Staging Hate Crimes, the national pastime for Democrats

© 2019 Jim Spence -  There are two important lessons associated with human nature that should be understood by all intelligent adults.
First, people will believe what they believe it is in their best interests to believe. This is why it is devastating that our education system morphed into a propaganda ministry several decades ago.
Second, gullible people don’t really know they are gullible. Accordingly, it is very easy to manipulate gullible people.
America had 99% of its racial problems solved by the mid-1970’s. This explains why Garrett Morris did a one-man comedy skit on Saturday Night Live in which he offered the “White Guilt Relief Fund” as a way for those not aware that the problems had been solved, to give their money away to past victims. We all laughed at that skit forty years ago. These days the show has regressed into a pathetic remnant of itself. None of the Democrats on Saturday Night Live would dare to do a skit like that more than forty years later.
To be sure, not all of America's “social” problems have been solved. Social problems transcend race. Accordingly, social problems cannot be solved with anti-discrimination laws. Social problems change with the times. In 21st Century America, there are major problems with opiate and amphetamine addiction in places like Appalachia. It is not just the poor communities in America’s inner cities that suffer from self-inflicted wounds. Despite what you hear and read, millions of poor whites suffer from the same maladies as poor blacks and Hispanics. This reality is no less tragic. It just doesn't have anything to do with race.
Sadly, Democrats have developed 21st Century methods for perpetuating their favorite political narratives. Since racists are the most contemptible of all human beings, news media Democrats with the help of the education and entertainment communities, spend an inordinate amount of time branding Republicans as racists.
The problem with successful branding is Democrats need “incidents” to prove their narrative. And unfortunately for Democrats, they simply can’t count on a handful of skinheads to protest every weekend to prove the notion that racism is still widespread. Starving for proving incidents, Democrats have gone about the business of “staging” them.
There is nothing more sympathetic than a black/gay actor. Jussie Smollet fits that bill. It seems that Smollett is the most recent in a long line of Democrats who has been caught staging a hate crime. Last summer a former Petersburg City Attorney used a prepaid cell phone to call himself and make violent racist threats at the black mayor of the town. America’s colleges and universities are particularly likely places for fake hate crimes to be staged. A couple of black students were actually charged with engaging in pro-KKK vandalism at the University of Miami recently. At Concordia University, the media blamed right-wing Muslim haters for making terrorist threats. Later it was discovered with very little investigation, that the perpetrator was a Lebanese-Canadian man named Hisham Saadi. When anti-Arab graffiti was found on the home of an Arab family in Ohio, an investigation discovered it was put there by a man named Osama Nazzal. As recently as December in New York, a Muslim teenager, Yasmin Seweid told authorities that she was harassed on the subway by men who yelled "Donald Trump" at her while trying to tear off her hijab. Just two weeks later, Seweid admitted she was lying to try to cover up the fact she broke her parent's curfew. Back in 2016, a white board in a classroom at Elon Univeristy in North Carolina had the phrase, "Bye Bye Latinos Hasta La Vista," scrawled on it. After howls of racism circulated the media, it was discovered that a Latino student at the school, actually wrote the words.
The most recent staged racist hoax, involved a Catholic student from Covington, Kentucky. The student became the latest victim when the national news media and Democratic presidential hopefuls assassinated the young man, who was accused of being a racist. The Democrats never bothered to investigate the "incident" before once again, RUSHING TO JUDGMENT. A quick investigation turned up a more lengthy video of the incident. It turns out according to the visual evidence that it was confrontational Democrats who were misbehaving. The student the media had already crucified, did nothing but suppress a smile.
Within this context, consider the Mueller investigation for what it is. It is merely another series of false charges levied by Democrats to cover their own misdeeds. Despite the fact the politically charged accusations associated with Mueller are wild, the real investigation is showing that entrenched Democrats in Washington D.C.'s deep state are the perpetrators of the Russia collusion crimes.
Do any of these facts actually get through to the American people?  Not really.
Remember the basics. 1) People believe what they believe it is in their interests to believe and sadly, public education has produced two generations of Democrat-leaning zombies ready to believe anything they are spoon-fed by their masters in the Democrat-dominated media. 2) Gullible people don’t really know they are gullible. Accordingly, it is very easy to manipulate gullible people.
ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, NPR, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and most of the rest of the news media organizations understand these two basics better than anyone realizes. It should come as no surprise that these propaganda outlets are dominated by Democrats, who are desperate to perpetuate the narrative that anyone who doesn’t vote Democrat is a hate criminal or a hate criminal sympathizer. Expecting the staging of hate crimes to continue.

Staging Hate Crimes, the national pastime for Democrats

Swickard: President’s Day Best and Worst

Michael Swickard

© 2019 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.  February is President’s Month. Recently I noticed on Social Media quite a few posts about current and former United States Presidents. Over two-hundred thirty years there are only forty-four men in that exclusive club.

            One post proclaimed Barack Obama worst president ever. There was as usual a vigorous battle of emotions. I believe it takes at least thirty years to get a real historical feel for the value of a President. The jury is still out for me on Bush 41 to Trump.  

        My response to that post: Lyndon Johnson was the worst president ever. There were some good results during his presidency. However, his legacy is the damage to Social Security for political purposes, micromanaging the Vietnam War including not understanding our military technically won the war in 1968.

            Additionally, Johnson pushed a welfare system that incentivized single parents. Over his political life he was very corrupt. Yes, many U. S. Presidents were corrupt in one way or many. In my opinion, LBJ was worst. My post on LBJ was divided by partisans so LBJ either sat on the right hand of God or of Satan.

            If you study U. S. Presidents, you find they are all flawed human beings. Some Presidents control their flaws better. Question: what is the lasting good and lasting harm of each of them?

            Most harmful: Polk, Bucannon, Wilson, both Roosevelts, LBJ and Carter. You might have a different list. I can talk hours why those seven Presidents left our nation much worse off.

            Best Presidents: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Coolidge, Truman, Eisenhower and Reagan. Each, despite flaws, left our nation better for their time as president.

            All must grow into the job. Even George Washington had growing pains throughout his presidency since he had to take each crisis as a new learning activity.

            George Washington previously served as General of the Army. Being President is vastly different. He learned and left our nation better. The same can be said of Eisenhower. However, President Grant did not leave a lasting good though he was very popular in his lifetime.

            Take Abraham Lincoln, an awful President his first year but grew into the Presidency and left our nation better off. Maybe one of Lincoln’s contemporaries would have grown into the presidency like Lincoln but we will never know.

            Both Calvin Coolidge and Harry Truman were trust into the Presidency and left the nation better off. Both did not want the office but took it when the then President died in office.

            We can use the same logic for Governors and Mayors but again about thirty years or so must go by before any real historical decisions are appropriate.

            At New Mexico State University in 1970 I drew the ire of then President Roger Corbett while I was in the Student Senate. At the time I thought him an awful president.

            After years of reflection I believe the top five NMSU President were Hadley, Foster, Kent, Thomas and yes, Roger Corbett. The academic world of NMSU is ever so much better for each of them being the President.

            I cannot make a judgement on my fellow Class of 1968 Alamogordo High School graduate Danny Arvizu, who now leads NMSU. I liked him in high school, but I do not know if he will lead NMSU in turbulent times to a better place than he finds it.

            When government leaders are elected, and leaders of academic institutions are appointed it will be decades before we really know the total results of that decision. However, we can learn much by those who came before, if we want to learn. 

Email: drswickard@comcast.net

Swickard: President’s Day Best and Worst

The peaceful transfer of power

© 2018 Jim Spence -  Throughout history, the cancer of totalitarianism has metastasized in nations when dictators emerged and seized power in societies after successfully blurring the lines that define the concept of fundamental fairness.
America, we have a problem. The problem is not temporary, it is chronic. And it could be fatal. There are several ways to identify and illuminate America’s life-threatening problem.
Let’s begin with the bedrock of our republic. This bedrock is the peaceful transfer of power. Peaceful transfers of power have been the hallmark of the United States of America since the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. We are not talking about the incoming and outgoing presidents shaking hands on inauguration day. That didn't always happen. We are talking about all the players in and around government respecting the outcome of elections because our rules reflect respect for the wishes of others we disagree with.
The last time an organized resistance to the peaceful transfer of power in America occurred, was back in 1860. Ironically, it was also the Democrats in 1860, who objected to their loss of a presidential election.
Let’s be clear here. Vocal political opposition is normal in all republics where free speech is a cornerstone of the governing framework. However, naked attempts at the nullification of an election or the nullification of existing laws is a cancer on civilized societies. Since the libraries are filled with books on the American Civil War, a history lesson on election and law nullification will be spared here.
What we are seeing from Democrats since 2016 is far more dangerous than anything we have seen since nullification and secession by Democrat-dominated states one hundred and fifty-nine years ago.
Some groundwork is in order. U.S. Democrats wanted slavery in 1860 and they want socialism (a form of slavery) now. Understanding what adherents of socialism have done globally to prevail is useful. Socialism is an economic model that does not work. It has never worked. In most places where socialism actually prevails politically, power is held by single party rule and unconstrained dictators who re-write provisions of their nation’s constitutions to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.
Make no mistake, as the title of this piece indicates, the peaceful transition of power is the key to this discussion. The legacies of socialists: Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Castro, Kim, Putin, Xi, and Maduro (in today's starving Venezuela), have a common thread. Each dictator harnessed the power of a “deep state” government structure to destroy all chances that any opposition could ever achieve a peaceful transfer into power.

Consider the evolution of the deep state in America. We have come much more than full circle since the days when Richard Nixon was forced to resign after his cronies tried to hijack the machinery of the federal government (the deep state) to support his re-election. What has evolved within the deep state in recent years is both dangerous and insidious. The chicanery of the deep state should be stopped by all freedom loving Americans.
The evidence of 21st Century corruption in the deep state that governs America is extraordinary. There are seemingly isolated incidents, like Lois Lerner’s efforts at the IRS to destroy GOP-sympathetic fundraising efforts, by stalling the approvals of 501-c-3 applications. Though seemingly an isolated incident, so criminal was her behavior, Lerner was forced to exercise her 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination when she was questioned under a subpoena. Tragically but predictably, the deep state never prosecuted Lois Lerner for her crimes. This abuse of fundamental fairness is a now a problematic pattern, not an isolated incident. Allowing cheating hurts all of us.
Other crimes, which are closely related to Lerner’s crimes, are simply not being prosecuted either. The Inspector General Report on the actions of the FBI last summer left zero doubt that the deep state is not just an ultra-powerful political force in America, it is a political force willing to illegally use the vast resources of the federal treasury to help the party of the deep state…….the Democratic Party……win what should be free and fair elections. Their goal is to thwart all opponents not just Trump.
Americans should wake up soon and make a vow to avail themselves of facts on these patterns of disintegrating freedom before it is too late. Instead of being spoon fed shameful propaganda by the collaborative efforts of the national media, public education system, entertainment industry, and deep state, Americans need to read relevant documents that are a matter of public record, and exercise fundamental judgment about the deep state.
The patterns of fundamental corruption go far beyond the deep state’s unwillingness to prosecute one of their own like the IRS’s Lois Lerner. They involve thousands of illegal actions by employees in the DOJ, FBI, CIA, and NSA. Lies under oath by former leaders of these departments prove that the deep state has now crossed all ethical lines.
What are these people collaborating to do?  In 2016, they collaborated to try to swing the presidential election in favor of Hillary Clinton. And once that election was lost, they have taken numerous actions to disrupt the peaceful transition of power in the post-Obama era. They have declared war on the election winner in ways that should alarm all but those ignorant of the tyranny of totalitarianism.
It is no accident that James Comey, during sworn testimony before Congress, said he either did not know the answers to basic questions, or could not remember the details of events. He did so an astonishing 245 times. The corruption problem went far beyond Comey. The astounding actions of deep state conspirators like Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Andrew Weismann, John Brennan, and James Clapper, are all a matter of public record. All of these people and many more are part of a very widespread criminal movement. Hundreds if not thousands of members of the deep state are still actively trying impose the political whims of high-placed government employees on the electorate. What makes them so powerful, is the willingness of our pro-deep state media to trumpet false narratives every single day, leaked to them in the form of lies by government employees.
Perhaps the saddest aspect of this reality is that their current primary target is a man who evokes very little sympathy. Donald Trump is simply not likable, even to those who voted for him.
America, we have a problem. This problem is bigger than what your views on Trump are. No American should be willing to suspend the peaceful transfer of power from Democrats to Republicans or vice versa, because many people in the deep state are now willing to commit crimes to accomplish this insidious goal. The problem of course is the deep state watchdogs are now looking the other way while this happens.
It would be the height of ignorance for Americans to think that those who are complicit in this life-threatening problem, (the news media, public education, the entertainment industry, and the deep state) are going to make us aware of this mortal danger. Unfortunately, ignorance should be on the table of elements. It is the most common element around us these days. Ignorance begets tyranny and totalitarianism.

The peaceful transfer of power

Real dangers to all living creatures

© 2018 Jim Spence - Decades ago when the important work that made our air and water much cleaner was pretty much done (in the U.S.) there was little left for the clean air and water activists to do. Unfortunately, some activists can't quite declare the obvious victory and move on. They must have a cause.
Oddly, and despite its obvious value to the quality of life, the new "cause" became a nasty political run at the fossil fuel industry. Part of the activist's strategy was to predict catastrophic “global warming” along with assertions that there would be an end to things like "snow" and also an end to record low temperatures. These false alarms were aimed at politicians in an effort to torpedo the fossil fuel industries. Fortunately, those absurdly bogus predictions are a matter of public record.
Decades have passed since the end of the world was to come. Virtually none of the outlandish predictions made by global warming alarmists have come true. We have continued to see record low temperatures in thousands of locations each year, and some communities experienced more snowfall in 2018 than in any other year on record.
Sensing a problem with the temperature data trends, global warming researchers re-branded themselves as “climate change” researchers more than a decade ago. Let's make no mistake about all of this, "climate change" is a political term. It is political because politicians control dollars flowing into climate change researcher's bank accounts. To keep the research grant dollars flowing despite no ability to predict climate changes, grant recipients began to realize it was the “words” they used to sell their anti-fossil fuel message that mattered. Words mattered much more after considering the static temperature data and absence of any validation of their previous catastrophic predictions. It was a great marketing stroke. With the term "climate change" substituted for global warming, any weather event could be blamed on the vague notion of climate change. Suddenly, routine weather events like hurricanes and tornadoes could be ponied up as evidence that the fossil fuel industry should be destroyed, no matter the cost.
Amazingly, the climate change industry has thrived. Bolstered by an agenda-driven public education system, Hollywood jet setters with gargantuan carbon footprints, advocacy replacing journalism, and Democrat politicians who found it useful to parrot the alarms, the notion of man-caused global warming (climate change) has been woven into the psychological fabric of our nation.
Of course it became obvious early on that the Hollywood types and politicians were not really serious about the predictions they parroted. They have continued to fly their fossil fuel-guzzling private jets to climate change conferences and lease every gas-guzzling limousine within a hundred kilometers to preen about the immorality of using fossil fuels. We know now that Al Gore was never really talking about himself when he spoke about people living in more modest homes. The sizes of Gore's mansions and the hundreds of thousands of miles he logs on his private jet speak for themselves.
Sadly, there is something else that also speaks for itself. It is the FACT that imprecise words won’t protect human beings and other creatures from life-threatening cold temperatures.
This week, temperatures plunged across the entire Midwest to their lowest levels in decades. Schools and businesses closed and thousands of airline flights were canceled. Even Amtrak halted all trains going in and out of Chicago yesterday. This is all real. Human beings, pets, and wildlife, are facing very REAL and mortal dangers this week, and not because temperatures are "too warm."
Ironically, global warming-alarmist Democrat governors in Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois, without inanely re-iterating the looming dangers of warm temperatures, declared states of emergency this week as wind chill temperatures fell to minus 50 degrees and lower. With much of the greater Chicago metro area near minus 70, clueless Democrats sent to Washington by clueless voters, called for more crippling economic public policies to battle dangers that have yet to emerge decades after they were predicted to do so.
Facts are stubborn things. Temperatures are far below the averages in recorded history in most of the U.S. this week.
There is an 800 pound gorilla in the room. Democrats want to stop production of energy that keeps people warm, including the ultimate renewable……nuclear power.
No doubt there will be a death toll associated with the deep freeze of 2019. The death toll will be real, while Democrat predictions of “human catastrophes,” brought on by too warm temperatures, will continue to be data bankrupt abstractions that are shamelessly repeated in public schools, by pop culture celebrities in the media, and by Democrats in Congress. Ironically, these entities remain hell-bent and determined to create real public policy catastrophes like energy shortages that can cost precious lives during weeks like these.

Real dangers to all living creatures

Those Christian bums at Chick-fil-A

© 2018 Jim Spence - A few years ago several Democrat mayors decided they would do everything in their power to make sure no more Chick-fil-A restaurants would be built in their cities. They tried to organize boycotts because Chick-fil-A is a Christian-owned company that closes on Sundays and often cites biblical verses in support of GOP policies.
Though I have only been to a Chick-fil-A once, apparently this company has millions of customers who love their products.
Over the years Chick-fil-A has become one of the favorite whipping boys of Democrats and their pals in the news media. Of course like the coverage of everyone and everything else media Democrats oppose philosophically, there are never any positives with a company like Chick-fil-A.
Last week when the massive ice and snow storm hit the south the Christians rolled up their sleeves while the Democrat-dominated news media was content to show footage of miles of cars stranded on the frozen interstate highways. Several national news broadcasts reported that school kids were trapped on buses for almost 24 hours because of all of the ice. They reported on parents going frantic wondering where their kids were.
News consumers did not see reports during all of the dangers presented by the cold weather of the actions of a Chick-fil-A team from a restaurant along Highway 280 in Birmingham, Alabama. It seems that Mark Meadows, owner of that Chick-fil-A closed early the day of the storm and tried to send his own employees home to safety. Unfortunately, or fortunately, many of the employees were unable to get home. There were too many stranded motorists stuck on the roads making them impassible. Some of the cars near the restaurant had been stranded for up to seven hours.
Meadows and his employees quickly decided to stay at the restaurant. They re-opened the kitchen and began preparing hot sandwiches as fast as they could. With several hundred sandwiches in hand, they headed out into the cold, ice, and snow, and began distributing the hot meals to the stranded motorists on both sides of Highway 280.
Some of the drivers tried to pay them for the food, but Meadows and his employees refused to take money. Audrey Pitt, manager of the Chick-fil-A, explained why: “This company is based on taking care of people and loving people before you’re worried about money or profit. We were just trying to follow the model that we’ve all worked under for so long and the model that we’ve come to love. There was really nothing else we could have done but try to help people any way we could.”
The Chick-fil-A employees not only passed out hot food, they helped push cars off the roads and even up steep inclines. In short, they did whatever they could to help. Meadows kept the restaurant open all night so that stranded motorists could have a warm place to stay. Many motorists slept in booths or on the benches. In the morning, Meadows and his team again served hot food for their overnight guests and again refused to accept any payment.
The point here is simple. Our Democrat-dominated news media in America has become increasingly hostile towards anything and particularly anyone, who is openly Christian. Their attitude towards real tolerance can best be summed up by the person on the right side of the picture inserted in this story.

Those Christian bums at Chick-fil-A

The beauty of color blind radio

© 2018 Jim Spence - Crowds at Trump rallies routinely chant, "CNN Sucks!"

Of course the president does not discourage this sort of behavior. When CNN provides virtually one-hundred percent negative coverage of an elected official like Trump, something that had never happened until 2016, it would seem that the president does not feel he has anything to lose by encouraging his followers to rebuke the network.

Some observers watching all of this should ask themselves the following question: “Does CNN really suck?”

For starters, only shameless white male progressives who participate in self-loathing and group emasculation are considered worthy of holding jobs at the hapless network. However, sometimes it takes a radio show to expose the utter bias and anti-white obsession with virtually everyone working at CNN. Yesterday on Sirius XM radio, it all came together when CNN’s legal "analyst," Areva Martin was being taken to the woodshed during a debate with Fox Nation host David Webb.

Once Martin realized her assertions were falling flat and coming off as complete nonsense, she did what all progressives at CNN do. She accused show host David Webb of enjoying “white privilege.” Essentially this cheap shot is a standard part of the CNN playbook. If a CNN analyst cannot win a debate on the merits, they simply call the person making better arguments a racist.

In this situation yesterday, the beauty of color blind radio was illustrated in ways that television simply cannot. With debates on radio, unless the competition for ideas is done face-to-face, the debate participants have to make real intellectual points. Here is the transcript of the exchange where neither participant could see the other:

Webb: “I’ve chosen to cross different parts of the media world, done the work so that I’m qualified to be in each one. I never considered my color the issue, I considered my qualifications the issue.”

Martin: “That’s a whole, another long conversation about white privilege, the things that you have the privilege of doing, that people of color don’t have the privilege of.”

Webb: “How do I have the privilege of white privilege?”

Martin: “David, by virtue of being a white male, you have white privilege.”

Webb must have been laughing hysterically inside as he heard her progressive taunt. Quickly he countered the hapless CNN analyst: “Areva, I hate to break it to you, but you should’ve been better prepped. I’m black.”

Areva Martin                                David Webb

Mortified, Martin reverted to a sheepish response. “I stand corrected,” she said.

Next Webb scolded Martin for making a typical “assumption."

Martin knows no better. Accordingly, why wouldn’t Martin make an assumption? When all else fails she has always resorted to telling all white guys that they walk on red carpets all day.

Embarrassed, Martin decided cast even more doubts on her character when she decided it was time to throw her “team” under the bus. She accused her "team" providing her with inaccurate information.

Let's think about this change in tactics. It was a tough spot for Martin. Imagine her "team" not informing her of the color of the skin of her debate combatant before-hand. Now that’s pretty shabby help. I say fire the chumps.

When Webb told Martin she had insulted him, it was clear that she really didn't get it.

“It is and I apologize,” Martin replied. “I was given wrong information.” In her tiny little mind, it is impossible to insult a white man.

After further review, the call on the field is confirmed. CNN sucks.

The beauty of color blind radio

Bought "my bitch" a Roadster

© 2018 Jim Spence - Let's update the Lebron James saga. In my previous column the commentary centered around James' hopelessly racist comments about NFL owners. Why he feels compelled to put is ignorance on display like a hot selling toy in a department store window is tough to explain. Perhaps he gets his backside smooched so frequently, while his adoring groupies tell him how brilliant he is, he has taken all the accolades a bit close to his heart. Or possibly a high school education in Akron, Ohio is even more limiting than was previously thought.
Of course nobody in pop culture really cares if people like James make racially charged comments about "old white men," especially if they are wealthy old white men. Correctly, James seems to understand rules of basic decency don't apply to him. While many of us have figured James out for what he is, probably nobody who matters in his world has done so.
So, precisely what did Lebron do this weekend to exceed his previous new high for abject stupidity?
It seems James went to social media to disgrace himself instead of doing it on HBO. Not content to shoot racially charged layups on old white men, James decided to declare it open season for the disparagement of Jews and Women. He posted a selfie on Saturday that was accompanied by lyrics from rapper 21 Savage:
"We been gettin' that Jewish money, everything is Kosher. Bought myself a "Ventador and bought my bitch a Roadster. Drive my Lambo to the store, I'ma wave with my doors."
Somehow wealth and fame must be very intoxicating to Lebron James. Or perhaps this is simply a Christmas message from Lebron, designed to warm the hearts of all his followers with holiday cheer.
Surely being the intelligent and learned man he is, James understands that Hanukkah came early this year and everyone should be happy that everything is Kosher after getting all that Jewish money. Instinctively, Lebron must understand we all kinda sit around wishing we too "been gettin that Jewish money," so we can buy ourselves a $400,000+ Lamborghini, and also buy our "bitches" Roadsters. I mean hey! everyone wants to buy "his bitch" a Roadster right?
There's not much more to say about pop culture in America except: Merry Christmas from the great cultural icon, Lebron James, with additional kudos to his hero 21 Savage. Everyone can't wait to see what Lebron thinks he should say or do next to impress all of his adoring followers.

Bought "my bitch" a Roadster

They got that slave mentality

© 2018 Jim Spence - One of the greatest things about America is the 1^st Amendment. Freedom of speech isn’t hard when people say things you agree with. In fact, one could argue that we wouldn’t need the 1^st Amendment if we all agreed with one another. I am thankful that for many years now I have exercised my 1^st Amendment rights on this site. I have also enjoyed thousands of hours of broadcast time on the radio doing sports and political commentary.

Some people hear celebrities say things they disagree with and they demand they shut up about their political views. Not me. Celebrities have the same rights as everyone else. While it is true they often have a larger forum than the average American citizen, they should be allowed to expose their ideas to scrutiny if they choose to do so. This is what freedom is all about. Pop singer Taylor Swift comes to recent mind. I love Taylor Swift’s music. I have almost every song she ever recorded. However, I did not agree with her take on the Tennessee Senate race earlier this year.

Neil Armstrong

The most noteworthy celebrities to weigh in on politics and American history are arguably the top two players in the NBA. Stephen Curry and LeBron James have put their thinking caps on recently in full public view. During a podcast with former NBA star Vince Carter, Curry asked Carter and his teammate Andre Iguodala if they believed the United States had ever actually put men on the moon. Astonishingly, in unison these men, all of whom have made millions of dollars playing basketball, agreed in tones that assured viewers they were serious that the answer was no. You have to wonder how grown men who have become multi-millionaires choose to remain so ignorant.

Curry is in the minor leagues when it comes to saying stupid things. It was LeBron James who took the cake this week. James, who holds a high school diploma from St. Vincent – Mary in Akron, Ohio has apparently not used much of his spare time to study the plight of slaves in America many generations ago. James had this to say on HBO. "In the NFL they got a bunch of old white men owning teams, and they got that slave mentality. And it's like, this is my team. You do what the fuck I tell y'all to do or we get rid of y'all.”

Ummm, ok.....let’s see. How do we begin with a young man who is as clueless as LeBron James. For starters, let’s assume James is correct about NFL owners getting rid of players who don’t follow their coaches’ orders. Firing players who don’t stick with the game plan is not a slave mentality. We people who own businesses and pay people a salary call this approach, "a performance mentality."

Let’s try to help poor LeBron process this information. Slave owners didn’t fire slaves for not following orders. Instead, they chained them to posts and beat them with leather whips. If the slaves tried to escape, their owners would often cut off half a foot. Slaves lived in atrocious shacks and were fed the lowest grades of foodstuffs. Slave women were abused in ways that are unimaginable. If you haven’t read author Alex Haley’s “Roots,” you should do so soon.

It seems doubtful that LeBron James has ever read Roots or studied history. It seems doubtful he knows that 600,000 white men (some of them old) actually died fighting for the Union in the war that ended slavery. Because James is uneducated and ignorant, he finds it very easy to take shots at "old white men." Oddly this seems fashionable in 2018. However, James chooses the wrong white guys. NFL owners pay their players (of all races) seventy-seven times the average salary earned by working Americans ($2.1 million per year versus $26.9 thousand). NFL owners compete with their pocketbooks for athletic talent and pay much higher salaries for truly great players many of whom are black. Though the last slaves in America have been dead for many generations, James is too ignorant to know that it is an insult to the plight of American slaves to compare their horrific status to that of modern NFL players who enjoy privileges that average working people can only dream of. It is also an insult to NFL owners to compare them to plantation owners.

Still, LeBron James is an American. He has a constitutional right to demonstrate how limited both his cognitive skills and his desire for fundamental knowledge are. We should all celebrate the fact that in America even the blessed clueless, sometimes seize the opportunity to make a complete asses of themselves and provide a few chuckles for all the pathetic old white men he seems to have an issue with.

They got that slave mentality

The participation trophy conundrum

© 2018 Jim Spence - A few observations seem in order after seeing George H.W. Bush was laid to rest last week. It was astonishing to watch CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, NPR, MSNBC, the Washington Post and the New York Times spend hours and hours covering that funeral when these are the exact same media outlets that branded Bush 41 a shameless racist many years ago.
Of course, it is noteworthy that the Washington Post has never in its long history endorsed a Republican for president. And the last time the New Your Times endorsed a Republican, I was still soiling my diapers (I am 62 now). Still, these are newspapers who hire avowed racists (the Times recent addition to their editorial board) while accusing every GOP candidate of being racist and "partisan."
One must wonder why would these media outlets changed their tune suddenly and acted like Bush 41 was a true gentlemen, a self-less statesmen, and an admirable public servant?
Any fair-minded person should know the media's history on this. The media not only treated Bush 41 like garbage, they also did the same with McCain when these men ran against Dukakis, Clinton, and Obama. This stark fact regarding their 180 degree change in tone during both men's funerals, leads to only two possible conclusions.

1) the media was either lying about McCain and Bush when they were running against Democrats, or

2) they are lying about them now.

Here's the point.....Nobody who was a shameless racist in life, should ever be re-cast as an American hero in death. It is no wonder that America distrusts the news media more than any other entity. The media behaves as if nobody has a record of what they used to say.
With the incoming Democratic majority in the U.S. House a question seems appropriate. Does the voting public care about real economic results generated by sound public policies. We are talking about record low unemployment rates for ALL AMERICANS and rising wages for the first time in decades. Why would the majority of voters give power back to Democrats in the face of a two-year economic miracle under GOP rule. This is a head-scratcher. How in the world could American citizens not care about results?
The answer is simple. Americans have been being indoctrinated for decades to not bother to keep score (except in sporting events) or care about real results. There is a deep disconnect between the two types of people in American life. Some people like to compete and like to keep score. And then there are those who really prefer the participation trophy concept that came into public education etc. a few decades ago.
It is the age old clash of philosophies. People who like to compete and keep score also tend to value freedom. Whereas people who want participation trophies think showing up is a big deal and government should protect their egos from objective measurements regarding results. Participation trophy types think measuring success is mean-spirited. Winning is something that only greedy people are truly interested in. Of course this ignores reality, but then, what the heck, that is what public education is all about.....ignoring reality. This explains why the private sector brings us more and more conveniences for lower prices, while public education is manufacturing unemployable dolts by the millions.
There is one thing that most Americans should learn about the participation trophy types. Those who hate keeping score, like having access to resources. And they don't care if they didn't work to get their stuff. They like to spend money, especially other people's money.
Participation trophy types simply don't like to admit that life is generally about competition and that anywhere were competition is encouraged, living standards are higher. Participation trophy types want higher living standards, but they want more, more, more, without accepting the basic economic foundations that create more useful things.
In the end, participation trophy types (a metaphor for Democrats) refuse to admit that despite all of its obvious flaws, the system of free market capitalism, is the system that produces the greatest good for the greatest number of people. This explains why people from everywhere are clamoring to get here. They don't understand the system, they just see all the "stuff." Participation trophy types will always have a "yea but," for every historical truth that bears these facts out. They will also have a "yea but" excuse for all the failed participation trophy systems where people are starving and doing without basic staples of life.
Hating the excesses of Donald J. Trump that comes with all of the sound policies he has implemented, is just the participation trophy types way of having baseless emotional excuse to vote stupid, which is what they do.

The participation trophy conundrum

The fishing contest

© 2018 Jim Spence - I am reminded of what Americans get when the majority votes for Democrats. Nancy Pelosi will soon become Speaker of the House again. She was named leader with the help of all three New Mexico reps in the U.S. House.  Below is a spot-on allegory that illustrates what having Pelosi in charge of the House means for our future:

It seems that President Trump and Pelosi begin arguing intensely over border security in 2019. Pelosi insists that all migrants should enjoy free entry into America. She proposes a bill to increase taxes on working Americans to pay for the benefits illegals will receive. Since it is illegal for any immigrant living here illegally to actually work at a job, taxpayers will have to pay their bills.
Not surprisingly, Trump threatens a veto. He says repeatedly that he wants America to secure its borders and return to a much more rational approach to legal immigration, where everyone waits in line until it is their turn, instead of filing bogus asylum requests using hack immigration lawyers to game our system. 
Since the Democrats and GOP are at a stalemate on immigration reform, Trump and Pelosi work out an agreement to hold a 3-day ice fishing contest to settle the issue. The contest is simple. Between Pelosi and Trump, whoever catches the most fish at the end of the 3-day contest will have his or her immigration reform process implemented.
Trump and Pelosi decide that a remote lake in northern Wisconsin will be an ideal place to have the ice-fishing contest. There will be no observers allowed on the frozen lake, but both competitors will need to have their catches verified and counted each night at 5:00 PM. They both agree to use a team of neutral game wardens to verify the fish counts.
After Day 1, Trump brings in a total of just 10 fish. Surprisingly, on Day 1, Pelosi caught no fish. On Day 2 Trump learned from his successes and failures from Day 1 and caught 20 fish. Once again on Day 2, Pelosi caught nothing.
As soon as the fishing ended on Day 3, it was clear that Trump had been really intent on learning what he needed to learn to improve his fishing techniques. He added another 40 fish to his total. He wished he could have done better the first two days, but he also knew that he had improved and Pelosi needed 71 fish to win the contest. 
It turns out that Pelosi did not bother to fish on Day 3. Instead she and her political cronies got together and decided to accuse Trump of being a "low-life cheating piece of scum." In fact, Pelosi made some phone calls to high-ranking buddies, who were life-long Democrats working at the FBI and DOJ, and asked them to follow Trump, spy on him, and get proof that he was cheating.
To prep the press for her cheating narrative, Pelosi instructed her staff to leak tidbits of juicy “inside information." The leaks strongly hinted that the Democrats had caught Trump red-handed in the middle of a massive illegal cheating conspiracy to win the fishing contest.
That evening, at 5:01 PM, Nancy Pelosi and most of her cohorts from the U.S. House of Representatives gathered in front of a throng of eager reporters from CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, NPR, The New York Times and the Washington Post.
Though her fish count stood at zero, Pelosi looked into the cameras and explained, "You are not going to believe this," she said emphatically. "We have the most damning and incontrovertible evidence that proves Donald J. Trump is a miserable cheat.....it turns out he's been cutting holes in the ice."
The press gasped. Many journalists did not wait to hear from Pelosi's cronies. Instead they began pounding away on their laptop computers and Ipads to get the story out. The TV reporters rushed outside to get in front of cameras and file live reports on air and answer questions from aghast pundits serving on discussion panels.
Within a half an hour every journalist had explained to their devoted followers why this horrific incident demonstrated once and for all why NO business person should EVER be trusted with the immense power of government. We should simply put our futures into the hands of people who had worked most of their adult lives as government employees.
Impeach! Impeach! chanted the pundits on all the major networks except Fox. The story was told over and over on the nightly news shows for days. The details of the ice cutting scandal was trumpeted all around the world. It was soon repeated in every public education institution in the nation during current event segments. Within days Hollywood screenwriters were belting out passionate scripts bemoaning the utter evilness of Trump's ice cutting. A rehabilitated Harvey Weinstein produced a box office smash hit based on the incredible story that rivaled All the President's Men.

The fishing contest