The Political Slant - Page 4

Prisons ↑ Crimes ↓ – America 2019

*The crime rate in the U.S. has been going down since 1993. There are several explanations for the decline in crime, some of my favorites being that cell phones and the internet have lowered the crime rate. The folks that suggest that crime is going down have their favorite theories, and tend to insist that crime has gone down because of whatever cause for which they are currently stumping. I would like to consider a few reasons other than cell phones and the internet.

In a more expansive viewpoint, I would suggest that there are several factors that have caused the crime rate of the U.S. to decline. Of course, Chicago and several other cities have yet to witness any decline in crime, so obviously the decline has not touched those places; nonetheless, crime in the U.S. has declined since 1994. Every announcement of the continuing crime wave sweeping over Chicago is met with deep disdain and helplessness, as the futile efforts of the authorities seem unable to lessen the out-of-control violent crime, even for a county with some very strict firearm regulations. Keep Reading

Father May I? Old White Men and Abortion

*Here’s the thing about abortion: it is murder just the same as stabbing someone in an alley and just the same as sending young people into combat.

It isn’t about how many weeks or how many centimeters or how many heartbeats because you can’t have a person without that zygote and so you can’t say the zygote is not alive, or a being.  Cells that are reproducing and growing as rapidly as the zygotes are, more than qualify anything – plant or animal – to be ‘alive’.

No, it is about 1) who gets to murder legally and 2) who gets to decide who gets to murder legally.  The answer to both – generally speaking, in dangerous generalizations – is old white guys.  Politicians, influential businessmen, henchmen and cronies that think in grandiose terms, where lost lives are anticipated, computed and accepted as part of the game; the price of doing business.

abortion and old white men

Who doesn’t get to murder legally is everyone else, and the guys running the show will do anything to keep it that way, lashing out at the very idea of what and who they fear most: empowered women. Keep Reading

Trump’s Tirade at the Coup

*The media of today (2019) are so incredibly inaccurate and uneducated that it is difficult to understand how they were hired as reporters or commentators. Zack Ford, on the website Thinkprogress thinks he can correct the president on the use of a political term that he doesn’t think is appropriately used. Mr. Ford, and many of his co-conspirators in the media, think that Mr. Trump is incorrect when he uses the term “coup d’etat” for the Mueller investigation. As one member of the media stated on one of the Sunday discussions, they insisted that President Trump was in error because “coup d’etat” means military overthrow of the government. Keep Reading

Conway’s Folly    

*Given the clamoring among political insiders about aspects of the Mueller Report that they see as problematic for President Trump, and the effects that can have on the American voting public, it would behoove us all to get straight to the bottom of what this probe’s findings really mean to our nation.  It’s not so terribly hard to do.  A quintessential example of how wrong any calls for impeachment, or further investigation of our 45th US President, are, is a Washington Post oped piece written by a top presidential aid’s spouse.

If George T Conway III thinks he can get away with such a lambasting of this president, on this issue, seen in the second highest circulated US newspaper, without it being properly dissected, he’s got another thing coming.   Keep Reading

The Conceivable Chinese Contention

/

*China is an interesting state, and becoming a bigger player on the world stage as time passes. Having lost wars to major powers in the more recent century, China is deliberately moving on the world stage and is determined to exercise its power in the twenty-first century. In terms of assets, China is creating man-made islands in the South China Sea, in order to enlarge its global footprint, claiming manmade islands as part of their sovereign nation and attempting to curtail traffic in the open seas. Keep Reading

Tea Time – Republican Resurgence

*In early summer of 2010, coming off a DC Metro line at the US Capitol stop, I found myself walking among a dozen or so people, all of us on our way toward a Tea Party Event being held on the Capitol Lawn.  There was a palpable feel to our walk and talk, very nice, and within minutes we rounded a corner to the sight of tens of thousands of people, tens of thousands of American citizens peaceably assembling to address their grievances, like, say, out of control spending and runaway debt.  You know, “generational theft”, and all.

republican resurgence

A few of the guys yelled, loud, “YEAH!”, and couldn’t help but start running a little.  There were beaming smiles all around as we headed on down to join the massive gathering.  We looked forward, of course, to all the speeches, to the camaraderie, and to taking on a president who’d actually started his political career in the home of a terrorist who bombed US targets, including that Capitol Dome on our right.  “How on earth could any politician working in that building be perfectly okay with a president who was so friendly with a man who once bombed it?”, asked one of the men among us.

We slowly shook our heads. 

There is simply no sane answer to that question. Keep Reading

The Donald, Demographics and Democracy

*President Donald Trump, to many people, is one of the worst presidents in history. I see no point in attempting to change anyone’s mind about this, nor do I have any desire to persuade anyone to look at the president differently. What I want to do is to explain why he was voted into office.

Economic Determinism

One of my favorite questions to ask any economics professor, and I have asked many of my economics professors, is this question: Does economic determine politics, or does politics determine economics? Most of the professors will hedge their answer, saying that the answer is a little bit of both. Keep Reading

Fake News & Unjust Sentencing. The Case to Pardon Blagojevich

*Governor Rod Blagojevich’s prison sentence is the most ridiculous example of hypocrisy in the history of justice and political corruption in the state of Illinois.

Setting aside the question of whether one views the former-Governor’s fundraising activities as crimes, and whether he received fair trials, are less important than examining the real corruption the media doesn’t report.

I take issue with the charges and the conduct of the Blagojevich prosecutors, but that is not the key point; the key point is what is playing out in Illinois politics today and how outrageous it is that the real corrupt Democrats have no accountability. Add the fact that killing someone goes less punished in Illinois than alleged fundraising activism.

I support President Trump pardoning Blagojevich’s prison sentence as not only a tool to amend the excessive prison sentence, but to push back on hyper aggressive federal prosecutions, and to allow Illinois citizens to consider the bigger picture.

Pardon Blagojevich
Illinois Governors Otto Kerner, George Ryan, Dan Walker, and Rod Blagojevich
Image Credit: Washington Post

Four of the last seven Illinois Governors have been convicted of various crimes and sentenced to prison. Various other elected officials have faced criminal charges, and while that is not uncommon in other states, Illinois has had it bad.

Keep Reading

AOC’s Green Offensive

*.. and upon entering, the children sprout wings and begin to fly, frolicking and playing together without regard or concern for race or gender; eating nutritious candy and carb-free ice cream; while discussing philosophy, playing music and jointly painting an endless mural of peace and love.

Sounds a lot like the last bit of the Green New Deal:

“.. shall provide all people of the United States with high-quality health care; affordable, safe, and adequate housing; economic security; and access to clean water, clean air, healthy and affordable food, and nature.”

We MUST participate in saving this planet!

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is certainly on the right track and trying to steer us in the right direction.  (Do you hear a ‘but’ coming?) Keep Reading

Veterans Healthcare – Shutdown Slowdown

/

*We can all agree that House Speaker Pelosi and President Trump have important jobs and face a variety of pressures. Politics, legislative agendas, and federal agency oversight, are all subjects of intense disagreement during this new era of divided government. In spite of these, both the speaker and the president, have a duty to the American people.

Veterans can and should be a focal point of inspiration, which allow for an easing of tensions in these spaces. These are the men and women who have served our country should be a lasting example of why domestic political gridlock should not stall or delay entrepreneurial  pursuits, which serve to better our veterans’ quality of life.

veterans healthcare Keep Reading

Donald Trump – American Hero

**The following is political satire*
Today the Congress of the United States of America officially passed into law the Twenty-eighth or ‘Hero’ Amendment:

The forty-fifth President is hereby designated the true American Hero and true Father of our Country.  No law shall restrict his actions, deeds or service.  All textbooks shall be updated to reflect his stature.  In order to learn, emulate and preserve the Hero’s beliefs, manners and mannerisms, all children aged 4 to 19 shall be required to be an active member in in the Trump Youth, henceforth overseen by the Department of ReEducation.

Keep Reading

Russian Collusion

Russian Collusion

*For all of those people who insist on probing, forevermore, whether Donald Trump colluded with the dreaded Russians, the only real question is how hard it is for them to keep a straight face.  These are the same people, after all, who outright ignored the fact that President George Walker Bush deported 50 Russian spies within a month of taking office, meaning that our nation’s capital was crawling with Russians who were gathering information on our leaders during the Clinton era.  Spies, spies, all over the damn place, so readily recognizable that 50 of them could be pinpointed and run out of town on a rail in one short month, and yet not one of those who’re aggressively screaming about Donald Trump and Russian collusion said one lousy word about any of it.

Russian Collusion

Evidently, Russian spies are not a problem for them, only Russians that may have sat, could have sat, must have sat with someone, somewhere, from the Trump campaign, and the Clinton’s are great patriots who colluded not, ever, no, no, no.

Keep Reading

Masticating Machismo’s Miscarriage – The Myth of Toxic Masculinity

/
Toxic Masculinity

*After some consideration, the American Psychological Association has determined that being masculine is “psychologically harmful.” None to my surprise, the APA has determined that there is more than one gender, and that you are not necessarily the gender of your biological sex at birth.  The APA has concluded: “socialization for conforming to traditional masculinity ideology has been shown to limit males’ psychological development, constrain their behavior, result in gender role strain and gender role conflict, … and negatively influence mental health and physical health.”

This is good to know, and in the next paragraphs of this article I will explain what this behavior has engendered. The study indicates the source of many problems, excuse me, “male” problems that have burdened society for far too long.

Toxic Masculinity Keep Reading

Trump – An American Hero

*That today’s Democratic Party has the political gall to viciously fight over a few billion dollars that’re earmarked for strengthening and securing US borders, after having given rubber stamp approval to hand over tens and tens of billions of USD to the world’s number one state sponsor of murderous, destructive, terrorist acts, is ghastly.

It should deeply upset and alarm any sensible person of any political belief set that Iran, Iran, was held on high under Obama, with aid given to them, terrorists and oppressors hellbent on bloodshed, as the US House of Congress sat complicit with and ignorant of the wrongfulness, implications and consequences of such aid to such people (the “Iran Deal” was very obviously a treacherous, and potentially traitorous, sham).

Image Credit: aim.org

It should also grieve any sensible person that leading Democrats wish only to play out-and-out, highly disruptive politics on the all important issue of the safety of the American citizenry.  Hell, if just one American woman is brutally raped by someone who illegally entered our country then it’s a public safety issue.  Evidently, the Democrats just don’t care, as they hide behind the frivolous notion that tightening border security is somehow not in alignment with American values.  They are all full of spit (please switch out the p for an h if desired). Keep Reading

Delete Social Media

/
Delete social media

*The advent of social media was first welcomed as harbinger of world peace and connectivity. It’s creators put forward that an increasingly connected world would lead to a global society of peace and understanding. Borders would dissolve and national affiliations would be shed in favor of a new, global identity. We would be “Earthlings”, not Americans or Russians or Australians or whatever. Once disparate economies would blend and merge, lifting people out of poverty and enriching those who could tap these new markets. Isolated communities would become part of the global cultural zeitgeist.

Rather than moving humanity towards this utopian goal of a global, interconnected community, its proliferation and creep into every facet of one’s life made it a powerful and unchecked tool of misinformation, surveillance, and corporate psychology. It devolved into a laboratory of mass manipulation where sociological and psychological experimentation could be performed on an unprecedented scale. A powerful tool of propaganda and misinformation that has opened a whole new front of information warfare. In short, it has become the bane of modern existence and is doing significantly more harm than good to our societies, our institutions, and our collective mental health.

Keep Reading

The Democratic Facade of Russia

*The Russian state operates on paper as a federal republic. Much like their democratic and parliamentary cousins, they have a distinct legislative, presidential, and judicial branch, hold elections, and have a constitution. However Russia’s erratic behavior in the international community, such as their brazen murder of Sergei Skripal and their intrusion into U.S. elections, have exposed them as something entirely different. They are effectively a kleptocratic oligarchy, with Vladimir Putin as its center, operating under the false facade of democracy.

The oligarchs are the 15-20 richest men in Russia and serve at the behest of Putin. They include high level executives at Russia’s largest companies, military and intelligence officers, and powerful government officials. The oligarchs use the resources and powers of the state to protect their wealth and enrich themselves by both legal and extrajudicial/illegal means. The whole bureaucracy of the state exists as a legal instrument through which Putin and the oligarchs operate with impunity. They can enact self-serving legislation, enforce bogus laws, prosecute and incarcerate rivals, seize property, illegally gather intelligence, control information and media, and make war under the pretense of legal, internationally recognized government activity.

Keep Reading

“You know what? Fuck It!” era of Politics

/

*We are now in the “You know what? Fuck it!” era of politics. This is being exhibited during elections and referenda and by politicians themselves as throwing caution to the wind – or simply blurting out exactly what’s on their mind rather than fudging and waffling.

The YKWFI trend can be good or bad, depending on your viewpoint, and you might be delighted with certain manifestations of YKWFI while despairing at others. These moments are not necessarily limited to one end of the political spectrum.

Brexit in the UK and the election of Donald Trump as US president are the two most obvious manifestations of YKWFI. This is not to insult those who voted leave or for Trump – indeed, for many people, to have the YKWFI moment in the privacy of the voting booth in either the EU referendum or the last US presidential election was not necessarily because of stupidity or paucity of intellect* or lack of serious thought and soul-searching before polling day. For many, the YKWFI moment was borne of desperation, of years of feeling neglected, of wanting change even if might seem unpalatable to others, of figuring their vote could lead to an outcome that was a risk worth taking.

Fuck It Politics

Keep Reading

A Throwback to Greatness

*It’s easy to see why and how Donald Trump is the most hated US President in decades, detested by Democrats and any left leaning party, some Republicans, world leaders and their adjuncts and scores of children who’re being roboticalized (read: brainwashed), and probably their pets, too.  Hell, odds are that there are liberal households whose dog actually does bark and/or growl at the mere sound of the man’s name.

The people who hate Trump see him as overbearing, pernicious, noxious, egocentric, boorish, flippant.  To them, he is glib, smug, deceitful, mendacious, and any other synonymous adjectives that can be thought of, is a man who lies at will and has a horrid track record of bankruptcies and ripping people off left and right.  Trump’s hate-filled critics foolishly see his flaws as his totality, as all he was, is or ever will be.  And to them he is, in short, evil.

It is also easy to see that Donald Trump is one of a kind, and is as needed right now as he is custom fit for the American Presidency.  Keep Reading

America’s Immigration Conundrum – 13 Million is Enough

*We need some major fake news at this point in time. We need to announce that there is a crowd of immigrants marching through the U.S. towards Mexico, and we’re not going to do anything to stop them. In fact, we will feed them and offer them assistance as long as they don’t stay in the U.S. This mob consists of people dissatisfied with their economic prospects, and they have learned that life in Mexico is free from gangs, murderers, and corrupt governments. (We are under no obligation to disabuse them of this belief.) No matter what the Mexican laws are, we, the U.S., do not care, because as long as the crowd doesn’t stay in the U.S., as long as they leave, everything is great. They can march through the U.S. to Mexico unencumbered. In fact, if they want to pick up some U.S. gangsters along the way, that’s good too.

Just what would Mexico do if the situation was reversed? One of the tools of critical thinking (I’m not going to get too Hegelian on you here) is to reverse the situation and see how it looks. Taking the perspective of a different person can expand one’s viewpoint and help understand where someone is coming from, so let’s look at the folks coming north to the (Democrat promised) promised land. Keep Reading

Left Wing Violence

*Johnny Depp, the actor, asked a raucous audience one day “When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?“.  He immediately asserted that he, himself, is not really an actor, but that he’s just a guy who “lies for a living”, adding “however, it’s been a while, maybe it’s time”.  No, Mr. Depp, you do not lie for a living, you are, in fact, an actor, although you certainly do lie through your teeth about politics and life in general outside of your chosen profession.

Johnny Depp is a terrible liar day to day, yes, like much of the left wing is, and he’s very clearly got missing pieces, damn dumb, actually.  He incited violence that day, or, certainly, violent thought processes.  Perhaps he steeped his own persona too deeply in a pirate’s life, and he is barely any better than one, if better at all.  Talk of it being time for an actor to assassinate a sitting US President ought to have had him arrested by the time he got off that stage surrounded by his lowlife fans (anyone who whoops it up, laughs, cheers and claps at the notion of killing anyone, including President Trump, are lowlifes).

Those who accuse President Trump today of fomenting violence didn’t bat a lash at Depp’s rant.
Keep Reading

1 2 3 4 5 6 7