"Join or Die"

As Dr. Aram said in yesterday's video, "Join or Die" (image) was a political cartoon (the first?) created by Ben Franklin in 1754. Originally meant for the time of the French and Indian War, it went "viral" during the time of the Revolutionary War.

Its meaning is clear: if the American colonies would not unite, then they would all die. Only by uniting could they hope to survive.

Many years later in 1944, Judge Learned Hand would speak on "The Spirit of Liberty." He says we must be united by a spirit of liberty living in the hearts of the American people. Laws alone won't keep us free.

We don't seek unbridled liberty to do everything we want, but rather the liberty to seek what's true and good both for ourselves and for each other. As an example: free speech for me and free speech for thee as well.

It's still true. All of us Americans need to unite on this common value, not just seek to win. 

EU immigration

Immigration (or shall we say invasion) is a monster-sized issue for Europe. Vast numbers have been allowed to overwhelm native populations in Germany, the UK, Ireland, and more. Mainstream political parties like AfD (labeled "far right") tap into very serious concerns.

Only days before the US vice president's address, Munich suffered another attack by an immigrant. The man, who was to have been deported back in 2020, sped up his car and drove into a crowd, injuring at least 30 people. It happened "just after a series of deadly attacks in Germany, all allegedly involving immigrants."

Though the chancellor says the man must be punished and deported, whether that will really happen remains to be seen.

You probably remember immigrant rape gang stories from the UK. Prime Minister Starmer seemed not to care. But maybe he feels a certain political pressure from the "far right" to start limiting the invasion:

Europe≠USA 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

It has been our impression that the people of Europe, like we Americans, believe in democracy. That includes the principles of free speech, free and fair elections, the people themselves voting for representatives who will support their wishes. 

But do they really share our values? Our vice president spoke in Munich two months ago on that very question. There's evidence that they don't. 

An election was just held in Germany. During the political campaign leading up to it, one of the parties, Alternative for Germany (AfD), was "shut out of governing coalitions" and "denied committee chairmanships in the national parliament in Berlin that its numbers would otherwise entitle it to." Media "kept AfD officials off the airwaves."

"While other political leaders, including far leftists, are regularly quoted in the press and interviewed, AfD are rarely heard or seen on broadcasts or given space in publications." Why? Because, according to leftist power-holders, they are "far right." 

But the tide may be turning. AfD won more seats in the government a week ago. AfD is not an extremist group, though it's convenient for the establishment to call them names.

from City Journal

(cont'd tomorrow)

Europe≠USA 1

"Extremist," "far right,"--terms meant to scare the public--are used by the left both in the USA and in Europe. 

In France, the second biggest political party (RN) and its leader Marine Le Pen are labeled "far right" in every headline listed on the first page of a google search I did. But can that be accurate when so many citizens vote for it?

In Germany, the first or second biggest political party (AfD) has been labeled an "extremist" organization. The federal parliament may ban it from future elections. But it represents nearly half of the German voters (photo).

 

Changing the meaning of words is one way to manipulate the perceptions of the public. Legacy media still has some credibility with some people, and the left uses it to scare and confuse.

You may have heard the terms "literal nazi" and "far right" used by the left in our presidential campaign last year, but they didn't entirely work. The right American political party won that election and became the current administration.

from "Killing Democracy to Save It"

(cont'd tomorrow)

DOGE backlash 1

Americans were strongly in favor of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) earlier this year, of course. We don't want to pay for fraud, waste and abuse of this country's financial resources. It's been going on for decades and it's tough to rein in.

Now surveys seem to indicate more people disapprove. What happened? In addition to single "keying" events of random Teslas, there have been fire-bombings and protests (photo) of Tesla facilities. It's a way to sour public opinion and reduce Tesla's value, thereby inflicting pain on Elon Musk.

These events weren't spontaneous outbursts of outraged citizens. A few may have been inspired just by press reports ramping up fear, but there's also sophisticated organization. 

The nationwide protests were all posted and scheduled by Action Network. They originally identified The Disruption Project as the host or co-sponsor, which was founded by an experienced left-wing activist.

from City Journal

Wiki on DOGE

If you wanted to find out what DOGE is, would you go to Wikipedia? Many would, because they think it is neutral and honest in reporting factual information in a non-partisan way. I wish that were the case. 

It has nothing good to say about this heroic effort to trim the federal budget. On the contrary, the reader only learns that DOGE is controversial, it inspires lawsuits, its claims to the discovery of fraud are false, its leader is ambiguous, it cuts good programs, it's a partisan political tool, etc., etc.

In short, Wikipedia's article is a hit job on DOGE and on Elon Musk. It reads like a partisan political tool itself. 

Wikipedia is the product of Katherine Maher's priorities. "Consensus" and "getting things done" come before truth on her priority list. Vital information is missing from the article. There's no effort to acknowledge the legitimate views of the people who support it.

Scared of DOGE

Should Americans be scared of what DOGE is doing? There has been an effort to terrify Americans who legitimately depend on the government for entitlements. 

You may have heard some of these things (usually said or implied by politicians), but these fears have simple answers:

 1. "Unelected officials are running the Department of Government Efficiency!" Yes, although the president was elected by the people of the United States, the staff of DOGE were not elected by the people. 

But that should not alarm you. The federal government already had nearly two million unelected people working for it. 

2. "Maybe Elon Musk, the head of DOGE, will steal my social security checks!" He won't do that because he already is the richest person in the world, and he has several companies that are profitable. If he wanted more money, he could spend his time helping his companies.

3. "Entitlements like social security and medicaid will be cut!" The president has said more than once that they will not be cut. 

from Stream

Exposed 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

The drive for justice is a reason for our new Department of Government Efficiency. When you and I fund the federal government with our tax dollars, we suppose that it's well-managed. But apparently the federal government is spending our money wildly, making payments that we would not approve--if only we knew about them. We want it stopped. Doge is investigating.

Some expenses are inefficient. The IRS manages about the same number of daily transactions as a bank. Banks budget about $20 million/year for operation and maintenance. The IRS budget for operation is $3.7 billion/year. That's seventeen times more than what a bank spends for about the same amount of work. 

Some payments are fraud. Social Security checks were going out to 3.7 million people who were listed as . . 120+ years old. Somebody was cashing all those checks.

Some payments are waste. $3 million for transparency and accountability in the cotton industry of Uzbekistan.

 from Doge

Exposed 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Wait, do people really want injustice exposed? For some, that depends on who did it. They'd be okay with injustice if it's done by someone on their own side.

Genuine justice calls for perpetrators to be called out, regardless of which political side they're on. Check out this attack on personal property, part of a wave of vandalism directed at Elon Musk's Tesla car company. The man may think he's justified in this crime because (in his opinion) Elon is bad. 

But that's not justice. And, fortunately, he didn't get away with it.

Stranded?

Follow-up to this post

As you know, two astronauts (photo) have been at the International Space Station for nine months instead of their original assignment of eight days. Now a small controversy has blown up around it because maybe they didn't have to be there all these months.

 

Elon Musk says he made an suggestion to the U.S. government last fall, offering to send SpaceX up to the ISS to get them and bring them home. But the president at that time would not allow it.

Elon speculates that they wouldn't allow it because of the political "optics" of the thing: he was aiding the rival political party during the presidential campaign, and they didn't want him and his company to look like a hero. 

Astronaut Wilmore says they knew nothing about the offer, but he believes it. A article different article says ten times that the astronauts never felt "stranded", so they never needed rescuing--so Elon and the current president are spreading false claims.

Almost everything these days is political drama. 

Vibe shift 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Business owners and managers don't need ill will from those who hold power. It's already challenging to produce some kind of product which people want and will pay for, while keeping expenses low.  

So big business will try to make peace with the powers that be. That includes tech companies that have leaned left politically. America has a new sheriff in town.

Google donated $1 million to the new president's inauguration in January. OpenAI donated a million. Meta donated a million. Microsoft donated a million. Apple's CEO donated a million.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledges the "vibe shift," and calls the new administration "a breath of fresh air." He says there is huge excitement in the U.S. tech industry: “Maybe we can go figure out how to get good at semiconductor fab again, get good at robotic factories, to make data centers again, get good at building new energy.” 

Their Super Bowl commercial for ChatGPT:

Vibe shift

Since the U.S. election last November (maybe earlier), we've been experiencing what some are calling a "vibe shift." America voted decisively to turn toward traditional American values, and against the cultural "woke" trend of recent years. 

Maybe it started when X (former Twitter) ended its censoring of non-woke opinions. It continued with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg blaming their own censoring on government coercion.

It showed up at the Super Bowl. Bud Light's commercial seemed to say that they are not woke anymore. Dancers in red, white and blue formed an image of the flag. "God Bless America" could be heard in the background. Winning quarterback praises God.

Politics, they say, follows art and culture . . and sometimes it goes the other way. Political power in this country massively changed direction, and many cultural influencers got on board. Thank God.

Not earned?

DEI policies were promoted as fairness of outcomes, the idea that all results of any activity should be equal. But the natural "diversity" of human beings makes that impossible. 

Instead of outside force, the solution is still to build virtue among the individuals in community. Rewards must come by merit, by earning the rewards of your work with skill and achievement.

Here's an individual (from a post on X) who gets it right:

"DEI has placed an asterisk on the achievements of every black person and woman in a prestigious role. It’s caused those people and the public to reasonably doubt whether they earned their role by merit or agenda. This hurts black people, women, and public trust."

Yes, it does.

Same old

Follow-up to this post

Stiff opposition to dictator Victor Maduro's regime in Venezuela has died for the present. His power to overwhelm his challengers has landed him a victory, in spite of big protests and in spite of the opinion of global leaders that he stole last summer's election.

"Maduro was sworn in [1-12-25] as president of Venezuela for a third term, declaring victory in a stolen election. Though Venezuelans protested the fraud--thronging Caracas and other cities--the regime crushed the uprising and threw 2,000 opponents in jail. Venezuelans seem doomed to live under a regime that has brought them nothing but inflation, repression and despair."

UK still hides it

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

All the evidence, all the stories, all the first-person testimony "shamed" the United Kingdom Parliament into considering a new, thorough investigation into the ongoing rape gang crimes. 

Are the crimes of these rape gangs being covered up?

So members of Parliament (MP's) voted on whether they should do an investigation of this outrage. They voted about 2 to 1 against it. In other words, the authorities decided not to investigate whether the authorities are covering up the crimes of rape gangs.

UK Prime Minister (photo) was too busy to be present for the vote, but he instructed the MP's of his party to vote against it.

Rape gangs 3

(cont'd from last Friday's post)

Yes, authorities knew about the rape gangs and chose to ignore them. Many acknowledge it.

For decades in the West in general, students have been taught that no society or culture is any better than any other (multicultularism) as I saw for myself in my son's history text book. In Britain, many don't dare to complain or even mention that the gangs are largely immigrants from Pakistan who prey on white, working-class girls. They, including police, are silenced and terrified of being called "racist."

All this is open now because a few outraged people are talking about it. Elon Musk has been posting evidence on X (former Twitter) to his enormous global audience:

 

Well-known psychologist Jordan Peterson is outspoken (48.00-49.30) in this interview. It's sickening, he says, to watch the UK ignore these crimes and then gaslight people who try to tell the truth.

Old media

Legacy media has been around for many years and includes some well-known names such as Washington Post and New York Times along with television broadcast news programs. Owned by huge corporations and billionaires, they carry huge political influence . . or did.

Jeff Bezos (photo), founder of Amazon, bought the Washington Post for $250 million in 2013. This year he shocked its fans when he announced that the Post would not endorse a political candidate for president of the U.S., an end to its long tradition. 

 

Editors, writers and readers were angry that the newspaper would not take the side of the left wing party, as in the past. Two hundred thousand subscribers cancelled.

Why did he do it? The Post ran his explanation: "The Hard Truth: Americans Don't Trust the News Media."

In recent surveys, media and journalists are nearly at the bottom of the list of professions Americans trust, he says. "But in this year’s Gallup poll, we have managed to fall below Congress. Our profession is now the least trusted of all. Something we are doing is clearly not working."

(cont'd tomorrow)

"Just politics!"

Some people claimed during the campaign that the president-elect is "literally Hitler." The current president said that the man is a fascist and a threat to democracy. But last week he gave him happy congratulations and a "Welcome back" to the White House.

A radio host feels confused. "What happened to fascist?" Did he believe those accusations?

Back in 2006, journalist Leslie Stahl reminded the incoming Speaker of the House that she had said terrible things about the opposing party's candidates. She asked, "How will you be able to work with him after saying those things??"

Said the Speaker, "Oh that's just politics. I'm sure he understands."

Alarming, emotional, exaggerated attacks are not to be taken seriously. Even the politician who says these things often does not actually believe them, but just says them for effect. Any connection to genuine truth could be a coincidence.

As usual, you'll have to think for yourself.

NYC hopes

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

New York's mayor has hope for positive change because of last week's election, like most American voters do. 

When he reached out to the current administration for help, he found only deaf ears--no help came for his city's immigration crisis. But now he's optimistic that his concerns will be heard and some of his ideas put into effect:

“I am willing to sit down with this administration like I tried to sit down with the previous administration in my 10 trips to Washington to say: we have a problem that is overrunning our cities.” 

 

Not in favor of mass deportation, he does hope for 1) federal money to help finance NYC's  support of immigrants, 2)  more secure border policies including background checks, and 3) sending some immigrants to less populated locations.

“When I talked about public safety in 2021, it was ignored. When I talked about migrants and asylum seekers in 2023, it was ignored.” He doesn't like being ignored. 

A similar story applies to the Teamsters Union who for many years were loyal supporters of the now-left-wing party. They feel ignored. But the union president found an open, responsive welcome when he wished to speak to the political party convention of our president-elect.

from Politico

VMI reaction

Tuesday night, or rather very very early on Wednesday, it was clear who had won the election for president of the U.S.A. 

Cadets at Virginia Military Institute (photo) were informed by an announcement at 1:48 a.m. in their barracks. They made a strong response to the news. You can see and hear it on X.