small community, but one that is not unpatriotic. These students weren’t that way when they were in high school.

When these kids were in my class, we did cover Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”. We read it, analyzed it. Discussed it. Drew some perspective from it and to it.

Douglass’s words rang true in 1852. There were many people still in the bonds of slavery and were not given the opportunities and freedoms that the Declaration of Independence and Constitution guaranteed to Americans. However, that is not the case in 2020. There is not slavery in the US (at least not the kind that Douglass was talking about) and opportunity is open to all. Freedom is given to all. Blessings of those historical documents are available and enjoyed by all.

Have we formed that “more perfect union” yet? Nope.

Are we striving still, to get there? Of course.

But to say that your “privilege” to celebrate the 4th of July negates what our Founding Fathers and those all along the history of our country have done for us is rather short sighted. Progress, moving forward, celebrating success, and contemplating failure (and learning from it) is the American way.

Historical knowledge is important. There are a lot of people who are getting it wrong these days.

A lesson from Hong Kong

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Wanna know what happens if the progressives and liberals ever win back all the branches of the government in the United States? Too dramatic? Overly cautionary? Hyper-political?

Pay attention to what is happening in Hong Kong.

Am I overreacting? Am I being alarmist? Am I blowing things out of proportion? No, of course it won’t be exactly like that. It will be a slower march towards Communism, but similar nonetheless.

China and their Communist government has designs on domination and they don’t care what freedoms and guarantees they made to the international community over Hong Kong. The freedom that the people who live there is all but about gone, and China is warning the international community to not interfere.

With current trends in progressive and liberal politics, the march towards socialism becomes a greater threat. As the march towards socialism gets stronger, cancel culture, censorship, and the expectation that everyone fall in line with their ideology increases too.

Dissent? Don’t speak out or you will get a mob of unfriendlies descending upon you to ruin your career, life, relationships, and demonize you until you apologize (doesn’t matter if you do, they still blacklist you) or disappear from the public (either from your doing it or from them doing it).

Don’t think it’s possible? When England handed over Hong Kong back to China in 1999, no one really thought it would ever happen there either. “Communist take over of Hong Kong? Nah, it’s enjoyed too much freedom for too long, plus it’s an international hub for the world’s businesses. It’ll never happen!” So much for that thought, right?

The slow march in the US is a lot like a frog in a pot. You don’t know you’re cooked until it is too late. Unfortunately, there are far too many people in the pot who are not paying close enough attention to what is going on.

China is a threat. Russia is a threat. Not from weapons, at least not yet, but from ideology.

There will be a day when we wake up and the state of the States will be piss poor and many were too blinded by the agenda to see it coming.

 

 

 

July 4

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No, today isn’t July 4. Sorry if that threw you off for a moment. Hopefully you don’t tell time by the calendar of my blogging.

It was an interesting holiday, wasn’t it?

People can’t even celebrate with fireworks anymore. Governments are trying to kill that tradition with regulations (though the people in my community have done their best to try and do it anyway).

People locked down. People being mandated to wear masks. People being told they can’t gather. Celebrations cancelled. People not able to do the things they have done in the past because of fear generated by a pandemic.

People aren’t feeling so free these days. Freedom didn’t seem to ring quite as loudly this year. Freedom has had quite the damper on it from the government…kind of like back in the day, when July 4 was the culmination of people having it up their eyeballs with government interference on their daily lives. Weird.

Oh, and then there is the “woke” crowd and their “cancel culture” who need a bit of a history lesson.

Colin Kaepernick apparently needs a history lesson or three. He said he (and apparently other “woke” people) wasn’t going to celebrate the 4th of July holiday because it was a “celebration of white supremacy.” You apparently can catch that twit/tweet/whatever you call it on Twitter.

Hey, Colin, Independence Day isn’t about celebrating a race of any kind. It’s about celebrating the separation of the colonies (eventually the United States) from England. It’s about a national celebration, not a racial celebration. To add to your history lesson, there was a time when an African-American, or Black, did have a gripe about celebrating freedom because not all in the United States were free. Frederick Douglass, when he wrote and delivered “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”, was protesting slavery and the lack of political freedom for Blacks. It seems those two issues have been solved.

Is America perfect? Nope. Have people made mistakes? Yep. But to say that Independence Day is a holiday about white supremacy is just plain stupid. Should celebrating the holiday negate ALL progress made since that day? Nope. Again, plain stupidity.

America is still the best place to live and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, but I am not going to stop you if you would like to go somewhere else. Feel free to explore other places in the world.

That’s the thing about freedom, you can move anywhere you like.

Ain’t no one stopping you…well, except governments (and media) who have everyone locked down in fear.

God Bless America!

Take down

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I did something yesterday I thought I would never do, and I don’t know how I feel about it. It seemed necessary but I still question whether it was the right thing to do. I suppose it can be undone, but I am not sure how to do it so the same thing doesn’t happen.

I took down (as in deleted) a post I wrote on my other blog.

It was a pretty good post, at least I thought it was.

Apparently, other people thought so too, except for the wrong reasons.

It got some traffic after I wrote it two years ago, but not much. But I started noticing a lot of traffic to this particular post late last year. It was getting between 15-30 hits per month. I thought maybe it was because of the image. I could have been. I thought maybe it was because people were starting to make some logical sense of the topic, or maybe they just appreciated my take on the topic.

The last two months have had over a 100 and over 150 respectively. Hmmmm….

So, I Googled the title. It was third on the list of search results. Usually this would be a great thing and most of the time we would be flattered to be ranked so highly in a Google search because it means our writing is getting exposure. But…

That’s when I discovered that maybe the increase in traffic was because it had suddenly become the flash point, rallying cry, support, ammunition, (whatever you want to call it) for a group I have no association with, nor do I want to have. I don’t want to have something I have written be co-opted and used as propaganda to their “cause.”

I debated what I should do. How do I get it to NOT show up as part of the search for this group? Do I change the title? Would that help? Do I rewrite it so the phraseology changes the search algorithm? Do I remove the image or change it? Do I just put a disclaimer on it saying that I am in no way associated with or want to be associated with the group in the search results?

I finally decided to change the title first, but couldn’t come up with an equally good title. But, I did it anyway. I then updated and published it. Yeah, that didn’t/doesn’t seem to make a difference. It still shows up in the search results with the old title. It’s just when you click on the link that it takes you to the newly edited post. Doesn’t appear as though that would work.

So, I deleted it.

I searched again. Still there in the search results. Only now when you click on the title, it gives you a 404 error message…but if you click on the cached link, it still takes you to the post. UGH. Now what? I am not sure how long it will be there (or if it will ever go away).

I hate censoring myself in this manner, but I also don’t want something I wrote about historical matters to be used in the wrong way or by a group I don’t want to be associated with. Know what I mean?

Anyone have advice on this?

Loud and clear

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You ever feel like you are under-appreciated?

We just passed a holiday of sorts – Father’s Day.

I remembered my dads. I have three (dad and two FILs). It’s an easy thing to do, right? Talk to one, remember the others. Acknowledge them, appreciate them, take time out of your day to help them feel special for a moment. Doesn’t take a long time, but it is important.

Now, background here…I married into a lot of kids the second time around. Most of them adults by the time they came into my life. So now, including spouses of the kids who are married, there are eight.

Could of days ago, I heard from three.

That’s it. Three.

Didn’t hear a peep from 5 of the 8. There haven’t even been any “after the fact” acknowledgements either.

So, now full disclosure, you know the source of a LOT of the Piss and Moan material.

I try to deny the fact and ignore it, but there just isn’t any denying it.

Look, I realize they have another dad. I haven’t ever expected to be the top of the list. But at the very least acknowledged? Yes.

I am not looking for anything fancy, lord knows that most of them can’t afford crap (see other, numerous, posts about adult children living in our house or on our property). But it doesn’t take much to make someone feel appreciated, right?

Is it wrong for me to feel this way?

 

Disarm, defund, abolish?

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This isn’t even close to the answer.

Not sure what kind of fantasy land people are living in, but most people know this isn’t even the practical, let alone realistic. But, there are a whole bunch of progressive and liberal people in power who are going to placate and pander to the loudest voices even if they make no logical sense.

I hate to tell ya this, but people ain’t gonna suddenly decide to live in a Utopian world just because the police go away. It will, in fact, go exactly the opposite as people and groups clamor for power over others.

Disarm?

I can accept that some equipment might be overkill. Maybe, just maybe, the budget could be better spent on training and non-lethal tactics/equipment. Arming the police like the military might not be the answer. But taking away their weapons won’t work and we all know it. Remember those instances where even the LA police were outgunned by bank robbers? What about gangs and drug cartels? How would that work?

I can see some concessions here but, as we have seen with protests all over the nation over the last decade or more, when you take away ability of the police to maintain order in communities you get crime on a  massive scale. As such, our expectation of what law enforcement can and can’t do is going to have to change. We won’t be able to expect that they are going to respond to crimes during protests, large gathers, sports celebrations, etc.

Every massive protest or celebration in the US these days leads to looting, property damage, and usually other crimes as a byproduct of such behavior. The police have basically had to stand back and let it happen because they are overwhelmed, either by the sheer numbers of people or by the fact that they lack the ability to respond.

Seattle’s police chief said that things are going to have to change. That’s not only the way the police do their business but it’s also the acceptance from the public that you aren’t going to be safe or protected at all times.

Crime won’t get better if you take away their ability to handle it or prevent it.

Defund?

This option is bad at best, besides a veiled effort to push more socialism. You all know that a budget means, right?

What exactly are you going to defund in a police department?

Cut money from buying weapons? OK, again, maybe this might work. But again, what happens when the police are outgunned?

Cut money from training? Yeah, that doesn’t seem like a good idea either. If anything, funds could be diverted from arming to training. Taking money isn’t the answer.

Cut money from payroll? Also not real bright. Money means staff. Staff means there is someone to respond to a crime, to investigate, to rescue, to protect, to arrest those who need and deserve it. Are you really prepared to be told when you call 911 that an officer will be there in 30 minutes to 2 hours, if at all? It also means that paying (for all intents and purposes) them a quality wage. They are supposed to stand in harm’s way, right? So are we asking them to take less pay to do the same job, while being under armed and understaffed?

Do more with less? We have been doing that to teachers for years and that is clearly working (that’s sarcasm if you can’t read between the lines), so what makes you think law enforcement can do it?

Starting to get worried yet?

Disband?

Asinine.

Sure, let’s just get rid of the police department altogether. That won’t create a whole other set of issues that will have to be dealt with.

Crime will just magically disappear! Humans are naturally good by nature so there will be no problems and we’ll all live peacefully together in one big happy family…gather ’round the fire folks! We’re about to sing Kumbaya and hug and stuff.

The fact is, this won’t work either. The human heart hasn’t been fixed yet. Evil will always rear it’s ugly head and the vacuum left by an absence of law enforcement would quickly be filled by people who have no intent on sharing power, safety, or resources.

I am just not that optimistic of my fellow man. As such, I’ll be buying more guns to protect my family, friends, and property.

That is the natural assumption, right? If someone else who is armed to protect me and others is removed from my community, then I will have to fill that void myself. You can’t have it both ways – no police force AND an unarmed populace.

Can no one see how stupid this is? (That’s rhetorical, as I know there are lots of people who see this as completely stupid).

So what then?

I’ll be over here building my arsenal and fortress.

If you need me or want to visit, text me. I’ll unlock the gate, lower the bridge, pull the gators outta the moat, and tie up the attack dogs.