Picture yourself at a generic social gathering where someone you just met blurts out, “Don’t you thank God everyday for sacrificing His Son to pay for our sins!” If you are a fellow believer you might respond with “Praise the Lord,” or, if you are an anti-Christian progressive activist type who craves being offended, you might say, “Don’t force your beliefs and your fascist pretend god on me!” Or, if you are a reasonably mature and sensitive person, you might think “That’s kind of an inappropriate thing to say to someone you don’t know” and try to politely redirect the conversation.
In terms of the person making the statement, what are their motivations? It’s certainly possible they assume everyone believes as they do, which is kind of arrogant. Maybe it's a kind of religious virtue signaling. More likely, it’s simply something very important to them to and they just can’t filter their words from their thoughts. It’s extremely doubtful that a non-believer would have an epiphany and cry out “Save me Jesus!” What’s more likely is their audience would think, “That really doesn’t do much to advance their cause.”
A scene in the excellent comedy My Cousin Vinny involved a young man who, when asked by a cop “when did you shoot the clerk?,” responded with an astonished “I shot the clerk??” He, of course, didn’t shoot the clerk, but his “statement” was treated as a confession.
Left: the scene from My Cousin Vinny where Bill Gambini's (Ralph Macchio) words are misinterpreted by the police and (right) claimed to be a confession
On Labor Day weekend I visited someone I’ve known all my life but never spent much time with; I should add he’s a truly decent guy. I never bring up politics in social situations such as this and had no idea of his leanings, but he mentioned he detested Trump to the point he thinks he should be executed. I asked him why he felt this way and he vigorously mentioned atrocious things Trump has been to reported to say, stating emphatically in some cases, “I heard him say it!” The following discusses some of the egregious and hideous statements attributed to Trump, including those the person “heard” that led to his extreme hatred of Trump, and what the truth actually is.
Two sides of the same coin: white supremacists and masked left wing fascists (curiously calling themselves "antifascists") in Charlottesville, VA August 2017
Charlottesville,VA. In August 2017 there was a “Unite the Right” rally which quickly devolved into violence between protesters and counter-protesters. Several days later Trump was asked about this during a news conference. Included in his response to the loaded question, “Mr. President, are you putting what you're calling the alt-left and white supremacists on the same moral plane?” was a mention, “But you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.” This was immediately reported as Trump claiming Neo-Nazis and white supremacists were very fine people, and elicited outrage among the usual suspects, including the Democrat party leadership and the media. Joe Biden has repeatedly stated this was a major factor in his seeking the presidency, and is to this moment being used by the Democrat nominee, Kamala Harris, as an example of the hateful nature of Trump. Of course, Trump specifically condemned the Neo-Nazis and white supremacists a few sentences later: “I'm not talking about the Neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally,” yet this total lie was and is being propagated by those who so passionately seem to hate Trump. And, like so many lies, intentional misrepresentations, and fabrications, have proven very effective.
Once in a while you’ll see an older guy in a store wearing a hat the says Vietnam Veteran. If you do consider this for a moment, you’ll probably assume he is, indeed, a Vietnam vet. If you pause a little longer, you might imagine what a profound impact this experience must have had on him over a half century ago when he was a young man, perhaps just out of high school. I fear the significance of serving in a war is being lost on us as a society overall, relegated more to a video game mindset: The share of the U.S. population with military experience has declined, according to data from the US Census Bureau. In 1980, about 18% of U.S. adults were veterans, but that share fell to 6% in 2022.
Tim Walz photo from Army basic training 1981; wow: on the right the corresponding photo of me from1976
There is a person named Tim Walz, the current governor of MN who was recently declared to be the Democrat’s candidate for Vice President. While Waltz is among the most extreme leftists in the Democrat party, he fits the bill for a slightly older non-homosexual white guy, designed to balance the ticket headed by a lady who is pretty much white but portrays herself as black, and is an equally extreme leftist. This article, however, is not to discuss the extremism of this duo and the party they represent, but to explore a specific fraud they hope will be ignored or successfully glossed over, that being Walz’s military service. It should be acknowledged without reservation that he was a member of the Army National Guard for 24 years. He retired in May 2005, and came darn close to having served honorably.
by Reid Fitzsimons (this article was written as a Letter to the Editor of a small local paper, the Susquehanna Transcript, as a response to an earlier anti-Trump letter)
Sometimes we love too much, and sometimes we hate too much, to the point the object of our love is perfect and flawless and the object of our hate is vilified in totality. These feelings can be personal, and not infrequently political. Extremes in love and hate might feel satisfying, but too often feelings overcome reality, and make us believe and do stupid things. The June 12thissue of the Transcript contained a letter from a nonagenarian residing in Uniondale entitled Assimilate 201. It was a little difficult for me to follow, but it was clear the writer is no fan of Donald Trump, and her inaccuracies and falsehoods presented as fact, both small and significant, suggests she hates Trump a little too much.
Hitler is the go-to comparison for people Democrats don't like
She claims Trump called immigrants “vermin,” then segued into a predictable comparison to Hitler, mentioning that, “In case you didn't know, Hitler killed 8 million mostly educated Jewish people in large gas ovens.” It’s not a huge point, but I don’t think Hitler really cared about the educational level of the Jews he had exterminated, and for historical accuracy, the accepted Holocaust figure is 6 million. The mention of killing so many people in “large gas ovens” likewise is inaccurate: the Nazis used a variety of methods to kill Jews and other demographic groups- large ovens were typically used in concentration camps to efficiently incinerate the bodies (and perhaps hide evidence of their atrocities) after they were slaughtered. This may seem a petty point, but if someone is using historical comparison to make a political point it should be reasonably correct.
Every once in a while some hapless Republican is excoriated for suggesting some version of, “Well, Hitler did some good things,” a statement often quoted without context. With the exception of a handful of neo-Nazi morons and a frighteningly larger number of anti-Jew extreme leftists (who do their anti-Jew things with tacit support from establishment leftists), pretty much nobody thinks Hitler did anything overall “good,” but from a historical perspective, it’s not unreasonable to ask, “Did he do anything that could have been perceived as “good” that rallied millions upon millions of people to support his ascendancy and policies?” This is an important question for this moment in time, as there are worrisome indications the world is once again turning to authoritarianism.
So...how did Hitler obtain absolute power in Germany? Undoubtedly there have been innumerable papers and books on this subject, but ultimately the answer is as old as history and is in play to this very moment. For brief background, Germany was in shambles following its utter defeat in WW1. The victorious allies, acting on understandable emotion but with little wisdom, forced upon Germany a repressive and retributive agreement called the Treaty of Versailles (www.britannica.com/event/Treaty-of-Versailles-1919), designed to prevent Germany from ever again becoming a military power. It demanded huge reparations and allotted heretofore chunks of Germany to other nations. Not surprisingly there were wannabe left wing and right wing revolutionary movements and all the chaos they entailed, so the reasonable solution was some form of democracy that came to be called the Weimar Republic (www.britannica.com/place/Weimar-Republic). Nevertheless, great discontent continued and there were vacuums to be filled, and Hitler had the skill to fill the void, and the patience.
Adolph Hitler in 1924 at the age of 35Before becoming a bloodthirsty dictator, Hitler was an artist
During much of the Presidential primary season in 2016 I was out of the country in a fairly remote area with little access to news. Upon my return in May, while on a layover at the Atlanta airport and their endless broadcasts of CNN, I learned that Trump has sewn up the Republican nomination. I admit I felt a little queasy the news: I didn’t really know that much about Trump and never watched that show with the tag-line “You’re Fired!,” but I had heard plenty from the establishment news media that he was somehow dangerous and clearly not their guy. In general the other Republican candidates fit the desired mold of being “reasonable,” willing to “cross the aisle” and work with Democrats. I did know Trump was a blowhard.
Donald Trump and Barack Obama post-election Nov. 2016
Over the summer Trump was officially nominated, as was Hillary Clinton (HRC) for the Democrats. The latter, who is a true sociopath, made it easier to vote for Trump despite my severe reservations. Perhaps due to increasing age and cynicism I avoided watching the conventions and speeches, but shortly before the election I was in a cheap motel room in Pensacola, FL, turned on the TV and found Trump at some campaign rally. I girded myself to listen to his shtick, fully expecting him to rant with spittle flying and bark like a seal, this being largely how he was portrayed by the establishment press. What I found instead was a pretty typical political speech with the usual promises of prosperity, jobs, strong military, etc. Part of his rhetoric involved “make America great again (MAGA).
Left: Trump/Clinton debate Fall 2016, Right: Hillary Clinton with spouse in background, concession speech
by Reid Fitzsimons (note that this is a very long article, but the introductory part is brief and stand alone, followed by profiles of five black cultural celebrities who reflect the subtle and at times overt racism of the Democrat party)
“These Negroes, they're getting pretty uppity these days and that's a problem for us since they've got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we've got to do something about this, we've got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference. For if we don't move at all, then their allies will line up against us and there'll be no way of stopping them, we'll lose the filibuster and there'll be no way of putting a brake on all sorts of wild legislation. It'll be Reconstruction all over again.” A statement made by Democrat President Lyndon Johnson made when he was the senate majority leader in 1957.
The old guard of black racialist shakedown artists revered by the Democrat establishment, Al Sharpton and Jesse JacksonOne of the newer entries, Nikole Hannah-Jones of the "1619 Project"
“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” Future Democrat President Joe Biden, 2007, in reference to Barack Obama.
The compelling 1989 movie Glory depicted the creation of black Union Army units in the Civil War, specifically the 54th Mass. Infantry Regiment. These units were lead by white officers but otherwise segregated. Under the command of Col. Robert Gould Shaw, the 54th became a disciplined and formidable unit, but for the most part the black soldiers were considered as laborers in uniform, and buffoons at worst. In one disturbing scene, while the 54th maintained their formation another black unit was allowed to loot a white plantation house while its corrupt officers looked on, but one of the black soldiers assaulted a white woman and was summarily shot by a white officer. The message was that much of the white establishment believed that black troops couldn’t control themselves, which was okay to some extent, but don’t mess with white women. The 54th went on to distinguish itself at the Battle of Fort Wagner.
This idea- that black people are basically buffoons- persists among some white people this day, those people being privileged and powerful Democrats. Still, blacks can be useful to them as political props and minions as long as the are regulated and controlled, lest they act according to their innate savage nature. This is what Joe Biden was saying when he observed the rare exceptionof an “...articulate and bright and clean…” black person in his 2007 quote.
There’s a well known adage that says a frog placed in a pan with cool water will remain in the pan as the water is gradually heated until it dies. I doubt that it’s true, but the point is valid: if something pernicious is initially portrayed as benign but slowly changes until it’s harmful, it has a chance of eventually being accepted. The chronically battered wife probably didn’t fall in love with her husband because he beat her from the start, it just kind of escalated until it becomes the norm.
Presently, the water is still tepid in regards to normalizing pedophilia, i.e. adults having sex with children. Soon enough, however, it will be boiling, and one of the most disgraceful accusations- of being a pedophile- will give way to something like, “if you don’t accept and embrace sex between adults and children you are a pedophobe!
A chubby bearded guy with glasses titillated, along with others, by watching prepubescent boys dressed up as sexy girls. If progressives have their way, this malevolence will become routine.
As usual, this type of societal transformation begins with nuancing the language. Hence, the current innocuous term being floated, which sounds so much less pejorative than “child molester” or “pedophile,” is Minor Attracted People, or MAP. The main advocate for this term seems to be a “transgender” (of course; “they and them” pronouns) post-doctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins named Allyn Walker who wrote a book entitled A Long, Dark Shadow: Minor Attracted People and Their Pursuit of Dignity.
I’m a white male, so I have white male pride. I’m taller than average, so I have taller than average pride. I’m a white male raised in the suburbs, so I have taller than average white male suburban pride. I demand “pride months” and that people chant “white male suburban taller than average rights are human rights!” You might respond, “Isn’t pride supposed to be based on some kind of accomplishment, especially one that took some effort and maybe even a little sacrifice? You can’t really be proud of merely being who you are based on skin color or height or whatever. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be okay with what or who you are, it just has nothing to do with pride.” And I say, “What are you, some hate-filled cisgender fascist who supports the oppressive meritocracy, a backward thinker who believes actual accomplishment is better than being wonderful simply because you feel you are? You’re just like Hitler!”
Two sides of the same "pride" coin
I first met Vivian in a tiny Honduran village in 2008. My wife and I had opened a little project for children of the village a year before and we were fortunate to have many volunteers, mostly young people from the US, Canada, and Europe. One of these had befriended one of teenage attendees, Myra, and visited Myra’s house, a typical single room mud and stick hut with a dirt floor and without electricity. Our volunteer from Belgium asked me the next day if we knew Myra had a little sister who was dying. We did not, so I soon visited there myself and encountered 2½ year-old Vivian, who was hairless, had lots of scars on her body, and weighed 11 pounds. Her beleaguered mother was holding Vivian and constantly shifting her from breast to breast in a largely futile attempt to feed her: mom was simply dry, and Vivian was simply starving to death.
When we moved to South Alabama in 2008 we learned our new neighbor had a sophisticated sounding English surname. Based on this, we envisioned him to likely be a cultivated person, maybe a retired college professor. This image was quickly dispelled upon meeting him: he was an ignorant vestige from the Jim Crow/KKK days, an overt racist and, we later learned, an lifelong alcoholic with anger control issues; his pleasant wife certainly earned to title of “long-suffering.” In America today, of course, accusations of “racism” from people either trying to justify their privilege or victim status (or usually both) spew out like stomach contents at a drunken frat party, but I suspect there are very few people under 50 today who have actually met a real racist. This is because they have largely died off, like our bigoted and imbecilic neighbor of 10+ years ago.
Trevor Anderson of South Carolina, recently fired from his position as a middle school French teacher
More recently, Mr. Trevor Anderson was discharged from his position as a French teacher at a South Carolina middle-school. This was a blip in the news cycle seen at Foxnews.com (link below). In a prejudicial way, as with our Alabama neighbor, I immediately envisioned an educated and serious person, someone certainly able to control himself (I recall elementary school teachers in the 1960s admonishing us to “control yourselves”). It ended up, however, that Mr. Anderson has a avocation as an enraged pro-abortion activist. Apparently in response to pro-life demonstrators near his favorite abortion clinic, the gentleman in question grabbed a megaphone and generously shared his thoughts. Among his litany of passionate outrage were the following quotes: "I teach them French. I teach them that people like you are a piece of s---… I teach them that Christians are f---ing idiots...You're all f---ing idiots.” And, presumably in response to a black pro-lifer, he suggested "You do what all these White people tell you to do, you f---ing c--n. You f---ing j---- boo…Do a little dance for us like your masters want you to." And, to a pro-life woman, "You deserve to be called a c---, you deserve to be called a b----."
