Tag Archives: CA

Current Events

A COVID Christmas

2 Comments

Please allow me to take this moment to say that I sincerely hope  all my blessed followers had a wonderfully merry Christmas regardless what your local dictators may have said. Mine said have a joyous Christmas with your families and friends, but then I consider myself fortunate by choice to have a sensible, for the people, Governor. My bride and I go to church every Sunday and then to a late breakfast at one of our favorite restaurants.  Life is good in Florida.

I will wish you a very happy new year if you can. I will not have a happy one as best as I can see into the near future. Our MSM wants you to believe 2020 was the worst ever. Well, don’t chalk it up to record books just yet for 2021 may prove to be a close competitor.

Here another thought provoking article from one of my favorite authors.

 

By: G. Maresca

 

American religiosity has been in decline for more than a generation and with the added fear of COVID-19, many Christian leaders have deserted their flocks.

Welcome to Christmas 2020, where the biggest crisis is not a virus but a lack of faith.

Church leaders have conceded to government diktats in this era of COVID-19 in a doleful attempt to brand themselves as benevolent.

The Constitutional right to freely worship, virus or not, was underscored with the recent Supreme Court ruling prohibiting arbitrary limits on church attendance.  Despite the court’s 5-4 decision, religious liberty has never been in more need of defense, especially when New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo dismissed the ruling as “irrelevant” and “political.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom had imposed a 10 p.m. curfew, which would have made attending Christmas midnight Mass, a criminal offense.  Perhaps Newsom would find Mass more acceptable if it were celebrated in the French Laundry restaurant – site of his crowded birthday party?  This is another example of directives made by the faithless affecting the faithful in the ongoing leftist agenda to secularize America.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen would be appalled how the church hierarchy has acquiesced to the state.  The state prohibits Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, yet liquor stores remain open.  Churches should have had the same rights as beer distributors, pot smokers and abortion clinics – all deemed essential.

Mandatory masking, overflowing hand sanitizer, and social distancing are in vogue in houses of worship, but what is missing are the children.  Churches will not survive without them.  Few in the pews are under age 50.  Sign-up sheets, roped off pews, and parking lot services did little to bring anyone back, let alone evangelize.

Limiting, or worse, cutting off sacramental grace from Christ’s mercy has only deepened the divide.  The science supporting lockdowns has failed to stop the spread, and may prove deadlier than the virus it was meant to heed.

If anything, COVID-19 underscores daily that no human endeavor can prevent our eventual death from any cause.

Any government that has the authority to restrict your livelihood, family gatherings, and houses of worship is worse than any virus.  The alternative is subservience, empty pews, and lost souls.

The COVID-19 generation may never come back.  The unrelenting attack on Christianity will never cease until the faithful stop kowtowing to tyrants.  Science isn’t going to save you and it is no coincidence Democrats are leading the charge.  What do you expect from a political party that has forced religious sisters to provide for contraception?   The left knows all too well that faith can be exorcised by breaking one’s spirit and will.

Too many politicos claiming to be Christian believe Jesus Christ came to put a chicken in every pot rather than to feed souls and offer salvation.  As long as a portion of a bishop’s budget is generated from government service contracts, towing the party line will be its low-hanging fruit.

Where are the bishops’ supernatural faith?

Where are today’s St. Thomas Mores, and St. Joan of Arc’s, or Fulton Sheens?

Prophetic voices must emanate among the bishops to speak truth to this abuse of government power.  As suicides and other mental health issues increase, we need more prayer, not less.  The secularist, dictatorial governors and mayors and designated so-called experts seeking to oppress worship reveal their contradictory priorities, daily.

Christmas is not the time to take counsel of your fears, but recall the hope that only a sincere faith provides.  Has there been a year in living memory when the Christmas promise is in such demand?  The reason for the season is here, and never leaves.  Jesus was born during one of the darkest periods in human history as the Roman Empire begot moral depravity on an unparalleled scale.  Our Lord did so by entering the world in the humblest of ways to show He will go anywhere when invited.

In a remarkable sign, Jupiter and Saturn crossed paths this past week appearing as one body in the night sky.  They were closer than they have been in nearly eight centuries and was labeled the “Christmas Star.”

Many need to heed the message the angels announced that first Christmas: Fear not!

The child whose birth we celebrate is Emmanuel, “God with Us.”

If God is with us, who can be against us?

 

Originally posted 2020-12-26 10:26:05.

Current Events

Are you a “Forgotten Man”?

8 Comments

Good question posed by the WSJ; are you one? I know I am, and I am praying the “Forgotten Man” comes alive again in two weeks!

The 2020 Election: The Final Days, or Will It Be Weeks?

After the initial shock of Donald Trump’s 2016 victory wore off, a few thoughtful people across the ideological spectrum attempted to wrap their heads around what happened. How did a brash, sometimes crude political neophyte beat everyone from Jeb Bush to Hillary Clinton at their own game on the world’s largest stage? Those more prone to introspection and self-awareness than denial and vindictiveness came to the conclusion that the country’s political and media elites had forgotten about the plight of the “average” American—the so-called Forgotten Man.

The term, first coined by Yale social scientist William Graham Sumner (1840-1910), was used to describe the American who, too poor to have political influence and too rich to be considered worthy of a helping hand, was often taken for granted by the political classes. As Sumner so aptly noted, “he works, he votes, generally he prays—but he always pays.”

There was a post-2016 awakening among those who realized they had ignored a big part of the country—the one that lives far from the corridors of power and the bright lights of cable television studios. Those who hadn’t read J.D. Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy” before the election rushed to buy a copy. For a while, everyone seemed to understand the hidden pain of those in the so-called Rust Belt of the American Midwest who had paid the highest price for 50 years of social engineering at home and abroad.

The costs of trade and immigration policies that favored big business were most often felt by the working class in “flyover country.” These policy changes came at a pace so rapid that people had little chance to adapt. Those same families sent their sons and daughters to fight in far off wars with few obvious connections to the national interest.

Those who complained were either ignored or deemed xenophobic racists and “deplorables.” How dare they question the collective wisdom of highly educated experts? Never mind that those experts bore almost no consequences for the disastrous effects of their policies. To my knowledge, no politician, university professor, news anchor, military officer, or Wall Street titan has ever seen his job outsourced to a foreign land.

From the opinion pages of The Wall Street Journal, critical perspective and analysis on developments from Washington

Originally posted 2020-10-19 11:55:19.

Current Events

America’s Chris Wallace Problem

8 Comments
Is anything more dangerous to our country than media bias?
I doubt it. Chris Wallace is an arrogant, egotistical smartass who should never have been allowed to moderate a presidential debate. He is as sneaky as a lizard, and that’s what makes him so dangerous to the world of respected journalism. Mr. McCain spells out just one example of how he posed questions to Trump. Disgusting Wallace, you piece of garbage.
Robert Stacy McCain
by 
October 2, 2020, 12:37 AM
Chris Wallace on Fox News yesterday (YouTube screenshot)
When will Chris Wallace apologize to Katie Pavlich? More than once, Wallace has insulted his Fox News colleague on the network, as in a January segment about the impeachment of President Trump, when Wallace barked at Pavlich, “Get your facts straight!” As it turned out in that case, Pavlich was right and Wallace was wrong — and not accidentally so. The question at issue was Democrats’ demand that the Senate trial over what was called “Ukrainegate” include testimony from additional witnesses. Pavlich said this was unprecedented, and contended it was not the Senate’s fault that “the House did not come with a complete case.” Wallace began barking about “facts” in an attempt to rescue Democrats from the consequences of their failure.

Why did Wallace use his position as moderator of a presidential debate to parrot Gov. Brown’s rhetoric by claiming that “white supremacists and militia groups” were somehow to blame for the Portland riots?

Wallace’s dismal performance as moderator in Tuesday’s presidential debate reminded many viewers of such previous instances in which the Fox News Sunday host has shown his prejudice against Trump. And this matters, not only because of how that ugly televised carnival might affect the election, but because of what it tells us about the sad state of journalism in America. If Wallace is, Dov Fischer says, “the fairest moderator we can hope for in today’s Left-dominated media,” there is no hope for fairness. But what about those “facts” that Wallace presumed to lecture Katie Pavlich about? Even if we must resign ourselves to partisan prejudice from the media, must we tolerate journalists trafficking in outright lies?

That’s what Wallace did in Tuesday’s debate. Consider this question he aimed at President Trump: “You have repeatedly criticized the vice president for not specifically calling out Antifa and other left-wing extremist groups, but are you willing tonight to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities, as we saw in Kenosha and as we’ve seen in Portland?”

Where is the evidence that “white supremacists and militia groups” were to blame for violence in Kenosha or Portland, Oregon? Wallace’s question was not only tendentious, but counterfactual. As regards Portland, Wallace seemed to be echoing Oregon’s woefully misguided Democratic governor. After a man who described himself as “100% Antifa” murdered a Trump supporter on the streets of Portland Aug.29, Gov. Kate Brown issued this rather bizarre statement:

As elected officials and community leaders, we are coming together to condemn the acts of violence in Portland that have occurred as thousands of Oregonians have been peacefully protesting for racial justice and police accountability. The violence must stop. There is no place for white supremacy or vigilantism in Oregon. All who perpetrate violent crimes must be held equally accountable. Together, we are committing ourselves to do the hard work that will bring meaningful change for racial justice and police reform.

What did the murder of Trump supporter Aaron “Jay” Danielson have to do with “racial justice”? Danielson was white, but so was the Antifa radical who shot him to death, Michael Reinoehl. As for holding those “who perpetrate violent crimes … equally accountable,” why did Gov. Brown let Antifa wreak havoc in Portland for more than three months before deciding that violence is bad? Where is the evidence that “white supremacy” played any role in Portland’s anti-police riots?

More importantly, however, why did Chris Wallace use his position as moderator of a presidential debate to parrot Gov. Brown’s rhetoric by claiming that “white supremacists and militia groups” were somehow to blame for the Portland riots? Such a claim is not journalism but political propaganda, and that goes doubly so for what happened in Kenosha. In case you’ve been hiding in a cave for the past five weeks, riots erupted in this Wisconsin city on Aug. 23 after a police officer shot a black man, Jacob Blake, who had violated a restraining order and had a warrant against him on sexual assault charges. On the first night of what the national media insisted on calling “mostly peaceful protests” the BLM mob “hurled debris, smashed windows,” and set fire to the Kenosha County Courthouse and several vehicles.

The next morning, the Biden campaign issued a statement that declared, “We must dismantle systemic racism. It is the urgent task before us.” The BLM mob apparently took Biden’s words as a command to “dismantle” Kenosha. On the second night of riots in the city, the arsonists torched a car dealership, a furniture store, and a state Department of Corrections office, among other targets. Perhaps Chris Wallace can explain how “white supremacists and militia groups” were responsible for this violence, but probably what he had in mind were the events of the third night of the Kenosha riots. That was when a convicted child rapist named Joseph Don “JoJo” Rosenbaum attacked 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse.

By the way, has Chris Wallace ever mentioned Rosenbaum’s criminal record on Fox News? He considers himself authorized to lecture others about how important to “get your facts straight,” why wouldn’t he want to share with Fox News viewers the fact that Rosenbaum was convicted of raping five pre-teen boys in Tucson? The story of what happened in Kenosha on the night of Aug. 25 doesn’t make sense if you don’t know that the man who attacked Rittenhouse was a very dangerous criminal who had served more than a decade in Arizona prisons.

Rosenbaum was captured on video that night taunting a group of armed men who were guarding a Kenosha business against the angry mob: “Shoot me n****!” When Rosenbaum later set a fire, Rittenhouse ran with a fire extinguisher to put out the blaze. Video shows Rosenbaum chasing the teenager across a parking lot where he cornered him, and Rittenhouse fired in self-defense, fatally wounding his attacker. As I explained last month (“The Media Lynching of Kyle Rittenhouse,” Sept. 3), Rosenbaum’s attack set off the chain of events in which two other rioters were shot, after the angry mob chased Rittenhouse. An 11-minute video produced by attorneys for Rittenhouse clearly shows that the teenager acted in self-defense.

Contrary to what Chris Wallace asserted to a TV audience of millions of Americans during Tuesday’s debate, Kyle Rittenhouse is not a “white supremacist,” nor is he a member of any “militia group.” That was made clear in a report Thursday by two young Wisconsin contributors to the Federalist, Evita Duffy and Kylee Zempel, who were on the scene in Kenosha during the riots:

Robert Stacy McCain is the author of Sex Trouble: Essays on Radical Feminism and the War Against Human Nature. He blogs at TheOtherMcCain.com.

Originally posted 2020-10-02 12:23:35.

Current Events

California’s Radical Indoctrination

5 Comments

This opinion piece from the WSJ should scare the living hell out of every red-blooded American, especially those with children in the California school system. What are they going to feed America’s children? Start the indoctrination as early as kindergarten, and continue all the way to the senior year? 

A bill would establish a K-12 curriculum in the ‘four I’s of oppression.’

Conservatives and fair-minded liberals are alarmed that high schools are drawing up plans to teach the “1619 project,” the New York Times ’ revisionist account of race and the American founding, in history classes. The reality is turning out to be worse. The largest state in the union is poised to become one of the first to mandate ethnic studies for all high-school students, and the model curriculum makes the radical “1619 project” look moderate and balanced.

Last year California’s Assembly passed its ethnic-studies bill known as AB 331 by a 63-8 vote. Then the state department of education put forward a model curriculum so extreme and ethnocentric that the state Senate’s Democratic supermajority balked. The curriculum said among other things that “within Ethnic Studies, scholars are often very critical of the system of capitalism as research has shown that Native people and people of color are disproportionately exploited within the system.” Really? Where is the proof of this?

The bill was put on ice, but protests and riots in recent months gave Sacramento’s mavens of racial division more leverage. The education department delivered a new draft model curriculum this month, and AB 331 has been revived. It passed a Senate committee Aug. 20 and is expected to go before the full body soon. If Gov. Gavin Newsom signs it, the legislation would require all school districts to offer a semester-long ethnic studies class starting in 2025.

The model curriculum now on the education department’s website says the course should “build new possibilities for post-imperial life that promotes collective narratives of transformative resistance.” Yes, this is a course for K-12 students. It suggests teachers provide “examples of systems of power, which can include economic systems like capitalism and social systems like patriarchy.” Students can then be taught “the four ‘I’s of oppression”—ideological, institutional, interpersonal and internalized.

The state guidance includes more than 200 pages of approved course outlines. Some of these seem to mandate student political activities, potentially raising First Amendment concerns. “Students acquire tools to become positive actors in their communities to address a contemporary issue and present findings in a public forum,” says one outline. Among the approved topics: “Racism, LGBTQ rights, immigration rights, access to quality health care, income inequality,” and so on. What about the fifth “I” of indoctrination?

It’s not a coincidence that many radical left movements are infused with anti-Semitism. They posit theories of control by shadowy capitalist groups that often echo anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. One course outline tips its hat at this. “Students will write a paper detailing certain events in American history,” it says, “that have led to Jewish and Irish Americans gaining racial privilege.” What about American history? Will the have the benefit of even learning anything about our history or will that simply be skimmed over?

This is ugly stuff, a force-feeding to teenagers of the anti-liberal theories that have been percolating in campus critical studies departments for decades. Enforced identity politics and “intersectionality” are on their way to replacing civic nationalism as America’s creed. Liberals who consider themselves moderate and don’t understand the sense of urgency and assault felt by so many Americans ought to read this curriculum. And responsible statesmen in Sacramento ought to stop it.

Originally posted 2020-08-31 14:19:09.

Recent Posts

Sanctuary

2 Comments

The following was published today by a good friend and fellow blogger of “God, Guns, and Guts,” which was written by another dear friend and brother Marine who goes by the moniker “Mustang.” I believe he speaks of a particular city whose former Mayor has thrown his hat in the ring after waiting till all the Democrat debates have been played out; I reckon so he would not have to answer questions from his fellow near-do-wells.. What a sly fox and a POS (in my view). 

I found the read interesting and factual, but let’s face it, considering the society in which we live, the term “factual” means very little any more.

Meanwhile the war clouds continue to form over the once great state of VA.,

And the impeachment trial of our President began today. Wow, isn’t life great in America?

Why Sanctuary?

by Mustang

In law, “sanctuary community” has no standing because in the United States, no one is above the law.  No state may refuse to obey federal laws in matters constitutionally assigned to federal authority.  No community within a state has the right to ignore federal authority.

When communities declare themselves sanctuary entities, they are in effect exercising a kind of civil disobedience, which may be (and should be) punished under the law.  Under American law, there is no legitimacy attached to civil disobedience —no matter what arguments may be used to justify it by law breakers.

But the issue has taken on a new dimension.  Not only do civil administrators declare their intent to ignore federal law, they produce writs that prohibit constitutionally sworn police officers from obeying federal laws, as well.  It is a dangerous conspiracy that threatens the United States, its several states, and communities within those states.

Cloward and Piven at the Motor Voter signing law

I believe that “conspiracy” is the correct word for what is happening in the United States today.  A refusal of obey federal law with respect to immigration appears related to the so-called Cloward-Piven strategy devised in 1966, the purpose of which was to overwhelm the lawful exercise of federal power to such an extent that federalism fails; a situation in which the federal government can no longer execute its Constitutional authority or mandate.

Sanctuary cities may not be the most important issue facing the Department of Justice, but if one believes that illegal immigration has reached the point where it imposes a clear and present danger to the security of the United States, its several states, its thousands of communities, then the federal government must act to settle this issue permanently.

Let’s recap:

  • Illegal immigration is illegal.
  • Illegal immigration is a burden to lawful citizens in terms of taxes, infrastructure, access to policing, medical treatment facilities, public education, and community services.
  • Illegal aliens pay less in taxes (sales taxes, etc.) than they receive through state and local services (Source: Congressional Budget Office).
  • The presence of illegal aliens poses a significant risk to lawful residents in terms of violent crimes, drugs, drunk drivers, community health and sanitation.

On 9 January 2020, Ms. Maria Fuentes, aged 92, a citizen of Richmond Hill, Queens, New York, was brutally raped and murdered at the intersection of Liberty Avenue and 127th Street in Richmond Hill by 21-year old Reeaz Khan, an illegal alien from Guyana.  Reeaz was roaming the streets of New York City despite a federal order for his deportation for prior assault and illegal weapons charges. Aren’t you New Yorkers proud of that?

He was roaming free on the streets of New York City because the New York City Police Department refused to honor a federal retainer request.  Quite naturally, the NYPD now claims that they never received such a request from federal law enforcement agencies.  Oh sure, they never got the request. LOL

The evidence of this particular case shows that Reeaz Khan pounced upon his 92-year old victim from behind, throwing her to the ground, sexually assaulting her, and then ran from the scene of his crime.

This illegal alien has now been charged with seven charges, including second degree murder, first degree manslaughter, first degree attempted rape, first degree sexual assault, and tampering with physical evidence.  Reeaz claims that he came upon the woman, found that she was passed out, and tried to render aid but in the process, his pants fell down and his genitals came in contact with hers.  I hope he has a masterful attorney.

DHS Acting Secretary Chad Wolf observed that New York City is in a state of complete breakdown of law and order and blames this partly on New York City’s sanctuary policies.  Wolf said, “NYC proudly passed sanctuary city laws and bragged about it for months.  But now the citizens of NYC are facing the deadly consequences of these sanctuary policies.  You get what you ask for folks.

In 2019, New York City experienced 300 murders, an increase of 8% over the murder rate of 2018.  Maybe sanctuary policies aren’t working as well as everyone on the left claims.  Nor should we forget the senseless murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco, California —the home of Democrat Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Sanctuary is not a new concept.  In times past, the word refers to a wide range of protective measures that may be taken by communities on behalf of those who residents believed deserve protection.  Lately, though, we have taken the word sanctuary and added to it the word community, but in the absence of any statute that defines sanctuary city, we find the notion somewhat confusing.

In law, “sanctuary community” has no standing because in the United States, no one is above the law.  No state may refuse to obey federal laws in matters constitutionally assigned to federal authority.  No community within a state has the right to ignore federal authority.

Other than that, all is well in the swamp

 

Originally posted 2020-01-21 16:05:21.