I've Been Saying For Years....

i've been saying for many years that i don't know how anyone who has raised 2 or more children could have any delusions about world peace. the story of cain and abel did not fall out of the sky. even though siblings are made of the exact same genetic material, and thus could not be closer or more homogeneous, any parent knows they can be vicious toward each other.

when i stumbled onto this video of identical twins, barely old enough to sit up, and yet fighting over a  pacifier, my instincts were confirmed even more concretely about the perpetual strife that is the hallmark of humanity. identical twins, even more so than mere siblings, are the closest nature comes to a single spirit in two beings. but as the video shows, it doesn't make a fucking bit of difference. the overriding imperative is, i want. and if that means i have to poke your eye out to get what i want, well, such is the world. oh stop whining.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXATjvr_rl4

yeah, world peace. any day now.

Speaking of The Acropolis

Jesus. even cruz dropping out has only slightly moved the odds: 63 to 37 hillary. WTF. if trump falls back to 33 i have to go in big. that would give me 3 to 1 odds. the other interesting bet is christie vp at 12. that's up from 6 so maybe something is happening there.

with trump now unquestionably the nominee, something very large has happened. the establishment has been driven back, the media have been driven back. despite the most despicable, mendacious, vile, and underhanded tactics ever seen in our lifetimes, their heads have been handed to them. pikes wanted. line the road to athens with their shit smeared skulls.

If She Said It, It Must Be True

a reporter claimed that Trump's campaign manager roughed her up at a rally. she filed a police report and the news outlets reported that the manager had been "charged" with battery. that was a lie. the first of many. he was not charged; he was given a notice to appear. two very different things.

for over a week the allegation was treated as a fait accompli by all news organizations. but unbeknownst to the reporter who made the allegation and the media who slavishly reported it as fact, there was surveillance video that recorded the encounter. in her allegation, the reporter said that the manager grabbed her arm very roughly and pulled her so hard she almost fell to the ground. in her police report she said she never touched trump and thus there was no reason for the rough treatment by the manager, cory lewandowski.

the video begs to differ. it clearly shows that cory neither grabbed her or pulled her, roughly or otherwise. he simply put his arm between her and trump as he was catching up to trump and then placed himself between them without even looking at her.

the video also shows quite clearly that she lied in her police report. she definitely grabbed trump's arm, and then you see him pull his arm from her grasp. no reasonable person could dispute either move.

after prosecutors saw the video they said they would not charge lewandowski. but of course they wouldn't. it was ridiculous from the start. but here's the thing; lying in a police report is a crime, a criminal offense. and the video showed proof that the reporter lied when she said she never touched trump.

so here is an actual crime, with actual evidence. shouldn't the reporter be charged? and here the word "charge" is used correctly. of course she should. but she isn't being charged even though a conviction could be almost guaranteed. the zealous prosecutors who were so eager to investigate and pursue her dubious claim against trump's manager, are now suddenly very, very cautious. and the equally zealous and eager news outlets have completely dropped the story. why? because it doesn't fit their Goddamned narrative of woman reporter good, trump and anyone associated with him bad.

does anybody remember phil donahue? he was a talk show host and he started this particular narrative. his version was women good, men bad. every day he hammered that theme on his show, and now it is part of the culture. i wish somebody would prosecute that asshole.

A Forum Here, A Forum There

i write on forums occasionally. if there's an interesting exchange i'll post it here sometimes. the following is an example. the text in bold and underlined was written by someone else. the regular text is my response.

Trump was caught completely off guard.

and it seems to be a streak. first, he was completely unprepared for the last debate and got hurt bad because of it. then he let chris matthews sucker punch  him on the abortion issue and completely fucked up the answer. that did damage that may not be fixable. we'll see in new york.

and today in an interview he speaks favorably of marco greaseball rubio and doesn't rule him out for vp, which is just fucking nuts. trump needs my help so fucking bad.

But you know what it shows? Ted Cruz is an absolute despot and as corrupt and crooked as they come.

which i saw on day one. glad you guys are finally catching up. any man with even an ounce of integrity would refuse the colorado delegates and insist on a vote. but that wouldn't even occur to ted crudz. he is a vain, self-centered, narcissistic piece of cuban shit. the fact that he considers this a victory should tell you all you need to know about that slimebag. and the fact that he has gotten ANY votes shows how low the american electorate has sunk.

is a situation Cruz was able to exploit to his benefit and Trump wasn’t. Trump can’t call foul play. Ted did his homework, Trump didn’t.

that's not homework, gallo. it's the kind of deceitful, corrupt, hidden, backroom bullshit they pull in thirdworld shitholes like mexico. not surprising you recognize it and consider it valid. not your fault; nobody gets to choose where they're born. but it shows once again how powerful childhood influences of culture have on a being. and why the founding fathers required that presidential candidates must be natural born citizens. cruz isn't qualified and neither was obama, but he couldn't be questioned because he's a negro and they're sacred now in america. but it sure is a powerful argument that only natural born white males should be eligible, because they're the only ethnicity and gender that can be held accountable (the standards had already collapsed or else that traitor geo w. bush would have been prosecuted).

we used to be above this kind of shit. this is where political correctness leads. the toilet. and we're already in it. welcome back to guadalajara.

i try to go easy on you, and then you come up with something like the homework statement and my temper goes right out the window. nothing personal. just debate.

Here is an idea: Trump/Sanders 2016.

actually, i think this is kind of an interesting idea. i like it. if i can get through to the campaign i'll suggest it and give you the credit.

i don't know where your optimism is coming from, MW. i'm not sure you realize how badly trump has been damaged.

on march 17, 2003 i told lyn nofziger i would be a republican no more forever. i'm so far ahead of the curve it astonishes even me. the gop doesn't deserve anybody's vote. they are dog shit wrapped in cat shit in a bucket of horse shit.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Photoshop

saw an article today on the yahoo homepage. the headline was 

"Donald Trump: His madness, GOP insanity"

with the usual thumbnail photo beside it. the pic was of donald trump at a podium, with a very angry and odd look on his face, and he's giving the finger to the audience it appears, or in that general direction.

i thought to myself, "that doesn't look like something trump would do".  so i clicked to see the article, wondering where this incident took place. that took me to the article with only a paragraph ending in mid-sentence, and a "read more" button. clicked again. 

i finally got to the article which had the same pic only larger. the piece was mostly name calling and saying how low the republican party had sunk and what a megalomaniac trump was, and basically just drivel with no supporting evidence or logic or context, in other words, what's come to be reporting since trump announced his candidacy.

that "read more" button is really pissing me off with yahoo. it's just a way to load another page with a new raft of ads on it and another example of why yahoo has petered out. but that's for another post.

the article itself was garbage and it never mentioned where the photo of trump took place. but i noticed that there was now a caption under the pic in very tiny print. it said this:


"Donald Trump to America: A illustration created in Photoshop to make the point".

this caption was not in the thumbnail, nor in the first click paragraph. and my instinct was right; donald trump didn't make the gesture and he didn't have that angry, odd expression on his face. the whole thing was faked with photoshop, but someone who just saw the headline with the thumbnail, or even gone farther and clicked on it to get to the next page, would have gotten the impression that it was real and that trump was an angry, venal pisspot. (unless their eye was as keen as mine). and even when you finally got to the full version, the type of the caption was so small i had to enlarge it to read it.

so basically yahoo was telling a lie. i even think it is actionable. if i were trump i'd sue for about two hundred million for defamation. i mean that middle finger gesture is universally understood in the u.s. to mean a very specific two word phrase. and they even got the grammar wrong in the caption. and by showing that photo they were attributing an offensive statement to trump that he never made. that's called lying. they used photoshop to create a falsehood. they should be held accountable, plus punitive damages. here's the link if you want to see for yourself,   http://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/59753

it used to be that tv news and newspapers lied constantly but the internet finally made it possible to get to the true story. not anymore. the internet has an agenda now too, the same as the mainstream media. and i hate photoshop. they've already destroyed the collective self-esteem of an entire generation of young girls by eliminating every perceived flaw in published photos and causing these poor girls to think that they should aspire to a perfection that doesn't even exist. as always, tech is a double edged sword. be wary. be wary, wary.

U.S. foreign policy via youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUObFqU5cgE

do you really need to know anything more about hillary clinton?

a letter to my congressman

March  4, 2016

Congressmen Bera, M.D.

I received your letter dated 12-8-15, that was in response to my phone call to your local office objecting to the settling of Syrian refugees in the United States. First, let me say that I appreciate your responding to my call.

This letter of mine may appear antagonistic, but it is not meant to be so. It is meant to correct certain statements of yours that are factually incorrect, and to question your policy stance. If I am wrong in anything that I say, I am perfectly willing to change my mind if my statements can be refuted.

I find your response troubling at best.  First things first: your opinion, and hence your vote, are exactly the opposite of mine, so you are NOT representing me as your title suggests. I can understand that people can have good faith disagreements regarding policy, and that does not necessarily put me off.

But there are other things that do put me off. You make statements in your letter that are patently false. That indicates either an insufficient knowledge of American history to qualify you for your current office, or a deliberate attempt to take both sides of an issue in order to not lose a vote. If you can think of another reason, I am open to hearing and considering it.

I have enclosed a copy of your letter and highlighted the statements that I consider to be false. I have also copied the statements to this letter of mine to better refute your beliefs and hopefully change your opinion. Your statements are underlined and my response appears beneath each one.

Our nation has always been a place for those fleeing violence or oppression and we must stay true to those values.

This is simply not true. Our nation has not always been a place for those fleeing violence or oppression. There have been numerous periods in American history when we have turned away thousands of so-called refugees because having them here was not in the best interests of the American people. The late 1930's come to mind. We turned away boatload after boatload of so- called refugees because of the war building in Europe, and accepting them would have unnecessarily involved us in that war. The vast majority of American voters were united in that policy. There are many other instances of our refusal to admit foreign nationals fleeing their responsibility to fix their own problems.

There have also been numerous periods in our history when we have stopped ALL immigration for lengthy periods of time, again, because it simply was not in the best interests of the American people to accept immigrants at a particular time for various reasons. There have also been many instances when we have restricted various categories, nationalities, and even individuals from entering the U.S.  At this very moment as I write, there are such restrictions in force denying entry to this country. The most obvious pertain to Russian nationals whom our government is currently using  as a proxy dispute against Russia for reasons that may or may not be legitimate. In any case, the current restrictions have the force of law and the American people have not voiced any objection to that policy.

I suggest you look up american immigration and “refugee” policy throughout our history to better educate yourself to the truth of the matter, rather than making sweeping emotional statements that are false. The Founding Fathers of the United States wrote very specifically on this issue and advised extreme caution on the topic. Men such as Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton wrote on the topic and it would behoove you to read their words.

The vast majority of refugees are mothers, children, and the elderly

This is another false statement. I have been following this situation very closely. From everything i've read in multiple domestic and foreign news outlets, the majority of the so-called refugees are young men of military age. I have seen many cases of these Syrian men admit on camera that they are fleeing military service in their own country. I have seen multiple reports from volunteers who are actually helping these so-called refugees state that the majority of them are young men. Significant numbers of them are not even from Syria, but rather, muslim men from eastern Europe seeking to take advantage of generous welfare benefits in western European countries.

There are hundreds of video clips showing hoards of young men traversing fields in Europe, with just enough small children sprinkled in to give them plausible deniability. The port city of Calais in France has become unlivable because of the crime and violence brought by these same “refugees”. There are dozens of reports and videos of them storming the Chunnel in order to illegally enter Great Britain. There are also innumerable accounts of rapes, sexual assault, battery and generalized crime in the refugee camps that hold them. I don't want them in my country.

we must honor the long American tradition of helping to resettle refugees.

I have addressed your similar statement above. This one is false , too. There is no such tradition. This is the second time in your letter that you have made the statement. Repetition does not make it true, or any the less false. Repetition counts against a debate team. It is a sure sign of a weak or disingenuous case.

That's why I voted for H.R. 4038, a bill that requires government agencies that are already doing refugee background checks to certify that a refugee applicant is not a national security risk.

This statement is especially troubling. It indicates unequivocally that the security checks currently in place were not stringent enough and therefore it was necessary to add something to them. You may not have been in office when the first bill was passed, in which case you are not responsible for its deficiencies. But it makes a statement about congress in general that does not inspire confidence. After the atrocity of 9/11, shouldn't they have been able to get it right the first time? And shouldn't you have addressed that the first day you took office?

Instead, it builds upon our already strong security screening process to ensure Syrian refugees are thoroughly vetted and are not a security threat.

Thoroughly vetted?? Is that a joke? The simple fact is that in Syria, as in many middle eastern countries, all civil order has collapsed, and meaningful background checks are impossible. The recent San Bernardino mass murder terrorist attack backs up my assertion and proves beyond doubt that the laws that congress has passed to prevent these attacks are completely worthless. Fourteen Americans were killed and 22 wounded.

The woman terrorist attacker easily obtained a fiancé visa and entered the U.S. without question, even though she had posted extremest rants on social media and pledged her allegiance to ISIS publicly. Where was “our already strong security screening process” the day she effortless walked into our country? And if our security screening process is already strong, as you say, how did she get in? And why did we need an additional bill to make it stronger? Because it's not strong, that's how. It is just more politically correct bullshit that ignores actual threats and instead, harasses old women and children, and even U.S. congressmen. 

We prudently take extra precautions to keep Americans safe.

I refer you to my previous 2 paragraphs. If congress is prudent and takes extra precautions to keep Americans safe, why do these attacks keep happening? Another example is the Boston Marathon attack. Russian officials alerted the CIA about those particular suspects TWO  YEARS  BEFORE the attacks took place. TWICE. But that agency, along with the FBI, only did a perfunctory investigation and then dropped the matter. American citizens again paid for their incompetence with their lives. We spend $40 billion a year on so-called intelligence and yet can't follow up on information that is handed to us on a silver platter.

At present, we don't have enough jobs for the people who are already here. Why take in more? The U.S. taxpayer is not responsible for the rest of the world's standard of living. We have VETERANS, men and women who put their lives on the line for our country, who are now homeless. Tens of thousands of them, and we don't seem to have the money to give them adequate care. The VA hospital system is shamelessly underfunded. Veterans have to wait months to get an appointment, and many times must travel long distances to get to a VA facility. This is a national disgrace and a treacherous betrayal of the men and women in uniform who serve our country at great risk to themselves. 

Money that could be used to adequately provide care for them is instead diverted to provide a new life for foreign nationals who refuse to fight for their own countries, and who refuse to address the political problems in their own countries. Why would I want cowardly and irresponsible people like that in my country? I wouldn't and I don't.

Apart from veterans, we have thousands upon thousands of homeless people in the U.S. that we are not taking care of. I live in Sacramento. There are well over a thousand homeless people here. They are everywhere. They are in neighborhoods that we would never have imagined them being in even 10 years ago. 

It has been reported that congress is spending 1.6 BILLION DOLLARS to resettle ILLEGAL aliens within the United States. We are giving billions of dollars to known criminals who have invaded our country and broken our laws. And you want to spend billions more on thousands of foreign nationals who have proven themselves to be unworthy citizens in their own countries. But we don't have the money to take care of American citizens that you were elected to represent? I cannot abide by that.

Your policy stance on refugees seems to put the interests of foreigners and criminals ahead of our own citizens. 

I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that your positions are just a matter of being insufficiently acquainted with historical facts, and genuinely misled on the situation in Syria, Libya, Yemen, Iraq, Iran and others. You may laugh at that statement since you seem to be a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, whereas I am just a common citizen. But I would just tell you that I have seen many high level officials and even Cent/Com generals make statements that I know to be factually incorrect.

Bottom line: I see two possibilities here: 1. I can work for you and help you get a better grasp of American history and to reconfigure your priorities in such a way that is unassailable, honorable and right for Americans.  Or, 2. I can volunteer to work for your opponent and defeat you in the upcoming election, because as it stands now, your policies are absolutely unacceptable to me.

I look forward to hearing from you within a week of the date of this letter. But in case I don't hear from you in that time, you can contact me henceforth at the headquarters of your opponent for the election in November 2016, where I will be working diligently 14 hours a day to oust you from office.

Sincerely,