Find the Jobs

Mark Noonan36 Comments

Here’s a story that is bound to bring a smile to Conservative faces: Progressive pizza shop that tried to pay fair wages (as defined by Progs) goes out of business. And, yes, reading it you can see the utter silliness of Progressive thinking. But what isn’t being noticed is, in my mind, the most important thing: the Progs are trying to gin up $15.00 an hour jobs out of $5.00 an hour jobs because they cannot see other types of jobs.

A Progressive sees things like “lawyer”, “professor”, “community organizer” and says, “hey, what great, well-paid jobs!”, while also realizing that not everyone is cut out to be such…but they have to do something, right? So, $15.00 an hour for making pizza. But is it any better on the right? Not really – most on the right also don’t see any jobs but the sort of jobs they know about…and if you can’t get them, well, to bad, so sad. This has the benefit of not stupidly believing that a pizza slicer can make $15.00 an hour, but it has the drawback of not having any sort of $15.00 an hour job for average folks out there. A bit of a shift in understanding is required.

In 2015 (the most recent year I can find any numbers on), the United States consumed 132.8 million metric tons of steel. In that same year, the United States produced 78.9 million metric tons of steel. Do the math and you can see we imported 53.9 million metric tons. The American steel industry has been operating for some years now at about 70% of capacity. What can we get from this?

1. We produce a lot of steel.
2. We can produce a lot more steel, even without building more plants.
3. We import a lot of steel.
4. Given how much we use, there is clearly a massive market for steel.
5. Given that we do produce quite a lot of it, we can make steel profitably.

So, if we use that much steel and we can make that much steel at a good enough profit to justify making steel, why do we import any steel, at all?

Right now, a steel worker makes a bit more than $20 an hour. Not a bad wage. Given that we import 40.58% of our steel, it stands to reason that we can employ a very large number of additional people making steel at $20.00 an hour. It also seems to me that figuring out a way to boost American steel production is a much better way to provide better wages than to either ignore the problem (as the right mostly does) or to demand that burger-flippers get paid near-steel industry wages (as the left stupidly demands). Do keep in mind, this is just talking about steel workers – but steel is made of things like iron and coal and a host of other materials that have to be produced, refined and shipped…all jobs that, also, pay more than burger flipping and which are clearly profitable industries in the United States because we already do them at a profit.

I’m sure the answer is varied for why we don’t. Our tax policies are insane. Our regulatory policies even more so. We allow foreign producers to dump their product on our market because our investor class has a vested interest in high profit margins on their overseas investments. We have environmentalists going nuts over any sort of productive activity. We have upper class twits who don’t want dirty industries anywhere near them. On and on like that – but we must cut that all out. If you want to see the future of America, think of it as 150 million welfare bums, hooked on drugs, sitting around while Progs “fight for 15” and Conservatives write another article about how great free trade is. Unless, that is, we find a way. Just do it – there’s a way to get the United States not only producing the 132.8 million tons of steel we use, but also exporting an additional 100 million tons. Don’t tell me it can’t be done – it can be done. It already is being done…and if it isn’t being done in sufficient volume to employ every single American in a well-paid job, then it is simply because we’re preventing it from happening.

Scandal Sheet

Mark Noonan5 Comments

We have discussed the overall scandals, but here’s what I’ve got right now:

The Uranium One scandal is a major thing – and Obama’s Administration made sure it happened (with Hillary leading the way) and then covered it up.

The Dossier Scandal is smaller in scale, but very important – paid for at least partially by Team Hillary, it was used by the Obama Administration to justify spying on Team Trump during and after the 2016 campaign (it appears other justifications were used, as well). In the end, this bogus dossier is the central part of the so-called Trump/Russia scandal…it was used, ultimately, to say “there’s something to be investigated, here” and so bring on Mueller.

Mueller, it seems to me, was brought in via Comey’s machinations – and just why would you want that when you know full well that the Trump/Russia concept was a mere figment of the imagination? To make sure the cover-up of the Uranium One scandal stayed in place, as far as I can see.

I don’t perceive a connection at this time between the Uranium One/Dossier scandals and the Awan IT scandal. But, stay tuned.

Flake Out

Mark Noonan7 Comments

Ace posts an interesting list gathered by Jason Johnson about Flake:

1) Tempting to comment on Flake’s floor speech. Instead, offering context on his view of “governing” by highlighting a few of his votes.

2) Jeff Flake was 1 of 10 Republican senators who voted to confirm Loretta Lynch for Attorney General

3) Flake voted to fund President Obama’s unconstitutional executive amnesty.

4) Flake voted against Sen. Mike Lee’s 1st Amendment Defense Act

5) Flake voted for Obama’s $1.1 trillion Cromnibus 2015 spending bill

6) Flake voted to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank

7) Flake voted for S.2114 which increased Russia’s power at the International Monetary Fund

8) Flake voted for a CLEAN debt limit suspension (2014)

9) Flake was 1 of 11 Republican senators who voted to confirm Janet Yellen

10) Flake voted for the Ryan-Murray budget which lifted spending caps & raised fees (taxes) in exchange for promises of future spending cuts

11) Flake voted for the Gang of 8 amnesty bill

12) Flake voted for the post-Newtown gun grab

13) Flake voted AGAINST The Defund Obamacare Act of 2013 (S.1292)

14) Flake voted to increase debt by $900 billion in exchange for the promise of discretionary cuts in the future (2011)

15) Flake preferred John Kasich over Cruz or Trump in the 2016 GOP Primary.

This is Conservatism? This is principled leadership? My comment earlier in the day over an MSM article saying that Flake was “appalled” by Trump that we Conservatives were rather appalled by a guy who thinks cheap labor and trade deals with Chinese tyrants are Conservative.

I’ve seen polling which shows Flake at about 18% approval rating – he was going to lose next year, no matter what. It seems he’s managed to anger both the Democrats and the GOP in Arizona. People just weren’t going to buy it…especially not GOP voters. Everyone knew what he’d do in a re-election bid…talk a huge game of Conservatism, and then just knife us in the back once he was re-elected. Dumping him does put the GOP Seat at risk, but what good has having it in GOP hands done for us?

Corker and Flake out means we’ve got a couple weak members out – and have a very solid shot of replacing both of them with people we can rely on. We also have a good chance of picking up a net of 4 or 5 Senate seats next year. If this gets done, the few remaining RINOs will simply be overwhelmed (either out-voted or terrified of being primaried if they stray). Could be a lot of good things coming our way in 2019.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan2 Comments

Shocking news! Trump supporters still want the Wall.

I’ll pause a moment while you recover.

All better, now? Ok, on we go.

Did you hear that the WHO appointed Robert Mugabe a goodwill ambassador? I’ve heard they’ve reconsidered the move, but the fact that they made it, at all, says all that needs to be said about the UN and associated organizations. They are corrupt to the bone and not worthy of the attention of decent people. The sooner we abandon this relic of Yalta, the better.

Lindsay Graham said he had no idea that US troops were in Niger. I admit, myself, to being rather hazy on it…I seem to recall a decision to send some forces into that part of Africa a few years back, but let’s face it: the MSM didn’t actually report much on this particular Obama War. But, still, Graham is a Senator. He gets briefed on these things – I don’t know what is actually worse: the prospect that he’s lying about not knowing, or the real possibility that he simply didn’t know.

Andrew Sullivan is of the opinion that immigration is the issue which could lose the next election for the Democrats. There is some truth to that, but I think the larger point is that our Ruling Class’ (here and Europe) determination to have open borders indicates contempt for the Ruled. There is a sense that those in charge want to have the immigrants in not so much for the sake of the immigrants, but simply so they can preen themselves about being morally superior to those who have questions about open immigration. The continued rush by the Ruling Class to press forward on the Progressive plan as if Hillary had won last year is merely building up a mountain of disgust on the part of the regular folks…who will, I think, make the Ruling Class pay at the polls.

Thinking About Those Who Give All

Mark Noonan25 Comments

Maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t think that Trump’s comments to the widow – if they were accurately reported – were offensive. I can just imagine my father saying pretty much the same thing had I died during my Navy service. I’ve read some comments from some veterans claiming to be offended and I’m not going to call them wrong for viewing it that way, but for me and the veterans I know, it was just a thing to be said. When we signed up, we all knew it was possible. To be sure, we all thought, if it came to combat, “it’ll be you and you and you, but not me”, but we also knew that the reality could be very different.

And it all got me thinking that we’re taking the whole thing of death a bit the wrong way. We all, as Shakespeare said, owe God a death. We hope to have our line of credit extended indefinitely (as Manchester in his autobiography about his war experiences put it), but death does come for us all in the by and by. And I think that, these days, we get entirely too maudlin about death.

I’m not thinking we should get all Spartan about it – “come home with your shield, or on it”; was what Spartan mothers would say to their sons going off to war – but, perhaps, a bit more Roman?

Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
“To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods.”

Or another view, similar, which I’ve quoted here years before:

Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour,
And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping,
With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power,
To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping,
Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary,
Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move,
And half-men, and their dirty songs and dreary,
And all the little emptiness of love!

Oh! we, who have known shame, we have found release there,
Where there’s no ill, no grief, but sleep has mending,
Naught broken save this body, lost but breath;
Nothing to shake the laughing heart’s long peace there
But only agony, and that has ending;
And the worst friend and enemy is but Death.

That was Rupert Brooke, written as he went off to World War One. He got his death, and while very sorrowful for his many friends, it was still a glorious thing and he a man worthy of honor and remembrance. And I think that a lot of our people who seem ill at ease around death are those “sick hearts that honour could not move”. People who shrink from any real sacrifice – whether it is the sacrifice of merely having children and being decent parents; the sacrifice of keeping at a dreary job because one has responsibilities…or the sacrifice of one’s life in a cause.

I am getting old, now; not quite old, yet – but getting there. There is more time behind me than in front. I have done many things to be ashamed of, but there are a few things I’ve done which please me. I’ve kept my promise in some things, that is – and one of them was to be a Sailor in the United States Navy. Had I died as a young man in the Navy, I’d likely be nearly forgotten by now. Decades would have passed; my parents are now dead. My brothers and sisters would, at times, be reminded they once had a brother who is no longer there…but I wouldn’t be much more than a fleeting memory; a life cut short on this Earth. But, for all that, we are all doomed to be forgotten on this Earth. Whether one believes in the religious or the purely materialistic view of the world, eventually everything we do here becomes less than a memory here. We who have religion believe there is something much greater beyond this world, but even we believe that this world is doomed. You can take one of two courses of action in light of this: to either greedily grab on to every bit of life you can, or to merely try to do the right thing by others, even if it means you die and they go on. To those who greedily grab on to life, the fact that a life is cut short is the worst crime. To those who take the other view, it is the life that is poorly lived, long or short, which is the worst crime.

It is terribly sad for us – especially as we grow older – to see a young person die. Even for those of us with religious belief, there seems to be something very wrong in a young person, so full of promise, to be taken away from us. But there is something else to ponder about those who die young:

Right you guessed the rising morrow
And scorned to tread the mire you must:
Dust’s your wages, son of sorrow,
But men may come to worse than dust.

Souls undone, undoing others,-
Long time since the tale began.
You would not live to wrong your brothers:
Oh lad, you died as fits a man.

Now to your grave shall friend and stranger
With ruth and some with envy come:
Undishonoured, clear of danger,
Clean of guilt, pass hence and home.

Turn safe to rest, no dreams, no waking;
And here, man, here’s the wreath I’ve made:
‘Tis not a gift that’s worth the taking,
But wear it and it will not fade.

That is from A Shropeshire Lad – which is not exactly what I’m looking for, but it does address the issue of whether death is the worst thing which can happen. A man (or, these days, a woman) who goes to war is doing an act of sublime self-sacrifice. This is especially true in our modern age where we do not conscript people into war (and God grant we never do, again). That young man or woman who dons our nation’s uniform may have all sorts of bad in him or her. But by putting their lives on the line, they are balancing that bad – and if they do end up giving their life for their country, then they have carried out the greatest love of all, that a person should give his or her life for their friends. C. S. Lewis pointed out that had he, in his World War One service, shot a German in the same instant the German shot him, they’d both probably have wound up in heaven and had a good laugh about it. At such a moment, a person’s selfish desires are at their lowest ebb and their willingness to sacrifice to save others at the highest pitch. And as we must all die, why is this the worst way to die?

I would, of course, that all the young people today could live to a hundred and during their long lives have nothing but the blessings of peace, love and prosperity. But we all know that won’t happen. Even in the best of our lives, there is pain. And, at the end of it, death. We should avoid war because it is wrong to kill. But some times it becomes necessary to kill in order to defend what we hold most dear. And if we have to kill, it is certain that some of ours will be killed. To feel sorrow at their deaths is natural and beautiful – but to take their death and keep it separate from their courage is wrong. They, I think, would not want to be merely remembered as those who died, but as those who did something very special.

Busy Week Open Thread

Mark Noonan18 Comments

Governor Brown of California had a flash of sanity. Somewhere in the back of his mind he remembered that due process of law is rather a good thing.

Salon made up a list of Conservatives worth following on Twitter. You now have your list of who not to follow.

Harvey Weinstein has been demoted from Progressive Hero to Evil Defender of Patriarchy. Bill retains his position as Progressive Hero, however.

You’re a racist. No, really – Progressives say so. Again.

Trump and McConnell had a get together. I think the Trumpsters are doing wrong by McConnell. As I’ve said before, he’s probably one of the most reliable people trying to help Trump…if only because he knows that if Trump wins, the GOP wins; if Trump loses, the GOP loses.

Don Surber has some observations about the press and freedom. My view: a free press is only worthwhile if it isn’t all on one side. Biased journalism isn’t the problem – the press has always been biased. Used to be, however, that there was biased journalism in favor of all sides…and so, in the aggregate, the truth would come out. These days, 90% of the press (at least) is all on one side…and that they pretend to objectivity merely makes their bias more pronounced.

Jimmy Kimmel isn’t upset that Republicans no longer watch his show. I’ve never seen it, so I wouldn’t know.

O J Simpson is out searching for the real killers partying with women. The only thing I don’t understand: why any woman, even for pay, would want to be around him?

Our SJW friends have moved on from toppling Lee to going after statues of Lincoln. This is just how the left is – but I think that people tire, at long last, of it all. The proof will be in the electoral pudding, but I think that 2018 and 2020 will surprise a lot of people.

Yet another fake hate crime. These days, I always work on the assumption that hate crimes are all fake. There just aren’t enough real racists left in America to sustain a hate crime campaign. Tops, a few hundred thousand Americans subscribe to the absurdity that a person is inferior based on skin color. In order to keep race hatred alive, the race-baiters are forced to use fraud.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan29 Comments

Yes, I did celebrate Columbus Day. He did absolutely nothing wrong and the long-term effects of his actions were splendid for the entire world. I think we should have Cortez Day, too…unless someone wants to argue we should have seen how a civilization which ripped out living human hearts and then ate the corpses would have developed.

Harvey Weinstein is just what happens when money becomes the most important thing in the world – he had control of bags of money, and so was allowed to get away with things poor people can’t. I know my fellow Conservatives will get angry with me over this, but the solution to this isn’t a host of new laws, but just one law: tax away excess wealth. Heck, don’t even call it “taxation”…call it what it would be, “confiscation”. Confiscate every cent over, say, $100 million – and then bundle it up in to $100,000.00 increments and give it out via a lottery system using SSN’s to random American citizen adults. This is Redistribution…a key element in a Distributist system. A hundred million dollar fortune is still quite a lot – we’d still have a host of rich people. But not so many people so rich that they can easily buy their way out of trouble…nor buy massive influence in government. And passing the cash around to regular folks would allow a host of new things to rise…things rich people can’t imagine, because they don’t care about. This is the way things work, by the way, people: freedom allows wealth to concentrate and then the concentrated wealth must be broken up to ensure the long-term health of the society. It was when the Romans stopped periodically breaking up the great concentrations of wealth that they started to die. When would the re-concentration begin? As soon as you finished redistribution…but the immense imbalance we have now would take a century to reproduce itself and, meanwhile, the redistribution would allow a lot of new blood to enter the ranks of the rich…new blood which, at least for a while, would not think of itself as special just because it has money.

Twitter banned an ad by GOP Senate Candidate Marsha Blackburn – the reason being that Blackburn made an anti-abortion statement that Twitter considers inflammatory. This, of course, is just Progressive fascism – and thing we’re used to. Twitter, being run by Progs, also didn’t have the wit to understand that the ban would just make everyone watch it on different platforms…Blackburn should send a thank you letter. I’ve seen the ad – Blackburn is no squish. We need her in the Senate, and having her as the replacement for Corker will just make it all that much better. I kinda imagine that this is what Amazona would say, if she ran for Senate.

Texans don’t seem to mind carrying guns around.

President Trump and Vice President Pence had laid out a strong plan for space exploration. Glenn Reynolds points out that it can help the national spirit when we take on such grand tasks. I agree – but I think we should advance things in the time line. Won’t really cost too much more money to, say, get us to Mars by 2027.

Starting to Catch a Cold Open Thread

Mark Noonan36 Comments

UPDATE: We’re all safe here – all friends and family accounted for.

I had just finished watching Sink the Bismarck! – watching it because it is a cool movie and I’ve still got a bit of a thing for Dana Wynter. After it was over, I switched over to catch the local news for the weather before going to bed. They were reporting as I switched on that ever more police were heading towards the Mandalay Bay. That resort is about 10 miles as the crow flies and 13 as the car drives from me. The unfolding of the horror brought back memories of both 9/11 and, long way back, the Cleveland Elementary shootings in 1979.

I wound up very tired all through Monday because I didn’t get to sleep until about 1 am, and then promptly woke up with a nightmare…I can’t remember what it was, but it shocked me wide awake again for about an hour, I guess. It is just so very terrible…the Strip is a playground and it is for people 8 to 80. Yes, there is the seamy side of it, but also things for families and kids to do. It is also very, very safe – you never worry when you’re down there because police and casino security are ubiquitous and the whole place is constantly under electronic surveillance. And then this. And so very strange – the stories about the shooter just don’t fit anything we’ve experienced, at least so far. Of course, the authorities may be withholding key information as they continue their investigation. We’ll see. At all events, please say your prayers for the dead and wounded.

I had been mostly staring blankly at the novel – kinda stuck. Knew where I wanted the story to end, but couldn’t quite figure out how to get from where I was to there…then, last night, I just sat down and started plugging away. Only got down about 2,000 words, but I now know how to finish up this book and it’s going to be fantastic. Very fun, very unexpected ending. So, anyways, still having a grand time on the novel…hope to have it out by about May 1st.

Other than that, started feeling a bit light in the head Sunday morning…then a bit sinusy. Figured it was allergies until I talked to my wife after work – she’s plugged up and starting to cough. A Cold has Arrived! Sucks – but better to get it out of the way early in the season, I guess.

The NFL has mostly surrendered – a few jerks still out there kneeling, but the Powers That Be in the NFL clearly want this to go away. It might – but I don’t think it’ll ever be as it was, and if it ever is, at least not for a long while. The magic is gone – of course, we all saw it going for a while. This kneeling bit just ripped the blinders off. Did you know that the Chargers Quarterback, Phillip Rivers, will make $20,813,000.00 this year? Haven’t watched the last two weeks, but the Bolts are now 0-4. $20 million for one player and the team is utter garbage. Highest paid guy in the NFL this year is the Quarterback for the Lions: he’ll get $27,000,000.00. At least they are 3-1. But that seems a high price to pay for someone to toss a football around. And I’ve nothing against any of them making that money…but it does put them in a financial world that 99.9% of the fans will never approach. Where’s the connection? And then you get the guys who are making millions who are, well, rather creepy. Tattoos all over the place, freakish hair styles, lots of rumors (and some times not rumors) of nauseating behavior off the field. Just add to that disrespect for the flag of the nation which pours that kind of wealth on them, and you get turned off. Heck with them and heck with the sport – Baseball is still partially acceptable and my Cubs have a shot at the big dance. I’ll pay attention to that. And now that Vegas has a hockey team, maybe I’ll take the time to learn about the game and become a fan.

Any real military officer will tell you that logistics is everything – and the problem in Puerto Rico isn’t lack of attention and effort, but a simple problem of logistics. This, in turn, appears to be a huge problem because the government of Puerto Rico let infrastructure run down over the past few decades. A tropical island in the regular path of hurricanes should make hurricane survivability of infrastructure the highest priority. Puerto Rico didn’t.

Now, naturally, the MSM is trying to cook up a Katrina and blame it on Trump – and they are using the same template. Difference is that (a) Trump fights back and (b) his supporters also fight back. It has been a very vigorous pushback against the MSM Narrative about Puerto Rico. Our Fredcons are wringing their hands over it, as usual, but no one cares what they think.

Nicholas Kristof kept up the New York Times‘ century-long tradition of truckling to Communist tyranny this past week in North Korea.

Some are thinking that the Socialists are now the TEA Party of the left. A lot of jokes are being made about this, but in a certain sense, it is correct: the out-and-out Socialists are just taking the Democrats at their word and going to the logical conclusion. My hope is that the Democrats continue to drop the mask and start campaigning on what they really want. The Socialists might force them to it by 2020.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan19 Comments

The Russian Collusion story seems to have wound up here:

Sources with knowledge of the ads tell CNN that they ranged from posts promoting gun rights and the Second Amendment to posts warning about what they said was the threat undocumented immigrants posed to American democracy.

Some ads promoted Black Lives Matter while others decried it, as the Washington Post reported Monday.

The apparent goal of the ads, the sources who spoke with CNN said, was to amplify political discord and fuel an atmosphere of incivility and chaos around the 2016 presidential campaign, not necessarily to promote one candidate or cause over another.

So, what we’ve got here is a foreign power seeking to sow division in the United States. Pardon me while I get my shocked face on. We all know that the whole Trump/Russia thing was bogus from start to finish – ginned up post-election likely to cover up the Obama Administration’s spying on Team Trump during the campaign.

The Democrats and the MSM (but I repeat myself) are still trying to gin up the hurricane damage in Puerto Rico as Trump’s Katrina – but, it won’t work. There is simply too much federal aid flowing to Puerto Rico.

Some reporting on the Equifax hack. My view: credit reports should be banned. To concentrate that much personal information in one place invites hacking. Using a person’s social security number as their main identifier is not just a security risk, it is a very stupid security risk. Ban them. Let banks actually get back to underwriting their loans. In 2017, just assume that everyone who wants your personal financial information has it – and just carefully monitor your credit activity for anything suspicious.

The Pen and Phone cuts both ways: Trump to issue executive order allowing insurance sales across State lines.

Steelers owner says he’s trying to stay out of politics. Too late. You had your chance when the first player knelt: you could have suspended or fired that guy and thus put the word out that politics has no place in Football. You tolerated it, and how it has blown up in your face. As an aside: I think our Progressives were expecting Trump to lose this fight because of a theory that we hick morons would choose Football over country. They really don’t understand us, at all.

We Must Fight These Culture Battles

Mark Noonan27 Comments

The ostensible justification for kneeling during the anthem is because the United States is a racist nation and this is a way whereby the good and decent people can jar the conscience of us cave dwellers who don’t realize it. It is further asserted that we must allow such actions in the name of free speech. That such an assertions are utter nonsense is neither here nor there. That a player would be fined for merely overly celebrating in the End Zone, but can get away with this, shows what is really going on. Like all large, corporate entities, the NFL is entirely owned by the Progressive left – and thus there isn’t actual free speech (God help the player who kneels in memory of aborted children, for instance), but there are special protections for those who help the Progressive cause. And the Progressive cause is always and everywhere to tear down all things decent and all things that bind decent people into a Constitutional Republic.

This sort of thing goes back a long ways – I identify the defining moment as the debate over the P*** Christ work. Here was something disgusting and outrageous – something which insulted not just Christians, but all decent people. And yet the Progressives cheered it on – because it insulted. That was bad – but what was worse was that the Fredocons of the day also defended the actual thing; defended, that is, the right of someone to make such a vile display. As they are saying today about the kneeling players, so they were saying about the “art”: it must be allowed. It is free speech. We can’t in any way hinder it – even to condemn it in any meaningful way is wrong. The combination of Progressives and Fredocons worked to stifle any real push back against it – and so it went on with ever more outrageous things being done by Progressives under the cover of free speech until we are here today, where we are supposed to roll over for sports stars insulting the symbol of the nation which gave them their opportunity and great wealth.

When Trump inserted himself into the behavior of the players, it was the first time there was any meaningful pushback. I think a lot of people stood up and cheered. Finally, at long last, someone who mattered said what was on all normal minds: this is just wrong. It is a game; you’re supposed to be playing it; this isn’t time for you to be making political statements. Doubling the outrage is the fact that the players making the protest are reinforcing the vile lie that the United States is a racist nation. Trump pushed back – people cheered. And then, in a really beautiful thing to behold, the Progressives doubled and tripled down…to the point where, now, they are essentially saying that one must be an anti-patriot in order to be decent. It is a perfect set up: the issue is starkly set. All those who think the USA is evil will be on one side, all who think the USA good will be on the other. We’ll find out soon enough at the next elections which side is larger. I’m betting that “USA good” is the larger.

As that plays out, however, I think it important to take a moment to really think about those so-called Conservatives who refused the fight all those years…and who are more upset about Trump pushing back than they are about people insulting our flag and anthem. Just what is it they want to conserve? As far as I can tell, merely low corporate taxes and bombing stuff overseas from time to time. Every time the Progressives have done something disgusting to normal people (ie, things like “Bake the Cake” or making the Little Sister of the Poor pay fines), we’ve had plenty of Conservatives say that we can’t really fight back against this stuff. They might issue a mild dissent or rebuke over such things, but they aren’t out there at the barricades fighting back. They aren’t, that is, ever willing to risk their careers and their friendships with Progressives to actually do anything. When, for instance, the Little Sister of the Poor were to be fined for not knuckling under to Obama’s abortion mandate, we didn’t need a Fredocon lecture about separation of Church and State and then no action…we needed people to stand up and shout, “What the heck are you doing, you Progressive idiots!!!???”. We needed someone to get down and dirty with them – to call them out; to insult them; to ridicule the very idea that Little Sisters of the Poor should have this done to them. And we needed fight and fight and fight…we got, mild rebukes and well-wishes that the Little Sister might prevail after a long and expensive court battle.

At bottom, Trump is doing more actual Conservative work than the whole host of Conservatives have done since Reagan was in office – and more and more I realize that Reagan was nearly alone in his battles for Conservatism. Even a lot of his ostensible Conservative allies were forever trying to tone down or explain away Reagan’s vigorous, combative Conservatism. They are trying to do the same with Trump – but Trump is not only as much a fighter as Reagan, but he’s also a lot more rude. Politeness is better than rudeness, but when you’re dealing with people who deliberately look for ways to insult God, faith, family and country, perhaps politeness is played out? At all events, I’m going with Trump’s rudeness – at least it is a battle rather than a debacle.

And we must have a battle – and the crucial point right now is cultural. If we lose the culture battle, we’re eventually going to lose everything. It must be established that patriotism is good; that America is good; that the American people are good; that this nation is worthy of our love and devotion…and that faith and family are more important than the latest I-gadget or a growing GDP or our ability to drop a bomb. If we can once again get to a place where love of country; defense of faith; devotion to family are central to our national life, then we’ll win everything…we’ll eventually get all the rest that we want. Lose those things, and how in heck are you going to argue for lower taxes? And what would it matter if you happened to get Progressives to agree to lower taxes? The Progressives wish to destroy all that made America, America – and it starts with destroying our belief in those simple things which make decent life possible: family, faith, respect for law, charity towards one another, unity in times of crisis. A divided, dispirited, hate-filled and dependent population of slaves is the goal of the Progressives – a population, in short, which can be easily manipulated and controlled as the Progressives continually experiment on us. We Conservatives want a united, hopeful people who help each other in charity while working hard for their own improvement. We don’t get that by letting the cultural things slide while working on keeping the corporate tax rate low, folks.