Month: May 2022

A Black American Speaks the Hard Truth to His Race

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Glenn C. Loury is a professor of economics at Brown University and writes for the City Journal.  He’s also black.

Here’s the last paragraph of his honest essay.

“I take no pleasure in doing so but feel obliged to report this reality: equality of dignity, equality of standing, of honor, of security in one’s position within society, an equal ability to command the respect of others—such things cannot simply be handed over. Nor will they be the fruit of insurrection, violent uprising, or rebellion. Equality of this sort is something we must wrest with our bare hands from a cruel and indifferent world by means of our own effort, inspired by the example of our enslaved and newly freed ancestors. We must make ourselves equal. No one can do that for us. My fear is that, until we recognize and accept this unlovely but inexorable fact about the human condition—until we disdain the rhetoric and embrace the realities about race in our country—the disparities that have so troubled our politics and so threatened our domestic tranquility will continue to persist.”

I think if you read his post you’ll be hard pressed to disagree with any of it.  Unfortunately the Left is invested in denying this reality and feed the false narrative of “white supremacists” around every corner.

The Sussman Verdict

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So I read the articles (1, 2, 3) about Sussman being acquitted.  It’s a long sordid tale.  The judge is a colleague of Sussman’s from the Clinton White House.  His wife is a lawyer that defended the FBI agent that was part of the Russia-gate scam that spawned the Durham investigation.  And the judge also made a point of seating several jury members that were big donors to the Hillary Clinton campaign.

The acquittal proves the point that no one will receive actual justice in a DC court.  What will occur will be machine justice.  Nothing is clearer than that the Deep State owns DC lock, stock and barrel.  The only way to “fix” the federal government is to draft legislation to allow the president to fire anyone in the executive branch for any reason that he may care to come up with.  Short of that, the Deep State owns this country.

I guess I already knew this inside but it’s gut wrenching when circumstances prove it to be true beyond a shadow of a doubt.  I guess the only question that’s still open is whether Durham is completely a puppet or whether he will try to avoid this set-up for his ongoing cases.  Surely there must be a way to have the trials moved to a fair venue where something beside insiders will be the judge and jury.  Couldn’t he pick Oklahoma or Idaho?

Well, now I’m just daydreaming.  This reinforces all the worst things I have heard about our justice system.  This is right up there with that other bozo of a judge who spent years torturing General Flynn for a trumped-up charge.  And it goes along with the January 6th judges who have allowed defendants to languish for over a year in prison over a trespassing charge.

Equal justice under the law is supposedly the proudest claim that America makes before the world.  But that is shown to be an obvious fallacy.  There is one law for the common people and an altogether different law for friends of the regime.  If we ever get a truly powerful majority in the Senate, we should use it to impeach judges.  There are a goodly number of them who have proven themselves corrupt and impeachment is the minimum penalty they should have to pay.  A good stiff prison sentence would be even more fitting.

So, when and if we regain the Presidency and the Congress the program that should be initiated is to reform the executive branch.  The ability to fire employees is basic but in addition, the practice of allowing administrative departments to dictate law must be curtailed.  The EPA cannot decide whether you can heat your home with gas or oil without Congress writing the law.  They should be able to recommend it and they should be charged with enforcing it but they can’t be judge, jury and executioner anymore.  It’s un-American and it’s proof that we’ve become slaves to the bureaucracy.

If Trump or DeSantis gets in next, he better make taming the Deep State his first order of business.  If he doesn’t, then he might as well stay home and just let the Democrats continue putting nails in our coffin.  It won’t make a bit of difference otherwise.

Return to the Real World

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The family party we had yesterday was a nearly perfect day.  Everything and everybody cooperated.  Perfect weather, guests in a very receptive mood for the socializing, good food.  In short, other than eating a little too much it was one of those faultless occasions we rarely experience.  But, back to the real world.

After experiencing the horror of the Uvalde mass murder, we then find out that the Uvalde police are responsible for failing to save most of the victims.  To find out that they refused to storm the classroom for something like forty minutes while a classroom of little children was systematically murdered is maddening.  It’s as if we now live in a completely dysfunctional world.  Murderers stalk the streets but the police refuse to rescue even the most helpless and innocent victims, little children.  I don’t know how the officer in charge will live with himself.  I assume he’ll have to flee Uvalde.  To live in a town where everyone knows how much blood is on your hands would be intolerable for any normal man.

As far as the Left’s present attempt to bang away at the gun control thread, it seems like background noise that does little to distract Americans from the disintegration of the economy and normal life.  There’s a palpable sense that we’re living in the after times.  The real world where the politicians tried to protect their jobs by only slightly mismanaging the country is a thing of the past.  Biden & Co. have gone all in on the Green Economy and have thereby smashed the country on the rocks of energy reality.  You can’t run an electric grid on solar panels and windmills.  And you can’t run a transportation system on batteries especially if the electric grid isn’t built to handle the recharge load.

So, we’re all watching a gallon of gas head up toward double digit prices.  It’s interesting that Biden’s election may be a case of fake economics being given enough rope to hang itself.  Three and a half years of Biden-omics probably will be more than enough to convince even strident Democrat voters to push the voting booth lever for Donald Trump.  What’s not clear to me is if Dopey Joe might decide to change course after the mid-terms and swim like crazy back to the shore of sanity.  Joe has thrown in with the Obama progressives but Joe is a coward and if his polls slip anymore, he might be frightened into abandoning the green crusade.

With the advent of real summer (supposed to get up to 85 degrees today) I find myself distracted by the fun things that we can do at this time of year.  But I promise not to abandon my gloom and doom output.  I was reading today that Liz Cheney’s primary opponent has her beat by thirty points.  But I also saw that the primary isn’t until August.  That’s too long to keep my attention.  So, we need something that happens soon to keep us interested.  If I were to guess, the next big thing will be Ukraine’s collapse.  The Biden Administration is already starting to backpedal on the outcome.  The collapse of the Ukrainian resistance in the Donbas provinces is an ominous sign for the hopes Ukrainian victory.  The only question in my mind is whether Odessa will be the end of the 2022 military campaign or whether Putin has much larger designs.  Either way, it’s one more glorious failure for Dear Leader Biden.  Jen Psaki’s hasty retreat has me wondering how soon the rush to the exits will begin for the rest of the Biden Administration.  My pick for next to bail is Pete Buttigieg.  Getting left holding the bag on the transportation problems in this country is probably getting to our LGBTQ+ friend.  I expect he’ll announce he’s retiring to be a full-time stay at home mom for his young brood of rent-a-children.  And after Mayor Pete maybe General Milli Vanilli will follow him out the door.  Losing wars to the Russians is no fun either.

So, stay tuned.  The Silly Season is just getting started and fun and games are sure to continue for the foreseeable future.

Ronald Reagan Memorial Day Speech Transcript 1982

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Here’s the transcript to Ronald Reagan’s 1982 Memorial Day speech.  Reading it is immensely saddening.  What a different world and America it was back then.

 

Mr. President, General, the distinguished guest here with us today, my fellow citizens. In America, cities and towns today flags will be placed on graves in cemeteries, public officials will speak of the sacrifice and the valor of those whose memory we honor. In 1863, when he dedicated a small cemetery in Pennsylvania, marking a terrible collision between the armies of North and South, Abraham Lincoln noted the swift obscurity of such speeches.

Well, we know now that Lincoln was wrong about that particular occasion, his remarks commemorating those who gave their last full measure of devotion were long remembered. But since that moment at Gettysburg, few other such addresses have become part of our national heritage. Not because of the inadequacy of the speakers, but because of the inadequacy of words. I have no illusions about what little I can add now to the silent testimony of those who gave their lives willingly for their country. Words are even more feeble on this Memorial Day, for the site before us is that of a strong and good nation that stands in silence and remembers those who were loved and who in return loved their countrymen enough to die for them. Yet, we must try to honor them, not for their sakes alone, but for our own. And if words cannot repay the debt we owe these men, surely with our actions, we must strive to keep faith with them and with a vision that led them to battle and a final sacrifice.

Our first obligation to them and ourselves is plain enough. The United States and freedom for which it stands, the freedom of which they died must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply, it has a cost. It imposes a burden. And just as they, when we commemorate, were willing to sacrifice, so too must we, in a less final, less heroic, way be willing to give of ourselves. It is this beyond the controversy and the congressional debate, beyond the blizzard of budget numbers and the complexity of modern weapon systems that motivates us in our search for security and peace. War will not come again, other young men will not have to die if we will speak honestly of the dangers that confront us and remain strong enough to meet those dangers.

It’s not just strength or courage that we need, but understanding and a measure of wisdom as well. We must understand enough about our world to see the value of our alliances. We must be wise enough about ourselves to listen to our allies, to work with them, to build and strengthen the bonds between us. Our understanding must also extend to potential adversaries. We must strive to speak of them, not belligerently, but firmly and frankly. And that’s why we must never failed to note as frequently as necessary the true the wide gulf between our codes of morality. And that’s why we must never hesitate to acknowledge the irreputable difference between our view of man as master of the state and their view of man as servant of the state. Nor must we ever underestimate the seriousness of their aspirations to global expansion. The risk is the very freedom that has been so dearly won.

It is this honesty of mind that can open paths to peace, that can lead to fruitful negotiation, that can build a foundation upon which treaties between our nations can stand and last. Treaties that can someday bring about a reduction in the terrible arms of destruction. Arms that threatened us with war even more terrible than those that have taken the lives of the Americans we honor today. In the quest for peace, the United States has proposed to the Soviet Union that we reduce the threat of nuclear weapons by negotiating a stable balance at far lower levels of strategic forces.

This is a fitting occasion to announce that, START, as we call it, strategic arms reductions. The negotiations between our country and the Soviet Union will begin on the 29th of June. As for existing strategic arms agreements, we will refrain from actions which undercut them so long as the Soviet Union shows equal restraint. With goodwill and dedication on both sides, I pray that we will achieve a safer world.

Our goal is peace. We can gain that peace by strengthening our alliances, by speaking candidly of the dangers before us, by assuring potential adversaries of our seriousness, by actively pursuing every chance of honest and fruitful negotiation. It is with these goals in mind that I will depart Wednesday for Europe, and it’s all together fitting that we have this moment to reflect on the price of freedom and those who have so willingly paid it. For however important, the matters of state before us this next week, they must not disturb the solemnity of this occasion. Nor must they dilute our sense of reverence and the silent gratitude we hold for those who are buried here.

The willingness of some to give their lives so that others might live never fails to evoke in us a sense of wonder and mystery. One gets that feeling here on this hallowed ground. And I have known that same poignant feeling as I looked out across the rows of white crosses and Stars of David in Europe, in the Philippines, in the military cemeteries here in our own land. Each one marks the resting place of an American hero. And in my lifetime, the heroes of World War I, the Doughboys, the GIs of World War II, or Korea or Vietnam. They span several generations of young Americans, all different and yet all alike, like the markers of above their resting places. All alike in a truly meaningful way.

Winston Churchill’s said of those he knew in World War II, they seem to be the only young men who could laugh and fight at the same time. A great general in that war called them our secret weapon, just the best darn kids in the world. Each died for a cause he considered more important than his own life. Well, they didn’t volunteer to die, they volunteered to defend values for which men have always been willing to die if need be. The values, which make up what we call civilization and how they must have wished in all the ugliness that war brings that no other generation of young men to follow would have to undergo that same experience.

As we honor their memory today, let us pledge that their lives, their sacrifices, their valor, shall be justified and remembered for as long as God gives life to this nation. And let us also pledge to do our utmost to carry out what must have been their wish, that no other generation of young men will ever have to share their experiences and repeat their sacrifice.

Earlier today, with the music that we have heard and that of our national anthem, I can’t claim to know the words of all the national anthems in the world, but I don’t know of any other but ends with a question and a challenge as our does. Does that flag still wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave? That is what we must live up to.  Thank you.