Monday, February 13, 2023

Clouds Gather as the Moments of Truth Approach

I would like to start this piece with the mention of a movie and its soundtrack.  The 2007 movie “Reign Over Me” featured Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle.  The movie soundtrack was a song by the Who, “Reign O’er Me”.  Now I am not now, nor have I ever been, a big Adam Sandler fan.  He is far too often over the top for my taste.  But in my humble opinion, this a great movie and a great performance by Sandler in the movie.  It features a beautiful story, outstanding performances, classic music, and if you will give it a chance…it will bring tears to your eyes.  It is quite the story of redemption; Lord knows we can all use some of that.  Don Cheadle and Sandler have a chemistry in this movie that is really effective.  Cheadle to me is like Clint Eastwood…I never saw a bad Eastwood movie; some are just better than others.  Not sure what brought this particular movie to my mind at this time, but if you have never seen it…you have a hidden treasure to enjoy.  Here is a good review of the  movie at Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/reign_over_me and here is the Who’s (one of any classic rock fan’s favorite bands) soundtrack with lyrics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhLsC2FpDZk .  This is, without a doubt, one of Roger Daltrey’s finest efforts.  What a great marriage of film and music.  Enjoy.

 

Now…on to things less entertaining.  The issue of our children’s education in America continues to be one of, if not the, most important social war battle that is happening today.  Returning our curriculum from wokeness to common sense, wresting control of academia from the liberal elite and returning it to parents, providing the fat and lazy public school system with private school competition in order to increase effectiveness of both and give all parents a choice, and most of all…removing the corruptive and self-serving control of education from administrator and teacher unions and returning it to taxpayers and parents....These are the battles that are playing out all across our nation today.  The stakes could not be higher.  It appears that Florida, with Governor Ron DeSantis taking the lead, has become ground zero for this particular culture war.  But make no mistake about it, no matter where you might live in our country, this is going on in YOUR backyard and in YOUR schools.  Wake up.  Get involved.  Take care of YOUR children.

 

https://jewishworldreview.com/0223/school_choice_resurgent.php3

 

Why do we need school choice?  Here is why: https://jonathanturley.org/2023/02/11/report-23-baltimore-schools-had-zero-students-proficient-in-math/

 

https://reason.com/2023/02/10/free-speech-group-calls-out-10-censorship-prone-colleges-to-avoid/

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-college-board-goes-to-war-with-desantis/

 

We are going to have a Presidential election in the fall of 2024.  With the mid-terms now behind us, potential candidates for both national parties are jockeying around for position to see how they might pursue their individual interests in the upcoming primary process.  Some truly expect to be President.  Some might be vying for a Vice-Presidential slot.  Some might be positioning themselves for a cabinet or plum patronage appointment.  Then there will be others who are simply going through an ego-massaging exercise to get some camera time.  Each of us will end up with a favorite, but for me…there is one prime directive: Let us NOT come down to Biden vs. Trump.  If we have learned nothing else from the past six years, surely we must realize that constant turmoil and partisan conflict is no recipe for good government.  We must also surely know by now that the last thing America needs is a Chief Executive who is over 80 years old and casts doubt every day of his life as to his competence.

 

BOTH NATIONAL PARTIES have candidates available that will be far better choices than Biden or Trump.  Let us  hope that the cream will rise to the top and we will have a choice between two viable candidates in November of 2024.  Personally, my early preference is Ron DeSantis at the top of a ticket with Nikki Haley as his Vice-President.  We never really know what type of President a candidate might prove to be; it is a crap shoot.  Campaigning ain’t serving.  But looking back over my life, I believe that the best experience I have seen for a potential President is serving as Governor.  A governorship demands all of the skills (with the possible exception of foreign policy) from a person managing a state government that will likely be required, albeit on a much grander scale, from a person managing our national government.  I like the way DeSantis has performed in Florida and Haley was a very effective Governor for South Carolina.  It seems to be a far better practice to examine how people have performed on the job rather than judge them on their campaign rhetoric.  Whatever YOUR choice might be, please…just anybody but Biden and Trump…ABBT.

 

https://nypost.com/2023/02/12/florida-gov-ron-desantis-is-the-gops-sunshining-future/

 

https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tLP1TcwMk8rrkwzYPTizsvMzs5UyEjMSa0EAGCRCAA&q=nikki+haley&rlz=1C1CHZN_enUS1002US1003&oq=nicki+Ha&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j46i10i131i433i512j0i10i131i433i512j46i512j0i10i512j46i10i131i433i512j46i512j0i512l2.9686j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

For my money, which ain’t much, the two greatest Presidents were Lincoln and Reagan.  Given that we are near his birthday, here is some great history about Lincoln: https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/02/remembering-mr-lincoln-12.php

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/02/a-genius-for-friendship-9.php

 

There is a real difference between conservative government and liberal government and the reality today is that the Democrats represent liberal government and the Republicans represent conservative government.  Each…individual…elected official is unique and brings a different set of principles and values to the table; but the fact is that votes in Congress are what matters in today’s political world and we must remember that when we go to the polls.  That is exactly why idiots on both sides of the political aisle continue to get national party support and win elections.  At some point soon, we can only hope to get to a point where we can primarily consider the true character content of our voting choices rather than just their party affiliation.  But for now…we are left with the numbers game.  We will get the government we deserve…the one we vote for.

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/02/florida-vs-new-york.php

 

https://reason.com/2023/02/12/across-the-globe-government-health-care-systems-are-failing-us/

 

https://thefederalist.com/2023/02/09/if-bidens-federal-elections-takeover-is-free-and-fair-why-are-the-plans-completely-redacted/

 

And in an effort to expand our world view and consider how other nation’s might deal with their leadership choices, here is a very good article on Italy’s new, and somewhat controversial, Prime Minister: https://americanmind.org/salvo/meloni-ascends/

 

If the upcoming presidential campaign brings us nothing else, may it please greatly dispense with the all-too-common practice of candidates, and current leaders, blatantly and shamelessly lying to our faces, cherry-picking facts and statistics to support their own agendas, and essentially performing in deceitful and dishonest fashion.  Be honest with yourselves…don’t you feel totally disrespected when someone disregards your intelligence in this way?  While on this topic, one man in particular comes to mind….

 

https://jewishworldreview.com/0223/hanson020923.php3

 

https://thefederalist.com/2023/02/07/sarah-huckabee-sanders-summed-up-the-state-of-the-union-better-in-one-line-than-biden-did-in-an-hour-and-a-half/

 

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/02/08/fact-checking-7-claims-in-bidens-state-of-the-union-address/

 

https://jewishworldreview.com/0223/fact_checker020823.php3

 

https://thefederalist.com/2023/02/08/dont-fall-for-joe-bidens-economic-fairy-tale/

 

https://amgreatness.com/2023/02/10/theres-going-to-be-hell-to-pay/

 

https://jonathanturley.org/2023/02/08/biden-repeats-dubious-call-and-claim-on-assault-weapons-in-state-of-the-union/

 

The shameful abandonment BY BOTH PARTIES of fiscal responsibility is pathetic.  But anyone paying attention to federal spending must acknowledge that the Democrats, beginning with Obama and reaching stratospheric levels with Biden, have taken federal spending to a whole, new level.  I have often said that perhaps it is true that the government that governs least, governs best.  I fear this is not the case for our social security system.  If fundamental changes are not made soon to that system, it is clearly obvious that it will not be sustainable and will not be around to support our future generations.  Some political courage is called for from both sides.

 

https://cnsnews.com/article/washington/terence-p-jeffrey/1476-trillion-469-total-federal-debt-incurred-during-pelosis

 

https://reason.com/2023/02/07/biden-promises-to-let-social-securitys-ship-keep-sinking/

 

https://cnsnews.com/article/washington/melanie-arter/biden-1995-when-i-argued-we-should-freeze-federal-spending-i-meant

 

The Democrats in Congress and the Deep State spent over four years chasing Donald Trump…and they continue that frenetic effort even today.  The idiocy and zealotry demonstrated in that bizarre adventure has established many irregular precedents are now beginning to come back and haunt those same Democrats.  Karma is a bitch.  Joe Biden has always been, and I fear continues to be, one shady dude.  He, his family, and their business associates have pretty effectively insulated themselves from accountability and justice in regards to their questionable business/political activities.  Hunter Biden might very well prove to be the leak that sinks that particular rotting ship.  The real question is this:  Is there sufficient time between now and the next election to pull the sheets back on the corruptive Biden family enterprise?

 

https://jonathanturley.org/2023/02/10/biden-goes-bannon-counsel-for-hunter-rebuffs-congressional-demands-for-documents/#more-200492

 

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/hunter-biden-asked-fathers-top-white-house-aide-to-help-serbian-businessman-campaign-for-un-chief/

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/02/the-deep-meaning-of-no-comment.php

 

If there is anybody out there who has not yet gotten the message, here it is: THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS A BIASED AND UNETHICAL CLOWN SHOW!  Censorship, disinformation, bias, invasion of privacy…all of these abuses have blossomed under the unholy alliance formed between the media, the Democrat Party, the extreme liberal elements of our society and culture, academia, the Deep State, and the high tech industry.  If you believe that this notion is simply a political concoction brewed up by the Republicans and the conservative segment of our citizenry, then you are naïve beyond description.  This is not Oliver Stone running around with his hair on fire; this is very real, very ominous, very threatening, and very poisonous to our freedoms and liberties.

 

https://amgreatness.com/2023/02/10/righteous-tyrants/

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/02/a-twitter-files-footnote-8-2.php

 

https://thefederalist.com/2023/02/10/anonymous-sources-are-how-corporate-media-launder-smear-operations-as-news/

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/fairness-justice/disinformation-inc-watchdogs-blast-state-dept-grants-group-blacklisting-conservative-media

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/technology/disinformation-inc-microsoft-xander-conservative-defunded-outlets

 

https://justthenews.com/accountability/whistleblowers/new-whistleblower-says-fbi-tried-open-criminal-cases-140-people-just

 

https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/fbi-keeps-getting-burned-badly-reliance-liberal-sources

 

https://reason.com/2023/02/09/the-new-york-times-warns-that-freedom-of-speech-threatens-public-health-and-democracy-itself/

 

https://amgreatness.com/2023/02/07/missing-documents-and-files-in-ongoing-j6-cover-ups/

 

And here is the cherry on top of the sundae.  THIS is the federal agency that Congress recently appropriated additional funding to so that it might ESSENTIALLY DOUBLE IN SIZE.  Somehow…I do not think this is what our founders had in mind when they wrote: Government by the people and for the people.  https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/lois-lerner-20-irs-meets-disinformation-targeting-nonprofit-seeking-tax

 

I will close this post with a very good summary of the recent “UFO Shootdowns” that have garnered so much attention.  Who better to sum it up than the invaluable Jim Geraghty: https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=desktop&utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_term=second&utm_content=morning-jolt

 

And this from https://reason.com/ ……. https://reason.com/2023/02/13/north-americas-ufo-weekend/

 

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