Tag Archives: treason

BEING A LONG SHORTLY – 2

America is mired in at least 39 or 390 serious problems, but we’ve dealt with only 4 of those we’ve Prudently identified.  Time is short.  We must continue.

NUCLEAR POWER

Those who have submitted, mentally and emotionally, to the “green” cult, are uniformly opposed to so-called fossil fuels on the premise that carbon-dioxide is going to ruin Earth’s climate and cause the demise of civilization and of life, itself.  That CO2 is the prime “green” component of the solar-driven oxygen cycle upon which all life depends, seems not to affect their thinking.  Those same are virulently opposed to nuclear energy, the cleanest, least damaging source of electrical energy currently available.  Something doesn’t make sense.

Green leftists always reference “Chernobyl” as the end of the argument against nuclear; if that fails, “Three-Mile Island” is expected to shut-up any pro-nuclear stragglers.  Both of those supposed examples of what’s wrong with nuclear power plants, are non-sequiturs.  Chernobyl, in particular, is an example, but it’s an example of how NOT to build a nuclear pile and of how NOT to run and maintain it.  Rather than condemn the natural process of nuclear fission, opponents should correct their opposition to the technological stupidity the Soviet Union rewarded.  Chernobyl would have been a big nothing had it been designed and built like, well, Three-Mile Island, actually.

Chernobyl was, technically, not in a containment structure as nearly all nuclear plants outside of the USSR were.  That is to say, the weaknesses of the design and overall misunderstanding of the processes at various states of operation of their graphite pile reactors, make the Chernobyl-design power plants risky for mistakes and accidents under the best of circumstances.  A long list of nuclear accidents at those plants was finally made public after the investigation into “Chernobyl” was completed.  Some engineering traditions should not be permitted to operate or build nuclear plants.

Still, nuclear power plants have so many inherent advantages that it is foolishness to avoid making use of the continuously-improving technology that goes into their design and construction.  The largest deterrent to nuclear power is fear, often fed by reference to bad technology, like that employed in Chernobyl-design plants and methods.  New series III and IV plants are smaller, modular and 5 to 10 times safer than Three-Mile Island era plants, including passive safety systems.  They’re also much less expensive to build and license.  And, they are clean in both product and operating lifetimes up to 60 years and in eventual decommissioning costs and impacts.  There is no “all-electric” future without massive, weatherproof generating capacity like what nuclear can provide.

TRANSPORTATION

Ours is a highly specialized and competitive global economy.  Both commodities and finished products must move from points of origin to points of consumption; this is not going to change no matter how many “community gardens” are created, and it won’t change despite all efforts to go “carbon neutral,” either.  Some tasks must be performed.  Daily there are millions of them.  Reducing the efficiency of completing those millions of tasks places huge burdens on society, the economy and on freedom.  Forcing wholesale changes on how transport is performed… without a more efficient way to do it, is risky at best and foolish by definition.

We are in the midst of a green revolution, and we have been for over 100 years.  From time to time wisdom has been applied through government regulation that has sped up the process of becoming more efficient and therefore cleaner in our consumption of energy to get materials and people moved from place to place.  Increased mileage standards is one example, and automobiles are far cleaner and more efficient than ever, today.  On the other hand, there are far more cars on the road than ever – in virtually every country – causing ever more gasoline, diesel and lubricating oil to be consumed while propelling substantially more “transport” per gallon or quart, and overall.  For green evangelists there has been no progress at all – things are oh, so terribly worse because people insist on private, self-directed transport, and reject, for the most part, “public” transportation: too many cars, too many people driving cars.

Bad government, bending to the political pressure of “green” acolytes, responds by forcing people to pay for and to switch to public conveyance, and then fails to render it clean, comfortable or safe.  Worse, public transit doesn’t go to every place where people need to go, and it never will.  Government then considers how to force people to go to where public transit does go, imagining “model” communities that may never exist.  There are clean, electric alternatives, but so much money and political force has been committed to “public transit” that alternatives are now less likely to be considered than if government went back to being wise, again.  [See: https://www.prudenceleadbetter.com/2017/07/20/a-home-on-the-beach/; or https://www.prudenceleadbetter.com/2016/07/10/automotive-economics-and-freedom/.]

Battery magic seems to many, especially to “green” proselytes, to be cleaner than those awful carbon-based fuels; we should all shuck our internal combustion engines and switch to battery-powered vehicles.  Bad government is listening to them and is virtually forcing car manufacturers to make more magic cars and fewer reliable ones.  The ads are impressive.  Batteries, themselves, are dirty products to make, both physically and politically.  A person changing from gasoline or diesel to battery power has to drive upwards of 60,000 miles before the ecological cleanliness of an “electric” car starts to improve upon that of an internal combustion model.  The only advantage of lithium-ion battery-powered cars is that the filth of mining and tailings, processing and effluents, unsafe mining (including child labor) and ecological disruption and pollution… well, it all happens in other places, out of sight of “green” Americans and others.  Right in our neighborhoods things are pollution free!  Forcing indigenous people off of their ancestral lands in South America is meaningless to us: they’re not OUR indigenous people about whom we care very deeply… very, very deeply.  Improvements to Communist China’s manufacturing base and our long-term dependence on it for parts and replacement batteries, should keep China from ever damaging relations with the United States… so that’s good, too.

No matter how much cleaner internal combustion engines become, it is – and will never be – clean enough; only perfection is barely adequate in the business of planet-saving.  So, in partnership with an entirely anti-American regime, the “green” (actually Red) movement has twisted our economy to the point of throwing away phenomenal manufacturing and servicing skills and technology, as well as discarding remarkably and increasingly efficient electric generation in favor of windmills and Chinese solar panels.  Soon, there will be millions of used cars rusting away as planet-saviors force the end of internal-combustion cars and trucks and the adoption of battery-powered replacements, while limiting the number of “licenses” to sell gasoline… or refine it… or transport it, making continued use of gas or diesel power a little more awkward and unreliable than even severely limited-range electrics are and will continue to be.

Ultimately, (see “only perfection” in the preceding paragraph) owning and driving personal vehicles will become so troublesome that only grossly expensive “public” transportation will be able to provide a modicum of mobility.  Personal freedom and sovereignty that Americans have invented the technological means to enjoy, will be lost forever.  After that there will be millions of battery vehicles that no one wants or can sell, and will find difficult to recycle.  Everything will be approaching perfection.

IMMIGRATION

For many nearly forgotten reasons the United States of America has for over 230 years been the most attractive nation and place for people from every nation to emigrate to.  Americans, themselves, no longer understand (or are taught) why this could possibly be.  Today education appears to include – is compelled to include – every tawdry mistake anyone in our history ever made.  Worse, to complete a communistic circle, the effect of those mistakes is to absorb and render null and void, every great idea and action of those same people.  The net effect of this twisted lens of American history is to grow up blaming your country for every problem in the world, rendering the existence and founding of it indefensible.  As a result, fewer and fewer people do defend it… at least from inside the country… even as more and more people flee their home countries and sneak into, well, HERE.

Actual sovereign nations, however, have laws to govern and, basically, restrict entry to their jurisdictions.  Nations are defined by their borders.  The United States is defined by both borders and ideas of freedom and individuality – not by groups or identities, but by individuals, individual responsibility and equality under the law for – every – individual.  For the past 65 years or so, we have turned our backs on our unique and majestic ideas, and dispersed the gold of citizenship as millions of people who don’t want to become Americans flooded to the insides of our borders.  

Barack Obama was the first president who actively modified immigration practices if not policies, to try to change the demographics of the United States.  Democrats had been dreaming of pushing white America into the minority category since Teddy Kennedy, an avowed socialist (and idiot).  They couldn’t get it rolling any faster during the Clinton administration, but things started moving under Obama.  He was probably the first president who seriously does not like the United States or its Constitution.  Trump, obviously, was an unexpected speed bump in the race to change races.  Biden, on the other hand, knows only two speeds in that race: “flat-out” and “stupid.”  Some FIVE MILLION illegal aliens from over 100 countries have walked in to the U.S. since the 2020 votes were “certified.”  About a million of those never even checked in with the Border Patrol, preferring to sneak in with various subterfuges planned, including serious drug-dealing and, for some hundreds or thousands, terrorist crimes.

Biden is hard to pigeon-hole.  A patriotic observer is hard-pressed to declare him merely sloppy or foolish, when the very next day he might be presented with greater evidence of Biden’s treason toward his own nation.  Breaking, or failing purposefully to enforce U. S. laws, which enables the entry of enemies to our nation, is exactly what President Biden has been doing since taking office… and it’s treasonous.  That treason has come in many flavors, primarily these two: entry of those seeking to execute criminal activities including terrorist acts, and entry of those transporting deadly narcotics with intent to distribute.  That fentanyl kills 10’s of thousands of Americans – mostly young men, but certainly not exclusively – one would think might wake up Americans to the crime of making its importation easier!

The importation of people is also a crime.  Mexican cartels, who control drugs across Mexico and across the U. S., have found a new billion-dollar industry in the trafficking of people into the U. S., especially, by a factor of 10, since the Biden administration took office.  For all of the cooperative police work – DEA work – between Mexico and the past 5 administrations, the flow of drugs, now including abundant fentanyl, has not slowed.  Where there once were 5 or 6 cartels there may be 15 operating in every Mexican state and every U. S. state, as well.  They’ve become more violent in Mexico, causing record levels of homicides, destroyed families and widespread official corruption.  At the same time, with the cooperation of Chinese chemical suppliers, they are partners in at least 100,000 deaths in the U. S. from fentanyl overdoses.

President Biden commits treason against his own country in other ways, often by providing “aid and comfort” to our enemies.  It’s subtle, but definite… well, subtle except for scuttling Afghanistan.  According to sworn congressional testimony, Biden demanded immediate withdrawal despite the advice of military advisors, including the abandonment of Baghram Airbase and more than $7 BILLION in weapons, ammunition, aircraft, including some high-tech personal and tactical hardware.  The Taliban, of course, has never been an ally of ours or friendly toward America or Americans in any way.  They’re enemies, Joe, you dope.  And we armed them to the teeth, abandoned real allies to danger and death at the hands of the Taliban.  We could have retained Baghram and much of our equipment, and we logically should have regardless of costs.  So, militarily, why did we do things the way we did?  What on Earth was the headlong, damned stupid rush?

It seems Prudent to realize that we abandoned all of our work because China wanted us to.  China didn’t want us to maintain a base so close to their border.  China is happy to see us shoot ourselves in the foot – it saves them the trouble.  They have invested many millions into the Biden family; our retreat was a return on investment by a factor of a thousand percent.  When we look at all the players and pressures involved in 20 years of U.S. actions in Afghanistan, only the U.S. acted like an idiot, against its own interests.  Treason, thy name is Biden.

When China is invited to “help” the United States eliminate drug abuse, and elections are “temporarily” suspended to get a handle on “crime,” it will be too late to rid ourselves of the gaggle of assholes from the Obama and Biden regimes.

So many words and only 3 more issues discussed.  Prudence says stop here, wait for the next.

QUESTIONS OF CONSPIRACY

The Gang’s All Here

There are many forms of conspiracy of which average citizens have some inkling or suspicion, despite, or perhaps because of the concerted mendacity of government officials and agencies, including our military bureaucrats.  Particularly since the Biden administration took control, world politics and military relationships have become more dangerous, more conspiratorial and far more difficult to control, let alone understand.  Naturally, Americans are much more nervous and feeling isolated, as we probably should.  With China encroaching on our spheres of influence and on numerous allies like Canada, Columbia, Panama, African nations and Europe, itself… even Hungary, the “world” seems to be ganging up on the U. S.

This is a rather abrupt turn of events.  One has to wonder if it’s all a matter of incompetence and lack of understanding, or if key power centers in the U. S. are executing a plan.  Can these questions be answered?

  1.           Was Covid-19 a strategy or unfortunate accident?
  2.           Is the widespread “legalization” of very dangerous marijuana and the      onslaught of lethal drugs flooding our neighborhoods, just wretched capitalism or an element of intentional weakness that makes sense to some people?
  3.            Is the attack on Ukraine part of an “approved” plan by globalists to weaken NATO and the U. S.?
  4.            Is the “attack” on oil and gas in the U. S. part of the same plan?
  5.            Where did the basic plan to expand “transgenderism” among grade-schoolers originate?
  6.            How is it that major hospitals suddenly coordinated with the LGBTQ+ agenda and public schools to begin performing transgender mutilations and sterilizations?
  7.            Is the pressure to give virtually everyone from age 5 and up the modified RNA injections part of a larger objective of weakening individual freedom, lower general health and possibly population control?
  8.           Who, or what country(ies), actually benefits from the dramatic changes in  U. S. monetary and immigration policies?
  9.           Who, or what country(ies), benefits from election fraud?
  10.  Who, or what country(ies), benefits from soft-on-crime policies in major cities?
  11. Who, or what country(ies), benefits from high inflation in the U. S.?
  12. Who, or what country(ies), benefits from restricting food production – reducing fertilizer use and sequestering productive acreage?

These are all rather sad questions to be able to posit.  How could so many negative policies suddenly descend upon our nation and people?  Can they all be parts of tragic, unavoidable coincidences?  Or, could they be coordinated from… well, somewhere?  Someone?  Some group?

Can we put much credence into the idea that Joe Biden, a man whose mental state requires guides and “handlers” at all times, actually believes in what he says or does, or that he thought up the set of policies he has put into action?

Or, God forbid, but not an impossibility, is it possible that leftists/globalists in the United States’ “deep state” have considered the evolving relationships and power of Red China, the problems and responsibilities of American freedom and nationalism and the blandishments of the World Economic Forum in terms of a financial control model of vastly smaller populations, and decided that the only answer to the possibilities of wars and nuclear conflict is to throw in with the W.E.F. and establish a global government able to negotiate with, and even coerce China into coexistence?  Perhaps systemic treason has been sold to the oligarchy as salvation.

CULTURAL REPLACEMENT

A few Americans included.

And now we can turn the page, our experiment in culture-replacement having been soundly dissipated by coordinated, though relatively primitive fighters whose efforts to remove infidels from their land never wavered or converted to unrelated purposes.  The once-great American empire could learn a thing or two from our bearded, religious opponents.

For two decades American soldiers have sacrificed for a series of missions unrelated to the original, military task: destroying the ability of Taliban and Al Queda forces to fuel and train terrorist cells to fulfill their desires to kill Americans, if not America itself.  Orders have been followed, social services dispensed, friends made and abandoned, missions morphed into whatever new purposes, named and unnamed, to excuse or justify continuation of the United States’ most costly foreign foolishness ever.  Some $2 Trillion have been expended in military costs, mostly expended here, or distributed, there, into the most corrupt cesspool of governance in South Asia.

A military that prides itself, unceasingly, for its ability to justify militarily unrelated expenditures as vital, defense-of-the-homeland investments, managed to find the blackest financial hole it could, deeper, even, than Viet Nam.  Careers were enhanced, Stars and Bars added, and amazing new spin invented as be-ribboned military “experts” dissembled for most of those 20 years, telling Americans that their wonderful soldiers were making wonderful progress pacifying Afghanistan, education Afghanis, training the Afghan “Army” and teaching everyone but the Taliban holdouts that American democracy and republicanism was the best possible way to organize their nation.

In the past two months the lie has been put to all of it: the education, the social niceties, the friendships, the governance, the military successes – all of it.  Not the hardware and weaponry parts, no, those are definitely among the world’s best, and the Taliban holdouts who now run Afghanistan are suitably appreciative of the $80 Billion or so of our weapons and vehicles that we gifted to them.  They trusted us to fail and we trusted them to protect our withdrawal / retreat… whatever.  We certainly kept our side of the bargain, failing on schedule.  We’ll have to assess the murder rate to determine the upholding of the Taliban’s side of the deal.

What have we learned?  Perhaps we had not fully appreciated the lessons of Viet Nam, it having been only 26 years since the last helicopter left Saigon.  The lead-butted brass throughout our military-industrial complex, from the Pentagon on up, are nothing if not thorough in their careful evaluations of the most recent military conflict.  Unfortunately that was the air campaign against Serbia to free Kosovo.  There was no national interest or advantage for doing so, but by God we did it, and showed Muslims everywhere how dependable the United States is and what good friends we are.

Yet, our Muslim buds saw fit to attack us on 9-11-2001 before we had even begun to question whether we had done the best thing in the Balkans.  The “military” had yet to catch up to evaluating Kosovo when the Trade Center fell and that caused us to lose our minds a little bit.  Ultimately, after winning the only victories available in Afghanistan and Iraq, “we” decided that the worst punishment we could inflict on both nations was to make their politics more like our own – a system few Americans want, themselves!

For immediate – very immediate – past-President of Afghanistan, Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, once a member of the U. N. inspired Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, who managed to slip away with $160 Million or more, the American attempts to transform Afghanistan to the tune of some $2 Trillion empowered at least one Afghani to cease being poor.  Chances are that a fair number of other “officials” and friends thereof have also managed to avoid impoverishment in the “fall” of their beloved nation.

It seems Prudent to anticipate the dribbling out of revelations about a large number of Americans who also skirted the depths of poverty by selling arms and ordnance to the U. S. military.  Those are they whose first thought when the news of how much terrific stuff was being left to the Taliban, was “Well, we’re going to need (to make, manufacture, sell) more of (those)…” and then, “Too bad about those poor bastards still stuck in country.  Shoud’a left sooner.”

We’re told, of course, that things went according to plan and were so well executed that the President can describe it only as “… an extraordinary success.”  Ol’ Joe loves to give credit where credit is due – it’s good management.  A few hundred Americans, families, individuals and students are more or less stuck, but we “… got every American out who wanted to leave.”  That statement is based upon… mired in, rather… a mixture of horse, cow, goat, sheep ‘doo,’ and excrement deposited by politicians.  On the other hand, and in keeping with the leftist slogan: “Never let a crisis go to waste,” the Biden administration saw a sweet opportunity to fulfill the larger objective of transforming the demographics of the United States by using the debacle in Afghanistan to relocate many thousands of Afghan Muslims whose history and status are unknown, into the U. S.  These are people whose cultural norms, ethics and core beliefs are as foreign to Americans’ as possible.  We have no plans or systems in place to acculturate them.  Many are relative savages, bound by Shari’a Law.  Many are criminal.  Who cares?  The left is not trying to create more patriotic Americans for our beautiful nation; they are most interested in displacing Christianity and the rights and responsibilities of our founding documents and principles so that the United States of America will, as soon as possible, cease to be a bastion of freedom and a stumbling block for global Communism… “…according to plan.”

There is no accidental explanation for how we left Afghanistan, or how we “saved” tens of thousands of Afghanis while abandoning hundreds of Americans and arming the most ruthless Muslim fundamentalists better than they have ever been.  There is no pro-American explanation for anything the Biden regime has done since taking control, domestically or internationally; no accidental one, there, either.

The explanation that remains when all other possibilities are eliminated, is sickening: TREASON.

An American Opportunity

There is an unusual opportunity presenting if we have but sufficient vision to recognize it; indeed there are dozens of opportunities forced upon us this August of 2020.  The Chinese communists have done their damnedest to destroy the United States both from within and without with their spying, stealing of intellectual property, cyber warfare and financial subversion of political leaders and key administrative personnel, and, now, with the unleashing – carefully leveraged – of the Covid-19 virus strain.  What an odd way to be handed so many opportunities.  Where do we start?

“Covid,” defined as all of the partially wise and partially stupid effects of reactions to it, has stripped away the façade – perhaps “veneer” is more apt – of wisdom and legitimacy claimed by whole swaths of elected leadership.  From Andrew (and Chris) Cuomo, Bill DiBlasio, Phil Murphy, Janet Mills and Muriel Bowser in the East, to Lori Lightfoot and Gretchen Witmer in the upper Midwest, to Jenny Durkan, Ted Wheeler, Gil Garcetti, Gavin Newsom, Kate Brown and Jay Inslee on the left coast, many city and state leaders – people who have real responsibilities to their populations – have exposed themselves as fools and worse, people who believe that criminals are forced into crime by society (which is to say white oppressors) and that it is merely further oppression to arrest and incarcerate them: they’re all innocent.

Police on the other hand, in this (can’t say “school” of thought, maybe cesspool of thought) mindset are all guilty and should be disbanded.  After all, the very existence, never mind presence of police actually causes more crime.  Every one of these elected executive officers swore to uphold their state constitutions and the U. S. Constitution, but they have apparently not read those written formalities.  What they have sworn to ultimately do is tear down the United States and western civilization with them.  This attitude helps them when it’s time to bow down so very, very low to the banner of Black Lives Matter: a communist front group.  Can you say, “treason?”

We’ve spoken of the dangers of unionism in the past, and one of those is the tendency of police unions (call them what you will) virtually universally, to protect their members whenever there are public complaints, or departmental sanctions against them.  Lost in the minutiae of municipal employment contracts are numerous, arcane ways to delay, compromise, trade or plead down reprimands for everything up to and including fatal events.  Defense of members is understandable and a large part of union justification, but it is safe to say that many of the officers sanctioned for the death of an unarmed suspect, regardless of skin color, were sanctioned previously for failing to follow accepted, prescribed “rules of engagement,” as it were… and their unions protected them, keeping them on the job when they should never have access to the official umbrella again.

Unionism for municipal employees, so-called, “public” employees, is a bad idea in general, were it not for so many examples of poor municipal executive management.  Another terrible example is teachers’ unions, poor school department management notwithstanding.  Along with police and fire employment, education employment is where excellence is needed and should be rewarded, and where mediocrity or worse should never be tolerated.  In most cities and towns, even with some mediocre or poor members, police and fire departments have long records of success, often marked by dramatic lifesaving.  Their unions seem to encourage selflessness, even heroism, in service to others.

Education unions, on the other hand, are mere budget manipulators.  Exceptional educational work outside of contracted hours and duties is frowned upon and discouraged, else other teachers may suffer in comparison.  There seems to be little concern for the positive effects on children who are blessed with some of that exceptionalism.  Covid-19 has provided an opportunity for communities to rearrange the nature of education in the face of teachers’ (unions) unwillingness to go back to work after the spring Covid disinformation campaign.  Science makes clear that the risks are minimal for almost all school personnel and for students, while emphasizing the damages done by the absence of daily school attendance.  Doesn’t seem to matter.

Some “School Committee” could have done its actual job and utilized the past 5 months or so to de-certify its local teacher union and replace those who refused to work without a union.  Lots of people would be happy to teach if imparting knowledge were to become the goal of public education.  Each could be interviewed and hired on the basis of their honest appreciation for the United States’ history, the theorems and facts of mathematics, the proper usage of English grammar, the ability and value of proper spelling, the meaning of words and the responsibilities of citizenship.  And some serious science, of course.

Instead these 5 months have been wasted, barely utilized to advance education at all.  In a way, the students have been safe from hyper-sexualized, socialistic content for 5 months.  We should rejoice that so many teachers on the payrolls are so uncaring.  This is an opportunity for parents to do what that hypothetical school committee might have done:  Clean house and return to an education system rather than a propaganda system.  The opportunity is here.

What other opportunities might there be?  Perhaps there is an opportunity to replace political party leadership – both parties.  Clearly both parties need to step back from lies, calumny and focus-grouped accusations.  Clearly, the American people are entitled – ENTITLED – to honesty about our government, budgeting and success rates for a multiplicity of “social” programs.

We are entitled to the defense of our nation, to the clarity and defense of our borders, and to the safety of our streets, properties and persons.  We are entitled to the education of our children in the history, heritage, culture and CITIZENSHIP of OUR COUNTRY.

Are these things too much to ask?

Aren’t we also entitled to honesty about communist, anti-American domestic subversion?  We are in the midst of the greatest opportunity for our nation: to expose the insinuation of communist operatives into key bureaucratic points of power… and into even elected and political positions, including municipal, county, state and federal levels.  Are we not entitled to leadership committed to the strength and defense of our country?  Can there be no test of loyalty and patriotism?  What are we afraid of?

Do American freedom and the Bill of Rights provide a process of cultural suicide?  Doesn’t seem very Prudent.

Earning a Vote

People elected to office in the United States, from Senators and Representatives to state’s legislators, Governors and state-wide officers, Sheriffs, Judges, District Attorneys, Registers of Probate, Deeds and what-not, to cities’ councilors, Mayors, aldermen, local selectmen and various trustees of reservations, libraries, housing authorities and conservation commissions, all have an obligation, TO WHICH EACH SWORE ON HIS OR HER HONOR, BEFORE WITNESSES, to conduct him or herself and the business of the office at stake according to the law and in defense of various charters, bylaws, state and federal constitutions.

That is, each swore to be honest. Prudence recommends honesty as the best way to conduct the people’s business. Unfortunately, honesty, truthfulness are almost NEVER part of anyone’s campaign message, platform, literature or advertising, despite each knowing that he or she will happily SWEAR to be honest during the conduct of the office being striven for. Odd, that. In practice, all oaths to the opposite, many office-holders consider that honesty, in fact, extends only to the scrupulous fealty to the letter of the law: every jot and tittle and loophole thereof.

We do hear a lot about “working hard for you,” or “it’s time your group is treated more fairly,” or “my opponent, the incumbent (stated in a low voice) has not been honest with you,” or, if the case, “he doesn’t even pay his parking tickets!”

Because legislation – and regulation – is devised and designed by people who are hoping to find a way to gain personally from the “loopholes” they write into it… legally of course, voters rarely get much input to the process or the content of new laws. And, we are reassured from the rooftops as to the diligent efforts made on voters’ behalf, sometimes late into the night at great sacrifice, keeping their promises to “fight” for us and to “work hard for us” if entrusted with the office. After all, they swore an oath to uphold the law and the constitution, and there they are keeping every word of at least part of what was promised. And we re-elect them, sometimes for decades, as if we can’t imagine causing them to “lose” their jobs, for goodness sake!

Most gain considerable wealth while in office, and this is a very mysterious consequence of becoming a public servant. Some are paid from the public treasury quite handsomely, even exorbitantly, yet they continue to “sacrifice” in public service instead of accepting much more lucrative positions in the “private sector.” Just look at the millions paid to people like the presidents of nationwide banks, insurance companies, invest firms, Boeing, Amazon, Facebook and Exxon-Mobil. Yet still they toil on our behalf under terrible conditions and low pay, particularly in view of the tremendous responsibilities they carry for the rest of us. [See: http://www.prudenceleadbetter.com/2017/03/31/massachusetts-vaults-into-first-place/]

Congress members and Senators seem to fare the best of all – at least the crafty ones. Politics, unfortunately, seems to attract those who are always looking for an edge of some kind… not a scam, necessarily, but some special advantage, like signaling what’s in your hand to your Bridge partner. One notices that there are many laws that specifically exempt the “Royals” (those currently in Congress) from their terms or penalties. For decades, for example, members of the House and Senate could take advantage of what in the private sector is known as “insider trading.”

That is, by virtue of knowing what laws and attendant regulations were about to be imposed, the Royals could buy stocks about to go up as a result, and short stocks that were about to go down as a result. It’s “edgy,” one could say, and we can be comforted in our beliefs that none of them would ever share that information with a mere civilian, since they all are sworn to uphold the law: every jot and tittle and loophole thereof. Moreover, they are forced to be away from their families and pay for extra housing in or near Washington, and it’s not fair to demand so much additional sacrifice on top of that already entailed in their “jobs” in Congress.

In response to negative press, Congress crafted the “STOCK” act, that essentially made insider trading by legislative employees (over 28,000 of them) and by executive department employees, illegal. President Obama signed it into law with cameras blazing. Not only was the trading illegal, finally, but everyone affected would have searchable financial disclosure statements available on some website, a requirement that was not very popular. A few months later, with most members absent, the House and Senate rushed a bill through and the President signed it with little notice or announcement. This bill kept the thousands of disclosures under lock and key in a basement room in the Capitol, where virtually anyone could review them… individually, by correct name, and even copy them for 10 cents a page. But they couldn’t be “searched,” per se, and you had to get to the Capitol and to that room during limited hours, and provide the correct name of the disclosure-owner. Nothing illegal, but just a little edge over the competition – us.

The search for truth is a competition, if you hadn’t realized that before now, and in this competition relative to our public servants, we have very wily opponents. Think of that: opponents.

How nice would it be to hear an office-seeker say in his “stump” speech: “I promise only a few things, ladies and gentlemen… just a few.” He or she holds up the fingers of one hand. “First, when you ask me a question about any part of my public job – the one you pay me to do – I will answer truthfully and fully, unless there is a specific statute that prohibits me from doing so. I will then explain that statute to the best of my ability, or get back to you promptly with the explanation. If there is a way for you to obtain the information from another person or office I will tell you and, if you need it, I will help you get the information… not just an ‘answer,’ but the information you are entitled to.

“Secondly,” holding up his pointer finger, “I will tell you the truth about the budget and about expenditures. The money we spend and allocate is all taken from your wallets and I will show you at least enough respect as American citizens, to tell you the truth about what’s being done with it.”

“And, finally, point number 3. I will not vote for any legislation that contains provisions that are ‘snuck’ into the wording because those provisions could not have passed on their own merits. In other words, some legislation is brought forth with titles that indicate it is about one issue, while hiding legislation about unrelated issues. Those bills are at least partial lies and I will not vote for them. On the other hand, I will fight to stop this practice. To do so I need your vote on Tuesday.”

Prudence declares her support for any such candidate. Sadly, none has presented him or her-self for consideration. On the other hand, if one were looking for someone who has crafted an articulate message of hate for certain groups, individuals or for the United States, there are several from which to choose.

The underlying problem with elected and appointed malfeasance is that it undermines the ideas of America. And there is no one to our West who will come to our rescue when our citizens lose all trust in our “self” governance. There is no one else with a more “free” system or where citizens have sufficient sovereignty to perfect themselves, who will ride to our salvation and help as throw off tyranny. We, the United States of America, still somewhat free, still somewhat honest, still somewhat Christian, are the last best hope on Earth. If, in our libertine libertarianism we allow Constitutionalism to perish, or if we fail to reverse our educationally slipshod descent into sexual confusion and feelings education, the whole experiment is at risk.

Indeed, for an American elected official to abuse his or her office, particularly for illicit, if not illegal personal gain, is among the worst offenses against our nation. It is virtual treason against the electorate, and utterly inexcusable. Compromised judges and law-enforcement officers naturally follow the path of rot blazed by dishonest elected officials. Tightening and increasing the penalties for official corruption should be the fourth part of our “honesty is the only policy” candidate wished-for above. Let’s hope.

POLITICAL WRONGNESS

Political correctness is suddenly exposing itself to be political wrongness, although one must wonder how many acts of Islamic terrorism must occur to finally reach the tipping point.  Those who prefer to see only groups, rather than individuals, in matters of political power, are unable to see THE group that threatens western civilization when Islam is the motivating inspiration for wanton murder.  Strange, that.

The same who perceive groups as being either Oppressors or Oppressed, tend, irrationally, to declare Islamists as Oppressed and not to be misunderstood or judged too quickly.  Indeed, they seem to enjoy contortion for apology’s sake lest “all” Muslims be judged as Oppressors and not just the brutal savages who committed the most recent murders.  And for them the SECOND reaction is to enumerate the unemployment  statistics in the savages’ most recent neighborhood of residence.

The FIRST is to overcome their personal disappointment that the murders were not committed by a white, Anglo-Saxon Christian.  After all, they reason, WE don’t give a (euphemism for turd) for the words of our own religious background, surely it can’t be that there are people in the world of 2017 who still do?  No, honestly!

What most don’t realize is that we are still fighting the philosophies of Hitler, and that the Second World War is lingering on.  The NAZIs expended great effort, money and propaganda to inflame the Arabs in the Middle East, particularly in Egypt and in the Levant, succeeding beyond their wildest imagination.  While Arabs had little use for non-Muslim Hitler, they loved the idea of killing infidels and racial (Islamic) purity, readily translated into blaming Jews for virtually everything they didn’t like.  The Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, were “radicalized” through hatred, intentionally, by the Germans starting in the mid 1930’s, and they’ve never looked forward.

Anti-semitism and the whole made-up “Palestinian” oppression/occupation, were part and parcel of the NAZI plan to keep the southern front active and problematic for the English, in particular, during the War.  And that whirlwind of hatred has only gained strength since.  What a wonderful heritage.  We freely welcome people who have been taught since grade school that Jews mix human (Muslim) blood into their matzos, and expect to turn them into tolerant “Westerners,” or, more stupidly, to expect them to negotiate with us infidels for lasting peace in Israel and Palestine.  John Kerry is convinced of this outlook.

Still, like it or not, there are just two – only two – paths for current events to follow: One is to gradually subsume Western philosophies and become Muslim-dominated theocracies in the grand tradition of Iran; Two is to make a practical, life-affirming decision to disallow Muslim infiltration of Western democracies.  This would include gently or forcibly expatriating Muslims who actively disavow our laws and government (and Constitution) and who preach Jihad in their mosques.

Of course the “civil rights” of every CITIZEN who is harmed or inconvenienced by this new policy will be a concern, and the wailing will precede those actions, continue through them and persist for years afterward.  Suits will be brought but terrorist acts will dwindle to nearly nothing.  Law books will decry the act that made Islamist exclusion the law of the land: “A religious test!” they’ll say.  “Unconstitutional!” they’ll scream.  And so it will appear.

Constitutions, bodies of law and related jurisprudence are brought forth among peoples for but a handful of purposes: 1) Common defense against outsiders; 2) Civil protections of private property; 3) Common, social protections of the individual right to happiness.  There is no way to construe the Constitution as an instrument of the destruction – quickly or slowly – of our own nation and of the protections of our people secured by it.  To argue otherwise is to espouse treason, in fact.  What is the logic?

The World will keep spinning if the United States becomes virtually Muslim-free over, say 10 years, and Muslim-majority nations will continue on their own destinies when slightly more majority.  It is not required by either logic or the Constitution that any number of enemies of the people or of the nationhood of the United States, must be allowed residence here.  The alternative to such clarity is to argue for the acceptable number of enemies so invited.  Prudence dictates that there is no acceptable number.

It is time for Muslims and Muslim nations to be discomfited in this war.  If “the West” and this nation most especially cannot grasp the reality of the enemy within and without, then there is no point in its -or our own –  survival.  And, if such is the case, then perhaps another path, THREE, is available: We could allow Islam and Shar’ia law to triumph, while hoping that believers in all that Islamic mumbo-jumbo jihadists have been spouting, and the words of the Quran, itself, are not taken all that seriously.  Surely they won’t ban bacon.

 

CABINETS AND BUREAUS

President Barack Obama holds a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Jan. 31, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
It’s not easy… changing the course of the ship of state, that is. Building a Great Pyramid, that’s easy. Transitioning from communism to capitalism – not so much. Worse, every move a newly elected president must make is nit-picked, criticized, undermined, called fascist and/or racist by the dominant media.

The real threat of the incoming Trump administration is that the new president may keep even some of his campaign promises. How dare he?

Those of us who were willing to overlook Trump’s several lacks of finesse and glibness, thought we could discern his visceral messages that mattered, “MTM’s.” One MTM is stopping illegal immigration. Viscerally, Americans recognize that inviting millions of very different people into our midst – people with different cultures, beliefs and languages who neither wish to adopt our culture and language nor are forced to for personal or economic survival, MAKES NO SENSE. What folly such a policy would be. What a treason it would represent.

We are transitioning from an administration whose intention it was to change, literally, the color of America. Mr. Obama is governed by a number of hatreds, among which are hatred of colonialism, hatred of white “supremacy” and hatred of capitalism. One might also discern a hatred of the Constitution in there, somewhere. What an odd person for Americans to elect.

Mr. Trump has been sounding like he may not be as concerned about the illegal entrants already here as are we who voted for his promised change. Let’s monitor what happens to the border control he also promised, very carefully. No matter how “big” we think we are in the U. S., having escaped full-scale attacks or invasion – so far – our culture is under assault, largely from confused domestic enemies who find it satisfying to hate America’s imperfections while celebrating the imperfections of others. It’s perverse. For too long we have relinquished power, including power over education, to those who hate the premises of America. Importing people of vastly different ethics – particularly Muslims – whose belief structures are antithetical to our constitution, is pretty stupid policy.

Another big MTM is about re-energizing the American manufacturing and jobs engine. Can a president actually do this? Maybe. Like most of Washington – a construct of creative bullshit – (sorry, sort-of) “managing” the economy is mostly wishes and hope. Tax cuts can surely help as lower taxes will, for a while, encourage the PRIVATE economy to make good domestic decisions and investments. Production, productivity and employment should improve. But Trump’s choices for Treasury and Chairman of The Council of Economic Advisors (White House) are from Goldman Sachs, a mendacious Wall Street behemoth, and this exposes a serious flaw in Trump’s economic courage.

Between the Federal Reserve (neither federal nor a reserve) and the Wall Street financial manipulators like Goldman Sachs, the United States has been led into astronomical debt. Trump, and all of us, need to recognize that just as every dollar of taxes is a loss of citizens’ freedom, every dollar of federal debt is a loss of national sovereignty… and loss of flexibility to manage our own domestic, foreign and military affairs. What’s a president – or a people – to do when they are stuck in a box of perpetual servility to banks?

One of the changes, perhaps the most significant of changes, that Americans tried to bring about in November, 2016, is the upside-down relationship between our supposedly sovereign nation and these blood-sucking banks. For shame. Trump has already proven to be deaf to our outcry and he’s not even in office yet. Usually newly elected presidents don’t start giving us the finger until around April first. So, many people’s concerns about Trump’s impact on – or proximity to – conservatism have some validity. We’ll see.

Finally, naming Rex Tillerson to head the State Department. Feelings are mixed, obviously, but there are positives. On the face of it there is an element of putting oligarchs in public charge of “the world.” Trump’s a business mogul and must believe that only business moguls are smart enough to manage big systems like the U. S. government. For everyone who has gained the impression that businessmen are inherently dishonest – as popular media consistently portray – giving one political power is the worst possible outcome. “They’re all crooks!”

Even worse, Tillerson is in the OIL business, helping to scourge the earth while stealing money from everyone. Woe is us. Some perspective is required.

Exxon-Mobil is certainly huge, deals in global commodities and must negotiate with virtually every country in order to maintain stable supplies and stable markets. Well, it’s time Americans admit – or recognize – that most of what foreign policy comprises is maintaining and defending global commerce, free access to the seas and stable markets and prices. It is rarely a pretty business, but undeniably vital.

And, it’s not simply oil. Oil is the current (for a hundred years) leading commodity against which almost every other commodity (corn, wheat, soybeans, beef, pork, gold, uranium and… on and on) is valued. The U. S. dollar is how oil is valued and oil is how the dollar is propped up in the face of unbelievable debt. There may be more sense behind having this particular mogul in charge at State than first appears. Exxon-Mobil is pretty-well run, after all.